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I Want To Believe // Mustard: The Seed That Can Change Everything (Part 3) // Charles Metcalf
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Have you ever believed in God but struggled to trust Him? In Week 3 of our series MUSTARD: The Seed That Can Change Everything, Pastor Charles Metcalf teaches on the tension between belief, trust and faith— and how we can wrestle with each one...
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Hey, this is Sarah. Look, I'm standing out front of a.m. p.m. Right now and, well, you're sweet and all, but I found something more fulfilling, even kind of cheesy. But I like it. Sure, you met some of my dietary needs, but they've just got it all. So farewell, oatmeal. So long, you strange soggy. Break up with bland breakfast and taste AM PM's bacon, egg and cheese biscuit made with K tree eggs, smoked bacon and melty cheese on a buttery biscuit. AM P M. Too much Good stuff.
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Welcome to Transformation Church podcast, where we represent God to the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe God will transform your life through today's message.
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All right, let's do it. We are in a series called Mustard. Mustard. I'm not about to crip walk up here, so. Nah, I'm not. I will, I will, I will. All right, all right, all right. I. Chill, man, chill. No, I can't do that because I will not preach. And I'll do a whole bit about people trying to learn how to crip walk, and they obviously don't know how anyways. Okay, Mark, chapter nine. Mark chapter nine is where we're going to be today. Open up your Bibles. Mark chapter nine. We are continuing this series, Mustard. It's based off a story that Jesus tells where he is talking to his disciples and he says, hey, listen, all you need is faith the size of a mustard seed. If you don't know, mustard seed is super tiny. So that's why it's super transformative for him to say that. We're going to go to Mark chapter nine and read a portion of scripture today. If you got a real Bible, throw your Bible in there. Where do people with the real Bible? Hey. Oh, if you don't have a real Bible, it's okay. I just hope it doesn't die when you need it most because you forgot to charge it. Amen. Okay, Mark chapter nine. We're going to read a chunk of scripture today. That way to make up for if you haven't read your Bible on Mother's Day. We'll make it all up right here. Mark chapter nine. Starting in verse number 16, it says this. What is all this arguing about? Jesus asked. One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, teacher, I brought my son so you could heal him. He is possessed by an evil spirit that won't let him talk. And whenever the spirit seizes him, it throws him violently on the ground, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I ask your disciples to cast out the evil spirit. But they couldn't do it, man, them weak disciples, Brother. He really. Jesus said, you faithless people. How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? But bring me the boy. That's tough. You know, disciples, you just getting started. You really trying to do your thing. And Jesus is like, you dummy, bring the kid to me. You misrepresent me. Ain't got no power. Y' all been arguing about who going to be sitting up in heaven, and you wasn't paying attention, so now you don't know what to do. All right. Jesus says, how long has this been happening? Jesus asked the boy's father. He said, since the boy was little, the spirit often throws him into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us if you can. What do you mean, if I can? Jesus asked. Anything is possible for a person who believes. The father instantly cried out, I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief. When Jesus saw the crowd of onlookers was growing, he rebuke, rebuked the spirit and said, listen, you spirit that makes the boy unable to hear. I command you to come out of this child and never enter him again. Then the spirit screamed and threw the boy into another violent convulsion and left him. And the boy appeared dead. And the murmur ran through the crowd, and the people said, he's dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, helped him to his feet, and he stood up. The title of my sermon today, if you're taking notes, write this down. I want to believe. I want to believe. I'm going to pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for this moment. I pray through this sermon. God, you would encourage someone whose head is down. You would give strength to someone whose faith feels weak. God, we're so grateful for who you are, and we love you and Jesus. If you don't do anything else, help the Thunder win this basketball game today, okay? In Jesus name we pray. Amen. There's real prayers up here, man. Amberly said I could bring everything. We gotta win this one. Okay? So I love being a pastor for a lot of different reasons, but one of them is you find yourself in just random, amazing situations. I really mean it. And this past Friday was one of the best, most random things that happened. I was on a bike ride. I like to cycle, and I love it. And this morning, I Probably flew past one of y', all, and down the middle of the road, I'd be seeing people like, I saw you flying down the middle of the road. I was like, yes, there were no cars. Calm down. And I've already gotten hit by a car once, so we got that out the way. But. But this morning, I was on a bike. This Friday, I was on a bike ride, and I get a text from my friend. And this is one of my best friends I cycle with all the time, all the time during the week. And he texts me, and he was like, hey, you know, we've been talking, me and my girl, we've been engaged, but we've been talking about getting married. What are you doing? I'm like, well, I'm riding my bike, brother. And he's like, okay, okay. We're thinking about getting the marriage license today so we can get prepped for the wedding, all this stuff. I was like, okay, awesome, bet. Then he texted me again, said, yo, we got the marriage license. So I'm on my bike ride, flying down Riverside, and I said to my voice memo, hey, homie, if you're trying to get married, I can marry y' all right now, today. And he didn't text back for a second, and he