Rooted: Session Two: Untested and Unproven | Pastor PJ

Speaker: All right, man.

Well, we are gonna continue with the parable of the soils.

We're in the second soil.

Um, so if you've got your Bibles, we're not gonna be in Mark this time.

We're gonna flip over to Matthew.

So Matthew chapter 13 is where we're gonna camp out together.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

Uh, Matthew is telling the same parable from a different perspective.

This is, again, one of the synoptic gospels, one of the four, uh, one of

the three synoptic gospels, I should say, that record a lot of the same

things we heard from Mark earlier.

We're gonna hear from Matthew this time, but before we get into the text, uh, I

wonder if you guys have seen the series.

We kind of talked about it last year.

In fact, it was, I think, the theme of our series last year, but Band

of Brothers, you guys remember that series or you've maybe read the

books or anything else like that?

I want you to think about this.

This is actually a picture of the original part of Easy Company from Operation

Market Garden when they were going to liberate Holland and around this time.

And the reason I bring up this picture specifically is around this time,

uh, there was a group of replacement soldiers that came into Easy Company.

Now they were trained in the same training that, uh, that the men of the, the hundred

first Airborne had gone through at.

They, they had gone through all of the training, they had gone through all the

rigor and everything else to be qualified.

To join Easy Company.

And yet when they got there, the men of Easy Company looked at these fresh

recruits, looked at these, these new guys, these reinforcements that were

getting there, uh, to help them.

And they looked at them side eyed.

They looked at them skeptically, they looked at them and they kind of thought to

themselves, and can we trust these guys?

And a lot of that was because these guys, the originals, they were the ones

that parachuted in behind enemy lines.

They were the ones that were there to help facilitate the landing on D-Day.

They were the ones.

That had seen brothers die in battle.

They were the ones that had gone toe to toe against the enemy and emerged

stronger than they were before.

They were the ones that had been tested and proved.

Then you've got these new guys come in.

And they weren't interested in hearing about basic training.

They weren't interested in hearing about the, the number of jumps that

they had during the, the testing.

They weren't interested in hearing about, uh, their, their pedigree

and their background and, and what they were ready to come and do.

They were interested in looking at these guys and saying, are they

going to be tested and proven the way we've been tested and proven?

In fact, what led to them being brought in to the rest of the group was the

battles that they fought side by side.

When they saw that these guys could be trusted, they could be relied

upon, they were the real deal.

It wasn't enough just to put on the uniform and show up

with a gun in their hand.

They wanted to know, is this authentic?

Can we trust these guys?

Can they stand up when the heat gets turned up?

There's other things in life that we look to, to, to validate

before we're gonna trust, right?

Like if you're gonna go buy a new car.

You're gonna do some research on that car, you're going to wanna know,

okay, what's the history of this car?

What are the, the mechanical problems with the car?

What has it been tested?

Has it been shown to be something that's reliable over time?

Because it's been tested and it's been proven.

We treat friends that way too, right?

You've got brothers that are closer than others.

Because you've been through more with them.

They've been there through thick and thin with you.

They've walked through difficult times in your life, and so you've

seen, I can trust these guys.

They're tested and they're proven.

Where you think about maybe jumping out of an airplane with a parachute

strapped to your back, that's something that you're gonna want to know.

Hey, is this parachute tested?

Is it proven?

Another thing that we wanna make sure is tested and proven is faith.

Faith has to be tested and proven.

And as we seek to follow Christ in a christless world, as we've

even even been talking about in one Peter, it's gonna bring its

fair share of, of opposition to us.

We are going to encounter battles, we are going to encounter trials,

we are gonna encounter suffering.

And what we're gonna find is that the faith that lasts is a

faith that is tested and proven.

Uh, put another way, uh, negatively speaking, we would say untested.

Faith is unproven faith.

Faith untested.

Faith is unproven faith.

And that's what we're gonna find in the parable in this next soil

that we're gonna look at together, which is again, soil number two.

And this is the rocky ground.

So Matthew chapter 13, if you're there, grab your Bibles.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

Flip over to Matthew 13, five and six.

Matthew 13, five.

We read this other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much

soil, and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil.

But when the sun rose, they were scorched.

And since they had no root, they withered away.

Uh, Matthew 1320 through 21, the, the explanation of the parable.

When the disciples go back to Jesus later and they say, Hey,

what does this parable mean?

1320 through 21, we read this as for what was sewn on the rocky ground.

This is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while.

And when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word,

immediately, he falls away.

As we're thinking about faith that's tested, faith that's proven,

uh, except for the seed that hits the path that Pastor Rogers

talked about in our first session.

Every other seed is going to show initial signs of life.

Every other seed is going to look like we're making progress.

What's going to bear itself out is, is whether or not that seed is

going to stand the test of time.

Whether or not that initial life that we see there is going to stand up when

it's tested, is it going to be proven?

Point number one this evening.

Along those lines is this, recognize the deception of shallow faith.

Recognize the deception of shallow faith,

the deception of shallow faith.

Again, pastor Rod, he, he's put this as our, our thesis of the weekend out

here, and so let's look at it again.

The condition of your heart determines the fruitfulness of your response to the word.

The condition of your heart determines the fruitfulness of the response to the word.

We saw the hard heart, the rocky path, that that doesn't show any signs of life.

Satan comes and immediately snatches it away.

This time we're transitioning into a different soil in the

heart, and it's the rocky ground.

And the thing that we've gotta be careful with is initially it's going

to look like this is a good response.

It's gonna look like we're seeing a positive response, a

positive reaction with this soil.

