Faithfulness Like A Freethrow FruitFull (Part 8)

0:39 show honor where honor is due. And I am going to try not to start crying right now, But I cannot tell you what that man means to me and my wife. And, bro, I love you so much. Thank you for believing in me, for checking me when I need it, for just so, so much. And I want you guys to know, man, our pastor is special. And the grass doesn't get greener anywhere else. I'm going to tell you right now, there is no greener grass. He is the best. So let's give it up for our pastor. I love you so much, bro. I really do. A little bit about me. I'm originally from Bowling Green, Kentucky. So when I get going, that little twang will come out a little bit. So that's about me.

1:31 But I have two amazing, amazing parents, Michael and Michelle. I have a little brother named Chandler. He's actually been in town with me for about a month. He's homeschooled. And so if you see a kid running around with twisted hair and he looks like me, it's not me. It's my little brother. And then I also have to take a moment. The way much more beautiful, kind, way more spiritual, but way more faith. Just the better half of me is my amazing, amazing wife, Abby Rose. And she is here. I love you so much. I always want to say that I married my dream girl. Now, you're just going to track with me for a little. I always want to say I married my dream girl. But the truth is, like, my dream girl was like 10 notches below who Abby is. Like, I could not have picked. So, yeah, sweetie, I love you so much.

2:25 Thank you for loving me even when it's extremely difficult. So, but I am excited to be with you guys today in this series. And I want you guys to know that Michael mentioned it, but as we join TC, man, we are so excited and we're family. And I truly believe that what God wants to do is so, so special through this house. And he's positioning TC for impact that we don't even realize. And I want you to realize this, that if you are not looking, the Bible says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. I want to say, if you have eyes to see, that you will see this, that God is doing something so special in this house. And if you miss it, I want to come to say, to tell you this morning that these are the good old days. Like these are the days that we'll look back and think, man, you remember when we were at this moment. You remember when we went to two services. You remember when we said beyond for a whole year and God did it. So I want you to remember to be in this moment.

3:20 To realize that this is special. That this isn't happening everywhere. And God is truly doing something special. And I don't know about you, but I'm expecting and believing God that we are going to continue to go beyond. Anybody believe me on that? Amen. Amen. Well, listen, without further ado, we are going to jump right into the word. Are you guys ready to get into the word? All right. So we're going to go to our key scripture. It's been in Galatians 5, 22. If you have your Bible, you can turn there with me. And actually, before we do that, if it is your first time here, I'm not going to embarrass you, make you stand up, but I want you to know that we love you. And regardless of how you may feel. It's not random that you're here today. I believe you're here on purpose. And regardless of what you did last night, what you're going to do when you leave here, we love you. God loves you. And you're here on purpose. And I'm believing you're going to leave encouraged and knowing that you got people who got your back. Amen. All right. So Galatians 5, 22 has been our key scripture.

4:17 And the Bible says this is, but the Holy Spirit who produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Now, who produces the fruit? Who produces the fruit? All right. The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against these things. Now, Michael said it earlier, but today we're going to be talking about faithfulness. Everybody say faithfulness. Say it again. Say faithfulness. Now, Michael did. Listen, if you have missed any part of this series, I want to encourage you go back and watch them. They have been absolutely incredible. Truly things that I believe are helping us live it out. Not just something we can shout about on Sunday, but truly live out on Monday. And this series has been absolutely amazing.

5:11 And last week we talked about self-control. And what Michael talked about was that when we come into a relationship with Jesus, we don't just go from, okay, I'm controlled by my flesh. So now all of a sudden I just do everything right. I'm good. I'm perfect all the time. What happens is when we come into a relationship with Jesus, we get the opportunity to choose who we will let control us. Either the spirit or our flesh. and the point I want to present to you today is is just as we're getting started is we are not naturally bent towards the fruits of the spirit like that is not just naturally something do like we don't just naturally oh I just love that's just who I am I just love all the time I'm just always excited I'm so joy like we don't naturally do those things but the bible says that there's a helper that there's someone that produces this fruit in our lives and it's the holy spirit I want to establish right now that it's easy to look at the fruits of the Spirit, and we automatically can think that the answer is just to try harder.