said, bet, where you want to meet? So I was on my bike in my Lycra suit, and I pulled up to that burger spot, and I walked in, like, yeah, that's right. It said, re present across the front. So I felt very pastoral in my suit. I walked in, they were sitting over in the corner, and I looked at him, I said, all right, brother, you take this woman for the rest of your life, forsaking all others. No foolishness. Come on, you gotta put that in there. Some of y' all didn't commit to the no foolishness. You stay faithful, but you're a dummy. So he's like, I do. And I looked at her, I said, you take this man and his mustache for the rest of your life. She said, I do. I stood up and said, bam, you married. Give me the marriage license. And I married my friends in the middle of that burger spot on Friday. Shout out to y'. All. Somebody like, yo, you married me. Well, just hold on. Chill. And I was thinking about that story of marriage. I was thinking about all the different people that I've married as I've been a pastor. And as I was talking to them about marriage and them being so excited to be husband and wife now, I was thinking about this. One of the first couples I ever Married. I became a pastor when I was very young. And so there was a couple, and they were like, yo, we want to do some premarital stuff. And. And I was like, I've been married a year. I can offer you everything. I don't know. So I sat down and, you know, I asked them the first question. I was like, so what makes you feel like you guys are ready to get married? And they started listening a bunch of stuff like, well, he loves me and he's kind, and we just really feel like we're ready. And then the guy spoke up and he said, oh, I know why we ready. He said, we don't ever argue. I said to. I said, oh, you don't ever argue? He's like, nope, never had an argument ever. So that makes me feel like we're ready to go now. I had a couple thoughts at that moment. Well, one of them was, you know, a common saying in culture that is in the wrong context. I think it's bad. But some people say they just be wilding out, and they say, you know, you shouldn't buy the car before you test drive it. And usually they talk about something wild. But I do agree with that. When it comes to arguing, don't marry somebody if you ain't argued with them first because you need to know how this is going to go. What I realized in that moment is he had an incomplete definition of marriage. He thought it meant, if I say I love you and I'm committed to you, that must mean we will never argue. But if you have an incomplete definition of something, it sets you up for disappointment. And there are a lot of people when it comes to the word faith, they have a lot of different definitions. But if you don't have a complete definition, you will set yourself up for disappointment. There are many believers today that are not suffering because they didn't have faith. They're not suffering because they didn't know what it was. They're suffering and they're struggling because they just had an incomplete definition of faith. Many people, when you talk about faith, you think about what it should look like and what it should feel like. And faith the size of a mustard seed. Many people, when they think faith, they think faith means certainty. If I have enough faith, that means I know you talk to those people. Come on, you got people in your life that are like, oh, yeah, I know for sure. God spoke to me in a dream and an angel came to me in a top hat. That's a real story. I have a friend on the front row My wife is actually the friend that said she saw an angel with a top hat. Abe Lincoln came to her, was like, anyways, exposed. I have the mic. Okay, I can say anything up here, but you know those people like, oh, I know for sure, for sure, for sure. And I love that for people. I just don't always feel that way. I be feeling like, yeah, I know. But in a much more real sense, I don't know it all and what I've realized with faith. You're taking notes. Write this down. Faith can produce certainty, and it always requires surrender. So faith can produce certainty. Let me not get it twisted. God can speak to you in a way through his word, through a friend, in a moment of worship, and it can produce certainty in your life where you are walking with an authority and a confidence and you are moving in what our pastor would say is crazy faith, where you're not checking for the approval of man and you are certain because you know God is on your side. Faith can produce certainty, but it always requires surrender. And here's what I'm trying to submit to you this morning is if you are looking for faith and the goal of your faith and the highest achievement of your faith to be certainty. All I'm submitting to you is you may have a incomplete definition and you might be setting yourself up for some moments that are a little disappointing because no one. It took me a long time to figure out that you can have faith and doubt at the same time. And it's very easy sometimes in church to say, if you have enough faith, your doubt will go away. Oh, you just need to have more faith. And then you wouldn't be so unsure. And then you wouldn't feel so shaky. And then you would know for a fact that's the person to marry. And then you would know for a fact that's the job to take. And then you would know for a fact that's the school to go to. And then you would know. And maybe sometimes yes. And Mark 9 is a beautiful picture, an indication of an honest man who says, I believe, but at the same time, right there standing next to my belief. Right there standing next to my crazy faith. Right there standing next to youo can do It. Right there standing next to I've Seen youn Heal People. Right there standing next to I know you're a keeper. Right there standing next to I know you're a king. Right there standing next to I Know youw're faithful is also a very real feeling that if you don't ignore it does not go. If you keep ignoring it, doesn't mean it goes away. Faith can produce certainty, but it always requires surrender. Mark Chapter 9 is a beautiful portion of Scripture, a little context of what's happening before this is right before this moment happens. In the Bible, there is this moment referred to as the transfiguration. Some of you know this, Some of you are like, what in the world does that mean? Jesus is with his three