Awesome, awesome. Well, good morning. Thank you guys so much for being here this Sunday. Uh after having two weeks off, uh really crazy uh to have two snow days in a row and to miss church like the way we did. But it's so good to just be in the room together this morning. And uh a lot of stuff has happened in the last two or three weeks uh just in our community, little community here in Social Circle and uh the country at large. And um, and so I just really felt like the Lord this morning was just like, hey, before you jump into the message, um, we need the church to come together and pray. Um, you know, when we don't know what to do, we pray. When we know what we need to do, we pray. Pray is essential when it comes to how we follow Jesus. And at the end of the day, we don't control a whole lot, um, but he controls all things. And so we want to go to the sovereign Lord this morning and uh and just ask for his blessing. And this is not a political stance or you know, on one side of the aisle or the other side of the aisle. This is just going to Jesus and asking for his hand to be upon our community and our nation. And so I'd love for us just to take a moment and just kind of pray uh together this morning. Lord Jesus, we are we are so grateful just to be in the room together this morning. And uh, Lord, I am just overwhelmed and so grateful, Lord, that when your people pray, we're not just saying words, but Lord, we're talking to an eternal, sovereign God. The one that spoke the world into existence and the one that sustains life as we know it. And Lord, you know all the details and you know the political controversies, you know the trauma and the tragedies that have happened, you know what's planned for the community here in Social Circle and what will come to fruition and what won't come to fruition. And Lord, we just put our trust in you this morning because we know that you are ultimately in control. And so, Lord, we do pray for our nation, Lord, we pray for our leaders, um, Lord, as we try to navigate through the tumultuous waters that are in front of us, and there's so much political division that I know is from the enemy. Um, Lord, would you unite uh this country around you, um, not around a political party or political ideology or a political candidate, um, but Lord, would you uh set your spirit on this place in such a way, Lord, to draw men and women to you? And Lord, that our allegiance wouldn't be to a flag or to a country, but to a person, you. And so, Lord, help us in that. And Lord, we do pray specifically for just this community of social circle and um the nice detainee center that's potentially proposed to be coming here in the near future. Um, Lord, we do pray, um, you know, maybe selfishly, Lord, we do pray, Lord, that you would change that. Um, plans from coming to uh fruition, Lord, we pray that you would uh change the hearts of the leaders that are proposing that. Um, but Lord, if it doesn't get changed and it does come here, if that is your will and your desire, Lord, would you help us to be a people to see that as an opportunity? An opportunity to potentially um connect and reach people that are far from you. Um and that, I don't know what that looks like or how that would even come about, but Lord, would you just give us the wisdom to be able to navigate and walk through that? And so, Lord, I thank you again for just being a God that's in control and a God that hears us this morning. And I pray that as we walk through your word this morning, Lord, would you be with us? Would you speak to us like only you can? And it's in your name we pray. Amen. Thank you, guys. Um in the early 1900s, uh, there was a guy named uh Ernest, Sir Ernest Shackleton, and uh he was the captain of a ship called the Endurance, and him and 27 crew members had this great adventure and idea in their head that they were going to travel to the uh the continent of Antarctica and they were going to uh on foot explore the continent of Antarctica. It was a historic journey that they were uh embarking on. And before they could even reach the continent, however, their ship got stuck in a bunch of uh frozen ice. It kind of froze around them, they were unable to move, and the current and stuff was pushing against the ship, and eventually the ship sank in the middle of the Arctic. And there you have Lewis or uh Ernest Shackleton and his crew, and everything had suddenly changed. Now they had no ship, they had no rescue, they had no communication with the outside world, and their mission of exploring the frozen tundra was no longer there. Now their mission had changed to simple survival. They just wanted to be able to go home and be able to survive. And Ernest Shackleton had this deeply held belief that drove every one of the decisions that the people made, and it was this that every man would survive. That was the goal, that was the mission. And so it shaped what they carried and what they left behind, what they moved when they moved and when they needed to wait, when they risked everything and when they needed to hold their ground. But conditions didn't improve, the rescue didn't come quickly, but yet day after day after day, Ernest Shackleton and his crew members had the deeply held belief that they would all survive. After nearly two years, stranded on the ice and the open sea, every single man survived. Now, there's a lot of books that are written about Shackleton and his journey and his leadership, and there's a lot that you can learn from him, and there's actually a book called The Endurance, which kind of uh talks all about his journey. But the thing that they bring out more than anything else was not so much the strategy, but the deeply held belief, and that's what continued to help them move forward and to stay on task of seeing every person survive. Now, some beliefs that we have are flexible, some beliefs are based on our preferences, some beliefs are convenient and they might come and go based on our circumstances. But then there are other beliefs that if you miss those beliefs, if you lose those beliefs, you might not just lose your direction in life, but you might lose life