6:14 Like you think, oh man, I just need to love more. I just need to be happy. I just need to be more faithful. And the truth is, if you could be more faithful, you would have done it already. Like if we could do it by ourselves, we wouldn't even need to be in here. But the truth is, the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in us. And so I looked up faithful and here's the definition of it. It says strict or thorough in performance of duty, true to one's word, promises, vows, steady in allegiance or affection, loyal, constant, reliable and trusted. Now, all of those things are things that we all say, yeah, I would love to be that, like completely reliable, always to my word. But if anybody is truthful with yourself for two seconds, you know that we don't naturally do those things. And it's funny, as I was looking at the definition, the very last definition that was on there, literally at the very bottom, it says full of faith. and regardless of how the world may define it we are people who can be full of faith and i want you to know regardless of where you are in your walk with christ i believe god wants to produce faithfulness in your life he wants to produce faithfulness even when things don't look right even when things are crashing that you can stand that you can keep moving forward and god wants us to have more fruit to be fruitful and today we're going to talk about faithfulness now uh in in In worship, they played that video of Abraham and Isaac.

7:45 And by the way, let's give it up for the worship team real quick. They are just like, I was over there crying like, great is your faithfulness. But we're going to talk today about the story of Abraham and Isaac. So I love, anybody else love stories? Does anybody like stories? I love, the Bible is full of some good stories and some crazy stories. Like if you want some drama, just read your Bible. So, you know, like, so we're going to read a story out of the Bible. It's Genesis 22. And if you didn't read your Bible this morning, we're going to make up for it right here. So we're going to read a nice little portion of Scripture and then we'll jump into it. So this is what the Bible says. Genesis 22. Sometime later, everybody say sometime later. God tested Abraham's faith. Abraham, God called. Yes. He replied, here I am. God said, take your son.

8:37 Yes, your only son. Yes, Isaac, the one who you love so much. And go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will show you. The next morning, Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants along with him, with his son Isaac. They chopped the wood for the fire of the burnt offering. And on the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said, stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will travel a little further. We will worship there and then we'll come right back. So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on his shoulders while he himself carried the fire and the knife as the two of them walked on. Isaac turned to Abraham. He said, Father. And this is the point where Isaac's like, what is going on? Like, I see. He says, we have wood, I see. But there is no sacrifice. And Abraham said, God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering.

9:33 And they both walked on together. Then they arrived to the place where God had told them to go. Abraham built the altar, arranged the wood. Then he tied his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. At that moment, an angel of the Lord said, Abraham, Abraham. He said, here I am. Don't lay a hand on the boy. Do not hurt him in any way. For now I know you truly fear God because you have not even withheld your only son from me. that's a good story right there i'm gonna pray real quick and then we're gonna jump in pray with me lord god i thank you for who you are lord i thank you that your word says that where two or three are gathered that there you are in the midst so lord we know that you're here in this moment lord i thank you for every single person lord that we would leave encouraged and that your holy spirit your holy spirit is truly working in us it is in jesus name we pray everybody said Amen. Now, I said it earlier, but originally I am from Kentucky. So that means two things, a little bit of twang when I get really excited. And secondly, that means Kentucky basketball.

10:41 Anybody know something about some Kentucky basketball? Any? Two people who have heard from the Lord. Watch out. Okay. So Kentucky basketball. I grew up playing basketball, watching basketball and everything. You know, when you are like about basketball, you just spend time practicing. Now, when I was growing up, Michael Jordan was just finishing up, and my dad made sure I was educated to know who was the best of all time. But when I was growing up, I was watching Kobe. I was watching T-Mac. Anybody remember T-Mac? That dude would have been the coldest guy alive if he wouldn't have got hurt. But T-Mac, Vince Carter, and my favorite person was Allen Iverson. So watch out. Ooh, watch out. That was good on that one. So I would be in my driveway and I would practice all of their moves. Like I'm trying to cross someone like a railroad, you know what I'm saying? Like I'm trying to like do all these moves. And the one thing I would always practice, I was always practice a game winner. Anybody else practice the game winner in your driveway? You know, like three, two, one, you shoot it and you're trying to make it. And so I would practice over and over again. I thought, you know, like that's what the good players do.

11:42 Like they hit the game winner. So fast forward a little bit. I'm in seventh grade and I have my game winner opportunity. It's playing this team called Good Pasture. And a funny story, my little brother can confirm this. Well, maybe not, but my mom and dad will. They'll be at the next service. They can tell you. But I literally, against this team, had gotten in a fight the game before the last time we played because me and the point guard were getting into it. And I literally shoved him down and got a technical. So this game was heated. Like this was our rival. And so there's literally like five seconds left on the clock. We're down by one. And coach says, Charles, I want you to take the shot. And I was like, okay, I'm about to crush this thing. I'm going to drain it. Then the cheerleaders are going to run out and be like, oh my gosh, Charles. I was in seventh grade. Like that was like the best thing that could ever happen. So I get the ball. I drive to the lane. I'm about to shoot the shot. And the guy fouled me because he knew he didn't have a chance to guard me. But he fouled me. And right when he fouled me, I missed the shot, but the buzzer went off. So there's no time left on the clock and I have two free throws and we are down by one.

