The State of Your Faith | Trip Lee

[Music] love it hey welcome Prince to the room friends in Fort Worth Houston El Paso Rogers Arkansas Phoenix wherever you're joining us from we're so glad that you here and especially friends here we're glad that you are here tonight we've got a treat a friend of ours a young adult pastor in town named Tripp Lee is joining us we're gonna take a departure and he is from Concord Church a church that we love dearly so we you guys put your hands together for Tripp who's coming to teach us from God's Word how's everybody doing excited to be here with you tonight I just want to share I work with my wife is here y'all say hi Jess and we also got some folks from concours of my young adult leaders who were here hanging out in the front y'all just make some noise for them real quick hanging with us excited to be here with y'all one of the ways that we know there may be some cultural difference between the churches is that when the sports activities were listed it was like soccer and softball and Ultimate Frisbee and spike ball what is spike ball it's never even heard of that there are whole sports that y'all are keeping from black people all right first noise would have been like basketball three-on-three basketball knockout you know those how's the basketball related things again I'm excited to be here with y'all tonight and the preach God's Word I'm grateful for water more grateful for the porch love what y'all are doing and excited to serve you so I want to pray one more time father we thank you so much for your word God thank you for everybody who's here tonight Lord thank you for bringing them God we know that you love them you care for them father so we pray this would be a good use of before you would speak to your word father we pray you would understand stuff in our life that doesn't look like you gotta pray for my friends who don't know you help them to see you God I pray for my friends who know you help them to see you more we ask him jesus name amen amen um what David just gave me uh just told you real quick Who I am just to tell you a little bit more so you know who you're listening to I'm from Dallas grew up here lived a couple other places before I just came back but God has been really gracious and then when I was really young I was maybe about 14 years old the Lord took someone like me who I had a soul because I grew up in Dallas which as you know is a really churchy place and I grew up just assuming that I was a Christian just because I went to church my family and I repeated a prayer after children's pastor and that made me think that I was a Christian and so I assumed it for a long time and then fast forward you know I got drugged the church by my parents when I was 13 and 14 and you know there was a sign up for the like a summer retreat for the youth and I was like I'm not trying to sign up for the head and I've seen some cute girls and I was like i'ma gonna sign up for that and I did really bad reasons but the Lord had better ones because the the youth pastor at Concorde Concorde is a church where I met Jesus the youth pastor was a good youth pastor meaning we did more than just have fun he also opened the Bible and preached the gospel of Jesus and as he opened the Bible and preached the gospel the stuff that I hadn't understood that I assumed about myself being a Christian before about who God was who I was what Jesus did the Lord made that stuff clear to me and so since then the Lord has given me the opportunity to be able to yet do what my heart beats for which is I want to help people see the same Jesus that I've been shown and so I'm praying we have the opportunity to do that tonight I'll try to do that in a lot of ways with with music and with preaching God's Word and I'm excited too to do that tonight but I want to talk about tonight is the state of your faith I wanna talk to you about the state of your faith in come clear what I mean by that one of the problems with talking about something like this one of the problems with how we think about our faith is this is it those who call themselves Christians we sometimes see our faith as a finished product instead of a work in progress then go out of faith we just think of it as a finished product instead of a work in progress and when we are confused about what stage we're in everything is thrown off and it's in every area of our life so we're all familiar with the with the phrase that kids will say on a long trip what is that phrase are we there yet you know before I had kids I thought that this was fake I thought this was like a funny thing in movies and if you don't have kids I just want to let you know this is real the kids actually say this and they say it's so often that you really want to be like if you want to be there you can just get out right now and we can just keep going where we going but kids ask that over and over again but it's not just kids we all do this too in different ways just thinking about when you on a trip somewhere even if you know so like you know we're on the way from from Dallas up up here and and we're looking at our phones and as we drive even if you know how long it's gonna take you keep looking even if you know you got a good 45 minutes left you still looking like world just hoping that it gets it a little bit closer you know some of us while we're at school at work we spend more time looking at the clock than we do our actual work just hoping that somehow we can we'll time to go a lot faster we're constantly asking this question are we there yet and and here's what happens once we assume that we've arrived what do we do we relax you're happy when you make it to your destination so it's a good thing that the only problem comes in is when you think