favorite disciples, Peter, James, and John, which I always think is a funny thing. You know, like, they had the 12, and then there was, like, Jesus's obvious three favorites, and then, like, the nine goons who just didn't get selected. There's, like, multiple times in the scripture where it's like, you, you. No, no, you come with me. And the other one's sitting there like, what? So anyways, that's just biblical precedent that. Not. You ain't got to have everybody be your best friend anyways. But some of y' all salty for no reason. Jesus was like, yeah, you, you, you, you stay. So they go up on this mountain, and they're sitting there, and they just watching, and all of a sudden, bam. Moses and Elijah are standing there, and they're like, hey, yo, what's going on? Peter's like, hey, what are we doing? Who is that? Is that Moses? Oh, my gosh. He taller in person. I ain't never. The pictures had him shorter. Jesus, Jesus. He come up to Jesus, he's like, hey, we need. We need to set up, like, a tent right here. Let's run the operation from the top of this mountain. We got Moses, Elijah, you. We are good. Jesus is like, no, that's not what we're gonna do. It says, his face is shining so bright like the sun. They come off of this mountain. Jesus, his three homies. And they're like, dang, we have really made it. And they stand step down into an argument at the bottom of this mountain. And the argument is, there is a dad who has brought his son to the people who say they know God. To the people who supposed to have the answers, to the people who said, I can help you with this situation. The scripture says, I came so that you could heal him. But first I brought him to the disciples. Many people. This isn't part of my sermon. But that's your experience. You came to church for Jesus, but then you ran into some people who you thought could help you. And the fact that they couldn't help you stopped you from still going to Jesus. And I'm not mad at you. And those People aren't bad people. But you need to know there does reach a point where you have to get past some people and say, I didn't come here to church for you in the first place. I love Pastor Rowe, but I didn't come here for him. I love Pastor Michael, but I didn't come here for him. I love Pastor Charles, but I didn't come here for you. I came to talk to Jesus. It says, they tell Jesus, hey, listen, I came, but it didn't work out and they couldn't do it. He says this sentence that is so powerful. And Jesus says. He says, help me if you can. And Jesus, kind of like, if you can. What do you mean? Anything is possible for those who believe. And this is where I want to pause for a moment, because it's so important that you register whose voice you hear when you read the scripture, because depending on the tone, pace, and energy of how you say that sentence tells me what you believe about God. Some of you read that sentence like, if I can. What you mean if I. And who you hear is your daddy or your uncle or that teacher you have? If I can? What you mean, if I can? Anything is possible for those who believe. Does that sound like a good father to you? Does that sound like a God who, in his loving kindness, the scripture says, draws us to repentance? No, it sounds like some earthly people you've met, and all I'm submitting to you is if you hear a God who is talking down to you when you come to him at your weakest moment, that may not be his tone. It also could be true to say that when he says, help us if you can, he's like, if I can? Oh, oh, you don't know it. I can do anything. If you just have a little bit of faith. Nobody must have told you that anything is possible with me. You may not have heard that. I can do more than you could ever ask, think, or imagine. He says, but all you got to do is believe in the man standing there. And he says, I believe, but. But also help me with my unbelief. And if you read about this portion of Scripture, there are some writers, and when you first read it, read it, it kind of seems like he's saying the same thing twice. And some people read that Scripture and think he's being kind of hypocritical. Like, how are you going to say you believe and you don't believe? And that's kind of confusing. And what does that mean? He's not being hypocritical he's being honest. And there's a difference. It would actually be hypocritical for him not to acknowledge his doubt. And there are many of us that find ourselves, for whatever reason it is, that we think God cannot handle you saying you don't believe all the way. And it helps his superpower if you tell him, no, no, no, I trust you for sure. He know you don't. He know you scared. He's seen you make the plan B. He know you're like, yeah, I trust you. I'm gonna get this job. He knows you on LinkedIn, sending that job application that's two lines long to every person, that website. He knows it'd be better for you. It'd be more resourceful for you to just be honest. And when you read and study this scripture, sometimes we can read the Bible because we know what happens and we just kind of read through it like a story. You just read through the story and you think, okay, I believe, but also, help me with my unbelief. But if you read the original language, which I can't speak Greek, but. But there's websites where they tell you what they would have said, so don't be impressed by that. But if you read the original portion, there's some tone and some cultural context that you will miss. And I want to bring to you today because it's so important in your understanding of the story. When you read the original language, it says he would have been stuttering over his words and struggling to breathe, and he would have been bawling, crying as he's talking to Jesus. This was not a casual request for him. This was not, hey, I believe, but also, I kind of don't believe. No, this father. Because any parent knows when your baby is hurting, when something's going on, it is not a game. You don't come lightly before God. He would have been running to Jesus saying, I believe, I do, I promise. But also, I don't know some of you in this room that that's the honest depiction of how you feel. On one hand, I do believe. I trust that he can heal me. I trust that he can help with this marriage. I trust we can have a baby. On one hand, I really do believe, but on the other hand, I don't. I don't know. I don't. I