12:46 And so you, oh yeah. So like I sit there and I'm, this is like the moment you envision, like this is where I got ice in my veins. I'm about to knock these down, like cold blooded. It's about to be amazing. Now, as much as I had envisioned this moment, when I got fouled, I started bawling, crying.

13:10 like I couldn't I completely crumbled under the pressure like I walked to the free throw line I'm like and like ref's like what is wrong with this kid like my dad's like calm down calm down I can't do it I can't do so I literally I'm bawling at the free throw line sitting there I'm trying to do my little routine I'm Пом

13:48 interfering But I get the ball. I'm like, all right, okay, calm down. You know when you try to like.

14:11 My dad, when I would get in trouble, he was like, breathe, son, breathe. So I cried so bad. I shoot it, and I bricked it again, and we lost the game. And I was like, ah. And I just walked off like, oh, gosh. And I remember riding home that day and I was thinking like, I blew it. Like this was the moment. Like this was the thing I had dreamed of. This was like the thing I practiced over and over again and I missed it. And that's a funny story. But the question I want to ask you today. is how does your faith respond when there's no time left on the clock? like, like how faithful are you when you get to the free throw line? There's a lot of people screaming. Everybody's looking at you. How faithful are you when life happens, when there's pressures, when there's no time left on the clock and you're the one that's got to shoot the free throws. And I want to talk about how we can be faithful in those moments. Now, here's what I want to talk about the word faith just for a second, because I think in the Christian circles, as Jesus followers, sometimes faith can kind of become a buzzword. Like it's just, I remember growing up in church and like anytime anything bad would happen, the first response I got was, just have faith, brother. You just gotta, you gotta strengthen your faith. You gotta encourage your, and I appreciate it. I was like, thank you. But I'm thinking, how? Like that's a great thing to say, but like practically my life is falling apart and I need faith to keep going. So how do I do that. And it's a lot easier said than done to say, hey man, you just got to have faith. You just got to have faith. And you know what it sounds like over time? Just have faith. It sounds like, hey, I know there's no time left on the clock and you're at the free throw line, but just knock down the free throws. It's super easy. That's what it feels like.

16:18 and I want to talk about how are we going to be faithful when life really happens, like when you're really going through stuff. Like how are you faithful when God told you, hey, step out, start this business. It's going to be amazing. I've called you to it. So you kind of say, okay, you know what? I'm going to do it. I'm going to step out. I'm going to take the step of faith, and you've been doing the business for two years, and you still haven't made any money. How are you faithful in that? Or how are you faithful when you say, you know what? Like I'm a mom and I've got some kids and I'm taking care of these kids and my husband just got a promotion and it's the job he's always dreamed of and I'm supposed to be excited. But the truth is, I feel like a single mother because my husband's never home. How are you faithful in those moments? Or maybe you're in school and you say, you know what? I'm the first person in my family to go to college and I'm excited about it and I got some scholarships and God really provided a way. But now you're in school and you feel like you're drowning and you really just want to give up.

17:14 how are we going to be faithful in those moments what's going to hold us what's going to truly keep us there's a quote by mike tyson it says everybody has a plan until they get hit in the face everybody's got a plan until you get hit in the face i want to say this everyone has faith until life hits them in the face it's easy to be faithful until life hits you in the face So what's going to hold us? What's going to keep us? And I want to look at the story of Abraham. And just to give you a little context for Abraham, he shows up on the scene in Genesis 12. And literally he gets the biggest promise ever to anyone in Genesis 12. Listen to this. It says, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you. And I will make you a great nation. I will bless you.

18:07 I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and those who dishonor you and the family. Those who dishonor you, I will curse. Now listen to this. It says, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So he gets one of the biggest promises. And if I'm Abraham, when I heard that, I'll be like, hey, y'all hear what God said? You didn't hear? Well, he said actually that I'm going to be a big deal. So I don't know if you want to hop on the train now, but like if you don't, I'm going to blow up and you're going to be sitting over here. So you better like, if I'm telling, like God said he's going to make me great. He's going to do this. And so literally from Genesis 12, God reminds him three different times. Hey, I'm going to make you a great nation. And even as much as he tries to jack up the plan, he goes and sleeps with his wife's servant. And he's like, that's not the son you're supposed to have. God says, I'm going to send you an actual son.

