Acts 19: How Do I Know If My Faith In God Is Real?

sandals Church man I'm glad you guys are here I see a lot of people Fanning is it hot out there or is it just like I'm on fire is that what is it I don't know a lot of people are fanning so we'll see if they can turn the a/c up and you guys need to not come to church late so you're not sprinting in sweating but I'm glad you guys are here welcome to Samuel short a listen we work really really hard here at sandals shirts to make a place for you to be real a lot of times when you come to church you play you play fake you play pretend look we know you're all knuckleheads that's why you're at Sandals Church and we're glad that you're here all of us are knuckleheads in the eyes of God and that's why you sent Jesus Christ to die on us playing games doesn't help anybody matter of fact it condemns almost everybody and so what I want you to do today is just free reel we're gonna talk about some things that are very very difficult in almost every service we've had people that have got up and walked out and that's just because whenever you talk about the things that we talk about it makes people uncomfortable listen if you feel uncomfortable at some point in the message that's a good thing it means God's talking to you and he's stirring some things in your heart so don't run from that feeling run to that feeling because God's trying to reach you and he's trying to speak to you we're gonna talk about this issue of faith faith is one of the things I think we always take for granted and here's one of the lies we tell ourselves my faith will always be there listen your faith is only gonna be there if you make sure it's there now you all fall into one of three categories some of you have no faith at all and that's why you're here at church great listen you don't have to be a Christian to come to Santos search we are glad that you are here this is a safe place for you to discover whether or not you want to have faith in God faith is the most precious thing you have and it's the only thing God wants from you your faith the Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God and so we will not be saved because of the quantity of our faith but the quality of our faith God wants real faith now some of you are Christians and you're drifting something's happen in your life and your drift drifting away it could be a physical experience an emotional experience or a financial experience something's happening your life that's causing you to drift away from God and what I want you to do today is stop drifting and come back to God and then there's the third group which I'm so glad you're here you're solid in your faith you're here today to learn and help others learn and so I'm glad you're here so let's begin with the word of Prayer and we're gonna jump into Acts chapter 19 but it's gonna be a great great day and we have a lot of fun together and maybe be convicted in some laughs will be changed amen all right okay drink more coffee before you come to church here we go let's pray Heavenly Father god bless everyone here today God we have some amazing stories to look at some truth God helping to change our lives and help us to be real with you we pray this in Christ's name Amen now this week we're in acts 19 okay some of you don't read your Bibles don't skip acts 19 important chapter amazing chapter a lot of fun it's like a roller coaster anybody like roller coaster rides okay I don't anymore cuz I'm old and I throw up and have to sleep with one foot on the floor now at night after roller coaster rides because that's what happens as you get older when you're young it's fun when you get old it makes you sick so but Acts chapter 19 is roller coaster riders like and then you're puking you don't know what happened but that's just what happened acts 19 is crazy so you need to read it you need to study it and then listen to the debrief this week as we talked about it so acts 19 is all about who's a real Christian who's real who's not and this is important for you to know for yourself and for your friends how do I determine whether or not someone's faith is real how do I know when my faith in God is real so we're gonna pick up in acts 19 verse 8 and we're gonna start with the Apostle Paul the Apostle Paul writes half the New Testament he's the he's the most successful church planter in history and he's planting a church in this city called Ephesus now Ephesus is crazy Ephesus is a city that is completely built around the worship to the ancient Roman God Diana so if you're Greek you call her Artemis if you're if you are Latin speaking Roman you call her Diana and they have this huge temple built to Diana in Ephesus it is ten times the size of the Greek Parthenon if you if you don't know what the Greek Parthenon is is that that little building that is always shown when Athens is talked about when the Olympics is around and it has the Corinthian pillars this building is ten times that size it's one of the seven ancient wonders of the world and it is dedicated to the worship of the Latin God Diana and the Greek God Artemis and so here's where all these people are coming and guess what happens Christianity comes into this town and the people don't like it and the devil doesn't like it because God wants the devil wants you to continue to worship false gods God wants you to worship Jesus and we have this collision of false gods and the real God and it is crazy so Paul is preaching in Ephesus and he preached boldly for three months arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God now I want you to underline this any of you guys have some friends who aren't Christians raise your hands we have friends who aren't Christians okay don't ever believe this don't ever believe that you can argue them into following Jesus so he argued underline this word persuasively what does that mean he was right okay you can