SPEAKER_00: Well, growing up, I was a very anxious kid.
SPEAKER_00: And many of you have probably heard stories about it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I was scared of like everything.
SPEAKER_00: I was scared of heights.
SPEAKER_00: I was scared of storms, which to be fair, I lived in a mobile home in Dallas.
SPEAKER_00: That one was pretty rational.
SPEAKER_00: I was scared of losing loved ones.
SPEAKER_00: But all of these fears tended to be towards like the OCD side of things.
SPEAKER_00: Uh for storms, my parents would tell me, hey, like, you're gonna be fine, you're gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_00: And my question would always be, like, how can I know?
SPEAKER_00: Like, how can I be sure?
SPEAKER_00: And I would want to run outside and check the clouds or check the radar, or for planes, they would tell me, Hey, we're gonna fly here, but we're gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_00: I promise we're gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_00: And my response would be, but how can I know?
SPEAKER_00: Like, so I would go and learn everything I could possibly learn about planes.
SPEAKER_00: And and looking back, my fear was never really about storms or heights or planes or even losing a loved one.
SPEAKER_00: My fear came from not knowing for sure that everything was going to turn out okay in the end.
SPEAKER_00: Well, am I telling you that story tonight?
SPEAKER_00: Because we're in our asking for a friend series.
SPEAKER_00: We're tackling the big questions about the Bible, about God, about the world that we live in, about us.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we've been walking through them.
SPEAKER_00: This is our second week.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we talked about why should I even believe in God?
SPEAKER_00: Not just a God, but why should I believe in the Christian God?
SPEAKER_00: And we walk through all the reasons for why I would argue uh you should believe in a God, and not just any God, but the Christian God, Yahweh, the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But this week we're tackling a question that many of you have personally asked me uh at some point and another, and it's this How can I know if I'm saved?
SPEAKER_00: How can I know if I'm saved?
SPEAKER_00: And like the story I just told, many of you here in this room tonight have had a lot of fear around that question.
SPEAKER_00: What if I'm not saved?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe at some point you read the verse in Matthew 7, 21 through 23, where Jesus is giving the Sermon on the Mount, and he says, On that day, his second coming, many will come to me and say, Lord, Lord, did we not do this?
SPEAKER_00: Did we not do that?
SPEAKER_00: And I will say, Depart from me, I never knew you, you who practice lawlessness.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I can tell you uh to be vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: For me as a kid, that terrified me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I was very much one of the people who struggle with this fear of what if I think I'm saved and I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: But the flip side is that if I think you understand the question of how can I know if I'm saved, or how can I have assurance if I'm saved, then the answer to that question is going to be huge in giving you freedom from all sorts of other fears in life.
SPEAKER_00: Because so often our fears come from this fear of not everything turning out okay in the end.
SPEAKER_00: We can go through a lot of hard things in life if we know that at the end of the day, everything will be okay.
SPEAKER_00: And if you know that you will get to spend eternity with God, then your entire life, you can understand that, hey, no matter how bad or hard things get here on earth, everything will turn out okay in the end.
SPEAKER_00: And I do believe uh that you can have assurance on whether you're saved or not.
SPEAKER_00: And really, there's two things that if you know these two things, it will give you a really clear picture of where you stand with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to know what salvation is and what salvation produces.
SPEAKER_00: And we will have that back up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: But if you want to write that down, those are our two points for tonight.
SPEAKER_00: How can I know that I'm saved?
SPEAKER_00: Well, first, you got to know what salvation is, and two, you got to know what salvation produces.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is what salvation is.
SPEAKER_00: What do we even mean when we use the words I'm saved or even I'm a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: That's where this all begins, because if you misunderstand that, nothing else is gonna make sense.
SPEAKER_00: And I actually think this is one of the most misunderstood topics in the church today.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of it comes from how we invite people to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have at some point heard the phrase, hey, you got to ask Jesus into your heart?
SPEAKER_00: Probably a lot of us, right?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have heard the phrase, uh, hey, you've got to pray this prayer and you'll be saved?
SPEAKER_00: Or, hey, raise your hand or walk the aisle.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying that any of those things in and of themselves is wrong, but when we only just throw those things out there, like everybody knows what they mean, they can actually minimize what salvation truly is.
SPEAKER_00: For example, if I pray a sinner's prayer at VBS when I was five years old, does that just give me my fire insurance?