18:59 So literally God proclaims it to him three different times. But then we get to chapter 22. and it says sometime later God tested Abraham's faith he says take your son yes your only son he listened to this how he reminds him your only son yes Isaac yes the one you love and go to the land of Moriah sacrifice him as a burnt offering now for those of you who maybe didn't grow up in church or this is your first time here I just want to ease the tension a little bit and let you know that's crazy. And we realize, like, some of us have been following Jesus so long, you're like, yeah, you asked him to kill his son. What? That's a very natural thing to do. I don't know why you're so freaked out about it. Like, that's weird. Like, it's weird. We get it. It's weird. But just track with me for a moment. So it's crazy for that reason. But also, it's crazy because of who Isaac was. Literally from the moment God promised him that he was going to be a great nation, he waited 24 years before he ever saw anything. Some of us wait 24 minutes on our food.

20:08 We're about to lose our mind. Like he had waited 24 years on his promise. And then God says, hey, I want it back. Like the thing that I gave you, the thing that I promised you, I want it back. And what surprised me as I looked at this is Abraham doesn't flinch. He didn't even second and guess it. The Bible says he got up early in the morning. How many know you got to be like really feeling something to get up early in the morning? Like he just, it says he got up early in the morning and he started going and listen to this. Try to me. He goes through and literally over and over again from verse three, it says he got up early in the morning. Then in verses five and eight, he turns into a prophet. He says, listen, he says the boy are going to go right here and worship and then we'll be right back. So don't worry about it. Then in verse eight, he says, Isaac says, Hey dad, what's going on? It looks a little sketchy here. You got the stuff, you know? And he said, God will provide a lamb. Now verse 10 is where the rubber really hits the road. Verse 10, it says he picked up the knife to sacrifice his son, Isaac. And this is what I want to connect with you just to, just to track with me. Verse 10 is like the game winner moment.

21:17 Like verse 10 is where the pressure has come. Life has happened. Things have gone, maybe not how you planned it and you're in the moment and Abraham's about to see, is he going to knock down these free throws? And the Bible says he went straight forward. He lifted up the knife. And you know what verse 10 is? Verse 10 is God saying, do I really have your heart? Do I really have your heart? And God wants to see faithfulness in our lives. And can I propose to you this morning that the very thing that you think is punishment, that you think something has gone wrong, could it be it's an opportunity for God to produce faithfulness in your life? You haven't done anything wrong. It's God saying, hey, I want to know, do I still have your heart? James 1, 2 says, dear brothers and sisters, also when you face troubles of any kind, they come your way. It is an opportunity for great joy for, you know, your faith is tested. Your endurance has a chance to grow. I think some things would change in our life if we would quit looking at challenges as something that's going wrong and as an opportunity for faithfulness to be produced in our lives. And all that needs to change is our perspective. And if we can look at a moment and say, you know what, it may feel like I did something wrong or I don't understand it, but could it be that maybe in this moment where things are going wrong, where my marriage isn't where I want it to be, where maybe this relationship where I want it to be or this business isn't where I want it to be, Could it be that God is trying to produce faithfulness in my life?

22:53 So the question is, how in the world do you respond like Abraham? Like, how do you just, God's saying, hey, I've called you to be faithful in this area. And he just says, absolutely, I'm doing it. Without any question. Listen to what Hebrews says. It's so, so special. It says Hebrews, looking back on Abraham's life. It says, it was by faith. Everybody say faith. that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice. When God was testing him, Abraham, who had received God's promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son Isaac, even though God told him, Isaac is the son who your descendants will be counted. Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life.

23:40 Listen, the secret about Abraham's faith It was never about the place that he was at. It was never about that. The thing about his faith was it was never about the person, Isaac, who was in his life. The thing about his faith, the thing that allowed him to stay faithful was he had received the promise of God.

24:02 And the thing is, when you receive a promise, when you understand what God said does not change, it will hold you in moments where life says everything is going wrong. That is what will produce faithfulness in our lives. And listen, in Hebrews 6, it says this, God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. It is impossible. So your faith, here's the question I want to pose. Can I tell you, your faith is only as strong as what it's anchored in. And I think a lot of times we go around, we say, I want to be faithful. I want to be faithful. I want to be faithful. but our faith is only as strong as what it's holding on to. And a lot of times we say, I'm going to be more faithful, but I'm holding on to this specific place and I'm going to be faithful as long as I'm here. But if I'm not here, what happens to your faith? Or maybe you put your faith in a certain person. You think if I'm with this person, then I'll be faithful and things will go right. But what happens when they turn your back on you? Are you still faithful?

