Unshaken | Part 1: Unshakable Faith | Chris Vaught

We've come for the holy one All we were, all we hunger for is you We've come with expecting hearts We've come under knowing who you are Lord, we love what only you can do Holy Spirit come light fire on the altar Freshmen blowing through, we're gonna stay here Till we encounter you, make us an all free Make us another room, we're gonna stay here Till we encounter you Till we encounter you Make us desperate, tear our idols down We're replanting, this is still your house And you mentioned when you said you'd pull your spirit up So we've seen holy Spirit come light fire on the altar Freshmen blowing through, we're gonna stay here Till we encounter you, make us an all free Make us another room, we're gonna stay here Till we encounter you Till we encounter you I'm gonna be expecting a move of God We want God to do something today Only He can get the credit for, amen? Come on sing We need a move of God, yeah We need a move of God right here right now We need a move of God We're hungry with desperate, Lord open the heavens We need a move of God in this city We need a move of God in this church

We need a move of God We're hungry with desperate, Lord open the heavens We need a move of God in our families We need a move of God in our hearts We need a move of God We're hungry with desperate, Lord open the heavens Fire on the altar Freshmen blowing through, we're gonna stay here Till we encounter you, make us an all free Make us another room, we're gonna stay here Till we encounter you, fire on the altar Freshmen blowing through, we're gonna stay here Till we encounter you, make us an all free Make us an all free, we're gonna stay here Till we encounter you, we need a move of God in We need a move of God in We need a move of God We're hungry with desperate, Lord open the heavens We need a move of God We need a move of God in We need a move of God We're hungry with desperate, Lord open the heavens We need a move of God We need a move of God We need a move of God We're hungry with desperate, Lord open the heavens We need a move of God ♪ Who thought it'd find ♪ ♪ Who thought you'd feel me in the crowd ♪ ♪ Who knew you'd make good of my mistakes ♪

♪ You're nothing like I thought you would ♪ ♪ You'd better what a God would a God ♪ ♪ What a God would a God ♪ ♪ What a God would a God ♪ ♪ What a God would a God ♪ ♪ I thought you'd show up for perfection ♪ ♪ You were kind of godless for the gods ♪ ♪ They say it's all the foreseen end ♪ ♪ Oh, but you say no ♪ ♪ No, it's not, no, it's not ♪ ♪ You'd say ♪ ♪ No, it's not, no, it's not ♪ ♪ What a God would a God ♪ Would it God, would it God? Would it God, would it God? Would it God, would it God? Would it God, would it God? Yeah Yeah Would it God, would it God? Would it God, would it God? Would it God, would it God? If the highest place I reach is out of your feet Then I've done it all The best thing that I've seen is your glory Then I've seen it all Your love has saved my life Forever satisfied God You are my everything If the highest place I reach is out of your feet

Then I've done it all The best thing that I've seen is your glory Then I've seen it all Your love has saved my life Forever satisfied God You are my everything If the one words the only thing you speak Then I've heard it all If I feel your heart and never see your head I still have it all No treasure of this life Forever satisfied God You are my everything You are my everything You are my everything Would it God, would it God? Would it God, would it God? Would it God, would it God? Would it God, would it God? If the highest place I reach is out of your feet Then I've done it all The best thing that I've seen is your glory Then I've seen it all Your love has saved my life Forever satisfied God You are my everything If the one words the only thing you speak Then I've heard it all If I feel your heart and never see your head I still have it all

No treasure of this life Forever satisfied God You are my everything You are my everything Would it God, you are my everything If the highest place I reach is out of your feet That I've seen it all, you will have to save my life Forever satisfied, God, you are mine Sing it the one word, come on If the one word is the only thing you speak Then I've heard it all, and if I feel your heart Never see your hand, I still have it all No treasure of this life could ever satisfy God, you are mine Come on, tell 'em You are mine Therefore, the two of you are You are mine All on your mind, everything You are my everything And we love you, God My everything Hey, man, he is my everything I want to just say welcome this morning If you're a first time guest with us today I just want you to feel welcome We're excited you're here today at Connection Point Church If you would take your phone and tap the seat in front of you That's going to get you any information that you'd like to know about our church Ways that you can come alongside and partner with us

To be the hands and feet of Jesus to our community And we're excited you're here today Thank you for being a part of this If you're here in the room today, you have air in your lungs I don't want you to miss this next moment We're going to open our altars today And we just want to give God the space to do what only God can do this morning And just let him have some time with you If there is a need that you have If there is something that you would like encouragement with For or over, our prayer teams are here And they are ready for you to come and spend some time with the Lord today We're going to continue in our worship And we're going to praise the Lord this morning We're going to celebrate And we're going to allow him to be the center of it all Amen. Amen. Let's sing together [Music] [Music] Baby, we've made this complicated more than it was ever meant to be hasn't it always been about the same thing Lord, bring us back to simple things You be the center of it all My heart belongs to you My Savior all along You're the one I hold on to For the beauty of your name My soul will live to save Jesus, I love you

Teach us to discern the moment When to serve and when to sit here at your feet [Music] Keep us awake 'til what's important Just like Mary I chose the better thing Oh, you be the center of it all My heart belongs to you My Savior all along You're the one I hold on to For the beauty of your name My soul will live to save Jesus, I love you Oh, for you are the center of it all My heart belongs to you My soul will live to say Jesus, I love you Oh, I love you Oh, how I love you Jesus, I love you Oh, how I love you Oh, how I love you Jesus, I love you In my whole life, boy you glory my whole world For you only everything For the honor of your name And if my days tell a story let it be Of you only everything For the honor of your name In my whole life, boy you glory my whole world For you only everything For the honor of your name And if my days tell a story let it be Of you only everything For the honor of your name Oh, how I love you Oh, how I love you Jesus, I love you Oh, how I love you Oh, how I love you Jesus, I love you In my whole life, boy you glory my whole world For you only everything For the honor of your name And if my days tell a story let it be Of you only everything For the honor of your name Oh, how I love you How I love you Jesus, I love you Oh, how I love you

