The Illusion of Self-Powered Faith

• The Necessity of Faith [00:02:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that without faith, it is impossible to please God, citing Hebrews 11:6 as a rare instance of God declaring something 'impossible' without this substance.
• Church History and Vision [00:05:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the founding of Genesis Metro as a case study, explaining how the church was conceived, founded, and maintained by faith rather than human resources or existing models.
• Salvation by Grace through Faith [00:13:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines saving faith using Ephesians 2:8-9, contrasting it with works-based systems and questioning if any attendees are deceived by such systems.
• Corporate vs. Individual Christianity [00:09:53 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor asserts that Christianity is inherently communal and that attempting to live apart from the church is outside of Jesus' prescribed authority.
• Salvation by Grace through Faith [00:13:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that salvation is a gift from God through faith, not works, citing Ephesians 2:8-9 to refute any system of salvation based on human effort or religious branding.
• Critique of Works-Based Religion [00:14:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor warns against 'workspace systems' or church traditions (sacraments, catechism, being a 'good Baptist/Catholic') that deceive people into thinking good works or heritage save them, contrasting this with the necessity of being 'born again'.
• The Nature of True Faith [00:18:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > Faith is described as a continuous action involving being saved by it, walking by it, living by it, and fighting by it, rather than a one-time event or a compartmentalized belief.
• Letting Go of Control [00:21:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines faith as letting go of the 'illusion of control,' asserting that humans do not control life or death, and that trusting God is the prerequisite for faith.
• Transference and Transformation [00:23:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor outlines a three-step process for faith: Trust (believing in God), Transference (moving one's eternal life, marriage, children, and finances into God's 'basket'), and Transformation (evidence of a changed life).
• Faith and Money [00:25:22 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that trusting God with one's heart necessitates trusting Him with one's money, citing Jesus' teaching on treasure and heart.
• Transformation as Evidence [00:26:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The speaker posits that salvation results in a changed life ('transformation'), using the analogy of a decorator spouse taking over a house to illustrate God's desire to change every area of a believer's life.
• Fruit and Spiritual Life [00:28:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using an analogy of an orange orchard, the pastor explains that a lack of spiritual fruit (godly attitudes, actions, accountability) indicates a dead tree, regardless of its proximity to other fruitful trees.
• Unworthiness and Worship [00:35:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > Analyzing the centurion's statement 'I'm not worthy,' the pastor contrasts the worship style of those who feel worthy (self-centered) versus those who feel unworthy (grateful and reverent).
• Cultural Parenting Critique [00:38:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor critiques modern parenting trends that place children at the center of the stage and shield them from criticism, contrasting it with biblical discipline.
• Parenting and Cultural Deception [00:38:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor critiques a cultural mindset that places children at the center of the stage, arguing that this elevates them to a hero status that contradicts the biblical truth that Jesus is the hero.
• Sufficiency of Scripture [00:40:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor emphasizes that God's word alone is sufficient for faith and decision-making, warning against adding personal circumstances or seeking human validation over biblical truth.
• Spiritual Authority [00:42:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that great faith is impossible without submitting to God's established spiritual authority, including pastoral leadership, as demonstrated by the centurion's understanding of command and obedience.
• Faith and Timing [00:47:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor illustrates that faith acts immediately, but the results may be realized later, using the healing of the centurion's servant and the church's 24-year journey as examples.

• Sermon Illustration [00:04:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts the history of Genesis Metro, describing how it was conceived by faith in Southwest Arkansas where no similar churches existed, founded by faith by stepping away from denominational safety nets and resources, and maintained by faith as it grew from four people to thousands.
• Sermon Illustration [00:04:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of trying to 'serve a five course meal in 15 minutes' to explain the difficulty of summarizing the complex history of the church's founding in a short sermon segment.
• Sermon Illustration [00:15:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a 'championship belt' or 'Christian cape' to describe the ego-driven pride of those who rely on their good works, which God will throw into the fire. He also references the biblical story of Nicodemus, a religious theologian who had the Bible but missed the faith of being born again.
• Sermon Illustration [00:26:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his wife, Carrie, being a 'decorator' who fills the house with items, contrasting it with his own desire for a dedicated 'fishing room' to illustrate the concept of space and control.
• Sermon Illustration [00:23:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of containers or baskets to explain 'transference,' where a believer takes their eternal life, marriage, children, and finances out of their own 'basket' and places them into God's 'basket' through trust.
• Sermon Illustration [00:26:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his wife's 'decorator sickness,' describing how she fills every space in their home with knickknacks, even in a dedicated 'fishing room,' to illustrate how God wants to 'redo' every area of a believer's life, not just parts of it.
• Sermon Illustration [00:28:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > An analogy of an orange orchard where one tree has no fruit is used to demonstrate that a lack of spiritual fruit indicates spiritual death, regardless of the tree's location among fruitful trees.
• Sermon Illustration [00:32:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > A retelling of the biblical account of the centurion in Matthew 8, focusing on his humility ('I'm not worthy') and faith in Jesus' word alone to heal his servant.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > A critique of modern parenting culture where parents shield children from criticism, deny their failures (e.g., not making the team), and prioritize the child's feelings over discipline or reality.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes a cultural trope where parents defend their children against all criticism, such as ignoring a bad teacher report or claiming a child who didn't make the team is actually the best tackler, to illustrate the error of making children the 'hero' of their own story.
• Sermon Illustration [00:41:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a scenario where a congregant seeks advice from multiple people until they find someone who agrees with their pre-existing opinion, rather than starting with God's word.