He says, other seed fell on the rocky ground and sprang up where

they did not have much soil, and they immediately sprang up.

He says, as for what was sewn on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the

word and immediately receives it with joy.

Notice again that the, the decept deceptive language that's even

employed here, not by Jesus trying to deceive us, but show that these

things look so good initially.

Immediately it springs up immediately.

They receive it with joy.

And again, this is the seed that falls in in this kind of ground.

This is what it means by rocky ground.

In fact, I was noticing as we walked over to dinner over here, if you look at some

of the medians and some of the around the curbs, this is what you see there.

You see ground that looks a lot like this.

This is similar to the path, but it's not quite as hard packed.

There's still some loose soil there.

And so this is the person who hears the gospel and there's

initial signs of life here.

The word receives in the text here, it's from a, a word that according

to one Greek di dictionary can mean to believe something and then even

to not just believe it, but to also act in accordance with that belief.

And, and so this is more than just a profession.

There's some response here, there's some reaction to the gospel here.

In fact, one of the, the leading Greek dictionaries says, this

means to accept something as true.

So this is, maybe you, you can think back to a time in your life the first time

you heard the gospel, and, and maybe it wasn't the the time that you actually

got saved, but when you heard it, you thought you were saved, you received

it, and you thought, man, this is true.

Jesus died on the cross for my sins.

He rose again so that I can live with him forever.

I'm a sinner.

I need forgiveness from God, and, and I'm gonna receive it as true, and

yet it's not falling on fertile soil.

Uh, this word receives, shows up in John 17, eight.

Jesus says, for I have given them the words that you gave me, and

they have received them, okay?

They, they've received the words that you gave me and have come to know

in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.

And so this tells us something right off the bat here.

This tells us that the initial reception of God's word can produce

false results in somebody's life.

And so this is, again, rocky soil, Rocky Terrain, and yet you see there's

something here that looks like it's alive.

It looks like it's bearing some sort of fruit here.

And yet what we find is, is that this seed that's sown on the rocky

path is not a seed that's gonna last.

And so what we find is, is that saving faith is more than the initial response.

Saving faith is more than the initial appearance.

The seed that so on Rocky Path doesn't represent saving faith and

yet there's some sign of life here.

Take your Bibles and flip back in in them from Matthew 13 to Matthew chapter seven.

Matthew chapter seven, verse 24 I,

Matthew 7 24.

Jesus is, is gonna tell another parable here.

It's part of the Sermon on the Mount and he says this.

He says in Matthew 7 24, everyone then who hears these words of mine

and does them, will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Okay, look at verse 26.

Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like the foolish

man who built his house on the sand.

If, if you know this parable, you, you know that Jesus tells about these two

houses, and while he doesn't go into a great amount of detail, I would contend

that he was depicting two houses that from the outside, from the street

level, would've looked exactly the same.

Right?

They would've looked like, okay, these are are the same houses.

He's not distinguishing one.

He doesn't call one a mansion and one a shack.

He doesn't call one a a, you know, a, a palace and one just a, a track home.

He just says they, they built two houses.

And I think he's after that conclusion from us, man, that, that these things,

they, they look the same from the outside as we're looking at them.

We're gonna come back to, to this story of these two houses throughout

our time together this evening.

But back in, in Matthew chapter 13, we're talking about this

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

seed that hits the rocky soil.

And initially there's signs of life.

Initially, it, it looks good.

In fact, you might take somebody who's a, a genuine believer right after the moment

of conversion and somebody who's the rocky ground right after the moment that

they hear the gospel from the first time.

And their responses may look identical.

And yet, remember, untested faith is unproven faith.

My wife and I joke with our twins that we're gonna get them one driver's

license and we're just gonna say, Sam John Burner on the driver's license.

And we're gonna let them take turns driving because insurance is ridiculous.

And we we're gonna have three teenage boys.

'cause Luke is gonna be turning 16 right in front of them on our insurance.

Why?

Because they're identical twins.

And, and, and yet at the same time, they're not.

They're different.

In fact, one has an appendix.

Now the other one doesn't have an appendix now.

So if you're wondering, which one are you and you're ever there at church,

just be like, do you have an appendix?

If he says, yes, that's John.

Okay, there you go.

But they're not.

They're not.

They look the same, but they're not the same.

When we're dealing with the rocky soil in the good soils, pastor

Rod's gonna preach on tomorrow.

They, they look the same initially, but they're not the same.

Untested.

Faith is unproven faith, and eventually truth reveals all.

Matthew 1327 through 29.

Uh, this is another parable that Jesus tells.

In fact, it's, it's not far from our main text, so if you wanna

look down there at, at your bibles, you can, the parable of the weeds.

Look at verse 27.

The servants of the master of the house came to him and said, master, did

you not sow good seed in your field?

How then does it have weeds?

And he said to them, an enemy has done this.

So the servant said to him, then, do you want us to go and gather them?

But he said, no.

Lest in gathering the weeds, you uproot the wheats along with them

in, in your backyard, in your flower beds at home, your gardens.

You, you may be able to identify the weeds from the flowers pretty easily,

but the, the type of weed that Jesus is talking about here is a weed that would

infest a wheat field, and it would look almost identical to the, the wheat itself.

In fact, here you go.

This is a, a, a head of wheat on the left.

This is a tear on the right.

Do you see how similar they look and how if you're going in pulling

up the tears, you may mistakenly pull up the wheat at the same time?

Jesus' point in that parable is, Hey, the, the church, the, the, the people

of God are going to have unbelievers in their midst until the end, and it's

gonna be to left up to, to God, to ultimately sort that out in the end.