SPEAKER_00: Like my get out of hell free card, I can go do whatever I want for the rest of my life?
SPEAKER_00: No, it doesn't quite work like that, obviously.
SPEAKER_00: So, what is salvation?
SPEAKER_00: If it's not just this one ritual thing that I do and then I move on from, what is it?
SPEAKER_00: Well, and we're gonna unpack a lot of this.
SPEAKER_00: There is a moment of salvation, more on that in a minute, but let's just deal with salvation in and of itself.
SPEAKER_00: One, we are saved by grace through faith.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is nothing you can do, there's nothing you can do to earn it.
SPEAKER_00: There's no way you can climb the mountain to God.
SPEAKER_00: If you get one thing away from this sermon, I want you to write that down.
SPEAKER_00: I'll even cue you on what you should write down tonight, uh, because maybe you're somebody who struggles with this.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is by grace through faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing else, no works.
SPEAKER_00: We have nothing that we can turn in and add to the equation.
SPEAKER_00: But that begs the question that we have to drill down.
SPEAKER_00: What do we mean when we use that word faith?
SPEAKER_00: Because that word faith can mean a lot of different things.
SPEAKER_00: What's the biblical view of faith?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus actually tells us in Mark 1:15.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is at the very beginning of his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: He describes how how you can be saved in verse 15, Mark chapter 1, verse 15, it'll be on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: And write this one down if this is something you struggle with.
SPEAKER_00: The time has come, he said, the kingdom of God has come near.
SPEAKER_00: Repent and believe the good news.
SPEAKER_00: Repent and believe.
SPEAKER_00: And there's two components, and that's just one verse.
SPEAKER_00: I could have put like 15 up here that have those same elements.
SPEAKER_00: When we talk about biblical faith, we're saved by faith.
SPEAKER_00: What is faith?
SPEAKER_00: It is belief and repentance.
SPEAKER_00: So write those down.
SPEAKER_00: Belief and repentance, and we're going to walk through what those look like really quickly.
SPEAKER_00: Belief is simply, as one author puts it, acknowledging that God told the truth about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is simply saying, I believe that Jesus is who he says he is, that he did what he said he did.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that Jesus is God put on flesh.
SPEAKER_00: He's the third person of the Trinity or the second person of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: He came to earth, he lived a perfect 33 years, never did anything wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of his life, he voluntarily walked into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He was falsely accused, but it was all part of the plan.
SPEAKER_00: And he died on a cross, tortured, beaten, whipped beyond recognition, but he didn't stay dead, right?
SPEAKER_00: That he he was put into a borrowed grave and he got up and walked out.
SPEAKER_00: And none of this was by accident.
SPEAKER_00: That the Bible says that on that cross Jesus became our sin because we've all chosen to separate ourselves from God.
SPEAKER_00: We've known what God asks us to do, and we say, Hey, God, I don't really care.
SPEAKER_00: I want to do it my way.
SPEAKER_00: And we've run away from the source of life.
SPEAKER_00: And when you run away from the source of life, you give yourself death.
SPEAKER_00: Something just fall back there?
SPEAKER_00: All right, we're good.
SPEAKER_00: And we've all chosen death, we've all chosen sin.
SPEAKER_00: Yet God didn't want us to be separated from him.
SPEAKER_00: So he sent his son Jesus, who took the punishment that we've earned, right?
SPEAKER_00: When we lie, we deserve punishment.
SPEAKER_00: That punishment got put onto Jesus so that God is not sweeping your sins under the rug.
SPEAKER_00: He's looking at it and saying, I'm paying for it so that it can be fully forgiven and I stay just.
SPEAKER_00: That if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, you will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: So belief, that's the gospel, is in just a short, and I could go for days on that.
SPEAKER_00: But belief is saying, I believe that.
SPEAKER_00: I agree to that.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not where it stops, because you always see the second piece of repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And repentance is acting on that belief.
SPEAKER_00: One author puts it this way: repentance means reversing your direction based on who you understand Jesus to be.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it this way: if you believe that Jesus is truly the Son of God, then that changes everything about how you live.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus says to love your enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Well, well, then that means I I should love my enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said not to look anybody, look at anyone with lust in your heart, so you should flee from lust.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said that the greatest in the kingdom is a servant, and so you should be constantly looking for ways to serve others.
