Faith FULL | Part 2 | Making Faith Practical

well we're so glad you're joining us today whether online or in the room we'd love to invite you stand up with us let's sing together come just one on you call the stone that surrounds me just one word the dark tattoo trees [Applause] [Music] just one [Music] that he can't [Applause] [Music] just one word [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's good [Music] it's just one touch [Music] that he can [Music] there's nothing that our god can't do [Applause] [Music] i will believe before creator thinks there's no power like the power [Music] i will be [Music] [Music] there's [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] god good morning and welcome back welcome back you can remain standing just me standing over there in the east i'm over here in the west look at all of you over here in the west this is so cool yeah i know so um i'm coming to you live from the west north point community church i want to welcome everybody watching from buckhead church you guys are cranking i'm getting ready to get back in your building as well and clay and his team's doing a great job in fact speaking of bucket church one of the reasons you're not back in is your staff has done such a fantastic job keeping children in middle school involved um that we're having to delay getting everybody back in the auditorium because you've got so many middle schoolers which is fantastic those are east cop shirts thanks for joining us um so just real quick for those of us here in the west um be on the lookout for an email we're going to do some cool things over here in the west and we don't want the people in the east to know so check your email this week anyway back to everybody if this is your first time with us either online or in the building if this is your first time with us online if you would please go to the i'm new on whatever website you're watching from you'll see a little tab at the top says i'm new we'd love to give you some more information or help you find out some more information about our churches all around the city around the country and what we have for you and your entire family if you're here with me in the west auditorium at north point and this is your first time if you'll exit out those doors not right now please but after the service and go over into the atrium or the uh the four year um there's a room over there it says connections and if you're over in the east auditorium if you'll exit to your right and then turn right you'll see that as well and we have some staff members and connections who would love to answer any questions you have about our church and again let you know what we have going on and if you go today for today only we have a free gift and connections and yes it is a bribe to get you to go to connections so we can meet you and tell you more about what we have going on now as you know i don't have to tell you this this has been a really a rough week for our nation and perhaps it's been a rough week for you as well in fact maybe there's a connection between what's happened in our nation this week and beginning last week and even what's happened with you personally and one of the things that we encourage people to do if you've been with us for a while you know this is to pray this simple prayer god help me to see as you see help me to seize you so help me to see me as you see me help me to see the people around me as you see the people around me help me to see our country and our community the way that you see it and so this first song as we kind of launch into our corporate worship here in north point in particular lauren's going to lead this and the opening line pretty much says the same thing it says god i look to you i won't be overwhelmed and i don't know i'm kind of a news junkie and i can get overwhelmed so easily not just what's happening in our nation but all over the world but god i look to you i won't be overwhelmed give me vision here it is give me vision to see things like you do if we could see as god sees we would respond as our heavenly father would have us respond if we see as god sees we'll do as god says and wouldn't it be great to wake up one day in a community or even maybe your family or a nation or a world where suddenly we could see each other the way that god sees us and respond accordingly so lauren's gonna sing leave us in this song if you're not already standing if you'd stand we'll love to teach you this song and then she'll take it from here lauren [Music] [Music] give me vision [Music] give me wisdom you know just [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] forever [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is it is well with my soul it is well with my soul [Music] [Music] my soul [Music] [Applause] with my soul [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] father you're good to us you're so so good to us well you're our healer you're our comforter when we need it most you're the source of clarity when we have none follow this morning um just like we just sang um god would you give us wisdom today god would you give us vision to see the world see things see everything the way that you see it when quite frankly it's very difficult to do just that sometimes but we're in desperate need of it we want to see like you see and um guys we're just so grateful that you choose to use us um it always blows my mind that you don't need us whatsoever but you choose us because we're yours and you love us anyway and we want to love a little bit more like you today father so would you give us that wisdom again that vision again to love like you do father we love you so so much and we are so thankful so so thankful that you loved us first we give all we have um to you today would you speak to us today father we love you so much it's in your son's name we pray these things amen north point thanks so much for singing with us this morning you guys can go on and have a seat [Music] so [Music] um if believing think about this if simply believing was enough to make our lives better think how much better our lives would be what if all you had to do was just believe all the right stuff and then all of a sudden whatever