Oh, how I love you Jesus, I love you Be the center of it all My heart belongs to you My Savior all and all You're the one I hold on to For the beauty of your name My soul will live to say Jesus, I love you My soul will live to say Jesus, I love you My soul will live to say Jesus, I love you Jesus, we love you Your love has changed our lives And you were fully satisfied Lord, we receive Your presence right now We make room for you to move We ask that You would open up our hearts to be able to receive Your truth today in Jesus' name Amen Y'all may be seated So glad that you're here today My name is Jeremy, I'm the young adults pastor here at CPC How many of y'all at some point in your life you've struggled with the "I want's and don't have's" Or have you got the bad case of the "if only's" If only I had a better car, if only I had a better job If only I had that pretty girl or that pretty boy hanging on my arm if only My life would be so much better Can I confess today? We were riding bikes for my mother-in-law's birthday, happy birthday Marlene, big shout out. And we were riding through this really nice neighborhood with some really nice houses. And as I was riding through this neighborhood, I said, I want a really nice house. I want really nice things. And I started to have a little pity party for myself. Started boo-hooing in the corner. The lie that the enemy can just drop right in. There's two of them.

One, that God has not richly blessed you in your life. He can get you so distracted where you're not thinking about the blessings that the Lord has poured out on you. And number two, that the things of this world can satisfy the longings of your soul. Because I can tell you there's not a house in this world that can satisfy the longings of your soul. There's not a car in this world that can satisfy the longings of your soul. There's not a job in this world that can satisfy the longings of your soul. There's not a person in this world that can satisfy the longings of your soul except for Jesus. He's the only one. The Psalmist says, the Lord is my shepherd. I got all that I need. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides still waters. He alone restores my soul. He's the only one, church. He's the only one that can restore your soul. And if I'm being really honest, my wife and I, 10 years of praying that we would have a baby. 10 years of being barren. 10 years of the if only. And the truth is the enemy would like for me to make my identity about the fact that we haven't had a child. But the truth is the Lord is my shepherd. I got all that I need. And so the enemy doesn't get the last word.

Jesus gets the last word. And the last word is I'm not living a second rate life because we can't have kids. I'm living the life that God designed for me. The Lord is my shepherd. I got all that I need in my life. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful story of God's goodness. God is good. And that's the final word. Amen. So together, maybe you're here tonight and you're struggling with that or tonight today. I'm a young adults pastor. I talk at night. Maybe you're here today and you're struggling with that. Let's give it over to the Lord together. Can we do that? Father God, we confess that sometimes we struggle with the eye wants and the don't haves. But Lord, I just pray that we would look beyond the gift, beyond the gift. And we look at the giver of the gift. You are our treasure. You are our shepherd. You're all that we need. And so we present ourselves to you and we ask that you would come and fill us up with your Holy Spirit. That would be where we find joy and identity in peace.

Jesus name, amen. Amen, sorry y'all, I'm preaching. I know Chris has a message. It's a good one too. Hey, if this is maybe your first time to CPC or you're just looking to get more connected, we believe everybody has next steps. And maybe your next step is to go to our starting point. Starting point is a great opportunity to learn how to become more plugged in with our church. And so it's on October 18th at 1145 and you can register at our website. If you just tap on the seat back in front of you, it'll take you to where you can get registered for starting point. We'd love to get you more connected here at CPC. At this time, I'd like for us to worship the Lord with our giving. Giving is such an incredible opportunity to see God's faithfulness in your life. And it's really fun to see God use the resources that we have to advance his kingdom. Pastor Josh and I were at my daddy's cheesecake the other day and we bumped into Miss Lisa. And we asked Miss Lisa what she had going on for the day. She said, "Actually, I'm here picking up meals "for a widow's support group." I said, "Oh, that's really cool. "Tell me more about that." She said, "Well, there's actually over 100 widows

"that gather together and they point each other back "to Jesus and they help each other in their grief. "And we get to feed them today." Church, you guys were a part of feeding over 100 widows this week with your giving. Isn't that incredible? And while she was there feeding the widows, she actually got to talk about Debra's house, which is another beautiful ministry for women in our area. And the widows that were there decided to give a gift to Debra's house. So we killed two birds with one stone. How awesome is that? Y'all are a part of ministering to the people in this area with every dollar that you give. And so today we're gonna go back and we're gonna give to the Lord again. And as we do, I'm gonna pray for our offering and then we'll continue with our service. Father God, thank you for meeting our needs. Lord, thank you for allowing us to be a part of your kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus, I pray that every dollar that's given today, that it would go to advance the gospel, that it would care for widows, that it would care for orphans, that it would meet the needs of the people in our community. We pray that you would bless it and that it would be for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

- Hey man, how many is glad to be in God's house this morning? Come on, let's give him a big praise. Come on, you get louder than that. And if you were here last night, at night of prayer and worship, my goodness, it was so incredible. You thought, "Hey, we'll go an hour, hour and a half." Well, I don't know. It's not your worship in prayer. Three hours later, the spirit of God just moving. People crying out to the Lord and healing and God just ministering in such a way. And then we get to come back here this morning and be with one another and dive into the Word of God together. It's been a great weekend. Would you just fist them up a couple of people right now and tell them, just gotta tell you, God loves you a lot. We're so excited you're here and God loves you. We want you to dive in today and get ahold of this word. While we do that, let's welcome our online campus and those watching on the Pendo app in prisons across America. Come on, let's give the Lord praise. We invite you guys, come on in. You can download our message notes right now for any of our media outlets in the house. Grab your Bible, your journal, your message notes, whatever you like taking notes with. And together, we're gonna dive in. We're in the book of James.

