Faith, Not Just Function: Unpacking True Christian Motivation

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:00] Pursuit Church family we're excited that you're here that you're worshiping with us hello to our staff waving back up there at me we know today looks a little different but what we didn't want to have happen was for a Sunday to go by where we didn't have the opportunity to preach the gospel and one of the things that we're so thankful here is that we have the ability to do that and to broadcast directly to your homes and so although we don't know what the weather looks like right now we wanted to prepare this message for you guys so that we could worship together as a church
[00:03:06] this morning. And so one of the things that I'm reminded of in Acts is it says that when Paul was going around preaching that he would preach in the synagogues and that he would also go house to
[00:03:17] house. And one of the things I love about that is that the presence of God in church and hearing the gospel and having the Lord speak to you and having the Holy Spirit do a work in your life is
[00:03:28] not in any stretch of the imagination limited to the four walls of this building. And so I understand that being a part of church at home, you may have a little bit of chaos this morning
[00:03:40] with the kids or whatever else, but that doesn't mean that God's not present. That doesn't mean that God doesn't want to speak to you this morning. And so we want you to do your best to put aside
[00:03:51] any and every distraction that you can. And we understand that life is what it is. And you may have little kids. I got little kids, so I get it. And God knows that. And Jesus, even while he was
[00:04:02] on earth, he welcomed the little children. And so invite your family to be a part. If you have people over, that's great. You get to worship and watch church together. But we want to invite you
[00:04:11] to take this time with us and genuinely have your heart open to what we believe that God wants to speak to you. Because we don't know what stage of life you're in or what you're going through,
[00:04:23] but the God of the universe does. It says that there isn't a hair on your head that's not numbered and a sparrow doesn't fall to the ground apart from the knowledge of the father. And so he
[00:04:33] sees you this morning and he knows what you're going through. He knows whether it's been a great season or it's been a difficult season or somewhere in the middle, maybe just the mundaneness of life.
[00:04:43] And he always wants to revive our hearts and give us affection for him because of how deeply he loves us. And so I would encourage you this morning to do your best to be present in this
[00:04:54] moment right here, not to think about the rest of the day, not to think about tomorrow, but to be right here and say, God, I'm open to what it is that you want to speak to me today.
[00:05:04] That I want to, maybe I don't feel like I have a heart full of worship right now, but give that to me, please.
[00:05:10] Because I know how easy it is to wake up in the morning and to feel like your heart's cold or to feel whatever type of way.
[00:05:16] And you're like, Lord, I wish I didn't feel this way, but I do.
[00:05:19] And so I would invite you in this moment as I pray here in just a second, to simply bow your head and talk to the Lord and ask him to help you.
[00:05:28] If you're in a great season, spend this time in prayer, just thanking him for everything that he's done in your life.
[00:05:33] And if you're in a hard season or you're in a season where it feels dry, then ask the Lord, be like, Lord, this is where I'm at.
[00:05:38] He already knows.
[00:05:40] So you can tell him and it'll do something in your heart and your mind to simply be honest with him this morning as we head into worship and say, Lord, this may feel weird or awkward,
[00:05:50] especially if you don't do church at home normally to be worshiping in your living room, but you don't have to stand with your hands raised.
[00:05:56] You can sit, you can do whatever feels comfortable to you to truly encounter the presence of the Lord because he's not limited by location and he wants to do a work in your life.
[00:06:06] I believe every day of our lives that we're here on earth.
[00:06:08] But the question is, are we listening?
[00:06:11] And so as I pray, I would invite you to pray with me that God would move in this place and in your home, wherever you're watching this morning, and that he would do a work in our lives.
[00:06:22] So let's pray.
[00:06:24] Jesus, I thank you that you hung on the cross for me, that you took on the wrath of the father for my sin.
[00:06:38] And now that you're seated at the right hand of the father, one you're preparing a place for us and you live to make intercession for us father jesus i thank you for that i pray that you would give all of us both for the staff in this room for everybody who
[00:06:56] calls pursuit home and for the people who don't they're just tuned in this morning give us a deeper understanding of what you've done for us the gospel is not cheap salvation is a free gift
[00:07:11] but it costs you a whole lot and lord i pray that you would make that known to our hearts this morning. Jesus, that we would see you for who you are, that you're the lion of the tribe of Judah
[00:07:24] and the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. Lord, open up every single person's heart to truly see and know you. Lord, in the midst of whatever we got going on this morning, may we have peace and comfort in you because you are the prince of peace. You say that in the world
[00:07:50] we'll have trouble with you. We can take heart because you've overcome the world. And so, Lord, may we be able to rest in you today. May we have peace in you today. May we have contentment in you
[00:08:02] today. And may we be in a place where we can genuinely hear that still small voice and we can experience the beauty of your presence and we can experience the peace of your presence and we
[00:08:17] can experience the satisfaction of your presence, that in your presence, there's fullness of joy and at your right hand, there are pleasures forevermore, that we don't have to go through this life downtrodden and in misery. We can have joy and we can have peace, but it's not found in
[00:08:33] anything other than you. And so Jesus, may we chase after you more than anything, more than anything. May we have you be lifted up in this place as we worship your name today. We love you
[00:08:49] in Jesus name. Amen.

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[00:11:56] And I'm saying, call me yours.
[00:12:03] Say my future's never failed.
