After two days he left there for Galilee. Jesus
himself had testified that a prophet has no honor
in his own country. When they entered Galilee,
the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen
everything he did. in Jerusalem during the festival,
for they had also gone to the festival. He went
again to Cana of Galilee, where he had turned
the water into wine. There was a certain royal
official whose son was ill at Capernaum. When
this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea
into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with
him to come down and heal his son since he was
about to die. Jesus told him, unless you people
see signs and wonders, you will not believe.
Sir, the official said to him, come down before
my boy dies. Go, Jesus told him, your son will
live. The man believed what Jesus said to him
and departed. While he was still going down,
his servants met him, saying that his boy was
alive. He asked them at what time he got better.
Yesterday at one in the afternoon, the fever
left him, they answered. The father realized
this was the very hour at which Jesus had told
him, Your son will live. So he himself believed,
along with his whole household. Now this was
also the second sign Jesus performed after he
came from Judea to Galilee. Good morning, church.
So last week when we finished up, I told you
that you better come back because you're going
to not want to miss what's coming. And what's
coming is a guy named Ryan Griffin. And I want
to tell you a little story about him before I
introduce him to you, why he's here. I first
met Ryan on a stage. It's kind of a weird place
to meet somebody. We were both at a church planting
conference. This was before Radiant Matsu existed,
but we knew that God was calling us to... Moved
from Fairbanks to come down here. I think we
knew a total of four people. My parents were
two of them. And then Garrett and Savannah, because
they had been a part of our church in Fairbanks.
And so that's all we knew. We were going to come,
but we were at this church planting conference,
and they asked me to stand up and share the vision
of seeing a church planted in the Mat -Su. So
I go, yeah, that's cool. I can do that. So I
get up on stage, and I'm standing on one side.
And Ryan's on the other, and that's how I first
met him, is he's talking about the vision of
planting Living Stones South Reno. Now, our stories
are different in how that all happened. He was
part of another Living Stones church in Reno
that sent out him with a group of 80, and they
started off and charging, and that church is,
by God's grace, not because Ryan's amazing, he
is, but, you know. God's been growing that church.
And I've been able to preach there multiple times
and watch that growth happen. They're now at
a church that's swelled to over 1 ,000. And by
God's grace, people are coming to Jesus on a
regular basis. And I appreciate Ryan because
he takes no credit for that. It's all by what
God is doing. But early on, as we were planting,
because we had to move here. We didn't know what
we were doing, trying to figure out how do we
start a church in the valley? Ryan came to me
and said, hey, we'd love to support you guys
and what you're doing. And so they began to get
behind us financially and support this church
plant at the time. And so recently I was down
there and told the church, hey, we don't need
your support anymore. We put our big boy pants
on. We grew up a little bit. We're able to do
this. And they said, we want to keep investing
in you. And so we have launched Convergence,
which is a leadership development process, and
they're helping fund that. So we've got this
relationship with this network of ten churches
called Living Stones and all the five Radiant
churches. And we, you know, so we jokingly call
it the Radiant Stones just because of. Yeah,
because of that relationship. Yeah, yeah. So
anyway, if you remember a number of weeks ago,
the executive pastor from the same church, Brad,
was here, and he preached. So Ryan said he's
coming up to Hunt Bear with his son, Sam. That's
why they're here. And I said, well, you're preaching.
If you do that, you've got to preach. So you
were like, you haven't been up there for a couple
weeks now, Caleb. I'm like, yeah, that's good
for you. Ryan, come on up here and let me guys
welcome him. The cool thing is that they're walking
right to the gospel of John just like we are.
Yeah. And it's been just an honor to have you.
Can I pray for you? Please. Yeah, I need it.
Father, thank you for Ryan. Thank you for his
friendship, the brotherhood that we have as we
attempt to lead. Or see new churches and see
many people come to Jesus across different states
and across North America. So, Lord, I'm just
thankful for his friendship. And thank you that
he, as a qualified brother, elder in his church,
that we get to listen and learn from your word
today. And so I pray you empower him by your
spirit. And you might be glorified today. Amen.
Amen. Thank you. All right, what's up, Radiant?
