SPEAKER_01 0:03

They hide the button. Can y'all hear me now? Now we good? Alright. Good morning. Good to see y'all this morning. I want to thoroughly apologize that it's me up here and not Pastor Jared or Pastor Byron. Is this thing feeding back? Can y'all hear me? We good?

unknown 0:26

We're good.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

We're going to figure it out. Y'all be calm. Y'all be patient. If not, I will grab the handheld. Alright, I'd ask you to open up first to uh Philippians chapter 3. Um, but before I get started, uh, I wanted to say from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate everybody, all the prayers. Um, I've been getting a lot of comments, a lot of uh text messages and DMs and stuff like that, and you coming up and shaking my hand and telling me that you're praying for me and my family. And I want you to understand, I might not respond to all of them, but my spirit does respond to all of them. Um and we're very thankful. Uh, for y'all that don't know, my father is very sick. He was uh diagnosed with stage four bladder cancer. He has a tumor. Um, we went there for Easter, he seemed to be okay, and by the end of that week he can no longer walk. So uh he does have a tumor in his bladder and his muscles that's sitting on a nerve sac. That's he's just in a lot of pain. So uh last week went down there, built him a wheelchair ramp, and it's crazy what you can get fired up about. I talked to him this morning, I'll tell you what, he is fired up about that wheelchair ramping. You know, you wouldn't think you'd be excited, but he was so excited about that. We did it too. I mean, it's nice now. I mean, you get a couple electricians and operators together, it's crazy what we can get done. We got nickel plate on that thing. I mean, it's like a he feels like he's driving up like a race car ramping. He's he's fired up about it. So, uh, but he's he's in good spirits and he and he's doing okay. And what I want to talk about today really pertains to that. So in Philippians 3, I don't so much have a topic this morning as I do I want to talk about um the sum of what Paul's talking about in this chapter of Philippians 3. It's a very uh familiar chapter. We know many verses from this chapter, but this chapter altogether goes to teach us something that we should strive towards as Christians. It's not so much about a topic, it's about an end goal. It's about where we're trying to be. And it's funny to me how often we try to live out this faith without following the scriptures. And it's not just correction. It's not just correction and do this and don't do that. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is how Christians should approach the world and approach discipleship. See, thankful for our pastor who's wearing his Jimmy Buffett shirt today, but thankful for our pastor this morning. You look good, brother. Takes a lot of confidence to wear that shirt. All right, that brother's doing good. Hey, he got some good socks on. I think Pastor Byron put the pressure on him with the way he dresses, so he's coming out the box a little bit, but we're good. But you know what we will what we will do, and and our pastor has done a phenomenal job in the entire time of laying down this church and talking about salvation. Well, do you know there are days after that? And that is called discipleship, and that's what we go through in discipleship, and that's what transforms us from a baby Christian to a mature Christian. And we have to go through these things. You see, I have failed as a husband many times, as I'm sure many of you have, and I would like to think I'm a better husband today. Don't answer, babe, but I like to think I'm a better husband today than I was eight years ago because I didn't know what I was doing. And look, the zeal never faded. The zeal for my marriage has never faded. But the practicality and how do we get through these things has definitely grown over time. And you know how? It was not because of our wonderful vacations that we spent in paradise. That was not when our marriage grew. Our marriage grew whenever she packed a bag. And I said, I'm coming with you. Because we're gonna make it through this thing. And I'm so thankful that we have. And you know, it's the same thing in our walk in Christ Christianity. It's whenever we get through the things that God is leading us to, it takes us to new heights. And the beautiful thing about Christianity is it's not all about you.