altogether. And here's the reality, and my fear is that we live in a culture that is constantly shifting, and people are changing their minds, like the shifting of culture is just like the blowing of the wind. It's this way one way, and then the next moment it's this way. And in the moments where our belief is tested, it comes across so often when our plans fall short, when things don't go the way that we want, when temptation is far too great, when our beliefs no longer are popular or accepted by others, how will we handle our beliefs? Will we release certain beliefs? But when we release certain beliefs, life itself can disappear with them. And Christian faith and following Jesus is all about our belief. It's all about faith. Without faith, we have nothing. In fact, in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6, it says just that. Now, without faith, it is impossible to please God. And so this morning we're beginning a brand new series and we're kind of walking through our mission as a church, but then we're also walking through just the values that we have as a church. And we try to hit on these every so often just to kind of have them be a refresh in our minds because we know that what we believe will ultimately determine what we do, and what we do will ultimately see and determine if we accomplish the mission that God has given us. And what's that mission? The mission that we have as a church is simply this it's to reach people that are far from God and lead them to become followers of Jesus. That's what we want to be about. And it's not just about converts, it's not just about getting people to pray a prayer, it's not just about building a bigger church and having more and more people come. It's not just about even having people crash into the waters of baptism. It's about making disciples. It's about making men and women that are following Jesus with their lives, that they're obeying all of his commands. That's what we're ultimately after. And so we have four words that kind of help us get our values in line so that we can accomplish the mission. And you probably have heard us talk about them a time or two, but it's believe, belong, become, and build. We believe, we trust Jesus, and we take him at his word, belong, we walk together as a spiritual family, become, we grow to look more like Jesus every day, and build, we join God in building his kingdom. And this morning I want us to really look at that first one, this idea of belief. Because just like Ernest Shackleton, if we understand and have the deeply held belief, if we trust Jesus and take him at his word, then that will change the entire course and direction of our lives. And so if you have a Bible this morning, you can turn to John chapter 6. We'll be there all morning long. And John chapter 6 is probably part of a story that most of us have heard in the room this morning. It starts off with a familiar story of Jesus feeding the multitudes. But what's striking here is the way that Jesus approaches the crowd. Jesus has this way about him where the crowds will embrace him and they'll try to come upon him, but yet Jesus has this way of kind of sneaking away. He's not building a ministry that's just appealing to the crowds, but rather he's building a ministry that's built on deep discipleship of the few. This is different from the way our world and our culture works today, where we often yearn and seek after more and more. We think of good as big, big as good and small as bad. But this is not the mentality that Jesus had, and we'll see this in John chapter 6. It says this starting in verse 1. After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee, or Tiberius. A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick. Jesus went up a mountain and sat down there with his disciples. So Jesus has begun his earthly ministry, he's doing all these incredible works, people are being healed, and these crowds are coming to Jesus. But notice that Jesus is just going up to the mountain to be with his disciples, those close followers of his. Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near. So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming towards him, he asked Philip, Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat? He asked this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. And you know how the story goes. There's a boy that has a couple loaves of bread and a few fish, and he gives it to the disciples, and Jesus blesses it, and then begins to break the bread, and he gets to multiply the food, and the whole multitude is fed. It says five thousand men, and that probably didn't include the women and children that were there as well. So we're talking about a lot of people Jesus is feeding with just a small amount of food to begin with. And that's just what Jesus does. Jesus takes the small things that we have and he does incredible things with them. But he feeds everyone. It's a full buffet. Golden corral's got nothing on Jesus. And there's twelve baskets of food left over. It's interesting, twelve, one for each of the disciples, right? They each get to take home a doggy bag. And everyone's amazed, as well they should be, that Jesus could do so much with so little. The crowds are amazed with his powers, and so they look to make him king. They want Jesus to lead a coup, to overthrow the Roman government and to set them free from the ones that were oppressing them. If you jump over to verse 14, it says this When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, This truly is the prophet who is come into the world. Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. Now, this is at first glance, this looks like belief, right? This looks like faith. The crowd is acknowledging that he is doing these incredible works. They notice that Jesus is a prophet, they say. They want to make him king. They're trying to make him king by force. Now, most of us in this world in the culture in which we live in, if there's a crowd of people that are trying to force you to be king, most of us go, yeah, that sounds pretty good. More power, right? More authority to be able to lead and to do whatever I need to do. But Jesus isn't going to fall into that trap. Because he knows that behind their belief is really a false belief. That they don't really believe in him, but they believe in what he can do. They don't want Jesus for who he is, they want Jesus for what he can give them. And it's a false belief. False belief follows Jesus for what he provides. And here's what the crowds wanted. The crowds wanted a king that would feed them. The crowds wanted the fix of the Roman oppression. That the king was the one that could solve all of their problems. They wanted the benefits of the kingdom without the authority of the king. They wanted the signs and the miracles. They wanted to see incredible things happen right in front of them. They wanted what Jesus could give them, but not necessarily Jesus himself. And listen, signs and miracles are good. I'm not saying that they're bad. I'm not saying that's something that we don't want to see. We want to see people healed. We want to see incredible miracles of God in front of us, but the miracles and the signs and the wonders are always pointing to someone more. It's never about the signs, it's always the person about the person behind the signs and the wonders and the miracles. And so Jesus knows the motives of these people's hearts, and he's going to confront the ideology that they have. And so Jesus confronts this consumeristic faith. Here they are, they're pursuing Jesus for all the wrong reasons. It's all about what he can give them. Jump down to verse 26. It says, Jesus answered, Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Don't work for food that perishes, but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on them. And so Jesus is really driving at the heart motivation behind their beliefs. Motives matter in belief. Jesus is not rebuking them for coming, he's rebuking them for why they came. It's because they wanted to see Jesus do more signs and wonders. They weren't looking for the person. And it just goes to show you that you can pursue Jesus and you can still miss him completely. That you can build your whole belief system on an experience. That you can believe, you can put your whole experience about all just wanting another sign. It's all about what God can give you. It's this consumeristic belief. It's a belief that it's never satisfied. It's always wanting more proof and more blessing and more assurance. And listen, Jesus absolutely cares for every detail of your life. He wants you to bring the issues and the needs that you have, and he's a good God that gives good gifts to his children. However, our belief is never based on what we can get, but rather on who he is. And this is what I see as one of the modern American churches' fallacies of today. That we have an entire generation of people who fill the seats of our churches and they are content with consumeristic Christianity. Where it's not about the person of Jesus, but it's really ultimately about what we can get from him. And listen, I think as a Christian leaders, we've done a poor job in pushing back against consumeristic Christianity. Because we've talked about salvation in and of itself as just this consumeristic mindset. It's a free gift. And listen, it is a free gift. Please don't call me a heretic. It is a free gift. It is not by it is by grace that we are saved, not by our work, so that no one can boast. However, when we experience the gift of salvation, it costs us everything. And what we've told people is just, hey, pray this prayer, walk this aisle, get wet in a baptistry, and you'll go to heaven when you die. You got your golden ticket, your fire insurance, and then you can go and live however you want to live. Do whatever you want to do. That Jesus is just a means to an end, that the relationship is just purely transactional in nature, that if you do this, then he will do that, and that's the end of the story. But that is never what Jesus suggests. That is never what Jesus says. It is a free gift of salvation, but at the same time, it costs us everything. In order for the belief to be a true belief, then it is a total trust and surrender to him, to live in obedience to what he has called us to do. If you jump down to verse 30, he continues calling out this consumeristic Christianity, and he says, What sign then are you going? This is the crowd talking, what sign then are you going to do so that we may see and believe you? They asked, What are you going to perform? They just fed, the day before, they just he just fed 5,000 men. And now one day later, they're asking for more signs to be done. They say, our ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, just as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. He's just fed 5,000 and they're now demanding more. Consumeristic belief is never satisfied. It always wants more proof, it always wants more blessing, it always wants more assurance. And so Jesus responds in verse 32, and he says, Truly I tell you, Moses didn't give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said, Sir, give us this bread always. And then Jesus makes this statement that's just a huge statement and totally describes his character and nature right here. This is the first I am statement in John. He says, I am the bread of life, Jesus told them. Jesus is offering them something that's far greater than physical bread. He's offering him himself. It's not a means to something else. He's saying, I am the gift. It's not about what I can just give you. He's not just pointing the way to life. He's not just saying that here's some bread. He's saying, hey, I am life. I am the bread. Jesus doesn't just provide so that we can be satisfied. He is our satisfaction. Jesus is everything. And he says, no one who believes in me will ever be thirsty again. It's interesting that John, in his gospel, he never uses the word like trust or repentance, but he uses this word belief, which implies a personal trust and relational dependence. He's talking about something that is far more than an intellectual belief, but it rather it's a radical dependence and trust on someone. And so Jesus is saying, no one who believes, who gives up