Student Ministries

Winter Camp 5: Question and Answer with Jacob Hantla, Kris Drent, and Jackson Kennedy

Jacob Hantla February 24, 2026

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Topics and timestamps

Welcome, purpose of the Q&A, and opening prayer

What I particularly love about the questions you submitted was that they reveal that you guys are thinkers, that you guys are listening to what we’re teaching you, that you want to know what the Bible says. That you’re asking real questions. And so, we’re going to do our best today, that’s all we can do. We’re going to do our best to try to give you the Bible’s answers. And as we’re talking, if we don’t answer your question, if something we say prompts another question, it’s okay. This is family time. That’s why we’re in a tight circle. That’s why we’re close. So, it’s easy to raise your hand.

And then this can be a back and forth discussion. If we get through everything, that would be great. If we don’t, we’ll keep it going. But we’re going to do our best to be both efficient and thorough. and most of all bring God’s word to bear on our lives. So let’s let’s pray. Jackson, can you go ahead and pray to open our time?

God, we thank you so much for this weekend, for this camp, for all the hard work that’s been put into making it so that we can come here and be in your word together, that we can be sharpened, built up, that we can hear the gospel preached. Now as we are coming to our last session, we ask that you would give clarity, clarity of mind so that we can understand what your word says on important issues, issues that we have questions about. God, please help us. We need your spirit. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. We are. Yeah, I’m here.

Salvation: natural revelation, “without excuse,” the unreached, and missions

Great. So there were a lot as as Jacob said there just a lot of great questions and so Jacob took some time to try to group these together so we can maybe address several at once and so if you didn’t hear your exact question read know that we’re trying to build them in. but Jacob and Jackson there are a number of questions I think maybe a good place to start off was about salvation salvation revelation and our appearance of that. So let’s start with that.

here’s a here’s a question that maybe captures a few of them but u as we know scripture talks about natural revelation or general revelation in several places and you guys can point us to some of these but the idea is that the question is if the knowledge of natural revelation looking at creation looking at the beauty of things and scripture talks about we should know there’s a god just by natural revelation if that’s not sufficient for salvation How does that leave us without excuse? and Jacob, maybe we could start in just reading the passages that we’re talking about here and then kind of lean into that and we’ll keep going.

the question assumes knowledge of Romans chapter 1. So you guys should just open your Bibles there to Romans chapter 1 verse 18. And so, so the question is, if somebody hasn’t heard the gospel, if they don’t know the name of Jesus, if they don’t know who Yahweh is, don’t they have an excuse before God? How could God judge them if they’ve never heard? Is that I think that’s the question. Is there something else about this? No, I think it’s pretty close. So, let’s let’s let’s look at verse Let’s start in verse 20. No, let’s start in verse 19 of Romans chapter one. You guys all there? Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. Look down.

And what it says is what can be known about God is plain to them. And the “them” would be everybody. And everybody said is suppressing the truth that we know. So, time out. Have you ever talked to somebody who thinks that they’re an atheist? Yes. I actually had a conversation with a professor in college who who was telling me that he is an atheist, that he doesn’t believe that there’s a God. And I told him that I knew that wasn’t true. and this is how I knew that was true because what can be known about God is plain to everybody. He’s shown them and people suppress it. Everybody does this to some degree. Let’s keep going. What does it say?

God’s invisible attributes, their eternal power and divine nature. So when you can be seen clearly ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made and said you know this when you’re outside and you look at the sky, you look at the stars, you look at the trees, you know something about the God who made those things. At least two things can be known. That God is eternally powerful. He’s different than us. We are created and his divine nature. He’s he’s God. Those things can be seen. And what’s the conclusion? You see that at the end of verse 20? All these people who suppress the truth are without excuse.

Although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. So this is not talking about some select bad group of humanity. This is actually talking about all of us in our natural state that we all know something about God.

Even just from natural revelation that’s separate from God’s word and even what we know about God from creation his eternal power it’s divine nature we suppress the implications of those in our unrighteousness and therefore are without an excuse so that sets the foundation for the question Jackson you want to go from there and then sort of say why why are they without excuse well they’re without excuse because they are suppressing the truth as Jacob said and they’re not honoring God as God. If you if you flip over to chapter 2 verses 12 through 14, they’re not honoring God. Not only that, they have a law and they don’t obey the law.

Look at verse 12. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the law naturally do the things of the law, these not having the law are a law to themselves. And so they don’t have the explicit word of God, divine revelation. many people in history haven’t had that. And yet they have a law. They have light because of God’s creation. And even that law that they have in and of themselves, they do not keep.

They do not obey. They’re a law to themselves. And they still break that law. So across the board, they’re suppressing God’s truth. They’re not honoring God as God. And they don’t keep the law that they themselves can’t deny, right? Even even their own conscience, what’s written on there. It’s just interesting. Every culture has these boundaries. And it’s interesting how far a lot of time we talk about missions. And this is one of the questions that comes up here about how this fits into people in foreign countries where the gospel has never been reached.

you know, they they can see, you know, Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glories of the Lord. It’s enough for us to know that there is a God and to feel the awe of it that we would want to seek and want to honor this God. And it’s the it’s only the ones who go, I don’t want that kind of accountability, that start to suppress that, which is what that’s talking about, their own conscience. I know that it’s wrong to murder. Did I have to read that in God? Actually, I kind of knew that before that, you know, there we had a conscience.

And when people start to suppress their conscience because they don’t want the accountability of God, when they suppress their own belief that there is a right and wrong. You hear that all the time. This has taken years and years of callousing and suppressing that kind of truth. So, so where does that leave a a country that’s never had the gospel? I think that’s quite clear, but it’s that’s that’s rough. How do we how do we look at that? Well, so I’ll just read the other question.

It says, “Do people in foreign countries where the gospel has never reached who at least know that there’s a supernatural being that created everything honor God with what they do? Do those people go to hell?” So the question is asking if there’s people in a country where where there’s never been a gospel witness, they don’t have the opportunity to believe in Jesus because they haven’t heard of them of him, how can God how how can God judge those people because they haven’t rejected Jesus, right? They haven’t even heard of Jesus. So that goes back to this this very core foundational principle that we read that these we are all without excuse.

so Jackson had us in Romans 2 back up a few verses to Romans 2 verse 6. Romans 2 verse 6 says he God will render or pay to each one according to his works. To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give them eternal life. And if you know the gospel, you you might have like alarm bells going off right now. going is this saying salvation by works? Will God save people? That’s what the question is assuming.

if there’s people in another country who don’t know God, they don’t know Jesus, but they know there’s a supernatural being, they look and say, “There’s a God of an eternal power and divine nature and they honor him, will they be saved?” Well, according to this, if people even those without God’s revelation were were to seek for glory and honor and immortality, God would give them eternal life. But here’s the problem. The question is a false premise. Nobody fits that category. You guys get that? that we all are in this pool of people who because we are born from Adam with a fallen nature. We are all we learned this in Ephesians 2.

We talked about this. We are born how are we born spiritually alive? No. But how are we born? Spiritually? Do people do good works? We’re dead in relation to God. Will will any dead person honor God from the heart? Now turn your Bible forward. If you have to flip a page, do it. Look at Romans 3. Romans 3:9. And this is endeming Jews who say, “Hey, I’m going to follow the law, God’s law that we have written in the Old Testament.” And they said, “If I keep that well enough, I’ll be saved.” No, you can’t keep that well enough. the law is going to condemn you because no one honors God from the heart.