unknown 4:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

I want to tell you the reason why you walk through things is for the person sitting next to you. You see, I do have a somewhat, for whatever reason, a decent sized platform on social media, especially back home in Lake Charles where I'm from. And I can't tell you, when I was pastoring my previous church, there was actually more members online than in person. For whatever reason, those people kind of stuck to me. You know what? They know my dad's sick, and you know what they're doing? They're watching me. They are watching me. They want to see how I handle this. It's, and you know, as a Christian, I have to be aware of that. That doesn't mean I don't cry. That doesn't mean I don't spend times in my truck by myself and nobody's around me, brokenhearted, not knowing what to do, what the answer is. But at the end of the day, in my discipleship, what people see from me matters. It matters because we all go through things, but they need to see how to go through things. And what I was getting at earlier with how we will try to live out this faith without the scripture is that do you know, as Christians, we should actually seek suffering and seek circumstances, seek hard times. Now, I knew I wasn't gonna get an amen on that. I want you to understand something. I am not happy right now. I'm gonna be very open, vulnerable, and honest with you this morning. All I'm asking in return is you be the same. That's all I'm asking. Please drop the facade for just a second. Can we just be not perfect for just a minute? I don't need to know all your problems, you don't need to know all mine, you just need to know I got them. You need to know I'm here for you, and a way above that, he's here for you. And in these moments when nothing makes sense, I'm just gonna be honest with y'all. My daddy has been sick for a very long time, and it's been very hard to watch for a very long time. I watched this guy, y'all think I'm big? Nah. That was a man right there, and now I see him younger than a lot of people that are in here, and he can't do simple things for himself anymore. And that hurts. And he's made it through several things. And he had quadruple bypass four years ago, and he made it through it. Whenever doctors didn't even want to touch him, he made it through it. And I just prayed. I was like, Well, God didn't want him to die that way. But why does he have to die with cancer? Why does he have to be in so much pain? Can I be honest? Do we not ask questions like that? Do we not question God sometimes? Is there anybody in here that does not struggle with their faith? Please raise your hand. You don't struggle with it at all? Give it time. You the man, I believe you, but give it time. Because, hey, you're supposed to question your faith. God is supposed to set you in situations that make you question your faith and see what your faith is really all about. Amen. And Paul was going through this in Philippians chapter 3. I'm gonna be honest with y'all. I had too long to prepare for this message, and I have no idea how I'm gonna preach this message. So y'all just be with me. I have ADD, and uh, that's not good with time. All right? That's not good with time. The last time Pastor Jared asked me to preach on Saturday, I came in on Sunday. I didn't have time to go down rabbit holes. Today I do. So pray with me that I don't. But I want to start in Philippians 3, uh, and I'm gonna read through this passage, verses 3 to 11, and it's going to be uh the reason why I'm going through this, you'll see towards the end. Okay, so a lot of reading this morning, but we're gonna get through it. Hey, we do love the Bible, amen? And I don't think I can say it any better than Paul, so we'll read what he said. But in Philippians 3, chapter verse 3, he says, For we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so circumcise. Watch this. All right, so first and foremost, Paul is saying we worship in Christ and we don't have confidence in the flesh, but even though I tell you we shouldn't have confidence in the flesh, I probably have some confidence in the flesh. Paul humanizing himself, saying, even though I'm telling, hey, do as I'm saying right now, maybe not necessarily as I always do, but even though I'm telling you you should not have confidence in the flesh, I probably do. Once again, being real, being honest, allowing yourself to be challenged. Watch what he says, then he qualifies himself right here in verse 5. He said, I was circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning righteousness, which is the law, blameless. Paul has qualified himself as one of the elites. He's saying, everything that you're trying to do, I've already done it. And in doing that, I want to give myself some credit every now and then. I want to take a little pat on the back every now and then. I've said this at work before. I don't need to hear a good job. Man, don't hurt. And that's what Paul's saying here. He's saying, even though I tell you over and over not to trust in yourself because self will fail, man will fail. Even though I'm telling you this over and over, I probably still do it. Because I have seen myself accomplish things. And I want to tell you, it's not bad that you've accomplished things. You know, I follow, I know what I look like, but honestly, I run every morning. And it's it's working, it's getting there. But got a long way to go. But I I know I don't look like a runner, but I do