you've already made it to your destination but you're still on the way because then you've relaxed way too early we think the task is over so here's what happens when we assume that our faith is just this a one-time event that gets us entry into the kingdom and we assume that with our faith we've already arrived that's the problem because I think what scripture shows is just because we believed doesn't mean we've arrived if you walk away with one thing that I want it to be that just because you've believed in Jesus does not mean you've arrived because when we treat our faith like a finished product instead of a work-in-progress it will get neglected it means we were relaxed too early because we think we will have arrived so what I want to do is I'm gonna look at just two points in a particular text if you turn with me to first Thessalonians chapter 3 first Thessalonians chapter 3 that should be on the screen and I'll read and it's X Paul is writing to some Christians in Thessalonica and here's what he says to him he says so when we could stand it no longer we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens we sent Timothy who's our brother and co-worker and God service and spreading the gospel of Christ to strengthen and encourage you and your faith so that no one would be unsettled by these trials but you know quite well that we are destined for them in fact when we were with you we kept telling you that we'd be persecuted and it turned out that way as you well know for this reason when I could stand it no longer I sent to find out about your faith I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our Labor's might have been in vain we'll stop there we'll read a little bit more as we go but I want to look at this passage in and two points to remind us that just because we believe doesn't mean we've arrived in the first one is this your faith needs work so I don't assume that everybody in this room is a believer in Jesus but for those of us who are I don't want you to think that because you're a believer you've arrived at the end destination so the first one is this your face needs work here's what I don't mean I don't mean that Jesus will not save you until you do a bunch of good works but we know about Jesus is jesus is perfectly capable of saving us on his own and what Jesus did on the cross is he he purchased our salvation so I'm not saying for Jesus Savior you have to add some stuff to what he's already done but I am saying this faith is not a one-time event that we look Haeckel faith is a lifestyle faith is a lens that we see everything else through faith is fuel for every good work that we do and so I want to ask you how you would respond in if I was to ask you just a simple question how's your faith the thing that I was thinking how would you respond if I asked you how is your faith and when I ask you that do you just think about uh some one-time event that happened a long time ago when you walk down the aisle you repeated a prayer like I did when I was a kid and I hope not because it's Paul writes to these Christians in Thessalonica he's writing to these folks who he went there and he preached the gospel right and and Jesus saved some people and and what happens is people get mad at Paul for preaching the gospel so he ends up getting pushed out and Paul writes back to them right and he sends Timothy to go check on them right so this is why says in verse one we could stand it no longer we thought it best to be left by ourselves in essence we sent Timothy who's our brother in co-worker in God's service and spreading the guys for the price to strengthen and encourage you in your faith so that no one would be unsettled by these trials for you know quite well that we are destined for them Paul says Timothy almost like a doctor making a house call to check on their spiritual health to give them a little bit of a dose or what they need to continue to grow in health but the fact that Timothy was sent to check on their faith should tell us something about what faith is like that faith is something that needs to be sustained and checked in on so I know y'all in this series talking about self care well Paul once the Thessalonians to understand that even though you've believed in Jesus there's still some care that needs to happen right yet you're not at the end you um so why does Paul think that the Thessalonians faith would need to be checked in on is some specific about the Thessalonians well what Paul understands about them is that their faith is fragile if they are fragile and the same thing is true about us that we are fragile I wonder if you ever think of yourself as fragile that's not a way we like to think of ourselves we'd like to think of ourselves as strong especially dudes in here we don't anybody to see any weakness ever that's why half y'all get hurt every time you go to the gym you're just trying to live all kind of weight you know you like you have never lifted this before bro why do you think just praying before like the Lord is the Lord wants you to stop being a fool that's what he would like that's what you need powerful we don't like to think of ourselves as fragile we'd like to think of ourselves as strong and I pride blinds us to this but there's a reason why when people trust Jesus the Bible uses the language of new birth right because when a new child is born they're fragile my sister had a baby recently and I was just reminded that babies are so fragile and you know not to be rude to babies but they can't do nothing I mean they can't do anything you know like my niece she can't even hold her head up it's like if there's one baseline of something you can do for yourself just keep your head up and she can't even do that and it's nothing wrong with her