But what I want us to see is there is a, a false profession.

That looks a whole li like the real deal, at least initially, the, the seed that

falls into rocky soil shows signs of life.

These are the people who receive the gospel and maybe even begin to live

differently because of it, but it would eventually prove to be fraudulent.

Just like again, back with the two houses.

The house that's built on the sand, man, the house that's built on the

sand house is built on the rock.

They look like the same house from the outside, but eventually

one is gonna be proven to be.

Shaky built on the wrong foundation and it's not going to last.

So what do we do with this man?

Well, if you're here tonight as as a Christian, I think that this text, this

whole series, this whole retreat is a good reminder to us that we should

be suspecting ourselves, we should be inspecting ourselves, we should

be examining ourselves, even as Paul instructs us to, in one Corinthians,

to say, man, I want to examine myself to see whether or not I'm in the faith.

I want to be continually making sure that I am staying the course.

And, and, and I'm not trying to undermine the doctrine of eternal security.

I do believe that once you are saved, you will always remain saved.

But I also know the deception of a human heart, and I want us to make sure that

none of us, as the writer of Hebrews talks about, is gonna fall prey to the deception

and drift away from the gospel of Jesus.

We wanna make sure that all of us, as Pastor Rod uses the, the, the

terminology in the first message.

Persist all the way until the end.

And so if we're gonna persist all the way until the end, it's good for us

from time to time to examine ourselves.

Don't satisfy yourself on a resume of past faithfulness.

Don't find your security only in praying the prayer or walking the aisle or

having the, the, the, the meeting with your mentor where you broke down in

tears of your sin and you confess your sins and you put your trust in Jesus.

Don't let that be all that your confidence is built upon.

Because saving faith is a faith that's tested and proven,

and the tests will come.

If you've been a Christian in this room for any period of time, you've

probably already experienced the test.

The true Christian is going to distinguish himself because the true Christian

is going to stand out, he's going to persist, he's going to keep growing.

He's not gonna put all of his eggs in the basket of an initial professional

faith in some early victories over sin.

So the question tonight then is, are you growing?

Are you seeing progress in your walk with Christ?

When you consider where you were a year ago, are you in a different

place in your spiritual maturity today than you were last year?

At this time?

What areas of your faith are you currently developing?

Are you currently growing in?

Where is God stretching you right now?

If you're not experiencing that growth, then, then that

would be cause for concern.

That would be cause for concern.

Living.

Things grow.

Living faith grows as it sinks deep roots into fertile soil.

And so it's good for us to recognize the deception of shallow faith and

make sure that we're examining our own hearts to make sure that, that we

haven't bought into a a shallow faith.

We'll talk more about what that shallow faith looks like here in just a minute,

but I want to talk to us about evangelism for just a second, because you may

be discouraged by this when you think about sharing the gospel with someone.

Those of you in the room that are dads or maybe your, your grandparents or maybe

you're just you, you've got friends that are, are, are un, that are lost or unsafe.

But, but lemme just talk to the dads for a second in the room when you

share the gospel with your kids, if, if your kids one day profess faith

in Christ and we pray that they will, your job is not done, then it's not

like you, you get to say, okay, great.

My kid professed faith, I'm, I'm all set.

E even after he is, he's baptized.

Great.

He got baptized, he met with Pastor Rod, he met with Pastor pj, he met

with Lewis, he met with Pastor Mark.

They, they validated his testimony and he got baptized.

I, I'm done.

He's, he's saved.

I'm good to go.

I'll see him in heaven.

You have to stay on top of it.

You have to keep discipling.

Right.

Or, or when you share the gospel with someone at, at work and, and they tell

you later on, they come back the next week and they're like, Hey, guess what?

I got saved this weekend, man.

Praise God.

But don't cross their name off your prayer list and just think that then

they're, they're good to go now.

You need to invest.

So this isn't an invitation to skepticism with this point.

Number one, it's an invitation to discipleship.

It's an invitation for you to, to do the work of coming alongside

and, and fertilizing the heart of that unbeliever who's now saved.

We hope and we pray so that they will grow in their walk with the Lord.

Partners is, is great for them.

And so if, if they're, I would say if they're depending, we've got some.

Maybe as young as middle school, but certainly high school and and

above partners is a great way for you to begin to fertilize the, the

faith of this person to make sure we don't want it to be the rocky soil.

We want to make sure that they are going to grow in their

relationship with the Lord.

Recognize the deception of shallow faith.

Eighth, unfortunately, I think we're gonna find in eternity that

there's people missing from heaven that we thought we would see there.

I think that's what this whole parable is about.

That we're gonna think.

Man.

There was a guy that was my youth leader.

There was a guy that was my small group leader.

There was a guy at work that I always saw there and he, he was on fire for Christ.

There was a guy at at church that was always there early.

He was setting up, he was tearing down and we're gonna look for him in heaven

and we're gonna find out he's not there.

'cause untested faith is unproven faith.

Faith that saves is faith that endures is faith that lasts.

And this rocky soil is a faith that looks good initially, but it's not a faith

that's gonna stand the test of time.

But maybe you're asking, okay, but, but what would lead somebody to believe

in the first place if their faith wasn't gonna be genuine in the end?

Why would they want Christ if they're gonna eventually fall away?

Well, it's because shallow faith is not only deceptive, but it also grows from

a heart that has been deceived itself.

So it's not only externally deceptive.

But it's born from within in somebody who themselves have been deceived

into what they think is saving faith.

That's not truly saving faith.