Just like a person in the country who hasn’t heard of Jesus, you don’t even keep your own law, your own standard that Chris was referring to. So what’s the situation that we all find us in? both Jews, the ones who have God’s Old Testament, God’s law in Greece, or anybody else, somebody who has never heard, they are all under sin as it is written. Look down. See what it says in verse 10. You guys, this is one of those verses you should have memorized. None is righteous. Know not one. You remember what the question asked?

Was there anybody who if they’re in a country and they haven’t heard about God, if they haven’t heard about Jesus and they honor God from the heart, will will they be saved? No one understands. No one seeks for God. All has turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. No, not one. So, so the problem we are not judged primarily because you hear of Jesus and you reject him. That is judgment worthy. That is condemnable. And all of you have heard of Jesus. You are all responsible for what you’ve heard. Like Chris said, why not turn to this God who gave his loved you, gave himself for you. You ought to turn to him.

But do you see the situation? We are all in this this position where where no one has done good. So no one will be justified. Do you guys remember what justified means? Another few weeks. What does justified mean? Ryan, you’re nodding. It’s justified. It’s a free gift. It’s God’s work in us to make us righteous. Right? So, so the only way to be righteous is not by keeping a rule or honoring God well enough. None of us can do that. We have all turned away. So, this is why now jump down to Romans 3. Look at verse 20. This is written to answer that very question among others.

All of Romans 1 through3 for by works of law and that would include honoring God from your heart. You honor God well enough to be justified. That means to be made righteous, to be declared righteous or to be considered righteous, to meet God’s standard. No, by works of law, by doing something, nobody will be righteous in God’s sight. Since through law, since these rules, these standards of needing to honor God, obey him, you can’t be justified. Instead, you get knowledge of sin. So, how can we be saved? How can we be saved? that puts us all in a really needy position.

Whether you’re in a country who’s never heard of Jesus or you sitting right here, how is it possible that you can be righteous before God? And that’s what verse 22 says or verse 21. The righteousness of God has been manifested shown apart from keeping law, keeping rules. Although the law and the prophet bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus to all who believe. There’s no distinction. Whether you’re a Jew or a Gentile, whether you have God’s word or you don’t, all have sinned. Verse 23. Some of you guys might memorize this. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Only hope for that group of all to be righteous is what? Look at verse 24. The only for anyone in that sinning and falling short of the glory of God category is to be justified by God’s grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Jesus is truly the only way and so that’s why Acts says there’s salvation and no one else no other name under given under heaven by which we must be saved which then I think leads us to what do we do about that? When we think of these people who haven’t heard, some of them may be in countries where they haven’t heard. Some of them may be in your schools. Some of them may be in your families.

What What do we need to do? These people are not honoring God from their heart. Just like every single one of us was born in that same situation. Some of you are still in that situation. But God has offered us a righteousness not by our own law keeping but a foreign righteousness. A righteousness that’s Jesus’s that is given to us by faith. You can’t have faith in the one whom you haven’t heard of. You can’t hear unless someone tells you. Nobody’s going to tell unless they’ve been sent. It’s the logic of Romans 10:14-15.

And that plays right into the very topic of what we’re talking about, what we’re going to talk about later in here, being a friend. How do you what’s one of the most important ways that you can love your neighbor? That you can be a friend. not being influenced by the world. But why would God keep us here? Why wouldn’t God just when somebody believes and saved, why would he just poof get us to heaven? Done with all this living with this mixed condition and living in this world among people who hate God. Why would he just take us instantly to our eternal state? Well, because we are supposed to be here.

about this last year is salt and light living differently in a lost world. Let we just be in a in the world like light in a dark room. They see us like salt in a meal. They taste us and give glory to our father in heaven and then we tell them of this good news and then they believe and then God saves some of them too. So, so being a good neighbor, being a good friend will need being close enough to people to tell them of this message of salvation. And it also gives us the motivation that very question gives us the motivation for missions that we have in our our church.

And when you read your Bible, you should have that desire that all people hear the good news so that they that they have this opportunity. This is this drives it. It

Can you lose salvation? Assurance, perseverance, and friends who walk away

really does. just in the realm of salvation, there were a number of questions about what our church believes, but really just how do we know from scripture whether or not a person can lose their salvation? That’s an important that’s an important proof for us to before you try to answer it logically to open your Bible and just read what it says, you know.

And so I don’t know if you guys want to get us start on a couple of passages that are key for you guys on that, but what we’ll talk about is can we lose our salvation according to scripture and then how does that go into play to people that we know maybe we’ve been to church with or we fellowship with in the past claim Christ but now seem to be walking away did they lose their salvation? This is kind of where the heart of where that was going. Great. you don’t have to turn too far. Turn to Romans 8. Yeah, while you’re turning there, I want to have you go. But I want to say this is not a theoretical or hypothetical question.

Whoever asked this is saying it. It seems like they’re speaking of a friend who they thought was a Christian. Yeah. And then they suddenly started acting differently. Yeah. I think we all have friends like that. We’ve seen people who we loved and they were in the church. they spoke like Christians. They looked like they acted like Christians. And then you look at their life later and they don’t look like it at all. What happened? Did they Did they lose their salvation? Then if you’re in the church, we’re going to see this. you’re going to have friends that will fit this category.

And this caused us to labor and to pray for and to engage and do what Hebrews says where you’re actually paying attention to the person sitting next to you. How are they doing? How do I encourage them? But we do need to understand the fundamental theological truth about the salvation assurance that we have and what that’s in. So Jackson, I think you’re taking us to Romans 8. Great. Yep. Romans 8. Look at verse 28. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose because those whom he foreknew, remember like in Psalm 1, when you read about knowledge, it’s a it’s a relationship word for loving here. Those whom God foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. You notice there’s a there’s a chill there, right? The ones that God foreknew, foremost, they are predest predestined. The ones who are predestined are called.

Those who are called are justified. And those who are justified are glorified. Who’s the active agent in all of those words? It’s not the believer, right? It’s God. God keeps his people from beginning to end. If my salvation were dependent upon me to hang on to, I would lose it. Wouldn’t take me very long either. But God keeps his people. And so we affirm that God will save his people to the end because he is faithful because he said he would. and so how do you think about someone who professed faith at one time and now their their life doesn’t seem to match up? Well, the first thing that you want to do, you want to go to them.

You want to reach out to your friend., turn to Hebrews 3. So, just to frame that, it seems like scripture clearly just says, “No, I mean, if it’s not up to you and you can’t lose it, and the Lord predestines you to this or we think to Jesus in John 10 where he says, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them and my people they follow me and I give them eternal life and they will never perish ever and no one will ever snatch them out of my hand.” Scripture gives us the impression the assurance actually that you can’t lose your salvation. If you are saved, you can’t you can’t lose it. Now, we have to answer the question.

