Hey, welcome today to all of our Life.Church locations. Remember, next week, we're launching brand new LifeGroups. We know life is better together. If you're not yet in a LifeGroup, your pastor will tell you how to get involved, and we're launching a new four part message series, it's called "I'm In". What are we? I'm invited, I'm invaluable, I am influential, and I am invested. Next we start "I'm In". Today though, we've got a very, very special treat for you. One of our very own Life.Church campus pastors, he's been on staff for nine years, and he's been leading his campus in Midwest City, Oklahoma for the last seven years. This guy is full of passion, full of faith, and he's truly a great man of God. This is his first time to ever preach to all of the Life.Church locations, so I know you'll lean in, I know you'll make him feel loved, I know you'll help him preach today at all of our Life.Church locations. Would you please help me welcome Pastor Sam Marin. (congregation applauding) (congregation cheering) Man it is an incredible, incredible honor to be up here today. I gotta take a moment and just say thank you to Pastor Craig for the opportunity to share God's word with our entire church. You know, I know so many of you feel this way, but man, this church has changed my life. Pastor Craig and Amy, thank you for saying yes to God's call on your life, to start this church. You created a space where people could come in, and experience the grace of God and the love of his people, and I just want you to know, my life is different, my marriage is different, my legacy will be different because of this place, and Craig, your leadership, your consistency in the way you lead our church, and love your family, man, has made me a better leader. Thank you for investing in me. Would you all help me show some honor and love to our pastors today, come on. (congregation applauding) (congregation cheering) Now, let me introduce you to the four most important people in my life, this is a picture of my family. Now, that's my little girl Audrey, don't let her smile fool you, she's got a wicked right hook, all right. My son Rex, he is a deep thinker, man the kid's a philosopher. And then that's my beautiful wife, of over 17 years, Liz. And I've got some words that I wanted to say, Liz, Liz is here with me today, and babe, I wanted to say some thing to you, but you know that there's only one way for me to tell you these things, Liz, (speaking in Spanish) (congregation applauding) (congregation cheering) Look, some things, some things just sound better in Spanish, okay, watch, check this out. Everybody say chocolate.
Chocolate. Okay, look, it's not fun if we don't all participate. Somebody in Wellington needs to do this, somebody in Ft. Worth, Texas, come on, everybody say chocolate. Chocolate. Now turn to your neighbor, and say (speaking in Spanish). (speaking in Spanish) See, some things just sound better in Spanish, all right. So that's my family, you know, I grew up in Southern California, love going to the beach. Recently my family and I, we were at the lake, and I've always had this persistent fear of not being able to see what's underneath me in the water, right, so anytime something brushes up against my leg, I kinda freak out, right I'm kinda worried about it. But we were at the lake and I was submerged like neck down, kind of on a floatie, and all of a sudden, a fish came up and bit me on the nipple. (congregation laughing) It bit me on the nipple, I'm not kidding you. Like it hurt, and it scared the heck outta me. And I got out of the water, it was crazy. Now I looked it up, the odds of being bitten by a shark are one in almost 12 million. The odds of being bitten by a fish on the, I didn't even wanna try to Google that, okay. (audience laughing) Here's why I tell you this, the odds of me standing on this stage today, so you have to understand where I grew up, I was more likely to end up in a gang, on drugs, or locked up in prison, and I know that the God that I serve, the God that I worship is the God who doesn't just defy the odds, he extends you his favor. (congregation applauding) And I don't know, maybe you are here today, maybe you are at one of our Life.Church locations, and you have seen God defy the odds in your life, maybe you were destined for destruction and God came, and he rescued you, he pulled you out of where you were headed, and he is shown you his favor, and today you are in this place only by the grace of God, and because of his favor. And that's why I stand up here today. Now I gotta tell you, there's been times in my life where I have felt very alone. In fact, if we're honest, some of the hardest times in our lives are where we feel completely isolated, right, maybe you're going through a tough situation, and you look around, and there's nobody really there to support you. Or maybe you got something great to celebrate, and nobody's there to join with you in the celebration. Perhaps even today, if you're at one of our Life.Church locations, your pastor said turn around, give someone a high five, welcome them to church, and you stood up, you put your hand up, and you looked around, and everybody else is giving high fives, and you're like anyone? So you kind of did this like (hands clapping) and just, (congregation laughing)