run every morning. And I listen to some of these psychos, man, that's on YouTube every hey, at 2:30 in the morning, you need a little motivation. All right. And uh, I'm running on that treadmill, and I hear this uh this one guy, and he he's a psychopath, and I don't uh necessarily uh ask you to follow down his path, but it works for me because my crazy matches is crazy. But one thing he talked about is he has done some uh unfathomable things. And every day he pushes himself, he almost runs a marathon every single day. That's why I'm asking you not to be like him. But he says that when he's really in it and he really doesn't want to go through it, he's really struggling this every single day. He has something that he calls the cookie jar. And in that cookie jar, he holds his accomplishments in there. And see, he doesn't live off of them, but it's a treat that every now and then you reach in there and you remind yourself of where you've came from. There's nothing wrong with that. Because I know I'm not who I want to be. I know who I'm not who I'm called to be, but I thank God that I'm not who I used to be. And we hold on to some of those accomplishments and let those things mow. It's so easy to forget where we were when he found us because we put so much pressure on us constantly, especially once you come into the faith. And before I go for it, I want to dissect that mindset real quick. Jesus gets baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Amen. That was the first step in his ministry. And it's John says that he saw the spirit, the sky split, and the spirit of a living dove descend upon Jesus. And the spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove. And then it says that he heard a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. And the next verse does not say that he turned water into wine. It does not say that he raised Lazarus from the dead, it does not say that him and Peter went walking on the water. The next verse doesn't say that. The next verse says that he went and the spirit led him into the wilderness. Because the wilderness was the staging area for the greatest move of God the world has ever seen. Jesus was called to suffer just like you and I were called to suffer because there was no way he could uphold that ministry without those 40 days. Those 40 days are the most critical and important days in the entire ministry of Jesus. Because in those 40 days, he felt everything we feel. He felt every temptation. He overcame all temptations. And you're called to do the same. You're called to walk through a wilderness. When we come to God, we think that now all of a sudden we got it and we can take off and we can run. Man, I'm here to tell you, God wants you to wait every now and then. He's got some things he needs to work with on you. Not saying you're not called, just saying you might not be called today. Are we okay with that? You see, what the way the enemy came and tempted, Pastor Byron, I love this. The way the enemy came and tempted Jesus in the wilderness was he, the last thing Jesus heard before he went to the wilderness was, This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. The next voice he hears on whatever day it was, it was the voice of the enemy saying, If you are the son of God, turn these stones into bread. Jump from this cliff. The angels will catch you. If you are the son of God, do these things. The problem is, God didn't say, This is my son. He left out one key word. This is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. And a father who loved his son allowed the spirit to lead him into the wilderness. Because his son needed it. He was going to answer the call that was on him. So I'm here to tell you, if you feel like you're going through it this morning, you're going through it for a reason. You're not going through it in vain, you're not going through it for no reason. I'm going through it with you. There are days I wake up and I don't know why I'm going through all the things I'm going through. God, I've been faithful, I've been honest, I've been truthful, I've tried my best to be the best man I can be, and I'm still going through this situation. Exactly. I love these seasons in my life because I get closer to God in these seasons than I ever do when everything's going right. When everything is going right, I find myself losing my focus on God. Anyone testify to that? See, our father knows what we need. We don't. It was up to us. We'd be hanging out in Hawaii just being blessed. Unfortunately, we live inside Louisiana, the furthest thing from Hawaii. And we got some things to deal with. But yes, like I was saying, in the the first part, Paul is qualifying himself. And what Paul is battling, we see right here in verse 7. He continues on. He said, But what things were gained to me, these I have counted lost for Christ, yet indeed I also count all things for the excellence of the knowledge. Read that one more time. The excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. What Paul is attacking here is moralism. He's attacking something I call therapeutic moralistic deism, which is that it feels really good to do really good. That's not the call of God. That's not what God's called you to. Yes, it's good to be a good person, but it's nowhere near good enough. It takes somebody from outside what we're dealing with to fix what we're going through. And moralistic deism will not take us there. So Paul qualifies himself saying, if you think you've