Now, if you're new to the church, thankful you're here, here's what we're doing. We're reading through the New Testament and the book of Psalms this year. And it's a real simple reading plan. It's one chapter a day, five days a week, super easy. And then we're doing this little thing called a here journal where we're just reflecting and trying to learn the passages and context. And you can start following along with us this week. If you're new, I mean, you can start this week. Just come and join us. You can download our message notes or excuse me, our reading plan off of our website as well. And you can pick up a hard copy out at the next step station. And then what we do is I come in here every week and I preach from somewhere out of the reading plan. And we just finished the book of Hebrews and here's what's interesting. So today we're coming in on the end of a week where we've read the book of Psalms. I think you've got one chapter left and we'll finish that. Then we're gonna go into first Peter and it's a short book. You're gonna read it in a week. Then you're gonna go to second Peter. This is the next three weeks. And it's a short book. You're gonna read it in one week. And here's what we're doing.

We're trying to build up your confidence. So you can go out to the restaurant this afternoon. You can tell the waiter or waitress, "Hey, can I brag on my family?" We read a book a week. I mean, how cool is that, right? You can do that because he's a little short book. I haven't had five chapters, right? But you can join in and we pray that you will. And today we're diving in and covering the main theme of the book, James. Now, if you are new with us today after the service, I'll be right out in the lobby. I hope you'll come by and say hello and love to have a chance to meet you. But for now, for the next few moments, what I'm asking all of us to do in-house and online is let's sit with the Lord. Let's look into his word. Let's ask him to speak to us. Would you pray with me? Father, in the name of Jesus, thank you for this morning. Thank you for allowing us to gather and worship. And God, we have sung praises to you and I pray our hearts have sought you in worship. I thank you for everyone who's volunteered today. That's a form of worship. Thank you for them using their talents for you. God, we've worshiped through the offering. We thank you for those who practice in generosity.

We thank you for those who are given generously for the work that you're doing here in this church. And that's an act of worship. God, we spent time with an open altar and spending time praying over one another. Again, God, thank you that we can come to your throne of grace and find mercy in our time of need. But over the next few moments, God, we need to hear your word. We need to hear from you. So God, as our eyes look at Scripture, has to say, help our minds to comprehend, let our hearts receive these truths because God, what we desperately desire, what our prayer is today is that we look less like us and a whole lot more like you, that we can go into a world and be salt and light for you 'cause our world needs it. Help us God, to be transformed by your word, give us a mind of truth, give us voices of hope, let our hearts be full of compassion, hands of service and feet of purpose, and we pray it all in the mighty name of Jesus and all God's people said, amen, amen. This past Friday I had the privilege to be invited by the Jackson Tribal Council to come and give a message to the Jackson High School football team. I enjoyed it, it was an incredible time, it was awesome, they did a great job, hosted a great event, I was honored to be invited.

The only negative to the whole event was, it was 7 a.m. Outside of that, it was great. We get there, some of you volunteered, many of our church volunteered to help cook breakfast, they showed up at 4.30 in the morning, started cooking breakfast, come on somebody. Yeah, I know, I'm the same way, I'm shaking my head, like nope, I mean, I arrived, food's done. And then boys come in, we get to eat and I had the honor to talk to them. And by the way, let me just say this, I know we have multiple school districts in our church, and if you're like, well, he's never come as proked to my team, talk to your coach, get me on the schedule, I'll come to your school too, okay? If I can't, here we go. Here's what I talked to him about though, here's what I want you to capture. I talked to him on this subject, what is the key to maximizing momentum? And we took a formula, and I didn't come up with this formula, it's based on physics, and the first person I know of, that kind of used this was a guy named Dave Ramsey, but it's an incredible formula and I want you to get this down, I want you to think about it, as we go through the book of James, look at this definition, or formula rather, for momentum. Focus, intensity, say the next two words, over time equals momentum, let's do it one more time, 'cause I wanna make sure you get this,

'cause it's not just being focused, it's focused with intensity, and you gotta capture the next two words, you gotta be focused, and you gotta be intensely focused, which is striving for excellence in the matter, over time, and that's what builds momentum. If you look at it from a physics position, it goes like this, the definition of momentum is, it is mass plus velocity equals momentum, right? It's mass and velocity combined together, mass times velocity is actually how it said, mass times velocity, 'cause think about it, here we go, you got an object, and you wanna get some momentum with this object, and what you have to do is you have to get this object moving in a direction. Depending on the weight of it, depends on how much effort you gotta put in to get this mass to start moving in a direction. The reason focus is in here is because you gotta know the direction you want momentum. How many know you can get momentum going in the wrong direction if you don't have your focus right? If you don't see where you're going, you could be going, but going in the wrong direction, and so if you want to build momentum, you gotta get an object, you gotta know which way you want it to go, you gotta start pushing, you gotta put forth effort, and you gotta try to build velocity.

Velocity is speed, speed in a direction, and the more speed you can get with the weight of whatever the mass is, is the faster you can get that thing pushed in the right direction, the more momentum is created. If you've ever done this, have you ever pushed an object? Say a sled, if you're in the workout room, and you're pushing a sled with weight, or you're pushing a wheelbarrow, or whatever it may be, and it's heavy, the hardest part of getting the mass to start moving, whether it's a sled or a wheelbarrow is the first five feet, it's just getting it going. It's the initial push that you gotta get to get the thing rolling, but once you get a little bit of push going, the weight all of a sudden starts picking up speed, it creates momentum, and then all of a sudden, it starts picking up speed, and you, it gets half as weight as what it was. All of a sudden, it's moving, and it's helping you push, that's momentum. You know what I'm talking about? Here's the other piece to momentum. One thing is to get going in the right direction, and it's harder to start than it is in the middle of it. But once you can get it started, and you can get some momentum built up, you can get somewhere in the heavier the weight, and the harder and the faster you push it,

