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Welcome to Mariners Church Weekend Message Podcast. Inspiring people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world. Discover your purpose and get connected by visiting MarinersChurch.org or click the link in the show notes. Good morning, church. It's so great to be with you today. Hey, quick show of hands. How many of us were watching the big football game today? Okay. Okay. We're gonna. We're gonna have some fun right now. On the count of three, I want you to shout. I want you to be obnoxious. I want you to shout out the team that you are rooting for. And by the way, if you're here and you're like, what football game? Just say nobody. Just say nobody. Loudly. On the count of three. One. That was fun. Welcome to church. If you're asking, well, who are you rooting for? I want you to know that I have learned. I have been informed by my beautiful and wonderful wife, Angie, that our family, we will be rooting for the Chiefs. I know. Yeah. And I just divided half the church. Okay. And the reason why is because she's a huge fan of this incredible quarterback, incredible player, so much talent, gift by the name of Taylor Swift. And so here we go. I'm going to shake it off. We're going to have some fun. Okay, well, I want to invite you right now to imagine with me the following scenarios. Imagine with me a recent high school grad. She just finished high school, and she is now stepping onto the college campus. She's so excited about growing her faith. She grew a ton during her high school years, and so she's excited to get connected with the campus ministry and really learn more about Jesus. But before you know it, she slowly starts to disengage with the things of God. In fact, she kind of gets caught up in the party scene and she starts to make decisions that she never thought she would ever make in college. In fact, the people back home, they don't even recognize her anymore. What happened? Is she still following Jesus? Or has she lost her. Her salvation? Or imagine with me a father who is heartbroken over his now relationship with his adult son. His memory of his son growing up was his son loved church. In fact, they served together in the same ministry. But along the way, something happened. Not only did he disengage with the things of God, he actually began to grow antagonistic to the faith that he once loved. And now this father feels like he's caught in a catch 22 every family gathering. He feels like he's walking on eggshell, afraid that if he brings up Jesus or the church, he's not going to be able to see his grandkids anymore. Or imagine that one day you receive that text message and it reads, hey, have you heard about so and so? And they go on to share about that influential author or that musician, your former small group leader, maybe even a pastor who has publicly announced that they are no longer following Jesus. They used to lead you to the things of God and now they seem to have walked away from God. Were they, were they even a Christian to begin with? What happened? And the reality is you probably don't have to imagine these scenarios. They probably hit close to home. It does for me. In fact, these three scenarios are real life scenarios that I personally have walked through up close in proximity on my own. In fact, that's some of us this morning. Like right now, you are wondering if your faith is still in existence. You may be here this morning going, can I even call myself a Christian anymore? Can a Christian lose their salvation? Now, some of us, especially if you've grown up in the Christian faith, you are doing everything you can right now with all your might to, to not shout out at the top of your lungs, no, of course a Christian can't lose their salvation. And the reason why is because maybe you grew up in a certain church with a certain theological persuasion. Like for some of us, you grew up in a certain Christian tradition that taught something called eternal security. Eternal security, where once you trust Jesus, I mean, you are locked in, my friend, forever into eternity. Others of us, you grew up in a different Christian faith tradition, taught the same thing, but they called it the perseverance of the saints. I see some of you nodding. That rings a bell. This is this idea that you were once sinful, but once you trusted Jesus, you are now set apart as a saint and you're gonna persevere into glory. Others of us are like, I've never heard any of these terms. I just had a really unique youth pastor who wore unique Christian shirts all the time like this. And he reminded us all the time that once saved, always saved some of us. You had that youth pastor, right? And so there's a temptation for us to go, why should we even take this question seriously? We should take this question seriously. Why? Because others of us around us are taking that question seriously. For one, there may be some of you here who you are sincere in following Jesus, you are intellectual and you believe from the scriptures that, that a Christian can lose their salvation. And we want you to know we respect you so much and we're so glad and Honored to worship alongside you. And then there's others around us who you're asking that for yourself nervously or for a family member. Can I lose my salvation? Have I already lost it? And so we should take this question seriously. Can a Christian lose their salvation? Well, we're gonna answer this today by looking at the Scriptures, and we're not gonna just look at any portion of Scripture. We're going to see what Jesus has to say. And here's why. I think he has something to say about it, right? I mean, think about it. Who achieved salvation for us? Who accomplished salvation? Jesus did. And think about the great lengths that Jesus went to accomplish your salvation. I mean, for one, we know he's the Creator. He made everything, he created everything