[00:12:45] I do your work to raise the dead in me.
[00:15:15] Would you call?
[00:16:55] Oh, come revival.
[00:16:59] Your people, God.
[00:17:13] This is the sound.
[00:17:14] Revival.
[00:17:17] This is the sound.
[00:17:23] Jesus.
[00:17:26] This is the song of your people.
[00:19:21] This power.
[00:19:22] Yes, you're a good father, good God to me.
[00:19:50] As Pastor Scott opened with this morning, we want to welcome you today to church.

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:25:06] And obviously, this is very different than a normal Sunday, but we're thankful for equipment and for technology, for God providing for us to be able to do this, to have church this morning, despite the weather and all the things that are happening.
[00:25:19] And as he mentioned, we know that this can be kind of awkward, right?
[00:25:23] If you've done house church before, you kind of know this already.
[00:25:26] but maybe this is your first time and we know it can be kind of weird sitting in your living room or laying in the bed and you got kids and families and all those things that it can be a little
[00:25:34] awkward we want you to know this morning you're in good company it's a little awkward here and we got about a dozen people in the room today it's a little awkward preaching to that it's a
[00:25:43] little awkward being preached at when you're one of those dozen so we get it but we want to pray as pastor caleb's saying that god would just come and meet with us wherever we are today
[00:25:53] in this room, in your home, maybe you're with your family, maybe you're by yourself this morning, wherever you are, that God truly would come and do what only he can do, that he would come and move and speak and work
[00:26:06] and that we would be able to block out those distractions and focus and there'd be clarity this morning and for the next 30 or so minutes that God would move, that God would speak, that God would work.
[00:26:16] So let's pray together this morning.
[00:26:19] God, we love you.
[00:26:20] We praise you today.
[00:26:21] I do thank you, God, for technology, God, for equipment, Lord, that we have, that we can gather this morning, Lord, in our homes.
[00:26:28] And we praise you for that, God.
[00:26:29] I do pray, Lord, just this morning for clarity, God, for focus, for me, for us that are in this room, God, and for everyone in their home today, God.
[00:26:39] I just, I pray that we truly focus on you, God, that we dive into your word, God, that you speak to us this morning, God, that you move again, do what only you can do,
[00:26:49] that it truly is your word, God.
[00:26:51] There's such power in the word.
[00:26:53] And we just pray you speak this morning, God.
[00:26:55] Do what only you can do, God.
[00:26:57] I just pray that you get all glory, all honor, and all praise, God.
[00:27:01] And again, continue to move.
[00:27:03] We thank you for the way, God, that you've worked in our church, God, and the way you continue to move, God.
[00:27:07] And we just pray you do that this very morning, Lord, in your name, amen.
[00:27:12] So this morning, if you've got your Bible, you can turn, we'll be in 1 Thessalonians, is chapter one, and we'll start in verse two and go through just verse three this morning.
[00:27:27] So, and we've been talking about, as you turn there, we've been talking about what's going on on the inside. We've been in this series, holy looking, but hollow living. And this will be our final week of that. We'll kind of summarize this series this morning. And as we do that,
[00:27:42] I want to talk about this morning, this one scripture primarily, and ask the question, what motivates you like what is your motivation and last week we talked about how so often we play offense or defense and and so often we question the motives of other people oftentimes
[00:27:59] I believe because our motives may be a little sketchy but we don't ever really look at our motives like what motivates me what what makes me do what I do what is my motivation for standing
[00:28:09] on this stage even today and I want us to look at that a little bit this morning what are our motivations and we think about serving and giving and being a part of the church and watching even online today like what motivates us to do that what
[00:28:23] is our reasoning behind that and maybe I don't think this hopefully this is not many of you but maybe you don't have any motivation and and why is that right why do you not have any motivation why do you there's a reason you don't feel like
[00:28:35] you should serve or give or come to church or whatever the case may be so what is our motivation this morning and do we have the right motives correct motives. And we look, we've been looking in scripture at the scribes and the Pharisees,
[00:28:50] the religious leader. And we, again, often just summarize those. We put those in one category as Pharisees, which is who we've been talking about, the group of people that Jesus addresses and that ultimately lead to having Jesus crucified. I've been looking at these people. And as I've studied
[00:29:07] them over the last couple of weeks and look this week, what you see in their life is it seems like they're doing a lot of the right things they're doing a lot of good right like he jesus even talks
[00:29:17] about their their you can do what they say but don't follow them because they've got bad motives on the heart but they do a lot of the good things and a lot of the right things but a lot of times
[00:29:27] it's for the wrong reasons we see in them it is for the wrong reasons and if you look at this scripture in first thessalonians one two through three i'll read it to us it says we give thanks
[00:29:39] to god always concerning all of you making mention in our prayers remembering before our god and father your work of faith your unceasing labor of love and the endurance of the hope of our lord
[00:29:52] jesus christ and and just like for the religious leader leaders these three words they sound really good to me you got work you got labor and you've got endurance and you've got these three things
[00:30:06] and i know we all have different backgrounds different you know our parents are all very different what they instilled in some of us and i get all that we've all got different algorithms on social media that are feeding us different things but i think it's safe to say that we
[00:30:20] would all agree that work labor endurance are all good things right and in our society especially if your algorithm on instagram's like mine you get a lot of a lot of videos that are telling
[00:30:31] us that we should work more that we should labor more that we should have this perseverance that that we should continue on and don't quit.