she's just fragile but this is the kind of language the Bible uses of those of us who just started to follow Jesus is where babies we're fragile we need to be careful and it's not that the life hasn't really begun except that life needs to be cared for in order to be a sustained it needs to be looked after and there are all kinds of strengths that's been that's needed to build that up so let me give you another example my my wife is here tonight and she's great at many things and she has given me permission to say this but my wife is great at so many things there's I mean I could give you a long list what are the things that she's not good at it's keeping plants alive wife she you know she loves plants I'm of the belief that plants outside for a reason that's what they should stay in the ground outside my wife loves to have plants on the inside of our house um but what happens is they always die terrible painful deaths and so she always kills I mean you know how the Bible says like you say you love your brother but do you really that's how I feel about her implants I'm like you say you love them but do you because she's a serial plant killer and because of that um I felt like I had to put my foot down and be like I don't think we can have plants in our house anymore because it's unjust and I know the exception I made was this if those plants are fake because here's the great thing about fake plants is it they're fake and you don't have to pay attention to them you can't kill a fake plant you don't have to order it you don't have to put it in front of Sun you can forget that the plant exists for four years and come back and the plant looks exactly the same fake plants are wonderful in that way and in his here's what happens is sometimes we treat our face like it's that fake plant like it's something that exists that we can forget about entirely that we don't have to water that we don't have to put in front of the Sun it doesn't need anything to thrive and grow a flourish and we expect to show up and forth to be in exactly the same state but that's not true I faith it's more like a real living plant that needs stuff in order to grow that needs things in order to thrive and to flourish and what Paul is saying is I've sent Timothy to check up on you because there's things that need to happen if your faith is gonna survive Timothy's checking in on me to see how they're doing because believing in Jesus doesn't mean that you've arrived and so Paul understands that they're dangerous in our world that are a threat to our faith when to attack and Paul talks about two threats and in verse three he says he doesn't want anyone to be unsettled by these trials and verse 5 he says I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you our faith is under attack by temptation push back from from the world and from the devil so this is what's part of what is important about not seeing our faces the finished product is not ignoring the threats and so I want to talk about those two threats he talks about one of them is trials this is one things it's a threat to our faith he's talking mainly about affliction that comes from from persecution people opposing them because they follow Jesus because remember Paul got pushed out of this place for preaching Jesus and they were persecuted and weighs much harder than we are today but even so that pushback can make us want to leave Jesus right because people do push back when you are serious about Jesus I remember when I first started following Jesus in high school there was a lot of people who um they were cool with me like in Jesus as long as I didn't like him enough to actually do what he said when I began to try to do what Jesus said that's when people like Tripp what are you doing bro you're doing too much you extra I'm a Christian too why you are here trying to be a super Christian but I thought I was just doing what Jesus called me to do he's saying these trials this pushback and and the reason that that's a threat to our faith is because this human instinct to always want to lead towards whatever seems easier to us right when if you touch the stove and it hurts you try not to touch the stove again in the same way there's something in our minds and hearts that says if I said that and I got this kind of pushback I just won't say that anymore so Paul is saying that could tempt us to walk away from Jesus but avoiding trials and avoiding pain is not worth that no other kind of trials true besides persecution they can threaten our faith losing a loved one losing a job mental illness disease being broke being lonely right that kind of stuff those kind of trials can shake us if we're not careful and not only trials but also the tempting talks about the tempter Satan Satan can also tempt us away Satan can make all kind of stuff seem more appealing to us than Jesus hilt those senators he'll throw doubts at us it's Satan I you know he has authority in this world I don't know if we recognize this Satan is a master of false advertising he knows how to make stuff look better than Jesus is why Paul is saying is his danger for the tempter you ever seen like a commercial for some fool on TV and then when you see it in person you like that is not what y'all said every time I see Wendy's within pictures that I'm perfectly square burger patties I'm like now y'all know them patties don't look like that the Moses never Square they look real jagged or you know one time me and my wife was watching TV and they were taco bit was a Taco Bell it's probably good that I remember world was from but they were advertising mac and cheetos you that's right whoever said that you that's not how it would I said it but it's true Mac and cheetos which sounds disgusting but they were trying