tell somebody the truth and it doesn't mean they're going to accept the truth so he argued persuasively about the kingdom of God verse 9 but some became stubborn now here's where you are today this is what this is what's gonna happen as I preach some of you are gonna be drawn to God and some of you are going to resist God why is that because the gospel always forces us to choose you cannot remain neutral when you hear the word of God preached you will come closer to God or you will slip further away from God the gospel always forces you to choose you can't be neutral and so some became stubborn rejecting his message and publicly speaking against the way remember you're not neutral so not only did they reject it not only did they become stubborn but they publicly rejected it I mean even today in the world what what what religion receives the most hostility in the news in the press in the world without a doubt it is Christianity without a doubt it is always name of Christ that receives criticism so they're speaking against the way so Paul left the synagogue and took the believers with him he held daily discussions at the lecture hall of Tyrannus now most of you guys are gonna read this and it makes no big deal to you but I'm a Christian nerd and a history nerd and so this matters to me why is it important because this is the first example in church history of the church renting out a facility so they could gather together so when sandals first started we started in my home in the woods here in Riverside and that was cool we had 8 to 20 people but now we have 8,000 don't come to my house because you will destroy the carpet right 8000 people is gonna ruin a house and so guess what happened the church got so big in Ephesus they couldn't meet in anybody's homes anymore and so some of your friends say all the church has always met in homes and they should go back to homes and it's all about homes yeah they did that until the church got too big and then they rented from a guy named Tyrannis which is just weird because if you're looking for a landlord I wouldn't go with a guy named tyrant I just wouldn't but that's who it was and that's the only one that would rent to them so they picked that place so this is the first time in church history where the church writes down that they shifted from meeting in homes to meeting an election hall why because so many people were being saved they did what they needed to do so this went on for the next two years so that people throughout the province of Asia both Jews and Greeks heard the word of the Lord now verse 11 Paul gave excuse me God gave Paul the power to perform circle this word unusual miracles now here's one of the things when you first read through the book of Acts if you're honest here's one of the struggles you're gonna have why does God do consistent continual miracles in the book of Acts that I don't see happen in my church now the church is divided not sandals church but the church is divided on this issue some churches say that the Holy Spirit worked in miraculous ways only for a certain period of time they're called cessationists other Christian churches say no God does exactly the same miracles that he did in the book of Acts today they're called charismatic s' and so you say where are sandals here's where we are right in the middle that's who we are so you can't argue that the same exact miracles that the Apostle Paul James and Peter are happening today and you'll see that they're not happening today because they were absord and Luke tells us it was unusual it was unusual things that happen in the book of Acts are unusual like for example if something happens at church today and you go home to your mom or your grandma or your aunt or on Facebook and someone says how is church today and you say unusual is that a good thing no one's out there that's that's not a good thing right like if if you're if your description of what took place at Sandals church today was unusual I have failed something weird happened it was bizarre you're probably not coming back Luke says look man I don't know how to describe it things got a little cray-cray in in Ephesus you know it was like Vegas I don't know what happened what happens in Ephesus stays in Ephesus so I'm just gonna write inspired by the Holy Spirit things got weird that's all I'm gonna say now let me say this why is it important that we understand that things got a little weird and out of control in Ephesus because here's what most of you do most of you are tired of running your life you know you've screwed it up you know you need God and instead of surrendering your entire life to God this is what you say God you can have this much of my life God I'm gonna give you every over my life don't touch my finances or my dating life but I want you to change my whole life I want you to bless my whole life don't tell me who to date and don't tell me what to do with my money god I want you to heal my marriage but don't tell me how to treat my wife don't helmet tell me how to pray for my husband God I want I want you to bless me I want you to take control God you can have everything between this hand in this hand god man the pastor was powerful today his message was incredible god I'm gonna devote this much of my life to you you can have from here to here do whatever you want within here god I give this all to you and then if you been for a Christian for a long time you're like Lord today's message was powerful what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give you everything between here and here and I want you to move radically in my life in this area of my life God I want to give it all to you I surrender all of this to you and we wonder why God never does anything in our life here's the answer God wants all of you or none of you all of you or none of you Jesus was asked what's the most important commandment you know what he said