[00:30:36] And you get all these things.
[00:30:38] And again, as you look at the Pharisees, they had these.
[00:30:43] They've got the work and the deeds and the actions and the labor, and they continue on.
[00:30:48] They are steadfast in what they're doing.
[00:30:50] And I'm going to go to the screen here in a minute.
[00:30:52] But like so many of us, what we see them do is they separate the work, the labor, and the perseverance or endurance from the faith, hope, and love.
[00:31:03] We see that happen.
[00:31:04] So I'll go to the screen.
[00:31:05] Maybe this will be helpful for you this morning.
[00:31:07] Maybe it won't be.
[00:31:08] And I also wanna say, we've got Pastor John on a camera this morning.
[00:31:12] So if you feel a little seasick, you know who to blame, not him, of course.
[00:31:16] But as you look at this scripture, so what we see here is, again, we see work, labor, and endurance.
[00:31:24] And we'll go to those words a little bit later and we'll talk about what those exactly mean, but we like these, right?
[00:31:30] So you've got, and my handwriting's terrible.
[00:31:33] I'm gonna go ahead and tell you it's gonna be embarrassing my wife's in the room this morning she hates it she's like you're handwriting so bad it's like a child and somebody told me one sunday i look like i write like a
[00:31:42] doctor and i'm like well couldn't be further from the truth i was only about eight years of school away from being a doctor um but so we've got work right actually i'm gonna race i will come back to
[00:31:52] this era so we've got work and and we like that word so we got work then he says labor which is similar we'll talk about that in a minute again i write in all caps it's like i'm yelling at you
[00:32:04] that's just the only way you'll be able to really comprehend what's happening.
[00:32:09] Oops, about misspelled that, that'd be even worse.
[00:32:12] That's terrible.
[00:32:13] That does look like a child, but here we are.
[00:32:16] Give you a good laugh today.
[00:32:18] All right, so we got those words.
[00:32:20] And then he says, so he says, work that comes from faith.
[00:32:26] And again, maybe this will be helpful to see this, this morning.
[00:32:28] So these two words are paired together.
[00:32:31] Labor, he puts with love.
[00:32:33] And I'll move out of the way here in just a minute.
[00:32:35] and then endurance he puts with hope hopefully you can get that you can see that in scripture so work that comes from faith labor of love and endurance of the hope of jesus christ so so what
[00:32:51] we often do what we see in the life of the pharisees the religious leaders is instead of these things being together we just do this part like we've got this we've got the work we've got
[00:33:04] to labor, we've got endurance. And we like those words. And again, I do. We see that those things, even in our culture, that we value those things. And maybe you didn't start out this way. Maybe
[00:33:17] when you gave your life to Christ, you were full of faith, love, and hope, and your work, labor, endurance came out of those things, right? It came out of your relationship with the Lord.
[00:33:28] But somewhere along the lines, and I've been here, I can speak of this from experience, it became all about the work the labor and the endurance and we separate those things and what's scary about this is on the outside we talked about this in this
[00:33:42] series on the outside it looks the same or very similar it looks good because you're doing all the right things and even scarier than that and we see this with the Pharisees you can even convince yourself that you're good you can even
[00:33:57] start to believe I've got it I've figured this thing out I'm doing all the right things. I serve, I give, I'm a good person. And you can even begin to convince yourself that you're good. You can even begin to convince yourself that this is the right way to do it,
[00:34:12] but it's completely divorced from the faith, hope, and love. It's completely disconnected.
[00:34:16] We've just made it about these things. And we see what the Pharisees, I read a scripture that it says, we talk about being able to convince ourselves that we're good and we become self-righteous. There's a Pharisee, Jesus tells a story, and it says this Pharisee was standing
[00:34:32] and praying like this about himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other people.
[00:34:38] Wild prayer. Greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. This is crazy. Could you imagine if I did this? Here today, the only person sitting here is Caleb, so I'll use him as an example. Could you imagine if I was up here and prayed and was like, thank God, Lord, that I'm not
[00:34:53] like Caleb. Like how horrible would that be? I can't think of anything right now offhand, which this is a great, it says a lot about you. I can't think of a specific example. I'm not like Caleb
[00:35:03] in this way. So that's good. I wish I could, I'd call you out in this very moment. But, but imagine that like he, before God, he goes before God and is saying, like, he says all these things like,
[00:35:16] like, I thank you that I'm not like other people because like I'm doing all the right things.
[00:35:22] He was so self-righteous that he even convinced himself that I've got it, and I'm superior to everyone else.
[00:35:30] And we see when we do this, it does come down to oftentimes us comparing ourselves with others.
[00:35:35] I've done this many times, right?
[00:35:36] And when you do this, you either feel superior like this guy, or you feel inferior.
[00:35:41] And sometimes that pendulum swings all day, right?
[00:35:43] You go between these two things all day.