to make it seem like it was revolutionary and amazing and this is what Satan does is he will all the time Satan came up with making Cheetos his plans no but no but but this is what Satan does though is is he will take something that's not good it's not good for your soul it's not good for the people around you and he will try to sell it to us like it's good this is what he does and convinced us that it won't make shipwreck of our life in our faith and Paul is saying look I'm sending Timothy to check on y'all i prayer is that trials and temptation won't have pushed you away from Jesus and I'll say this whenever I've talked to people who don't want to follow Jesus anymore it's always because of one of these two dangers because of some kind of pain or some kind of sin they were hurt by something or hurt by somebody that makes us reassess what we think about Jesus or some kind of sin draws us away and it makes us reassess what we think about Jesus and we are vulnerable in those moments so if you are in a season of trial or season of temptation I want to ask you to guard yourself to watch out for these dangers I want to encourage you to watch out for each other right if you know a friend who's in a season of a lot of trial of temptation I want to encourage you to watch out for each other because when we understand well under attack it changes our posture shane is our posture because most of the time we don't live like our faith is actually under attack we casually stroll and we should be treading carefully right when you know your faith is under attack you're careful when you think everything is good you're careless and too many of us are careless with our faith we don't think about the fact that it's under its a my son one time he he started as some cold sores it was read like six months old so we didn't think it was a big deal but what happened was it got infected and he ended up in the hospital and he was in the emergency room and so when we realized oh this is more than just cold sores I hope Hofstra changed it went from just being at the house like it was no big deal or going to the emergency room to get it taken care of but the problem would be if we treated the emergency like it was something regular when you know something is under attack it changes your whole posture you're not careless anymore so what are some ways that you might know that you you little careless with your faith never showing up to worship with guys people not keeping up with relationships people who in your life who can check on you had not sinned you know how sometimes we'll have some sin with struggling with that we don't want nobody else to know about and we like to hide it in the corner in the darkness where nobody else can see it because we think we're protecting ourselves and really were putting ourselves in danger not reading the word at all just just what kind of coast I praying I mean there's so many ways we can be careless with our faith and I and I'm not trying to call you to be afraid and fearful I'm just calling you to be careful I'm not saying retreat I'm saying watch out because the danger is real but but God has said that he'll keep those who are here is like he'll hold on to us but but he's told us some ways that we need to hold on to him I'm gonna look at verse 6 this is what Paul says he said I sent Timothy to check is what Timothy found out but Timothy has just now come to us from you he's brought good news about your faith in love he told us that you always have pleasant memories of us that you long to see us just as we long to see you therefore brothers and sisters and all I distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith for now we really live since you were standing firm in the Lord how can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith I know these a lot of verses they women Timothy brings back a good report they're doing good right they're doing well they have fond memories so people are trying to convince them that Paul lying to him they remember what's going on and he says verse eight we we really live since she was standing firm in the Lord before that he was saying we don't want you to be unsettled by trials there's a big difference between being unsettled by trials and standing firm in the Lord it's kind of like the terminal trains at the airports where you know before it moves it always says this train is about to move hold on and it's always somebody who don't hold on we're just looking at that phone and the train goes and then they go and I never feel bad for because I'm like they told you to hold on bro so before it goes I just kind of looking around like who bout to follow that's probably pray for me that's not nice it's saying it out loud it didn't sound very nice but but it's the same way and the God is saying look this world is difficult there's threats for us to be unsettled he's saying hold on and in the way that we hold on we hold on to God we hold on to his people we hold on to the stuff he's given us for our faith to be able to persevere God's voice God's people telling you to hold on and he says he wants to see them face to face to complete what is lacking in their face again the implication is something is lacking in their faith their faith needs to mature and grow um and so he's not saying there's something lacking from their faith for them to be saved but he's saying that there's some maturity that needs to occur right so I just want to remind you that what saves you is not the power or perfection of your faith it's not just because you believe a lot I want you to know that faith itself is not even a virtue what saves you is not faith what saves you is Jesus faith is not good unless you believe in something worth believing in what what saves