• Sermon Illustration [00:42:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about moving to a new location 24 years ago based solely on God's word, which seemed reckless at the time but resulted in the church's current reality, illustrating the long-term fruit of faith.
• Sermon Illustration [00:46:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor retells the biblical story of the centurion whose servant was healed remotely, noting that the healing happened at the moment of faith, even though the centurion didn't know the result until he returned home.

• Pastoral Charge [00:04:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > Log on to the podcast to hear the history and values of the church.
• Pastoral Charge [00:13:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > Acknowledge the need for salvation and consider how to be saved.
• Pastoral Charge [00:17:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor instructs the congregation to look up Ephesians 1:13 to verify the biblical basis for the sealing of the Holy Spirit.
• Pastoral Charge [00:29:56 ▶️ 📄]
  > Examine personal life for evidence of spiritual fruit and godly character.
• Pastoral Charge [00:34:39 ▶️ 📄]
  > Commit to being laborers in the church and engaging in evangelism.
• Pastoral Charge [00:44:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stop doing things that God's word prohibits.
• Pastoral Charge [00:45:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > Submit to the authority of the church leadership.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] The band leading us in worship. We've already had a great Sunday. We hope that we can just stack some more wins up in this service. I hope that you came with your cup today ready to be filled to the point of overflowing. We always want to see life change at Genesis Metro Church and this series has been a godsend for sure. Today we're going to be examining the concept of faith. So when we started off on this series called Surrounded,
[00:00:32] it's Hebrews 12 verse 1 it says that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses that we are to get rid of the weight that's holding us or bogging us down we are to get rid of the sin
[00:00:44] that so easily entangles us and then we could run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us it starts off with therefore though in Hebrews 12 1 and it's alluding to the cloud of witnesses
[00:00:56] are mentioned in chapter 11. Now chapter 11 in theological land is called the hall of fame of faith. And the phrase by faith occurs 18 times inside of this one chapter. So for us to ignore
[00:01:14] the fact that we need faith in order to accomplish God's will would be so to our peril. So in order for us to get to the place that Hebrews 12 one, two is coaching us towards that we can run this race. We have to know the
[00:01:29] things that we need. And so faith is going to be critical to that. And so I hope I can break down faith for you in a way that you can examine your life one and see, do you have
[00:01:40] faith? Are you living by faith? And then two, what would, what would be the evidence or what would be the outcome if you applied faith in your life? So there might be some areas that
[00:01:51] are under his authority. And there might be some areas that are outside of his authority today. And we all believe right that if our life is under God's authority, it's the best life that is possible. And so without further ado, the first verse
[00:02:06] we're going to consider is Hebrews 11, six, God creates a standard. He says, without faith, it is impossible to please God. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Now understand this is one of the only times that God says something is impossible. It is impossible.
[00:02:27] So to understand what that means, there is no way that you can please him without this substance.
[00:02:33] So the secret inside the sauce is faith. Our edge that allows us to execute at a high level for the kingdom of God is faith. So you need to know whether or not you have it. If it's being
[00:02:50] exercised. There's proof of it because I think that for all the believers in here, you want to please God. Do you want to please God this morning? And the question would be answered with amen. All right. All right. Y'all did better than the other
[00:03:03] two. The other two were like, you know, he says that the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently or earnestly seek him. So whenever we think about the concept of what about the guy that's out in some remote place how does
[00:03:24] he get saved how does it says here that whenever he starts seeking that God is now required right to give him all the information that he needs he also says creation itself begins to bear witness
[00:03:37] so that even if you're out in some remote part of the planet maybe you're raised in a whole different system of faith, is it possible for you to seek after God and find God? Absolutely. There's no place and there's no
[00:03:51] person that will stand before God that was not given an opportunity to make a decision. So faith is necessary. So I wanted to kind of give you an onboard by telling you some history of Genesis Metro. So as people are walking in today to
[00:04:09] the house that God has allowed us to build here. A lot of times because we're in the, I think we're rounding into like the 24th year. It's hard to consolidate and tell this story in a succinct
[00:04:24] fashion in any given setting. So you're trying to serve a five course meal in 15 minutes, you know?
[00:04:31] So what we're doing is we're actually going to unfold that story in the podcast. And so if you haven't logged on to see the podcast, I encourage you if you want to know all of the details of how
[00:04:42] we got here and what our decision-making process was and what is the foundational stones and values that undergird this place, this special place, then you can find that out there. So this morning, I'm going to give you just the cliff notes, okay? How has faith interacted with the house that
[00:05:01] you're sitting in? Or prospectively, if you're looking for a church, how does faith fit in our history? Number one, Genesis Metro was conceived by faith. So right now in the Dallas area, especially even in the Frisco area, you could just drive your car 10 more minutes and you can find
[00:05:19] churches that look like this. But understand something, 25 years ago, these types of churches were very rare and in the place that we were living which was southwest Arkansas there was none of these churches and so whenever we say it was conceived by faith we had never been to a
[00:05:39] church that is like Genesis Metro and so God had to give us this vision by faith because there was nowhere we could just go see it the closest we got was like a church camp whenever they finally
[00:05:51] let us like sing some of our songs you know and people would actually like be excited in the service and the preaching was a little bit more dynamic. And it was like, why can't we just do
[00:06:01] church like that? And so that's the concept that we brought to Frisco, Texas. And so I want you to see that, that God is through faith, able to give you vision that you haven't even experienced
[00:06:14] before. So that's, that's one of the reasons why you would need faith. Number two, Genesis Metro was founded by faith. And what was the difference between conceived and founded? Well, in order for us to lay this foundation, it meant we had to walk away from all of the safety nets that were around
[00:06:33] us. And so from being lead pastor at 25 years old, uh, I was now 28 years old and most people that make it up there, that's where they like try to stay. Um, and then they might move just
[00:06:49] from churches to church to churches and like, how do you go to bigger churches? And that's the way professional pastors often live. At the time, you have to also understand today's culture, church planting is popular. Church planting was almost non-existent at the time that we moved
[00:07:05] here. And so we had to found this by stepping out into the unknown and stepping away from the resources that were available to us. That particular denomination, we did not agree with their philosophy and we did not agree with some of their theology. So it would have been disingenuous
[00:07:25] for us to take their money, put their brand on our building if we didn't represent their values.