it was you believed translated into just the your actual life if if believing was all that matters simply believing was all that mattered think how much better our lives would be i mean we all believe in the health or the science behind health but imagine um if we didn't have to actually eat right just knowing or believing the science behind nutrition automatically translated into better health how much better our lives will be or we know that we believe in the science behind exercise but what if we didn't actually have to exercise we could just we just believed in the science behind exercise and just believing translated into better health i mean if if believing was enough um and if believing made our lives better just think how much better our lives would be think how much better we be better financially because we all believe kind of financial principles we should stay out of consumer chat we should um live below our income mean we should live on our means we should um save more we should spend less we should shop less what if what if believing translated into all the value of doing without having to do what if what if simply believing we would be so much happier none of us would be addicted to anything because we all believe we shouldn't be addicted to things so if a believing was enough just think how much better our lives would be for if you're in school um you get this because you you believe that preparation is the key to doing well in school or well the preparation is the key to doing well and everything but what is simply believing that preparation was the way forward but you didn't actually have to prepare wouldn't that be amazing but we know that simply believing is not enough and most of us actually know most of us actually know everything we need to know to live better and more productive lives but believing and knowing isn't enough we we know we should be honest and we know we should forgive and we know we should be faithful and we could go on and on with all the things we know about relationships and finances and everything else but what we also know is that simply believing and simply knowing isn't enough for the most part we know everything we need to know and we believe everything we need to believe and believe it or not believe it or not jesus actually knew this jesus actually knew this and this is why jesus didn't simply invite us into believing a lot of things jesus actually invited us to do things because believe it or not jesus understood that believing is not enough even though perhaps you were raised to believe that jesus just wanted us to believe a lot of things and jesus knew that knowing things isn't all that there is to life either that simply knowing and believing doesn't make much difference and so he didn't invite people to simply learn a lot of things and believe a lot of things and know a lot of things he invited people to do things because he knew what we know that doing is what actually makes the difference and and perhaps if you don't get anything else out of today's message this next statement will kind of launch you in a new direction when we believe when we believe but don't do our dreams just don't come true right because believing isn't enough but worse and what we're going to talk about for the next few minutes is that when we believe but don't do our faith our faith becomes frail and our faith becomes fragile and our faith becomes feeble today we're in part two of a series entitled faithful fueling your faith in a world on empty and as we discovered last time when we launched this series jesus had a very specific agenda for his first century and his 21st century followers and jesus agenda for his first and 21st century followers was that we would be men and women and students and seniors characterized by big active gritty in the world in the community in relationship faith that we wouldn't simply believe a lot of things in our head but that our faith would translate into real world action and real world activity in fact as we discovered last time the only thing in the gospels matthew martin luke and john the only time we ever find jesus amazed or the only time that jesus ever marveled wouldn't he like to be like one of the few people that made jesus go what you know the only time jesus was amazed at anything was the time that someone showed or exhibited this extraordinary big active gritty in the world real faith and this explains why jesus invitation at the very beginning of his ministry and throughout his ministry and i believe his his invitation to you and his invitation to me was follow me follow me because it's relational and it's active and it's interactive and and jesus never changed this invitation he said i want you to follow me and as you follow me you're going to do different things you're going to say different things and you're going to respond in a different way and you're going to see the world in a different way and then you're going to interact with the world in a different way and the people in the world in different ways i want you to follow me and again he never altered this invitation but unfortunately and this may be a little disruptive for you a little bit and that's okay unfortunately the church pretty soon after jesus left and the church was launched the church a few hundred years later actually began to alter this invitation and they shifted it from follow me to simply believe in me now as you know because unfortunately this is some of our experience believing me is a lot easier than follow me and believe in me is a lot safer than follow me and believe in me is a lot less demanding and far less disruptive then follow me because follow me means you have to do stuff believe in me simply means well i just believe in you this is believe in me is an invitation that leaves you exactly where you are because you're not doing anything we're not doing anything we're not following anybody there is no actual real world change required and simply believe in me but in spite of what you may have heard in spite of maybe what you learned in sunday school when you actually read the gospels matthew martin luke and john when you follow jesus through his his gritty earthy life