This is where where Jackson’s going. Okay. So, what happens to the people that outright apostasize? They just walked away. I have a friend. I discipled him since high school through college. He was in ministry with me. He was training to go to the mission field. We did hard ministry together. who took me out to coffee after a decade later and said, “I don’t believe it. It broke my heart. I still pray for him. Pray for his wife, his kids. What happened?” Right? We have to ask ourselves about this. and it’s not something you can just kind of like gingerly ignore and tiptoe around.

And so,, having a faith in what scripture says here, what we don’t want to do is jump logically. Well, he must have just lost it because that’s contrary to what scripture says. That’s the premise, right? We just need to realize that there’s an assurance that scripture gives us in that. But we don’t want to put that assurance in the wrong thing, right? Otherwise, our logic starts to get all fuzzy and weird. So, look at look at Hebrews 3 verse 12. See to it, brothers, that there not be in any one of you an evil unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

This letter is addressed to believers, to people who sat under preaching, sat under the ministry of the church, maybe even of the apostles, and they needed to take care of because it was possible to sit under that teaching and have an unbelieving heart, right? Not that they changed, not that they were believing and became unbelieving. No, they were unbelieving the whole time. Their heart was categorically unbelieving. And so we need to search our own hearts in this, right? I come to church. I come to GBC. I’m in student ministries. I’m there on Sundays, Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings. I’m hearing God’s word.

I need to examine my own heart and my own life. I need to even ask those people around me who see and I need to see to it that I’m not belie faith in God’s word. But then look at this. Okay, now we’re asking the question about a friend. If you see a friend who might be in that category, look at verse 13. This is the means that God wants to use in the church to keep his people, right? encourage one another day after day as long as it is still called today. Don’t wait. So that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. That means it’s it’s all of our job. So we labor with God to assure that each one of us makes it to the end.

We are our brother’s keeper, right? And so if you see a friend who have one time professed Christ and now they’re not or or now you’re seeing something in their life that isn’t matching up, go ask them about that. Ask them about their profession. Ask them about their life. Encourage them. Exort them to believe, to have a believing heart and not be unbelievful to bring to a friend. It doesn’t go well on this. I think that’s an important distinction. I think sometimes when when scripture gives us theological truths like like you are predestined for this or you know Jesus actually categories for people who walked away.

And look, they’re going to say, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we do this in your name?” He’s like, “Hey, you never knew me.” So, there’s a category for people sitting in a pew next to you that don’t know God., but what we don’t want to do is just start going around judging people about, “Oh, you must be one of those people who isn’t saved. I’m just guessing they’re not predestined.” So, here we go, guys. That is not our calling. That’s God’s that’s God’s call. Our call is to do what Jackson is just encouraging to do. In so far as it’s a good end, in so far as there’s still opportunity, you yourself draw near to the Lord and draw others into that.

Preach the gospel to the person sitting next to you in the pew. Stir them to it. Make sure there’s not anything leading to an unbelieving a hardened heart toward the Lord. That’s what we do until the day there’s no longer a chance. Okay? And I don’t know if that’s helpful to you, but it’s it’s helpful for me or ever. Don’t spend so much time trying to figure out if they’re a believer or not. preach the gospel. You know what? If they’re a believer, they need to hear the gospel. They’re going to be encouraged. If they’re not a believer, they need to hear the gospel, right?

So, in the church in particular, if someone walks away, there’s Matthew 18. You go to them and you show them what’s wrong. There’s Luke, you know, 17. If someone offended you think they’re offended of you, and you go to them and say, “Are you offended at me?” you know, and you you take these things, there’s not divisions between you, but the point is you go to them if you see that they’re acting strange and you plead with them that they would be submitted to the Lord and that they would grow in that grace. Right, Jacob? Everybody, I know we’re we’ve been here for a little bit. It’s hard. Shake, listen. I want everybody to listen to this part.

This is super important. There are many of you There are many of you who think you believe. There are many of you who wonder whether he right. You know in your mind that there’s a God. You know that his name is Jesus. That his father sent him to die. And you know that what we said earlier that it’s true that the only way to be right with him is faith in Christ. You know all of that to be true. have questions in your heart. Well, am I a Christian? Am I a Christian? Those are good questions to have. What do you do with those questions? This is really personal because your eternity depends on you.

And yet, like we said, your eternity doesn’t depend on you. How can that be true? You you have to persevere to be saved. Let me tell you, if you walk away from Jesus, you will not be saved. And if you put your faith in Jesus, you will be saved. Like we heard John 10, we say it again. My he this is Jesus speaking to us. My hear my voice. He hear my voice. If you hear Jesus calling to you, if you hear God calling to you in his word and you’re like, I want that. But if you hear my voice and I know them, they follow me. As we before we close this, let’s just give the assurance part.

What what key passages do you two think of when We need to in light of the fact that we know that there are people who claim Christ. How do I’m not just claiming Christ? How do I have assurance that I’m actually saved and that I’m one who will be glorified in that chain? There’s a there’s a chain there’s the unbreakable chain of each other about how we do. So here’s Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. And then he goes, “No one takes them from me. I lay down my own life for my sheep.” Listen to who’s the active one here.

My sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me. I give them eternal life. They will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. Who gave Jesus’s people? Every single one who Jesus died for will be saved. Right? When Jesus was on the cross and he bore the sins for everybody who would believe. He didn’t just bear a general bucket of sins. Jacob’s sins were placed on Jesus. Jesus did not die for anybody in vain. Does that make sense? if Jesus died for your sins, they were paid for. There is no condemnation for anybody who’s in Christ Jesus. It does not depend on your obedience. It does not depend on your faith.

When we are faithless, he is faithful. Jesus says, “My father who has given to the them all these sheep, he’s given them to me. He is greater than all. He’s greater than Satan. He’s greater than you. He’s greater than your sin. You cannot outsin God’s grace.” And he says, “Because my father is greater than anybody, no one is able to snatch them out of my father’s hands.” My father and I are one. Our endurance, our salvation is not dependent on us. It’s dependent on God. Those who he foreknew, he predestined. And then we go all the way to those who he predestined, he will glorify. You will endure to the end if you’re saved.

unbreakable, impossible to fall away. And that doesn’t mean we don’t have anything to do. We just sit back here and God save us. No. In fact, my assurance that I have is that I woke up this morning and I and i’m purposing to follow the Lord. I desire to follow the Lord. And so, as I’m doing that, I’m seeing things change in my heart that are not natural to me. Now, there are some days where I also see wicked awfulness, but I’m a Christian with the gospel, which means I’m armed to go to him and say, ‘Lord, I just found wicked awfulness in there. What do I do with it? I bring it to him and I confess it. I bring it in the open.

I ask for forgiveness. And guess what he does? He forgives me. And there’s no grudge that he holds with me. There’s no like, well, I better like do something really good today to make up for that. That’s the anti-gosspel. The gospel is Christ died for all of that. And so now that I can bring it to him, confess it to him, and then I walk in that grace, there’s no residual angst between God and me with that sin if I repent from it, and walk away from it. And I’m walking, guess what? More like Christ. Guys, that’s my insurance every day when I wake up. There’s plenty of great passages in scripture.