You guys good? Oh, look at that, I was stealing
a sticker and it just fell out. It's gonna go
on my water bottle, Caleb. Well, you know, I
tell people in, so as Caleb said, I'm from Reno,
Nevada, and I tell people in Nevada, when we
talk about Radiant, I said that it's like the
living stones of Alaska. That's how close our
churches are with you. And from a distance, I've
met some of you. Actually, some of you, I even
recognized me from two years ago when I was up
here preaching for you guys back at Palmer High
School. But you guys, it may seem, and you actually
may prefer to maybe have some distance from the
lower 48, but I'll tell you, there are churches,
ours specifically, but other Living Stones churches,
there's 10, that are literally praying for you
guys. in Nevada of all places, in Reno, Nevada.
And so even across the country, there's people
praying for you guys. And so I think that hopefully
is encouraging to you. It's encouraging to our
people when Caleb comes down and they can see,
oh, it's not just some fairy tale happening in
Alaska. There's actual people up there and they're
encouraged by seeing him. But with that, let's
get started with the passage. What we're going
to see today with, what was the name of the little
girl who just, the young girl who just read?
What was your name? Izzy? Yeah, I met you earlier.
Was that awesome? Can we give a round of applause
for Izzy? You're awesome. 99 % of people in the
world will not come up on a stage and talk to
people at all. And we have Izzy. And how old
are you? 12. coming up here and doing the most
pure thing. I believe even more pure than preaching,
because in preaching, we're interpreting God's
word and trying to share it. She's just reading
it for what it is. And that is the most, that
was incredible, Izzy. Good job. You're awesome.
Well, that passage is about faith. And faith
isn't about waiting for the perfect sign or undeniable
proof. It's not. It's about knowing who God is.
And even when your senses say otherwise, right?
In today's passage, Jesus invites us into a type
of radical trust. It's so easy for us. to look
at this passage about a boy who gets sick, and
we think it's some miracle passage. This passage
is not about a miracle story. It's not. When
you first glance at it, it feels like it, but
it's not. This is about, it's a revolution of
who you trust. See, the first, like Caleb said,
we're studying the book of John just like you
guys, and I like to use the word investigate.
We're investigating the book of John in Nevada,
like you. In fact, Caleb and I organized that
over last summer, talking about what our church
is to do. The first half of John, this guy named
John, the Apostle John, he's writing to the Greeks,
and he's explaining to them who Jesus is. The
second half of John, which you guys will get
to soon, John explains. what it looks like to
be a Jesus follower. In this passage, though,
it looks like it's a miracle. It's all about
who Jesus is. That is the foundation of our faith.
We get faith so screwed up. We get faith so twisted.
And it's why so many of us have been disappointed
in God. So many of us are uninterested in God.
So many of us are confused by God because we
don't approach things as he's actually revealing
to us. I'm going to break this passage down into
two sections today. These are going to be our
guardrails as we go through. The first section
that we're going to see is that we need to break
our vending machine faith. And then what we'll
see at the end is once we break our vending machine
faith, how do we develop anchor deep faith? That's
what this passage is going to show us. Now, I
do something in South Reno. You know, Caleb just
prayed for me. When he comes to our church, we
always pray for the preacher. And what I want
to do, actually, I want to invite you. You don't
have to do this if this is weird to you. But
let's just take a moment. Let's just pray for
you. Because it doesn't really matter what I
say unless our hearts and our ears are open.
And let's do this. We're going to do it silently
and privately so it's not weird. All right? Don't
do anything weird. Just silently and privately.
Just pray right now. Just say something like,
Holy Spirit, help my faith. Just silently and
privately say something like that. Holy Spirit,
show me deeper faith. Holy Spirit, show me. What
do I need? How do I have faith? Change my faith.
Strengthen my faith. All right. Before we go
any further, I do want to just give my official,
I said what's up to the Radiant family. Just
want to say welcome to you guys again. And like
Caleb said, my name is Ryan. I'm the lead and
preaching pastor at Livingstone South Reno. We're
about 20 minutes from Lake Tahoe. Has anyone
ever been to Lake Tahoe? I just got to know.
Am I a total alien here? We got some. All right.
So we're about 20 minutes from Lake Tahoe. I've
been married for 23 years now. And we have four
sons. So we have a little fraternity. It would
fit well into this church with all the kids running
around. That's one of my sons right there, Sam.
His goal is to kill a bear starting tomorrow.
Is that right? That's right. We'll pray for Sam.