to have relationship with him. He's the Creator. And yet, even though he's the Creator because sin broke apart everything, he stepped down into humanity, right? He stepped down in humility and humanity and came to our earth as a baby. And if that wasn't enough, he then chose the life of a servant. He healed. He had compassion. He washed the feet of his disciples. And then, because someone had to pay the penalty for our sins, either us, the ones who committed the sins, who. Or a willing substitute, Jesus took that cross as a willing sacrifice for us. Okay, so he's got some major skin in the game. So what does Jesus have to say? John 10:27. Jesus says, My sheep, they hear my voice. I know them, they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, he's great, greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. So these beautiful words actually invite us today that if we're going to answer the question about losing our salvation, we're invited to ask some deeper questions. First, what do we actually mean when we use the term salvation? Then secondly, what do we mean when we use the term Christian? Let's start with the first one. What do we mean when we use the term salvation? You know, it was really interesting. Jesus used very specific language, do you notice, to describe salvation? Here's what he says in verse 27. He said, I give them eternal life. Notice he did not say, I give them a ticket to heaven. He didn't say that. Very precise language. Eternal life. Now, what is eternal life? Let's do a really quick deep dive on the word life. Jesus here, he's not communicating physical life, as in having a heartbeat and a pulse. If that's what Jesus meant. John, the author of John's gospel, he could have used the Greek word bios. Bios. He does not use the Greek word bios. Jesus, he's not communicating psychological life dealing with the mind or the things of the emotions, if that's what Jesus wanted to communicate. John, the author, would have used the Greek word psuche. He does not use the Greek word psuche. John does not communicate by using the word bios or psuche. He uses the Greek word zoe to describe life. He says it is Zoe. Now, what is Zoe? Zoe. Simply put, it is divine life that comes from life with God. It is the supernatural life that comes from being connected with, by being in relationship with and doing life with the source of all life, the Creator. Maybe this illustration will help. We all know that this is. It's a lamp. Clearly you had coffee this morning and did your devotionals. You're doing great. This is a lamp. How do we know that? Well, it has the bios of a lamp. It has the physical features of a lamp. It even has the sukhe of a lamp that it's wired a certain way, that literally has wires. But in this moment right now, there's actually something missing about this lamp. You know what that is? Someone's like, elegance, style. Did you get this off of Facebook Marketplace? Just work with me on the illustration here. Actually, what's missing here is currently this lamp is not functioning the way that its original designers intended for its design. It's not adequately connected to a life source. It is not doing life with. It is not in relationship with a power source. In fact, it's only when we bring this lamp, despite its bios, despite its suke, it's only when we connect it to a life source. Now, now this lamp, someone just got really excited. Now this lamp, more people are excited. Now this lamp is truly functioning the way that it was designed to function. That is. Zoe, we know this. We know that you and I, we're more than just a walking heartbeat and a pulse. We know that we're more than just mind and emotions. This is why we have phrases like, dude, get a life, right? We know that when we experience something incredible, what do we say? We have phrases like, it felt like every cell of my body was alive. We know that there's something deeper in our souls where we want to experience. We need to experience something, something deeper. What could be more true, truly life, fully life, abundant life than you and I being connected with and being brought into relationship with and doing life with the ultimate source of Life, our God. What is Zoe? What is life? It is life with God. It is relationship with God. In fact, this is what Jesus says. Notice what he says later on in the exact same gospel, the Gospel of John, John 17:3, Jesus says this is eternal life. That they may know you not only intellectually, experientially in relationship. This is why, by the way, if you have ever talked to someone who has trusted Jesus, especially later on in their life, and that might be your story, they will often say that something happened when they trusted Jesus. I was talking to someone once about their experience of trusting Jesus. After living their entire life their way, one night they gave their life to Jesus. And here's what he told me. He said, it was like I came online. On the one hand, nothing changed. On the other hand, everything changed. Of course, he was now doing life with God. This is why the theologian N.T. wright, he put it this way. Salvation is not simply about going to heaven when you die. It is about being raised to life in God's new world and knowing God as a friend and companion, now and forever. What is salvation? Salvation according to Jesus, is life and relationship with God. Now if that is true, there's a profound, profound implication. Because that now redefines the quality of our salvation. Because if salvation is relationship with God and God is awesome, then that relationship or that salvation must also be awesome. Because isn't it true that often the quality of our relationship is defined by those whom we have relationship with? For example? For example, if the person that you're in relationship with is really fickle, don't look at the person next to you. But if they were theoretically, of course