Point number two tonight is this, uncover the lies of shallow faith.

Uncover the lies of shallow faith.

Back in our text in chapter 13, verses five and and six.

Says this.

It says of them, since they had no depth of soil, but when the

sun rose, they were scorched.

When the sun rose, they were scorched.

21 says He has no root in himself but endured for a while.

And when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word,

immediately he falls away.

Sunlight.

Think about sunlight for a second.

Sunlight is beneficial for a plant with deep roots.

Uh, but that same sunlight that is beneficial for a plant with

deep roots is destructive for a plant with shallow roots.

It will scorch it and it will wither it away.

My wife and I lived in Arizona for a a period of time.

And Arizona's beautiful, but Arizona is, is far from lush.

Uh, these are the, the superstition mountains that are in, uh,

just east of, of Mesa, Arizona.

We could see them from our, our street, not this close, but we could

see them from our, our street there.

And, and it's, it's beautiful.

And yet nobody would say this is lush.

The reason why this desert landscape is barren, the way it is, is because

if you look down here at the bottom of this image, this is the type of soil

that the, the plant life has to grow in.

It's the rocky soil.

And so it's, it's a soil that's gonna be very shallow.

It's a soil that's not gonna allow for deep roots.

It's a soil that when the hot Arizona sun comes up and begins to bake, it

is gonna cause anything living in that soil to immediately wither and die.

Contrast that with a picture like this.

This is good soil.

You see the, the difference, it's not hard, right?

You've got the arid, dry, shallow.

Rocky soil, and then you've got the fertile, lush green good

soil, the, the rocky soil here.

This is what he's talking about in this part of the parable, and he's saying

the roots can't get deep enough there.

If you plant a Rose Bush, if you plant a a, a sod in that grass or in that grass,

in that dirt, it's not gonna survive.

It's gonna wither and die under the sun.

Look at verse 21, where Jesus tells us what the sun is.

He describes it as tribulation or persecution, tribulation or persecution.

In other words, this is opposition to faith that produces suffering

or affliction because it's it's tribulation or affliction on account

of the word, on account of the word.

We've been talking about tribulation and suffering a lot on on Sundays.

One.

Peter chapter four, verse 12 says, beloved, do not be surprised at

the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something

strange were happening to you.

The HeartMate of the rocky soil is surprised by the tribulation and

the suffering in the opposition that comes on account of the word, and

this is what I mean by uncovering some of the lies of shallow faith.

The, the, those that believe because of the rocky soil, because they're,

they find themselves in the rocky soil.

They're buying into a gospel.

That's not a biblical gospel.

They're buying into a, a, this is gonna make your life better.

They're buying into an ease of believism.

They're buying into, you don't have to change.

They're buying into Jesus loves you just the way you are.

They're buying into it's okay that you sin a little bit and

still claim to follow Christ.

They're buying into a gospel.

That's not the biblical gospel.

And when opposition arises to their faith, they're shocked.

They are surprised.

And what our text says as we continue on, and we'll get there in just a

minute, is, is that that's too much for them and they can't handle it.

Back in Matthew, chapter seven again verses 25 and and 27,

back there with the two houses.

If you wanna flip back there, you can look at this.

If not, I'll, I'll read it for you.

Matthew 7 25.

The rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house.

This is the, the house with the strong foundation.

Look at verse 27, and the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds

blew and beat against that house again.

I want you to see the similarity there.

The storms are coming on both houses and the, the way that Jesus

describes it is verbatim the same.

The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and beat.

The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and beat.

The difference is the foundation.

The difference is whether or not there's genuine faith there.

One built on the rock, one built on the sand.

If we're going to align ourselves as followers of Christ in this life,

we're going to face opposition.

We're going to face storms, we're going to face trials, and then it becomes

about far more than the external.

It becomes far more about what it, it looked like initially.

The question then becomes about whether or not we're gonna weather or not,

whether or not we're gonna stand up.

To the trial and the opposition and survive and come out on the other side

stronger than we were to begin with.

Men.

Why do you think this guy is so popular?

I, I, I mean, we, he's, he's a joke in our circles, but he's not to so many people.

He is a, a spiritual leader to millions of people.

45,000 people on average attend his church on, on every Sunday.

45,000 people.

He has an estimated 60 million television or streaming viewers,

weekly, 60 million people.

Why

Just a, a sampling of his recent sermon titles of the last couple of months.

Your super bloom season.

Stay positive.

Breaking the chains of limitation.

You are loved, God's there for you.

And then there's his bestselling book, your What?

Your Best Life Now, which has sold at last count, 8 million copies.

He was asked in an interview, Hey Joel, are you cheating your

people by not preaching more on the realities of suffering and trials

that accompany being a Christian.

That's what we're talking about here, right?

Are you cheating your people by not preparing them for the fact that they're

going to face suffering in trials?

Here was his response.

This was a CBS interview that he was on.

He says, most people are beaten down enough by life.

They already feel guilty enough.

They're not doing what they should, raising their kids.

We can all find reasons, so I want them to come to Lakewood or

our meetings and be lifted up.

To say, you know what?

I may not be perfect, but I'm moving forward.

I'm doing better.

And I think that motivates you to do better.

He, he's giving a saccharin gospel that lacks all of the substance, all of the,

the foundation, and he is hurting his people because he's not preparing them,

that when the storm comes, they're meant to hold fast and weather the storm.

The storm is to be avoided.

The storm is bad in Osteen's perspective.

And, and, and how, maybe that's a, a good thing for us to ask are, are

storms okay for us as Christians?

Are they good things for us as Christians?