Romans 8 again, you know, the Lord’s spirit is affirming. Look, you’re still walking with me. You’re mine. So, be assured that there is assurance. And it and it comes in our daily pursuit of the Lord. And when we see these these confession moments with the Lord, that’s actually affirmation. The Holy Spirit’s at work, not that you’re not saved. When you begin to see your life be more like Christ, when you begin to obey him more and want to obey him more, those feelings aren’t always there, but when they’re there, that’s a great assurance. You should continue to grow in that.

So just know that scripture talks about ways to know for certain, but it’s not based on your performance only, right? To be there, but your performance. And so if you’re in that boat I was saying where you’re like, I know in my head who Jesus is. I know in my head who God is. I want to believe. Well, then every single decision that you have in life, every every moment of your life then is a testing of your faith. And that would be a real bummer if your faith came from you because like Jackson said, if if I was testing something that I made, it would it would fail a lot.

But if we’re saved, we’ve learned Ephesians 2:8-9, we’re saved by grace through faith; that is a gift. What’s bundled up in that gift? Faith. Your faith isn’t yours. It was given to you by God. So if your if something that God made is being tested, how do you think it’s going to perform? It’s going to endure. So then what do you do? Well, you you would a person who has faith through you. So if you see an opportunity to obey and you say, “Well, I believe God’s word is true. I believe that God has my best interests in mind.

I believe that God was wise when he set this restriction on me or gave me this command.” Well, if you believe, which is what faith is, right? you trust. What does somebody who believes do? That they obey from the heart, not to earn salvation, but because they’re saved. What What if you sin, though? What if you sin? Does that mean that you’re not saved? Means I need a savior. Means we need a savior. And what do people who believe in the gospel do when they see sin in their life? Do they cover it over and say, “I gota I gotta outdo that with some good works.” No. What do they do? What do people who believe do when they sin?

You guys know I want you I want you to say it. What do you do? What do people who have faith when they see sin? Repent. They confess. Turn from it. So every single part of your life whether it’s do I obey or what do I do when I don’t it’s it’s a testing of your faith and you are responsible to faith and then when you turn around and you say wow look what I did look what I did I just obeyed it’s from my heart I obey from my heart I honored God from my heart. Where’d that come from? Who gets the glory? God. And that’s what Ephesians 2:8-9 says. Then you’re saved by grace through faith. And it’s not of yourselves. It’s a free gift of God.

It’s not of works so that no one may boast. So when you have to obey, do it. When you need to confess and repent, do it. And then you turn around and who gets the glory? God. Because who started your faith? God. Who’s going to finish it? God. And what does it mean if you walk away? Open your Bibles to 1 John 2:19. I think this is where we’re going to wrap up on this question. You do have a followup question for Gabby after this. Is there a question? Okay, let’s read this and then we’ll we’ll have Gabby ask a question. And this is asking the question why there were some people in us. This first John by the way is written.

If you’re struggling with this question, am I a Christian? How can I know that I’m a Christian? that was actually the point of the book or or any purpose of the book. I write these things to you in 1 John 5:13 who believe so that you may know that you have eternal life. so read this book. but 1 John 2 asks the question is verse 19 that there were some people who went out from us. They looked like they were us. They looked like they were Christians. And look at verse 19. They went out from us, but they were not of us.

For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out and it might be complain that they are not of us. So that answers the question. When somebody falls away, when they leave the faith, why did they leave? They never were saved. We fake it. Sometimes we don’t even know if we’re faking ourselves out. So, what do we do? Keep persevering by doing the next thing that a Christian would do. Just trusting God, believing in God, walking by faith according to there’s so much that could be said about this u but I know there’s a lot of other topics that have been asked about. Gabby, before we move on, what’s your question?

Can I briefly just mentioned that’s a deep chapter and if we got into it, we’d never get to either topic, but let me at least say this., one of the things I’ve noticed, and it arrives here with

Hebrews 6, warnings, and hardening your heart under preaching

Hebrews 6, you guys can correct me if I’m being too general or sway one way or the other, but Hebrews 6 talks about a person who’s tasted of this, but then walks away and that there’s no hope for them. Now, that just alarmed me because it’s like, man, I’ve tasted and now I’m like, I didn’t, you know, first of all, it should scare us a little bit that there are people among us that even myself, I could be lightened to myself. This is why we check ourselves. advice to be growing in sanctification. Guys, there’s no glorification going to heaven, being made Christlike someday without being justified and without being sanctified.

So, if you’re not seeing sanctification in your life, you’re not you’re not pursuing sanctification. You don’t want to, you never do. You never become more Christlike. There’s no glorification. They’re all they’re all chained together. So, that’s important. But here’s the thing, Gabby. If I’ve been in a church full of people, full of grace, growing in grace, filled with the Holy Spirit, non-believers love being around people full of grace.

When people come to my house, we had a a cousin come stay with us with my my house and he’s like, “I love it here, but what do you like about it?” He goes, “Oh, it’s so quiet.” You guys like look in his house, they’re screaming at each other. They’re beating each other up. They’re yanking things from each other’s hands. They’re racing to be first with everything. They don’t love each other the way we did in our house. He was like, “I love being here.” You know why? Because he’s experienced what it’s like to be around gracefilled people. That’s what that’s what was like in our church. It is easy to love the benefits of God and not want God.

That make sense? Here’s here’s where Hebrews 6 comes in. If you’ve tasted that goodness, you’ve been in the people of God. If you’ve heard the good news, you felt the good feels, but you don’t want what God has. There’s no other solution. You’ve just rejected the one antidote for the poison that’s in your blood. There’s nothing left. But don’t ever like write off somebody saying, “Well, I guess they reaped Hebrews 6.” No, no, no, no. You keep preaching the gospel to them. They’re not dead yet. Christ hasn’t come yet.

But yeah, it’s possible to taste of all that goodness and say, “I want something more.” And if that’s someone, if that’s you, if you’ve tasted all this goodness, if you’ve heard the gospel, you say, “I want something more. There’s I want something more. I’m going to move on. That was good for a season, but I’m looking for something new.” There is no other antidote for sin and there’s no sacrifice left. Is that a decent? Yeah. Hebrew 6 does not teach the true believers can lose their salvation, but it’s especially scary for those who come very close to the truth. If you’ve rejected the gospel, there’s no other way.

You can’t I think like you said, if we could spend a long time going into that, but this does not teach that there’d be another another way or that there’s that believers can fall away, that you can actually have the Holy Spirit in you, but you can have the benefits of being close to the gospel and the active work of the Holy Spirit. Then like Hebrews 10 says, just go on sitting deliberately. That puts you in a very fearful place. All of you guys have are in that situation where you are very close to gospel truth. Be very very careful. Actually I shared this in my group yesterday that is the same sign. Think about this.

If you put a wax candle outside under the sun, what happens? It melts. If you put clay outside, what happens under the sun? It’s hardened. You guys are practicing right now what you do under the preaching of the gospel. Some of you guys have grown very content to week after week after week hearing this good news, hearing all this glorious truth that should be your delight. You walk away like it doesn’t matter. You say, “Maybe someday I’ll come. Maybe when I get older, maybe after I’ve finished having fun, maybe you don’t even think that far. You just sit there hard and cold.

under the raising glorious truths of the gospel that you are practicing for yourself a faithless that will righteously hurt you God’s wrath you will be without you you’re actually says it’s a it’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God especially if you reject this truth so don’t practice that practice this right now. God, I I need a savior. I need to delight in this. God, make me a repentter. Make me a believer. Make me one who honors me from the heart practice and beg God to make you one who gets softened consistently. And can I just encourage you?