kinda sat down quietly. Right, you might be in a room full of people and you feel completely alone. And you see, God's desire for you, his greatest plan and purpose for you, is that you would never stand alone. That's what he wants for you, that you would never stand alone. You see, he created us, he created us with this desire to be connected, in fact, this is our thought for today. We're created for connection, but we drift toward isolation. We're created for a connection, but we drift to isolation. It's so common, we see this in our lives, God created us to have a connection with him, and with each other, and yet today and age, it's so natural for us to drift toward isolation. Now if you're a Life.Church location, if you're here right now, maybe you're on the other side of the screen, at Church Online, what I want you to know is that today, you're part of this church, in this moment, you're part of this church. And God is building his church, and we know that the church is not a building, the church is a people. It's you, it's me, together, and he's putting us together, he's building his church. In fact, scripture says it this way, Paul is talking to the Ephesians, and he says this, he says, you're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here. Listen, if you're here for the first time, if you're new with us, I want you to know, man you belong here. This is the place where it doesn't matter what your background is. Doesn't matter what your past looks like. Doesn't matter the color of your skin, or the magnitude of your sin, you can belong here. And I want you to know, man welcome home. Welcome home.
(congregation applauding) He goes on to say you belong here with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home, he's using us all. He used the apostles and the prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in, brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone. See, you are a stone, I'm a stone. He's putting us together, he's building his church, stone by stone. We're created for connection, but we drift, we drift toward isolation. You see this in social media right? Social media's a great tool, it can be a great thing. And that's why you'll post a picture, right, of your hairy legs on the beach, right? (congregation laughing)
#Allnatural, #vacation, and what happens, you post something, and then every two minutes, you go back and you check how many likes did it get? Who hit the heart button, right? 'Cause we're longing for this connection with people, we wanna share our lives with others, right? And yet many times social media drives us toward isolation, because what happens when you look at somebody else's highlight reel, man you start to get these feelings, right? These feelings of maybe jealousy, envy, maybe you're just straight up have FOMO, like you're looking at people and you're like why wasn't I invited? And they drive you, it drives you to these emotions, and it drives you towards isolation, 'cause here's the thing, we don't talk about it, like we all know, you guys are like yeah, yeah, yeah I'm with you, but we don't talk about it. When's the last time you went to somebody and said, "Hey I'm really feeling jealous "about what I saw on social media." It drives us toward isolation, we're in our feelings. But here's the thing, as Christ followers, man, we're called to fight the drift. That's what we're gonna do, we're gonna fight the drift. When you fight the drift, and you begin to live the life that God created you to live. And lemme tell you, this is a fight worth fighting. This is a battle worth winning. This is a fight that you fight, and when we fight, we do not fight alone. We fight together, we fight with God. So here's three ways we fight the drift, a couple of thoughts that I have for you, number one, remember the faithfulness of God. Remember the faithfulness of God. Everybody needs God. See the most important connection you were created to have is your relationship with God. When you surrender your life to Jesus, you enter into a relationship with your heavenly Father, and that's the most important connection you're supposed to have. When you walk with God, guess what? He walks with you. In life, you're gonna face tough times. When you're wandering through the wilderness, God walks with you. When you're going through challenging situation, God promises to never leave you. When you're in the valley of the shadow of death, he promises to lead you and be with you, to never leave you or forsake you. God walks with you, and he shows you his faithfulness. When you feel like you're drifting toward isolation, and you fight the drift by remembering, by stopping to remember the faithfulness of God. The Bible tells us in Joshua about the Israelites. These are God's people, and the Israelites had been delivered from Egypt, from slavery, and they were given a land, a Promised Land, right, they were sent, God told them, "I'm gonna give you a land "that flows with milk and honey." And so they went after the promise. But because of their stubbornness, because of their disobedience, they wandered through the wilderness for 40 years, just wandering around, drifting, right? Finally, 40 years later, they stand at the banks of the Jordan river, with the Promised Land just across the river, all they gotta do