not in here, then the relationship would also be, you see, you had your coffee. I knew you would know it. It would also be fickle. But we have an incredible Savior. So what does that mean about our salvation? It must also be incredible. And that is true. That's what we see in our text today. For one, we know that our salvation is eternal. It's eternal, it's forever. How do we know this? That's what Jesus says in verse 28. He says, I give them eternal life and they will never perish. Why this language of permanence? Because it corresponds directly with his nature. Jesus is permanent. Jesus is eternal. He is forever. And so if we have relationship with the one who has no end, then that relationship or salvation will also be, not have an end. It's forever. This is so different than the way that we're used to thinking about salvation, right? Sometimes we think our salvation is more like this battery pack over here. We went to youth camp, we cried and we trusted Jesus. And in that moment we receive the salvation of a battery pack that we then plug into our lives. What's the problem with the imagery of a battery? What does a battery do? It trains. Especially when the temptations of life come our way and the storms of trial rage around us, the battery really drains. And so we think, oh my gosh, my battery is just draining. My Jesus batteries are draining so much. I need to listen to that latest Christian album to recharge. And when someone walks away from the Christian faith, we go, oh no, they ran out of juice. They ran out of Jesus. No, no. Oh God, please just help me. Give me enough life to make it to the. That is not the image of your salvation. You are in relationship with the one who never ends. And so your relationship or your salvation will also never end. You have an eternal salvation, but additionally, you also have an enduring salvation or it's prevailing. It is unending, it prevails, it triumphs. Here's what Jesus said. No one, no one will snatch them out of my hand. What does this demonstrate? He's faithful. He's committed. Look, you know this verse right here. No one will snatch them out of my hand. Does that sound like wishy washy Jesus? Does that sound like flaky Jesus? Does that sound like a Jesus who's saying, you know, you're in my hands, I like you, but if someone better comes along, then off you go? No, no, no, no. You know the verse we just read? You know what version of Jesus? That's gangster Jesus. That's kind of scary Jesus. This is protective Jesus. This is fiercely committed to you Jesus. This is a loyal Jesus. He's like, ain't no one snatching you out of my hands. Are you kidding me? The world, the devil lies? Not a chance. He is committed and faithful. That's who he is. But get this, not only are you, do you have the commitment of Jesus. Jesus says you also have the commitment of God the Father, verse 29. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. Okay, so you're in Jesus's hands. You're also in the Father's hands. We also know that the Holy Spirit has moved into your life. You've got Ephesians 1:13. In Jesus, you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and when you believed the Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory. What that means is you trust Jesus, the Holy Spirit moves into your heart as a down payment and that guarantees you're gonna make it into glory. Praise God. So you have. You are in Jesus hands, the Father's hands, and the Holy Spirit is in your heart. You have an enduring salvation, but you also have an established one. Meaning it is safe, it is secure. Why? Because he's powerful. Verse 28. No one will snatch them out of my hand. That word, hand, it's biblical language for God's power. Maybe this will help. Brian Shaw, he is this little guy here photoed in the red. He's the little guy in the red shirt, tiny guy. And he is known to be one of the greatest strength athletes in the world. Just incredible strength. If you're here and you do any weightlifting, clearly expert in the room right here. Some of you laughed a little too eagerly at. It's okay. Jesus is still my Savior. If you do any weightlifting at all, you know that 45 pounds is not nothing, right? Notice what Brian shaw does with two 45 pound weights with his bare hands. Check this video. So he gently lifts it. And watch the way that he puts it down. Gently puts it. That is craziness. If you do any weight training, you know how strong his hands are. And yet notice how the Scriptures describe the hand of your Savior. Isaiah 48, 13. My own hand founded the earth and my right hand spread out the heavens. When I summoned them, they stood up together. And you, child of God, are safe in his hands. This is your salvation. You have an eternal salvation. You have an enduring salvation. You have an established salvation because of who he is. So often we think that our salvation, it's like a handshake with God. This is the visual imagery that we have. We cut a deal with God. And you better hold on, because the moment you let go, oh, the deal is broken. You've lost your salvation. That is not the proper image. A better visual looks something like this, where even if for a moment you let go, he is still holding on to you. He is still clinging on to you. Because the strength of your salvation is not about the strength of the one who is saved. It is about the strength of the Savior. This is why John Stott said this. You know the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints? It should be renamed, it should be called the doctrine of the perseverance of God with the saints. Meaning it is God who is strong. It is God who endures? It is God who is faithful. It is God who says, I'm gonna carry you into heaven if I need to. It is the perseverance of God, and that is your salvation relationship with God. But if that is true, why does our salvation feel so weak? And this brings us to our second question. What do