Well, I do want to give a shout out to you guys
about Pastor Caleb. He's legit. I was talking
to somebody in the back. Trying to remember his
name. Was it John? Anyhow, he was saying how
much he liked Pastor Caleb. But I just want to
tell you guys from an outside perspective. All
right, he doesn't pay me. I actually give him
money. He's a stud. And if you're looking for
a church that doesn't want to play stupid religious
games, man -made religious games, if you're looking
for a church that wants to investigate the Word
of God and not play games and just find the real
Jesus, that's the pastor to lead you. I tell
you, I call him up, and all he does is talk about
how much he loves you guys. That's unique. That's
uncommon, and I really want to encourage you
guys, you know, you have an awesome pastor in
him, all right? And the other guys, too, that
I've been getting to know, you know, Jared running
the tech and doing all his magical work. Craig,
you're a great guy, too, man. But Josiah, killing
it up here, singing for you guys. And so I do
want one last disclaimer before we go. You ready
for this one? Biblically. The Apostle Paul says
in the book of Corinthians that churches, biblical
churches, will have skeptics in them. The church
is not designed, the church is actually the people,
not a building. But the gathering of the church
is not designed to be only Christians alone.
It's not meant to be just a holy huddle. It's
not biblically. The Apostle Paul says there should
be non -believers within that gathering. And
so, Hopefully you're inviting your friends and
family. And if that's you, if you're a skeptic
and you're here today, I want to say just to
you in particular, I respect you and we love
that you're here. In fact, I'll say on behalf
of Caleb, you belong here even before believing.
All right? So let's do it. Whether you are a
Jesus follower or even someone who's investigating,
let's get to the text. I'm actually going to
preach out of the ESV translation. You guys,
a lot of you read from the CSB. That's great.
Some of you have an NIV, whatever. You guys want
to know what the best translation is? The one
that you're going to read. whichever one that
is, all right? So here we go. The text will also
be up on the screen. Let's start with verse 46.
It'll be up on the screen here. You guys got
that for me? You got my slides for me? Awesome.
I'll just cue you as we go along. So look at
verse 46. It says, so he, obviously that's, we're
talking about Jesus here, came again to Cana
in Galilee where he had made... The water wine.
A lot of you guys know that story. That's Jesus,
one of his first miracles, where he turns water
into wine. So Jesus returns to Cana, all right?
Word at this point has spread. He's drawing crowds
wherever he is going. People are buzzing, not
because of the wine. They're buzzing about Jesus
and who he is. He's come back. all right? And
it says, and at Capernaum, now Capernaum, if
modern or archaeologists have found Canaan, all
right? And so Canaan is actually, it's up on
a hill. Capernaum is down a hill and about 20
miles away, okay? And so it says, and at Capernaum,
there was an official. One thing that's really
important to know is the context of what are
we reading, what type of official. This word
official in the Greek that John is writing means
a king's man. So we have a government official
who's a king's man. He's working for Herod, who
is the acting, let's say, king, government official
of... this Galilee of this area. This official,
we know that he would be wealthy. We know he's
not a Jew. We know that he is a Roman. All right,
so he doesn't have the same faith as the Jews.
Okay, now it says this official whose son was
ill. Verse 47, when this man heard that Jesus
had come, From Judea to Galilee, he went to him
and asked him to come down and heal his son,
for he was at the point of death. Now, obviously,
this boy dying is a problem. But that's not the
biggest problem. There's a bigger problem in
Jesus' eyes. See, the bigger problem is that
in this moment, the official, this government
guy, now he believed Jesus, but he did not believe
in Jesus. There's a difference. In fact, there's
a lot of Christians who play religion and we
believe Jesus, but we don't believe in him. We
don't believe what he is, who he is, the words
that he say. We believe he's there. Now this
official, we know that he had status, he had
money, he had connections, but none of that could
save his boy. And you better believe he tried
to use it all. He had the money to pay for doctors.
He had the connections to have doctors. He had
the best of what society could have in this moment,
but nothing could save his son. And now he's
desperate. But don't be confused here. He did
not come to Jesus because he had faith that he
was God in the flesh. He came to Jesus with vending
machine faith. You know what I'm talking about?