love the Lord your God listen this with all of your heart with all of your mind with all of your strength and with all of your soul not with partial not with a little bit I mean ladies how many of you guys would marry a guy if he said you know what I'm gonna give you half my heart I mean that's a lot I'll give you 51% I'm gonna get 51% of my heart to you and I'm gonna serve you as your husband with 51 I give you 51 some of you ladies like I'll take it I got like 32 right now all right that's a deal done no listen ladies here's what you want you want all of your husband's heart that's what you want you want all of it okay if you didn't know that write that down you want all of it you say well he's generous he shares with others you don't want that you want all of it and that's what God wants you know what why on earth would God compromise who he is and not take all of who you are I mean it's not like you can negotiate God will give you I'll give you 5% I'll give you eight percent I'll give you 12 percent God says no no no it's a hundred or nothing and so an emphasis God things got crazy things got weird things got bizarre you know why people like oh that worship there was a little crazy I don't think I can look at you in the eye but you know what God moved God moved so what kind of things the Bible says this when handkerchiefs or aprons had merely touched the skin of the Apostle Paul and then were placed on sick people they were healed of their diseases and evil spirits were expelled so don't come up to me after service and put your hankie on me don't touch me with your dirty handkerchief that you have blown your nose in don't do that or I'm gonna go cray-cray on you okay I'm a germaphobe I can't handle that don't pull it out of your pocket and put it on me and say I'm gonna go pray at Loma Linda today with people because you're gonna make me sick and them sick don't do that listen things were bizarre in Ephesus why because we have the goddess of Diana and we have the Lord Jesus Christ and it's this huge explosion of spiritual power we have the enemy and we have light we have darkness we have light we have good we have evil coming together and boom God does powerful things through Paul powerful things verse 13 we're gonna talk about some people who did powerful things but we're not followers of Jesus verse 13 a group of Jews traveling from town to town we're casting out evil spirits in the Bible Jesus says the Jews have the power to exorcise demons it's not just Christians who have the power Jesus actually says this he says why do you call me the son of Satan when I cast out Satan but when you do it you're good so Jesus actually uses this against those who were against him he says you have the power to do this why can't I do this so here's this Jewish group of people passing out evil spirits they tried to use the name circle these words use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation I want you to circle these two words use the name did you know that people use the name of Jesus to get what they want people will use the name of Jesus put it on their business card I'm a follower of Jesus you know what they're hoping they're hoping because of the name of Jesus you're gonna use them and give them business not everybody that claims to be a Christian businessman is okay saying goals listen up not everybody on Christian mingle its Christian what let me take some here's the only thing that I can guarantee you about Christian mingle the people who are on Christian mingle may or may not be Christian but I guarantee you they want to mingle okay that's the truth okay one hundred percent they're gonna mingle they're there to mingle they may or may not be Christian I don't care what their t-shirt says their tattoos says where they go to church even if they go to sandals they might be Satan Saint my go to sandals don't trust them okay listen seriously seriously you're so duped all the time do you know that people use the name of Jesus for their own purpose for their own goods for their own desires and some of you get duped because somebody says the name of Jesus and your mind goes out the door just because somebody uses his name doesn't mean they know him so we have these guys using the name of Jesus they're using the name of Jesus they tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation so when they would expel a demon they would say this I command you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches come out and apparently they had some success apparently it worked why is that because most of the time when you're dealing with people who think it's the devil it's not you know what it usually is psychosis mental illness problems and I don't care who you are if somebody prays over you you're gonna feel better it's a blessing when somebody prays over your things get better and let me just say this most of the time it's not the devil most of the time it's not the doubt it's not the devil it's not usually it's not your house is just creaking okay usually it's not a couple of months ago we had somebody in our church who said oh my gosh we need somebody come to our house because the devil is in her house and like all the staff was like I am NOT going I said well what's going on the house they said chairs are fighting and moving in the living room on their own I was like really they're like yeah cherish your movie I'm like chairs move on though like yeah I'm like I'm going now some of you were like oh my gosh pastor Matt is cray-cray what is going on listen to me this is what the Bible says greater is He that is in you that is in the world I don't have anything to fear because Jesus has already overcome the devil and so I can go there but I'm not stupid so I made my assistant come with me she's like I don't understand well I have to go nowhere on my resume does it say Ghostbuster it does not say that anywhere on the