Yeah.

They are good things for us as Christians.

The same storm that that brings, the wind that beats against the plants

with deep roots also brings the rain to help the, the plant grow, right?

The same sun that, that scorches the plant with shallow roots,

feeds the plant with deep roots.

God will use trials in our lives, Christians for good,

to make us more like Christ.

In fact, he says that over and over and over again.

And, and, and so for us as, as Christians, to sit here and say,

well, the, the trial is, is is wrong.

You live your best life now.

You should be.

I wanna lift you up.

I want you to have your super bloom.

I don't even know what that means.

Have, have your super bloom season, y'all.

These are the deceptions of a shallow faith that buys into this idea that

if, if I'm suffering something's wrong.

And unfortunately, some, some people have, have been lulled

into this sort of a gospel.

And so that when they encounter suffering, they begin to say, well, man, if,

if I'm suffering, something's wrong.

And, and, and they're left to say, so what do I do?

Well, I'm just gonna throw my hands up and walk away because

I guess this Christianity thing doesn't work out after all.

Storms and trials and scorching sun are inevitable parts of following Jesus.

And the genuine believer not only endorses them, but welcomes them

as part of the growing process, the lies of shallow faith that convince

you that they're not necessary, that is, that storms aren't necessary and

they're, they're not for your good.

The, the lies, the rocks of the rocky soil lies like this.

You don't have to be so extreme with your faith.

You don't, you don't have to be that guy that's always telling

other people about Jesus.

You.

In fact, here's another lie of the the rocky ground.

You don't have to share the gospel at all.

Other people can do that.

God doesn't really expect that of you.

You don't need to do that.

You might be rejected.

It might get uncomfortable for you.

You might find that somebody's gonna mock you another lie of the

rocky, so you know what you're being asked to compromise at work.

You don't have to take a stand on that.

God understands if you need to sin to keep your job, then sin to keep your job.

After all, you gotta take care of your family, don't you?

Oh yeah.

Your, your testimony, your witness.

Uh, don't worry about that.

It's okay.

You're not sharing the gospel with them anyways.

They wouldn't know another rock.

You deserve that promotion.

You don't have to confess that sin and fight it.

You don't have to ask for forgiveness from your wife.

Even though that you were the one that was to blame for the conflict

that you guys had last night, after all she sinned too, didn't she?

She got mad at you.

You don't, you don't need to humble yourself and go seek

forgiveness from your wife.

You don't have to wake up earlier and get in your Bible and pray.

You don't have to do that after all.

You, you remember, remember 50 years ago you prayed the prayer?

Don't you remember back when you were in, in, at camp as a a kid?

You bowed your head with every eye closed and you raised your hand and the pastor

told you you're safe, so you're good.

You don't need to grow as a Christian anymore.

That costs too much to do.

That sort of thing.

You don't have to give up the porn.

That's ramping him.

Every guy.

Come on, all guys lust.

You don't have to give up the porn.

Jesus died for your sins.

His grace covers that.

You heard the pastor preach that one time.

He said, you can't outs send the grace of God.

So you're fine.

Don't worry about it.

Or you know what?

Indulge in it for now.

Later on, you can deal with it.

You won't get sick.

God would never bring a, a sickness into your life.

You're not gonna get cancer.

You know what?

You'll never lose your job.

God wants you to be happy.

God wants your best life.

Now you're, you're fine.

In fact, yeah, I know the next round of layoffs is coming,

but, but you're gonna be fine.

You know why?

Because God wants you happy.

These are the lies of the Sandy Foundation of the House from Matthew seven.

These are the rocks and the soil here from Matthew 13.

Does God want you to be happy men?

Does God want you to be happy?

Yeah, absolutely.

But not as much as he wants you to be Holy.

He will see to your holiness no matter what.

And a lot of times he, because of his grace and his mercy in

our lives, that's gonna also accompany seasons of happiness too.

Not the same happiness the world offers us, but a happiness that's better.

A happiness that's deeper, A happiness that comes from our brothers in cries.

A happiness that comes from enduring and pressing through

and seeing his faithfulness.

I said it a minute ago that the same sun that can help grow a healthy

plant with deep roots is gonna wither the one with shallow roots.

So you should expect opposition, right?

If you're sitting here tonight, as, as a believer, you should expect

opposition, you should expect the storm, you should expect the trial.

You shouldn't buy into anything that would, would promise you anything even

close to this idea that, you know what Christianity, it's, it's an easy road.

It's walking the aisle and then you get just to take a, a nice easy

stroll all the way into e turn.

In fact, if you read the, the, the New Testament, if you read the New Testament,

starting with the gospels and what Jesus talks about, what it looks like to walk

after him and to follow him, you won't find anything even remotely close to that.

Jesus says, you wanna follow me?

Great.

Here's your, here's your hangman's noose.

Here's your electric chair.

Here's your lethal injection.

I need you to take it every single day and come after me.

Uh, you wanna be my follower.

Fantastic.

The road is narrow.

In the way is hard.

That leads to eternal life.

And so it's important for us to, again, examine ourselves.

Have we been lulled into a modified health wealth and prosperity gospel?

In, in other words, have we read the, the, the, the, the Bible and the gospel?

Even things like I, I was just talking about there, those passages and have we

bought into the lie that okay, but yeah, but I, I know that's generally true,

but I'm gonna be the exception to that.

God does want me to be happy.

My road is gonna be smooth.

I'm not gonna get the cancer.

My marriage is gonna be perfect.

All my kids are gonna get, get saved.

See, I think that's our threat.