25:04 so i looked at this verse and i saw man abraham's got this promise like that promise is what held him he knew that man if god said to kill isaac god promised that isaac was the one who my descendants were coming so i guess he's just going to bring him back to life so after he had received his promise i was literally reading this scripture and i thought god like what's what's my promise Like you gave him a promise. I'm ready to like, I was like downloaded into my mind. I'm here. Like I'm ready. And literally, you know, when you're talking to someone and they say something and you're like, really? Like what? That's literally what I felt like God said. He said, just, just go read the same promise I gave to Abraham. Let's, let's read it. Genesis 12, one. Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation.

25:56 I will bless you. I'll make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I'll bless those who bless you. And him who dishonors you, I will curse. Right here. And in you, is God talking to Abraham, in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. This story of Abraham and Isaac, it wasn't just a story about Abraham and Isaac. It was foreshadowing another story. A story that would involve a father and a story that would involve a son. And there would be a sacrifice that needed to be made. And the reward for this sacrifice would be the salvation of humanity. And the story that he's talking about is the story of Jesus. And Jesus would come to this earth and he would die and the knife would not stop. But on the other side of that, we would experience freedom. And here's what God said. He said, Charles, Abraham had a promise for him. You have a promise in you.

26:48 When Jesus said that, hey, when I come to this earth, I will live inside of you now. What's going to hold us, what's going to keep us faithful is realizing that Abraham had a promise for him. we have a promise inside of us and when we realize that jesus is with us when we get the power of his presence in our lives we can stand in any situation because the promise will hold you so when life gets hard when things start going wrong when you start questioning how am i going to be faithful how am i going to keep moving forward when when i really just want to give up or how am i going to stay faithful in this relationship even though things are going wrong and I don't. I really just want to run. How are we going to stay faithful? We're going to look to the promises of God. And the Bible says that God will provide all of my needs. The Bible says that perfect love casts out all fear. He said that he will never leave us nor forsake us, that he's a plan and a future for us, that he is our protection. He will save our children and our land. And one day there will be an end to all death and pain. So no matter what, regardless of what the situation looks like, regardless of what the doctor report says, regardless of what's going on in your marriage, you can stand because you say, I don't know what's happening, but I've received this promise. And the word of God says that he's with me. And it's going to be a promise that'll hold us.

28:09 So I want to give you three quick points talking about faithfulness. Three points talking about faithfulness. This first one says this. The first point is, if we're going to live faithful lives, the first point is stay in the story. Everybody say stay in the story. Can I tell you that this book is a love letter written to humanity. It's a love letter that's saying, hey, I care about you. I love you. And the other thing is, is that the promise that is going to keep you, the thing that's going to hold you when life is crashing around you, your promise is in this book. Your promise is in this story. And literally, if we're going to stand in tough moments, we have to stay in the story of Jesus. We have to get his word down in our hearts because when you get it in your hearts, what does the Holy Spirit do? He said, I will guide you into all truth and remind you of what I said. So when you get the word down in your heart, when you get in a tough moment, the Holy Spirit says, hey, remember what God's word says? Hey, remember how God was there with you before? And if you can get in that story, God, the Holy Spirit will produce faithfulness in your lives because he will remind you of what God's word says. It's like this. It's if I had a card, if I had a debit card or an account and it had a million dollars on it, and I had this card and I also had a little piece of paper that was folded in half. And I said, hey, here's this card. It's got a million dollars on it. It's yours. You can have it.

29:33 And on this card, on this piece of paper is the pin number. And all you got to do is type the pin number in and it's all yours. A lot of us, we walk around with the card in our hand, but we will never open up that piece of paper. And how good is a million dollars if you're sitting there with Can I tell you the promise of your life, the thing that you're looking for, the answer to your situation is inside this love letter. And if you would just open it up, if you would just dedicate some time to get in this story, I promise you your situation would look different. I promise you. And it'll produce faithfulness, the ability to stand in your life.

30:13 John 16, 13 says, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. The Holy Spirit will start working in your life, and the way he's going to produce faithfulness is he will point you back to truth. He will point you back to Jesus. The first point of producing faithfulness in our life is stay in the story. The second one, find faith-filled friends. Everybody say faith-filled. Now, some of you are thinking, Charles, isn't this unfaithfulness? Like, aren't we supposed to have some faithful friends? And my answer is yes, but no. Because some of you got a lot of faithful friends. But they're faithfully negative. They're faithfully keeping back from your promise. You don't need just faithful friends.