[00:07:32] But it would have been super easy from a humanistic point of view to take the money and then just get to a place that's like, well, now we'll just, you know, take a racer and race that part out of the
[00:07:41] name. So you could see like there was a conflict of interest on an ethics level. And so we chose faith over what would have felt good. And so we had to move with nothing. So when we moved here,
[00:07:54] when I say nothing, I just want you to imagine nothing. All right. We didn't have support. We didn't, uh, we were in an apartment. So we went from a house to an apartment. Um, and, uh, we
[00:08:07] didn't know any people. We had no network here. Uh, and so it was, it was, by the way, if you were ever planting a church, this is the wrong way. All right. This is, this is not the church
[00:08:18] planters fail at a 90% rate. Okay. We were at the 99 percentile rate of likely failure. If anyone ever came and told me that they were going to go plant, like I planted, I'd be like, Ooh, I don't
[00:08:31] know if I would do that. Um, and so all we had in essence was faith, faith in four people. And so that's where we came to Genesis Metro. So the foundation had to be faith because there wasn't
[00:08:44] a smart way or a responsible way of doing what we were doing. Genesis Metro then, this is where it comes to you. You weren't part of those first two decisions for us to conceive this idea by faith
[00:08:57] and then found the church by faith, but you are part of this third process. Genesis Metro is maintained by faith. So from the first four to the now 4,800 that came this Easter, it is maintained
[00:09:12] by faith. Faith is for now and for the next. We must have faith in order to please God right now.
[00:09:22] But we also need faith for the next person that is going to walk through the doors. We need faith for the next marriage that is on the rocks, on the ropes, ready to throw in the towel,
[00:09:33] and they walk to the doors of Genesis Metro. We need faith for the next lost person, right? There's always more lost people that need to be saved. So our faith is what allows the gospel to move
[00:09:46] and have its being. I didn't choose this methodology. Jesus chose the church for all time.
[00:09:53] And so when we aren't part of a church, when you think you can do Christianity apart from church, you're saying that you know a way that Jesus didn't know or didn't prescribe. And so you're
[00:10:02] just out there lone ranger in it. Good luck. But you're, you're, you're out, you're outside of authority. And so we have to know that there's people to be saved. Therefore, in order for us to pass on the faith that we have received, it's required for us to have faith. And so the next
[00:10:19] student that's going to walk in on a Wednesday night and experience fuse, we have to have faith now so that the next student can experience Christ for all the people that serve in the children's building. How incredible is it that there are little babies that can't even read,
[00:10:35] can't even understand what they're saying. And they're telling them about Jesus at the earliest possible age. Don't you think, don't you think had you known Jesus at an earlier age, and if you would have had all of these footholds and, and handrails to be able to guide you through those
[00:10:56] years. Could you have avoided some pain in your life, some dark places in your life? And we're trying to give that from the time they come out of the womb to the time you put them in the
[00:11:07] children's area, to the time they go through fuse, to the time that they assimilate into the general congregation of our church, we are maintained by faith because I can't change you. My faith can impact you. And then you must add your faith to the faith in order for us to do this thing
[00:11:30] called church. So I think I've made my case that faith is necessary. And I want you to know that you're sitting in the decisions that were made in faith. So whenever we think about the goal of this
[00:11:42] series was to give you a God story that you could tell for the rest of your life. If right now you don't have a God story that he's ever made himself known to you and is real to you, you have a
[00:11:52] relationship with him. I want you to know that faith is not a part. It is essential. It's the whole that it begins with faith and it ends with faith in order for you to have a God story. Faith
[00:12:05] is a necessary integral part of that process. And so today faith is required to have a God story that you could share with others for the rest of your life. So now our question is, do you have
[00:12:18] faith? Do you have that type of faith? And before you answer too quickly, we're going to define it.
[00:12:26] And I bet that somewhere along the way, you have some faith. Maybe you have a type of faith, but maybe there's some areas that you haven't thought about or considered when it comes to faith. So it says in our opening verse, without faith, it is impossible to please God. So when
[00:12:45] we think about all the different references in the Bible of what does it say faith does the first one, because we want it to interact with our life, right? We want to know like, how do I do this
[00:12:57] thing called faith? I want to please God. Therefore, how do I do faith? Number one, it says that we have to be saved by faith. In Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, it says, it is for by grace that you were saved
[00:13:11] through faith and that it is a gift from God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So it takes faith in order to be saved. Now, would you say that there are likely in a crowd this size,
[00:13:29] that there are some in here that have not yet experienced saving faith? Would you say it's likely? All right. Would you say that there's more saved people in Frisco or lost people in Frisco?
[00:13:41] Lost. In Texas, do you think there's more saved people or lost? In America? Of course. Okay.
[00:13:48] So we know that there's a need then. All right. So how do we get to the other side?
[00:13:53] Do you think it's possible, all right, that some people are deceived by a workspace system because Paul was arguing against it back then?
[00:14:04] Do you think that that type of system, that it ended and it doesn't exist anymore?
[00:14:10] Or do you think it's possible that some churches perpetuate a theological system that Paul was arguing against still today?