SPEAKER_00: And see, repentance is key to true faith because apart from repentance, there is no salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying that you're going to be perfect, and I'm not saying that you earn your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Again, more on that later.
SPEAKER_00: But what I am saying is that just acknowledging things as fact does not count as faith.
SPEAKER_00: Because you know who acknowledges the whole gospel message I just shared with you as fact?
SPEAKER_00: You know who does?
SPEAKER_00: Satan.
SPEAKER_00: You know who's seen God face to face?
SPEAKER_00: Satan, his demon, his demons, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a mental assertion that I believe in God or Jesus like I believe in George Washington.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, it's what do you do with that belief?
SPEAKER_00: Because the difference between you and Satan is that Satan doesn't live in line with that belief.
SPEAKER_00: He lives in rebellion.
SPEAKER_00: And see, salvation, true salvation, and what we would call faith is belief that leads to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why phrases like ask Jesus into your heart or pray this prayer can be unhelpful, is because they they make salvation seem like it's just this ritual or it's just this transaction of I do this thing and now God owes me this.
SPEAKER_00: So I can do this thing and then just move on from it and never act like it matters in my life again.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not the picture we see of salvation in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation does happen in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: I truly believe that in a moment you place your faith in Jesus and you are adopted into a new family, you are washed by his blood, you are a new creation, you are redeemed, you are set free.
SPEAKER_00: All of that happens in one moment.
SPEAKER_00: But while salvation is uh is no less than a moment, it is much more.
SPEAKER_00: That there is much more to it.
SPEAKER_00: That moment is the beginning of a posture that we take towards Jesus as king, one that's maintained for the rest of our life.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it this way: think about a wedding.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so we actually have two of our adult leaders in here who are gonna be married soon.
SPEAKER_00: So Will's over there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he you wave your hand.
SPEAKER_00: Will spoke to us a few weeks back.
SPEAKER_00: So their wedding's coming up.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Congratulations, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Congratulations.
SPEAKER_00: Um now, when their wedding day comes, they're going to stand up in front of everybody and they're going to share their vows and they're going to exchange rings.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, let me ask you, are they married?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: When they stand up in front of everybody, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, that is how a wedding works.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to get some of you guys to a wedding.
SPEAKER_00: When they stand up in front of everybody and they share their vows, they exchange rings, right?
SPEAKER_00: You kiss your bride, right?
SPEAKER_00: Standing before God and all these people as witnesses, they enter into a covenant, which is a big word that I don't have time to explain.
SPEAKER_00: That makes them married.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, then the great state of Texas then signs a paper.
SPEAKER_00: But what we believe is you're married before God, you enter into a covenant.
SPEAKER_00: But let me ask you this.
SPEAKER_00: Now, say Will goes home that night and he goes, Well, cool, man, I'm married.
SPEAKER_00: So, like, Malia, I know you want to like talk and hang out, but I'm gonna go hop on Fortnite with the boys.
SPEAKER_00: All right, like we got quads, we're gonna do our thing.
SPEAKER_00: And then, like, I know like we were playing on this honeymoon thing, but actually, like, they're they're gonna go play basketball like down at Northrop.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna go down there, we're gonna hang a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then I don't know, what does Will like to do?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, I'm gonna go fish the next week.
SPEAKER_00: So, like, I'll see you in like a month.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now let me ask you, when we hear that, do you think, oh, well, well, he's married, it's fine, it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: No, we we look at that and we say, like, that's not what marriage is supposed to look like because marriage is not just words that you say, it's a posture that you live in.
SPEAKER_00: You stand in front of God and all of your friends and family as witnesses, and you share those vows.
SPEAKER_00: And those vows, uh, they mean that, hey, from this day forward, my life belongs to you.
SPEAKER_00: You're you're telling that person that you're standing across from that decisions change, my priorities change, my loyalty is first to God and then second to you.
SPEAKER_00: We become one flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, marriage happens in that moment, but that posture that begins in that moment lasts a lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: And in a way, salvation uh is kind of like that.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not a perfect analogy, it breaks down if you take it far enough.
SPEAKER_00: So just work with me.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there is a moment when you call out to Jesus, when you place your faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: In that moment, you are saved, you are washed by the blood, you are a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: And it might be a prayer, it might be walking an aisle, it might be a VBS, it might be a D now, it might be in your room alone, but that moment is not the finish line.