Vending machine faith. I'm coming to get something
from him. I need this Sprite. I need this Snickers
bar. I have vending machine faith. I can come
to this thing. I can come to this person. Don't
really know this person. Don't really have an
intimate relationship with that machine. But
I know I can go to that machine and I can get
what I want. It's vending machine faith. Now
the Jews. who were experienced to or exposed
to Jesus, they had the same thing. There was
a lot of vending machine faith going on. In fact,
if you go and look at verse 46, if you can put
40, there it is. Verse 46 is up on the screen
as well. The Jewish crowds were the same. They
were drawn to the spectacle, not the Savior.
Because they loved what Jesus could provide,
but not who he was. They loved what Jesus could
provide, but not who he was. So Jesus calls it
out. Look up on the screen here in verse 48.
So Jesus said to him, Unless you see signs and
wonders, you will not believe. I'll give you
a nerd nugget here in this translation. The CSB
does a good job. I know to say put a parenthesis
and put people there, but I'll give you a nerd
nugget in the Greek for you. It's actually plural.
Jesus is not talking just to the Roman official.
He's talking to everybody. That word you is plural.
He's saying all y 'all. And by extension, he's
even speaking to us. Unless you see signs and
wonders, you will not believe. Let's just be,
listen, I said it earlier, I'm not into religious
games or religious holy huddles. I want the truth.
I want Jesus. And let's be transparent. Let's
be authentic. Isn't that, maybe not you. You're
probably more holy than me, but I'll tell you,
that's a lot of me. That's a lot of us. Don't
we all want proof before we trust? A lot of times,
most of the time, if we're honest with ourselves,
we want proof before we trust. We all want to
see before we believe. How often have you thought,
right? We've all had these thoughts. God, if
you'll fix it this time, then I'll believe. God,
just do it, do it, and then I will. Show me this
thing, just pull it off, and then, and then,
and then. What in your life right now are you
saying that about? God, if you just change my
husband a little bit, and then I know that you
want this marriage. God, if you just would do
this for my child, then I'll know you care. God,
if you just show me, then I'll know you're real.
I mean, the list goes on and on. What is your
list? What is your thing? So what Jesus does
next, it's radical. Look at verse 49 up on the
screen here. It says, the official said to him,
sir, just come down. Sir, come down before my
child dies. Verse 50, Jesus said to him, go,
your son will live. That's it. Don't we want
some wild, crazy story? Oh, we want the heavens
to part, this chariot to come down, Jesus to
get in, rolls down, there's a hole. We want to
see it. Just like in the miracles that we need
in our life, we want the heavens apart. We want
it all. We want to see it. We want this experience.
Whatever miracle that you need, you're saying,
God, just do it. But this is even more radical.
Jesus just says, go. Just go. Go? Go. Your son
will live. Jesus calls for simple faith. No trip
to the house. Jesus didn't mount up with a thousand
angels and zoom over to the house where the boy
was. Just a word. Just a word. Right? Let's get
into some context here. This is radical for even
then. In this world, to a Roman, we're talking
about a Roman, to a Roman, a pagan Roman who
had Greek influence in his religion, you know
what they would do for physical healing? They
would go to a pagan temple where there was a
healing God. You would have to spend the night
in the temple and hope that the pagan god would
heal you, and you'd wake up healed. You had to
impress the gods. To the Jews, healing came through
a priest who would actually lay hands. He had
to be present to physically lay hands on the
sickness or whatever that may be. There had to
be this interaction, but this was all backward
to everybody, and it's even backward to us. Jesus
simply answers faith with a promise. spoken from
a distance. What is the miracle that you need?
Would you accept a spoken word from a distance
from God? That's not vending machine faith. This
faith that this Roman has, it's faith. It's believing
in the authority of the Son of God. It's faith
in who God is. Look up on the screen here. This
is my question for you that I want you to really
think deeply about. What situation in your life
are you holding back faith? Because you want
to see a sign first. I told somebody earlier
out in the hallway. That I do not believe in
luck, chance, or coincidence. Because God tells
us there's no such thing. And I believe that
you are here not by accident this morning. Just
like I believe I'm not here by accident. You
are not here by luck. You're not here by coincidence.
I believe. That the people in this room, you,
the souls in this room, you, the people who came
this morning are here for this. And I believe
God is asking you, the Holy Spirit is asking
you, what situation in your life are you holding
back faith because you want to see a sign first?