we discovered that jesus did not invite people to merely believe true things about him so they could go to heaven when they died that jesus actually invited people to live a life in the here and now that reflected this big bold confidence in god he invited us to live in the real world with our families with our finances with their friends and our community with our responses with the people who like us the people who don't the people who are nothing like us to respond and to react as if we really really believe that god is who god says he is and that god has called us to live the kind of life he's called us to live jesus invited people to live a life that reflected their confidence their trust in and their faith and god in fact again as we discovered last time that god our heavenly father is most honored and this shouldn't surprise us that god is most honored by our living active death defying in spite of faith and by in spite of faith i mean in spite of the fact that i don't know how this is going to work out i'm going to do this because this is what god has called me to do and this is what jesus modeled for me that what what he was what god is most honored by is active living in the real world response and reaction faith not simply something that we store away in our head and j and again the reason we shouldn't be surprised at this is in the same way we are most honored isn't this true for you i know it's true for me that we are most honored when our friends or our husband or wife or fiance or someone that we care about when they express that kind of confidence in us we're supposed to be somewhere at seven it's 7 15 we're still not there and your fiance or your boyfriend your husband your wife your best friend says don't worry about it i'm sure they have a good reason i'm not worried why well i just know who they are they're going to come through i mean aren't we most honored when you find out somebody said something bad about you and a friend stuck up for you and said nope i don't believe that's true that's not the person i know does she i've never heard her saying i've never seen her act that way i've never seen him act that way i don't believe that's true of him i think i know them so well i don't believe that what you're saying is true if you ever hear a story like that aren't you extraordinarily honored when people fill in the gap between what they what people expect and what they experience with you and they can either believe the best or believe the worst and somebody chooses to trust you and believe the best i mean is there anything more honoring well in the same way as we make our way through the new testament as we discover who god is because of what jesus taught our heavenly father is most honored our heavenly father is most honored when we live as if he is who he says he is and has expressed himself through jesus and respond in the real world with confidence that god is who god claims to be that is how god is most honored which means simply believing alone doesn't really make any difference again as i said earlier believing alone simply believing creates a real fragile and frail feeble kind of faith in fact you're probably aware of this james the brother of jesus who knew what jesus taught even though he wasn't sure he believed who jesus claimed to be later james the brother of jesus shows up as the leader of the church in jerusalem believes his brother was his lord and james writes a letter we called the book of james and new testament and he he says what jesus says but he says this and we're going to come back to this a minute he said if you have faith that doesn't do anything if you have faith in your mind or your head and it doesn't show up in the real world it's dead and then he uses this word he says it's useless it doesn't do any good faith that doesn't do any good isn't any good now the reason this is important for some of you in particular this may explain why you lost your faith or it may explain why you feel like you're losing your faith and we'll come back to this in a minute as well that faith is like a muscle if you don't use it you what you that's right you lose it if you don't use it you lose it and faith is the same way and when we don't exercise our faith in the real world with our time with the people around us with our money with our family with the things that are required of us when we don't exercise our faith our faith begins to wither away so consequently if you're a person that was raised in some kind of religious system where you were taught and i understand this because of some things that we find in the new testament you were taught well this is just about believe all the right stuff but you never learned or you were never challenged to live out your faith in the real world nobody ever gave you handles and applications then it's possible that you believe correctly but your belief has never been translated into action and consequently you have a weak and feeble faith and it could be because of circumstances you're beginning to lose it or perhaps you've lost it but active and activated faith actually fuels more faith just like exercising a muscle strengthens the muscle but inactive faith doesn't do anything active faith changes us changes things so again jesus didn't invite us to simply believe a lot of things he didn't he didn't simply invite us you know to believe different ways of of how the world works even though he certainly corrected everybody's worldview but then he would correct their worldview and say in light of that here's what i want you to do he invited us to follow him he essentially invited us and i guess this is a good way to summarize it he invited us to wake up every morning and i try to do this to wake up every morning and ask this question what would i do now what would i think or believe but what would i do if i was absolutely confident that god is with me and that god is who god claims to be as revealed through jesus if jesus was right about god we talked about that last time and god is with me what would i do today how would i respond what would my attitude be when this happens when you know when i walk into that meeting and they're going to say what they always say