Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] All right. Good morning.
[00:00:06] Good morning. My name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the village church. And welcome to week two in our series in two, Peter, you can open up to two Peter, chapter one, verse five. That's where we're going to start in a few minutes. I remember when I was a kid sincerely worried that I was going to lose my salvation or that my salvation was not real. And I remember when I was very young and I expressed this concern to my mom, and I don't remember her exact quote, but I remember the sentiment. And as a young boy, here's what my mom said to me. Ish.
[00:00:48] People who aren't saved don't ask that question.
[00:00:53] The fact that you're even concerned tells me that your salvation is real. And so God gave me a gift in that moment, for the rest of my life, that question was resolved.
[00:01:07] And when I sit down with junior high students and I sit down with people maybe newer to the faith or people struggling, I literally just give them the gift of what my mother gave to me. Now, fast forward three decades later. I'm laying down with my seven year old at the time, and her mind is spinning. And I said to her, you look worried. What are you thinking about? And she was honestly so sweet and so honest. And she says, I'm afraid that I'm going to hell.
[00:01:36] And I remember giving her the exact same answer that my mom gave to me.
[00:01:42] Honey, people who aren't saved don't ask that question.
[00:01:46] They don't have these concerns. The fact that you're even concerned tells me that your salvation is real. Now, I have the privilege to talk with a whole bunch of people about faith, about deep things. Goes with the territory. And one of the things that I've learned is that there are a whole bunch of people who think they're going to heaven but have not actually believed in the gospel. We might even call them cultural christians or false christians. Now, I'm going to give you a proverb. It's a statement that is generally, generally true most of the time. There are always exceptions to this. But over and over again, I want to share with you a sentiment, a proverb, a general truth that I have found about false christians.
[00:02:30] False christians don't usually worry about their salvation.
[00:02:36] Every once in a while, you're going to find one who does. But like vast majority of the time, in fact, the deeper I dig, you'll hear sentiments like this. How much do you even think about God on a daily basis?
[00:02:49] Comes up every once in a while. Maybe when I lay my head down at night, but generally probably not a ton. Like, I feel guilty from growing up, maybe catholic or something, that I should probably be at church on Saturday or Sunday. But it kind of doesn't really intrude my life a lot. Maybe I'm around my mom and dad and they keep talking about spiritual things, but like on my own, like, it's just not really a thought that comes up a lot. I found this to be really consistently true when I talk to most people who end up being false christians or who inevitably end up falling away from the faith and rejecting Jesus totally. Now I've learned that this struggle with salvation, it is not just for new christians, it is not just for kids. In fact, there are people who've been walking with the Lord for decades after decade after decade, and this is still a real struggle for them. In fact, this is such a big struggle, it goes back millennia. The apostle John, almost 2000 years ago, he writes to his church in one John 513, he says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know you have eternal life. I write these things that you may know that you have eternal life.
[00:04:05] Why? Because from the very beginning there has been assault on the Christian's heart and mind to get you to doubt the reality of what God has done inside of you. Why would the evil one be invested in taking real, true, genuine believers and making them doubt their salvation? Well, because doubt stops a Christian dead in their tracks.
[00:04:28] Because doubt inevitably makes you disconnect. The first thing you disconnect from is going to be generally God, and then it's going to be your church, and then it's going to be your christian friends. This is kind of the nature of doubt that isn't dealt with. Now, let's be straight for a moment. Does every Christian eventually deal with doubt? Yeah, that's fine.
[00:04:48] But what happens when doubt gets undealt with and it just grows as it creates an inevitable disconnection? And this is not what God wants for you. This is what the evil one wants for you. He wants you disconnected from God, he wants you disconnected from church, and he wants you disconnected from solid believers. So let's kind of take a moment, and I want to identify the top sources of salvation insecurity. You guys ready for this? We're going to be a little blunt, as we usually are, and I want you to think about do any of these apply to you as you think about the source of maybe your doubting your salvation?
[00:05:23] All right, number one, some of you grew up with a, quote, free will theology.
[00:05:29] Growing up, maybe you grew up going to what's called a quote, free will baptist church, or you grew up going to a united Methodist church. And these churches hyper emphasized free will. Free will. Free will. I have a whole separate sermon on what free will is and is not in scripture. But here's kind of how the teaching goes.