I don't think any of us are here saying, oh yeah, Joel Stein's my boy.

I watch him all the time.

I know what my super bloom season is.

I'm leaving it right now.

Can't you tell I don't think that's us.

I think we're of the, the, the, the camp that's like, I know the

doctrine, I know the theology.

I'm just praying to God that I'm the exception.

And the problem is if we embrace that mentality, there's two potential

dangers that we're gonna face.

The first danger is when suffering does come, it's gonna catch you flat-footed.

It's gonna catch you not ready.

See, expecting the suffering puts you in a good position to be able to handle it.

When it does come, it's the difference between bracing for a punch, you

know, is coming and getting sucker punched in the back of the head.

We have to make sure our faith isn't only as good as the

circumstances we find ourselves in.

You have to anticipate the fact that your circumstances are going to get

worse at some point in time in this life.

As you seek to follow Christ in a christless world, it's going to get

hard and you have to be ready for that.

That's the first danger.

If we embrace the mentality that says, Lord, I just hope that I'm the exception

is we're gonna be caught flat-footed.

The second danger is this.

We may not have true saving faith to begin with.

And that's something that, that as pastors as we were even preparing

this series, we're, we're not just preparing this series to, to preach

to a room full of people that we're a hundred percent certain are Christians.

Not that we're singling anyone out in our mind saying, this guy I

don't think is a Christian or that guy I don't think is a Christian.

But we also know the deceptive nature of a false belief that

you can think that you're in Christ when you're not in Christ.

And if you're think sitting there thinking, okay, I, I just,

I, I'm sure I'm the exception.

If you're living with the expectation that you're not gonna get the cancer,

you're not gonna get laid off, that your kids are going to all get saved, that

the economy will never collapse, that you'll never have to bury a child, that

you will have kids to begin with, that you'll find companionship because God is

good and wants you to have good things.

If, if that's your expectation and your faith is anchored to that,

because so far that's worked.

What happens when you do get the cancer diagnosis?

What happens when your child dies and you weep next to their

graveside is you have to bury them.

What happens when your wife walks out on you?

What happens when you lose your job and have to sell your house

to be able to make ends meet?

What happens then if your faith is built on the shallow foundation that

says, well, God just wants me to happy, and so far I've been happy as

a believer, and so this Christianity thing is great when all of a sudden

you're not happy as a Christian anymore.

You have to figure out, do I have faith anymore?

And if I do, in what?

What am I holding onto anymore?

If your faith is only as good as your circumstances, when the storms hit,

when the sun scorches, your faith will crumble, which is where we're headed

in our final point this evening.

But first, lemme remind you of a verse.

That we're gonna talk about this weekend.

It's a verse that even Pastor Rod was alluding to in the, the illustration

with the, the mountain lion on the path.

It's this verse one Peter five, eight.

He says, be sober minded and be watchful.

Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring

lion seeking someone to devour

men.

Stand guard, like Pastor Rod was saying, be alert.

Be watchful because you have an enemy with legions of demons at his disposal

who wants to do everything in his power to take you out, and I don't think

he's gonna do that by killing you.

I think he's gonna do that by lulling you into a false sense of security and

a gospel that doesn't save, and then ripping it out from under your feet

all of a sudden, because that's gonna damage the kingdom, that's gonna damage

the testimony, that's gonna damage the name of Jesus more than anything else.

Well, when the world looks at people who once stood up and said, yeah,

I go to church, I'm a Christian.

And then they walk away.

And how many of those stories have we seen?

The deconstruction people, the, the YouTubers and everybody else that

were once saying, I'm a believer.

And then they walk away.

And what do they do on the way out, man?

They pick up the biggest stones that they possibly can and they throw

them at Christ on their way out.

Don't they?

Be on the alert.

Make sure you believe the biblical gospel.

Make sure that you've built your faith, your, your life on the rock.

And again, as you share the gospel, make sure that you share the biblical gospel.

Don't sell a bill of goods.

Don't make the gospel about, Hey, your life is gonna get

so much better if you come.

Follow Jesus.

Preach Christ, preach forgiveness, preach hope and eternity.

Preach hope in the inheritance.

That's ours.

That's imperishable and unfading and undefiled that's being kept in

heaven for us who are being guarded by God's faith for salvation ready

to be revealed in the last time.

And be honest with your own testimony, man, I'm I.

This is not about your life.

Your life may get better, your life may not improve.

Your MI life might get harder.

Let me tell you.

This is how my life has been since I followed Christ.

It hasn't been all roses and dandelions.

I've walked through some stuff, but this is why Jesus makes it better.

As I go through the valley, as I walk through the the trial,

be honest with people as you evangelize them.

Uncover the lies of shallow faith.

As we see shallow faith when tested can become abandoned faith.

If your faith is only as good as your circumstances, the end of

that shallow faith is, is not a place that any of us wanna be.

And so our final point this evening is this fear the end.

Fear that end of shallow faith,

fear the end of shallow faith.

Again, in our text it says, and when tribulation or persecution

arises on account of the word, immediately, he falls away.

In fact, if you look at, at the fullness of verse 21, there it says, yet he has no

root in himself but endures for a while.

That word e endures for a while comes from a word that emphasizes

that it's temporary or transitory.

Sometimes we think of endurance as something that's really good, an endurance

runner, those crazy people that run marathons, and the a hundred milers

and all those things, that endurance is something that lasts a long time.

This word is almost stressing the opposite.

They endure, but only for a little bit.

They're only with Christ for a tiny little bit of, uh, uh, of time.

It's not gonna last.