The reason why we’re give three guys who love the gospel a microphone and we’ll just talk about the gospel all day long. But the reason why is that this should be an ongoing conversation. When you have these questions, ask your leaders, ask your ask your elders, ask ask people that can continue this conversation with you. we we won’t continue it all morning, but I’m glad we spent a lot of time on on these things because these are the things that the enemy loves to just like, you know, oh, maybe maybe it just, you know, puts puts a planted seed of doubt in there.

Let truth strengthen those weaknesses that you have in your or even if it if it’s hardening you, right? These are things we just want to take to the Lord regularly. So, keep that conversation going about this. Let’s turn the corner for a moment. and and on the premise of the gospel and all of this, but and the authority of scripture, J, I’m actually going to just have you pick this up. there’s some questions about mental

Mental health, suffering, self-harm, and the hope of the gospel

health, suffering, self harm. What does the Bible say about having thoughts of self harm that may be associated with what the world may call mental health and things like that? we understand there’s anguish. We understand there’s difficulty. There’s wrong thinking that can get us wrapped up in ourselves to the point where there’s no hope. But we’re trying to aim for something that’s not that’s not helpful for us. It’s harmful. What does what does scripture have to say about thoughts of self harm? a lot.

I know this is not a theoretical question for some some have thoughts and temptations and struggles with a desire to hurt yourself and there might be a lot of reasons for that. And so there’s I might just talk right past you because I might not get the one that you’re struggling with. I’ll name some that have come to mind. just an emotional pain might be feeling rejected like you have no friends like you’re worthless and you want to convert emotional pain into physical pain. Some might want to feel something like you feel like I I don’t feel anything so I want to give myself a feeling. Some you may have a feeling of reject of condemnation.

like you know that you’ve sinned. You know that you are bad and you want to you think you deserve to hurt. So you’re going to give yourself what you think you deserve. Some may have like a feeling of self-hatred. Some may just feel like out of control and numb. This is the only control. And there’s probably a dozen other reasons. Some just maybe even your friends at school tell you that’s what you should do. Some you may do it for attention. My parents don’t pay attention to me. Maybe if I do this, they’ll look don’t know what your particular temptation is, what your reason is. But let me tell you that is never the right answer.

You’re you were created your body, your soul, your created God’s image. And that is particularly connected consistently to scripture to the reason why we must not murder each other, why we must not hurt each other. Because when you do that, you are harming somebody who’s created in God’s image. Don’t do it to another. Don’t do it to yourself. These these feelings of despair are meant to drive you to God. they are trust in him at all times. Psalm 62 verse 8, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart before him because God is a refuge. when you feel like you have no one else to go to. 1 Peter 5:7.

I have this on my wall in my living room, not because I have it mastered, but because I tend to forget it and I need to know this. Turn in your Bible to 1 Peter 5:7. When you feel lonely. When you feel anxious, you feel self-loathing. Look what this says. Cast or casting all your anxieties, all your cares on him. Why? Why? Underline this. Remember this. memorize this and then preach it to yourself. He cares for you. That’s not positive self-talk. That’s not just something to make you feel better. That is rock solid truth. The God of the universe cares for you. we read this last week.

Jesus says, “I can lay down my life for my friends.” When you feel like you are alone, nobody cares, you hate yourself. Well, well, do you know who loved you and gave himself for you? Jesus. And so the solution here is actually this is a testing of your faith. It might be if you say, “God, give me faith. God, help me turn to you in and say, God loves me.” Turn now to 1 Corinthians 6. And this is this is where I want you to go to say what is your body for? What is your body for? God did not give you a body to harm it. But he gave you a body and then he died to make that body while we have this falling apart body. Something remarkable.

He says in 1 Corinthians 6, “Do not sin against your body.” In the immediate context, that’s sexual sin. And it’s really important. Listen to me. When you sin with your body sexually, you are using your body in a way that God did not design. in a way that actually sins against your body that God died to actually make says his temple that he purchased.

If you were to self harm, if you were to hurt yourself, listen to what you’re doing that 1 Corinthians 6:19 says, “Don’t do that because do you not know that your body, if you’re a Christian, is a temple, the place where the Holy Spirit lives within you?” And we’re going to learn about this in the upcoming weeks in our fundamentals of the faith. You are not your own. You’re not hurting your own thing that you own. You don’t own your body. If you’re a Christian, you were bought with a price. So what are you supposed to do with your body? Look down. What What are you supposed to do with your body? Verse 20.

In verse 20, if you have a pen, underline this box. Glorify God in your life. Glorify God in your body. Those feelings that you have, they’re not not they’re not given to you as an opportunity to harm your body, but as an opportunity to trust God in his care and glorify God in your body. There’s elsewhere where scripture speaks of things that look religious. There’s aestheticism things where where people are harsh with their body. You see this in the Old Testament, prophets of Baal, cutting themselves, harming themselves as who knows why.

This is something present in scripture where people do religious things and think that they’re going to atone for their sins by harming their body. Don’t do that. And there’s a guilt that leads to harming your body. Can you think of somebody in scripture who did that? who dealt with guilt over sin and harmed themselves. Judas, what a tragic example. What What could Judas have done? There were two people There were two people in the crucifixion account who rejected Jesus. Judas. And what did he do with his guilt? He harmed himself. He killed himself. And then sin had the final word. Who is the other one?

Who is the other one who turned themself? Who turned on Jesus? Denied Jesus not once but three times. Peter. What did Peter do? He repented. He had faith in Jesus. And then his life mattered. He glorified God with his body all the way to death. by the death that glorified God later. These feelings do not have mastery over you or they don’t have to. Jesus died so that sin is no longer your master. So that these feelings that dominate the world, the your friends around you, they don’t have to dominate you. You can say, “No, I was bought with a price. I’m going to glorify God with my body. I’m going to offer Romans 12.

We heard this earlier this year from Matt Jarco when he talked to us talked to us. Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. Something that you’re going to honor God through the way that you live as your body as your mind is renewed. Not according to the way that the world lives. The world does stuff like cut themselves, self harm. to those people. Don’t root yourself to people who deal with all of your emotions like that, but instead root yourself, knit yourself closely to the church, and people are going to say, “Trust in Jesus. This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.” The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

His mercies never come to an end. They’re new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Trust you, God. You loved me. You gave yourself for me. And when you can’t preach those truths to yourself, if you feel the overwhelming desire to do this or even you’re tempted with it, it is really bad. It’s foolish to deal with those emotions by yourself. or to loop in friends who are similar similarly struggling or maybe not struggling maybe instead not not delighting in God’s word no longer here but speaking accusing the world. So instead please if you wrote this question or if you’re thinking it like this it’s right for you to go to your parents.

That might seem like that’s the last person I want to know about this. That’s who God gave you. The source of wisdom. Come to me. Come to your pastors. Come to any of us up here. Come to your leaders. Come to those who you see have a pattern of life of trusting God and saying, “How how can I do that? This is this is my test. How can I trust God in this? Don’t find his will.” Yeah. And Maybe regarding the despair that you talked about, just one thing I would leave with you and don’t be a victim of the enemy’s schemes. Okay. Satan is called the accuser. He’s also called the deceiver.