[00:14:18] And what would it look like?
[00:14:19] What would it look like?
[00:14:20] it would say, it is not by grace that you are saved through faith, that you are saved by doing good. You are saved by being a part of a brand. You are saved by being a good ex. You're saved
[00:14:33] through different sacraments or catechism or Lord's supper or foot washing, um, or confession, whatever it is. If you're a good Baptist, a good Catholic, a good whatever. And, and, or if your grandparents, you know, they just raised you in church, you know, and I've just kinda, I've just
[00:14:48] kind of believed, you know, all my life that there's a God. You got to be careful. You got to be careful because is it just belief or is it a certain type of belief? Because Satan and the
[00:15:00] demons believe there is a God. Do you think they're going to heaven? No, they're not. So, so what kind of faith is it here? Because some people come into church and, and they think like their goal in
[00:15:14] churches to like to show how good they are. Like matter of fact, the more they do of church and the more they learn, it actually lifts them up because they're ego driven and they almost have
[00:15:24] like, you know, a championship belt of doing good that they wear around. Or I say the Christian cape that they fly around and amongst all the other sinners and they try not to, you know,
[00:15:34] interact with them. They don't want that sin to rub off on them. And so, so you know what happens on the other side of death, whenever you have built a system of works, Paul says it's not of
[00:15:44] works, lest any man should boast. So if you were dependent upon works, do you know on the other side of death, do you think it's possible that some people God's going to take your championship
[00:15:53] belt of doing good and being better than a bunch of people? And he's just going to throw it in the, in the fire and it's going to, it's going to pass away because our goodness can't save us.
[00:16:04] Does everybody understand this? Paul said, it's not, it's not Jesus and works. It's not works apart from Jesus because it says there's none righteous, no, not one. So it has to be just Jesus and it has to be faith in him. And so we have to understand today that the step one is that you
[00:16:22] have to be saved, saved by grace through faith. As a matter of fact, Jesus had an interaction with a guy named Nicodemus and Nicodemus, he was a religious guy, very religious theologian, right?
[00:16:33] and the right book. He had the old Testament. And so he had all of the precursors to like, he surely knows God. But then when he asked the question, Jesus said, you must be born again.
[00:16:44] And he was like, I don't know what you're talking about. So he had got all of the knowledge, but missed the faith. And by missing the faith, he wasn't yet inside the circle. He was outside
[00:16:56] the circle. So what am I trying to say? Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived by knowing the Bible is the same as knowing God that you have to be saved by grace through faith that at some point
[00:17:09] you have said I am born again a new person by by faith is what happens is God takes your sin he covers it with his grace and then he deposits his Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit regenerates your
[00:17:25] spirit and then it also seals your spirit which is the guarantee of salvation that's Ephesians 1 13 look it up. So if God guarantees it, you better go through the right process because if you go
[00:17:38] through a different process and still want the God guarantee, you're going to come up short because you were putting your faith in yourself. You were putting your faith in man-made things like religion instead of the God-made thing, which was Jesus coming to save us from our sin. That's the
[00:17:54] God-made gospel. And so whenever we are wanting to start with faith, it says that there are several other things that once you've now began in faith, you must continue in faith. It says that we walk
[00:18:06] by faith and that we also live by faith. And then it says we fight by faith. So walking is transportation, right? In their day and age, there was no cars, by the way, there was no cars back in
[00:18:20] the day. They had to walk. Yes. They didn't have electric scooters and bikes running around like gangs in our neighborhoods of Frisco. Is anybody else against this? I see them just whipping through there and I'm like, thank you. Thank you. Someone was passionate. I think she said,
[00:18:39] did you say that stupid? Okay. Thank you. I amen that. I didn't say that, but I endorse it.
[00:18:48] So whenever it comes to this type of faith, he said, not only do you have to be saved by it, you have to walk by it. In other words, as you move from place to place in your daily life,
[00:19:05] how is faith involved in that? Does, does faith have anything to do with how you move in this world? Or is that, that you see, see Christians compartmentalize and, oh yeah, I want them to
[00:19:19] save me by faith. Sure. I love that. But how I move in this world, once I leave here, that's Monday. That's Monday. That's me. Monday through Saturday. That's me. I decide what I do, where I
[00:19:32] go, what I see. Now you're not walking by faith. And then he says, let's go a step further. Live by faith. Live. What's the opposite of living? Dying. So that's like your heartbeat. That's your
[00:19:44] lungs. That's your essence. That's your purpose that you have to live by faith. Are you living by faith? Like when you wake up, do you say, God, thank you for my heart beating today. Thank you
[00:20:01] for giving me breath in my lungs today. Because do you think, right? Do you think that you can live, or let's just say it like this. Do you think you have the power to decide when you die?
[00:20:21] like God's it's God's hands we'll get into that in just a moment the last one is we fight by faith he told this young preacher he's like man we got to fight the good fight of faith
[00:20:34] so faith is required to be saved if it's required to walk if it's required to live and it's required to fight what would it look like if you didn't have that faith right you'd be defenseless you'd
[00:20:48] be stuck. You'd be living in death. And so, so how in the world are you going to do Christianity without knowing how to faith things? So next step, what is faith? What does it look like?
[00:21:03] Faith is letting go of your illusion of control. Faith is letting go of your illusion of control.
[00:21:11] Now, some of you sit in here. And the reason why I say illusion, because I wanted to say faith is letting go of control, but do you actually have control? That's the question.