And I believe that God is speaking to you this
morning through his word. And he's giving you
an answer right now. And he's saying, don't.
in the sign. He's saying, remember who I am.
Some of you are investigating who God is for
the first time. He doesn't demand that you earn
responses from Him. Some of you are coming back
to investigate because you've been hurt before.
Whatever it may be, you're here to rediscover
the true Jesus. Not the made -up religious, man
-made religious Jesus. You want to know the real
Jesus. And he's saying to you, don't look for
the sign. Don't put your hope in the sign. Put
your hope in who I am. Do you know who I am?
Some of you have been Jesus followers for a long
time. And it gets easy to fall in love with the
spectacle and to fall out of love with the Savior.
And he's saying, remember who I am. That thing
that you need faith in, that you're struggling
with right now, I don't know what it is for you.
We all have something. You're not here by luck,
chance, or coincidence. He's speaking to you
right now. You need someone you can trust beyond
what you can see. And he's saying, it's me. Our
second point. Up on the screen, you'll see the
two points. That we're working through. We're
going to talk about, okay, well, how then? How?
I want this. I think you agree with me. You want
faith like this. We want faith like this. It's
not random, but this Roman guy. Wouldn't that
be great if we could have faith? You could just
trust who Jesus is. You could just trust his
simple word. And you could just go, oh, he said
my son's healed. Let's go. Let's go. I don't
know about you, but that wouldn't be me. I would
say, no, no, no, no, show me a sign before I
travel all the way home again. Like, do some
magic. Vending machine faith. How do you have
deep faith like that? How can you? We see that
in the second part. Verse 50, here we go, up
on the screen. Jesus said to him, go, your son
will live. Look at this, the man believed the
word that Jesus spoke to him. and went on his
way. How do we deepen our faith like this? Let
me give a quick warning. There are prosperity
teachers out there. By the way, don't believe
everything you see from preachers online or on
TV. Make sure your Bible is open. Even right
now, you shouldn't even believe what I'm saying.
You've got to always have your Bible open. Check
these things. Many of you probably know there's
a movement in North American Christianity, prosperity
teachers. They will pick this exact passage,
and they will say to you, hold on, hold on, no,
no. They'll say, what this shows you is that
if you have enough faith, like the Roman official,
He walked a long way. He didn't know that much,
but he had enough faith and he believed enough.
There's some magic line of faith that you've
got to have enough. And if you have enough of
this, then you will get whatever you want. And
they use this exact passage to say, see, this
guy had enough faith. He was strong enough and
he got what he wanted. That's what you need to
do. You know, I'm not ripping on Bible preaching
churches. In fact, I got baptized at a charismatic
church. So don't, I'm not tearing anybody down
as long as it's a Bible preaching church. There's
very good. Different forms of those out there.
But I'll tell you because I have personal experience
in prosperity style churches, in charismatic
churches, that one of the most famous phrases
is, believe and you shall receive. You know,
they say it with that type of an accent. Hope
I'm not insulting anyone here, but I'm just saying
that's the thought process. Believe and you shall
receive. Not at all. That is not biblical. It's
not up to you. God is sovereign in all things.
This is not a magic potion. This is not some
magic faith formula. So you can go believe and
get your Corvette, believe and go get your miraculous
healing, whatever it is. That's not what this
is about at all. Jesus' choice to heal from a
distance and by his word alone was a demonstration
of Who he is. This isn't how to get things from
God. This is when we have needs and we need miracles
and we need God to reach in and touch parts of
our lives. This is showing us that it falls back
on trusting, not in the vending machine, but
trusting in who he is. That's what he's saying
to us this morning. Do you remember who I am?
Do you know who I am? Put your hope in me. Up
on the screen here, this is a good point I wanted
to share with you. This is to go from shallow
faith to deep faith is to put your faith in who
Jesus is, not the magic that he can do. And by
the way, that's why John ends this whole story.
The peak of this story, the climax of this story,
the end of this story is verse 53. And how does
it end? It ends with the Roman official and his
entire household coming to faith in who Jesus
is. It doesn't end with this celebration that
they got their Corvette, or they got the job
they always wanted, or they got the healing.
They did get the healing. Praise Jesus. But it
ends with all of them putting their faith in
who he is. That's the point of this passage.