What’s interesting to me is that he can do both at the same time. He can accuse you in your mind of all the things you’ve done wrong. And he’s not wrong. He’s not wrong that you’re a sinner. He’s not wrong that you did something wrong. And so it’s really easy to get go down a dark hole very quickly and find despair, find self-hate. But you know where he’s deceiving you? He’s deceiving you because he always leaves out Christ. He always wants to mask the cross. And the blood bought when he says you were bought with a price, it was not gold and silver or anything else. It was with precious blood of the son of God.

It was the only sacrifice that could do what it needed to do. So, I’m just encouraging you when you hear those things in your head that cause the kind of despair and the self-hate and the doubt. This is this is these are tactics that’s supposed to drive you to the cross. And if it’s not and it drives you down a hole, this is the enemy’s tactics to claim you. Don’t give it to him. Don’t leave out the cross. Don’t leave out the gospel, the hope that Christ scripture agrees that you’ve got problems and it gives you the solution. in Christ. So, just be encouraged in that., in this last section, we got to kind of keep moving here.

We got 30 minutes and like 30 questions.

Friendship Q&A: betrayal, forgiveness, and when to confront

There’s a lot of great questions. So, we’ve had this great conference, this great camp about friends, friendship. And so, a lot of questions came up about friends. Before we ask those questions, I need everybody to stand up. Stand up. Shake out your legs that are falling asleep. to stand here for a moment. But we’ve got a lot of questions about friendship. We’ve got a lot of questions about what to do with our friends, how to think of our friends rightly. And I’m so encouraged that y’all are processing what’s being said to the degree you’re like, “All right, all right.

I get it.” Generally, but I got some specifics that I just don’t know how to work out. So, we’re going to try to hit a couple of those., all right. Back down. So, moving. Yep. Let’s get let’s get some of these to Jackson. And there’s a couple of questions about betrayal. Like how do you care for someone? How do you say you’ve got someone in your life that you know that God’s called you to care for, but frankly they backstabbed you. They’ve left you. They’ve ignored you. They act like you don’t exist. They’re treating you in all the ways that we just talked about you’re not supposed to, but they’re in your life.

how how do we how do we know how to treat them? and and when do we just let love cover that? And when do we like like let’s just speak wisely about what what guidance we would have in a circumstance like that. Great. Well, first of all, open to Ephesians 4. Relationships are hard. Relationships are hard because people sin against each other. I’ve been sinned against. I’ve also sinned against other people. First and foremost, my sin is not against other people. My sin is against God. Right? My sin is against him. Jacob mentioned this yesterday.

My own sin against God is infinitely worse than the worst thing that someone else could do to me because God is holy. He’s glorious. He’s exalted. And I’m not. I’m just created not the same. And so first thing that I want to recognize is when someone has sinned against me, the big issue is not my offense, right? It’s not, okay, I need to make things even. I need to h this out because it’s not right what they did. No, the big thing I love the question is the question of how do I care for someone? And you can love. There should be an intentional love to care even for those who sin against us. And that’s hard.

One verse that we’ve commonly gone back to in my family or two verses, excuse me, is Ephesians 4:31 and 32. says, “Let all bitterness and anger and wrath and shouting and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Instead, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, graciously forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has graciously forgiven me.” So, when I’m thinking about someone who sins against me, I need to be really careful not to let bitterness or anger be my motivation in my interactions. But what’s the what’s the put on? If I’m going to put off bitterness and anger, what’s the what’s the put on? You’re kind.

You’re tender-hearted. Graciously forgiving. Graciously forgiving. Why? I know that God has forgiven me. He has graciously forgiven me of sins that are costly. You’re against a holy God. And so that needs to be the starting point. And that just shifts your whole motivation, right? you’re not coming at them to hash something out, right? to get revenge or to let them know how offended you are, let them know how hurt your feelings are. No, you actually are coming to said, “You want to help them, shift your shift your whole premise as to why you’re going to them, right?

And the other thing you could do is you could be concerned if they’re acting this way toward you and you know that’s not glorifying to the Lord. You should be more concerned about the fact that they’re not right with the Lord right now, right? and sometimes you just going up to them and demanding your own right, they’re like, “Wait, why am I demanding my own defense here when really they’re offending the Lord and I’m just kind of collateral damage., I’m concerned about how they’re called. How do I encourage them in the Lord? I think that should be a concern of our heart as a brother or sister in Christ.

How do I point them to the Lord and how do I stir them to loving? How do I care for them in the moment? I know that’s hard. So, starting by praying and reviewing what what what Jackson has just showed you here. That’s a great verse to go to and ask the Lord to give you grace. And you’re not thinking about yourself, thinking about them and how they’re doing before the Lord. Ultimately, that’s important. I know that sounds altruistic, but you can put that on and the Lord will help you in that moment. That’s impossible for a non-believer to do. This is actually a mark of a Christian is to love.

The world thinks they can love, but not like this because they can’t look to how Jesus has forgiven you. it would be inongruent. It wouldn’t make sense for somebody who’s received such infinite grace We learned about this. Remember the parable of the unforgiving servant? 10,000 pounds 10,000 lifetimes of debt that we’ve sinned against God. And somebody legitimately sins against you legitimately. If you are to hold that over them and say paying what you owe or I’m not going to persevere with you anymore, that actually says more about you than it says about them.

that says what you believe about if you’ve actually been forgiven that infinite debt. This is a testing of your faith. If your friend backstabs you and you say, “I’m done. I will not forgive. I cannot forgive.” What does that say that you believe about God’s forgiveness for you? This is another one of those testings of your faith. The great news is when you get to forgive that person, the thing that is impossible it seems. When you love the person who’s backstabbed you, you show them mercy. You show them grace. Say, “Where’d that come from?

That wasn’t for me.” But you turn around, you say, “Oh, that was one of those things that God gave me as a gift.” God, you get the glory. Thank you. And so on the front end, pray for help and get your mind on the cross. Interesting. We want grace from the Lord all the time. We want help from the Lord all the time. And sometimes he gives us that help. I’m going to give you enough grace like he has to supernaturally enable us to do that. Anybody else want supernatural help? I do. So pray for it. Ask for it. And then try to glorify the Lord through that and grow in it.

And that’s actually one of those invitations for the Lord to say, “Let me show you my strength.”, Jackson, I wonder if you’ve got any insight. How do we determine like like say you actually been sinned against? When when do you just let love cover that? And when do you actually confront because there’s a biblical help in both of those? But you got to use discernment in that. So, how how do we start thinking about that? Yeah.

I think this is how I try to think about that., I’ve heard pastor Smedly talk this way, but if I am the offending person, if I have been sinned against, I just want to make it my gut reaction to cover., I think of Proverbs 19:11. A man’s discernment makes him slow to anger and it is his glory to overlook. Proverbs 1911, right?, but then you’ve got other situations where there’s a pattern of sin in my friend’s life that I can see is it’s harmful to them. It is going to take them off a cliff or maybe it’s hurting other people. Maybe it’s negatively affecting other of my friends, other people around me or around them.