In fact, the the word suggests that it's, it's not long at all.

Maybe they're gonna write off one or two disappointments initially

after they profess faith in Christ.

But at some point, the storm's gonna get too much and they're gonna look for the

nearest lifeboat and get off the ship.

They're gonna say, I'm, I'm out.

I'm not in.

And they're gonna fall away.

They're gonna fall away.

Verse 21 tells us that they fall away because their shallow faith

starts to cost them too much.

When tribulation or opposition arises on account of the word, they fall away again.

Maybe you think back in your own life of, of people who were once

by all appearances walking with the Lord, but now they're living a life

that completely denies the gospel.

Maybe it was a youth pastor that you had that's walked away.

Maybe it's a family member that's walked away.

Maybe it's a, a celebrity that initially you thought, Hey, look at this person.

They're, they're following Jesus and they've walked away.

Maybe it's a pastor who walked away.

Remember the deception of shallow faith that that ultimately leads to

this end because this was a person that looked every part of a Christian.

They said the right things.

They, they, they carried the ESV or the LSB if you'd rather.

Speaker 2: Right.

Speaker: They're super Christians.

They look the part, they're even showing some signs of, of positive movements.

Maybe they're, they're willing to do a Bible study with you.

They're memorizing scripture.

They're thinking, man, this, this is awesome.

Maybe they're even sharing the gospel with other people.

And if somebody were to pull you aside and say, Hey, is

this person a, a, a Christian?

You would say, you would laugh and you would say, what do you mean?

Of course they're a Christian, because remember the deception of shallow faith.

But then the trials came and the, the storms began to mount blow after

blow came to their finances, to their marriage, to their parenting.

And for a little while, they were comforted by promises of God's word

of, of all things work together for good, for those that love God.

And, and, and you know what?

There's, there's a future glory that's gonna make the suffering that they're

going through right now feel like light momentary affliction, but eventually that

light momentary affliction feels a lot more like heavy ongoing crushing weight.

And instead of turning to the Lord, now they, they begin to turn to sinful outlets

to be just distracted, to escape reality.

And they're finding those far more effective than the Bible verses or the

Bible studies or the conversations than guilt from these sinful encounters,

mounts, and adds to their disenchantment with the God they thought they knew

until it reaches a breaking point.

And they make, they make a decision that they thought they never would.

They look in the mirror and realize they don't believe anymore.

In fact, they would say they, they can't believe anymore.

They can't continue to obey the word and trust of God, who doesn't seem

to care for them the way that they thought that God should care for them.

Too much has happened and they've suffered too much for God to be good,

and now they've gone so far down the road of sin that they feel like there's

no coming back, even if they wanted to.

And so they embrace the stark reality and they admit they're not a Christian.

Matthew 7 25.

The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that

house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.

Matthew 7 27, the rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and

beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it.

Great was the fall of it

when a man.

In shallow faith in the rocky ground falls away from Christ.

It is devastating.

It's devastating to him, to his family, to his loved ones, to his

brothers and sisters in Christ, to his church, and to Christ himself.

This is why the writer of Hebrews has so much to say to this man.

Hebrews six.

Starting in verse four says, it's, it's impossible.

In the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted

the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit, man, that sounds

a lot like a Christian, doesn't it?

And, and, and yet it's not.

And you say, well, how do you know it's not?

Because shortly after this, the writer of Hebrew says, but in your case,

beloved, we are convinced of far better things, things pertaining to salvation.

So the writer of Hebrews separates the one he's talking about here in Hebrews

six, four from the, the believers that he's writing to there by when

he says, we're convinced of better things for you, things about salvation.

Okay?

But this sounds a lot like a Christian, doesn't it?

Look, I, I mean, if you've got your Bibles, you can make your

way over to Hebrews six, four, and, and put your eyes on it.

It's impossible.

In the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly

gift and shared in the Holy Spirit.

And have tasted of the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to

come, what in the world, we would look at that person by all reasonable conclusions.

Say he's talking about a Christian.

That's why people argue this is a passage that says somebody

can lose their salvation.

But again, my argument earlier holds.

I think that he's separating them out here.

So then who is this person?

I think this is the rocky soil.

I think this is, as Pastor Mark's gonna preach on tomorrow, the thorny soil.

And, and notice what he says, it's impossible

once they've done all of those things and then have fallen away

to restore them again to repentance since they are crucifying once

again, the son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

This is why this is something to fear y'all.

We don't know who's beyond the saving reach of of God.

Not because God's incapable, but because God gets to a point

where, point where he's unwilling.

We don't know who falls into that category.

There are people that are in the, the rocky ground and they walk

away, and then they truly get saved.

There.

There is that person that's out there, but then I, I think there's a lot of

people that were in the rocky ground that walk away and God says, I'm done.

I'm done.

You've spurned Jesus.

You've trampled his blood under your foot.

You've rejected him.

I'm finished.

Have at it.

Take whatever you want.

That is terrifying.

The end of shallow faith that walks away from God while accusing him of failing to

be the God they thought he was is hell.

This is not saving faith.

And when they walk away accusing God of failing to be the God that

they thought he was, they're right.

He's not the God he that they thought he was.

The God they're walking away from is the God who doesn't actually

exist outside the shattered remnants of their dreams and expectations.

And this is why we have to be men of the word.

We have to know the Bible.

We have to read the Bible.

We have to.

Devour the Bible.

We have to, like Pastor Rod said, we have to come hungry to the word of God.

We have to be the men that we've been studying about

in men's Bible study, right?

During this resolve series, men like Daniel and Elijah and

Joseph, think of those men.