[00:21:22] Like Jesus said, can, can you, by worrying add one day to your life? And you know what the conclusion was? No, no, you, you are not in control. Like if God decided for you to die today,
[00:21:39] did you know that you could not stop it? That if he gives you 10 more years and it's 10 more years to the day from right now. You cannot stop it. That God determines. He determines life. He determines death. So whenever
[00:21:56] we think we're in control, it's an illusion. Now, here's the thing. You have eternal life. You have eternal life. As you sit here right now, you have eternal life. You'll either have eternal life in a place separated from God, a place
[00:22:12] called hell, or you'll have eternal life in a place called heaven. But faith is the difference and God is in control. And so whenever we think about letting go of the illusion of control, we have to, at some point, trust God. So the first step
[00:22:33] in what faith looks like is I start to trust God. So I trust who God is. I trust that God can.
[00:22:40] And so that's the first step. It's like, I'm going to have faith in God. I got to trust.
[00:22:43] there's no way you can have faith without trust okay now after trust comes the tricky part for believers after trust comes transference okay so let's imagine now a substance let's say that you got you know all of these containers that are your life okay let's imagine the first one that
[00:23:04] we just talked about was eternal life that's the most important one would you agree would you agree Where you're going to spend eternity, most important thing. All right. So let's say that faith is I trust. And now the substance is my eternal life. We just said we have eternal life
[00:23:19] one way or the other. You're an eternal being. So when I trust, this is what salvation looks like, that born again thing. I take my eternal life and I put it, I take it out of my basket and I put it
[00:23:32] into God's basket. So my trust allowed me to transfer who is going to save or take care of my eternal life. I've now put that in God's basket. That's transference. When you think about all the other areas of your life, have you at some point transferred the keeper of your
[00:23:56] eternal life to God. That'd be salvation. That's step one. Have you transferred your marriage? Is it your marriage or is it in God's control? Are they your children or are they in God's control?
[00:24:12] You are to aim the arrow, but he made the arrow. You see what I'm saying? And so if you think of those as yours, then do you think you know better than God what their purpose is? See? See, if you
[00:24:28] don't have faith and you're just like, oh, hey, yeah, do good, do good, make, you'll have a different perspective. But faith will say, what does God want in the equation? Shouldn't you want to know God's will for your children? Absolutely, right? And so you think about your profession.
[00:24:47] is that separated out from your christianity how is faith touching what you do is it for god or is it just for you like my god my job is like i'm gonna make money and i'm gonna provide for
[00:25:00] my family and you know maybe get a couple toys here and there but you know i want to have a good life i want to have a comfortable life nothing wrong with that god blesses god god has given
[00:25:09] wealth to the frisco area nothing wrong with that but is it for you or is it for him does it belong to him or does it belong to you? Say, oh, preacher, I knew it. They just want my money. I don't want
[00:25:22] anything, brother. Do you, do you, do you think God needs your money? You think God is ever up in heaven? Like, oh, if Kevin doesn't tie it today, we're going to have to call the bank. You know,
[00:25:34] no. But how can you faith for God and not trust him with your money? How's that work? Didn't, didn't Jesus say something like, wherever you're, does anybody know the next part? Treasure.
[00:25:51] Wherever your treasure is, there will your, oh, there's a connection between your money and your heart. I gave God all my heart, but I kept all my money. Jesus said, that's not the way it works.
[00:26:06] If you trust him with your heart, you should trust him with your money. I got one. After trust and transference, you got transformation. That's the last part. That's the evidence. See, that's the evidence that the first two happened, that something has transformed in my life. I am
[00:26:26] different. Your saved self has to be different than your unsaved self. If, if God invades your life, then he wants to start changing things. I'll give you an example. Is anyone married to a decorator? Is anyone married to someone who likes to like just decorate little stuff all
[00:26:47] over the house. I didn't know that this sickness, uh, Carrie had it. And, and like, if I ever like clear out some space, like when we got in the house that we're in right now, I was supposedly
[00:26:59] had a room that was kind of dedicated to mine, like my one room out of the whole house. And it was like a fishing room. And I'm almost tempted to go home and take a picture of this fishing room.
[00:27:09] It's like a clutter room for all the decorations that are like in timeout. Um, but they're literally, if I like move stuff off a shelf and just threw it away, somehow it would respawn and new things
[00:27:23] would, it's like a resurrection. It's like resurrection is like just rises out and new knickknacks will be in that place. It's like, it's like every space just cries out like creation groaning and wants to have decorations. And so the point that I'm making is if, if God is invited
[00:27:42] into your life, but I can't see any evidence. Like he's, he's going to want to redo all of this.
[00:27:50] He's going to want to redo the whole house. You understand that, right? He's not going to be like, oh, just give me the kitchen, you know, but you get to keep the garage. No, no, no, no. He's like,
[00:27:59] if I gave you everything at the cross, what do you think his expectation is from you?
[00:28:05] Everything. He's not going to stop until you give him everything. Now, do you think that he's worthy of everything. If you have faith this morning, you'd have to say, yes, he's worth everything.
[00:28:17] So as we're thinking about this concept of faith, the transformation part, James said that a living faith produces these things, the walk, the living, the fighting, fighting by faith. That's what it produces. It produces fruit. If you went out to an orange orchard and you started walking down
[00:28:42] and they were in bloom, the fruit is hanging on the tree. They're harvesting, putting them in little baskets. And you walk down to there and there's hundreds, hundreds, maybe thousands.
[00:28:50] And you came to one and it has nothing on it. It's like no fruit whatsoever. Hasn't been picked yet.