the more momentum gets built. Here's the other thing you need to know, and this comes straight out of physics, and God designed it this way, and you need to understand that what's true, and the natural is also true in the spiritual. physicists will tell you there is always an opposing force to the direction in which you're going, trying to slow down or move the momentum into a different direction. And so think about when you're pushing, you got gravity pushing against your right, and you can get that wheelbarrow going, and you got the wheelbarrow moving, and you're doing all right, and it's getting a little easier because you're getting a little faster, and then you hit the heel. Anybody know what I'm talking about? You look like the incredible Hulk going across the yard as long as it's flat, but as soon as you start hitting the grade, all of a sudden you slow down and you perspire a little bit more, and all of a sudden the momentum begins to change. I was telling you I was talking to a football team about momentum and how to get through four quarters of a game because you can't take one play off, because in one minute when you let down your guard, when there's one moment,

listen, this is true in life, and in our faith, the moment you let down your guard, the moment you slip up, the moment you just get distracted, if you don't stay with focused intensity, the opposing force is going to derail your momentum. Let me give you a good football analogy. Everybody like football? Some of you do happen if you don't. Some of you are going to love this illustration, some of you are going to hate it, I'm probably going to get bad emails on it. Don't worry about it. I have my team read it, if it's bad, I won't read it. So anyway, if it's good, I'll read it. Here we go. I'm cheating, I'm cheating. I say that all the time, people actually get offended thinking I'm like rude or something. That's a joke. All right, here we go. You're in the fourth quarter, there's two minutes left in the football game, and you are eight points down, you need a touchdown and a two point conversion to take it to overtime. You are there on the wrong side of the field. I love you, brother, don't get mad at me, I see you. And I'm not doing this because you're here. But anyway, here we go.

The quarterback takes the snap, comes back, and he is throwing dimes. I mean, he is on the money, seven yards, eight yards, 12 yards, tracking down the field. You got your eyes on the end zone, you know what you got to do, you got momentum, you got 80,000 fans cheering you in the stadium, you are moving down, you get to the midline, you cross midline, you're now at the 40, you're at the 35, there's one minute left on the clock, you're on the 35 yard line, quarterback takes a three step drop, he throws a laser right down the middle of the field, to his shore handed, tight in, who in the moment, as he is in the air, getting ready to catch that ball, somehow, some way, loses focus, and the ball goes between his hands, onto his face mask, 30 feet in the air. Somehow, some way, he lost focus for a second, but a defender is 20 yards, the other direction, he is focused with intensity, he didn't take the last play of the game off, he's watching the ball go up in the air, he takes off running with intensity, his eyes never leave the football, and he dives and catches the ball, cradles it as it, right before it hits the ground,

momentum, shift, game over. Anybody watch Thursday night football? That's the actual last play, or last series of the Dallas Cowboys against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this past Thursday night, and I sat there, and I have a heartbreak, I'm like, are you serious? This is gonna be a sermon illustration. Do you get it? All the momentum, pushing, going against all the odds, and it only takes one moment of you letting down the guard, and your enemy hasn't taken a play off. Let me tell you something, in your life, your career, your relationships, your marriage, your home, your faith. If you want God to move in your life, you start working toward godliness, you start seeking after the Lord, you will find him. You start living by biblical principles, you try to turn your life around, you try to turn your finances around, you wanna be a godly business person, you wanna work with good work ethic, you want your family to turn around, you want your marriage to be healthy, you start putting forth the effort, you start just going after the glory of God in your life, you start going after faith, you start spending time in the Bible,

doing the reading plan, You are moving along in your faith. You get involved in the church. Church is growing. Church is doing great things for the kingdom. You get involved in the community. Great momentum is moving along. Listen in, lean and close. Don't ever forget while you've got good momentum going, there is a force of opposition on the other side who never takes a play off waiting for one week moment to derail your momentum. Amen. How many remember Peter walking on water in the middle of the storm? He walked on water as long as his eyes were wear on Jesus. When did he begin to sink? The moment he took his eyes off of Jesus. You know, it's interesting. We just finished the book of Hebrews and the book of Hebrews, the whole theme of the book of Hebrews was what? Don't drift away from Jesus. Your anchor holds. The entire book was written to Christians, Jewish Christians who were struggling under great persecution. 'Cause sometimes, watch this, watch this, watch this. When you're in the middle of the opposition. And if you're in the, if you're a Christian,

we talk about this in the church. We talk about like this, spiritual warfare. That's the opposition. Trials and tribulations. We'll call it trial and tribulations sometimes. All of us experienced this. In the book of Hebrews, you've got these early Jewish Christians under great pressure and it's so easy to drift when you're under the pressure. When you come to the book of James, James is gonna say don't just not only not drift, change your perspective. We need to change the perspective of the opposition because it's real easy in the middle of the opposition. Listen to me in the stream online and in prisons across America. It's real easy when you start moving for God to forget while it's all easy. When all of a sudden you got good momentum. While things are happening and God is moving, it's real easy to forget or take lightly that there's a spiritual force of opposition pushing against you at the same time. And he's just waiting for one moment of weakness. One moment when you get loose. One moment when you let down the guard. One moment you take a day off, spiritually speaking. One moment for one bad business decision because you didn't pray over it or do your homework. One day when you go into that conversation

with your spouse and you don't have the right attitude and you try to take care of something that should have waited till the next day. One moment when your eyes don't bounce as quickly as they should have and they lingered a little too long. One day when you got a little too loose and let down the guard with your tongue. One day and then all of a sudden you realize there's been an opposing force of opposition the whole time just waiting to change the momentum of what God is doing in your life or your family or your faith or your church. And we can see this even in our nation and in the world, amen? You can't do that. And that's why we're coming to the book of James 'cause this is what James wants us to recognize that there is spiritual opposition but we can change our perspective about it 'cause the reason the problem with our perspective is is when things are going great and all of a sudden spiritual warfare comes or trials or tribulations come. The first question we wanna ask is where are you God? God, why did you let this happen? God, God, why didn't you protect us? God, what is going on? And what I think sometimes the Lord says to us is is you forgot there was an opposing force the whole time. You just didn't feel him in the moment till you hit the hill.

