Speaker: normally I do something kind of fun at the beginning,
but this is a more serious story.
Okay.
I, I met a youth pastor, um, and he used to have pictures of his former
students on his walls in his office.
Like, oh yeah, this person graduated.
And, you know, they were, they were awesome in high school.
They were the worship leader in, in, in high school, or, or they,
they were on fire for their faith and, and he, you know, they went
off to college and whatever.
They'd stay in touch.
He used to put pictures of all his former students.
On, on his walls.
But one day he told me, he said I had to take all the pictures down.
And I was like, why?
Why'd you have to do that?
Why?
Why did you take all the pictures down?
He said, I couldn't stand looking at 'em anymore because so many of those
students walked away from the faith.
So many of those students don't love Jesus anymore.
So many of these faces staring back at me from the wall in
my office, don't know God.
They don't trust the Bible.
They don't.
Go to church.
They don't pray.
They don't have a relationship with God.
They walked away.
And what we're gonna be talking about today is how to
not be one of those students.
Right?
We don't, you don't wanna be the student on someone's Instagram where
they're like, oh yeah, remember that guy don't know where he is at
anymore or what happened to her.
Oh, well, we never heard from her.
When she graduated, she went off to school and.
She doesn't come to church anymore.
You don't wanna be that student.
So we're gonna be learning today how to make it to the end, how to not drop out,
how to not walk away from the faith.
And the good news is that God is the one in charge of that.
God's power protects Christians.
So turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter one, verses 16 and 17.
Romans one 16 and 17.
These are some famous verses, right?
You've probably heard these verses before, but what I want you to
see is that these verses aren't just about sharing the gospel.
They're also about how to stay Christian, how to not lose your
faith, how to not walk away from God.
Like how do you know that when you stand before God?
He won't say, I never knew you.
How do you know that when you move outta your parents' house, you're gonna keep.
Loving Jesus and you won't just give up.
How do you know that that's you?
You won't make it without God's power.
God's power in the gospel is not just what saves you, but what keeps you saved.
So look with me verses 1617, Romans chapter.
So Paul said, I'm really excited to preach the gospel to the people in Rome.
Verse 16.
Why for I am not ashamed of the gospel.
For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to
the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For in it.
The righteousness of God is revealed from faith.
For faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
So how do you keep living by faith?
Well, the answer here in this passage is that God's power and can is,
is what keeps you believing God's power through the gospel is what
keeps you believing, and your faith is what connects you to that power.
Your faith is what connects you to God's power that will keep you safe.
So our main point tonight is that trusting in Jesus is the key to
rescue from God's wrath and unlimited happiness with him trusting in Jesus
and I, I put it that way, trusting in Jesus, not having trusted
because it's an ongoing action.
I want you to think of it ongoing trust in Jesus.
Not one time trust in Jesus.
Not well.
One time I trusted in Jesus and turned for my sin.
Ongoing trust in Jesus is the key to rescue from God's wrath
and unlimited happiness with him.
So Paul, he's not ashamed to preach the gospel, right?
He's he's, he says, I'm not ashamed.
I'm not embarrassed.
I'm excited about it.
Right?
That's where he was in verse 15.
This is kind of how I like to visualize these verses because.
It helps me see Paul's logic, right?
He's writing this letter to the Romans.
I'm eager to preach the gospel to you in Rome.
Why four?
That means because whenever you see four in the Bible, like not,
not little four, this kind of four, four, I'm not ashamed because I'm
not embarrassed about the gospel.
Why not Paul?
Because it's the power of God for salvation.
It's God's power.
God's power, right?
Not just the emperor's power, not just the president's power, not just.
A big truck's power.
God's power for salvation.
God's power is what gives Paul confidence in the gospel.
So that's why he's not embarrassed about it, and that's why he wants to preach it.
That's why he's excited to tell people about it, because it's God's power.
So point number one tonight, be confident in God's saving power.
That's the opposite of being ashamed, right?
Being confident.
God's power is what makes Paul confident.
It makes him excited.
The obvious application of this passage that you've probably
heard before is evangelism, right?