done good, look at my resume. And look at how good I've done. And yet I missed it. I totally and utterly missed it. He said, because while I was working hard at all those things and I accomplished everything you want to accomplish, I count all that as a loss. If I just gain Christ. And and I'm gonna finish reading it and then I'm gonna keep going through this. He said, Yet indeed I also count all things for the loss, all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and watch this. I uh y'all think I'm lying when I say crazy things, but the Bible calls us to this that I may know him and the power of his resurrection in what? The fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. So Paul attacks moralism and he attacks misplaced faith. He attacks whenever we misplace our faith. All too often we have faith in us, what we've done, what we've accomplished, what we're able to do. The problem with that is it's very fragile. It's very, very, very fragile. And for the first 10 or so years of my faith, I didn't realize how fragile it was. It was pretty good. I ain't gonna lie. First 10 years, I was I was doing alright. And these last two, my God in heaven. I had no idea how fragile my faith was. And I don't know if you know. I know we all have different walks, we all have different uh backdrops and stories and things that we've come through. Some of you are new to the Lord, some of you uh might have actually known the Lord. Okay? So some of us have been walking in this for a long time, some of us have not. But I don't know if we fully grasp how fragile our faith can be. And God molds that in us against our will. Amen. We all say free will, everybody's always talking about free will and everything. Yeah, well, it seems like some things happened that you didn't choose. And it's because you have a good father. Because we got this little quote right here. I thought this was nice. Is it up there? We got it? We'll get to it. Watch this. It says, the knowledge of our accomplishments expires, but the knowledge of Christ's accomplishment is everlasting life. The excellence of the knowledge of Christ. We have to hold on to that. We have to grip that because I'm gonna keep walking through this next passage. Like I said, I wanted to read this to really get to the next passage. Because this is where the rubber meets the road. This is where your faith is tested. This is where everything matters. Because, guys, this I'm not talking about salvation this morning. I'm talking about discipleship. I'm talking about walking with Jesus, following Jesus and what that entails. And that is not easy. We say that so much as if it's just something we repeat. Wash, rinse, repeat. No, following Jesus is extremely, extremely difficult. And it costs you everything. You have the free gift of salvation, and it costs you everything. And Paul attacks that, and I love the way he attacks it. Probably, this is probably my favorite passage from Paul. In verse 12, watch this. He says, Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on. Come on, somebody say that with me. I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. We've got to let go of what's behind us if we have a chance of grabbing what's ahead of us. And see, for 10 years I was in the same church with the same ministry, with the same people, and I had no intention of ever letting them go. None. And then they were taken from me, and I had to reach towards something new, and I landed right here. See, we don't know what God has in store for us because we're so busy holding on to what's behind us. But it is impossible for you to reach out for what God has promised you if you're hanging on to things that worked in the past, or things that failed in the past, or what somebody did to you, or what you did to them. Whatever it is that we're holding on to as we're looking, like they say, like they say, you're chasing that carrot. You got that little carrot hanging in front of you. It's promises of God, it's opportunities, it's abilities, it's things to get through something for somebody else so that you can help your neighbor, love your neighbor, so you can teach somebody, show somebody the ways of Christ. But if we are constantly holding on behind us, we have no way of letting of grabbing on to what he has in front of you. We have got to put these things behind. That's what Paul's saying. He's saying, brother, I'm not saying I'm perfect. I'm just saying my hands ain't full so I can reach forward. I'm ready for what's next. I'm not hung up on what they did to me. At some point, we've got to get over that. Can I just be honest for a second? At some point, we gotta stop the belly aching and we just gotta get past it, man. It's time to stop crying about people being people. Surprise, the church is broken. Wake up. Of course it is. Because we're in here. What's that saying that says the church was perfect before somebody walked in? It's the truth. We've all failed in some form or fashion, and in some ways, it looks worse than others. But none of us have hit the mark every time. Even Paul saying, I told you I don't have confidence in the flesh, but I probably do, and this is why I probably have confidence in the flesh. But I'm telling you right now, I'm letting go of all of my past excesses. I'm letting go of everything that y'all would have elevated me with or puffed up my head with, and I'm reaching forward to whatever God has called for me. And unfortunately for Paul, it was a jail cell and