Now I come to them after I’ve gotten my heart right. I’m not bitter. I’m not anger angry. I’m not going because I’m offended and I want to write make it that offense to me, right? i’m looking at something in them and I’m that’s just damaging to them in their life. Right. Yeah. and I love this person. I love my friend. So, I’m gonna go to them and I’m gonna talk to them. Bring the gospel to them. Bring God’s word to them because I care for them. Yep. Who’s Whose interest you have in mind? I think that’s the litmus test. Whose interest do you have in mind?

A lot of times I will want to go because I actually want to exact some justice or I want to make sure that you know how bad you sin against me. I just want to hear them confess that they know that they were wrong. I hear that all the time in my own heart and I hear that in other people’s like arguments. But like that’s not the motive. But like true love, we talked about this. What kind of friend do you want? You guys remember that on the poster. The friend who’s going to tell you truth. The friend who’s going to bring a rebuke when you need it.

You seek to put yourself around friends who do that and you seek to be the kind of friend that does that. but there’s a Oh, also love covers things. If your friend sins against you is your gut reaction to go tell your friend so I just need some prayer, you know, I just wanted to feel bad about struggling. I need I need patience with withdraw. He sinned against me and I just want to tell you everything he did so you can pray for me. That’s not covering over sin and that’s not your heartbeat. Instead, I would love to just pray for Josh on my own. If Josh keeps singing, I don’t know why I said Josh.

We had the example with our boys with with in our boys group yesterday. What about not singing? What about just something that’s embarrassing? this is silly. I hope this doesn’t go go the wrong way, but if if you’re sorry, we have we have a boys group, high school boys group, but if you have somebody has an accident, they get themselves all dirty in the classroom and they’re like, hey,, will you get me a change of clothes? What’s your heartbeat?

You go tell all your friends, can you believe that so and so got himself all dirty and you tell everybody now before you ever get him a change of clothes, everybody in the school knows, hey, look, look what look what he did. Look, isn’t that embarrassing? Or do you just hover over it? This isn’t sin. This is just Is your heartbeat to embarrass your friends or to draw it out? Or do you love to just, hey, I’m going to go help you. I’m going to go get you a change of clothes and nobody will ever know. And now a sin. If your brother sins against you, isn’t it awesome if you cover it and nobody knows but you and him?

Now, it’s not the kind of thing where you actually have this hard dichotomy between, well, do I cover it or do I talk to them about it? It might be both. And it might be only the two of you who ever know it. And then there’s a time where it’s okay just to be like, you know, this is not your character. You’re not doing this consistently. I’m just going to assume you’re having a hard day. I’m not going to admonish you. I’m just going to give you a word of encouragement. I’m just going to love you and not keep doing it. But what’s the most loving thing to do to a friend who keeps standing against you?

Say, “Hey, friend, I’m not going to tell anybody else. You know, sort of if you if they listen to you, what did you do? You you won a brother.” That’s that’s the biblical part of going to anybody having to win the brother. It’s great. Let’s let’s spend this last segment as we wind this down talking about friendships. there are a lot of questions about how do I choose? so Jackson, you you gave such great principles and I think we’re trying to work these out. Things like what do we

Friendship Q&A: bad influences, unyoking, loving your neighbor, and evangelism

do when I know I’ve got a bad friend? I I know that I shouldn’t continue to allow them to influence me and I know that they’re one of those people. What do I What do I do? I’ve already established a relationship. I’m already we’ve got this pattern. In fact, we’re pretty good friends, but I’m listening to this and I’m feeling a little convicted that this is not the kind of person I should have influencing me. how do I what do I do in those circumstances? and then I have to end a friendship was a couple of questions. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. do I need to end that? How do I end that? You know, things like that.

how do we how do we start thinking about that? What what you don’t need to do is when we come home from camp, go to your friends and say, “Hey, I can’t be your friend anymore.” We’re done. We’re done. No, you don’t need to do that. is your friend, even if they’re not likeminded, are they your neighbor? Still your neighbor, right? And what are we to do with our neighbor? turn to Luke 10:27. Jesus is asking the lawyer how he reads the law.

And the man says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.” So, you’re to love your neighbor. You’re still to love them. Now, there’s a difference between loving them and you desiring to be an influence in their life, leading them towards godliness, and letting them influence you and going along the same kinds of things that they’re going in that you can look at and say, “Well, that’s not wise.

That’s not the way I want to go., but this passage following is the good Samaritan. And so there’s a there’s a context here where someone’s in trouble. Someone needs help and the religious people ignored him. But who helped this man who was left for dead on the side of the road? A Samaritan. Somebody who would have had racial tension. not the two people you would expect to come together, right? So even where there’s there’s differences, there’s there’s challenges in a relationship, right? Or you see categorically we are going in two different directions, you still can love that person. You still can care for them when you see their need.

And when you’re caught in that, say you’re in a relationship and it really is affecting you. You’re spending a lot of time with this person. I think your your message on Psalm one was just so helpful. Look, what am I am I taking in the counsel of these people? Do I begin to abide? Do I begin to think like they think that I should not be spending time doing the things? Am I sitting at their table as it were? You know, as they mock the things of godly people, man, then I’m in the wrong place in a relationship. That doesn’t mean you have to like make them your enemy. And in fact, that tells us that’s not the option, right?

but you do you may need to remove yourself from the influence of that. We’ve have a lot of conversation about that in our home about that. It’s like look, you know, you’re not going to go hang out for an entire afternoon doing whatever they do in an afternoon. Why? Because that’s someone right there. But do you need to make them an enemy so when you walk in the room, you glare at them and you look at the floor and you’re not allowed to like interact with them? No. No. No. No. No. Still got to love and show grace. but you do have to be wise. It’s about how you spend your time. Right. Yeah.

If you’re a Christian or you’re saying, “Hey, I want to be I want to follow Christ.” The standard is if you’re asking, “What should I do with my friends?” I want to ask the question, “Are you to them?” Remember, we had that example where Kiki and I have a yolk on our backs and in that Q&A and one of us went one way and the other was trying to go the other way. And you can’t go two directions simultaneously when you’re hooked together. So I have a question. If you’re talking about a friendship where you’re hooked together and you will go the same direction, you have that kind of friendship.

You are spending that much time together and you’re actually acting like you have everything in common. But the one thing you do not have in common is a commitment to honor the Lord. That is the kind of friendship that would you actually want to swing. youthful lusts that if you see that person drawing you in the direction that they’re going, which is away from Christ, get out of that relationship and do it in a way that maintains love, friendliness. Don’t be their friend, but be friendly is a way a way to say that. Don’t be yolked to them, but they’re actually in your life. if you’re like I was actually leading them.

I was walking with them away from Christ. You now have a way that repentance looks like kind of go the other way. Now your relationship with that person is actually drawing them to Christ which probably means you’re going to spend different kinds of time less time. They might actually not want to spend much time with you if you’re not like them anymore. This was this was my testimony. not saved me. In December of 99 and I had a whole group of friends that I would only sin with. I came back to school. God had changed my life, changed my desires. Everything had changed. I went from God’s word being blah to God’s word was my delight.