You probably heard this passage quoted like, well, why?
You know, what motivates people to share their gospel?
What motivates people to, to tell people about Jesus?
Well, it's, it's.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel, right?
There's a, there's a rap group that uses this as their theme verse, and they,
they talk about how they're unashamed and they talk about Romans one 16, right?
God's power gives Paul confidence in evangelism, and I think sometimes, right?
If you're, if you're a Christian and you've tried to share their
gospel with someone, it's easy to to be embarrassed, right?
It's easy to, to feel awkward.
It's easy to feel uncomfortable.
It's easy to, to be unsure.
It's easy to, to just not wanna do it.
Right.
So how do you get someone like Paul who's eager to, to preach the gospel?
How do you be like that?
Well, here's what Paul says.
He says, I think about God's power.
I think about God's power.
If you think about with evangelism, are you the one that's really doing
the heavy lifting in evangelism?
Like who's the one that's actually doing the, the saving in evangelism?
God is right.
So it's not like you're just coming in there.
Okay, cool.
Like I'm trying to convince this person to believe Jesus and that the Bible's true.
Whenever.
It's like, well, God uses you, but it's God's power.
God's doing the saving in evangelism, not you.
So maybe if you're scared to evangelize, this is a great thing to think about.
Right?
God's the one who's gonna save that person.
Maybe there's that person in your life you say, you know, I don't, I just don't see
how they're ever gonna believe the gospel.
They're so hardhearted.
They, they hate Jesus.
They don't like Christians.
Or you think of that, that classmate, you're like, man, I would be so
embarrassed if they found out I was a Christian, or there's no way they're,
they're, they would ever look at me the same way if they knew I was a Christian.
Paul says, I think about God's power, right?
I think about who God is.
God could squish that person in an instant, right?
God made the world, God, you've been, been outside in a thunderstorm like God.
God does that right?
You, you watch like a storm on the news.
God does that.
You read scenes in the Bible about God's power.
I think God is powerful and it helps put everything in perspective, right?
God is the one who's, who's gonna save them?
Not, not my presentation of the gospel, right?
Not how eloquent I am or, or the Bible verses I quote, or how I, how I
share it or, or the timing, you know?
Well, it's an awkward time.
Maybe I won't share the gospel.
God's power is, is is better than awkwardness, right?
God is much stronger than than your awkwardness.
Your awkwardness is not gonna hinder God's power to save that person, right?
So if you're embarrassed about sharing the gospel, you're not sure if you
could share the gospel with that person.
Just think about, look, God's the one doing the heavy lifting.
I'm just here to, to spread the message, but God's power is
gonna be what goes through me.
And maybe you're thinking about.
I just don't know if I'm smart enough.
'cause what if they come up with an objection, right?
Then I'd be embarrassed.
What if they said something that I didn't know?
What if they come up with some question like, well, did you know that?
You know that the, actually at the time of Jesus, there was another
cult that actually said all the same things and whatever, and the early
church copied that, and that's why we have Christmas trees, right?
That's not true.
But what if someone just said something like, really smart and I
didn't know what, how to, what to say.
Well, think about.
You're, you're on the winning team, right?
No one's gonna outsmart God.
No one's come up with an argument that's like, Hey, you know what?
I've debunked God, I've come up with this argument that's, that's
smarter than, than, than God.
I've come up with this, this final proof that's going to prove that
Christianity's fake because God is the one who made it right?
No one's gonna outsmart God.
So you don't have to be worried that someone says something to
you and they ask you a question.
Maybe it's a really good question.
Maybe it's something you've never thought about before.
You can say, you know what, that's a great question.
Let me get back to you.
And then you talk with them again.
You do your research, do your homework.
You join Aquip and you talk to them and you come back and you
say, oh, here's what I learned.
Or you say, Hey, let's research this together.
'cause guess what?
If God's, if God's real, do you think their question is gonna
debunk everything, it's God.
Right?
No matter how smart this person is that you're talking to, they're not
gonna be able to to overcome God.
And so that gives you confidence.