now is walk across to take the promise that God has for them. This is such a big deal, like this is so important, this is a big, big day, everything is coming together, it's so important that God tells Joshua, "Here's what I want you to do, "I want you to take 12 stones out of the river, "and I want you to place them as a memorial "to remember my faithfulness, "to remember that I delivered you, "to remember that I'm the God "who walked with you through all this time. "I'm the God that set you free, remember my faithfulness." And we pick up the story here in Joshua 4:21-22, it says then Joshua said to the Israelites, "In the future, "your children will ask 'what do these stones mean?' "Then you can tell them this is where the Israelites "crossed the Jordan on dry ground." God is a faithful God, he always provides a way for us, he's faithful. The Bible says that if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us. And when you're drifting, it's good to stop and remember he was faithful to forgive you, to forgive me, of our sins. It reminds me of Christie who is part of our church family at the campus that I get to lead, at Midwest City, Oklahoma. Midwest City, my people. (congregation cheering) Christie, she made a lot of bad decisions in her life, just like all of us, we've all made bad decisions. Her decisions landed her in prison. And Christie now has to wear an ankle monitor. If you don't know what that is, basically it's an electronic device that tracks her, it's a GPS device. And she can't take it off, she can't get it wet, like it's a constant reminder of her mistakes. She came to church, and she said, "Pastor Sam, "I wanna get baptized, but I got a little issue." And she pointed at her ankle monitor, right? And I looked down, I said, "Christie, listen to me, "if you wanna get baptized, if you wanna declare "that your life belongs to Jesus, we will find a way "to get you baptized." Now some of you in here today, some of you at our church, you're not wearing an ankle monitor, but you've been walking around with a ball and chain that's called guilt and shame. Your past keeps creeping up on you. You keep remembering all the guilt, all the shame, and it's been holding you back from what God has for you, but today, I believe just like Christie, today some of you are gonna experience freedom from your past, freedom from your guilt and here's what happens. (congregation applauding) When the enemy tries to remind you of your past, you remember the faithfulness of God. He was faithful to forgive you. Christie, you showed up on baptism Sunday, she came in with a smile on her face, hope in her heart, and a plastic bag and a roll of duct tape. This is Christie getting baptized. She put a bag around it man.
(congregation cheering) She didn't care. You see it? God was faithful to forgive her. And he placed her, you see Christie's a stone. And he placed her in our church family. God's buiding his church, stone by stone. It's you, it's me, together, he created us for connection. And yet we drift, we drift toward isolation. But we're gonna fight the drift. Now I wanna stop right now, because I recognize that there are many people who, when you think about those stones, you think man that's great, that was a memorial to remember God's faithfulness, but the truth is is that sometimes it's hard to remember God's faithfulness. In fact, we talked about the stones being a memorial, but right now, I know that there's some of you that are carrying stones in your life, painful moments, where you feel like God wasn't faithful. Where you look back and you really wonder, where was he? And you carry this heavy load. You carry this pain in your life. Maybe it's the girl that abandoned you that broke your heart, that you thought you were gonna get married to. And she left you, and you wonder God, where were you? That was supposed to be the woman for me. Perhaps it's that job that you were waiting on, that you knew, man if I get this job, man it'll help my family a ton. Man, God please give me this job, and you didn't get it, and you wonder, God knew I needed it, why wasn't he faithful? Maybe it's somebody that you trusted, that abused you, and scarred you for life, and that's a pain that you carry with you, and you say man, there's no good there, where was God in that moment? Maybe today you're here, and you made some decisions in your life, and you've tried to walk away from the guilt and the shame, but it just keeps coming back, and you feel like God's not being faithful to you, these pains, these stones that walk with you, and you try to carry, but then you get tired, and you put them down. And maybe it's just something completely different. Maybe it's something for you, a pain that you've been holding onto, it's your stone, it's that pain, where you look back, and you don't see God's faithfulness. Sometimes it's hard to see God's faithfulness. But when that happens you do this, number two, you rely on God's people. You rely on God's people. You see, you all, we all need somebody. Everybody needs somebody, you need somebody that you can vent to. You need somebody that you can word vomit on, right? You need somebody that won't judge you, but you need something that has good judgment. See it's not just about having people in your life, it's about having the