[00:28:55] And it doesn't look very green. What conclusion would you come to? It's dead. It's dead. You don't have to worry about it. If all the other have fruit and that one doesn't, it's dead. Do you
[00:29:06] think when God kind of walks through his churches every Sunday and he sees all these oranges, all these apples, all this fruit that's on the tree that people are producing, and then he comes along
[00:29:17] and he's like, yeah, but that one, it's not producing anything. Do you think that that tree ever thinks because I'm around a bunch of trees that are producing fruit that I'm, I'm alive, I'm okay. Do you think that's possible? Does anybody think that's possible? I'm around the
[00:29:39] God stuff. Therefore the God stuff is in me. See, he's looking at your tree. If you were to examine your life over the last week, year, two years, 10 years, 20 years, where's the fruit? Would you be
[00:29:56] able to see it easily? If I, if I knew you well, would I be like, oh yeah, that person, godly attitude, godly marriage, godly children, prays, reads their Bible, is involved in Christian community, invites accountability. No one likes accountability, but invites accountability.
[00:30:17] Wow. Well, I would say that's a lot of fruit on that tree. But if I'm like, you know, when's the last time you had a God story and someone's like, oh, you know, I was, uh, I was raised in church,
[00:30:29] you know, my grandma, she was, she was always teaching us about the Bible and like their stories about others. It's not about them. If I was evaluating, just like I looked at the, that orange tree without any oranges on it, like, see, y'all were really easy on the,
[00:30:49] the decision, right? You were like dead, dead. But if it came to a person, you'd be like, oh, well, who knows their heart, you know? But wouldn't you want to see the evidence?
[00:31:01] would you want to risk it would you want to say oh no they're really alive just keep telling them they're good because god's grace will cover no it's for by grace you're safe through what
[00:31:11] faith so you have a part faith faith you have to faith back to god in order to be saved and then that faith has to produce things otherwise if you don't have any fruit you
[00:31:23] got to go examine the root and we got to go back to step one and until he changes you transforms you and you are born again, then I would highly doubt, highly doubt that you have
[00:31:34] completed step one. And I would hate as a pastor that any of my people end up in hell because they mistook church for Jesus, man-made things for Jesus. It's pretty easy in the flesh to do
[00:31:53] Christian acts. Now you can get baptized, but you can't save yourself. You can't, can't redeem your spirit. You can go through communion. You can take the juice. You can even go to Bible studies. It doesn't mean anything if you don't have faith. So I thought we would spend
[00:32:12] the last 10 minutes. Um, if, if Jesus ever interacted with someone and he said, I have not found so great a faith in all of my time in my three and a half years of ministry, if that's what
[00:32:26] the greatest faith looked like that he interacted with, then I thought we could quickly study that diagram. And then that would inform us of what our faith should look like. Is that fair? So it says
[00:32:40] in Matthew chapter eight, he was going to Capernaum and there was a centurion, which is a Roman soldier. Okay. It's an upper Roman soldier. Centurion usually equals century hundred. They had a hundred men under them, but whatever, it doesn't matter. Um, so he comes to Jesus and he
[00:32:58] says, I have a servant and that they are paralyzed and they are in agony and they are back home.
[00:33:07] And I was wanting to know if you could heal them. And Jesus said, should I come to your house?
[00:33:14] All right, here's step number one and why we should have faith. Do you think that there are people around you, since we said there are more lost than saved, that spiritually look like this paralyzed man? Do you think that there are people in, do you think there's people in this room
[00:33:31] that are in agony, that are on the other side of belief? They have not yet crossed over and they are in the agony of sin. They are in the agony of hopelessness. They are in the agony of a
[00:33:43] purposeless life. And so, so here they are, they, they can't move, right? This guy couldn't get to Jesus. So this guy went on his behalf, this centurion went on his behalf. So why are we
[00:33:56] passionate? Do you remember what I said? It was maintained by faith now. And for the next, there is always more lost souls to be saved. So we can't ever get to a place where we say,
[00:34:05] oh, this is a great show. We got, we got video screens. I mean, look at the video screen. It's amazing. We got seats. We got a balcony. We got a parking. Like, no, when you look around, there's
[00:34:15] 500 seats that aren't full in here. And we could impact thousands more than we are right now. And you know what the difference is? It's our faith. It's our faith. We have to start to look around
[00:34:28] and see the brokenness around us and care enough that we got to get them to Jesus, go to Jesus on their behalf. And does our faith, is it so strong that it can move the mountain? I'll tell
[00:34:39] you we need more we need more laborers in this place that we call genesis metro church do you see those people do you see those people around you amazing grace deserves amazing faith wouldn't you say that we celebrate god's grace all the time in church we're like man we're saved by grace
[00:35:04] grace unto grace you know it's like oh so many songs written about grace because we want that grace. You know, we want that grace. We want, we want, we love it. God, give me more grace.
[00:35:16] But you know what he wants? If he's given you amazing grace, don't you think he deserves amazing faith? What did this man say back that was so impressive that Jesus said, you're the greatest that I've ever encountered. And by the way, he wasn't a Jewish person. That's what made
[00:35:35] it condemning to the crowd that he was around. Lord, the centurion replied, I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof, but just say the word and my servant will be healed.
[00:35:53] Now think about that for a moment. He started with two statements and we'll get to the third.