'cause you know, oh, I'm on the, you ever heard this phrase, I'm
on the right side of history.
People say that sometimes, like, oh, well you wanna be on the
right side of history, right?
That's why you should support whatever our culture says.
'cause you wanna be on the right.
Yeah, you don't, you don't wanna be like one of those people
who supported slavery, right?
So you should also support X, Y, and Z.
Be on the right side of history.
Well, guess what?
God's on the right side of history so you don't have to be worried.
About being wrong about something.
If you're saying what the Bible says, even if everyone else around you opposes
you, you don't have to be worried because you know that God's on your team.
It's kind of like.
When we play games here in true North, like when we play football, we used to
play football outside and I always, you know, junior high versus high school.
I always had Mr.
Clancy on my team and I was like, if we're playing football and Mr.
Clancy's on my team, we're good.
Right?
We're good.
I don't care.
You can have Josh, you can have Jacob, you can have Weston, you can have everyone.
But if we got Mr.
Clancy, we're good.
Right?
That's how, that's how I feel going out there on the football field.
In a much bigger way.
That's how you should feel when, when you share the gospel, right?
Who's on your team?
God's on your team.
It's God's message.
You're on God's team, right?
God's not on your team.
You're on God's team.
You're gonna be okay, right?
You've got, you've got God's message, God's power.
You don't have to be embarrassed about it, right?
And it helps just to put it in perspective.
Just think about it.
Sometimes it's easy to get overwhelmed.
You know, someone says something or they look scary or whatever,
and just think about it.
Pause and think about it, man.
God's on.
Like, this is God's message.
This is God's power, not mine, not my skill, not my eloquence, not my whatever.
This is God's power at work, not me.
So that's one way to gain confidence in God's saving power.
Maybe another way you don't have confidence in God's
saving power is because you're scared to become a Christian.
'cause you think, oh, what if it doesn't work?
Like, what if, uh, I pray and ask God to save me, and then nothing happens.
What if I try to repent on my sin and then nothing happens?
Right?
I've heard this so many times from students.
It's like, well, I tried to become a Christian.
It didn't work.
Or I, I prayed this prayer and nothing happened.
What that shows is a lack of trust in God's power because you're
asking what if, what if, what if?
What if?
It's like, you know, when, when like the little kid is trying to learn how to swim
and dad's like, jump in the pool, and he's like, well, what if you don't catch me?
What is the kid, what is that kid saying about their dad?
I don't trust you.
I don't trust you to catch me.
And so if you're on the fence, if you're saying, well, I tried,
I don't know if it's gonna work.
I tried this.
I'm not sure if it, if anything didn't happen.
Just God's power saves people.
And God is much more powerful than your sin.
And so you can trust him to save you.
You can, you can jump into the pool and trust.
Trust him to catch you.
God does the saving, not you.
Right?
If you're saying, well, I tried and it didn't work, who are
you counting on to save you?
You?
Because you're saying, I did something and it didn't work.
Not, oh God did something.
That's that.
When you get saved, that's the whole point is God does it not you.
So, and this also works with assurance.
Maybe you're, you are a Christian, you're, sometimes you're like,
I'm not sure if I'm a Christian.
I'm not, I don't know.
I'm struggling with his sin.
Or I, I'm not sure if I'm really a Christian.
Maybe my intro scared.
The, the living daylights outta you as they say.
And you're like, oh my goodness.
I don't know if I'm a Christian anymore.
God's power, God's Christians.
I want you to see something.
This verse right here, verse 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
For it is the power of God for salvation.
For who?
For people who don't believe.
For people who do believe and remember.
Remember who Paul's preaching the gospel to.
He's preaching the gospel to the Romans, not Roman soldiers.
Roman Christians who may be worse soldiers too.
But Roman Christians, Paul's preaching the gospel to Christians.
He's saying the gospel is the power of God to save Christians.
How do Christians get saved?
Well, salvation, right?
You're, you're saved in a sense of you're justified, right?
And that happens as soon as you put your faith in Jesus.