right people in your life. The difference between where you are today and where God wants you to be depends on having the right people in your life. And they'll help you remember the faithfulness of God. You need someone to lean on, someone to be there for you. But you need the right people. I had a guy come to me and say, "Pastor Sam, "man, I'm really struggling. "I've had this addiction to porn for, man, "as long as I can remember, it finally caught up to me, "but I'm ready, I'm ready to like quit it, "I'm ready to get help." I'm like, "All right bro, that's good, good call, "let's go, let's do this, we got this. "Tell me about the people in your life." "Well man, I got my buddies, "like they're my high school buddies, they're my bros, "they got my back, always got my back." And I'm like, "All right, that's good, "like are the godly men, like are they Christ followers?" "Well, not really, they kinda all struggle "with the same thing, in fact we were at the strip club, "and we were talking about stopping, and--" "Whoa, whoa, whoa, like hang on, hang on, "do you see the problem here? "Like you got the wrong people in your life, man. "You need the right people speaking into you." Some of you here today, you just need to hear this, there's a relationship that you need to let go. You need to hit that block button, you need to hit that unfollow button, you need the right people in your life. In fact, Proverbs says it this way, the words of the wise are like weapons of knowledge. If you need wise counsel, stay away from the fool. (congregation applauding)
(congregation cheering) Look, your mama's been telling you stay away from him, he's a fool, it's time to let that go. You need the right people in your life. And you might say okay, cool, I need the right people, I'm good, let's go, how do I find the right people? And let me tell you three ways. If you're part of our church, here are three ways that you can actually find the right people in your life. All right, you ready, here we go. Start serving, 'kay, very simple, start serving. You just need to get around people that are walking in the same direction with you. Number two, get in a LifeGroup. Like you need to be in community, you need to meet consistently with people that are gonna encourage you, that are gonna hold you accountable, get in a LifeGroup. And number three, for those of you and you're like, first two, check, check, you need to get real. Like you're serving, you're in a LifeGroup, but you're not honest with your troubles. You're not getting real with your problems. You pretend like you've got it all together, and today you just gotta get real, today is the day that you take that step, you gotta find your people. You see, I promise you, you do this, you take one of these steps, just take one if you need to, okay, I promise you, you're gonna look back and you'll see that was a stone, God's putting us together, he's building his church. He's connecting us stone by stone. See, we're created for connection, but we drift, we drift toward isolation. So number one, remember the faithfulness of God, number two, rely on God's people, and number three, release the power of your story. Release the power of your story. You see, everybody needs God, everybody needs somebody, but somebody needs you. (congregation applauding) Somebody needs you. You see, you're not just another stone, you have a story, and your story has power. There's a powerful story in the Bible of David and Goliath, most of us know this story, I'll give you the quick rundown of it. Goliath, mighty warrior, giant, comes up, defying God's people, defying the one true living God, challenges the army of Israel to fight, and nobody wants to fight him. David shows up, a young shepherd boy, which I love because it doesn't matter how old you are, listen, you have a story and your story has power. Whatever your age is, he shows up and he says, I'll fight this guy, this guy's throwing shade at my people, I'll take 'em on, right? Shows up and what does he do? He picks up five smooth stones from a river. And he puts 'em in his shepherds bag. And he takes one of those stones, puts it in a sling, swings it around, launches it, hit Goliath right in the head, Goliath goes down, David walks over, talks Goliath's sword, beheads the giant, declares victory over the enemy for his people. You know what I love about this? Goliath wasn't David's personal giant, he wasn't defying David, he was defying David's people, and David's God. You see, when you're my people, your giant becomes my giant. And your story has power. It has power. Here's what I need you to remember, those moments in your life, that were so painful, those moments in your life that hurt so much, you know, when a rock falls into a river, it's sharp, it's jagged, and as it rolls through the river, it hits over rocks, and those rocks chip away at it. And then at some point, it might fall over a waterfall, and it'll land at the bed of the river, and then the constant flow of water and flowing sand will act as a sandpaper, and that's what makes a jagged stone a smooth stone, so maybe all those painful, all those jagged moments in your life, that have been washed by the grace of Jesus, become a powerful tool in your life, that divorce that almost broke you, becomes a tool in your life.