a beheading. But he pushed forward and he pushed on. And because he didn't cry in his sorrow and everything that he went through, he ended up getting jailers saved. He was saving people until the day he died because his mind was focused on Christ, not on me. Imagine being Paul for a second. He just told you everything he accomplished. He was at the top, he was a one percenter. And then he died in prison when they cut his head off. He gave up everything. He gave up his status. You see, people quote this verse and saying, Oh, everything's a loss for Christ. No, he gave up a status. He got where everybody's trying to get. He was there. He gave up his high seat. Just as Christ did. He fellowshipped in the suffering of Christ. Everybody wants to be like Jesus, but oh, we don't want to suffer like we were told we had to pick up our cross and follow him every day. I'm here to tell you that's gonna hurt. I'm here to tell you it's supposed to hurt. You think that plant life when it's being pruned, when it's being cut, when it's being shaped into what it needs to be. It doesn't understand what you understand about it. It doesn't know that you're growing it in the direction that it needs to go. You have a calling on that plant. That plant is supposed to produce fruit as well as you. And I understand now. As I sit and cry in my truck all the time and don't understand what God has for me, I understand. I can relate to Paul somewhat. I got where a lot of people wanted to get. I pastored the church. I did all that great stuff. I kind of reached up. I kind of got there. It was good for a minute. But I'm so much happier today. After God had taken it all away from me. And I had to put my trust back in him. As I think of what Pastor Jarr was talking about last week with Peter. When Peter said, I want to show you this in practicality what happens. Whenever you're allowed to stay comfortable in your faith, it would allow you to do things you would have never done in desperation. After the Last Supper, Jesus tells Peter at the Last Supper, You're gonna fall. He says, Simon, Satan has asked to sit you as we didn't say I'm stopping him, and he didn't say I'm taking over the situation. What'd he say? I pray that your faith would not fail. And then he confirms him by saying, You're gonna deny me three times. And what Peter said, what every one of us would say. I would never deny you. That spiritual arrogance rises up in us. God, I would never do that. And Jesus looking at him and saying, Son, you ain't never been through nothing. This has been a cakewalk for you. I've been right here by your side. Let's see what you do when I'm no longer by your side. So, Peter, you got that puffed up chest. I've been telling you gonna be the rock I'm gonna build my church. I don't watch this. Jesus was not caught off guard when Peter did not. He knew it was coming. He told him it was coming. So Peter and his spiritual arrogance bypassed what Christ warned him about. To the point that he's invited to a garden to a ultimate prayer closet to watch Jesus sweat blood in prayer. And he's only asked of one thing, keep watch. What's he do? Falls asleep. He falls asleep on the job. Why? Because he's comfortable. He's comfortable. He's at peace where he's at. He's not in the suffering right now. He's walking in the newness. He's walking in good stuff. Jesus just gave me some wine and some bread and told me I'm the rock he's gonna build a church on. So I can kind of take my foot off the gas for a little bit and I can kind of go back over here. And I ain't like them other nine apostles. I get invited to the prayer closet. Falls asleep on the job, wakes up. Jesus tears his butt up a little bit. He wakes up in an insecurity. What's he doing? He cuts a man's ear off. He gets corrected. And just imagine that mindset of Peter for just a second. A man who thought he was on top of the world. Next thing you know, here comes all these opportunities. That's exactly what he does. I don't think that's in there. I don't think that's in there for me. We're following out a different setting ourselves over denial. And that's where Peter was. Just a couple hours later. He finds himself in a dish. We see Peter fall into denial. And thank God for Jesus. We came back the next chapter and reconciled him and brought him all back and all good. But just that mindset, that that spiritual arrogance that I'm not really gonna walk through anything, and I have all these promises of God. I want to tell you something. The fastest growing churches in America today are the ones that preach that God that God's gonna leave you alone. My message is God loves you too much to leave you alone. God called you to more, and the way to more is through the suffering. I'm walking through that now. I'm happier now. I'm more honest to that. I'm not happier, I'm more joyful today than I was just a couple months ago. Because I know that there's a promise you're making on the other side. But you're going through it for a reason because watch this. A faith that has never been tested can never be trusted. If your faith ain't never been through nothing, you'll be just like Peter and say, I would never do that. I would never do that. But wait till it's put to the test. Will you let go of what you've already accomplished so you can reach forward? Will you let go of where you've already failed so that you may reach forward? Well, one thing's for sure, your faith will be tested. And we have got to let go and let God. And