[00:05:51] If my salvation was 100% my free will, then I can use my free will to unchoose him. And so this idea is, like, in your brain and in your heart. And so what that provides is insecurity with your salvation. All right, here's number two. Some of us, in fact, many of us grew up with a catholic background. And so in catholic theology, you have venial sins which are bad but not that bad. And then you have mortal sins. And if you actually participate in a mortal sin in catholic theology, your salvation is undone in that moment.
[00:06:33] And so you live with this, like, kind of insecurity. And then there's this subdoctrine of purgatory, which I have to say is never talked about, referenced or inferenced in the Bible, ever, that being said. And so you grew up with this idea. Well, I might not go to hell, but how many millennia am I going to have to spend in purgatory being tormented and punished for my sins because what Christ did on the cross wasn't enough? And now I need to add to that, right? And so this insecurity, it's not uncommon that there's something called catholic guilt. And most every ex Catholic I know deals with catholic guilt for a very long time, if not the rest of their lives. It is this doubt. What if. What if I need to be part of the catholic church? What if I need to do all these things? What if I need to go through the rituals? What if I need to? And the what if kind of comes back. But we don't live by the what ifs, do we? We live by the word of God. Number three, this is the God just wants me to be happy deception. And this idea that, like, if your life is hard and it's hard for a long time, somebody starts getting upset and they're like, wait a minute, God, you're my heavenly father.
[00:07:44] Dads, good dads, are supposed to want the best for their kids.
[00:07:49] Your job is to make me happy, healthy and wealthy. And then if you don't do that, what we find in this delusion is that people are like, wait a minute, God, it's your job to do this. And then actually, what happens if you go to some prosperity churches if you're not experiencing health, happiness and wealth? Some of them will even challenge you to say, well, maybe you're not a Christian. Because if you were, and not just maybe, God is actually showing you that your salvation isn't real. All right, number four, mental, physical, or hormonal struggles. And when any of these are not functioning well, our mind, our emotions, our anxieties, our stress, they can run amok. Now, do not kick your spouse next to you as an amen to that.
[00:08:36] And two words haunt your brain when these things are not regulated.
[00:08:42] What? What if? What if?
[00:08:46] And then it cycles, what if? What if I'm. What if? What if I'm not safe? Why can't I get control of this? If God was in me, why are my emotions not aligning with what's supposed to be happening? Number five, intrusive thoughts out of nowhere, not from mental or hormonal or emotional struggles, but just these intrusive thoughts. And can we just summarize the intrusive thoughts in two words? You're not gonna be surprised what they are.
[00:09:13] What if, what if, what if I'm not saved?
[00:09:18] Number six, demonic influence.
[00:09:21] The demonic realm does have the power to influence our minds sometimes. This does look like intrusive thoughts. In those moments, I'm like, I rebuke you, Satan, in the name of Jesus. Get out of my brain. Get out of my life. Get out of my sphere. Like, happily, pray audibly out loud.
[00:09:37] Sometimes the demonic realm will exploit mental, physical, or hormonal struggles. Sometimes. I mean, the demonic realm is more than happy to bring a false teacher who kind provides that unique teaching that you are personally uniquely susceptible to. Like, this is the thing.
[00:09:56] And finally, number seven, false teachers, which, in the context of two, Peter is what the evil one is using to cast doubt over Peter's churches.
[00:10:08] And the doubt sort of looks like this for them in that time. It looks like this. There's this thing called gnosticism. G n o s t I c I s m. I think I got it right. But it starts with a g, not an n. That's the important part. There's a secret gnosis. Gnosis like gnocchi, but gnosis knowledge that if you don't have this knowledge, you might not be saved. And so these false teachers are coming into the church and they're saying, you don't have the gnosis, you don't have it. I don't know if you're really saved. You need the gnosis, the secret knowledge in order to be saved. And people are struggling with this.
[00:10:43] What happens if you have two or three or more of these things?
[00:10:48] You're gonna have a person that is struggling to believe the reality and the truthfulness of what God did in their heart when they trusted in Christ.
[00:10:57] And the answer is not, how are you so immature? I've never met anybody who's like, I would like to choose insecurity. I would like to walk around with crippling anxiety. And what if, and what if, and what if I would really like to open up my life to demonic influence and then have him bring false teachers into my life and then believe these false teachers so I can live a lie? Like, I've never met anybody who chooses these.