and make me feel the way i always feel how would i react what what would i attempt to do if i was confident god was with me what would i avoid what would i initiate so in this series what we're asking is this we're asking the question that over the course of a lifetime over the course of a lifetime what fuels or what facilitates this kind of enduring active faith so that over the course of a lifetime not only do we maintain our faith but we maintain a faith that actually makes a difference in the world what can we do to ensure that our faith doesn't atrophy that our faith doesn't dissipate that our faith isn't knocked down once and for all by some set of circumstances how do you build go the distance faith because as we said we've all met people like that and when you meet someone like that especially when they're going through the valley of the shadow of death and they just have this remarkable confidence in god you find yourself thinking i want to have that and if i'm ever facing those circumstances i want to have that kind of confidence well the question is how do you get that kind of faith faith that you know is resilient in childhood through adolescence through the university life marriage remarriage whatever it might be what creates that kind of in spite of going to follow jesus anyway kind of faith or another way of asking it is what are the ingredients i mean if somebody would just tell me what the ingredients are i could put them together and mix them up and have that kind of enduring faith in god i would do that so here's what we've said that based on what jesus taught and based on what jesus modeled throughout the gospels and based on hundreds of interviews that we have done formally and informally with go the distance christians we're convinced there are five specific things that god uses to grow enduring faith now there may be seven there may be ten but we know we feel confident there are at least five based on the stories of people who told us their faith story and when they tell their faith story these five things show up over and over and over again and the thing that's amazing is these five things are relevant and interface with us in every season of life and i've been personally through almost every season of life and i can tell you these five things you don't outgrow them they're not a list it's not five things that you do it's not five things you're gonna find listed in the bible but these five dynamics are true of anyone who has enduring faith so sometimes we refer to these you may have heard us talk about the five faith catalysts that sometimes refer to these the five case faith catalysts five things god uses to grow up and blow up our faith and again they intersect with our lives in every season of life that's what makes them so dynamic so for the next few weeks we're going to explore each one of these and today we're going to jump into this first faith catalyst and we refer to it as practical teaching practical teaching whenever you hear someone tell their faith story in fact for many of you if you were to sit down and just say here's my faith story you would tell me about a time or people talk about a time they were first introduced to a church or a bible study or a small group maybe in a university setting or maybe once they moved to a different city everybody always tells the story of the first time someone opened up the bible and taught it in a way that they knew what to do with what they've always believed that for the first time somebody gave them handles for the first time somebody gave them application they weren't simply learning new things they walked out and they knew what to do with what they've learned and so for people who have enduring faith at some point along the way they were introduced to hands-on practical christian living they knew what to do with this in their marriage and with their finances and with their kids and in the community and when they faced temptation and when they were going through a difficult time and when they worried and when they were overcome with fear they knew what to do with what they believed and the reason the reason that application or acting on what we believe grows our faith the reason this makes our faith bigger is this and most of us have experienced this somewhere along the way that when our active or activated faith in other words when we're actually doing this stuff when our active faith intersects with god's faithfulness on the other side what happens our faith gets bigger in other words when you step out and actually do what jesus has called us to do and we're going to talk about some of those things in a minute and you do them thinking i don't know if this is going to work i don't know if there's going to be any return i don't know how this is going to turn out but you know what if jesus is my lord this is what i'm supposed to do when we step out and actually do the things that god has called us to do and then on the other side of that decision we experience the faithfulness of god you know what happens our faith or our confidence in god gets bigger and gets stronger now there are so many illustrations of this and again many of you could stand up this minute and talk about the first time you did something where you thought okay this is crazy this isn't the way i was raised you know i don't know how this is gonna work but i really feel like this is something god wants me to do and you just said okay here we go and you felt a little bit like it was a free fall and then on the other side you experience god's faithfulness and what happened to your faith it got bigger but until you took that step until you applied that principle until you went home and began talking in different terms with your husband or your wife until you rearranged your finances until you decided you know what i'm gonna lead with kindness instead of you know you know what normally i lead with when the first time you did that and experience god's faithfulness on the other side what happened to your faith it grows but it doesn't grow until you activate it remember we said this last time that trust remember this trust is the currency of relationship and when we obey god with this that