SPEAKER_00: That moment is the start line.
SPEAKER_00: It's the moment where you begin to live with a new posture towards Jesus as your king.
SPEAKER_00: It's the moment when you stop living like your life belongs to you and you start living like your life belongs to him.
SPEAKER_00: Because salvation isn't just some words you repeat or some transaction with God.
SPEAKER_00: It's a posture of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's saying, Lord, I believe you are Jesus, I believe you are Lord, you are King.
SPEAKER_00: And it's what we heard from Nate Adina, Lord, I don't have much, but whatever I have, it's yours.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm not earning salvation, but I'm laying everything down and saying, God, you are worthy of my life.
SPEAKER_00: You're worthy of everything I have, because you made me, I belong to you, whether I acknowledge it or not.
SPEAKER_00: And so ask yourself tonight, is that something that you've done before?
SPEAKER_00: If you are coming in with questions about how can I know that I'm saved, or maybe you've wrestled with it, have you have you done that?
SPEAKER_00: Have you placed your faith in Jesus now understanding what we mean when we say those words?
SPEAKER_00: And if you have, you are saved.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is Jesus plus nothing else.
SPEAKER_00: You are saved by grace through faith.
SPEAKER_00: And you can have assurance in that.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to work hard to keep God's favor because there was nothing you did to earn it in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: You can rest knowing that you belong to Him.
SPEAKER_00: But if I had to guess, many of you have grown up in church, you know the answers, and you have some form of belief.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've even prayed a prayer or walked denial.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to think about are you living in response to that belief?
SPEAKER_00: Have you decided to repent?
SPEAKER_00: Like we said earlier, to stop living life your life belongs.
SPEAKER_00: Living, wow, I can't say that tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Stop living as if your life belongs to you and start living as if it belongs to Him.
SPEAKER_00: If not, that's the first step of knowing that you're saved.
SPEAKER_00: You can't know that you're saved if you're not.
SPEAKER_00: But but the amazing, beautiful thing is, and we'll have a moment for you to do this here in a little bit, but you can get that right with God tonight.
SPEAKER_00: And like we just said, it's nothing about the the I'm not gonna lead you through this magical formula of words of you have to say this and this and this in the right order.
SPEAKER_00: It's the posture of your heart when you take the time for the first time in your life to say, I'm gonna bow the knee.
SPEAKER_00: God, everything I have is yours.
SPEAKER_00: I might have known a whole lot of stuff about you.
SPEAKER_00: I might have a family that loves you, but for the first time in my life, I'm saying, I belong to you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you the wheel to my life, it's all yours.
SPEAKER_00: And you can do that in this moment and know that forever and ever and ever you are saved.
SPEAKER_00: You are in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of growth, and we're gonna talk about that here in a second, but you can know that in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe you're here and you've been in church for a long time and you've tried to follow Jesus, and you're like, look, I think I did when I was younger, but I have these doubts, I have these questions.
SPEAKER_00: Like I remember when I was young, I was so fired up about Jesus, I was ready to run through a wall, but then like some stuff happened and it got hard and it got weird.
SPEAKER_00: And then like later I asked him to forgive me again, and then I got baptized like a second and third time, and like I'm still just wrestling with how do I really know?
SPEAKER_00: And and the reality is our testimonies are often a lot less clean cut than we would think, right?
SPEAKER_00: We sometimes try to like Hollywoodize things, like I was here and then I was here, and then happily ever after.
SPEAKER_00: And not all of us have that story.
SPEAKER_00: Personally, uh, I know that I am a follower of Jesus, but when exactly that happened in my life, I have a moment where I really think it was here, but then there was also this big turning point.
SPEAKER_00: And so I would have a hard time pinpointing you and saying this is the exact moment that it happened, but I know that it did.
SPEAKER_00: And so thankfully, the Bible gives us a lot more to look at for assurance of salvation than just that initial moment, which brings us to that second point.
SPEAKER_00: If the first thing you need to know is what salvation is, the second you thing you need to know is what salvation produces or what being saved produces.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible, like we said, doesn't really point you back to like, hey, remember when you got saved, remember how much you felt back then, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because feelings are not a great guide.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it doesn't do that when it tells you to look at your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, um, Jesus in Matthew 7, 16, he says, by their fruit you will recognize them.