Job Description does it say that we're gonna you know be ghostbusters I don't understand why I have to do this and I said listen I need a witness to testify to what took place so you're gonna go she's like I don't want to go so you have to go so she went so I'm knocking on house you know we're getting ready to go see you know this they said all kinds of things chairs are sliding doors are open and closing sounds are you know making noise they're animal their pet won't go into this one room I mean it sounded like okay this is pretty legit we're gonna go in and I was getting ready knock on the door and my assistant says so are you nervous something no are you it she's like yes she says why are you nervous I said cuz I don't have to outrun the devil that's not just have to outrun you and I'm an Ironman I guarantee I'm gonna be out of outrun you it's gonna happen so anyways so you know what we went to the house and you know what I believe it was nothing it was nothing it was nothing we just prayed over the house and it's a new house and it was creaking where usually it's nothing but listen to me sometimes it is every now and then you catch a real fish you know not every fish stories a fish story sometimes its truth and you got to be careful just because your grandma's a little freaky and thinks that the devil lives under every single rug doesn't mean the devil isn't ever there so you need to be careful so here's what's happening these false preachers are going from house to house and they're curing people because most people just need a prayer just need a word and are comforted to know that they're okay and then guess what happens they run into a real fish and they got a real problem because they're not fishermen they're not followers of Jesus and they don't know what to do so a group of Jews was traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits and they tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation saying I command you name of Jesus whom Paul preaches to come out verse 14 seven sons of sceva that's who these guys are they're famous in the Bible and not for good reasons seven sons of sceva who were they they were seven sons of a Jewish priest so these guys would be like a pastor's kids these are like seven pastors kids so they know the truth they know all the answers listen to us they know how to play the game they're fake Christians but they're good at it seven sons of sceva of a leading priests were doing this but one time circle that word one time and let me just say this there's gonna be a time in your life there's gonna be at least one moment in your life where you face true darkness and the only thing that can face true darkness is true light and here's my advice to you before your marriage goes through potential divorce make sure you know Jesus before you go through bankruptcy make sure you know Jesus before you have a conversation with a doctor where he says this might be it make sure you know Jesus you want Jesus before the crash not after that's the best way to do it now let's not to say that Jesus can't help put your life back together after the crash I just think it's better that he's in your life before so check this out the 7/7 key event leading priests were doing this but one time when they tried it the evil spirit replied oh this you don't want this to happen you don't want the devil to talk back yeah like you started talking to the devil Satan I'm telling you and then also he starts talking back that's when you just see that pastor that's when you just like need to get right this is this man if if you start talking somebody in the name of Jesus and something in them starts talking to you that's when you just back up I'm a friend of mine who did an exorcism and he pointed his finger in this woman's face and he says you will listen to me she said I'm gonna bite you he said no you're not and then she bit his finger almost off I said what'd you learn he said I don't put my finger in the face of demons says people why cuz he likes his finger he wants to keep it and some of you think this is a joke you think it's not real and you run around Cavalier and then you run around like this what happened it was real some of you're just gonna have stumps that's what's gonna happen cuz you're so knuckleheaded right the seven sons of sceva a leading priests were doing this but one time they tried it in the evil spirit replied listen this I know Jesus whoa did you know the Bible says that all the demons know who Jesus is everywhere Jesus goes when he encounters a demon-possessed person you know what they started screaming behold the Son of God behold the Son of God is it Time Lord for you to kick our butts I mean that's not what the Bible says that's my translation but that's what they say is it time for you to cast us into eternal hell is it time is it over and you know what Jesus is constantly telling them shut up shut up shut up be quiet don't give away my cover because I don't want people to know who I am just yet shut up shut up shut up shut the devil says we know who Jesus is and we know who Paul is but who are you you're like I'm Fred no what you are is soon to be dead that's what you are Fred lie right you're in trouble right the devil says I know who Jesus is and I know who Paul is but I never seen you before you know what you are lunch that's what you are so we got seven sons of sceva we got seven grown men in a house with one demon-possessed guy who wins the one demon-possessed guy look at what it says it says then the man filled with the evil spirit leaped on them the only thing worse than a crazy demon-possessed person in front of you is a crazy demon-possessed person on you right is there anything worse in the world you know like pus and ooze and everything else come out on yours like ah right keep your keep your demon possession over there not on me but this guy jumps on them seven guys