us is Jesus the object of our faith is what saves us that faith needs to grow and mature Jesus is a great Savior so we want our faith to be in good shape we know it's in good shape when it's thriving and growing and standing firm and holding on before I go to his next point I just want to ask you how often you check in on other people how often do you ask somebody how's your face description seems to say that our responsibility isn't just our own growth but one another right and I also want to say this how often do you let other people ask you how your faith is because some was there's someone send you a text and how's your faith you'll be like how's your faith but you you mean how's my faith I'm good how are you I seen your Instagram who is that you know I'm saying like you don't have to do all of that but but we want our lives to be open and vulnerable enough that we can check in on each other and we care enough to check in on each other it's the number one right your faith needs work just because we believe doesn't mean we've arrived and the last point is this you need God to work you need God to work cuz your face needs work but you cannot do that work on your own I do not want you to hear me saying that we play some part in saving ourselves our faith needs work but but what we don't do is just kind of assemble our faith to some perfect level and then just present it to God God is behind all of it so to give you an example I'm not talking about my wife and my kids a lot it's because I like them but here's the example my son my son he's loved Legos as long as he could and he he liked Legos he just wasn't good enough with them to do anything and so you know we would build stuff together which really meant I would build it and I would let him put his finger on and I would press it down that kind of thing and so there were some times he wanted to hurry up and do it and and I just wasn't I was doing some and he'd be like dad can I just do it by myself I was like I don't think it's gonna turn out the same he was feeling himself I don't know he's like now can I just do it I was like okay go ahead and so you know the Batmobile and he came back and you know it looked like a bunch of black bricks stuffed on top of each other it did not look anything like the Batmobile and here's the thing he he started to feel good about it and he thought of keep going do it by himself and this is what we do with God but we say oh I think I'm at a point where I can go put my whole situation together and present it back to God not only standing that it's really God who was putting this thing together that he just bracele included you in the process of your growth I mean how foolish and proud can we be to think that we need Jesus to save our souls and then we could just take it from there I can sanctify myself I can grow myself I can make myself more holy you cannot we're still dependent on God for that we need God to work that kind of I got this mentality may seem like it works in other areas of my life that does not work with our pursuit of God listen to verse 11 he says this now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you and may the Lord calls you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone just as we do for you may he make your hearts blameless in holiness before I got and father at the coming about Lord Jesus with all his saints amen this is a prayer for them right so he's praying God will allow them to go visit them then he asked the guy but calls him to increase and overflow with love for one another right that God would cause them right God is the one working this within them and I want you to know that he's not just talking about their faith right overflow also with the love for one another I want you to know that faith is always side by side with love it's almost like faith and love are best friends who are inseparable whenever you see one you see the other right got the greatest commandment is to love God and to love neighbors so Paulus and he's praying they'll overflow with them Jesus is always the main example we have of love inscription and we want to look more and more like him so sometimes when we begin to gauge even our own maturity as disciples what our faith looks like we'll just look to particular activities like how did I go to this and did I read this but we really really look in our lives for love sometimes the questions you need to ask yourself to see whether or not you you're growing and how are you doing with Jesus is it just do I show up in a building sometimes it's do I actually love my neighbor do actually love my brothers and sisters do I seem to even be growing in affection for God right is God at work in my life in that way faith and love are always side-by-side your love for God shows up in a way that you love others and then the third thing he prays is this may he make your hearts blameless and holiness before I got and fathered their coming about Lord Jesus with all these things blameless and holiness with anybody when they just put it in you know like they dating profile or some dating that'd be like how would you describe yourself they'd be like sure blameless and holiness right no one would do that because that's a high standard blameless in holiness means there is no fault to be found in you there's nothing you can be blamed for he's talking about a perfect holiness you know isn't one thing for us to to seem blameless and holiness before our friends or our co-workers but he's saying may God make us blameless in holiness before I God and father at the coming of Jesus that is a high standard we're talking about the God in the universe who knows everything about you who knows what you're thinking right now who knows your thoughts your actions your