Amen? So what James says, look, James says, here's what we gotta do brothers and sisters. We gotta change our perspective and we gotta consider it a, say the next few words, great joy, my brothers and sisters, watch this, watch this, somebody who's gonna wish you didn't just say that. Whenever you experience various trials, now you wanna bite your tongue, right? You're like, wait a minute. I don't wanna consider any trial a time for finding great joy. Notice he did not say find happiness. You're not gonna be happy in the middle of a war. When you're in spiritual warfare, you're facing opposition, but here's what you can do. You can find joy. And so the key today I want you to see out of the book of James is how can our perspective change? How can we see what isn't good and yet find something good come out of it? How can we lean in and trust the character of God and believe that God can make something good for us come out of whatever opposition we find ourselves? Even in those moments when the momentum switches and changes, how can we change our perspective to get the momentum? you're going to face some opposition. Amen? James says, don't get caught off guard, find some joy in this. By the way, Jesus was baptized, come up out of the water, spirit came down only like a dove. He heard a voice, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased.

How many know that was a great moment for Jesus? Where did Jesus go next? What did He face right after His baptism? Spiritual warfare, temptation from the devil. Look at me. Anybody here better than Jesus? Look at your neighbor and tell them, I believe you come up short. We say that to each other online as well. I believe we come up short. Look at me. Look at me. If Jesus fights the devil after a blessing, should you be surprised that you fight temptation after a blessing after a good momentum? No. That's what James wants us to do. Quick it and caught off guard. When it happens, expect it. Realize it. Oh, yep. God's been blessing. Here he comes. It's going to happen in your life. It's going to happen in your family. By the way, if your family is moving like, if you're like, you know, putting kids in kids' shirts and your kids are coming out and they're laying hands on people and praying over people. How many know it's happening? It's incredible. Our kids are coming out of their man. They're so fired up for Jesus. Our kids' workers, they write you these little tabletop devotions so you can have devotion time with your kids during the week. And if you're doing all that and you're growing your faith with your family, should you not expect Satan to try to attack your family? Sure he's going to. Anybody remember we're Satan attacked the first family? Who were the first family, by the way? Adam and Eve, where did he attack them? In the very garden of God. Right? What about the church? Should Satan attack churches when churches are moving and going for God and great things are happening? Should we not ever expect a spiritual warfare at church? What sure you should. We just read the book of Acts as a church. Do you remember what we read in the book of Acts? An anise and Sephira. They face consequences because they lied to the Holy Spirit about what their offering was. Should we go back and retake the offering this morning, by the way? Right, right. He's like, oh, I got to make sure I'm right. We got all right. All right, here we go. Just joking. Here we go. Do you remember what happened next? One of the deacons, a preaching deacon named Stephen is murdered. Do you not think that rocked the church? Do you not think the church got together and said, what in the world is going on? Can you believe it? Stephen? No, not Stephen. Yeah, Stephen just got stoned. And by the way, it was by this some dude named Saul. And can you imagine a few years later, this dude, Saul shows up at the apostles door knocking on the door saying, Hey, y'all, can I join the church? I met Jesus. How many know that was the most interesting elders meeting

ever in history? The guy who stoned Stephen or had Stephen stoned. Now he showed up saying, I'm a Christian now. Can I join your church? Oh, by the way, I'm going to go with a new name named Paul. What about Peter? Everybody wants to be a Peter in the faith, right? Peter's bold, Peter's brave, Peter's like a go-getter for Jesus. We all love Peter. I remember when God first called me to preach. I was so introverted that I couldn't even order my own food at McDonald's. That's a true story. I asked my wife, but here's what I did. I prayed. I literally prayed. God made me bold like Peter. Took a foot in my mouth. Man, my mouth gives me trouble all the time, just like Peter. God made me bold like Peter. Did you know that there was a time when Peter succumbed to the pressure of the Jews and he showed favoritism over Gentile Christians, and Paul had to get right in his face in church and say, brother, you're out of alignment with God. Should we not expect moments like that in church even? Yes, we should. And that's what the scriptures is telling us. Here's how we change our perspective. It's in the moment when opposition comes, leaning close. We go back to the truth of Scripture about God's character and we put our trust in God's character, not in the waves of the storm. That's how you change your perspective and you find some joy. Go back to the character of God and here's what we know about God. God's not going to leave us. He's not going forsake us. And even in the middle of the storm, he's going to make something good come out of it. In fact, James says, let me just show it to you. Let me tell it to you. He said, consider a great joy. My brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know, everybody say these two words, you know, Sam again, you know online and prison, Sam with me, you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its full effect. In other words, Write out the warfare. Don't drift. Don't take your eyes off Jesus. Because you know if you let it produce endurance and you let endurance have its full effect, here's what God's gonna do through whatever you're suffering in the moment. You're gonna come out more mature, more complete, lacking nothing. In the middle of it, God somehow takes all of the terrible things that we have to go through in life.