I wanted to honor him. I had no Christian friends. I went and I got a lot of Christian friends. I got really, really close to them. But what about all my other friends in the dorm? You know what I started doing? Let me tell you about Jesus. Come to church with me. Will you come to church? Well, that’s weird. We don’t do that. We drink on Sunday. No, no. We come to church. I need to tell you about my savior. And a lot of those people didn’t want anything to do with anymore. And some of them came to Christ. Some of them, it’s weird. He’s not who he used to be, but there is a respect and there’s still a relationship.

And I don’t know what God might do with that. It’s a great Matthew 9. You see Matthew do this. You remember Matthew the tax collector? Jesus says, “Follow me.” And in the very next verse, you see Jesus having dinner with a whole bunch of other tax collectors. Where do you think these guys came from? I suspect they were Matthew’s friends. Matthew’s like, “Hey, I’m going to follow Jesus. You guys, come see this this Jesus who I who I love and I know.” So guys, don’t reject your friends in a way that makes them your enemy. Don’t be yolked to them either, but love them in a way that actually is for their good.

And that might mean that they reject, but you can’t walk with them in sin any longer. You has to be different. And your relationship with them now is one that’s calling them to Christ. Paul talks to the Corinthians that way. He’s like, “Well, I was telling you not to associate with the immoral.” Yeah. First Corinthians 5. I was not talking telling you to stop associating with the sinners of the world because then you’d have to like be out of the world and then you’re no use as a as a as a missionary, as an evangelist, as a you know, any of that.

I was telling if there are people in the church that claim to be Christian, but they continue to walk immorally, they’re just living a lie. You just you need to be careful. This is actually the same thing. Don’t walk in their counsel. don’t yoke with them. you really need to like be cautious of those people. He said, “But, you know, I need you to be in the world.” So, there were several questions about, you know, spending, hey, I spend most of my time at school. there’s just no real good influences, but I’m friends with these people. What do I do about this? And Jacob, your story there, it reframes why we have friends.

Can I just mention this? Maybe here’s a highle way to look at it. Don’t get caught in thinking that friends are given to you for your purposes. I think a lot of times our whole problem Yeah. Our whole problem is that we think we want to use friends. God gave me friends and I want to use them for my purposes. Did you know that God gave you friends for his purposes? If you’re a believer, he gives you friends, believers and non-believers for his purposes. What are his purpose? I don’t have to look at his word to figure that out. Well, good news. It’s being taught to you. But here’s what it’s not for.

We tend to in a worldly perspective say, “I want friends that like me. I want friends that make me feel good. I want friends that will do the things that I enjoy doing.” Did you know that’s not why God gives you friends? Now, those are great points. Those are great. You have friends I can enjoy those things with, but ultimately they’re meant to draw us into fellowship about God. If you’re a Christian and you’re interacting with other Christians, there’s fellowship there and you’re drawing into that.

If they’re not Christians, you can’t fellowship with God about what he’s doing in your life, what you’re encouraged about, what you read in his word. You know what you’re doing? You’re evangelizing. The Lord gives you friends so that they can hear the testimony of someone who does know God. If they’re not believers, they don’t know God. They don’t see God. They have no witness of God. You know where is their witness of God is? You. That’s why they’re in your life. So, does it make any sense to make enemies with them? No. Paul says, “Let your your your speech be seasoned as with salt, you know, be careful and have your speech with outsiders.

Like, he’s concerned about that. But we don’t often walk into those relationships when we go to school and there’s people that just aren’t good influences are like, man, maybe I should make enemies with them so I never have to deal with them. That’s not how that works. And so, that’s a great example when our premise changes as to what our friendships are about. Yeah, we start to have to unyoke so that we don’t get pulled with them, but we can definitely be around them. so that they can get a chance to hear and experience what grace looks like.

Jack, any thoughts on again how to how to navigate those difficult relationships beyond what we already talked about here? Well, I was just going to attach another really helpful passage to some of these things. don’t be an enemy as we’ve said, but look at 2 Corinthians 5 starting in verse 18. Look at the kind of posture and role that we are to take up with our unbelieving friends. Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

Here’s the message of that ministry, namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their transgressions against them. and he has committed to us this word of reconciliation. So then we are ambassadors for Christ. As God is pleading through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God. you you’re God’s ambassador for their benefit, for their good so that they might be reconciled, that they might enter into that reconciliation with God that you have experienced.

So that goes to like I said the first and most critical question is how do you experience that reconciliation? Do you delight in God’s word? Do you pursue God with your whole heart? that is not just a church camp question. That’s not just a Christian question. That’s the most fundamental question to your life. Because if you long for a good friend and that’s a good longing, you will not find a good friend unless you find somebody who’s similarly pursuing the Lord. That was point number one of your sermon. A friendship like Jonathan and David have which is a friendship that we should all long for. And there’s not many of those.

You won’t have a hundred friends like that. You you’ll have a few, but it’s impossible unless you guys are both fundamentally committed to the same Lord. And then you will be that friend for them. The kind of friend who perseveres. The kind of friend who endures. is the kind of friend who offers encouragement love and they will be that for you. So, so don’t settle for some cheap alternatives that the world has to offer. A friend who makes you feel good but doesn’t actually give you what you need. You will find those kinds of friends in the church when you are pursuing the Lord. The reality is that at work I’m around.

I have no friends like that at work. People I spend most of my day with. That’s why God sends us out. we said we talked in that very first question. God saves us, keeps us in this world so that we go out and we can share God’s gospel with people. We’re we’re sent out so that we can preach, so that we can be in people’s lives, that we can love them. I guess the church where we can have similar likeminded friends so that we can persevere to just to hit that nail on the head one more time. There were some questions about how do I deal with the fact that I’m around non-believers all the time and it’s just hard.

Again, I’ll just reiterate that this is when you need a to really cling to the Lord well to his word so that you can have the discernment that’s talked about in first or in Psalm one. If you delight in the law of the Lord and you’re fellowshipping with them, you’re going to have that discernment. Secondly, you need the church. When you’re around lots of non-believers all the time and you’re afraid they may be influencing you, make your primary influences, those of God people in your church who will walk with you in this.

And the Lord actually designed the body parts to be connected together in love so that they can actually be exercised spiritually so that you’re strong and can’t be moved. So remember, lean into the church. And that’s why we’re here. That’s what we’re doing what we’re doing. And that’s why your leaders are here. Yeah. Guys, your leaders, God in the church gives us all kinds of people from all different ages. The world says your friends should be just like you, the same age. always had influences. One of God’s means of graces for me early in my Christian walk was that one of my best friends was twice my age. That’s weird.

The world would say, “What? What is that?” And it was not my only friend, but look around at these leaders. They are here to love you. They’re going to be different kinds of friends than your peers. Make sure it’s your peer that you are this kind of friend. You don’t have to wait till you’re old. Get yourselves closely to the kinds of people walk. Those who walk with the wise become what the fools suffer harm. So we’re we’re out of time. We’re close.

Closing and announcements

Thank you for paying attention. I got a couple of announcements for you and I want you to relist which something about clapping and No, I’m joking. you you just need to listen for a sec. Yeah, two of you got it. Thank you. lost and found outside the double doors. There’s just a truckload of stuff out here that you all just a few. What? Just a few now. Yeah. Oh, good. Some of you all picked it up. Anyway, there are few there are a few things left back here in the in the lost and