SPEAKER_00: And in that passage, he's talking about false prophets, but that principle applies to a lot more than just false prophets.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus is saying there is that true salvation, true faith in Jesus, being a Christian looks a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: It always does.
SPEAKER_00: And you can have assurance when you look at your life and you see these evidences of true salvation.
SPEAKER_00: You see these markers.
SPEAKER_00: So then the question is, what are these markers?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there's internal evidence and then there's external evidence.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the biggest internal evidences or signs is that you receive the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: When you are a believer, one of the things that happens at the moment of conversion is God places the Holy Spirit inside of you, that you have the presence of the third person of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: God Himself lives in you.
SPEAKER_00: Your body is now a temple of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And then you say, okay, well, like how does that work?
SPEAKER_00: Like, do I do I like see him like enter my body?
SPEAKER_00: Like, is this a Ghostbusters saying?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what's what's going on here?
SPEAKER_00: How do I know I have the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we look at the Bible and we read about what the Holy Spirit does.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna have to move through these really quickly because we do not have the time to, I could camp out on every single one.
SPEAKER_00: But internal evidence that you have the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: One, you have a new love for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're taking notes, write down, you have a new love for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And by the side, you can put 1 Corinthians 12, 3.
SPEAKER_00: You have a new love for Jesus because primarily all throughout the New Testament, especially in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit whole purpose is to shine the light on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And so if you have the Holy Spirit, you'll start to see that you just want to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know more about who he is, you want to respect his authority, you you'll submit.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, hey, I wanted to do it this way, but Jesus says this, I want to go that direction.
SPEAKER_00: So one is that you have a new love for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The second is you have a growing hatred for sin.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're taking notes, you start to hate sin.
SPEAKER_00: And you can write down Galatians 5, 16 through 17, you start to hate sin.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Before you get saved, a lot of times sin feels good.
SPEAKER_00: It feels natural, it feels like you can justify it, right?
SPEAKER_00: You can kind of hide it, it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_00: But after you get saved, if you have the Holy Spirit, you start to become aware of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Things that you might not have used to realize were wrong, you start to realize are wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And you start to repent when you realize it's wrong and you start to get uncomfortable sinning.
SPEAKER_00: It starts to lose its shine.
SPEAKER_00: I remember um, you know, you go back and like Spotify will keep all of your old playlists.
SPEAKER_00: And a while back I went and just listened to some of like old angsty eighth grade Garrett's playlist, uh, and it was just chalked full of like mid-2000s Eminem.
SPEAKER_00: It was not great.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the the sad thing is that I don't even know if half of you know who Eminem is.
SPEAKER_00: Just y'all know, is he still a thing?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, praise God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not that old yet.
SPEAKER_00: So don't listen to him.
SPEAKER_00: That's not don't tell your parents Garrett said that.
SPEAKER_00: So but I go back and I listen to this music that I used to thought was the best thing in the world, and I listen, I was like, oh, that's an F bomb.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a that's a ah, and I just start to feel uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, why did I used to just enjoy this so much?
SPEAKER_00: And even the themes and the topics that's talked about, and now I listen to it and it's just not the same.
SPEAKER_00: It's because the Holy Spirit's changed me.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not to pat myself on the back, that's just what God does.
SPEAKER_00: You start to go and hang out with those friends that like to drink on the or you start to hang out with those friends that like to pick on people, and you start to feel like something is wrong about this.
SPEAKER_00: I want to get away from this.
SPEAKER_00: That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, uh you have a desire for God's word.
SPEAKER_00: So internal evidence of the Holy Spirit, you have a desire for God's word.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 2, 2 is a reference, you can write that down.
SPEAKER_00: So the Holy Spirit creates a hunger in you for scripture.
SPEAKER_00: You want to learn God's word, you want to know what it says, you're curious, you want to walk through it, and when you read it, it's not like you're just reading a textbook, but there's conviction.
SPEAKER_00: And this takes time, it takes a lot of time to get comfortable and good at reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm still very much working on it.
SPEAKER_00: But you will see an evidence of the Holy Spirit uh is that you you start to be drawn to it.
SPEAKER_00: And look, I'm not saying that you need to have all these things 100%, 100% of the time.
SPEAKER_00: Like this, this ebbs and flows, it's a process.
SPEAKER_00: But if you have been saved, you will start to see these things in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a process, it grows and you'll have good days and bad days, but that's the internal evidence.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just internal, and again, I gotta move through these fast.