(serene music) The addiction that almost took you out becomes something you can use to help somebody else. The abandonment you felt, your parents left you, and you wonder even as an adult why didn't they want me? That becomes part of your story, and it becomes a tool in your bag. The death of your child, a pain that no parent should ever feel, man, it becomes a tool for you. You see, your story has power, and you need to release the power of your story because perhaps your story could be the stone that takes down someone else's giant. I'll never forget the first time that Liz told me we were pregnant. We were sitting in the little Italian restaurant in San Dimas, California, she slid a little piece of paper over, I turned it over, it was the ultrasound of our baby, and man we were just so full of joy, our family was being built, it was incredible. Some time passed and we saw ourselves in the emergency room, and the doctor came in and said the words that no parent ever wants to hear, I'm sorry there's no heartbeat. Those feelings of joy went out the window. And they were replaced with hurt, with doubt, with fear, watching my wife experience this crazy pain. And man, I'm tell you right now, just honestly, like I was not in a good place. I'll never forget one Sunday, we were laying in bed, and Liz was in bed, lying next to me, she was asleep, and man I was in my head, like I was in these thoughts, it had put so much strain on our marriage. I started to think man, what's gonna happen, are we gonna make it, are we gonna be okay? Man, I don't know if we can make it, I was just in my head. And so I opened up my laptop, and I logged onto Church Online. And honestly I don't remember what the message was, but I remember this window on the bottom that says if you need prayer, click here, and I clicked on that button. A window popped up, and a Church Online volunteer typed the words, "How can I pray for you?" And I just unloaded, man I just put it all out there. I told her everything I was going through, the pain that was I was feeling, the doubt that I was feeling, and I'll never forget her words, she said, "I don't believe in coincidences, "I believe God bought me here, "I want you to know my husband and I "have been through the exact same thing, "and God brought me here to tell you you're gonna be okay. "Your marriage is gonna be okay. "And God will never leave you, he's with you today." That moment redirected my life. You see what I realized in that moment, was that this Church Online volunteer, she released the power of her story to take down the giant in my life, because here's the thing, (congregation applauding) perhaps, perhaps years later, so that I can release the power of my story, to take the giant in your life. (congregation applauding) Maybe, maybe the pain that you've gone through is not in vain, maybe God can use it. You see, when you walk with God, and you walk with his people, what he does is he brings you opportunities to use your story, to release the power of your story, and when you release the power, you take down the giants in people's lives. Maybe the pain wasn't in vain, and today, you need to know somebody just needs to hear God's not done with you, he's not done with you. He's got a great plan for your life. (congregation applauding)
(congregation cheering) And he can take the pain and he can redeem it, and he can use it for his glory, for his purpose, because here's the thing, he's bringing us together. We're created for connection, and he's building his church, stone by stone. Perhaps today you'll remember the faithfulness of God. You'll rely on his people, and you'll release the power of your story. And when you do that, and you never walk alone, you always have God, you'll always have people walking with you. And perhaps that's exactly why God brought you here today. At all of our churches, let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you, we thank you that because of what you did for us, we never have to stand alone. We completely have confidence that you're always with us, Lord, and we thank you for that. With every head bowed, and every eye closed, if you're here today and you say you know what, man, I need to stop and remember the faithfulness of God, it's been a long time since I remembered his goodness. Maybe you're here, and you know that you don't have the right people in your life. You need to rely on God's people, you need the right folks, you need the people encouraging you, and you're ready to take a step to find those people. Or maybe you're here and you recognize man, you've been holding on to