still small voice that nudge go over there and talk to her go over there and confront him you know go over there and apologize go ask for forgiveness whatever the nudge is be more compassionate be more generous when when we're obedient and trust god it provides god with an opportunity to be trustworthy back and to demonstrate his faithfulness to us and again open the gospels read matthew mark luke and john this was a theme in terms of how jesus led and it was a theme in terms of how jesus taught as we're going to see last week and to me these stories are so funny because throughout jesus you know ministry on earth with his first century followers especially his apostles he was constantly pushing them out to do things they knew they were incapable of and we're going to look at one next week just he would just put them in these kind of no-win situations no when circumstances and his goal was he had a very short you know amount of time to say look i need you to learn to trust me so i'm going to ask you to do things that are unusual then you're going to experience my faithfulness on the other side and on the other side your confidence in me is going to grow it's again you're exercising that muscle but the area in his teaching where this was most pronounced is actually in what's considered his most famous sermon we call it the sermon on the mount i'm convinced that the content of the sermon on the mount you find it in matthew and a portion of it in the gospel of luke i think this was jesus go-to message that often times in the gospels it says and then jesus sat the people down and began to teach and it doesn't tell us what he taught multiple times jesus was teaching or they would walk up and find jesus teaching or jesus was teaching in the temple and we're like okay what did he teach i think this is his go-to message because this was the kingdom ethic and the sermon on the mount jesus unveils this very much others first upside down kingdom ethic that stood in sharp contrast to everything in the roman empire for sure everything in pagan religion for sure and it stood in sharp contrast to the first century version of judaism which had god had drifted in quite a ways from the original intent so jesus is introducing this top this upside down kingdom ethic where the people with all the power and the resources are supposed to leverage their power and resources for the people with fewer power less power and fewer resources i mean people are like what you know if you if you're going to follow me you're going to serve other people you're going to leverage what you have and the opportunities you have for the sake of other people it's like what it was so upside down um turn the other cheek it's like really if someone asked he said if somebody asks for a favor do more than they ask for he talked about generosity and he didn't give us a limit or a percentage he just open-handed generosity he forgive regardless just regardless forgive regardless um pray for your enemy um yank the plank you know the yank the plane teaching like you're looking at somebody and there's something about them that bothers you and you think you're going to confront them and jesus says i got an idea before you kind of get up in their business you need to go home look in the mirror and see if there's any of that in you and take the plank out of your own eye and then you're going to see more clearly to help get the little speck of dust out of their eye because you do need to confront them and you do need to challenge them and it may not go well but because you love them you are going to have that conversation but before you look to try to get the little speck out of their eye you got to get the plank out of your own so there was all this kind of other's firstness um he told a group of people who had so much to worry about don't worry and then he said oh yeah the other part of this is by the way you can't be right with god if you're not right with your brother and your sister i mean everything in the sermon on the mount was so upside down it was so different it was so challenging and it was so practical these were go out there and do this stuff and this was his way of saying if you're going to follow me and by the way god sent me to reveal himself to you through me so following me is a step in following god if you're going to follow me this is what i want you to do and it was terribly practical it was so practical it felt impractical so no wonder many years later the church kind of backpedals and says let's just let's just focus on believe all the right stuff let's just focus on theology and you know our theology is better than their theology so our church is going to be different than their church in our church we believe we believe we they believe but we believe suddenly it becomes all about belief but read the gospels jesus is like now believing without doing is pointless if your faith doesn't do any good it's not any good jesus did not leave us with the option of simply believing all the right stuff so anyway he gets to the end of this this very very practical disturbing sermon and at the very end he gives us a promise now this passage i'm going to read to you for many of us it is so familiar there's actually a song but don't don't start singing the song okay and and try not to rush to the end if you already know this parable basically it's a parable so at the end of this practical practical practical message that disturbed all their norms and just turned everything upside down for these people who considered themselves already very religious people who already believed all the right stuff he said this he said everyone everyone who hears these words of mine talking about the sermon on the mountain and all his teaching everyone who hears these words of mine and believes them no remembers them nope agrees with them nope feels convicted by them nope and that's about as far as we take most sermons and most teaching isn't it ah i felt terror boy i you know unfortunately many of us have confused a religious experience with feeling bad about ourselves depending on what kind of church you grew up in it's like the worse i feel about myself at the end of the message the more closer