don't, I don't. And it's so insightful because he actually. He doesn't say, I believe, but I don't believe. He actually uses two different words in the original language. This is what he says. He comes to Jesus. Jesus says anything is possible for those who believe. And this is the honest translation. He says, I do believe, but I just don't know if I trust you. I got the faith, I believe. I know, I've seen you heal other people. That's the only reason I'm here. I heard your stories, I saw what happened. And the disciples, I know who they used to be. I believe you. But God, I don't know if I can trust you. I don't know if I want to really lean on you. I don't know because why? Because belief is about what you know and your knowledge, but trust is about your experience. And some of us, we believe God because we've read the Bible and we believe God because we know the Bible says we should. But some of us, we've had some experiences that have broken our trust. And because we don't have trust and we because we don't have belief, it's very hard to have faith. Because your faith is the combination of your belief and your trust. And many people, the two most common reasons you struggle with faith is because you do not know what you believe about God and you do not know if you can trust Him. I want to bring to you today that these two words are so important for every person under the sound of my voice to, to do an honest evaluation. Your belief and your trust. What do you believe about God? Some people, it's hard for you to have faith because you don't know what you believe. You don't know if you believe God actually still heals people. You read about it, you know that's what you're supposed to say, but you don't know if you actually believe. No, he can really intervene and it's a supernatural miracle. We just saw that story of that little boy who God did a miracle on. And the doctors were trying to be frustrated with it. Why? Because they don't know if they believe. Because of the facts. Because when this happens and this happens, it always equals this. And yes, in some times, but in other cases there is a God who is outside of a doctor's report and he says I can speak one word and change everything. What do you believe about God? Do you believe that he works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to your purpose and his purpose? Do you believe that? Come on. That little four year old was like, I believe Mama said no to the slushie. But I believe because it's easy to shout yes in a call and response moment. Yeah, yeah. I believe he works everything together except for that one area that you holding behind your back and haven't told nobody because there's no way he could use that. What do you believe about God being sovereign? Sovereign means that he's. He's in control of all over all. There's nothing that happens outside his jurisdiction and he has the power to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. Now this can take you down a theological rabbit hole that can have you in cycles and spinning and on YouTube channels listening to people with four teeth talking about I don't know what I. It's true. It's happened to me, happened to some of my friends. They be in rabbit holes listening to people with a podcast mike talking about this means this and blah, blah, blah. And what do you believe about him being sovereign? Because what you believe about that affects how you navigate situations. You believe, there's nothing in my life that is happening that he is not working in, working on or working through that means I can have peace in the middle of the storm because. Because my God is over everything. If you don't know what you believe about him being sovereign, it makes sense to have an anxious response. It's very logical. What I'm saying is what you believe does not eliminate your emotion, your feelings, or your experience, but it provides you an anchor that you can say, I trust more in that than I do my anxious response. I trust more in that than I do the situation. What do you believe? And once you navigate what you believe, depending on your experience with church or with God, there are a group of people who have gotten caught and stuck on what they believe. But there are other people who are like, oh, I know what I believe. But when it comes to trust, trust, this is a word we throw around very lightly, but trust is what are you willing to lean on it? I believe if I did a trust fall with my wife, that she would really want to catch me. I believe she would stand back there, she'd be like, all right, she gets squat a little bit, you know, but do I trust? You know, I'm not saying she couldn't do it, but where my belief becomes real is when I put my weight and I lean all the way in and I. And I trust some of you, you believe God can do it, but the idea of giving him everything. Some people, we did a series, wicked, talking about tithing and giving. Some of you, you believe the Bible, but you just don't trust certain people. So the idea of trusting God with your money is a Big deal. It's a trust issue. It's not a belief issue. Today, I want to ask everyone in here if you find yourself looking for more faith, Find yourself trying to grow in your faith. Find yourself struggling with faith, whether you're on a mountaintop or a valley. Do an honest evaluation of your belief and your trust. Do you trust him? Because what I've realized is many times my earthly experience with people has affected my ability to trust God. And because people told me they would always be there, and they weren't. When we sing songs like you're never gonna let me down, or you're always on time, or you're not gonna leave me alone, or you never fail, it's. I believe the words in theory, but to actually trust them, it's difficult. It's difficult to trust friends because you've had experiences and you hear people talk about, yeah, you need to get in community, and, yeah, I need to join a group, and, yeah, you need to be in a tribe, and, yeah, you need to do all these things. But for you, you've had friends who turned on you and talked about you and tore you down. And so now it's not an issue that you don't want to be in community. You actually know you need people. It's just you have been hurt so bad that the honest truth is, is you don't know if you can get back up if you fall one more time. So in order to