we mean when we use the term Christian? You know, so often, many of us, when you think about the term Christian, you have this imagery of a soldier, a spiritual soldier. So you were in sin, you met Jesus, and now you are just a triumphant soldier moving up and to the right. You're conquering temptation after temptation. You are the victorious, triumphant soldier. Others of us, we have this view of a savant, a spiritual savant. Before I met Jesus, I was lost and confused. Now that I've met him, I have crystal clarity about just everything in the world. I have zero anxiousness about the future soldier or savant. Do you know the imagery that Jesus uses for us in our passage today? Here it is. It's going to be so humbling. My sheep a little bit different than a soldier or savant. We all know the truth about sheep. They're not smart, they're not that intelligent. And that's what he's saying because he loves us about you and I. So in 2005, just to help illustrate this, in Eastern Turkey, one sheep jumped off a cliff and fell 50ft to its death. Like, what's the big deal? Well, the big deal is that then local shepherds were watched in horror as 1500 more sheep said, whoa, let's do the same thing. And also jumped off the cliff. Okay, so, you know, parents, if you have ever used that phrase, well, if your friend jumped off a cliff, would you do it, too? They did it. Don't use that argument. The sheep jumped off the cliff. 500 sheep died, 1,000 lived. Like, how did the thousand survive? Well, the ones on the bottom were crushed because they were dogpiled, sheep piled, and the ones on the top were wondering why they were on a giant fluffy cloud of sheep. Sheep are not smart. This is. This explains you and I, doesn't it? This explains why we mess up. This explains why we screw up. Anyone screw up besides me this week? Yeah, and the rest of us screwed up now by lying. We slip. We absolutely slip. I mean, we say, oh, God, I'm not going to go back and do that. One thing we do, we slip. We say, I gotta be patient. I gotta be patient. And we blow up on that person. We slip. We not only slip, we stumble. Don't we? We stumble. We say, I gotta be careful in this relationship. We break the relationship. We stumble, we say, I'm gonna be strong. Stress hits, we fall back into the addiction. We stumble, we slip, we stumble, and we even stray. You know what straying is? Straying is when for a long, extended period of time, we keep an arm's distance, distance from God. Because we have believed the lie that we have messed up so much that God must want nothing to do with us. Where we believe the lie that something out there could satisfy our souls more than our Savior. And so we keep an arm's distance from God. We slip, we stumble, and we stray. Why? Because we're sheep. And yet, there's a strange resilience about sheep. They always eventually respond to their shepherd. Isn't that what Jesus said today? Did you notice verse 27, my sheep hear my voice, they follow me. So sheep, even though we slip, stumble and strike, eventually we respond to the voice of our shepherd. The ultimate example of this dynamic of the sheep, it's his disciples. You know, in chapter 10, when you zoom out, Jesus is talking to the crowd. And in the midst of that crowd is also his disciples. These are the folks. They saw Jesus miracles all the time. They heard Jesus voice audibly. And yet we know what they're like. They're not that smart. In fact, we need the input of a New Testament scholar, D.A. carson, to describe this. Here's what he said. The disciples are portrayed as both devoted. You could tell he's being gentle and obtuse. They follow Jesus, but they repeatedly misunderstand him, fail to trust him. And they argue about trivialities. In fact, just three to four months after chapter 10, what do we find the disciples doing at Jesus greatest hour of need? What do they do? They don't slip. They don't stumble. They literally stray. They scatter like sheep. After telling him, we will follow you until death, they abandon him because they're sheep. And yet, like sheep, in the end, the resilience of the sheep, they come back to the voice of their shepherd. And this brings us to a profound truth about the Christians. It is not about your perfection. You are not going to be perfect as a Christian on this side of eternity. You're going to mess up. You are going to sin. You are going to screw up. And if you're like I already did, so did I. The issue is not your perfection. The issue is your journey. The issue is, even if you fall down, will you cling back on to the hand that is already holding on to You. The issue is, even if you run a hundred miles in the wrong direction, will you eventually make the U turn and run back to the heart of your shepherd? Because he's already declared his love for you. He's made it abundantly clear by demonstrating it in his son, Jesus, who died on the cross for your sins and my sins, and rose again and is declaring to the universe, I love you. And so is there any part of you, Even if you're 100,000 miles in the wrong direction, is there any part of you that respond to that love by making a U turn? You know, some of us this morning, we might feel defiant. We're like, not me. My foot is down on the gas pedal going 100 miles an hour. I am not making a U turn. But is there any part of your heart that even says, I wish I wanted that? God help me to want that heart. It's about direction. It's not about your perfection. This has two beautiful implications for us. What this means is if you're here this morning, and if you're nervously asking, have I lost my salvation? What if I told you that directionally you should actually be encouraged that you're asking that question? At least that's what I told the college student when I used to be a college pastor. He sat down with me and he was so just anxious. He screwed up. He did something he said he would never do again. And he