But the way the Bible talks about salvation is that salvation is sometimes
a future thing when you get to heaven.
We learned about this in our main service, right?
Christians who by God's power, see, that are being guarded
through faith for a salvation.
Ready to be revealed in the last time.
So there's present salvation, right?
You're justified and there's future salvation.
You're glorified, right?
You're in heaven with God.
So if you're saying, oh, I don't know if I'm gonna make it right, I don't.
I know if I'm gonna make it to heaven.
I'm not sure.
I don't know if God will keep me saved.
I don't know if I'm a Christian.
God guards Christians, God's power guards Christians and keeps them saved.
Put your confidence in God to keep you saved.
Don't put your confidence in, well, if I try really hard,
then I'll make it to heaven.
If I keep reading my Bible, if I keep praying, if I keep coming to, like,
God uses those things to save you.
Yes, but God's power is what guards you.
God's power is what guards you.
But what does God use?
His power.
How does he use his power?
How, what does that actually look like?
Right?
Because you don't, you can't see God using his power to keep people saved.
Well, look, God, God's power guards people through faith, through that's like means.
That's like how something happens.
God's power, God's people through faith.
God uses your faith.
To keep you safe, and that's what Paul is talking about in this passage.
Salvation for everyone who believes and the righteousness
of God is revealed from faith.
For faith as is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
Your faith is what God uses to guard you.
That's why our main point was trusting Jesus is what gets you to heaven.
Trusting Jesus is also what keeps you saved because God's the one who
does it, so you trust God to do it.
God uses your faith to guard you.
And so that's where your confidence needs to be because if your confidence
that you're gonna stay Christian is in your Bible reading plan, or what
church you go to, or who your parents are, your confidence isn't in God.
Your confidence is in yourself and you're gonna let yourself down
because you're not good enough.
But God is God's power guards people and he uses your faith to do it.
So that's why.
Your confidence has to be in God to keep you saved.
'cause a lot of times when we struggle with like assurance, right?
I'm not sure if I'm a Christian, it's because we're
thinking about what I'm doing.
I need to do this, I need to do this.
I'm not doing this.
And maybe it's because you have unconfessed sin in your life and maybe
God's using that to show you something.
But a lot of times it's because you're focusing on, well, I'm not seeing enough
fruit, or I'm not like this person.
It's all about you.
So God uses your faith in him to, to keep you saved.
God's power is for salvation to everyone who keeps on believing, right?
The people who who keep on believing are the ones who stay saved, right?
Because they keep trusting Jesus.
They keep doing the same thing that got them saved.
They trusted Jesus, and you keep trusting Jesus all the way to the end, right?
Trusting Jesus isn't just a one time thing.
You don't just trust Jesus for salvation and then do the rest of
your Christian life by your works.
You don't just trust Jesus to get to get you saved, and you say, all right,
now that I'm saved, I trusted Jesus.
Take away my sin.
Now I'm gonna try really hard so I can grow a lot.
No, no.
You trust Jesus to get you saved, and then you keep trusting
Jesus the rest of the way.
The righteous shall live by faith, not by effort.
Faith is what God uses to guard you and also to grow you.
And so our second point tonight is to keep looking to God for faith.
Keep looking to God for faith.
And again, this is an ongoing thing, right?
It's not just, well, I trusted Jesus once and now I'm good.
And that's what I think Paul is talking about when he says the righteousness
of God is revealed from faith.
For faith.
He's saying that initial faith in the gospel leads to more faith down the road.
Your initial faith in the gospel then keeps growing and you keep
trusting Jesus and then you end up living your whole life by faith.
That's how you make it to the end.
That's how you're, you're finally saved.
That's how you reach to heaven because God keeps you saved using your faith.
You keep trusting him.
And so what we need to do is we need to live by faith.
We need to keep, keep trusting God.
So well, it's like, well, how do I get faith?
Right?
How do I get faith?
Well, it's right here.
The righteousness of God is revealed, and that's what leads to faith.
So you see God and you get faith.
That's how the, that's how God works.
That's how God gives you faith.
You look at God and that gives you faith.
