John 4:43-54 - Ryan Griffin

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.