against one he overpowered them circled at work he overpowered them because the demon-possessed guy had power and the sons of sceva had none and that's where some of you are today you're trying to overcome an addiction you're trying to overcome a habit you're trying to overcome a feeling and you're being overpowered by the enemy because you don't have power and you're losing and you're like I should I should be winning yeah you should be but you don't have power and it attacked them underling these words with such violence that they fled from the house naked and battered I mean that's a bad day at work amen you come home from work but naked bleeding honey I'm home what happens Kiva I got worked man I got worked like I've had a bad day how many guys ever had a bad day at work school I've never come home but naked and bleeding like I like I've never had that day praise Jesus right I probably fired praise Jesus I never had that day this guy these get seven of them and some of you're like oh well this is a story and this is just some something that they made up to try to scare us into following Jesus look at verse 17 the story of what happened spread quickly throughout all Ephesus I mean think about this think about if seven pastors went into a house in downtown Riverside to pray over some person with an emotional illness and the seven pastors came out bloody and butt-naked you think that'd be on the news I think that's tonight at 5:00 right tonight at five five naked pastors and you're like please Jesus don't let it be sandals please Jesus don't let it be Sammis right I mean can you imagine they call a scandals Church that's what we would be if all of our pastors were found but naked and bleeding in the streets in downtown Riverside I mean the story's gonna get out people are gonna hear about it why you know I mean if you see one random naked bloody guy I mean that's odd you see seven that's 900 that's what that is nine-one-one why we got seven naked guys in there bloody right I mean the only thing that makes seven naked guys worst is bloody that's the only thing that makes it worse right it's just rule this is bad what happened to you guys you don't want to know you don't want to know it says that what happened spread quickly throughout emphasis to the Jews and Gentiles alike sir these words solemn fear yeah solemn fear nobody went to Knott's Scary Farm in Ephesus they just talk to these guys tell me again what happened tell me again tell me again hmm right a solemn fear descended on the city and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was greatly honored you know what happened in Ephesus it just got real and that's what's gonna happen to some of you guys do you think church yeah that's a good thing yeah I need to be spiritual yeah I can be a better person all sudden something's gonna happen in your life or you're like oh man it just got real it just got real verse 18 many who became believers confess their sinful practices and a number of them who had been practicing sorcery brought out their incantation books and burned them in a public bonfire why because the whole city practiced witchcraft the whole city is worshiping the God of Diana the whole city P City has rejected God the one true God and the worshipping false gods and they're worshipping potions and and prayers and all of these things and they've rejected God and now they're saying oh my gosh I don't want any of this why because it's all real and they burn it underlying this next sentence the value of the books was several million dollars in that amazing they didn't care how much the books were worth because they just had a real encounter with the one true God and so the message about the Lord spread widely and had a powerful effect so let's talk about real faith in God how do you know that you have real faith in God real faith in God number one cannot be faked forever look you can fool me you can fool Christian mingle you can you can fill out a test I love Jesus I listen to Switchfoot right I went to the Harvest Crusade every year I go forward every year you could you can do all those things but real faith cannot be faked forever you know why that is listen to what the Bible says and this is the message I proclaim that the day is coming when God through Christ Jesus will judge everyone's what life secret life even your snapchat life is that too real by the way you ought to know this for those of you who are in snapchat and you think all that stuff just disappears do you know what country is the number one investor in snapchat it's Russia why would Russia be investing in the secret lives Americans I wonder why that is you're like all we disappears they delete it did you see it bit compress delete oh no I just trust my faith that snapchat is honorable people and then it all disappears listen everything in your life leaves a digital footprint and your secret life will be discovered here's what many of you who are faking Christianity have you have your you have your public life and you have your private life and they are not the same life that doesn't help anyone including you God is going to judge even your secret snapchat life he's going to judge it you're gonna stand before God and be held accountable for every thought every breath every attitude every second or you can repent of your sins and invite Jesus Christ into your heart and the Bible says the blood of Jesus covers all of your sin and cleanses you from all unrighteousness why people don't just fall on their knees everywhere and worship Jesus is beyond me number two real faith in God respects the name and reputation of Jesus some of you care about your name and your reputation which is not necessarily a bad thing but you should care about the name and reputation of Jesus more than your name a couple weeks ago I was having dinner with someone from the city and they challenged me and this is where