SPEAKER_00: There's external, right?
SPEAKER_00: What are the external evidences that I have the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Well, one, you have the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody know it?
SPEAKER_00: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, right?
SPEAKER_00: My kids love the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Is that the wiggles or whoever it is?
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know who or what band that it's it's rough.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to never hear it again, right?
SPEAKER_00: But the fruits of the spirit, you start to notice in your life that that you have love.
SPEAKER_00: You you have peace.
SPEAKER_00: There's a joy that that not just stays in your heart, but works itself to the outside, right?
SPEAKER_00: So I don't just walk around like this all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Like there's this whole big thing where, especially dudes, I'm talking to you here, where like it's all about being stoic and nonchalant.
SPEAKER_00: Like I just have to act like nothing in the world matters.
SPEAKER_00: Like I can't smile because like being smiling, being happy is lame.
SPEAKER_00: Like, who wants to be happy?
SPEAKER_00: So I just walk around like I'm mad at everything.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the fruit of the spirit, right?
SPEAKER_00: You can smile.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, that's a pet pet peeve soapbox.
SPEAKER_00: But you start to see these fruits of the spirit in your life, and not just do you see them, but the people around you see them.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: And then you also start to see that you have a love for others.
SPEAKER_00: You have a love for the church, right?
SPEAKER_00: For other believers, right?
SPEAKER_00: Church capital C and then church lowercase C, meaning like all other believers, but then also like your local church, FBC Bernie, or wherever your family goes to church.
SPEAKER_00: On Sundays, that you want community.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be around people that believe the same things I believe.
SPEAKER_00: I want to keep each other accountable.
SPEAKER_00: I care about them.
SPEAKER_00: So external evidence, fruit of the spirit, you can write down Galatians 5, 22 through 23 for that one.
SPEAKER_00: And then love for others, you can write down 1 John 3.14.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally a changed life.
SPEAKER_00: You actually see genuine obedience.
SPEAKER_00: You turn away from patterns of sin.
SPEAKER_00: You start to live differently.
SPEAKER_00: A verse for this is John 14, 15.
SPEAKER_00: And what we're talking about here is not perfection, but overall direction, right?
SPEAKER_00: So we're not talking about perfection, you never make a mistake, but we're talking about what is the direction of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it this way.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you probably could care less about the stock market, but if you were to go on your phone to the stock market app, one, you'll see that it's just been going straight down the last week.
SPEAKER_00: So that's been great.
SPEAKER_00: Two, you'll see that if you zoom out over the entire lifetime of the stock market, uh, anybody who has been in economics, what direction does it always go?
SPEAKER_00: Like if you zoom up, right?
SPEAKER_00: Owen's got it, right?
SPEAKER_00: It goes up.
SPEAKER_00: If you go over the lifetime, well, not directioned right or left, up, up or down.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: So you'll see that the stock market's always going up.
SPEAKER_00: Like the direction is always moving over a five-year period.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's ever gone down.
SPEAKER_00: But if you zoom in on this week, uh, like I just said, you'll see the stock market is just like freeful, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so that's an analogy, a way for understanding the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Like you might zoom in on a day or a week or a month, and you might see a mistake.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I backslid some, I got into a group of friends that I shouldn't have, and you know, they pulled me over this way.
SPEAKER_00: And like there will be times where we're not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: We make mistakes on this side of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But if you zoom out, the life of the Christian is moving in the direction of Christ because you're a Christ's follower.
SPEAKER_00: And so over time you will become more and more like him.
SPEAKER_00: And so, yes, salvation is a moment, but in genuine salvation, you receive the Holy Spirit, and then the Holy Spirit starts this process in your life called sanctification, where over time you become more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It starts internally with God changing your heart, and then a change in heart ultimately leads to a changed life.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and this is one of my favorite illustrations uh to kind of get this point across.
SPEAKER_00: You're all sitting in chairs right now, right?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's sitting in a chair.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when you answered that, how did you know that you were sitting in a chair?
SPEAKER_00: Did you think back to when you first sat down in that chair?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you did, that's kind of strange, but cool.
SPEAKER_00: No, you looked down and you said, Am I currently sitting in this chair?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: If you're sitting in a chair, there was a point in time at which you translated the weight of your body from your legs to the legs of the chair.