[00:35:46] When I compare my work, my labor, my endurance with somebody else, I'm either gonna feel superior or inferior, and depending on who it is your emotions are changing all the time so we see that
[00:35:55] and when we do this our motivation we talked about what motivates us what drives us what's the reason behind it it can be many things and we'll go just a few we're not gonna go this is not gonna be conclusive this morning on every
[00:36:09] single thing I'm sure but you look at this word work this word is Ergon in the Greek and in Matthew 23 5 verse 5 the scripture says all their deeds the deeds is the same word there for work it could be word work deeds action the way it's translated they're
[00:36:27] all done for men to see how often do the things we do we do just to be seen by others how often do we serve or do we go out and we love people or we go out and we give or we whatever the case may be
[00:36:44] because we love people or we don't love people because we're trying to to be seen as good right like it doesn't come from faith it comes from i want to be known i want to be seen i want people
[00:36:56] to see me as good we got an image to prop up it becomes self-serving how often do people even stand on a stage and do what i'm doing today and it comes from i want to be seen i want to build up
[00:37:08] my image and my reputation so i work and i do these things these actions these deeds and often it doesn't start this way because again i can i can speak to a lot of this this morning because
[00:37:19] i've been here so often it the compliments start coming the things start coming in people start to speak well of us often and scripture says woe to you when people speak well of you but they do
[00:37:29] and and we begin to take that stuff to heart and and maybe it's on the other side and insecurity begins to grow in us and and we begin to protect our image and it becomes all about our image how
[00:37:39] we're perceived how we're seen and this morning that may be what motivates you that may be what causes you to do what you do that may have started in the fifth grade and and maybe you were picked
[00:37:52] on or maybe you got praise for something and it started then and you may not even realize anymore how much you do this and how much this is your motivation by most of what you do is just to be
[00:38:02] seen by others just how you're perceived just like these pharisees this may be deeply ingrained that they do all that they do just to be seen by others and it's just about what we do and it's motivation
[00:38:15] for this the next word is labor and this is uh can be translated sustained effort instead of labor from love jesus says that they loved the places of honor that they loved to be to be seen to be
[00:38:31] lifted up to be exalted instead of humbling themselves they loved the places of honor instead of selfless selfless love it was for selfish gain and the pharisees we see they worked hard, so hard. Their labor was to get this power, to get this control, and they worked so
[00:38:51] hard to keep it. They worked so hard to keep it that ultimately it led to them pushing to get Jesus crucified, to keep their power, to keep their control. They're like, if this man keeps
[00:39:01] doing what he's doing, the Romans are going to come in and they're going to take our place.
[00:39:06] They're going to take our control. They're going to take our power from us. So they labored. They worked hard to make sure Jesus gets crucified. Now, obviously we know that backfired, but they worked so hard to do that. It could be maybe your work, your labor is to feel like you've got to earn
[00:39:25] God's love and God's favor. You feel like you've got to earn your salvation. You look at so many false religions, that is the heart of it, right? I've got to earn it. I've got to come in and I've
[00:39:36] got to do all these deeds and actions to earn the love, to earn the favor, to earn salvation.
[00:39:43] Instead of it being by faith, we think it's got to be by works. You look at this word, endurance. This is coming from, you can see so often in them from tradition. And Caleb and I
[00:39:56] actually had a conversation a few weeks back about the difference in religion and tradition. And he He was like, I believe so many people, they do what they do.
[00:40:05] It's not even religious activity.
[00:40:08] It's just their tradition, right?
[00:40:09] We were talking about the differences in the two things.
[00:40:11] And you see in the Pharisees, in Mark 7 particularly, Jesus says, you neatly set aside the command of God to maintain your own tradition.
[00:40:22] And go into verse 13.
[00:40:24] Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down.
[00:40:27] And you do so in so many matters.
[00:40:30] how much of what we do is based on tradition, right?
[00:40:35] It's not from hope.
[00:40:37] It's not from faith, hope, and love.
[00:40:38] It's just based on this is just what I do because my parents did it.
[00:40:41] This is what I do because my grandparents did it.
[00:40:44] Like this is just, I remain steadfast.
[00:40:46] I continue to come to church.
[00:40:48] I continue to try to do good things.
[00:40:49] I continue to try to give.
[00:40:51] I continue to try to serve.
[00:40:52] Whatever the case may be, I do it because that's just what you do in the South.