31:06 You need faith-filled friends. People who will encourage you. People who will help you move forward into your promise. Some of you are like, that's my boy. That's my cousin. Yeah, and he's living in his mom's basement. So how much is that going to help you? Oh, that's my girl. We've been through life together. We've been doing stuff. You know, she's just a little down. No, she's holding you back from the promises of God. So if you can get some people beside you, some faith-filled friends to encourage you to say, hey, lift your head up. I know it's bad right now, but keep moving forward. That will allow you to be faithful.

31:40 My dad's mom, her name is Estelle, Granny Estelle. She would always say, if you hang with nine friends, you're bound to be the nine broke friends, you're bound to be the 10th one. that's just how that works and if you show me your friends i will show you your future you're only as good as the people you're running with so if you want to be faithful if you want to god to develop something in your heart you got to get some faith-filled friends think about this a lot of us think you know what i come into a relationship with jesus christ and i got me and jesus and we're just right here it's me and jesus and i don't need nobody else can i tell you jesus ran with people. If anybody had an excuse to walk by themselves and not need any help, it would be the son of God, the person who created the universe. But he said, you know what? I'm going to choose to do life with some people and I'm going to choose to invest in these relationships and I'm going to choose to walk forward. The Bible says that one can put a thousand to flight, but two can put 10,000 to flight. Some of you are frustrated and wondering why I'm trying to develop these fruits of the spirit. I'm trying to grow. I'm trying. And you're doing life by yourself. And the reason I can say that is because I've done it. Literally the whole story of literally me and Michael, he said, Hey man, I'm going to this conference thing. I want to invite you to it. And I was like, all right, whatever. I'll go. And we're sitting in there and we're sitting in this room.

32:58 And this is before we had talked anything about merging or anything. Michael literally just hit me up. He was like, Hey man, you should come on this trip with me. And just, just being a friend, Just being somebody who was there, even when I wasn't reaching out and just saying, hey, come with me. We get there. We're sitting in this session. A bunch of pastors just talking, really downloading wisdom is like drinking from a fire hydrant. We're just writing notes the whole time. And literally this guy says he's sitting there and he's talking and he says, you know what? It's important for the older generation to father the younger generation, because there's a lot of orphans with dreams.

33:31 And when he said that, literally, it's like it hit me straight in the chest. and I was sitting there and literally we walked out of that session and we on the way home and I'm just like bawling crying just so jacked up didn't even know why and I was like I feel like I've like I don't know this thing orphan it doesn't make any sense because I have two amazing parents like that's not and God said to me Charles you've lived your life not as an orphan but with the spirit of an orphan because you thought being an orphan was brave can I tell you doing it by yourself isn't brave? Living life on your own doesn't make you brave. What makes you brave is to be vulnerable enough to say, you know what? I'm an orphan and I don't want to be one anymore. I want to do life with people. And if God's going to develop faithfulness in your life, you cannot do it alone. So stay in the story. Find faith-filled friends. And the third one is work your faith. Everybody say work your faith.

34:33 So I told that story at the beginning of how I absolutely blew those free throws. And the thing about a free throw and the thing about even when I played basketball is all the time I would practice different shots. I would practice doing a fadeaway. I would practice a crossover. I would practice all these different moves. But you want to know the one thing I didn't ever practice that I didn't like practicing? Free throws. Because I thought, you know what, if I can knock down a three pointer, absolutely I can make a free throw like it's the same. And the thing about a free throw, you want to know, free throw, people who are good at free throws, they're good shooters, but really what any professional will tell you is a free throw is actually muscle memory.

35:13 When you get to the line, the reason they do the same routine is because when they start doing it, their muscles say, oh, I've been here before. And so they dribble the ball and when they go out here, something just kicks in and they knock it down. Can I tell you that if you will begin to work your faith, that your faith will turn into a free throw? That if you just start getting there and you say, you know what? I don't know what's going on. I know my marriage is a little off, but I'm going to stay and I'm going to be faithful. I know that this business isn't going how I wanted it to, but I'm going to follow God. I know that my school is a little overwhelming, but I'm going to keep. If you just start working your faith, if you get at the free throw line and say, you know what? I don't have much, but I can keep shooting this thing. And when I get to the situation, when there's no time left on the clock, you're going to sit there. People think, how did you make that decision? How are you so faithful? You think, I don't know. I just went to shoot it and something kicked in and told me to trust God. Something told me that it was going to be okay.