[00:11:16] And when these things accrue, like, it's a deep struggle. And my prayer is that even a sermon like this is a blessing to you. I pray that every one of us, if you have really, truly trusted in Christ, if you are actually a real Christian, you'll walk out of these doors with security and confidence in what God has done in your heart and life, despite what it feels like. And if you are a false Christian, my prayer is that this sermon shakes you to the core and that you are willing to take a next step so that you and God can be really, truly, factually reconciled to each other forever.
[00:11:51] If your salvation is real. The biblical authors, God himself does not want you to experience insecurity or anxiety, but confidence.
[00:12:01] All right. Second Peter, chapter one, verse five through eleven. What we're going to do is we're going to work through this passage backwards. Why? I think you'll see why when we get to the end. So I'm going to start with verses ten to eleven. Then we're going to go to verse nine. Then we're going to go to verse eight. And then we'll end with verses five to seven. So let's start in two. Peter, chapter one, verse ten.
[00:12:24] Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and your election.
[00:12:35] Okay, so false teachers are causing the people in Peter's churches to doubt their calling and their election. These are synonyms, if you will, in this context for salvation. And so Peter wants his church to know you didn't call God first. He called you. You didn't elect God. He elected you. Got it? But these calling in this election, it's a synonym for salvation. And so I want you to hear kind of the point here. He teaches in verse ten that there are things christians can be diligent to do. That if you do them will confirm the reality of your salvation. Do you guys want to know what those things are? I'm not going to tell you yet. All right.
[00:13:17] He goes on verse ten to bring a bit more clarity to these salvation confirming things.
[00:13:22] If you practice these qualities, you're asking what qualities we'll get there.
[00:13:28] You will never fall. So there are qualities that if we practice them diligently, we will never fall. And here's the deal. To fall in this context, here's what it means. It means to deny Jesus in the moment of persecution and to prove yourself not a real christian. Remember what Jesus said to Peter? If you deny me before men, I'll deny you before my father.
[00:13:55] He's referencing this here.
[00:13:58] And so here's what happened. These people would be in the face of persecution, and their persecutors would say, deny Jesus or die. And they would go, okay, deny Jesus. And in that moment, they're proving the reality of their salvation. And Peter's like, listen, there are qualities that if you are able to do them, if you are diligent to do them, you don't even have to worry about it. You can walk into that moment of persecution confidential, that you are going to stand up for Jesus because what he has done in your heart is real and true. I want to know what these qualities are. Verse eleven explains more. For in this way, not falling, but succeeding by dying for Jesus, because this is their context, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Okay, so what are the qualities that if I'm diligent to practice, will give me the confidence that if I face death for Jesus, I won't give up. And if I practice them, will give me, like, this internal confidence that this salvation, what God did in my life, it's not fake, but it's real. Let's go back to verse nine.
[00:15:04] Talks about these yet to be named qualities. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he's blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. So whatever these qualities are, apparently to not practice them makes us nearsighted fools.
[00:15:28] And whatever these qualities are, if you don't practice them or they're not in your life, you should step back and ask, lord, am I really a true Christian?
[00:15:43] Okay, so verse eight. Now let's go back a little further. Verse eight tells us more about practicing these qualities. How many of you have jumped ahead of your reading already? You're like, I can't wait. We have to know.
[00:15:54] For if these qualities are yours. I want you to watch this next word. This is really important.
[00:16:02] And are, what is it?
[00:16:04] Increasing. They keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So verse eight tells us that if we're not practicing these things diligently, we're not just nearsighted fools, but we're also unable to be effective and fruitful for the kingdom of God. If you're a true believer, right? And I look at you and I say, do you want to be effectful and fruitful for the kingdom of God? You're going to go, yeah, that would actually be really great. Okay. Well, there are qualities that, if you avoid them, is going to make you ineffective and unfruitful. And then the net result is you should step back and say, I actually don't even know if I'm a real Christian. Well, I want to know what these things are.
[00:16:42] We go back to verse five. Now, verse five tells us one more detail about these qualities.
[00:16:48] He says this for this very reason.
[00:16:51] Make every effort to supplement your faith with. He's going to talk about the qualities, but here's what I need you to see.
[00:16:58] These qualities are supplements.
[00:17:02] They are not the foundation.
[00:17:06] You are not saved by these qualities.