protect yourself, it's not that you don't want friends. It's not that you don't need somebody. It's not that you're not actually weak. It's just that you don't know if you can take that hit again. So what do you do? You isolate and you recluse and you disconnect. Not because I don't believe it's important. I just don't want to. I don't want to deal with that again. I can't. I can't. Some of you, you had a marriage and it didn't work out. And it's not right now that you want to be alone forever. You. You just don't know if you can trust again. What am I saying? All of these little breakdowns of your trust will have an effect on your faith. If you find yourself today in a place where you feel like you're struggling to believe, struggling to trust you, just the best thing you could do is first just be honest about it. Be honest that you still have some questions. Be honest that it doesn't all make sense to You. We do something on Wednesday nights called the dig. And we have classes that happen all over this building on Wednesday nights. And one of them is Bible study. And I love getting to do Bible study. And during Bible study, pretty much at the end, we'll have time for Q and A. And I stopped calling it Q and A. I call it Q and R. Question and response. Because I don't know if I'm gonna have an answer. So don't put that on me. I'll give you a response. And if it's a scripture, you can take that and build your life on it. But don't be coming to me. Say, pastor Charles said that I was supposed to move to Antarctica to start a mission for polar bears. Maybe if that's what you heard, do that. But don't put that on me. I'll be feeling that way sometimes. Cause some of y' all come to the altar being like, I'm about to make the biggest decision of my life. I need you to confirm it. I'm like, okay. God help them. I don't know if I could do that. But every time we do a Bible study, people have questions. And I love answering people's questions and hearing people's questions. But at some point in any of those times, it gets to this point where it just doesn't make sense. And here's what I'm trying to say is at the bottom of every question you have about God, about the Bible, about who wrote the Bible, about can we believe the Bible, about, is it true? About, how do I trust? At the bottom of all of that is some point where it don't make no sense. And some of you, it would save you a lot of time, effort, and energy to reconcile what you gonna do with that part of the Bible. Because until you figure that part out, you ain't got no business asking all these other questions. I'm not. I'm just saying, if you don't get to the point where, what do I do when the Bible doesn't make sense? That's a great question to ask. And depending on your answer to that question, it'll solve a lot of your other questions. Well, how do we know if it was of just man or God? We don't know. You want to answer? We don't. How do I know Jesus was a real person? We do know that we got more proof of Jesus than Abraham Lincoln. So we do know that. But shout out to the angel you saw, babe. Okay. That Abe Lincoln angel, he was bringing deliverance, wasn't he? He Was coming to set you free in the name of Jesus. Okay. That's what it was. I just got an interpretation for that dream. God was coming to set you free, baby. In the Abe Lincoln joint Four score and. Okay, sorry, I gotta bring it back. I gotta bring it back. How much time I got left? Okay, Melissa. Oh, we chilling. I'm good. Okay. I done forgot my whole thing because I went on that bit. Okay, we just gonna jump into the key takeaway points. All right, so three points today to help you if you're struggling with your belief or your trust, you're struggling with belief or trust. Point number one, write this down. The first thing you gotta do is you got to admit. You got to admit it. This father is beautifully honest in this moment because he comes to Jesus with an expectation. He comes to the believers with an expectation. He comes to them saying, hey, listen, I need some help, and I don't know what to do. And my son is hurting and he's broken. And we've had this thing happen over and over and over since he was a boy and since he was young. And some of you, that's why it's hard to trust. It's not that it just happened once. It's that you've been stuck in the cycle for years and years, and you've never seen anybody in your family graduate, and you've never seen anybody in your family do that. So you come to Jesus. But the first thing you gotta do is what this man does. He admits his faith and his doubt. He admits God. I'm bringing you everything on one hand. I believe that I can do something my family's never done, and I can go to this school. I know you can work it out because you've done things that I thought were impossible. I believe you and not. But we've talked about this, and both can be true at the same time. Some people struggle with this. It's, I trust you, God, but no, no, no. And you trust you love God. You believe him. And there's a part of you that doesn't know if you're good enough, even if you got into the school. So there's a part of you that wants to hedge. And this is why some of you won't apply for school, won't apply for jobs, because it's easier to say you never tried than to say you tried and failed. This is why some people don't start businesses. It's why you won't write the book. It's why you don't do music. It's why you don't ever sing? Because it's easier to act like, oh, no, I don't do that. The truth is, you do do that. You're just worried that if you try and it's not good enough, you will be disappointed, and now you'll be discouraged and you will be depressed, and you will find yourself deconstructing your faith, all because you weren't honest. So let's be honest. You haven't started the business. Not because it's just timing. God told you 20 years ago, it's not a timing thing. Let's be. Let's just be honest. It's not. It's not. I'm just waiting on the Lord. No, you're not. You're not waiting on the Lord. You. You are waiting on you. Let's just say that the truth is I really want to start the business. I think I have a great idea, but I'm also terrified that it's not going to work at all. Let's admit that the truth is, I'm at church today because it's Mother's Day and my mama said she wasn't going to make no pie if I didn't come today. So I'm here. And also, I