[00:40:56] Whenever I was about 20 years old, I realized in my life, so much, I don't really even know fully what I actually believe to be true. I don't know how I feel about certain things because so much of what I did was just
[00:41:13] based on tradition. This is just what I've always done. I had to get with God and get in his word and let it be real. But it's just based on so often tradition. And there's so many more,
[00:41:24] as I said a minute ago, examples that we could put here to talk about these things. But what we see is this is not, this is as the series title, which I love, this is holy looking, but hollow
[00:41:39] living. This is all about the external. Week one or two, whatever week it was, we talked about cleaning up the outside of the glass, but the inside, it's rotten on the inside. The Pharisees were whitewashed tombs that Jesus talks about. It's all about the external. It's all about how
[00:41:56] I look in front of people. It's all about what I can do. I am what I can accomplish. It's all about tradition. It's all about what we've always done. And that's just what motivates me. But it's all
[00:42:05] about the external. It's all about cleaning the outside. And we're focused just on the work, labor, and endurance instead of what actually matters. Instead of the inside, where you see in 1 Corinthians 13 where it talks about faith, hope, and love, that these are the things that
[00:42:23] matter. This is eternal. He says the greatest of these is love, but we bypass that often and it becomes all about this. And as you look at this, I'll give you another little bit of drawing. You
[00:42:34] got to endure that. So speaking of endurance, you're going to need it, but you look at it this way. So I'll add another screen. What he really saying is, is, is the faith, right? Instead of it
[00:42:48] being work and then faith, the faith should lead to the work, to the action. I'm not sure what that squiggly is there, but it is what it is. But that the faith leads to the work, not the work comes
[00:43:09] first or it's by itself it's divorced from faith that the faith leads to work and so often i don't know if anybody else is like this but i am and i've realized this in my life that so many of
[00:43:19] these words that we hear so often that they kind of lose their meaning and their power or we've used them in a wrong way or we just we've watered them down so i want to give you some definitions
[00:43:28] to make sure we understand when we talk about faith hope and love what we're talking about today so this will be brief but but faith is the god-wrought conviction that rests on his self-revelation responds with a personal trust and obedience the scripture says faith comes by hearing
[00:43:46] and hearing by the word of god it entails both believing that god is who he says he is and committing oneself to him in reliance on his promises you can look at hebrews 11 1 there
[00:43:58] i believe he is who he says he is his his way is best that this book is true i i have faith in christ i believe i trust we see that faith and that faith is to lead to the work action deed
[00:44:13] whatever word you want to put there that that how that word is translated that faith leads to the action it leads the the internal leads to the external the faith and then you see and and
[00:44:26] scripture says again in that corinthian scripture it says this is the greatest of these we see love and you can see even in the greatest commandment love the lord your god heart soul mind and
[00:44:37] strength your neighbor as yourself is everything else hangs on this that love leads to labor but that's the order it should be in that love leads to the labor this word again i'll give you
[00:44:52] the definition of this it denotes a holy self-giving disposition that originates in god is to display perfectly in jesus christ and is implanted in believers by the holy spirit the frequency of the term in the writings of john paul and paul underscores that it is central
[00:45:12] to the apostles theology and ethics that that this is is central again you see the greatest commandment love that is central scriptures we love because he first loved us that's first john 4 19. first john 4 7 says dear friends let us love one another because love is from god
[00:45:32] and everyone who loves has been born of god and knows god they've been born of god and they know god so the labor comes from this love it comes from god that is love is from god it comes from
[00:45:47] God and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. That love leads to the labor. It's not just labor that we do begrudgingly, but it's out of a loving relationship with the Lord. And I
[00:46:01] think about, anytime I think about this and I think about the word labor, I think about my childhood, as I've said before, growing up on a farm with my grandfather. And so often it was like
[00:46:13] child labor out there. We were young, you know, 10 years old and he's got us doing all kinds of things. It's just the way it was. But it was never begrudgingly doing this stuff. He never
[00:46:23] forced anything on us. We really enjoyed being on the farm, doing all the work, whatever it is that he asked us to do. And there'd be days we'd come home from school. We came home with my
[00:46:32] grandmother and she would feed us honey buns and frosted flakes and all those great things and sun drops. And we would watch the prices rise. And that's what we would do in the afternoon. And she
[00:46:42] was one of those women, I can't say all the things she said, but she would sit there and judge all people on the prices right talk about why they were so dumb and all this stuff and couldn't get
[00:46:51] the answers right and it was a great time but any time like we had all that right we could come home eat anything we wanted you got the prices right how could life be better but when my grandpa would
[00:47:02] come in and he would ask us do you want to go out to the farm do you want to come with me i'm going to haul this straw or i'm going to go pick up rocks or i'm going to do whatever dig a ditch
[00:47:12] we would always go with him right no matter what was there at the house my grandma could offer we would always go with my grandpa because we loved him we wanted to be with him and ultimately i
[00:47:23] wanted to be him and out of that loving relationship came the labor and i believe that's a great example of this it's out of that loving relationship it is it is out of knowing i'm loved and i love the lord my god heart soul mind and strength that we we do the work that we
[00:47:40] labor it's got to come from that place it can't it's not just i guess i got to do this because god god says to i guess i have to but it's out of that love it comes from love the next one you see
[00:47:54] that hope i'm almost done with this part of the message anyway hope leads to the endurance i'm not going to apologize for my writing anymore but that's what that's what it leads to this is a
[00:48:12] is a great definition. I love this. I got a couple of quotes about hope. Hope in scripture is not wishful thinking, but a confident spirit wrought expectation that God will fulfill every promise he has made in Christ. It rests on the character of God. Look at Hebrews 6, 18, and is secured in
[00:48:31] the resurrection of Jesus Christ. While faith looks back to the finished work of the cross and love acts in the present, hope stretches forward to the consummation of redemption. A couple of quotes for you. This is J.I. Packer. Optimism is a wish without warrant. Christian hope is a
[00:48:49] certainty guaranteed by God himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will actually come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth on the basis of God's own commitment that the best
[00:49:06] is yet to come. Another scripture, another quote, excuse me. Other men see only a hopeless end, but the Christian rejoices in an endless hope. So we look at this. We have hope today that leads
[00:49:22] to endurance. I can face tomorrow because he lives. I can face tomorrow because of who he is, because he lives. As that song says, all fear is gone. I can face tomorrow because I have hope
[00:49:33] in Jesus Christ, that we have hope today.
[00:49:36] As Scripture says, we're not like those without hope, that we can go through whatever life throws at us, whatever storm may come, that I can go through it because I have hope as an anchor for the soul,
[00:49:47] Scripture says, that we have hope today.