[00:17:10] You will be effective. You will be fruitful, and you can have confidence in your salvation, but these qualities will not save you. They are the effect and not the cause. The cause of your salvation is faith, not works. Faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. And so he goes out of his way to say everything. I'm about to tell you. All of these qualities, they are supplements. They are not the source of your salvation.
[00:17:39] What are the stinking qualities?
[00:17:43] So I'm gonna share with you these qualities, and then rather than kind of explain all the nuances, I'm gonna ask you a question after each one, and I think the question is gonna get to the heart of the quality.
[00:17:55] Seven qualities true christians practice. Quality number one, he says, is virtue.
[00:18:02] You could translate this as moral excellence.
[00:18:07] Am I increasingly doing what I want or what is right?
[00:18:16] Can I just remind you of what he said in verse eight?
[00:18:19] He said, if these qualities are yours and are increasing, if you failed miserably this week, can you still be a Christian? The answer, everybody is yes. The point is, what is your trajectory? The point of all of these virtues is not perfection, but trajectory.
[00:18:47] Is it trending in a general direction? Up and to the right, God willing.
[00:18:53] Quality number two, knowledge. This is actually the word gnosis. Gnosis.
[00:19:00] This knowledge is knowledge from God's word, knowledge of truth and reality. Not a secret knowledge. They're making it public for the whole world. Am I increasing in true knowledge of God through his. Well, number one, good job you're here. But as you kind of look back over the trajectory of your life, are you noticing that your knowledge of who God is through his word is trending up and to the right? What is your trajectory? Here's what I'm not asking. I'm not asking if you're the smartest person in your family. I'm not asking if you're the smartest person in your marriage. I'm not asking if you're the smartest person in your small group or your women's group or your men's group, your community group or your christian group, whatever it is.
[00:19:39] I am asking, are you increasing in the knowledge of God through his word? Quality number three, self control. In the Greek, this means profoundly to control oneself.
[00:19:54] Am I increasingly saying no to my old sins?
[00:20:00] And by the way, most of you know exactly what your old sins are.
[00:20:05] I didn't ask, have you struggled recently with your old sins?
[00:20:11] I didn't ask, did you fall back into your old sins?
[00:20:16] What I'm asking is about trajectory.
[00:20:19] Am I increasingly saying no to my old sins? Quality number four is steadfastness, sometimes translated as perseverance.
[00:20:29] When life gets hard, do I get up faster and blame God less?
[00:20:35] For some of you, if you remember when you were younger in the faith, when life would get hard, you'd be the first one to wag your finger at God. And then that pastor would preach a sermon and say, it's okay to get angry at God. God can take your anger, yell at God, and now you realize that that is foolishness.
[00:20:50] And so more and more you're realizing, like, I'm gonna. I get up faster and I'm blaming God less for the things other people do and for the dumb stuff that I do.
[00:21:02] I'm not asking, are you still struggling with why God allows things? I still struggle with why God allows certain things. I'm asking, do you get up faster and do you blame God less? I'm asking about your trajectory.
[00:21:16] Quality number five is godliness. This actually could be translated as religion as well.
[00:21:23] Am I practicing my faith more and more? I'm not asking if you're the most disciplined person in the room. Discipline never got us salvation, did it ever?
[00:21:34] It did bear fruitfulness, though, if we did it for Christ.
[00:21:38] I'm not asking if you are by nature disciplined.
[00:21:42] What I am asking is that, are you practicing your faith more and more. I gotta come back to this because as I talk to people who are false christians or cultural christians, they legitimately will say, I actually don't think about God a whole lot.
[00:21:57] And so if the Holy Spirit is in you, like, he's just gonna kind of be in the back of your brain on a regular basis, and you can quench him for a while. But does he like to be put up with being quenched? Not really.
[00:22:07] He'll overcome you.
[00:22:10] Quality number six. This is gonna make some of you struggle. Brotherly affection. This is Philadelphia. Or brotherly love or family. Love is my physical body increasingly affectionate to believers because my heart is warm to them. By the way, your body follows your heart. You think about first century, the holy kiss. There was a natural affection within the people of God. Affection is a good thing. Now, I'm not asking if you're an extrovert.
[00:22:41] In fact, I'm not even asking you to overcome your germophobia.
[00:22:46] I am asking you about your trajectory.
[00:22:50] Is your heart growing warmer to the people of God, to the point where your actual body follows?
[00:22:58] And quality number seven is love. This is agape love, the highest love.
[00:23:04] Am I tangibly serving and loving my local church?