don't know if I ever want to come back because I know if I'm in this place too long, the stuff about me that I kind of like but know is bad for me. I'm gonna have to face it. And so if I stay in this room too long, that's why some people won't come to church. I know. Because my friends. Because they know there's a version of themselves that would require discipline and not the lowest version of yourself. And you'd have to get rid of all those friends, and you'd have to stop doing some stuff that you really like doing. So you don't stay around certain people because you know they require you to be a better version of you. I know this is true. I got friends who I love, that I know. They text me every six months because they know. Not because I'm going to be mean to them, but they just know when I. Sometimes when I get around, it makes me be honest. And I don't like that. Be honest. You got to admit. Where are you? What do you believe about God? Admit. I don't know what I believe. I don't know if I trust this book. I know it's got a lot of great things in it. I don't know. But do I believe this book is the inspired word of God, can I admit I think it's powerful. And also in the Old Testament, there's some weird stuff going on. I'm saying this light hearted because this is the thing that has people walk away from their faith for 20 years, then you have kids and realize you have no idea what you're doing. So you bring them to church because you do want them to have some sort of sense of moral compass. So you bring them to church. You're sitting in church and now you're having to face, what do you believe? Be honest about that. I'm in church right now for my kids. I don't know if I believe God, but I know I want them to have good friends because it's getting crazy out there and, you know, I'm, you know, I'm free, but I ain't that free. Hello, somebody. So just come up in here, learn about Moses or something. It's true. I got friends like this. They go to church because they know you're gonna learn something that I can't give you. Be honest about that. If you want to grow in your belief and trust, you got to admit. The second thing you got to do is ask. You got to admit you don't know, and then you got to ask for help. And this is the part where it gets. Somebody said, oh, my goodness. This is the part where it honestly exposes how much we care about what people think about us. Because it's one thing to say, I got some questions. It's another thing to go to that friend and say, hey, can you help me? You see how quiet it got? This is why we got 33 people in the Ducks in a row class. Shout out to the 33 people in the Ducks in a row class. She raised her hand, she said, me. That's me. But here's the truth. It's one thing to admit I ain't got no idea what I'm doing with money. It's another thing to find yourself sitting around a table and they say, all right, write down your monthly spending and you're like $52, 68 coins. You know, it's because there's something about your pride that if. What if they find out I don't know what I'm doing? What if. What if I don't look as prestigious as they think I am? What if I'm honest, that I'm 50 years old, I never figured it out. What if I admit that I act like. Like I don't need help, but I have no idea what happens? There's a beautiful Thing that happens when you will admit, I need help. There's a beautiful thing that happens. Let me talk to the men for a second. I. I saw. Okay, this is actually very funny. I saw this meme, and it said, what you mean, go check? You heard a noise? I'm scared, too. I never related to something so much in my life. It'd be like, ba, boom, Abby. Be like, what was that? I'm like, I don't know. Go check. I'd be like. I'd be walking out my bedroom like, hey, yo, hey. Anybody out here? Don't know what I'm gonna do if I actually see somebody. My tactic is just gonna act crazy. I'm gonna start just screaming, bite my glasses. Like, I'll just act like a. Oh, God. They gonna think I'm possessed. And be like, you know what? You can keep your stuff. I don't. That's all I got. I done watch Creed. But I know I can't fight. I'll be honest with you. You gotta admit, some men, you need to admit even the financial things. Some of y', all, you are running your finances and have no idea what you're doing. And you won't admit, I don't know how to manage money. But there's a part of you that wants to be profit and be like, no, I got this. All right? Don't tell nobody our business. Some of you won't admit where your marriage is. No, we fine. We cool. We chilling. It's good. No, it's all good. We good. We good. We good. Because there's a part of you that doesn't want people to think what, I don't know what it is for you. I don't want people thinking, what is that? My friend will do this to me all the time. We'll talk. He'll pretty much ask me questions till I get to the end of the questions. And I'm like, well, I think this. He's like, okay, what if that happens? Well, then it'll. Okay, what if that happens? This is actually how the sermon God chose me happened. He was like, you got to tell. You got to preach one thing. What are you gonna tell him? I was like, I don't know. I'll tell him. He's like, okay, what about what else? I don't know. What else would you tell him? I don't know. And then literally, this is exactly what he said. What else? I said, God chose me, man. I don't know. That was how the sermon happened. You got to be honest. You gotta admit, you gotta admit, you gotta ask. The last thing you gotta do is act anyways. At some point you can be honest and say you don't know. You can ask for help, but at some point, let me save you some time. Effort, energy, a disappointment. At some point, if you want to see what God wants to do with your life, if you want to see what he can do with someone who submitted, if you want to see him do something that nothing has never happened in your family, you're going to have to reach a point where you say, you know what? I've admitted and I've been honest about it, I've asked for help, and at some point I have to do something about it. Because your belief is about what you know. Your trust is about your experience. But your faith is the combination of your belief and your trust. Get this in action. This is where it becomes faith. Faith is not just sitting there. Faith is not just, oh, I know he can do it. Oh, I