And listen, look at me. People misquote Rome is 828. They say, "Oh, you're going through that horrible season in life." Oh, God meant that for you. No, He didn't. Quit making excuses for the devil and for things you can't understand. There is a real devil with real opposition fighting you, trying to derail God's movement in your life. He wants to slow down your momentum of becoming the man or the woman God has created you to be for your family, from being the family God wants it to be, for this church to be what God wants this church to be, for your career, your purpose in life, to not add up to what God has designed it for. Satan is always in opposition. Quit making excuses for him and start putting your faith back in the character of God that says, "This isn't good." And God weeps with those who weep and God's not applauding the work of the devil, but God sometimes allows the warfare to come in measures because what the best slap in the devil's face is is when he tries to tear you down, God says, "I'm going to turn them around and make them grow up through this, and they're going to come out better on the other side. This isn't good, but you wait to see how they're going to turn this around

and use it for the good." There's something only God can do in the life of a person of faith who puts their trust in the character of God and he starts to make sense of the things that can't make any sense. I want you to grab ahold of that. Here's where I see the sovereignty of God. This is this week, this just absolutely rocked my little world. Two months ago, I'm reading through the book of Hebrews, trying to figure out how to preach it as a series in three weeks. You see, if you're, if you know anything about preaching, I like to preach in series, which is I take a Bible book and I find the truths of the scripture and I build off of it week after week and teach you how to read the passage, right? It's really hard to do a sermon series like that if you're skipping five chapters every week. And when you do a reading plane like this, and I tell you, I'm going to preach from somewhere, it's like, it's really hard to find a continuous theme skipping five chapters, but when you read the book of Hebrews, a theme came through so quickly. 'Cause it's the same theme throughout all 13 chapters. Don't drift from Jesus, the anchor holds, hang on. So then I started, so we titled that series better. Jesus is better. And all of a sudden I started having to read James and first Peter and second Peter.

What's the theme there? Short books. I'm only going to get one week for each book. How are we going to preach through that? And all of a sudden I realized some things. You start doing the context work and you find out they're all written to the same groups of people. Jews, Jewish Christians who've been run out of Jerusalem during the dispersion after the stoning of Stephen. These are men, women, boys and girls who've been forced to leave their homes, leave their careers. Many of them leave family members who haven't yet converted to Christ. They've been forced to leave Jerusalem. Their world's upside down. They've been shaken. In all three books, as you're going to see, there's a common thread through them all. Same, your world may be shaken, but heaven isn't. And you need a faith that doesn't get shaken in the midst of the storms. So for the next three weeks, we're going to title this time together as unshaken. And we're going to see that we are not anchored in Christ, but because we're anchored in Christ, like we learned in Hebrews, we can be unshaken on the character of God when the storms come, when the opposition comes,

when the momentum is being challenged. And in that moment, here's what you and I have to do. I used this verse last night at our night of prayer and worship. We have to pursue peace with everyone and pursue holiness. And when I read this passage at the end of the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, what grabbed me is this, is that when we feel tempted to drift because we don't understand or because we're tired because the battle is hot and heavy in the moment. And how many of you know it's harder to pray or read the Bible or hang out with friends and worship Jesus when you're feeling the load of the momentum coming back at you, coming against you, right? And it's in those moments though, there are two things you and I have to do He didn't say just have peace, he says pursue after it. This is action, you gotta put forth the effort. I gotta pursue peace. And the second thing he says is you gotta pursue after your holiness because these are the two things, peace and holiness that will drift away from you when you don't understand the opposition that is coming against you. And he says this, look at this next line. Without it, no one will see the Lord. Does this mean you won't go to heaven? If you don't pursue peace and holiness? No, this is not a selfish passage. It's not about your salvation.

It's about seeing the work of God in your life. You want godly momentum in your family, in your career, in your job, with your relationships, in your own personal walk with Christ. Don't let the opposition steal your peace or your holiness. Because when you allow it to steal your peace, when you allow it to steal your holiness, you won't see that God is working in the middle of it. You can't allow him to take that from you. You gotta make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up causing trouble to file a mini. 'Cause here's what happens when you face the opposition. When you're moving with God and the enemy comes and tries to derail your motivation or your momentum. Here's what happens if you don't pursue peace, if you don't pursue holiness, if you slip, if you give in, if you give up on the play, and you don't deal with it before long, you become angry, consinical, you become bitter. Anybody know what I'm talking about? You get the wrong view of God in the midst of the storm and you forget the character of God. God didn't do anything wrong, we slipped, we drifted. I have to have this conversation from time to time with people, I have to repent of it in my own life. When I realized through a storm or trial that I drifted, I had to have a conversation, a very hard and difficult conversation with our own staff this week

off of this very passage and the drift from holiness. You can be doing God's work and drift in holiness when you get tired, when you're not dealing with the issues you got. Anybody know what I'm talking about? And if it happens to church staff people, it happens to you too, right? I know we hold staff people accountable higher levels in church work than most people, but I believe the standards are really true for all Christians, don't you? And so we had to have this kind of a conversation to deal with some stuff that we're having to deal with. And because it's so easy when you're tired or you're struggling or you're going through a storm to let down your guard, let your tongue get loose, make bad choices. And you drift from peace and holiness. And you can't afford to do that because Satan's just waiting for you to take a play off. Don't let him do that in your life. By the way, I said that about our staff, can also say this about our staff, we have incredible staff members. We have some of the best staff anywhere around. But yeah, go ahead, give it to them. We have some incredible staff. But they're as human as you are, and I'll tell you, our staff work a lot of hours and they have a lot of pressure.

And they have to depend on a whole lot of volunteers. And we have the most amazing volunteers. If you're a volunteer, we love and appreciate you. Can we give it up for all of our volunteers? Amen. (audience applauding) The problem is we don't have enough staff for the size we are and we don't have enough volunteers to help where we can't staff right now. We're staffed at a church of a structure of a church of about 1,800 to 2,000, but we're a church of 3,000. And you're like, wait a minute, wait a minute, why is that? Well, because of what God is doing here. In fact, here's what God's doing. I want you to capture this. I don't know if you've even called it. I mean, it's just, we don't talk about this kind of stuff that much. But when we came out of COVID in the summer of 2020, we came back out of COVID with 600 people. Since COVID was 600 people to today, in 2026, we went from 600 people to 3,000 people and launched a campus. And we are getting invites, regularly, I've been getting invites all summer from other places saying, would you like another building to launch a third campus? And I'm having to turn them down because I can't afford staff to go launch those campuses right now. 'Cause here's the thing, when you grow that fast,