SPEAKER_00: And you might not remember making that decision, but the fact that you are now sitting in that chair proves that you made that decision.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the key thing: your present posture is more important than a past memory.
SPEAKER_00: And if you struggle with this, write that down.
SPEAKER_00: Your present posture is more important than a past memory.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the same way, faith is transferring the weight of your hope for heaven off of your own righteousness and onto what Jesus did on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And the way you know that you made that decision is not just by remembering a moment in the past, but by remembering and thinking about where the weight of your hope is resting right now.
SPEAKER_00: So you look at what does my life look like right now?
SPEAKER_00: Instead of trying to remember how genuine I was when I was four or five years old when I first made that decision, when I first walked that aisle, think about currently, am I resting in the finished work of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Am I seeing this evidence of the Holy Spirit in my life?
SPEAKER_00: And if you do see that, then be encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: You're a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't, well, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You have the opportunity to repent, to turn back.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to make the decision for the first time, or maybe you just realize, hey, I've been straying away and this is my opportunity to turn back.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna wrap up with this.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna recap our points.
SPEAKER_00: So, how do we know that we're saved?
SPEAKER_00: One, you can know that you're saved by understanding what salvation is, and you can know that you're saved by understanding what salvation produces.
SPEAKER_00: That salvation is by grace through faith, and faith is belief and repentance, and that salvation produces these fruits in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can be assured when I look at my life and I say, hey, I might not be perfect, I might not be there yet, but God is working, God is moving.
SPEAKER_00: And so before we go, we're about to have a time to respond.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to acknowledge two things real quick.
SPEAKER_00: One, there are some of you who I can tell you all of that tonight, and you're still gonna struggle.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I'm sorry, I know that for many people that that can even get to something where it's OCD, it's anxiety, and there's lots of people across the spectrum on that.
SPEAKER_00: But I just want to encourage you that if you do still struggle, don't do it alone.
SPEAKER_00: Because Satan would love to keep you trapped in the dark by yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing shameful or guilty about sharing that with someone of, hey, like I really struggle with questioning my salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Because other people are your best allies in the struggle, because they can look at your life objectively and be like, hey, like I know you're wrestling with this, but you made this decision this day, and I've seen God bring about this fruit in your life.
SPEAKER_00: You're becoming more patient, you're becoming more loving, you're becoming more joyful.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't think you have to be worried about this, and let's pray about it, and let's find a way to get more answers.
SPEAKER_00: Or they can keep you accountable and be like, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you brought that up.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because I have seen some concerning things in your life.
SPEAKER_00: But work through that with other people.
SPEAKER_00: And as you do, I just want to read this verse over you.
SPEAKER_00: This is Romans 8 31 through 39.
SPEAKER_00: But because if you are saved, Jesus is holding on to you.
SPEAKER_00: You you do not need to have any fear, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8 31 says, If God is for us, who can be against us?
SPEAKER_00: He who did not spare his own son, but gave up gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
SPEAKER_00: Uh verse 34 Who then is the one who condemns?
SPEAKER_00: No one.
SPEAKER_00: Christ Jesus who died, more than that, who is raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Shall trouble or hardship, or persecution or famine, or nakedness or danger or sword?
SPEAKER_00: Verse thirty-seven, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
SPEAKER_00: For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels, nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, nor any height, nor any depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That is the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if you are a believer, that is true of you.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can separate you from the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: So during the song, if that's something you struggle with, maybe take this opportunity to get up with a leader and pray about it.
SPEAKER_00: Ask them for prayer for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: Open up to someone about it, have them keep you accountable.
SPEAKER_00: Or two, maybe you're like, hey, I have heard this sermon tonight and I realize that I have not placed my faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not in the family, I'm not saved.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm going to challenge you that as we stand to sing the song of response, I want you to find a leader on the outside of the room because this can be that moment.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And we've talked about that moment is more than just a ritual, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's a posture to heart, it's no amount of words you can say in the right order.
SPEAKER_00: But as a part of that moment, we want to help you walk that out so that you don't have more questions, so you don't have anxiety or doubt.
SPEAKER_00: We want to go through that with you.
SPEAKER_00: And so find a leader, share with them hey, I want to make Jesus my king tonight, and we'll help you through what that looks like.
SPEAKER_00: So let's pray and then respond, however, the Lord is leading.