Week 1: Faith (2 Peter 1, 2026/03/01)

See, there's a disconnect. One has Jesus, one doesn't. You're still gonna suffer. Your friends are still gonna make fun of you. They're still gonna mock you. They're still gonna expect you to change because they want you to, and maybe you conform. Maybe you change to what they want. But in Christ, you know that your guide is God, not them. So you've become steadfast. And here's the kicker. You're gonna go through it either way. You can choose to do it with god or without god. [00:10:34] (32 seconds)  #ChooseGodInSuffering

We don't wanna talk about it, but the reality is you may find one day that you have an illness that you cannot recover from or something that's gonna cause you to fight a very hard battle, and you don't know what to do with it. I'm gonna tell you something. You can do that with God or without God. I'm gonna do it with God. Because God's strength becomes my strength. Because God's way becomes my way. Because my trust is in Christ, not in the condition of my circumstances. [00:11:09] (30 seconds)  #StrengthInGod

A call to faith means a call to discipleship. Discipleship is that change that God expects to take place in your life. He doesn't he accepts you the way you are, but he will not allow you to stay the way you are. He expects you to come with all your baggage, all your sin, all your problems, and lay it at the feet of Jesus. That's what he expects. And once you've done that, now he begins to renew your mind and your heart. And the cool part is you get to participate or you get to get dragged into it. [00:11:41] (42 seconds)  #CallToDiscipleship

But that's not the worst part of hell. That's the part that we can conceive as human beings. So that is the part that's described to us so that we realize, man, I burned myself. That hurts. I don't wanna live that way for eternity. So that's the way we conceive it. Really, the worst part of hell is this. God is not there. Yeah. Everything that's good about God, gracious about God, hope, love, joy, faith, blessings, social connection, the all the possibilities of this world, the positive things of this world, not what we think is positive, but the genuine positive things, they don't exist in hell. [00:04:08] (43 seconds)  #HellIsSeparationFromGod

You say, well, wait a second. I thought faith saves you. Yes. It does. Faith saves you. But God does not receive you the way you are and then say, but you don't have to change. He demands that you change. And here's the crazy part. That demand of change is for your betterment. It's a positive thing, not a negative thing. It's not hurting you. It's helping you. It's not leading you down a boring path that's gonna make you miserable for the rest of your life. No. It is sustaining you through misery. [00:09:14] (33 seconds)  #FaithDemandsChange

Because joy comes from God. It doesn't come from you. And it doesn't come from your circumstances, and it doesn't come from the way you feel. It doesn't come from the nature of your environment. It comes from God. It's called wellspring inside of you. It swells up and it overflows with the joy that God has for you. And it says here that you'd be filled with joy and peace. Why peace? Because just what? There's gonna be times when you ain't gonna be happy. You have joy, but you're gonna need to have peace. It's kinda like David when he prayed all those prayers and song or saying all those songs and songs where he said, God, I'm surrounded by my enemies. They're winning. They make fun of you. They mock what you're doing. Blah blah blah blah. But then he said, but I know you're God. [00:21:52] (50 seconds)  #JoyAndPeaceInGod

If it's done outside of the authority of God in your life, if it's done with the expectation that that is where your future lies, I'm gonna make you feel sorry for that because that means you're anchored to this world. And I'm gonna tell you something. This world ain't worth trading for what God's got. Amen. Right. It's not worth it. And you say, oh, well, pastor, does that mean I can't have anything? Hold on. Let me let me get to this. The Bible tells us many stories of men and women who have much. Paul even said, I've had much. But he also said, I've had little, and I've learned to be content in both things. In other words, what I have doesn't define me. What I want doesn't define me. What I the situation I'm in doesn't define me. My definition is found in Christ. Amen. [00:29:44] (48 seconds)  #ContentInChrist

And I'm gonna follow it no matter what. Even when it doesn't make sense, even when it doesn't line up, even when the evidence doesn't seem right, I'm gonna listen to what God's word says because here's the deal. Do you believe in the word of God or not? If you do, then you should. And if you don't, then I don't know what you're doing here. Because the reality is if faith meant knowing the future, no one would start the journey. Listen to me. If faith meant knowing the future, if you knew what would happen in the future, if you could see the future for real, not because God revealed it to you, but because you literally can see the future, I want you to understand something. Not a single person in this room would be able to jump start the journey of faith because none of you can see them in the future. [00:19:24] (43 seconds)  #WalkByFaithNotSight