[00:49:51] So this is the way it should be, faith leading to work, love leading to labor.
[00:49:56] Hope is the reason, hope in Jesus is the reason that we can be steadfast, that we can carry on, that we can endure whatever comes at us that we see that that is the way it's
[00:50:08] supposed to be so what now like how do I how do I get this you're like I'm with you and and how do I I get this because we also we often will do this right here
[00:50:19] we'll start we'll go in here and turn this we see great I need I need faith love and hope and we'll go back to because again we get so focused on the works, we'll switch it back up again. It's like, all right, I need to work to get faith. I need to
[00:50:38] labor to get love. I need to endure to get hope. And we focus on the external instead of the internal. We focus on what I can do on the outside, and we go right back to where we were.
[00:50:51] But we look at Scripture, at these three things briefly. Faith, as you see, Scripture says it comes from hearing, hearing from the Word of God, that we need a relationship with Him in this Word,
[00:51:05] this book. And then you see love, as I said a minute ago, that is from God. I'll read that scripture again, 1 John 4, 7. Dear friends, let us love one another because love is from God and
[00:51:16] everyone who is loved has been born of God and knows God. Again, hope, our hope is also, God is the source of our hope, that our hope is found in Jesus, that he is the source. So we can't focus
[00:51:30] on the external. So really what this series, what today's message, the whole, however many weeks we've been in it, comes down to is this comes from God. We have to know God. We have to know
[00:51:45] the Lord. We have to be in loving relationship with him and be in his word to know the promises of God, to have hope, faith in Him, we have to know Him. We have to get to know Him. We have to
[00:51:58] continue to seek Him. Because we often, we focus on the surface. We focus on those things.
[00:52:07] I believe so often we do that when we focus on the surface level is because our relationship with God is surface level. We stay on the surface because that's what our relationship with God looks like we don't have this deep intimate relationship with the lord it's very surface
[00:52:23] level so what we do is very surface level we focus on the outside the external and we've all had surface level relationships right people that you know and you talk to but you never get real with
[00:52:37] them they don't know much about you you don't know much about them they they don't really ever speak into your life they can't because you're not close enough it's all about the weather or work and it's
[00:52:47] and it's very surface level maybe every once in a while you need something you call them it's kind of like a facebook friend caleb you can go ahead and join me the band go ahead and come on up this
[00:52:57] morning but it's like a facebook friend kathy and i had a conversation the other night at dinner i was like i think you were the lord gave me an analogy for sunday as we were talking and i was
[00:53:09] i was thinking this through she was talking about how and we've all been here i would imagine but but how you run into somebody in person that you only know through Facebook, right?
[00:53:19] It's just awkward for everybody.
[00:53:20] Let's call it what it is.
[00:53:22] It's weird, because you know each other, right?
[00:53:25] You know their kids' names.
[00:53:26] You know a lot about them, but you don't actually know them.
[00:53:30] So it's weird.
[00:53:30] What do you do?
[00:53:31] We were talking about somebody she ran into.
[00:53:33] It's like, what do you do when you run into them?
[00:53:35] Do you just act like your friends?
[00:53:36] Do you act like it's normal?
[00:53:38] Because it's weird and it's awkward, because we know a lot about them.
[00:53:42] We may even comment on their posts every once in a while.
[00:53:45] Great family, exclamation point, heart, right?
[00:53:49] All the things that we would never say to somebody in real life, we say to them on Facebook, which is a whole nother thing.
[00:53:54] I'm not gonna get into a can of worms.
[00:53:55] But we know them.
[00:53:59] We've even, again, we've commented on posts.
[00:54:01] We've liked their posts.
[00:54:03] We know what they do.
[00:54:05] We know where they've been on vacation.
[00:54:07] We know what their kids' names are.
[00:54:09] We got a lot of secondhand information about them than probably other people, we know, but we've never actually been in their presence.
[00:54:17] We've never actually been in the same room with them, right?
[00:54:20] But we feel like we kind of know them.
[00:54:22] So then when you actually do get in the same room with them, it's awkward for both parties, right?
[00:54:28] We see that.
[00:54:30] And I thought about that a lot.
[00:54:32] And I was just praying about this, like it's all about the external.
[00:54:35] Like I feel like oftentimes, not to oversimplify it, But oftentimes, people's relationship with the Lord, and I've been here, so I get it.
[00:54:45] It's like that Facebook relationship.
[00:54:47] I know about him.
[00:54:50] I've read stuff about him.
[00:54:51] I've heard from other people.
[00:54:52] I've seen things he's done, as people have posted on Facebook or told me about it.
[00:54:58] But I've never actually been in his presence myself.
[00:55:01] I've never actually experienced him for myself.
[00:55:04] I don't have a firsthand experience with his word.
[00:55:07] I don't really ever pray.
[00:55:09] I don't really ever go there.
[00:55:10] Maybe you've never known him.
[00:55:13] Maybe this morning you're sitting in your living room and you're like, you know, I've never really known the Lord.
[00:55:18] I've never really come to Jesus.
[00:55:22] And there's a scripture, it's just so serious.
[00:55:24] It's in Matthew 7, 22 and 23.
[00:55:27] Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy on your name and did we not drive out demons and perform many miracles, all the external?