they said this I was embarrassed I didn't I didn't know that this happened but two years ago during our offering time at Christmas we take a big Christmas offering we said we were gonna give $30,000 to homeless ministry in the city I thought we wrote the check I was confronted by the city that sandals never actually wrote the check that the money actually was never delivered and so I backtracked and I found out and there were some mistakes and some miscommunications made on behalf of our church and you know what we never gave the money and you know what I said I said we're wrong please forgive me and I made sure that all of our pastors who were involved personally apologized to every single person at the city because what we did was wrong because we said we were gonna do something and we didn't do it and you know what that means we didn't keep the name of Jesus and reputation honorable on our city and we said we're sorry we blew it please forgive us listen no one's right you make mistakes I make mistakes you sin I sin as a church unfortunately we sin because we're not perfect but when we do we have to care more about the reputation of Christ than our own and what we do is we say listen people don't reject Jesus because of his reputation they reject Jesus because of mine I want you to notice that in Ephesus one of the things that happened after this event after this says seven sons of sceva is the entire city deeply revered the name of Jesus you know what's sad is some non-christians have a healthier respect and reverence for Jesus than Christians do you worship Him why don't you revere him listen to me when you date as a single person Jesus's reputation is on the line when you're a Christian father Jesus's reputation is on the line when you're a Christian mom Jesus's reputation is on the line and you are not only allowing people to judge you but you're allowing people to judge Jesus and what we got to do when we blow it is say please forgive me in the name of Jesus I blew it I'm sorry there's this thing called the Ten Commandments many of you've never heard of them but they're real simple first five have to do with God the second five have to do with each other the fourth commandment says this you must not misuse the name of the Lord your God the Lord will not let you go unpunished if you want miss use his name now a lot of you grew up in what you thought that meant is you use the name of God as a swear word well listen I would certainly encourage you to not use God's name as a cuss word but that's not what it means what it means is this don't claim to be a Christian and then act like a pagan don't do it walk the walk and talk the talk and when you blow it own it quickly quickly own it because the name of God his reputation is on the line and we represent him and our reputation will do one of two things it will lead people to Jesus or it will repel them from Jesus and I want you to live a life that encourages people to follow Jesus next point real faith in God creates a desire to confess sin look none of us are perfect none of you can be perfect I can't be perfect you can't be perfect no one can be perfect only Jesus Christ was perfect you can't be perfect but you can be real that's the vision of this church why is our vision to be real with God to be ruled ourselves and to be real with one another because none of us are perfect we all blow it we all make mistakes here's how you know the Holy Spirit is in your life here's how you know that your faith is real is you have a desire that real faith creates inside of you a desire to confess sin do you realize how stupid this is is to tell people hey I got away with this no one knows about this but I'm gonna tell you do you realize how crazy that is it's crazy unless you're a Christian if you're Christian it's entirely normal because this is what sin does to you when I commit sin when I'm in sin it feels like a thousand pound elephant is sitting on my soul what happens when you have a thousand pound elephant on your soul where do you want it to go away off you want it to be done so how do we get rid of sin according to the Bible this isn't in your notes but first John 1:9 says this first John 1:9 whenever we confess our sins to God he is faithful and just to what cleanse us of all unrighteousness you want the elephant out of your room confess your sins there's this guy in the Bible named David he's the most powerful King of Israel and he commits an adulterous affair with a married man's wife she gets pregnant he tries to cover it up so you know what he does he kills her husband he has her husband's killed and he thinks he gets away with it no one knows but you know who knows God knows and God sends a prophet named Nathan to confront him and Nathan confronts David and David confesses his sin he's the king he confesses his sin and listened to his prayer create in me a clean heart you see when we sin you know what we feel dirty filthy and what David says is God I'm dirty I'm filthy Clee creating me a clean heart O God and renew underline these words a loyal spirit renew a loyal spirit in me a lot of you don't realize this but you know what sin is write this word down it's rebellion sin is telling god I'm not gonna do it your way I'm gonna do it my way and David says I don't want to be a rebel I want to be loyal some of you have been rebels you've been living like rebels and that may be cool and Star Wars but it doesn't work in Christianity we are called to be loyalists to Jesus loyal true faithful why because he is loyal to you and he is loyal to me James 5:16 says this this is one of our core verses at Sandals Church confess your sins one to another so that you may be whole and healed why because the earnest prayer of a righteous person is what great powerful and effective man I want your prayers to be effective I want them to be powerful and the way that happens is when you get real