36:05 Something told me that I could keep going. Something told me that my marriage was going to work out. Because this thing, I just keep shooting it. And I just keep practicing. And if you just will work your faith, I promise you, God and the Holy Spirit will develop faithfulness in your life. Michael mentioned it, but in, and I told a little bit of it, but me and Abby, my wife, we had, we had started a church called Eden. We were going and God literally had caused to step out. So we're going, we're headstrong. We're going to do this thing. We're going to reach the whole world for Jesus. And we're going, we got people coming. We literally, our first gathering, some of you in this room, we're probably there. Our first gathering, we had, we were literally prepared for like 30 people. We had 105 show up and we were in this little gym. The second one, we had 120 and they kicked us out and said, Hey, you can't be having church in here. The third, when we had more and was going and going and growing. And literally when God said, Hey, Charles, I want you to give it back. I was thinking, what in the world? Like it's, it would be one thing if this was like crashing and going down and God's like, Hey, cause I'm gonna get you out before that thing. You know, Hey bro, let me get you real quick. But like, we were good. Like it was going good. We had raised money. We were going, we had signed a lease on a building. We were like, we were doing it. And people asked me literally after that, we made the decision and we, they're like, Hey, I heard you merged with TC. And yeah. And they start asking like, what's that like? Like, how is it? What, how are things going? And how are you?

37:28 And they encourage, man, that was such an amazing step of faith and all those things. And honestly, I just feel a little awkward. I'm like, thanks. I don't, you know, like it was amazing and God really did it. And, but the thing is when I started to look at it, I was talking to my wife, I was thinking, you know, when the journey of that decision started, it started in 2011 and I was at home and my parents walked into my room and they said, Hey Charles, can we go to dinner with you? And the first thing I knew is you ain't never asked me to go to like, it's usually get in the car. We're going to dinner. Like, you know, you mean, can I ask you? And I was like, Yeah, sure. And we sat down and at this time I was finishing up my junior year in high school and I was sitting there and and my dad said, hey, so some things have changed and we're moving to Oklahoma.

38:22 I was like, Oklahoma, where is Oklahoma? And at the time, things were going so good. I was running track. I was super successful in that. I had a girlfriend at the time. My life, my family was there. And I was thinking, what? Like, I'm not moving to Oklahoma. Like, you are crazy. And I was literally being so frustrated because I thought this was my world. My friends were here. My family was here. And now we're moving to Oklahoma my senior year of high school. Really? That's what we're going to do? And I remember literally my mom and dad, after they told me, I just sat there, stone cold, didn't say anything. And I said, okay, are we done? I didn't say that because my dad would have popped me. And some of you are like, oh my gosh. But I just sat there and I remember and I walked to my car and I sat in my car. And I remember it like it was yesterday. I literally just started bawling and crying because I was so mad. I didn't want to move. Things were literally going perfect. And I was driving home and I was so frustrated that we're moving.

39:17 And I literally, I pulled into the driveway. And there was a song by Hillsong on the radio. and it says, I'll stand with arms wide open. My life surrendered to you. And I'm sitting there in that car and I was so upset. And I thought, God, like, I don't want to do this. But if we're supposed to do it, I'll do it.

39:38 But I swore a little bit further. I meet a girl named Abby. We're kind of talking. We thought about like, man, we know we want to get married. And I'm working at a church and they had multiple locations. and they said, hey, I know that you're about to get married and stuff, but we want to present to you that there is an opportunity for you to be a youth pastor in New York. And I was thinking, dang, that would be amazing. Like New York now, pause. They further told it's in Albany, New York, not like New York, New York. So it's kind of like, that's a little lame, but I was, so I literally, me and Abby go home and we're sitting there and, and we just start praying about it. And literally I went through some tough seasons at the church I was at, but I'd gotten to a point where things were going good. The youth group was growing. Things were happening. And literally, I'm sitting there, and I'm thinking, why would we go to New York? We're not even married. We literally sat down and told her mom.

40:32 We prayed, and we're like, we feel like we're supposed to do this. So I said, hey, this is kind of me asking for your blessing, but also saying, I'm going to marry your daughter, and we're moving to New York City. And literally, we went through all of that. Her mom was like, what are y'all? Y'all are crazy. Y'all haven't even known each other that long. But I was like, I just feel like this is what we're supposed to do. Like, I feel like this is an opportunity. I'm just supposed to say yes. I said yes. I called my boss and said, hey, we're in. We'll go to New York. We're there. And he said, all right, let me just talk to a few people. We'll start getting you transferred, all that stuff. Literally two days later, he called and said, hey, Charles, it's kind of weird, but never mind. We're not going to do it.