sat down with me and he said, pastor, I'm terrified right now. I can't believe I went back to that one thing. Have I lost my salvation? And I didn't say this. Here's what I wanted to share. What I wanted to share with him was, hey, dude, if you could lose your salvation, I actually think you would. Dude, you showed up to this meeting late. You lost track of time. If you lose track of time, I think you could also lose your salvation. I didn't say that, though, because I'm a pastor and I wanted to love him. Here's what I actually shared. I said, hey, look what's happening right now. You messed up. You feel awful, you're scared. And so you reached out to another follower of Jesus, and now we're having this conversation. You're asking me for prayer, and you're wanting to have a theological conversation about this. Does this scene look like the direction of someone who has lost their salvation? Or does it look like someone who is working out the very salvation he has received? And so if you're here this morning and you're nervous going, I needed to come Today and hear God's word and worship with God's people. I had to show up here because I'm nervous. I'm just saying, directionally, it really looks like someone who is working out their salvation. Now, what about the person that's strayed and they haven't come back? Maybe your friend, a family member. What would Jesus say to that person? You know, he might say my sheep eventually always come back. He might say they were not my sheep to begin with. But in either case, it doesn't change the heart and the action of Jesus, which is that he is pursuing that person in love. In fact, right now, in this moment, as much as you love that person, God is orchestrating 10,000 things that they're unaware of to pursue that person in love. And in fact, if you're here this morning and you are wondering about your salvation, you need to know he's pursuing you. He loves you. You know how we know this? When he saved us, when he rescued us, was it because of our direction? It was simply perfection pursuing you. And that is true for you. This morning. You are loved and treasured and pursued by a wonderful Savior, Jesus. That's your reality. And so we ask, can a Christian lose their salvation? No. God's grip is stronger than your slip. God's grace is bigger than whatever sin, slip, stumble or stray that you have brought into this room. He loves and treasures. And I'm confident that the one who began a good work in you, he's going to bring it to completion until the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that good news? As the people of God. Yeah. In this moment, I want to invite us to read a beautiful passage of scripture out loud together. And I want you to mean it from your. Your heart, your gut comes from Romans 8:38. Let's read it together. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. And on that note, we will now remember the sacrifice of our Jesus by taking communion. If you're here and you have not received the communion elements, I want to invite you to raise your hand really high and keep it held up high, and we will get the elements your way. You know, communion, it says so much about the heart of God. The shepherd doesn't says so much. He assumed and he knew that we would forget. And that's why he instituted communion as a sacrament to remind us over and over again that he's the one who has achieved salvation for us, not us. You know what's really profound? He instituted communion not after his death and resurrection. He instituted on the very night his own disciples would stray and abandon him. That's a message of grace for you and I. Today the Scriptures invite us to take communion in a worthy manner and not in an unworthy manner. How do we take it in a worthy manner? Here's how. By depending not on ourselves, but depending on Him. It's not by saying, but here's how big my sins are. It's by saying, I trust that your grace is bigger than all of my sins. Thank you for being my Savior. And it's with that posture of gratitude and humility that we're now going to take communion together. On the night of Jesus betrayal, Jesus, he took bread and he broke it. He said, this is my body which is given for you as the people of God. Let's take and let's eat together. Then Jesus, he passed the cup, he said, this is the blood of my covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. And I want to invite us, as you drink the juice and you taste the sweetness of the juice, may that be a reminder to us of the sweetness of his grace and his mercy which is pouring over your soul. By the power of the Holy Spirit. In this moment, let's take and let's drink together. We have an incredible Savior. He is so good to us. And so in this moment, I want to invite us to stand where you are and let's sing and let's celebrate our beautiful Savior together. All right, Extend your hands, please, and let me pray a prayer of blessing over you as we go. Jesus, I pray you'd bless your sons and daughters this week that you would remind them that you are gentle and approachable and that you love them. Cause your face to shine on them. I pray they will experience your mercy and your joy this new week. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Go in peace. Have a great week. Thanks for tuning in to the Mariners Weekend Message Podcast to support the ministry of Mariners Church. You can click the link in the show notes or download the Mariners app at your favorite app store. If you've been navigating God's wisdom with us through this year's annual read and would like to hear personal reflections from pastors in your community, check out the Gospel Every Day podcast. Imagine feeding your heart, mind and soul with the kind of practical wisdom that will change your life. If you haven't picked up the annual read yet, visit MarinersChurch.org or download the Mariners app for more information on where to find it.