Well, how you see God, right?
I, I haven't seen God.
Uh, most people who lived haven't seen God.
Where do you see God?
Right here.
That's why we tell you to read your Bible, not because if you read
your Bible, you'll go to heaven.
Because you read your Bible, you see God.
You see God, and you get faith.
And faith is how you live as a Christian.
Faith is the key to being a Christian, and so that's why we
care about you reading your Bible.
That's why your parents tell you to do your rivalry.
That's why at our church, Bible's literally our middle
name because the Bible's where you see God and it's objective.
It's like, well, no, this is what it says.
'cause imagine.
'cause some people are like, oh well I want a vision of God.
Right?
I wish, I wish I could see God like in my head and have a, have a dream about him or
a vision of him, and that'd be super cool.
'cause then I know for sure that I was a Christian, right?
Well, guess what?
Let's say you had a dream about God and then in like five years you're like,
well, did I really have that dream?
Or was I just kind of hallucinating?
Or what if, what if it wasn't really God?
What if it was someone else that looked like God?
See how unreliable that is.
You, you can't count on like a, a vision or a dream.
What you can count on is this.
'cause guess what, if you're not sure what she read, guess what you can do?
You can look right back at it and say, oh yeah, that is what God said.
And then the next week when you forgot what you read, you
can say, okay, what did I read?
And you look right back at it.
Here's what God said.
It's objective.
And that, that's why God gave us a book.
That's why God just doesn't give everyone a vision or a, a burning in their bosom
to tell them that they're a Christian.
He gives you a book to help you see him because it's objective and
you can always come back to it.
And that's where you look to get faith.
You look at, you look at God through his word, and you get faith.
That's what Paul's gonna say in Romans chapter 10.
Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
That's the Bible.
That's how you get faith.
Where does faith come from The Bible?
Because you see God.
God gives you faith.
That's how anyone gets saved, right?
That's what this, that's what this passage is about in context.
How are they gonna believe if they've never heard?
Well, they're gonna hear the gospel from God's word.
That's how you initially got faith is someone preached the gospel to you.
But that's also how you live as a Christian.
You, you keep hearing God's word.
That's why we care about sermons, right?
That's why I don't just come up here and give you life advice.
That's why I give you a sermon because the, the Bible is where you meet God,
and that's where you get faith and that's how you survive as a Christian.
It's kind of like, you know when Jesus was walking on the water and then Peter
wanted to walk out to Jesus on the water, Peter's like, oh yeah, it's super cool.
I wanna try that.
Right?
And then Peter started to sink.
Why did Peter start to sink?
Because he stopped looking at Jesus.
He started looking at the wind.
He started looking at the water.
What would give Peter more faith?
Look at Jesus.
Look at him.
He's walking on water.
He can surely, he, he made water.
He can definitely keep you above water too, Peter, but he didn't do that.
And so then he didn't trust Jesus as much.
But looking at Jesus is what gives you faith.
That's, that's why we care about memorizing the Bible, right?
Because how are you gonna look to Jesus if you don't have God's word ready?
If it's not, if it's not there for you to grab onto.
How are you gonna get your faith?
And that's why we want you to, to internalize God's word, to memorize
it, to think about it, to know what it says, because that's how
you get, that's your lifeline.
That's how you get faith.
If you, if you don't know God's word, you're not able to get
faith because you can't see God.
And you're gonna be so concerned with everything else that's going on,
so you keep looking.
And that's why also, it's not just, oh, read the Bible, check the box, and
forget about it for the rest of my day.
Because you live by faith.
You don't check the box and move on.
So living by faith, right?
We hear that all the time.
Live by faith.
What does that mean?
Well, it means that faith is the key to all of Christian living.
There's two verses that I I want you to see, and they're kind of
crazy when you think about it.
First one, Hebrews 11, six.
Without faith, it's impossible to please God.
If you don't trust God, you can't please him.
You do something without trusting God.
God is not pleased with that.
That's what this passage is saying.
Anything you do apart from faith is not pleasing to God.
God's not excited about that.