Did, did they?

Did they go through any trials for following the Lord?

Little Paquito, a few Daniel's ripped outta Babylon, outta

or ripped outta Jerusalem.

He's ripped away from the temple he is ripped out of, of Israel.

He is.

He's taken to this foreign land.

Oh, and then by the way, there's this law about, hey, you, you

can't worship anybody, but, but the, the King of Persia here.

Oh, Daniel, you're worshiping Yahweh.

Yeah.

We're gonna throw you to a, a, the, the lions Joseph, Joseph

face any suffering in his life.

A little bit, huh?

All of those men went through periods of trial that was made even harder

because of their relationship with God, and yet they all stayed the course.

Peter, Paul, James, John New Testament.

These men would all suffer immensely for their relationship with God.

And yet they all stayed the course because why?

Because their faith transcended their circumstances.

So their roots ran deep.

Man.

What's the state of your faith tonight?

Are the roots running deep?

Is your foundation the rock?

Is your foundation?

The sand?

What's your hope where you sit tonight?

What I know to be true is this.

If you're here tonight and you have truly repented from your sins and put your trust

in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that there's not a storm and there's no

amount of brilliant scorching light that can take you away or shake your faith,

Romans 8 35 through the end, Paul says, who can separate

us from the love of Christ?

Spoiler alert, nobody.

So if you're in Christ, you don't have to fear falling away.

But I still think even with this last point, it's helpful, helpful for us.

Much like the warning passages of Hebrews are to say, man, I don't

want to even come close to modeling or showing or living anything even

closely resembling a shallow faith.

I don't want in, in the good soil of my heart to let any pockets of rocky

soil begin to creep into my life.

It's like these things, you've probably heard me talk about this

before, but what is that guard rail?

It's a guardrail, right?

And they put them where they put them on, on places that are dangerous.

Back in, in California, we took our, our college students to a

retreat in, in Prescott, Arizona.

If you're not familiar with Prescott, Arizona, uh, this

next image may shock you.

But this is actually a, a live image that was taken of our, our college students

on the way up to the retreat center.

Um.

Yeah, I was in that bus and Danny was in the bus behind me.

Um, but the, the, the, the guardrails are there on the, the

mountain road and they're there because the, the, the guardrails

aren't gonna do much good are they?

Like, if, if you hit those guardrails, you're probably not coming back.

The guardrails there more to serve as a reminder to you to say, Hey, idiot, stay

away from the side of the, the road.

Because if you don't, you're gonna end up like these guys.

Woo.

This is also from our bridge retreat.

Um, this, this was Danny's bus, um, the Danny off the side.

Yes.

Yeah.

This, yeah, that, that guy Swan diving off the side.

Men, the guardrails are there to keep you close to the mountain.

The mountain is Christ.

And as you navigate this life, this road that you're in.

Uh, there's times that you go up a mountain road where

you feel pretty comfortable.

It's not all that frightening.

And yet there's other stretches of a mountain road where you are so thankful

that the guardrail is there because it reminds you don't get close to the edge.

And, and even there's some safety.

The closer you get to the mountain isn't there as you continue up that road.

And then the fate that we want you to have is a faith that hugs the mountain.

That doesn't come anywhere close to the guardrail.

And so that's one of our motivations in preaching this,

this weekend to you because why?

Because untested faith is unproven faith.

We want everybody in this room to have a tested faith.

That is a proven faith.

We want everybody in this room to have a faith that goes deep, roots that

run, deep roots that are there, so that the condition of your heart, as Pastor

Rod was saying earlier, determines the fruitfulness of your response.

We want this to be a room full of men that have a fruitful heart.

You're gonna hear more about that tomorrow.

But shallow faith, like we've talked about tonight, won't pass

the test when they inevitably come.

And so let this passage be a warning to us tonight.

Let this passage spur on our evangelism tonight as we think about how we

share the gospel with others, let it spur on our discipleship with other

people and other brothers in Christ to say, Hey, we wanna make sure that

I, I wanna hold you accountable.

I wanna spur you on.

I, I wanna see that you don't drift away, and I want you to see that I

don't drift away, so that we both cross the finish line together.

Lemme pray for us.

God, we are grateful for Christ and we are thankful that we can build the

house on him, the solid rock, and that we can have that firm foundation so

that when the storm comes, the rain is gonna hit, that the winds are gonna

blow and is gonna beat against us.

And yet we'll be stronger still through it all because of our faith in Christ.

Lord I I pray for anybody in this room tonight whose heart is rocky.

That as they listened to this sermon tonight that you would've

been revealing that to them.

I pray that you would in your mercy to them, even though

it might not feel like that.

I pray that you would make them miserable tonight until they do

business with you, and I pray that you would lead them to genuine repentance.

Lord, you are the one that can cultivate the heart to make it rich in good soil.

I pray that you do that in anybody's heart.

Who needs that tonight?

For those that are here in this room, Lord, that are believers, I pray that this

would be an occasion for us to examine our hearts to say, are there pockets of

rocky soil somewhere in my heart where my faith is shallow, where if bought a lie,

and that you would help us to turn that over to you, to repent in those areas

and to continue to bear fruit for you?

Well thanks for this evening.

Thanks for these men.

Thanks for the patience.

Two messages.

A lot to process so far.

We've got two more tomorrow, but this is so good for us to give ourselves

over to the study of your word.

So we pray that this would be a fruitful weekend for us.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Alright man, just a couple of notes real quick.

Um, what we're gonna do from here is we are gonna go to to small groups.

Now small groups don't have to be your normal and.