i feel to god because i think god just wants me to feel bad about myself and i really felt bad about myself after that sermon and you feel like you've had an encounter with god but you don't go change anything right and jesus says okay we're done with all that anyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice anyone who hears these words of mine and acts on what i've taught it's like a wise man a wise man we talk about this all the time a wise person is someone who connects the dots a wise person is someone who connects the dots between behaviors and outcomes who understands that if you don't behave differently there's not going to be a different outcome who lives as a wise person lives as if today's behavior is going to shape and show up in tomorrow's reality that they they understand that knowing but not doing doesn't make any difference he said anyone who just heard what i said and practices it not one time but embraces this as a lifestyle is like a wise man or a wise person who built his house or established his life or established her future or went all in on the rock now in our world if you buy a piece of property that's rocky that is not a good thing and if you buy a piece of property that has a lot of rock just below the surface of the you know the the top soil it's really a bad thing you have to have get dynamite right but in this day because we know how to pour concrete and create footings but in this day and age if you wanted to build a house that was going to last and had a foundation that was going to support it you actually tried to build on rock but the problem was building on rock was very very labor intensive it was very expensive and i think most to the point jesus is making it was very time consuming so if your best friend a mile away found a place where there was no rock their house was up in no time meantime you're still trying to get the foundation dug because you're building on rock but here's his point the wisest thing you could do he's saying the wisest thing i could do he's saying the most future oriented thing that we could do is to build our lives or build our futures on what he was teaching he's saying i want you to live as i've instructed you to live and if you live as i've instructed you not just believe as i've instructed you to believe if you live as i've instructed you to live it's like building your house on a foundation that's going to serve you for a long long time it'll cost you but it will be rewarding in the long run now when jesus said this it left a question hanging over the audience and it's a question that hangs over us if we really understand what he's saying and the question that hangs over the audience that hangs over us especially if you go home this afternoon or whenever you're watching this if you open to matthew or luke and read the sermon on the mountain you're like whoa i don't even that's a lot the question that hangs over this this challenge is do we trust him do we trust him are we willing to embrace his teaching as a lifestyle before we know the outcome are we willing to do what he's asked us to do in other words are we willing to follow before we know exactly how it turns out in our families with our finances with our friends and our communities and our heart and our lives that was the issue am i going to listen believe respect say amen and nod but not do because it seems too risky or am i willing to trust him and follow that is the issue and then jesus doesn't stop there he talks about what happens for those who choose to do what he's asked him to do he illustrates the outcome or the future of the wise people he says and then the rains came down you remember this part the rain came down the streams rose the winds blew and it beat against that house but it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock something they completely understood flash floods weren't all that common but when there was a flash flood in that region of the world it was devastating and the foundation of a house determined if it was a partial loss or a total loss the foundation of a house would determine whether there was a loss of life or the family escaped with minor injuries or perhaps no injuries at all and then he turns the corner but everyone who hears these words of mine this is so important for those of us who consider ourselves church people and if you're not a church people you're going to love this if everyone but everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice oh we agreed we said amen we're like this is amazing i've never heard anything like this it's like that's anyone who sees words of mine and does not put them into practice does it not doesn't believe them but doesn't do anything with it it's like a foolish man who built his house on the sand now the implication the implication for what jesus is saying here for for those of us who are church people is stunning for the average church person here's why i say this because what jesus is saying here is it is possible to hear and believe and nod and if you grew up in a church like mine that i grew up in and say amen right it is possible to hear and believe and nod and agree and live a life that sets you up for a crisis of faith it is possible to believe to hear and believe and yet live a life that actually sets you up to lose your faith and to lose your confidence to god and again for somebody to here today this is your story you grew up believing all the right things and you've lost your faith and jesus says i understand why because believing isn't the thing it's following that's the thing believing doesn't build your faith it's following that builds enduring faith believing in other words can be deceiving now if you're not a christian or you used to be and you've kind of given up on faith this is this is this is i can so appreciate your dilemma because it could be that your issue with me and your issue with christians and your issues with christianity isn't that you don't believe what we believe your issue is more fundamental your issue is you don't believe that we believe what we say we believe because we don't do it and that's reason enough to walk away from or to say no to christianity i get that and i'm