everything, who surrenders, who trusts, who has a radical dependence upon me will ever be thirsty again. And so Jesus makes this statement, and this is where the story really begins to unravel with the people that are standing there with Jesus. Because once Jesus shifts from believing in the benefits to now he's saying, Hey, that you gotta trust me. You gotta give your life to me, the crowd starts to grumble. Jesus' words go from inspiring, now they're offensive. And this is where the false belief begins to get tested. Verse 41. Therefore, the Jews started grumbling about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They were saying, Isn't this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, I have come down from heaven? In other words, they're saying, Hey, how dare him say these things to us? Like we we've seen him grow up. We know where he came from, we know the scandal of his birth. And yet he's going to tell us that he's the brother. From heaven, that he is where life is found. See, they have this familiarity with Jesus and his family, and it's now led to contempt. Who is he to think that he can tell me what I need to do? But we would never have something like that in our world, in our culture today, right? That Jesus would tell us something, and we would go, how dare you suggest that I have to change something about myself? Verse 53. So Jesus said to them, Truly I tell you, unless you eat, listen how crazy this is, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, because my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. This is weird. Jesus is using some shocking language here. Eat my flesh, drink my blood. Is he promoting cannibalism? No, but that's sure what it sounds like. In the Jewish culture, drinking blood was forbidden, and this language would have been scandalous in nature for the people to hear. But what Jesus is getting at here is he's saying, you don't just benefit from me, you receive me. You don't just sample me, but you put your dependence totally on me. Jesus isn't interested in being admired. He demands to be trusted. And that's what true belief looks like. And see, when belief becomes offensive, when the call becomes too great, so many of us that are based in consumeristic faith will walk away. When belief becomes offensive, many walk away. Jump down to verse 60. So Jesus makes this radical statement about eating his flesh, drinking his blood, and then it says, Therefore, when many of his disciples heard this, they said, This teaching is hard. Who can accept it? Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, asked them, Does this offend you? Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn't help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life, but there are some among you who don't believe. For Jesus knew from the very beginning that those who did not believe, and the one that would betray him. Verse 65, he said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father. It's a pretty important statement there. From that moment, many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him. Now it's interesting that John here, he isn't using the word the crowd. He's using the word disciples. His disciples walked away from him. These were the learners, the followers, the people that had heard Jesus teach and had seen miracles. And it shows us that proximity to Jesus doesn't necessarily guarantee perseverance with Jesus. You can show up in church every single Sunday. You can be involved in a small group. You can serve, you can give. And just because you do these things doesn't mean that you persevere to the end. That people walk away. That there's a false belief. When we have a false belief, there's a limit to it. But when we believe in truth, truth always requires surrender. False belief says, I'll follow as long as I agree. Thank you, Jessica. True belief says, I'll follow because I trust you. And those are two big differences. I went to a community group last night. I went to the Bucks, Andy and Amy Bucks group last night. By the way, great group. If you're not in a group, get in their group. It's a great group meet every other Saturday night. But we were talking about this idea of just allegiance. And it's what are you allegiant? What's your allegiance to? Because if your allegiance is to Jesus, then that is the thing that is far superior than any other allegiances that you might have. It doesn't matter what our culture says, it doesn't matter what politicians might say, it doesn't matter what the schools or the culture or whoever might tell us. If our allegiance to Jesus is truly to him, then that trumps everything else. Do we see this today? People walk away from Jesus all the time. Not because they don't believe that he exists, but because they don't like what he says. Take sexual ethics for a second. The Christian sexual ethic is pretty clear. But our culture has made the Christian sexual ethic a joke. And if you believe that, man, you're so uneducated. You're not enlightened. You're old school and old thinking. But if you're gonna follow Jesus, we've got to adhere not to what a culture says, but to what he says. Jesus tells us that we should forgive those that have wronged us, that we should forgive our enemies, and that we should love them the way that we want to be loved and the way that Christ has loved us. That is a statement and a command that goes in the face of everything our culture tries to throw at us. To forgive the people that have wronged you? Man, it's easy to walk away when that's the command. What about generosity? Nothing seems to get to people's hearts' desires when you ask them to be generous and to give. And people back away. I know that that's what God says. I know that we're supposed to be generous people, but man, I just can't, I just can't do it. I just have too many needs. I can't be generous. I don't want to give to the church. The church only wants my money. Whatever. It's pushing back against what God has commanded. The exclusivity of Christ. Man, you're telling me that there's some good people that are out there that don't believe in Jesus and they're going to be separated