Not the miracle, but who he is. That is how we
move forward with our faith. Finding faith in
the one who doesn't just give or heal physical
life, but the one who gives eternal life. The
one who at the cross offered his perfect life
for your and my imperfect life. Whose blood was
shed for the forgiveness of our sins. Who redeemed
and reconciled our relationship with God the
Father. Who brought us back together. Who shows
us. When the Jews said, what does God the Father
look like? What is he like? Jesus says, look
at me. If you've seen me, you know him. Jesus
is the one. It's all about who he is and what
that means for you. You know, this reminds me
of... I'll tell you a really quick story. I was
in Oxford at Oxford University, and I was working
on my master's degree. And I said to my wife,
I said, hey, it's our 20th anniversary. How about
you fly over? It's one of those things like when
my flight's paid for, I only have to pay for
her half type deal. You know, I'm like, hey,
let's take advantage of this. You fly over, hon.
I said, you come over. Fly into London. I'll
take a train down from Oxford. I'll meet you
in London. We'll have the weekend in London.
We'll take the train back up to Oxford. You can
see the university. It's incredible. It's beautiful.
And then we'll fly to Rome, and we'll go to Italy
for our 20th anniversary. And so she was in.
Does that sound like fun? Tracy, would you like
to do that with Caleb? Yeah, yeah. So we did
this, and I take the train. So I have an Airbnb.
in Oxford, and I got to get a new one because
my wife was coming, a bigger one, and so I have
all my suitcases. I get on the train in Oxford.
I take the train from Oxford down to London.
I meet my wife there for the weekend. We have
a great time. We get back on the train from London
to Oxford. It's Sunday evening, late afternoon,
and it is jam -packed full of students, hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of students. The train,
there is nowhere, and I have all these Huge suitcases
for being in Europe for a couple weeks. So I
got everything, right? And it's blocking the
way, and I kind of put my suitcases toward the
end, and everyone's standing. We happen to get
two seats, and we're taking the train. We get
to Oxford. If you guys have ridden any of the
trains in Europe, they're at the train station
for a millisecond. You get on and get off. Like,
they're gone. You got to go quick. So I'm grabbing
the suitcases. All these students are, we're
jamming, and we get out, and we're at the station
in Oxford. We have to, now it's evening time,
and we have to walk. about a mile to our Airbnb.
There's light drizzle coming down. It's like
this beautiful little European dark Oxford scene,
if you could imagine. And we get to the Airbnb.
I'm like, oh, okay, we made it. We're putting
everything away. We're going to bed. And I look
around and I say, where's my backpack? I had
left my backpack on the train. Now you may say,
well, that's not a big deal. This is a backpack.
Listen, my backpack had my passport in it. So
if we were to go on this next part of the trip
to Italy and all this stuff, we ain't going nowhere.
Had my passport. It had my laptop on it that
has everything for our church that I do. It's
like everything to me. You know what else I had
on it? It had my presentation. for the next morning
that I was to give at Oxford. And I had everything.
It's gone. Left it on the train. So I'm trying
to Google the train company, whatever. I mean,
what in the world am I going to do? So my wife
says, she goes, hey. She goes, let's walk back
down to the train station. And let's just pray
the whole way. And I looked at her and I said,
that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Right?
Oh, a pastor said that? Yeah, I did. I was like,
that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my
life. Worst idea, stupidest idea ever. Right?
Those trains are there for a millisecond. It's
gone. We have been in this place for a couple
hours now. It's late at night. It's raining.
The train is gone. I'm like, dumbest idea ever
to pray to God and ask for that. So what do we
do? She says, get up. We're going to go. And
we're going to pray all the way there. So we
get up. We're walking down. And guess who's praying
all the way there? She is. Not me. I'm just like,
this is stupid. We get to the train station,
and guess what? The train's gone. It ain't there.
There's no trains there. It's like 11 o 'clock
now at night. No train. The train's probably
halfway across Europe. It's gone. I said, I told
you, stupidest idea ever. She's like, let's just
keep praying. I'm like, stupid. There's one worker
there, he's got a vest on, and I'm like, hey,
hey, can I ask you a quick question? I go, I
left my train, I mean, I left my backpack on
the train from London. He goes, what train from
London? We've got hundreds of trains from London.
I said, I don't know. It got here a couple hours
ago. He goes, let me check. Let me radio in.