this is just real, I'm not, I'm just telling you, I just need to know because what happens to you happens to us too. What happens is, is you grow that fast, you cannot, the giving, the generosity of the congregation always catches up last. You grow really fast, giving comes in later. 'Cause I know it takes time to trust the church and hey, do I wanna do this? What's the generosity of culture? And so it takes time. So our staffing is, because that's where our giving is as well. But we're 1,000 people above that. And so we have to use a lot of volunteers and sometimes we wear volunteers out. And so we have to get up here and beg for more volunteers, right? That's just the nature of it. Here's the thing. Staff gets tired just like you get tired and they get weird just like you get weird. And we, this is on us. We can let our holiness drift just like your strips, 'cause we're all in this thing together. And you know what? And he knows that and he never takes a play off. So what do we do with this? What do we do with this? We gotta understand there's gonna be spiritual attacks,

spiritual oppression whenever you're trying to do something great with God. If you're growing in your faith, if your family's growing, if our church is growing, if we're moving for God with there's movement, there's friction. And what I've had to do recently, especially after Wednesday, when I had to have some hard conversations, I had to come back and say, why is Satan attacking? Why is there so much spiritual warfare? And then I messaged Marcy on our staff. And I said, can you tell me what our salvation baptism numbers are this so far this year for the first nine months, you know, January to September? Maybe that's why we're fighting some spiritual warfare. And can I just brag on Jesus for a minute? Is that okay? 'Cause when you look at the first nine months of this year so far, we've seen 441 people say yes to Jesus, the highest number in our church's history. And this is in the first nine months of the year. So then you've got to ask the question, why wouldn't we fight the devil? If 441 people have said yes to Jesus and got their heavenly home, eternally secured, amen? 276 people have went through the baptismal waters, declaring their faith in Jesus. Can we give God a praise for that? 276.

Can I tell you that right now? BOCO is in their third service because they launched three services today. (congregation applauding) Come on. In Marble Hill. Look at what God is up to. You remember how we back earlier in the year, we said we wanted to get into the prisons to bring hope and the gospel to people all around them, people that will never get to step foot in this building, people that is not going to get to serve on our teams, people that aren't going to be able to contribute in that way, but they are loved by God and God wants to give them hope and bring the gift of salvation to them. And we said we're going to start on this app called the Pando app. And we had to buy different equipment and we had to do a whole lot of behind the scenes work. Today is week number four on the Pando app. Would you like to see what God has done in the first three weeks alone? 18,846 views, 1,592 subscribers, and nine decisions to follow Jesus just in three weeks. (congregation applauds) - I just shared all that with you to say this. We're all in this together as we move toward momentum for God in your life, your family, the church, don't get caught off guard when the oppressor oppresses, when he opposes you.

Don't say God, where are you? Say God, how are you going to make something good come out of this like the book of James says? Amen? The Lord gave me a sentence this morning. I want to give it to you now. I believe he did. This came to me, this morning I wrote it down. It's part of our perspective. When God allows the storm, you need to remember it's not for your devastation, it's for your development. It's never to tear you down, it's to build you up. God can use it and make something good come out of it even if the storm itself is not good and it's not God ordained. But God is bigger than the devil and God doesn't let the devil have the last word. Can somebody shout amen to that? God doesn't let the devil have the last word for those who put their trust in him. Now I know what some of you are thinking right now. You're thinking, Chris, you're four minutes over. And I haven't filled one single blank in on my paper. And I'm here to tell you, I know and I designed the sermon that way because the points are gonna come real fast, real easy because I needed to set the stage for you first. I just wanted to preach and then let you write something down.

Is that all right? 'Cause now to make sense what you're about to write down. If you trust the character of God when you face opposition to the momentum, number one, write it down, your unshakeable faith will shield you against having a defeated spirit. One of the best quotes I know that, I think it needs to go on my wall, He said this, "I have learned to kiss the wave "that throws me against the rock of ages." In other words, when Satan tries to destroy you and he's trying to derail you, if you will keep your eyes on Jesus, if you won't quit, if you won't let go of the anchor, if you'll do what's right, if you won't take a play off, if you will give it all you got and hang on to the character of God, there's gonna come a moment when it's all over, you're gonna look back at the storm that pushed you against the rock of ages and say thank you, I'm better because of what I've been through and I'm gonna help more people in Jesus name. In fact, this is kind of what James said in verse 12, blessed is the one who endures trials because when he stood the test, he will receive, say it with me, the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. In fact, God says, when you hang into the war, you don't stop in the heat of the battle.

On the other side, there's a reward for you coming. Not only will it shield you against the defeated spirit, it will also guard you against a divided mind. How many know your greatest battlefield is between your ears? Anybody wanna say amen to that one? Look at your neighbor and say, there is something in between those ears, right? No, no, that's where the battle is mainly fought. The devil knows that. James knew it too and so in verse five, he said, now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives you all generously and ungrudgingly and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting for the doubters like the surging sea driven and tossed by the wind, that person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord being double minded and unstable in all his ways. And here's what I want you to capture. James is saying, wisdom comes from above. And when you're in the heat of the battle, this is not a time to slow down on your Bible reading. This is a time to read more. This is not a time to stop praying when you're in opposition and you feel the momentum switching in your faith. This is when you pray more. This is when you read scripture more. This is not less time in silence and solitude,

more time in front of the TV. This is less time in front of the TV and more time in silence and solitude, listening for a word from the Lord. This is making sure you have the right people speaking into your life because wisdom is found in a multitude of counselors. These are moments in the opposition. You ask God for wisdom, you draw near to him and you trust that God will guide your steps. In fact, James says, draw near to God. Read the next line with me in-house online, Rego. And he will draw near to you. What you and I do in that moment is re-look at our lives, re-look at our faith, take a moment of self-observation and cleanse our hands. Cleanse or confess any doubt, any fear, any anger, any unconfessent, confess it to the Lord, purify our hearts so that we won't be double-minded. Number three, an unshaken faith, only guards, but it also helps you fight against a passive faith. Because in the middle of the battle, you cannot get on the sideline. You cannot quit. Your faith has to go into action. You have to live out what you know to be true. And this is where you depend on the character of God and you live out for God even when you don't understand. God will help you in time, make sense of what never made sense. Look at why he says in chapter two,