[00:55:37] Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you.
[00:55:39] depart from me you workers of lawlessness I never I never knew you they're like we did it we had the external we knew a lot about you we did a lot of things in your name he said I never actually knew
[00:55:51] you though and the good news great news this morning is you can know him scripture says that that he says come to me maybe and now think about that scripture so often you're you're tired you're
[00:56:02] heavy laden because your life is all about work labor endurance you're trying to do all the things and he says, you can come to me, I'll give you rest for your soul.
[00:56:10] He says, you can come to me, you can know him.
[00:56:13] But maybe, and I feel this so strong, I believe for the church, is maybe it's like that friend from high school that you knew one time, right?
[00:56:24] Think about people, maybe you were really close at one point and you kind of still feel like it, maybe 15 years later and you're like, yeah, that's my best friend.
[00:56:34] But you hadn't talked to him in 15 years.
[00:56:36] You hadn't been in the same room with them in ages.
[00:56:39] Maybe you'll run into them once in a while.
[00:56:41] Maybe when things get really bad and you need something, you reach out to them, but you don't really have a deep connection with them.
[00:56:48] Maybe that's your relationship with the Lord.
[00:56:51] You came to know the Lord years ago and at some point you drifted into this, into the external, and you really haven't spent much time in his presence.
[00:57:04] Maybe you come to him when you need something.
[00:57:06] Maybe you come to church every once in a while, but it's like that friend on Facebook.
[00:57:11] It's been a long time since you've actually been in his presence.
[00:57:15] It's been a long time since you've actually spent time with him.
[00:57:22] And the point being, we say this, I feel like so often, but we have to know him.
[00:57:30] Everything else flows out of that.
[00:57:33] We have to know him.
[00:57:36] The work, the labor, the endurance, it comes out of that place.
[00:57:40] It's from the inside out.
[00:57:42] It's not, we try so hard outside in.
[00:57:45] It's from the inside out.
[00:57:47] We've got to see that.
[00:57:48] I think this is so cool.
[00:57:50] As you look in Revelation 2, I've thought a lot about this scripture over the years and I've heard it preached many times.
[00:57:57] When it talks about you've abandoned, to the church of Ephesus, you've abandoned your first love.
[00:58:02] The way this scripture starts, it uses the same three words we see here in 1 Thessalonians.
[00:58:09] I know your deeds, your work, the ergon, that word. I know your labor and I know your perseverance or your endurance. It's the same three words that he says to him. Like you're doing these things. Like you've got the
[00:58:21] external figured out. You're nailing that part. I know you're doing that. And he says, I know you can't tolerate those who are evil and you have tested and exposed as liars those who falsely claim to be apostles. Without growing weary again, you've persevered and you endured many things for
[00:58:38] sake of my name but i have this against you you have abandoned your first love therefore keep in mind how far you have fallen repent and perform the deeds you did at first but if you do not
[00:58:50] repent i will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place man whenever i first started i think one of the reasons i feel it so strongly because i first started out in ministry
[00:59:04] and I was so fired up.
[00:59:07] I was 21, 22 years old, wanted to serve in the church and I just loved Jesus and I couldn't get enough of his word and I couldn't get enough of his presence and I would spend time in prayer
[00:59:17] and I would seek him and I was just fired up for the Lord and I began to get involved in the church.
[00:59:23] I even had a title, I had a position.
[00:59:26] I was, man, I'm just so fired up for the Lord.
[00:59:30] I'm gonna do all these great things for God And over time, without me even knowing it was happening, nobody came and told me, the devil didn't come and announce this is what I'm about to do, nothing.
[00:59:43] It became all about the work, labor, and endurance.
[00:59:47] It became all about what can I do?
[00:59:48] And it became everything I've told you this morning is exactly what happened.
[00:59:53] And I drifted slowly, slowly.
[00:59:55] It became all about those things in the external.
[00:59:58] And I can say that I feel like I was living out this scripture.
[01:00:01] I lost the love that I had at first.
[01:00:04] And it became all about that.
[01:00:06] And it was some hard times to get back and to realize this is what has happened.
[01:00:11] But it's just as this scripture says, you got to acknowledge how far you'd fallen.
[01:00:16] I had to realize like, this is what's happening.
[01:00:18] Maybe that's you this morning.
[01:00:19] Maybe you just need to acknowledge that to confess it.
[01:00:22] Like I'm doing all the right stuff, but I've lost the love that I had at first.
[01:00:26] And then he says, and I had to do this.
[01:00:29] You got to repent.
[01:00:30] You got to turn from it.
[01:00:32] And that is a great thing.