And then Romans 1423, whatever does not proceed, that means come from
whatever doesn't come from faith.
Whatever's not generated by faith is sin.
Which is even crazier, right?
Not just that God isn't pleased with it, it's actually you're sinning and, and
that's also why we care so much about your heart, because faith isn't just external.
This is why you might not be pleasing God with your Bible reading.
You might not be pleasing God with how you serve at church.
You might not be pleasing God with how you obey your parents.
Because if you're not doing it as an act of trust,
then you're sinning.
And don't get mad at me.
You can't mad at God.
That's what God's saying.
Every act obedience is an expression of trust dependence in the Lord.
It's a, it's a heartfelt thing, right?
Remember Romans one, five, we talk about obedience of faith.
Faith and obedience are connected.
They're always together.
Real obedience is always connected.
To trust in the Lord.
One pastor, he put it like this, you obey because God is for you
not to get God to be for you.
The difference between those is if you're obeying by works, right?
To earn something you're trying to get God to, to do something for you.
You're trying to to obey so that maybe God will like you more.
Or you're trying to obey so that maybe God will let you pass the math
test or you're trying to obey so that maybe God will make your life better.
That's not from faith.
That's you being selfish and trying to earn something from God.
Or maybe it's, well, I want to, I want to do all these things for God so
that I feel really good about myself.
So I'm like, oh, look at me.
I'm such a great Christian.
That's not from faith.
That's the opposite of faith because you're building yourself up.
Faith says.
I need God, I trust him.
I depend on him, not myself.
So living by faith means that you obey out of an expression of your faith, right?
Every time you read the Bible, it's because I need God.
I am helpless without him, right?
Jesus says in John 15, apart from you, I can do nothing.
And he's talking about God, right?
Apart from God, I can do nothing.
So
without faith, you, you cannot please God.
So if, if your obedience is all surface level, external, right?
If your Bible memory, if your kindness to other people, if, if it's all
external, if it's all just going through the motions to get things done,
to make yourself feel good or earn God's approval, that's not from faith.
And God would say that that's not pleasing to him because
that's about you, not about God.
And that's why we care about your heart.
We, faith is more than just just a decision.
Faith involves all of you.
It involves your desires, it involves your emotions.
Because if so, think about it like this.
If, let's say, um, your parents ask you to unload the dishwasher.
You say, okay, fine, I'll do it.
And you're super grumpy and in your head you're like, I can't
believe to make you do this.
I don't know why.
This is what younger siblings are for.
Why do they make me do this?
This is the worst.
My parents are the worst.
Why is this happening?
Are you really obeying them externally?
You are right, but internally, you're not.
Internally, you kind of hate them.
If you're honest in that moment, you're hating them.
Sometimes we say, oh, I'm obeying God because I'm, I'm doing the right things.
It's like, well, you're, you're, yes, externally, you're obeying
God, but internally you're not.
Right?
Internally, you're still unloving.
You're still not kind.
You're still not patient.
You still don't trust God.
You still don't love God.
So faith is not just a.
External decision.
Oh, like I placed my intellectual trust in Jesus that he is the only way to
save me faith is also loving Jesus.
Treasuring Jesus saying, I, I want Jesus.
Like we talked about this, I don't know when, before we talked
about how you don't wanna just be a Christian to get outta hell.
Right?
That's like dating someone just 'cause you don't wanna be single.
Right?
That's the worst.
That's called rebounding, right.
Uh, don't make your relationship with God like that either.
Like, oh, I'm just a Christian so I don't have to go to hell.
Right?
It's not loving God.
That doesn't say, that doesn't, that doesn't make God look good, right?
It doesn't glorify God.
It has to come from the heart.
So keep looking to God for faith because faith is how you live, right?
When we talk about living by faith.
That idea of live in the Bible.
Such a big word.
You think about John's gospel, he talks about eternal life.
He says that when you, when you become a Christian, you get eternal life right now.
Like it starts now.
And I think he, he doesn't just mean in terms of number of years, like, oh,
you're gonna live forever, eternal life.