41:06 I was thinking, why do we go through all that? A little bit further. We're working at the same job. Things are going great. And me and Abby are right in the car. She says, hey, do you think we're supposed to start a church? And immediately I was terrified, but I knew it was what we're supposed to do. So when people ask, man, what's it like to close down this thing you're doing and all of that? The reason I feel a little weird is because I think, I know it was God, but honestly, like I just picked up the ball. And when I went to go shoot, something just happened. Like when we got into this moment where God said, hey, can I have that back? I was terrified. And the thing is, faith doesn't take the fear away, but allows you to move forward. And I just said, man, I think it's because I've just I've shot this a couple of times and I didn't want to go to Oklahoma and I did. I wanted to go here. But God said, actually, never mind. I just wanted to see if you would say yes when I offered you something. And when I got to it, something kicked in. And what I'm telling you this morning is regardless of where your faith is at, regardless of how faithful you feel like you are right now.

42:09 If you will just get in the story of god If you will just start getting into his promises if you would consider the life and the joy and the peace that god wants in your life If you will get some people that'll stand by you that'll help you move forward And if you will just start to work your faith if you will just start to say hey, i'm going to take a step forward Hey, i'm going to step out in faith. Hey, i'm going to stay in this marriage Hey, i'm going to raise these kids to know god. I'm just going to keep going If you do that, I promise you you will wake up one day and people say how did you stay in that situation? How did you keep going when your business was failing for five years you say I don't know I just went to shoot it and the holy spirit kicked in and said hey, it's gonna be all right I've got you. God's had you before he's been there with you before And this is all, it's all a work of the Holy Spirit.

43:00 And the truth is, if we would just accept that part that, hey, I can't do this by myself. And the answer isn't to try harder. The answer isn't, I'm just going to read this thing and this do good book. And I'm just going to try to work myself together to be more faithful. That's not the answer. because you've been trying to do that your whole life and it hasn't worked out. The answer is the Holy Spirit will produce it inside of you. And can I tell you this? Some of you think, man, this is just who I am. I'm just not faithful. I just don't stay in our situation. When the pressure comes, I fold under pressure. The Bible says that if he is in Christ, the old has gone and the new has come. And that verse was written a long time before you were born. So can I propose to you that really you are just becoming who you already are? That the faithfulness is actually inside of you.

43:53 You've actually got it. When Jesus, he said, I was going to send you a helper. That promise that Jesus made, we got the promise of Jesus. And Jesus said, I've got another promise for you. I'm going to send you someone. And listen to what he said. He said, but you already know him. He said, you already. And they were like, what do you mean, Jesus? We don't know if we know him. Can I listen? The reason, the moment you had an awareness that you needed God, guess who told you that? The Holy Spirit. You already know him. And he's working inside of you. You already know him. So listen to this verse. I'm going to close with this. Philippians 2.13. For God is working in you. Everybody say in you. Everybody say in me. Giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

44:39 You've got everything you need to accomplish what God has set in front of you. The question is, will you just accept and own that? And say, you know what? I may have messed up before. I may have ran when I should have stayed. I may have stayed when I should have ran. But I'm going to stay faithful. I'm just going to keep shooting this thing. And I may miss a few. I'm not going to get it right every time. I may even start crying when I get fouled.

45:09 But I'm going to keep shooting. because God is working in you. It's not you working in you, it's God. And when you recognize the power that his presence is with you, that presence brings a power and it brings a confidence. I'm gonna read this verse one more time in Hebrews. It says, therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold on to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong, trustworthy anchor for your soul.

45:42 When you have God's promise, when his word is an anchor for your soul, it doesn't matter what happens. You can be forward and be faithful. Let's bow our heads and we're gonna close in prayer. Lord God, I thank you so much for who you are. Lord, I thank you that your Holy Spirit is working inside of us. Your Holy Spirit is producing faithfulness. The ability to stay. the ability to obey you, the ability to follow you no matter what. And right now, Lord, I thank you for every person in this room. Lord, I thank you that your Holy Spirit is speaking to them right now, developing faithfulness and Lord, you're speaking clarity. You're speaking direction. You're speaking your truth into their life. Lord, I pray that you would give us a passion for your word to get in your story. Lord, I thank you that you're sending people into our lives to stand with us to help us move forward. And I thank you, Lord God, as we start to work our faith, that you will produce faithfulness in our lives.