know he's good. At some point, show me, you know, by what you do. So I've addressed what I believe. I've addressed that he's a king. I've addressed he's a healer. And I say, God, I trust you. And I know it's been difficult, but I'm going to trust you. Then at some point you have to say, you know what? Okay, now I'm going to do something about it. I believe that God gave me the idea. I trust that if I fall, he will help me back up. So at this point, I'm going to apply for the loan and write the business plan because I'm doing something about it. At some point it reaches a place where you, you just got to make a decision. And there are so many believers who will spin themselves into the ground trying to discern what is the perfect exact will of God. And do I trust him and what do I know? And have I read enough Bible? And do I? I don't. At some point, no, you don't. Let's just go to the bottom of it. You're not qualified. You are kind of inconsistent. You. We don't know what is going to happen. But at the same time, God has proven himself to you over and over again. And if you look throughout Scripture, God is not looking for perfect people. He's looking for people who will say yes. At some point you got to do something. And sometimes we admire people who are doing things you could do. The only difference between them is you, is they just acted. They weren't perfect. They didn't have the answers they didn't do. At some point. They just kept saying yes. And I want to encourage you. What if the gap between where you are and where you believe you are supposed to be is not some magic trick? It's you just doing something. It's you just doing something. I know you ain't got a ton of money right now. I'm not saying you got to just start saying stuff that don't make no sense. But I am saying you could do something. Well, I ain't got no money. Okay, you got words. You can be a blessing with your words. As a matter of fact, back up on that. You got clothes you don't wear. Talk about I'm. I'm going to be influenced. I'm going to give money away. I'm going to be a philanthropist. Can't even spell the word. But you going to be giving millions of dollars away. You won't give nobody a piece of gum. Quit playing. Start where you are. You gotta act. You gotta do something. You gotta admit. And this is what we see in Jesus all throughout his ministry. There's one man that is blind, and he comes to Jesus, and Jesus is always kind of messing with people. He comes up to Jesus, he's blind, and Jesus gonna say, what do you want, bruh? Come on, man, you know why I'm here. But many times Jesus will do this. Not for him, but for you. This happens all the time. I'll be praying with people at the altar. And one thing I've realized, I learned this in youth ministry is what I'll say. This isn't all the time, but sometimes I'll say to people, hey, general prayers sometimes get general answers. And what I mean by that is not based. You gonna move what God's doing. What. What I'm saying is sometimes it's good for you to say to somebody what's really going on. People come to the altar. Just pray for me, okay? What's going on? Just some stuff. Okay. What kind of stuff? Just relational stuff. Okay. What type of relational stuff? Just some. Some things I got to, you know, do. So. So you cheated on your girlfriend is what you're trying to tell me, and now you praying to God she don't break up with you because you've done this six times? Is that what your question is? Yes, that is actually my question. I made that up. That's not somebody's situation. So I'm not. This ain't. No. I mean, if it is, you know, come to the front at the end, but you just gotta let's just be honest. What are you really praying about? What do you really need from God? That man, he's blind. He asked. He says, okay, I'm aware. Jesus puts mud on his eyes. And then he says, now go wash. Go wash, and you will be healed. What is that? That's the act. And this is the point where you cannot calculate your faith, because, I don't know, he got healed immediately when God put the stuff on his eyes. I don't know if it was while he was walking. I don't know if it was while he was washing. But at some point, you got to act and trust whatever he is doing. I don't know, because his ways are higher than my ways. His thoughts are higher than my thoughts, and I am going to trust him. My hope today, everybody standing all over this room, we going to get out of here. The I think it's chapter three. Three in my book. The title is called the Unstoppable Movement. It's based off of a scripture in Acts. Chapter 5 has a group of followers of Jesus that have been brought in front of this committee, and they're trying to decide whether or not they're going to kill them. And a man stands up in the middle of the community, and they're kind of wrestling like, hey, how do we lock them up? But the people are going to be mad, and what do we do? And we've already killed Jesus, and now they're claiming he's alive and what's going to happen? And they're standing there in this moment. This man stands up and he says, hey, listen, here's what we're going to do. He's the most respected amongst the teachers. He's the most respected amongst all of them. And he says, here's what we're going to do. If this movement is human origin, it'll happen just like every other movement. And then he starts listing people. He's like, you know, remember that other guy a couple years ago, he started an insurrection, and he said about 300 people followed him. And then when he died, they all scattered. And then you remember that other guy? Remember he started an insurrection, too. Y' all remember that. If this is just of human origin, it'll fizzle out like everything else. But this is how you could tell he had wisdom. He said, but, guys, if this message is of God, if this is really him, if what they're claiming really happened, he says these words, you will not be able to stop these men. And you might find yourself fighting against God himself. And here was the power of the early church. The early church knew and they believed in, in such a way because they had addressed some things that they realized they had an unstoppable spirit on the inside of them. What am I saying to you? My hope is that you would address your belief. My hope is that you would address your trust and that way to allow you to move in faith. But