I think he also means eternal, like abundant, like vibrant, like you're
really living, you know, like, you know when you listen to a song on your phone.
I remember the first time someone showed me, Forrest Frank, and they showed me on
their phone and I was like, okay, cool.
Then they showed me in their car and I was like, oh, okay.
I get this now.
This makes, I understand why this guy's so popular.
Because there's a, it's like fundamentally different, right?
The, the, the phone speaker versus the car speaker, right?
Or like when you're playing a video game and someone turns up the
sensitivity on your controller, right?
I didn't know you could do that.
And then someone showed me, we were playing, I think Star Wars
Battlefront, and they were like, you know, because they started playing
and they were like, what is this?
And I was like, what's what?
And they're like, they go to the settings.
And I was like, I've never even seen this before.
And they turned sensitivity up.
And I was like, whoa, this is like, like, I'm alive now.
You know?
Or like.
My in middle school, my favorite ride at Disneyland was the star tourist,
the 3D like flight simulator thing.
And my friend, he hated the 3D stuff 'cause it made him nauseous.
So he did the whole ride without the 3D glasses and I
was like, what are you doing?
Like you might as well not go on the ride.
Right?
That's kind of like when you become a Christian, you put the 3D
glasses on and you're like, whoa.
That's what everything's for.
Like this makes so much sense now.
This is so much better.
This is so much more full.
This is like your, your joy is so much more full.
Your peace is so much deeper.
Your heart is so much more alive.
Your friendships are, are so much better because you're living.
That's why God says that you're dead in your sin because it's,
you're just, you're just walking around with, with a cold heart.
You're just looking for all these things to satisfy you, and they're not
going to, they're leaving you empty.
So you're not just living by faith in the sense of you're existing by faith.
You're alive.
You're really alive, like figuratively, right?
The things are brighter, the things are jumping off the screen at you.
They're, it makes sense, it's deeper, it's fuller, it's vibrant.
It's the illustration I was gonna use, but you guys are probably
way too young to get it, which is crazy because I'm not that old.
But there's this really old movie called The Wizard of Oz,
and what was so big about this movie is it, it starts off in all black and
white, and then there's this scene.
She opens the door, she opens the door, and then it's all color.
That's, that's what we're talking about here.
When you, when you have a relationship with Jesus, it's
like, oh, it's all here now.
Like eternal life starts as a Christian.
Jesus offers you joy, satisfaction, peace, all, all these things that are
just, they're black and white, two dimensional, low sensitivity when you
don't have a relationship with him.
And so that's the kind of.
Christianity that that's real is when you've really experienced
like Psalm 34 taste and see that the Lord is good, right?
It's, it's an experience of I know God, not just, I did things for God.
I know God, I, I trust him.
He's, he's real to me.
So what, what gets people to heaven is persevering faith.
They keep looking to God for faith.
It's an ongoing pursuit of God, ongoing dependence of God.
Because if, if, if you just trust in your decision, then you're not trusting God.
You're trusting your decision.
So I know my prayer for all of you, and I know your leaders as well, is
that, is that you don't, you're not one of the students where, where we
take your picture off the wall, right?
We want you to make it to the end.
And the way to do that is genuine, ongoing, continual faith in Jesus.
And that's what you're gonna talk about more in small groups.
So let's pray and we'll get to small groups.
God, we are so grateful that your power guards us.
We couldn't ask for anything more from you.
Um, but this the same power that.
Created the world, the same power that flooded the Earth, the same power
that raised Jesus from the dead is guarding us if we really are saved.
And so I pray that for those of us who are Christians, that that we would continue
to just lean into you, that we would continue to put our, our confidence in
you to save us, to grow us, and that we would show that confidence in you.
Buy our relationship with you, that we would live out that confidence in
you by doing things like praying and reading the Bible and coming to church
because we trust you not to, not to puff ourselves up, but because we need
you and we want you, and we love you.
I pray for anyone here who's who's not saved.
God, I pray that you use your power to save them.
I pray that as Almighty God, you would raise them from their spiritual
deadness and give them new life.
We pray all this in Jesus name.
Amen.