paths the stuff you feel like you can hide from other people and he's saying that Jesus is gonna make us blameless and holiness before him again if you have tricked yourself into thinking that you can do this on your own I'm just not sure how God has to do this work in us I wonder if you ever think about your your faith in light of the second coming of Jesus that the Jesus is coming back and in the only way that we have this eternal joy to look forward to as if we're blameless in holiness before him but the good news is our future that that future spent blameless and wholeness before God is secured by what Jesus has already done in the past right that you're not trying to come up with some new strategy and plan to get yourself the perfect holiness and blameless you need to do what God has commanded you want to grow you in your face but at the end of the day our confidence is in the work of Jesus our confidence is in the power of Jesus so that some of us is hard for us to look for to have joy because all we see is the ways that we fall short and we see our flaws and we see our failures but I want to encourage you not to base your confidence mainly on yourself but in Jesus when the Bible talks about our boast being in Jesus our glory being in Jesus I confidence being in Jesus it's important to do with this Jesus is gonna work this in you right that he can finish the work that he begun in you blameless and holiness if you're here today and you know Jesus I want to encourage you not to let your current sin overshadow the power and promises of God don't let the fact that you're weak doubt the strength make you doubt the strength of Jesus just cuz you're weak doesn't mean that Jesus is and I promise you Jesus can do this work in your life and he's promised to if you're hearing you don't know Jesus I want to ask you whether or not you think that you can live a life that is blameless in holiness before God do you think that when the judge of the universe you stand before him and he knows everything about you do you think that you would come off as blameless and holiness that's a really high standard one that we cannot mean there's plenty of stuff that we should be blamed for even when we tried it there's ways we want to do better but we find ourselves falling short we try and fail you know we try to do better on our mistakes but we know we can't even if we could from this point forward live perfect we can't go back in time and erase our mistakes but I want you to know you can't have hope that you will be blameless in holiness before God before Jesus himself you might say I'm guilty of making a lot of mistakes I want you to know Jesus says I can make you blameless you might say oh I bet I've made a lot of people hurt but Jesus says I can make you blameless you might say I'm guilty of lies Jesus says I can make you blameless you might say I'm guilty of lust Jesus says I can make you blameless you might say I'm guilty of bitter Jesus says I can make you blameless you might say I'm guilty of unforgiveness Jesus says I can make you blameless put whatever you want to at the beginning of that sentence I want you to know at the end is this Jesus can make you blameless and not based on what you can do but what he's already done to Jesus on the cross paid for our sins and so if you don't know Jesus I want to invite you to begin this journey that begins with faith in Jesus and the perfect life he's already lived on our behalf if you don't know him I want to encourage you to talk to some folks at night about what it means to know Jesus so we're always asking that question then I'll be there yet when it comes to our faith in Jesus and I would say this no we're not there yet but we will be right we will reach the end and it'll be by God's power and God's strength and the anticipation knowing what Jesus is gonna do with us knowing what Jesus desire there's no more Jesus paid for should be part of what fuels our obedience we should be excited about the opportunity to obey Jesus knowing that we're getting a little foretaste of who God saved us to be I don't want the holiness to feel like a burden to you I want it to feel like an opportunity a goal something that God has in mind for you a beautiful dream and vision that you get to be who God called you to be I don't want you to feel like you'd be throwing away your years while you're young by being a holy and being obedient to Jesus instead you'll be throwing away your years if you don't pursue holiness and obedience to Jesus I want you to be who God created you to be right now and God has invited us and giving us the chance to do that just because you believe doesn't mean you've arrived by the power of Jesus you can let me pray father we thank you so much for for Jesus God we know that the only solid hope we have is Jesus God we know that I only boast is Jesus only glory is Jesus so father we thank you so much for Jesus father I pray for my friends here tonight who don't know Jesus Lord that you would help them to see him in a way they've never seen him before God that they would see him as a gracious loving kind powerful Savior while I pray if there's hesitation for what it means to let things go that we love the follow Jesus God you show us that Jesus is far greater Father I pray for my brothers and sisters in there who do know Jesus father that you would have helped the power of Jesus to be shown as stronger than our own weakness guy try to give us the grace to love each other enough to help each other to grow in our faith father we pray that you would be honored in our lives thank you so much for water Marc thank you so much for the porch father we pray you continue to work in them father we pray you continue to glorify yourself in them and God we pray