the power of your story, and it's time to release it, to let God use it. If that's you today, and you say you know what, I'm ready to take that step, would you raise your hand, I wanna pray a specific prayer for you, hands going up all over this place. Father, I thank you for every person that's raising their hand, you know our hearts, Father God. Lord, I pray that you would give them the boldness and the courage to take a step of faith. As we continue in an attitude of prayer, with every head bowed, and every eye closed, you know, the most important connection you were created to have is a relationship with God. And for many of you, you don't have that. If you're honest, you came in here, you don't know what it means to have a relationship with God. In fact, you say you know what, I don't even know if God loves me, how could God love someone like me? I want you to know God does love you, and yet there's this thing that separates us from God, it's called sin, and what that means is that you have sinned, I have sinned, we all fall short of God's standard, and our sin separates us from a holy God. And yet God loved you so much that he did something for you, he sent his only son Jesus, who lived a sinless life, he died on a cross, so that you and I could be forgiven of our sins. They put him in a tomb, and guess what they did? They covered it with a stone, but three days later, the stone was rolled away, Jesus resurrected, and in his resurrection, you and I could find new life. And for many of you, that's why you're here. You're here because God brought you to this very moment so that you would enter into relationship with God, so how do you do that? The Bible says that if we confess our sins, he is faithful to forgive us, and if you call on the name of Jesus, he will save you, you will be saved, you'll be forgiven, and that is why you're here. Listen to me, you can't clean yourself up, you can't make yourself right, you come to God just as you are, and you let him do the work in you. And that is why you're here. So if that's you, and you say you know what, I'm ready to turn away from my sins, I'm ready to stop walking on my own, I need God in my life, I'm ready to surrender to him, and receive forgiveness of all my sins. If that's you, at all our Life.Church locations, go ahead and lift your hand right now, come on, raise your hand up, and say yes, I need Jesus in my life. Church online, you click right below me, say yes, I need God today. Right over here, God bless you, God loves you. Welcome to the family of God. God's with you today.
(congregation applauding) Who else, this is your moment to say yes, I need Jesus in my life. and all of our churches, we're gonna go ahead and pray together, Church Online, pray along with us. As a matter of fact, if you raised your hand, I want you to you stand, in fact, you're not gonna stand alone, we're gonna stand together, so everybody in this room, go ahead and stand up right now. We're gonna pray together listen, for those of you that made that decision in your past, I want you to remember what it felt like. Remember the guilt that was lifted, that's what's happening today for these people making a decision. So we're gonna pray with 'em, we're gonna support them. Come on, pray out loud, say Father God, Father God,
I declare, I declare,
that Jesus is your son. that Jesus is your son.
that he died and rose again, that he died and rose again, so that I could be forgiven. so that I could be forgiven.
Today I give you my life. Today I give you my life.
I surrender my heart. I surrender my heart.
Forgive me, Forgive me,
and make me new. and make me new. Overwhelm me with your spirit, Overwhelm me with your spirit, so that I can follow you,
so that I can follow you, and serve others.
and serve others. Thank you for your grace.
Thank you for your grace. Thank you for new life.
Thank you for new life. Now you have mine.
Now you have mine. It's in Jesus name I pray, would somebody make some noise in this place, come on, worship our God today, come on. (congregation applauding)
(congregation cheering) (happy music) Thanks again for joining us today. We'd love to continue to see you grow in your relationship with Christ, and we have a great resource to help you do that. Just go to life.church/next, and there you'll find all kinds of ways to help take your next step in your relationship with Christ. And if you've enjoyed today's message, you can find all of our messages on our YouTube channel, or inside of the Life.Church app. It's free and available wherever you download your apps from. We'll see ya next time.