as I think of a faith that's never been tested, as I go to finish up, I'm gonna get in, uh you can open your Bibles to 1 Peter 1. But as I I want to talk about this, I don't know if any of y'all grew up like me, just a poor white boy from South Louisiana. Grew up in between between three rice fields, didn't really have nothing to my name, didn't really think I didn't even know I had a name, be honest with you. And I walked into a car dealership one day. And uh the guy said, Man, let me run your credit. I was like, oh Lord. I don't even know what that is, to be honest with you. And you know what he did? He came back and he said, Man, you was talking all that stuff, you got some good credit, man. Your credit's like a 760. That's some good credit. I said, Come on. I said, What's that mean? He said, Well, honestly, not much. Because I don't know if y'all ever heard this phrase, but you have weak credit. Saying your score is good, it looks good on the surface, but it ain't never been through nothing. It's never been tested, you've never really bought anything that you had to really commit to. So while I'm looking at your score from a surface value, it looks good, and I want to give you this joke, but I also know you a dumb kid and you're gonna mess this up because you ain't never been through nothing. And I can tell you that about our faith in most cases. That our faith looks really good when everything's going good, when everything is going right, our faith looks beautiful and shiny and perfect, but what about when it's in the mess? When it has to finally prove itself. We go through things not for you to prove yourself, but for your faith to prove itself. And we see this in 1 Peter 1 worship team, you can come up. Be wrapping this up. Peter reminds us of this. I love I love that God's word always confirms God's word. Amen. There's a constant theme in God's word, and I love that it always confirms itself. It tells us in 1 Peter verse 3. Watch what Peter says. We've been talking about Peter a lot, huh, Pastor? We've got to change to somebody else here in a minute. 1 Peter he says this. Now, you don't think he understands? Before I get into that, you don't think Peter knows? We just talked about all his failures. We just talked about everything he didn't do, right? We've been bashing on Peter for quite a while now. But you don't think that whenever we read this, we're reading from a man who knows, who knows the failure, who knows, you know, to me, the most gut-wrenching part of all scripture is whenever he denied the third time and him and Jesus look directly at each other. Every time I picture that, it breaks my heart. So you don't think this man knows failure? You don't think he knows struggle? You don't think he knows what he that he was arrogant? Shoot, after Jesus dies, Paul's gotta come correct him. You don't think he understands? These are real people that really live and really went through what we're going through right now. This is a real book from real people and real stories and real struggles and real times, and it was created for a time is now. Because Paul and Peter knew that I was gonna need them 2,000 years ago. You see, Paul and Peter benefited almost nothing from their faith in this life, but we are we benefit from their faith. So when I tell you you're going through this for the next generation, you're going through this for the person who is looking at you and watching you and everything you do, you are going through it not only for you, but for them. If these men weren't faithful, I wouldn't be reading about them right now. Verse 3, 1 Peter 1. Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in its time. Watch this, verse 6. In this you greatly rejoice. Though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness, come on, the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom you having not seen, you love, though you do not see him, yet believing you rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory. Receiving the watch this the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls, for those who endure until the end shall be saved. The end of our faith, the end of our faith ends with salvation. We are working on faith from day one to the last. From the end of our days, the only thing we can control in this entire walk is our faith and the level of or the level of the lack of. And Peter is saying, just as James said, brothers and sisters, rejoice when you fall into various trials. Peter says, rejoice when you fall into trials. Paul saw it as an honor to suffer the sufferings of Christ. Rejoice when these things come, because in Hebrews it tells us a child that has never been chastised should not consider itself a child. A father chastised his child. So if you're somebody who's not going through something, you really should be worried. Because you're not going through something for no reason. God's investing in you. And He's moving you on to new and better things. If you're not going through something today, then get ready for it. Don't get caught off guard because you're going to. Our faith is everything we have, it's everything we can do. It's the limitations on us, it's our faith. We have nothing else to hold on to. It's our muscle that we must exercise. There's days it's gonna fail. There's days it's gonna lead you through. I'm here to tell you, you're not going through it alone. You're not going through this walk alone, and you're not going through it for no reason, and