[00:23:10] I'm not asking if you've had a really hard season and you had to pull back, but you have every intention of. Of reengaging. I'm not asking if it's been perfect. I'm just asking, when you look at the trajectory of your engagement with the body of Christ, your local church family, are you seeing an actual on the ground love and service for them?
[00:23:31] So let's read two. Peter 1511. But I'm going to do it from beginning to end. This time, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self control, and self control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness. And godliness with brotherly affection. And brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and your election.
[00:24:21] For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall for in this way, practicing these qualities, there will be richly provided for you, an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
[00:24:37] Peter wants you to confirm your calling and your election. And one of the things I love about Peter is that he got all of his best ideas. From who?
[00:24:47] Jesus.
[00:24:49] And he knew what it was like to be with Jesus and to be completely secure. And Jesus love for him despite his wicked, evil sin, he understood what it meant to be a man on a trajectory, but he was also a man of failure.
[00:25:07] And to know that even in the midst of his failure, when he was in the presence of Jesus, Jesus love for him was secure. Because as Jesus said to him in the first place, Peter, you didn't choose me. I chose you and appointed you to go bear much fruit.
[00:25:20] He understood that his salvation did begin with him, and it doesn't end with him. It began with Jesus. He makes a promise. And when jesus saves somebody, Jesus saves somebody.
[00:25:30] John 1028. It might be one of the most important verses in the entire Bible for newer christians, high anxiety Christians, or untrained christians. Jesus says, I give them eternal life and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. Three statements, three promises, three divine commitments to every single person who says to God, I'm sorry, I believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. And you mean it. Promise number one, eternal life.
[00:26:02] Jesus promises everyone who believes your eternal life begins now, and it cannot stop because it's eternal.
[00:26:11] Something that is by nature eternal cannot be temporary. Does that make sense? Number two. Promise number two. They will never perish.
[00:26:21] Jesus promises every person who believes, you will never experience my wrath on your body and soul in hell. It's impossible. Why? Because he said so.
[00:26:34] Promise number three, no one will snatch them out of my hands. If you have trusted in Christ, jesus has you now and forever.
[00:26:44] Nothing can undo that, not even you. But he's not done. In verse 29, Jesus goes on, he says, my father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. What I appreciate about jesus is this isn't the only time he teaches this multiple times. Here's another. John 639.
[00:27:06] This is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, but raise it up on the last day. Verse 40. For this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the son and believes in should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. Are there any exceptions if a person is truly trusted in Christ? Are there any exceptions where he oh, I lost that one. No, no one is lost. 100% are found. If your salvation is real, you will be in heaven, not because you were good enough, but because Jesus is a promise keeper. I will never understand why there are some pastors who are like. They want every single person to not know that they are saved until the day they are dead and they meet Jesus. And they are adamant about making sure every believer on the planet is insecure about their salvation. Good news. No one, not even you, has the power to undo what God has done in you. And the New Testament authors want their readers to know this. So can we just go on a little journey for a moment? Through a handful of biblical texts? I'm gonna fly. References are there.
[00:28:14] Romans 816. The spirit, Paul says himself, bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. The Holy Spirit is committed to you knowing that you are a true child of God. Later, Romans 829 and 30.
[00:28:31] For those whom he God foreknew, he also predestined. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.
[00:28:43] You can go back and read this text another time. But every person in this text that is foreknown is predestined. And every person that is predestined is called. Not a single one was lost. And every person that was called was justified, 100%. None lost. Every person that was justified will be glorified. None will be lost. Your salvation began in eternity past and it will culminate in eternity future. And if you are saved, nothing can get you off that track. Good luck trying. It's impossible.
[00:29:11] Paul says it this way to the Philippians in chapter one, verse six. I am sure of this. He says that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
[00:29:25] He says it this way to the Corinthians in chapter one, verse seven and eight. Our Lord Jesus Christ will sustain you to the end, guiltless, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. The author of Hebrews chapter seven, verse 25, says this. He is able to save to the uttermost, fully, completely and forever those who draw near to God through him. I'll just keep going here. First, Peter, one five. Saint Peter. But earlier book, by God's power, you are being guarded. Oh, no, I'm guarding you, but I lost one. No, that is not how it works. You're being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Guys, no one, not even you, has the power to undo what God has done in you. Praise God, because a lot of us have tried.