not just with God but with each other at the end of service today you're gonna have an opportunity to get real with someone face to face where you can look somebody in the face and say this is what I've been doing and I need to get right and they're gonna pray with you as a real person with real issues and you're gonna pray to a real God and you know what's gonna happen you're gonna experience real healing because that's what happens next number for real faith is reflected in three things first my desires you know what changes when you become born-again your desires okay it's not that all of your sinful desires go away it's that you now have spiritual desires and they're in conflict with each other the Apostle Peter says this you won't spend the rest of your lives chasing down your own desires why because you're a Christian what you're gonna do is you're gonna be anxious to do the will of God and follow his desires so you're like okay how do I know what desires are mine and what desires are God's and so Paul writes in Galatians 5 here are the desires of your sinful nature when you follow the desires of your sinful nature the results are very clear this is what your life looks like first sexual immorality that's where some of you are living sexual immorality is defined as sex outside the context of life long committed heterosexual marriage anything outside of that is a sin impurity lustful pleasures right that's like three ways of saying the same thing idolatry which is worshipping anything but gods sorcery which is not Harry Potter what it means is you're actually turning to magic instead of God okay you're not sinning if you go to Universal Studios you're sinning if you're turning to witchcraft for Direction hostility quarreling jealousy outbursts of anger selfish ambition dissension division these things are the kind of things that sin produces in your life Envy drunkenness wild parties and other sins like these he says let me tell you again as I have before that anyone this is so important that anyone living that sort of life listen to these words will not inherit the kingdom of God do you know why that is because this if this is the life you want to live there's a place for you and it's not called heaven you understand that it's not called heaven the next thing that needs to change if my faith is real is my attitude Philippians 2:5 says this you must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had the Bible says this when your life is led by your sinful desires it looks like the previous list when your life is led by your spiritual desires it looks like this the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control now here's the thing some of your like I don't have any on the second list and I have like all of them on the first list I'm going to help listen here's the good news and that funny we're all laughing about going to hell ha ha ha I feel the flames um here's the thing the second list you can't produce on your own the first list is the only thing you can produce on your own the second list of what the Holy Spirit does in your life is not what God's asked you to do on your own he's not asked you to be more loving more kind more patient more gentle and to have more self-control on your own he's asked you to let his power enable you to do it with him some of you are battling addictions and you're like I can't defeat this on my own God doesn't ask you to he asks you to surrender to his power to his control and he wants to infuse you with supernatural strength so that you can overcome this devil that has you bloody beaten and naked and he will help you defeat it he will help you overcome it God's never asked you to go it alone he's asked you to deal with life with him last point if my faith is real it will be it will show up in my finances now this makes a lot of you uncomfortable you're not great I knew it the church is always about my money let me can I just the church is not about your money you know who's about your money you're about your money you are and any time you have a friend that says all the church cares about is my money you know what they're saying they're saying what they care about listen to the words of Jesus Jesus says very carefully you cannot serve both God and money in the end you will choose one or the other you must choose the people at Ephesus got radically saved and gave their lives Jesus Christ and what did they do with their most valuable possessions which happened to be books about witchcraft what did they do they burned them why because they said God you can have all of my life listen to me if your faith in God has never changed your finances then has he changed you we need to think about this we need to wrestle through this because I want you to know who you are I want you to have real faith abiding faith life-changing faith I don't want you to find yourself in a discussion with a demon-possessed man of darkness or woman of darkness and not have the power of God at your back there's too much at stake here we are wrestling it's too much to go it alone fake faith won't help you but a real Jesus can let's pray together Heavenly Father I pray that you would just bless everyone here with a spirit of conviction God some of us as Christians need to repent and get our lives right some of us God are not Christians and we need to come and we need to give our lives to you for the first time so god regardless of the decision I pray that your Holy Spirit would just surround this place and that you would fill us with your presence and lead us to the decision that we need to make God if we need to make a change let us make it today we pray this in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Sandals Church

Views: 20,911

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Id: rUfwZFza2Sc

Length: 41min 47sec (2507 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 24 2016