"What good is it my brothers and sisters? If someone claims to have faith and it doesn't have works, can such faith save him? If a brother or sisters without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, stay warm, be well fed, but you don't give them what the body needs. What good is it?" Everybody read the last line. In the same way, faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. And this is not talking about your salvation. It is talking about in the midst of the opposition, in the midst of the storm, in the midst of the battle, what you believe is and what you're hanging on to is what's gonna come out in your actions. And if you are a man or a woman wanting momentum with God, in that moment, your actions have to start showing your action toward God. That that's where you want. That's who you want. That's who you're putting your faith in. That's who you're putting your trust in. Your faith becomes real to you. faith in God when all is good. But it's when all hell is coming against you. The opposition to derail you is where the death of your faith shows up. Here's your big takeaway. And I need you to get ahold of this. This is the whole message of James is the ship can't sink when it's fit when Jesus feels the vessel. In 1620's King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden ordered the construction of the of his greatest battleship for his entire fleet. It was to be the absolute pinnacle of

all worship sailing on the bactic sea. It was named the Vassa. The Vassa had 64 bronze cannons on two full decks of artillery. It had it had hundreds of carved and painted sculptures all over this ship. It had lions, it had Roman emperors. It had biblical heroes. It had sea monsters. And the Vassa was meant to be a floating message of Sweden's strength. Here's an image of the Vassa. And you can see the two levels of the 64 cannons that went around this massive battleship. It was to be the most intimidating battleship on the sea. On August the 10th 1628 thousands of diplomats and the royal family and the community of Sweden gathered on the on the shore at the harbor of Stockholm. And they were watching the maiden voyage of the Vassa. Everyone was so proud to watch her as she broke away from the harbor and she began to set out to sea. She got 1,300 meters away from the harbor and a gentle breeze came by. And when the gentle breeze came by, caught the sails of the Vassa, the ship began to lean. The ship finally uprighted itself. Everyone breathed a little sigh of relief till a second breeze came by. This time the Vassa tilted so far to one side that water began to flood into its 64 cannon portholes. And just 1,300 meters off of the harbor of Stockholm. Thousands of spectators watched the prize battleship of the Swedish army or navy sink to the bottom of the harbor. A few centuries later it was retrieved out of the water. It's in a museum now. You can go by and see it. Here's what the archaeologists and the historians realized when they examined the boat. The prize ship did not sink from the fire of one enemy gun, nor did it sink to the bottom because of a massive storm. What they found was it sank because during construction to accommodate more weapons and more prestige, the design was top heavy. And below the waterline, the center of gravity for the ship is balanced. There wasn't enough ballast. There wasn't enough weight. There wasn't enough iron or steel in the belly of the ship. And so the ship was top heavy. And all it took to sink the boat was a little gentle breeze that tilted it because its center of gravity was empty. And what is the message? You and I are going to face storms of opposition. But let's watch this. The storm may shake you, but what determines whether you sink or float is what

feels you. And the question I want you to ask yourself this morning is you may look beautiful and spiritual on the outside, but what are you filled with on the inside? Is Jesus the center of it all? not just in the good times, but how about even in those difficult ones? I'm gonna ask you to stand with me this morning. We're going to have just a moment of prayer. We're gonna allow our worship team just to sing us a verse in a chorus of that song center because I want us to just allow ourselves in this moment to ask ourselves the self-reflection question. Is Jesus the center of it all right here, right now in our hearts and lungs? Because opposition's gonna come and my responsibility as your pastor is to make sure that you look down deep in your soul and make sure Jesus is at the center of it all. Is there anything there that's drifted? Maybe some of you are in a struggle right now. Where's your heart at? Make sure you don't allow a root of bitterness to be growing. Make sure that doubt isn't taking hold. Make sure you're not getting angry with the Lord. Maybe you don't understand, but today you need to change your perspective. Would you just take a moment and re-look at your own heart? Maybe you need to repent of something. Repentance is more than confession. It's like I need to change this in the direction of my life. Maybe it's a recommitment.

Maybe it's just a refocus. Maybe it's just get your eyes back on Jesus and off the waves. But I promise you, when the devil comes and tries to shift your momentum, you gotta slow down for a moment and look back at yourself and the character of God and ask yourself, am I filling myself with Jesus in this moment? 'Cause he's what will keep you from sinking. Amen? - Amen. - Heads bowed all over the room. Maybe you're here watching a line or in a prison across America, and this is the time for you to pray. We got prayer team members online who will pray with you as well. We're gonna ask our prayer team members to come up front. And while we sing this course together, you can come and join them in prayer. If you'd like someone to pray over you, maybe you've never asked Jesus into your boat to begin with. Maybe you've never let him become the Lord of your life. This is a great day to invite Jesus to take over your life and receive his gift of salvation. Father in Jesus' name, thank you for the morning. Thank you for who you are and what you're doing. And right now, we just wanna commit these couple of minutes to just ask you Jesus to search us and know us and make sure you're at the center of it all. And if there's anything we need to confess or recommit to you,

if there's any refocusing that needs to be done in our lives, please do it now in Jesus' name. Forgive us where we fail you, help us to live holy and pure and blameless before you, help us to walk in your ways, help us endure to the end and know that you are going to turn something good out of the mess. God, if there's someone today that needs to receive salvation, would you let them pray and simply say, Lord Jesus, come into my life, forgive my sin. Come be the Lord of my life, take over, be the captain of my soul. I give it to you now in Jesus' name. Let them pray and receive you in the gift of salvation. Send Jesus' name we pray, amen? [BLANK_AUDIO]