God doesn't do things in vain. Man, you're walking through it because God's called you to greater things. It's not because he has forgot about you, it's because he's getting you ready. And I know there's some people who are older than me in here. I understand that. You understand how old Caleb was when he led that army into battle? Older than everybody in here. Don't think God's done with you either. The next generation needs you. I need you. I need to see people who've been through it so I know I can get through it. Anyone else? Who's lost a parent in here? So I know I can get through it. Y'all are here, I know I can. You understand what I'm saying? This faith that goes through things is for those who don't know if they're gonna make it through or not. And there are people who will not open their mouth and say, brother, I'm going through it. I'll say it for you. I'm going through it. I have failed at everything I've ever done. I'm going through it. There are times I don't know if this faith is even real, I don't know if it's really worth keeping. I know I got the microphone this morning. I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm telling you, I don't know if there's times that I should even keep this faith. But whenever people come hug me in the morning and say, Man, I'm praying for you and your dad. Thank you. Because you give me faith back in the church. A faith that I had lost. So everything we do is a test. Everything we do is leading us to the next step and for the next person who's dependent on you. Amen. So we can stand. I told y'all, I knew the passage, had no idea how I was gonna preach it. That was the first time I ever heard it too, Pastor Byron. I'm thankful for y'all. I'm thankful for this ministry. But I do want to encourage you. I'm not much of an altar call guy. I don't know if I said anything that resonated with anybody. But regardless of what I say, what God's word says is that you should rejoice when you fall into trials. You should rejoice because God's doing a work in you. And I would just ask you to let God's word convict you. Not my mouth, not the way I say things. But if God's word has convicted you this morning, I pray you would respond to that. I pray that you would understand that even the guy with the microphone ain't got it all figured out. You're not alone in it. I question all the time. I would just ask you to be honest. To allow your faith to grow, to allow your faith to go through those things. Do you seek after those things? And do you rejoice when they come? Because, like I said, it's not a matter of if we go through it, it's how we go through it. And do we rejoice or do we complain? Do we allow God to do his work in us? You know what? I would have never in the past thanked God for the hard days of my marriage, but I'm so thankful for them today. Because no matter what, I know we're gonna make it to the other side of that. And if that's where you're at in your faith, I would ask you to respond to God today, not me. To him. Does his word convict you in your faith? Is your faith strong? Or is your faith never been tested? If your faith is going through the test right now, I pray that you would reach out to others who have faith so we can walk through this together. You do not have to do this on your own. We are here for you. I'm going through one of the worst times of my life right now, and I have more people here for me than I've ever had in my entire life. I don't want to do this alone. I don't want you to do it alone. There are people in here who are full of faith, who love you, and they want the best things for you, and they have been through things that you haven't even walked through yet. And they know what you need and they're here for you. I'm living it right now. Thank you all for everything you've done for me and my family, for the prayers, the hope, the text messages, all those things, man. They all matter. I'm not gonna respond to all of them. I just don't do that. But don't think that I don't read it. Y'all mean a lot to me. I just asked this morning if we could let go of what's holding us about and reach forward to what God has for us. Can we step in faith in what God has for us? Just like Peter got out of that boat that day. Peter got out of a perfectly fine boat. There wasn't nothing wrong with that boat. And as faith led him out there. Can we do that this morning? Because I tell you, it'd be pretty awesome to walk on water, amen. So I'm gonna go into prayer. We'll have prayer people up here. And if you need prayer, I just ask you to do that. It ain't gotta be pertaining to this, be pertaining to anything. But if God's word has convicted you to a place, I pray you would respond to that. And let's grow in our faith together. Amen. Heavenly Father, thank you for this morning. God, I thank you for everything you've done for us. God, I'm just being honest and vulnerable right now. God, I need you now more than I think I ever have. And Father, I'm so thankful that you've called me to walk through these things I'm walking through because I know I'm closer to you than I've been in a long time. And Father, I know there are people in here who may not admit it, but they're walking through some things too. And Father, I pray you would convict them to not walk through this alone, but walk through this with their church family, God, and to walk in spirit and in truth with you. Lord, we love you. We honor you. We give you praise in Jesus' name.

unknown 44:03

Amen.