can I tell you something that God can empower you to do? He can empower you to stand and say, you know what, I'm not sure what I believe and I don't know if I trust cuz I've never seen it before. But also I know and I serve a God and I'm going to follow him no matter where he will take me. It reminds me of three Hebrew boys who said, we believe our God can deliver us, but even if he doesn't, we will not bow. What am I saying to you? I want to pray for you this morning that if you find yourself struggling with belief and trust, I want you to know you serve a God who, who is good enough to speak to you in a moment. And he can bring certainty and surety and a peace in your heart. I'm also going to pray that he will produce in you a boldness that does not need all the details to do what he's asked you to do. That you can trust. I can move in faith and still address I got some doubt. My friend said this to me. We were texting about the sermon and he said, you know, the truth is when you got faith and doubt, all you're choosing is just to believe more in your faith than you believe in your doubt. It's still there. I'm just picking this one. Every head bowed, every eye closed in this room. If you're in this room and you've been struggling with faith in any way, specifically if it's been something around what you believe, maybe you've been wrestling. If you believe there is a God, if you believe he loves you, if you believe he has a plan for you, or there's an area of broken trust, a family member has broke your trust, a friend, a spouse, a loved one. If you fall into any one of those two categories, on the count of three, I want you to lift your hand and this is the first step. This is admitting I have some questions. 1, 2, 3. Lift your hand all over this room. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. God, you see us with our hands raised, saying there's some things we don't know. There are questions we have and we are still wrestling with them. God, we say today we want to believe God. There's some things that we want to believe that you're going to do, Lord Jesus. And so right now, we're being honest, and we're praying you would meet us at the place of honesty. God, I pray for courage right now in the name of Jesus. People who their lack of belief or trust has robbed them of courage and boldness to be who God's called them to be. I pray right now you would speak to them, give them peace. In the name of Jesus. Every head down, every hand down, eyes still closed. Belief and trust. The first thing you got to do if you want to walk in faith is you got to answer the question, do I believe in Jesus? And here's the beautiful thing about him. He believed in you way before you believed in him. If you're in this room and you've never made Jesus your Lord and Savior, if you are in this room or watching online, you've never surrendered your life to Jesus. You've never said, I give up control, I don't know what I'm doing, and I need help. If you are in here today, you're watching online, you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to get your life together first. You can admit in a moment, I am hurting, I am broken. I've tried everything, I've done everything, and it is not working. If you want to be honest today and receive the greatest opportunity of your life, and that is to get the helper and the power of Jesus Christ, on the count of three, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand. This is not about anybody else. Don't worry about the person next to you. This is between you and God. If you want to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior today for the first time, or you want to recommit your life back to him, on the count of three, you are going to raise your hand boldly. Because you are saying, I'm going to be honest. And I'm not ashamed to admit. I need a savior. I need. Need a hero. I need Jesus. 1. He loves you. 2. Today is a day of salvation. 3. Lift your hand all over this room. Boldly. I see you, sis. I see you up there. So proud of you. Oh, come on, y'. All. Can we celebrate? Keep your hand up. Keep your hand up. I see you over here. So proud of you. I see you right there. I got you. I got you. So proud of you. I see you, sis. So proud of you. I got you. I see you My man. Everybody out loud, repeat this prayer with me. Everybody say, dear God, I admit I've made mistakes. Save me, change me, make me new. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Can we celebrate everybody who just gave their life to Jesus? Hey listen, we're so proud of you. That is the best decision you could ever make. Hey listen, tell somebody. Tell somebody. You know what I'm going to say specifically tell your mama. I bet you she been praying for you. The best Mother's day you gift you can give her is letting her know, tell somebody in this room. And as a matter of fact, we would love to know about it. If you text wel saved to 828282 saved to that number. Our team would love to connect with you, encourage you. We are so, so proud of you. Hey listen, thank you so much for coming to church today. We love you. We're grateful for you. Hey, across the hall in our south ballroom, we do something called meet the pastors. If you go into church here for a while, but you haven't got connected. We haven't got a chance to meet. We would love to meet you. It'll start in about 10 minutes across the hall. But we love you so much. I'm gonna pray for you as you leave today. If you need prayer for anything, some of our team is gonna be standing up here at the front and at the back. You can come and receive prayer for anything at all. Lord God, we love you so much. I pray for every person in this room that this would be the best week they have had and they would find encouragement to believe you and trust you. It's in the name of Jesus we pray. And everybody said we love you so much. Go out and live a transformed life.
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Thank you for joining us today. If you said that prayer and accepted Jesus into your heart, it's the best decision you could ever make. We want to celebrate with you and we have some tools to help you on your journey. Text saved to 828282 and to find out more about TC Text connect to 828282. Be sure to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. Thanks for listening. Now go out and live a transformed life.