sorry and if that's the reason you left that's on us that is not on you because what else would you do when you hear what we say and you hear what we preach and you hear what we teach and then you look at how we live and jesus says it's possible to hear and believe and not do and to undermine your own faith james again the brother of jesus coming in after you know jesus resurrection he's he's even more direct here's what james wrote in his letter you've heard this he says come on don't merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves there it is believing can be deceiving don't you dare sit and listen and go aha yeah i agree and so deceive yourself you can listen and believe and argue theology and argue why your version of christianity is better than their version of christianity all day long and be completely deceived if you don't do what it says and then james gives that great mirror illustration it's one of my favorite things in the new testament the mirror illustration he says believing and not doing is like getting up in the morning and walking into your bathroom and you look in the mirror and you go ugh i believe something needs to be done about that face and i believe something needs to be done about that hair and then you put on your bathrobe and you go to work he said who would do that we're like nobody would do that because once i see it and once i believe something needs to be done about it when it comes to my looks and my face and my hair and your face and your hair we do something about it he says the person that sits and listens and believes and doesn't do anything is just as foolish as the person who says wow what a mess i am and does nothing about it and you would never do that and yet for some of us church people we do it all the time and consequently our faith is weak our beliefs may be correct this is why this is such a stunning parable but our faith is weak and then james like jesus adds a promise james promises this but whoever looks intently into the perfect law wish we could talk more about that the perfect law that gives freedom if your version of faith doesn't give you freedom you've got the wrong version or you're not living out your version whoever looks into the perfect law and gives freedom and continues in it not forgetting what they have heard but doing it they will be blessed in what they do listeners and hearers are not blessed in their listening and their hearing james says there is an outcome there is a benefit in following jesus but you will never experience the benefit which consequently will grow your faith if you don't act on it if you don't do it again jesus version of the same promise and the rain came and the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house yet it did not fall because its foundation was on the rock believing can be deceiving back to the other guy but everyone who hears these words of mine does not put him into practice like the foolish man to build his house on the sand it was quick and easy got that house up in no time listened maybe even believed didn't do anything with it because it's too hard it's too demanding and the rains came down and the streams rose then the streams rose and the wind blew and beat against that house and it fell with a great crash this is very important do you know how people who listen and believe but don't do do you know how people who listen and believe but don't do respond when the crash comes and their house falls down they either blame god or they decide there is no god because even though they believed because although they believed their faith was feeble frail and fragile if you don't exercise it in the real world if it's nothing but a system of belief it will not support you and it will not come through for you when things get difficult this is the coolest part of the story maybe when jesus had finished this at the very end when jesus finished teaching all this and saying these things the crowds were amazed they were amazed they were amazed at jesus they were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law here's his point here's our point when your obedience that is when i say obedience i mean when you're living out your faith when you're generous when it's hard to be generous you're compassionate and you're instead of being angry when you step up when you confront when it'd be easier to be quiet when you're quiet when it be easier to confront when you when you kind of give into that still small voice and you know what you ought to do but you just don't want to do it when you are obedient to god and your faithfulness intersects with his faithfulness when your faith your act of faith intersects with his faithfulness your faith gets bigger and it gets stronger because again it's like a muscle but if you if you neglect it if you refuse to act on what you claim to believe one day you may wake up and realize you don't believe at all and initially you may be relieved to get done with this because throw off all this christianity stuff you may be relieved initially life might even feel easier for a while but here's what we know about life right when the rain comes and it's coming and the streams rise they're gonna rise and when the wind blows and beats against that house that was built on sand there's gonna be a collapse and because your heavenly father loves you and because jesus is your savior and came to reveal what god is like he's saying come on come on i want to show you a better way not just a better way of believing i want to show you a better way of living so i want you to follow me now here's what here's what i know and i'll wrap this up when when you meet someone with big faith i mean big bold enduring i don't mean bold like their personality is bold i mean they're just there's just this confident it's like this rock solid confidence like their their faith isn't built on just a belief system it's like it's more even there's more foundation to it than that when you meet somebody that kind of faith they've been living it not just listening to it and i feel so blessed because i grew up in a church that where my dad was a pastor and he just gave us handles and applications with money with relationships with