they would care for these folks well yes in the name of your son Jesus amen you guys can stay staying in for a second I am Matt what a tree dude is awesome so encouraging aye-aye-aye I don't know if it's just women in general or just have the same coincidental thing that I I also married a serial plant killer and as I was listening that story and I was thinking about just the truth with just that idea of the fake plant I couldn't help but think that there are some of you in the room that you think you have a living faith and just like you could go into someone's house and you see a plant you're like is that real or not it you get a little closer and you see and you're like oh that's a fake plant some of you and I hope you hear this with his gentle of a way as I can say it and as loving as I can say you think you have a real faith and you have a fake fake and the reason it stays the same just like year after year after year if you see a fake plant never changes it's not growing it's not changing at all the reason that your faith you're not seeing any growth than need change instead of it's because you have a real faith and maybe that's because you never actually accepted the free gift that God offers you maybe it's because you just grew up in church some of you honestly you've given up on the church and you've given up with Jesus and you grew up in the church you grew up in you're like I've been there wouldn't youth camera to try to open those things and then you know it just didn't work and so you walked away and you walked into the world and you step back into places that liked it some places like this tonight and there's scars in your back rear view mirror and you hear messages like this you know like dude I feel like I've tried it before and it didn't work and the truth is you never tried it to begin with you never accepted that free gift that God offers it because it's not just a one-time thing it's a relationship day after day after day let me be abundantly clear you are not saved by anything that you do you are saved by in a moment placing your faith in the object of Jesus the savior of the world and his death and resurrection on a cross as what saves us and that gives us access to have a relationship going forward and to have a living faith but some of you need to hear me clearly as lovingly as I can say it you do not have a real faith you have a fake faith and the problem is not Jesus and it's not the church and it's not Christianity it's that you've never tried those things and you never stepped into the relationship that God wants you to experience day after day not because he's angry or disappointed or anything other than crazy in love with you and tonight is your night man and the god of the universe brought an incredibly gifted friend and colabor in Christ to come and share that message to you because he didn't want you wake up and spend another day without experience a real living growing so that's you inside of this room there's gonna be a team of volunteers it'll be down front here right after the message we would love to pray with you we'd love to talk with you they'll be volunteers that are wearing shirts just like this all throughout the lobby I had to make sure that I'm wearing this shirt right now all throughout the lobby that would love to talk with you if you're just walking through a season where you're walking through the valley of the shadow of job loss or heartbreak or a loved one dying and we can just pray with you answer questions you may be at maybe you're just wrestling with what you know who is Jesus in general anything we can do to serve you if you want to just know what the best tacos in town we'd love to talk to you anything that we can do to provide food we will have men and women that will be down here and spread all throughout they love to connect with you in addition to that there's something called first step where if you were interested in making this place that can feel so big and we know that you walk in here and it feels like overwhelming and it seems like everyone knows each other and they've all got the secret handshake down this is just not the case our heart is to make this place that feels big feel really really small and hope connected with other people who you were checking in on just like you said and who can check in on you and so one of the ways we do that is every month or so we offer something called first step if you want to take the first step and get it connected here you can go right outside of these doors right here and you can get plugged into or you be part of something called first step of finding out what it looks like to take your first step and get plugged in here answer questions here's some of the vision and values of water mark in addition to that we are so just grateful for trip being here he will also be joining us at awaken and hope that you will be joining us there as well there are limited there already been thousands of tickets sold and so we want everyone in this room and really everyone who wants to be there to be there and so I would take advantage of that opportunity go to awaken dot life can we give it up one more time for our friend trip all Concord and that is it we love you guys so much go in peace to love sir the law this week

Channel: The Porch

Views: 22,157

Rating: 4.9724898 out of 5

Keywords: the, porch, dallas, watermark, community, church, young, adults, christian, christianity, ministry, movement, jp, todd, wagner, david, marvin, jonathan, fort, worth, faith, sermon, dating, truth, bible, advice, biblical, counsel, Trip, Lee, awaken, work, in, progress, ups, downs, perservere, concord

Id: MVlbMlzknzk

Length: 41min 32sec (2492 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 23 2019