[00:30:14] Why are the New Testament authors obsessed with this?
[00:30:18] Because they know personally what it means to fail in the presence of Jesus and to experience unconditional love and security.
[00:30:28] Because their relationship with Jesus began with Jesus and it doesn't end by their bad behavior.
[00:30:35] And they want their people that they shepherd. These pastors want their people if they are really, truly christians that have the same security.
[00:30:46] So let's make this very practical and personal. Two, so whats number one, examine yourself.
[00:30:55] Two. Corinthians 13 five, very powerful text. Paul says, examine yourselves to see whether you were in the faith. Is it okay to take stock every once in a while and say, is this thing real? Yeah, he says, test yourselves.
[00:31:11] Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you in this last sentence, man? Unless indeed you fail to meet the test and then he doesn't give them a test.
[00:31:23] How frustrating. What's the test? I want to share with you the rubric that I use with junior high students, and I have found it works for adults as well.
[00:31:33] How do I know if I'm saved? Four questions.
[00:31:36] Do I believe the gospel?
[00:31:39] Because if you don't believe the gospel, you're not saved. It's that simple.
[00:31:43] Do you believe that you're a sinner and you've sinned against the holy God? Do you believe that Jesus is God? Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins in your place, that he was raised again from the dead?
[00:31:55] Do you believe that you can never earn salvation by accruing a bunch of good works, but it is only ever by faith in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that were saved. If you hear that and you go, yep, I'm on the same page, this is a really good start.
[00:32:09] Number two, do I care if I'm saved?
[00:32:14] As we said earlier, people who aren't saved almost never actually care.
[00:32:20] Number three, do I love God?
[00:32:26] People who are not truly saved, the vast majority rarely think about God.
[00:32:34] And number four, what is my trajectory?
[00:32:37] I'm not asking about perfection. I'm asking about trajectory.
[00:32:42] Here's the challenge with trajectory is that we often take a snapshot of our last day, week, or month, and trajectories are better seen over much longer periods of time. I would like to illustrate this by talking about something that I want to say to you. I am not advocating that you go invest in what I'm about to talk about. Okay. Amen.
[00:33:09] This is an illustration. Okay. That's what this is, but a very helpful one.
[00:33:14] If you've been watching bitcoin you might be filled with great anxiety on the trustworthiness of this investment. Let me show you bitcoin on Friday, by the way, red equals bad. Okay?
[00:33:29] Now, if I were to ask you, is this a good investment? You just look at the red, and you'd be like, not good. And some of you, on Friday, it was a bad day for you.
[00:33:39] And if someone were to ask, like, how would anybody know you're a Christian? By looking at your behavior on Friday, they go, we wouldn't. But I'm not going to look at a trajectory by pulling out your one day and your worst moment. Amen.
[00:33:50] Well, let's look at bitcoin over the last week. Some of you had a bad week. So did bitcoin.
[00:33:56] You look at this and you're like, that was my week. Pretty rebellious, unrepentant, a lot of broken relationships. Things aren't really going well in my life right now.
[00:34:04] I'm not looking at your worst week. To find the trajectory of your life, let's pull back a little further. Let's go to the last month green. Good. I like that. Some of you, this is deeply personal because you're like, that's. I'm wealthier.
[00:34:18] And right now, you are deeply relating to this illustration. Some of you, not so much, but, like, even a month, guys, it's really hard to see a long trajectory over the period of a month. So let's pull back. Let's look at six months.
[00:34:33] Oh, interesting.
[00:34:35] That's doing better.
[00:34:37] Okay, but even six months, guys, have any of you had really bad six month periods of time? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Yep. Good. Let's look at a year.
[00:34:47] Click one here.
[00:34:50] Boom.
[00:34:53] Okay, guys, that's pretty great.
[00:34:57] But I think when you get to the decade long approach, it's a much, much more realistic picture of the christian life. Like, look at this full decade, guys.
[00:35:08] You're growing. You're growing. And then most people have this exponential leap of growth, followed by seasons of deep valleys and struggles. But even your valley, it's higher than you were at the beginning.
[00:35:21] And it's striking when you step back and you just look at this over the long haul, and you're like, wait a minute. Friday does not. It's not a good day to look at for trajectories, nor is last week. And honestly, anybody can have a good month. I'm looking at this over the long haul.