[01:00:34] there's so much hope in that, that we can repent and turn. And then he says, do what you did at first, the deeds, the work, the things you did at first, go back to that, to get into the word,
[01:00:45] to spend time with the Lord, to be reminded of the hope that you have in Jesus. Maybe that's you this morning and you need to turn and you need to go back. You need to go back to the love you
[01:00:58] had at first, the first love, to seek God, to get in his word, to spend time with him. And then all these other things will come out of, of that relationship. And man, it might be a little bit
[01:01:09] hard at first. It might be a little bit weird at first. I think about if you were to reach out to that Facebook friend from 15 years ago, at first, it's going to be a little awkward, right? For you,
[01:01:19] maybe it's a little weird. Maybe it's hard. Maybe it's difficult. You've got all these excuses and distractions and reasons why you can't truly get into the word of God, why you can't spend time in prayer, why you can't wake up 30, 45 minutes, an hour early to do it. And I was reminded this
[01:01:36] week, I was talking with Ms. Terry and Pastor Caleb. We were talking about some things and about how like there it's difficult. It's not always easy. She quoted, I think it was John Piper that says, I don't wake up every day, just red hot for the Lord, right? Like it, it, it can
[01:01:52] be a fight. It can be a struggle. It's not always easy to get into the presence of God, but I can tell you with certainty this morning that it's worth it. He is worth it. And I wrote down this
[01:02:03] week that we're fighting against the influences of the world, the flesh and the devil. And we think waking up every day and getting into the presence of God is just going to be a cakewalk.
[01:02:12] Like we're just going to, it's going to be easy, but it's not always easy. I can tell you that, but it's worth it. And we should do whatever it takes to go after God, to get God, to let God do
[01:02:27] what only, as we sang earlier, only he can do to move and speak and work in our lives.
[01:02:33] It will be changed from the inside out. It won't be just holy looking, but hollow. It'll be real.
[01:02:40] Then our work, our labor and endurance will come out of that place. It'll come from the inside.
[01:02:47] It'll come out of that place. So I want to encourage you this morning to do whatever it takes to get to God, do whatever it takes to get in his presence, to get in his word, to get in prayer,
[01:02:57] that it's worth it that he's worth it let's pray together God we love you we praise you this morning I worship you today God I just pray Lord for wherever people are today God whether it's they don't know you at all or they need to
[01:03:16] give their life to you today God scripture says that if we'll believe in our heart confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord that we can be saved God I pray Lord if there's even just one person this morning that that's them God
[01:03:28] that they do that in this very moment, Lord.
[01:03:32] God, I pray for the church this morning, for us, God, that if we have, we do feel like we've lost that first love, that everything's external, it's on the outside, that God, that we come back to you today, God,
[01:03:42] that we come, we repent, God, we confess, God, we repent, and we come to you today, God, that we seek you, that we go after you, God, that we wake up every day, God, going after you,
[01:03:53] the one thing that truly matters, that we seek you, that we love you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, God, that we give you all that we are.
[01:04:02] Lord, we love you.
[01:04:04] We praise you.
[01:04:04] We lift you up in your name.
[01:04:06] Amen.

[01:04:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_05]
[01:04:07] Thank you so much

[01:09:08] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:09:08] for joining with us this morning in worship.
[01:09:12] It is our honor to worship alongside of you this morning.
[01:09:17] And we want to give you some exciting news.
[01:09:19] So we are starting back on Wednesday, February 4th, our New Believers class.
[01:09:28] So maybe you have recently made the decision to follow Jesus and give your life to the Lord, or you've been through baptism class class and you've recently been baptized then this new believers class is for you but it's also for
[01:09:44] that person who is seeking after that relationship that pastor taylor talked about today maybe your whole life you've just known about jesus or it's just been a rules-based religion type walk and you're ready to step into
[01:10:05] that intimate, heartfelt, daily devotion, then our New Believers class is for you.
[01:10:12] Again, it starts back Wednesday, February 4th.
[01:10:17] It starts at 7 p.m.
[01:10:19] If you want more information about that, you can go to our website under What's Happening at Pursuit and you'll see it advertised there as Christianity 101, which is our New Believers class, or you can scan the QR code on the screen.
[01:10:35] But we look forward to discipling you in this way as you continue in your faith journey.
[01:10:43] We also want to let you know if you need prayer today, please reach out by emailing us at connect at pursuitchurch.org.
[01:10:53] We have a prayer team that is ready to pray with you and walk with you through whatever you may be experiencing.
[01:11:02] Also, we want to remind you to share these messages, share invitations to come and be a part of the body of Christ.
[01:11:11] You never know how God will work through a simple share.
[01:11:16] And if God is tugging on your heart to join us financially in the work that he's doing in the body of Christ, then you can also give by going to our app or to our website
[01:11:27] and go to our giving tab.
[01:11:30] And we look forward to seeing you next week.
[01:11:34] We pray that you are safe and healthy and happy today.
[01:11:37] And now you can join me as I close in prayer.
[01:11:42] Father, we are so thankful for your son, Jesus, who made a way for the Lord so that we could step in to your presence anytime, anywhere.
[01:11:55] And Lord, we are thankful for your spirit.
[01:11:57] and Lord we pray this morning that we be reminded just as your servant James told us that we are not saved by good works but we are saved to good works and your servant Paul when he was discussing
[01:12:16] the gifts of the Holy Spirit when he said that we should desire the greater gifts of faith hope and love and that love is the greatest because those gifts, Lord, are the gifts that follow us into eternity. And so, Father, today I pray that we would truly seek
[01:12:42] wholehearted devotion to Christ, that it would no longer be rules-based or check the box or I'm simply showing up out of fear or obligation, but I truly desire to be with my Father who created me, who loves me,
[01:13:08] who has mercy and grace for me, and who sustains me through every moment of my life.
[01:13:16] Lord, thank you for your word because your word is life.
[01:13:20] In the mighty name of Jesus, amen.
[01:13:23] Have a wonderful rest of your day.