from him for all of eternity? But they're good people. That doesn't make sense. Why would God do that? That command is not popular, but it's true. What about submission in general? We're told that you just you make much of yourself. Do whatever makes you happy. But the way of following Jesus is based on submission. When belief is built on preferences, obedience becomes optional. When belief is built on preferences, obedience becomes optional. And here's what remark what's remarkable. When Jesus sees the disciples turning back and no longer following him, he doesn't chase after him, them. He doesn't soften his words. He doesn't reframe his messages. Hey guys, come back, come back. You didn't understand what I was saying. He doesn't do that. Instead, he just turns to the 12 disciples that are still there and he asks them the question that every follower of Jesus must answer. Jesus said to the 12, verse 67, You don't want to go away too, do you? Now Jesus isn't answer asking that question because he's insecure, but it's an invitation to honesty. And Peter, the spokesperson of the disciples, says, Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus never forces belief, but he's always calling for a decision. I'm running out of time. People will often say, How can a loving God send anyone to hell? And I would just say that God does not send anyone to hell. His invitation is open for all. It is inclusive that everyone is invited to the table, but it's also exclusive in that no one comes to the Father except through him. C.S. Lewis said this. He said, There are only two kinds of people in the end. Those who say to God, Thy will be done, and those to whom God says in the end, Thy will be done. All that are in hell choose it. Dallas Willard said, the only reason there is a hell is because God makes provision for what people want. Hell is simply the best God can do for some people. Jesus is not forcing belief, but he is calling for a decision to be made. True belief will always be marked by surrender and radical dependence, a faith like Peter, that true belief clings to Jesus because there's no other place that we can go. That we've looked around the world and we've realized that it doesn't have the answers, that there's no backup plan, that all the eggs are in the Jesus basket. And Peter is not saying, hey, we get it. This all makes sense. We're comfortable with the hard teachings that you're making, Jesus. True belief is not certainty, but it's surrender. It doesn't mean that you don't have doubts. It doesn't mean that you don't have questions. It doesn't mean that you understand everything. But it is simply saying is, I'm choosing you, Jesus. I'm putting all my hope, all my faith in you. You've looked at all the alternatives, you've weighed all the options, and you realize that nothing else leads to life. True belief. Trust Jesus' words and not just his works. That we stand on the word of God. We stand on the promises that are found in Scripture. And it doesn't mean we understand it all. It doesn't mean that there are times where I go, man, I really wish it didn't say that. It doesn't matter all the things that the culture tells us around it. It's just saying, God, I'm surrendering to you. That is what belief is. Belief is us surrendering to Jesus. It's taking him at his word. We trust Jesus and take him at his word. And so what does true belief look like for you today? It's a belief not in just what Jesus can give you, but it's who he is. And maybe there's some people here today that your trust and your faith and your belief in Jesus has really been based more on what he can give you rather than who he is. A faith that's that's based around, hey, I don't want to go to hell, I just want to go to heaven when I die. And that's that's noble, that's good. Like I hope that's the case for all of us. But if that's all that your faith is, if it's all based in just what God can give you and not in Jesus Himself, then you have to question whether it's true belief. True belief today looks like us saying, Jesus, I trust you with my future. I don't know what that looks like, but I trust you. Jesus, I trust you with my relationships. I don't know how things are gonna play out, but I trust you in that. Jesus, I trust you in my identity. I know how I feel. I know the things that I think about myself, but I trust you with my identity because I'm trusting in who you say I am. Jesus, I trust you with my obedience. It doesn't make sense all the time. This might cost me relationships, this might cost me my reputation in some ways. Even when the culture disagrees and we feel resistance and the cost is high, we say, Jesus, I trust you in this. What are you not trusting Jesus with today? Where you may be tempted to walk away from him and not trust? Jesus is calling us to a deeper belief. A belief that will trust in a radical, surrendered way. Not just an intellectual knowledge, but something that says, hey, I'm giving my life to this. Where else can I go? What else is going to give me life, Jesus? I just want you and nothing else, Lord. I want you. Imagine if we were a church that was built on this same deeply seated belief. What if this church was full of men and women that weren't just thinking about what Jesus could give them, but they were passionate about their trust in Jesus Himself? That they took him at his word. And think about the transformation that would happen. Think about how it would transform our relationship. Think about how it would transform this community if there was a group of radically dependent people that radically trusted in Jesus and all that he was and all that he said. I think the world is dying for a community of faith like that. Let us be a church that reaches people far from God and let us do that by a belief. A belief that believes in Jesus and trusts him in his word. That says, I have no other place to go. You hold. You are the way to life. Lord Jesus, I thank you for being just that. I thank you for being a God that is truly the way to life. You are life itself. And Lord, I know I'm so guilty at times of basing my belief and my faith in what you can give me rather than.