[00:35:59] Number one was I'm unworthy. I'm unworthy. Do you think that unworthy people worship different than people that believe they're worthy? Do you guys think that? Yeah. A worthy person walks in the church and they think this whole church is for them it's like oh man they got my seat they
[00:36:23] got my coffee you know i get to draw my kids off get them out of my hair you know i mean you get to see some people maybe even network maybe even close some deals maybe get a job who knows i mean
[00:36:33] you know this this church thing it's pretty good and so like literally they're thinking about themselves but a but an unworthy person doesn't doesn't see it like that an unworthy person says God lets me come into his presence. God lets me sing the song. God lets me hear the word. God
[00:36:54] gives me a second chance by his grace. God allows me to be redeemed from the dark places. And so an unworthy person, they worship a little bit different. The worthy person comes in and they're
[00:37:05] like, God, I'm so grateful for you. If they even sing or maybe they're just out there, those dead eyes. They'll sometimes grab the chair in front of them, kind of look down. And it's either they're
[00:37:19] far from God in their sin, or they don't think that they need this. Like it's good for the other people, you know, to get that out of their system, you know, but I don't need that. If they'd have
[00:37:32] fired up, God, I'm grateful for you at this very moment for this guy that was saying he was unworthy. Do you think, do you think he would have been like, yeah, God, I'm so, or do you think
[00:37:46] it'd have been like, God, I'm so grateful for you. Dude, with both hands up in the air, like the band is jamming. He'd be worshiping his face off because he understood the worthiness of God,
[00:37:57] because in his presence, I'm unworthy. And I realized that in order to be in his presence, he has to make me worthy. So that makes me want to give back to him so much more. So we have to
[00:38:08] get to the place that we say we're unworthy in order to value the worth of Christ. And some of you, you're not going to like this. All right. Now just get ready. Just ready. This comes up.
[00:38:21] That was like a little pat on the back. Just there's a right hook to the gut. Okay.
[00:38:25] Some of you are parenting from a perspective and you've just been raised in a world that is, is deceiving you. It's lying to you. I'm not saying you can't love on your children, but we started to embrace a society that makes them the center, the main character in the center
[00:38:41] of the stage. And it's like, oh, you're special. Oh, you're special. Oh, you're the best. Oh, you're beautiful. And even when criticism starts coming, like, oh, the teacher sent home a bad report. Oh, well that teacher, they just don't understand my baby. They just don't, they don't
[00:38:55] understand. Like, you know, they just need a little bit more of this. Like maybe they need a little more, maybe they need a little bit more like free time to get it out of their system.
[00:39:02] and maybe they need to learn some discipline and to shut their mouth and be respectful.
[00:39:06] Maybe they need that.
[00:39:10] The coach, the coach, the coach says, oh, you know, they didn't make it.
[00:39:16] They're not a starter.
[00:39:17] And every one of these parents are like, oh, no, they don't understand.
[00:39:20] I mean, back in second grade, they were the best tackler out there.
[00:39:23] I mean, they got a ribbon in their dance recital and they said, oh, most likely to be an incredible Olympic dancer, you know, whatever.
[00:39:30] And my kid, oh, we just need to get a different team because this team doesn't really understand.
[00:39:34] my baby is the best. And like, you're lifting your kid up to be something that God doesn't want them to be. They're not the hero in the story. You're not the hero in the story. Jesus
[00:39:47] is the hero in the story and you have to get to, I'm unworthy. So how do you teach that to your children? You say, you know what? When you make that mistake, that's sin. And we struggle with
[00:40:00] sin. I struggled with sin all my life and God is the answer to that sin. Therefore, maybe we need to work harder because by grace, I'm going to put forth a greater effort. I'm not going to wait for
[00:40:13] someone else to do it for me. I'm going to, by grace, show that I have some grit and some determination and some perseverance because that's what it says. Whenever we run this race, after we've put aside the weight and we've embraced the process of getting rid of the sin,
[00:40:27] that it says, now I'm going to run with perseverance. I got to show that my faith provides grit. My faith provides endurance. I'm unworthy to be in any spot, but God has made me worthy
[00:40:39] and given me the opportunity. So today, as you sit here, how do I have faith? It starts with you knowing who you are and recognizing who he is. Number two, he says, your word is enough.
[00:40:52] Did you see that?
[00:40:53] He said, oh, I don't need you to come to my house.
[00:40:56] He said, just say the word.
[00:40:59] Let me ask you a question.
[00:41:02] Is his word enough for you?
[00:41:04] Or is it his word plus you gotta go crunch the numbers?
[00:41:08] Is it his word plus let me get a little bit more in the bank?
[00:41:12] Let me get a couple more properties under my belt.
[00:41:15] Is it his word?
[00:41:17] Is his word enough?
[00:41:19] Or do you need word plus like, oh, well, I gotta go.
[00:41:22] And I've seen this happen.
[00:41:23] Oh man, someone comes to me as Pastor Tim and they're like, hey, what do you think about this?
[00:41:27] And I give them my opinion.
[00:41:28] Oh, they don't like that opinion.
[00:41:29] I'm gonna go to this next person.
[00:41:31] And they'll keep going from person to person to person to person until they find one that agrees with them.
[00:41:37] Whoa, come on.
[00:41:40] Did you go to his word first?
[00:41:43] Hey, I'm gonna tell you, his word is better than my advice.
[00:41:47] If my advice doesn't stem from his word, when you ask a pastor, a preacher, an elder, a life group leader, if it starts with, well, this is what I think.
[00:41:54] No, no, no.
[00:41:54] What does the Bible say?
[00:41:58] Faith says the word is enough.
[00:42:00] Why did we move here?
[00:42:01] The word was enough.
[00:42:03] He said, go, we went.
[00:42:05] It didn't make any sense.
[00:42:06] It would look reckless.
[00:42:07] If your kid came home and told you that they were gonna do what we did, you'd be like, I don't think you should do that.
[00:42:14] That doesn't sound like a plan for success at all.
[00:42:17] See, faith at some point is getting out of control.
[00:42:21] It's putting him in his control.