It's an outside train station. The tracks are
in front of us, and there's another building
on the other side of the train tracks. He radios
in. He's like, hey, did we find anything on this
train? I can hear it on the walkie -talkie. The
guy on the other end says, oh, yeah, we found
something. He goes, oh, what's your backpack
look like? I said, oh, it's easy to spot. It
says videopoker .com on the outside. He goes,
it says videopoker .com on the outside. What
do you have? He goes, I have a backpack. He goes,
what's it look like? He goes, it says videopoker
.com on the outside. Literally, my backpack was
there of a million trains, a million students,
everything, it was there. And see, that whole
story is exactly how we walk in faith. If we
see it, oh, we'll believe it. I could not see
it. The only thing I could see was an empty train
station. But just like that situation and my
wife trying to remind me, you know who he is.
You know what he can do from a distance? Just
like this boy who was healed from a distance.
She was saying to me, You know what he can do
from a distance in your life? You remember who
he is? That's the type of faith. Let's close
with this. Up on the screen. I want to give you
three ways to help move your faith from bending
machine faith to anchor deep faith. Here we go.
This is what we're going to end with. One of
these is for you. Number one. Number one, don't
treat... faith like a vending machine. Trust
God even when you can't get something right away.
When life is silent, when the train has left
the station, whatever it is, lean on who He is.
He is a real God, he can move from a distance.
He's not waiting for you to earn it or to prove
it. He has unconditional love and favor for you.
You belong to him. You are a son or a daughter
of the king all the time. Lean on who he is,
not what you see. Number two up on the screen.
Maybe this one's for you. Let God deepen you,
not just hype you. What I mean is don't chase
spiritual hype or emotional highs or quick inspirations
like the official in this story. Maybe for you,
you are just to simply believe the simple word,
go. You want... Trust me, we all want this. No,
no, no, no, no, no, no. Let God renew your mind
through his word and let that bolster your faith.
Believe in who he is and what he says. Hold steady.
Stay the course. The last one. How to deepen
your faith? Make it personal, not just churchy.
What I mean is don't rely only, only. We gather
because we need this on Sundays. We gather on
Sundays, right? But don't rely only on services
or worship experiences. Build a daily personal
connection. Be part of your gospel. groups the
community groups that as you meet during the
week plug in personally with other people build
that connection with jesus at work on the water
on the road wherever because one day you're either
going to have to have you're gonna you got to
know who he is like my wife knew who he is as
we're walking those dark streets of Oxford. Somewhere
in your life, you're going to be on a dark street
somewhere, figuratively. You've got to know who
he is. So my last question to you is this, up
on the screen, this week, how will you do that?
How will you step out in deeper faith in Jesus?
Don't let today be a waste. You are not here
by luck, chance, or coincidence. God is inviting
you to a deeper faith in Him. With what and how
will you do that with Him? Don't waste today.
The last screen up behind me. Faith isn't trusting
outcomes. It's trusting a person. Jesus. Amen?
Amen. Well, what we're going to do now is we're
going to take communion. And you guys know we
do it every week at Radiant. We do it every week
at Living Stones. Because Jesus says every time
you gather to do this, why? Why? He says to do
it in remembrance of me. Why? Is it a ritual?
Are we earning his favor? No, no, no. He says
do it to remember. Who I am. That it was me on
the cross. It was Jesus who put his body and
sacrificed his body for you. His life for your
imperfect life. His blood was shed for the forgiveness
of your sins. You take that bread and you remember
his sacrifice. You drink the wine, the juice.
You remember his blood shed for you. All of it
unconditional. Remember who he is and how much
you mean to him. that you belong to the king,
and if you remember who he is, that is how you
can walk in faith. And that's what we're going
to do with communion. Now, I do want to say this.
If you don't believe in anything that I said
today, if you don't believe that Jesus is your
king, if you don't believe he's your Lord and
Savior, if you're not there yet, if you're a
skeptic, guess what? We love that you're here.
I don't want to make you a hypocrite, right,
and ask you to come take communion. that would
make you a hypocrite. I don't want you to do
that. What I'm going to invite you to do is just
to stay in your seat while the Jesus followers
take communion, and you just, you're welcome
here, like I said, for as long as you want to
come here. And in that moment, and in this moment,
just say silently and privately to God, if you're
real, show me. If you're real, call me. If you're
real, draw me. And just keep coming back to Radiant.
In investigating who Jesus is.