[00:35:37] And again, Jesus is a far better investment than anything I could ever show you in a stock market, because we have no idea what that thing is going to do. There are factors at play that we don't even understand. I don't particularly, but if I want to use this as an analogy and say, overall, for the last ten years, solid, guys, be careful which snapshot of your life you pull out to. Look at your trajectory, look at the long haul. Some of you, you're too young in the faith to kind of see it. It's up and it's down. You're really wrestling through a lot of stuff, guys. What a beautiful thing that you are wrestling.
[00:36:13] That is awesome. You are fighting the old man. You are putting to death the old man. It is awesome.
[00:36:21] Melasa, what is this? Be biblical and clear headed. As to why people fall away from the faith, a common question I've received many times. If you can't lose your salvation, then why do people fall away?
[00:36:33] I mean, the simple answer is because they weren't actually real christians in the first place, and then you should be thinking to yourself, well, then, what made them become a Christian? I want to give you just four high levels.
[00:36:44] Number one, people have become christians because they felt pressured to become a Christian. Pressure from their church, their parents, their friends.
[00:36:53] Pressure is not really a good motivation. If I go to you and say, I'm sorry, I hurt you, and you say, why? Well, everybody pressured me to do it. It's not exactly sincere. Number two, because they tried to become a Christian by good works. And again, this good work theology is plaguing America. And half of you are like, here he goes again. He's going to say it. I am. Good people don't go to heaven. Forgiven people do. You'll never be good enough. It's not impossible. It's impossible. Stop it. Stop it. It will not work. Your baptism will not work. Your good works won't work. Your generosity won't work. Your ministry won't work. It's all going to fall short. All you have is faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
[00:37:33] But there are people all over America thinking they're going to heaven because they're not as bad as Hitler.
[00:37:39] Number three, because they believe for the wrong reason.
[00:37:44] There are a lot of bad reasons people believe in Jesus. Number one is to keep the guy or the girl.
[00:37:51] Number two is to get their parents off their back.
[00:37:55] Number three, because they're just afraid of hell. When you're 4567 and eight years old, fear and motivation like that can be a good catalyst to genuine faith. But as you kind of grow up, like, imagine you're sitting there with your husband or your wife, you're on your wedding day and the pastor looks at you and says, why do you want to marry this person? I'm petrified of being married to somebody else. I'm scared of the alternative.
[00:38:16] No wife wants to hear that on her wedding day. And somehow we're like, well, God has to deal with it because I'm great. Okay, number four. Because they never actually made a profession of faith. This is the easiest one to rectify, by the way, the amount of people who think they're going heaven because they're baptized as an infant or because they grew up in a certain religion or because they went to church. And the amount of people who have never actually looked at God and said, you and me, this relationship, I have sinned against you, you and I am sorry. Will you forgive me? It's shocking.
[00:38:46] It's shocking.
[00:38:48] We have done unbelievable harm to God, and somehow we think we don't have to look him in the face and say sorry. That somehow because of our great inherent awesomeness, that he is obligated to forgive us. Well, you're God. You have to forgive me. No, he does not.
[00:39:03] He has promised that anybody who comes to him and says, I'm sorry, I believe in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. If you're sincere about that, his promise, done easy, I will forgive you. But he does not owe forgiveness to anybody who doesn't ask it. And so maybe you're here and you're like, oh, no, I have never told God I'm sorry. The easiest one to fix right here, right now, your head, your heart, you can talk to God and say, I am sorry, I have sinned against you. Please forgive me. And his promise is that if that is sincere, he will 100%, once for all and forever forgive you. Amen. Village church. I want to pray for us, but my simple prayer is, Father, would you allow everyone in this room who has truly been saved to walk out with greater great confidence that they might know that they are saved not because of their good behavior or bad behavior, but as they step back and they look at this, they believe the gospel, they care, they love you, and they see the trajectory of your work in their life. Lord, for those who have never trusted in Christ, Father, may you shake them to the core.
[00:40:12] May you cause great anxiety so that they might not be able to stop until they have come to you and trusted in Jesus Christ for the very first real time.
[00:40:24] Lord, we love you, and I thank you that we get to celebrate in communion that our salvation is not rooted in good works, but rooted in Christ. Who died for our sins was raised from the dead. We love you and we cannot wait to celebrate with you in communion and in worship. And to worship you for all of eternity. We ask and we pray and we do all of this in Jesus name. Amen. Ville church. Amen. Amen.