marriage with our emotions i mean he constantly looked for ways to live we would leave church knowing what to do with what we heard a gentleman named dan dahan would do our camps when i was in high school and then later in college even after college taught this huge bible study in this in our city and it was so practical we left there knowing what to do with what we had heard and this is why in all of our churches we provide handles in all of our environments we provide handles for your children for your students and middle schoolers we don't want people that just believe right we want people that live right but sometimes you don't know what to do with what you heard and what you've believed until somebody gives it to you this is why one of the things that grows your faith and grows our faith is being exposed to practical application oriented teaching and i know for for some people some of your relatives won't visit any of our churches with you and perhaps there are things about our church that disturbs you because you feel like church needs to be quiet and reverent and holy and an experience with god and reflection and i get that there's a place for reflection and there's a place for quiet but this isn't it and here's why and i'm not comparing myself to jesus so i want to have a disclaimer before i say what i'm about to say when jesus taught and when jesus would preach it was not quiet on a couple occasions john says they picked up stones to stone him before he finished the sermon it was not a quiet reflective environment arguments broke out riots broke out one time they tried to push him off a cliff while he's teaching okay that's why we have so much space between the front of the stage and you know the first row in our auditoriums right it was disruptive it was challenging it was emotional people would leave angry sometimes they would leave you know joyful but sometimes it was just it was so disturbing because jesus is saying look i don't i'm not just here to i don't want you to just believe right i want you to live right because at the end of the day it's what you do it's what i do that makes the difference if not we just need to read more books if all we need to do is believe right and i love what lane jones said lane jones one of our founding pastors of our church and years ago i heard him teach and he said this i love this he said unapplied truth is like unapplied pain it doesn't do anybody any good the value is in the application if your faith is in a can in the corner of the garage it's not doing you any good and jesus would agree application is what makes the difference so one of the things that god uses to blow up and grow up our faith is application-oriented centered teaching this is why you need to get involved and stay involved and lock into some environment where somebody is opening the scripture and teaching you not simply what to believe but what to do with what you believe something that challenges you to live a different life not simply believe different things not simply experience something on a sunday because knowing without doing creates a version of faith it creates a feeble fragile faith but following jesus you know this come on when you decide to follow jesus it'll stretch your faith it will exercise your faith it will grow your faith and here's why because following jesus will make your life better and make you better not at believing it makes you better at life because he's invited us to follow and you've met people like that let's become people like that the world needs more people like that in fact your world your family needs you to be like that so let's not be content with believing true things let's not even be content with believing just all the right things let's act on what we claim we believe let's be jesus followers and we will pick it up right there next time in part three of faithful but before you go three questions to get the conversation going or keep it going number one if you grew up attending church what was emphasized in the church that you grew up in correct theology information application the sacraments attendance number two have you ever applied a specific teaching of scripture and looking back it actually prepared you for a storm and number three lane said unapplied truth is like unapplied paint it doesn't do anybody any good can you think of an area in your life right now where a bit more application might make a big difference maybe in a relationship maybe your marriage finances entertainment time management perhaps connecting with or reconnecting with a local church a church that provides you with handles and application jesus was correct of course he was jesus wasn't was correct that anyone who hears these words of his and acts on them and does the hard work of applying steps out even when it's scary steps out even when it doesn't make sense steps out even when it conflicts with the worldview and perhaps the world that you live in is like building your life and building our life on a solid foundation not if but when the storms come you will be ready heavenly father thank you for preserving this teaching all these years thank you for the men and women whose lives not just what they believe but whose lives and lifestyles have challenged me through the years thank you for the men and women who've gone before us who walk through dark times difficult times and yet somehow they continue to trust you we want that kind of faith and i pray that you would do whatever you need to do and that we would be willing to do whatever we need to do to exercise that muscle to get it thank you for the promise thank you for the promise that there is a foundation that endures i pray that you would lead us there and i pray that we would follow in jesus name amen

Channel: North Point Community Church

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Keywords: North Point Community Church, North Point, NorthPoint, North Point Atlanta, Andy Stanley, AndyStanley, Andy Stanley church, Andy Stanley message, Andy Stanley sermons, North Point church, NPCC, North Point youtube, Andy Stanley YouTube

Id: uNn4WSO5BN4

Length: 59min 0sec (3540 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 20 2021