[00:42:23] The last thing that it said, it says that the soldier said, I understand authority. He said, whenever I tell someone to go, they go. Whenever I tell them to come, they come. And, and I understand your authority. You
[00:42:40] are authority. And he said, that's, that's what I see. I'm unworthy. Number one. What was number two? Lost it for a second. Oh yeah. The word is enough. And number three, he says, I understand
[00:42:55] authority. Now we're going to play a game. I've played it with the first two services. And by the way, are you under authority as you sit in here today? Are you under authority? Do you, do you
[00:43:13] think that Tim Bourne as your pastor is an authority over you? This is exactly the way it went. See, I don't think we understand authority. Do you think that God set up spiritual authority, just like government is set up for the secular world.
[00:43:35] Do you think he set it up?
[00:43:36] Yes.
[00:43:38] Do you know that it says that the pastor is the shepherd?
[00:43:40] Do you know what you are?
[00:43:43] Sheep.
[00:43:44] Do you know who's in charge of the sheep?
[00:43:48] Not only this shepherd, but all of the elders of Genesis Metro.
[00:43:52] Do you recognize that authority in your life?
[00:43:56] See, I think most people go to church and they say, I'm doing the Christian thing because I'm going to church.
[00:44:01] I'm singing the songs.
[00:44:02] I might even do some, I might even throw some money in there, but do we have authority in your life? In other words, can I tell you to stop doing something and you'll stop it because the word of God is saying you
[00:44:14] should stop that, or you should start this and you start it because God's word says to start that.
[00:44:20] You see, that's authority. Do you think most Christians want authority? It's God's word authority. So take me out of the equation. It's God's word and authority. So if God's word says to stop something. Will you stop it? You should. There's the right answer. So, so that's, that's
[00:44:45] what I'm trying to get you to see this soldier, the great faith, he understood authority and that's how he had great faith until you put yourself under God's authority. You will never arrive at great faith. It's impossible. If you won't even recognize pastoral authority in your
[00:45:07] life, if you won't recognize God's words authority in your life, then my friend, there's no amount of preaching and teaching that can help you. At some point, you have to say, God has put some
[00:45:21] things in place as safeguards for me. So when you really want to be a part of a church, you're saying, I trust them enough to put myself under that authority. They've proven that the book that
[00:45:32] they use, that they're not abusing it. They're not misinterpreting it. They're not over like adding extra things to it. No, no, no. Every week you get it right from here. And then when people get upset about what I say, I always ask them, what part did you disagree with? Well, I just
[00:45:52] didn't like that. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, what part did you disagree with? Isn't that interesting how the word can make you so mad that you're like, oh, I'm out of here. I'm out.
[00:46:09] I'm leaving. I'm going to go to the next church until they make me mad. I'm going to go to the next church. Have you ever thought about maybe it's you? It says that Jesus said, according to
[00:46:26] your faith, be it done to you. And at that very hour, the person was healed back home. Now, this is what I want you to see as I wrap this up. Amazing grace deserves amazing faith. This guy
[00:46:39] was hurt. He was in agony. He was struggling just like the world around us is. And this guy said, my faith knows about a guy named Jesus. And I believe this guy named Jesus, if he would speak
[00:46:51] the word, it would be enough. And so he travels. I don't know how he even found somebody back then.
[00:46:56] How do you just like ride into a town and find someone without the internet and social media?
[00:47:01] He's like, finds Jesus. And he's like, Hey, I got this person. And Jesus is like, okay, you want me to come to your house? Because that's, everyone else is like, he's got to go to the
[00:47:09] house. He's got to be there in order to do something. And this guy's like, no, no, no. You just have to speak something and something will happen. That's the difference. And he said, he said at that very moment back home, that guy, imagine like you're just sitting there and like
[00:47:24] all of a sudden he's like, gets out of his bed. He's like, I feel pretty good. You know, I feel pretty good. And he doesn't even know that this exchange just occurred over here. He just knows
[00:47:35] I just got set free. I can walk and I've never been able to walk. I'm not hurting anymore. All because of somebody that had faith way over here. Now watch this. He faithed it right then,
[00:47:48] but he didn't find out until he got back home. So something happened in this moment of faith, but I don't know about the results until I walk a little bit further. I believe God released
[00:48:02] what we're sitting in today when we faithed it 24 years ago. We said yes to what God called us to and he committed himself to that. We committed ourselves to that vision. And then here we are
[00:48:15] now walking in the thing that he released 24 years ago. You see, why does it matter that you faith it today? Because what if I told you that what you are doing today has the potential to unlock
[00:48:28] something tomorrow, to unlock someone else out of their agony. But you got to have the spiritual mindset that says, I'm going to faith it. I'm going to, no, I can't control it. No, I'm not
[00:48:39] powerful enough. No, I'm not good enough. And so I'm going to put it into God's hands and I'm going to faith it right now. And at that very moment, what if he's unlocking something that you're
[00:48:48] going to be walking back to, walking into as a result of what you faith right now? Would you say then that faith is important to your decisions. Let's go. Let's pray. Father, we ask in the name
[00:49:02] of Jesus, God help us to say, do I have faith? Have I been saved by faith? Am I walking by faith?
[00:49:11] Am I living by faith? Am I helping other people by faith? Are my finances representing my faith?
[00:49:19] if not today don't you want to please god in those areas today maybe you need to trust transfer and be transformed i guarantee you if you would admit your unworthiness in this next worship song it would change the way you worship you'd sing different if you
[00:49:44] realized you were saved by grace that he dug you out of the miry clay and set your feet and your family on solid ground.
[00:49:55] You were never worthy of that, but he makes you worthy.
[00:49:59] Today, church, let's worship him.
[00:50:01] Would you stand and worship with us?