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June 8, 2026 • 2 Minute Read
Weekly Update
Welcome to the weekly roundup 👋 This is your one-stop spot for everything happening in our church family. From kids to adults, small groups to special events, here's how you can get connected over the next seven days. This Week: Blood Drive: Monday, June 8th – 10:00 AM – 2:30 PM in worship center Foster Care Parent Support Night: Monday, June 8th from 6-8 PM in the student center, worship center, Wonder Way, and Discovery Island 😊 Wonder Way/Discovery Island Volunteer Training: Friday, June 12th at 6 PM and Sunday, June 14th in worship center Route 56 Leader Training: Sunday, June 14th after 3rd service in student center (chapel) Prayer Requests: Our Mission: Pray for the upcoming renovation process/steps. Camp season is also upon us with Discovery Island Camp, CentriKid (Route 56 students), & Student Camp. Pray for safety, fun, and lives touched by Jesus! Our Community: Families are dealing with addiction and need healing in their situations. World: Pray for our Honduras team that is being assembled – we currently have five people signed up and committed to go. Upcoming Events 4th of July holiday - Church office closed 7/3, Only 10am and 11:30am services on Sunday, 7/5/26New here? We'd love to connect. Watch last week’s sermon 👇Watch Online Giving Your generosity makes our work in this community possible. We’re so grateful for you. New to our community? No pressure. Today, just be our guest.Give Now Here Stay Connected 📩 Subscribe to this Collection to get these updates delivered directly to your inbox. 📸 Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and .YouTube 💬 Pastoral care or questions? Connect with us here. Services: Sundays at 8:30 AM, 10:00 AM & 11:30 AM
15434 Lucia Riverbend Hwy, Stanley, NC 28164 See you soon ☀️
June 8, 2026 • 8 Minute Read
Am I Really Saved? 3 Questions Jesus Asks to Check Your Faith
Is Christianity something we talk about, or is it something that transforms us from the inside out? You can have all the right things. You can quote all the right verses. I once knew a man in prison who had memorized the Bible, who could recite any verse you could think of, and yet he lived like the devil. It made me want to ask him, what is wrong with you? That contradiction is exactly what Jesus confronts in one of the most unsettling passages He ever spoke. It is possible to have eternal language without having eternal life. If you have ever lain awake wondering whether your faith is the real thing or just religious habit, you are asking the question Jesus wanted His followers to ask. The Scariest Verse in the Bible In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shifts His warning. First He says, beware of false prophets, do not be deceived by others. Then the danger moves closer to home: beware of deceiving yourself. The threat is no longer out there with someone else. It is the possibility that you could be a false disciple without knowing it. Here is the text. Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21). I have said before that I have never met anyone with Matthew 7:21-23 tattooed on their arm. My wife has taken me to Hobby Lobby plenty of times, and I have never seen this one hanging on the wall. No church picks it as the verse of the year. Yet I believe these are the heaviest verses in the entire Sermon on the Mount. Notice who Jesus is talking to. He is not addressing skeptics, atheists, agnostics, or people who hate God. How do we know? Because these people call Him Lord, Lord. Throughout Scripture, when a name is doubled, there is passion and intensity behind it: Samuel, Samuel; Abraham, Abraham; Martha, Martha, when Mary sat at His feet while her sister cleaned the house in a frenzy. The doubled Lord, Lord carries that same emotional weight. These are religious people. Church people. People who know spiritual things, who use spiritual language, who sing the songs and say amen at the end. That is what makes this passage so terrifying. There are people who are convinced everything is fine between them and God, and they are deceived. So let me offer three questions to help us examine ourselves.Subscribe To These Posts Life or Lips: Is Your Faith Real or Just Talk? The first question is simple. Life or lips? These people are saying Lord, Lord out loud, which tells us something important. Their faith was public, not private. If you tell me you have a private faith, I would gently push back: there is no such thing. Faith is deeply personal, but it is never private. It is a public confession. Young people, hear this next part especially. God does not have grandchildren. He only has children. You cannot ride in on someone else's relationship. You have to come on your own. You need your own baptism moment, your own public confession, your own spot where you declare Jesus as Lord and are born again. It is not what your parents did or what someone else did. It is what you do with your own faith. There is a verse that goes right alongside this. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). You have to speak it. You cannot hold it as a secret. But Paul does not stop at the mouth. Something also has to happen in the heart. That is exactly what Jesus is exposing. You can confess something with your lips, but if it never drops two feet down into your heart, it is probably not real. It is a religious thing, not a living thing. So the question stands. Is your Christianity something you talk about, or something that transforms you from the inside out? This is why God says throughout the Old Testament that He is not after your animal sacrifices or your religious festivals. He wants your heart. A transformed heart leads to a transformed life. It is heart transformation, not behavior modification. God is never impressed with empty religion. He calls it whitewashed tombs and dead men's bones. What He wants is a relationship. Religion or Relationship: What Are You Bringing to Jesus? That leads to the second question. Religion or relationship? Look at verse 22: on that day, many will say to Me. Pause on that word many. Last week we saw that many are on the broad road. Now we hear that many will say Lord, Lord. So there are many people on the broad road who are convinced they are on the narrow one. That tension should sober us. Watch what they bring to Jesus. Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name? When we see people like this, we tend to think they must be men and women of God. They read Scripture from the stage. They share an impressive insight in small group. But notice what they present to Jesus: not their surrender, not their faith, not their obedience, not their trust. They bring a list. And religion loves a list. For us today, that list might sound like this. Lord, I went to church. I did my devotions. I posted a Bible verse on Instagram. I set up my tithing. I served in kids ministry once this month. I made it to small group a couple of times. Check, check, check. We can stack up accolades, but the gospel goes deeper than that. Jesus is not asking for your activity. He is asking for your heart. We are not saved by works. We are saved by faith. How a Marriage Explains the Difference In a couple of months, my wife Amy and I will celebrate 23 years of marriage. She is the hero of our story, not me. But I will be honest about something. When I asked her to marry me, I had no clue what I was doing. I was 22, my brain was not fully developed, and I barely knew her. I saw a good thing and I knew enough to grab it, but I did not really understand what marriage meant. I said I do, she said I do, and we received our titles: husband and wife. Here is the truth I love telling. I love that woman more today than the day I married her, and I loved her deeply on that day. My hope is that when people see me, they catch a glimpse of her, and when they see her, they catch a glimpse of me. I want the same thing said about Jesus. I want to love Him more today than the day I first got on my knees and surrendered to Him. And I want people to see Him when they see me. Because here is the point. You can have all the titles. You can have the marriage certificate, the house, the cars, the family photos, the anniversary posts, and still have a dead marriage with no real relationship. Why? A title does not create intimacy. A relationship does. Intimacy is built by knowing each other over years, sacrificing for one another, covering each other with grace, being patient, and seeing God work over time. That is what Jesus is getting at. You can have all the right words and all the religious activity and still miss Him entirely. He never signed us up for a religious arrangement. He signed us up for a passionate, living relationship. It is the very reason He died for sinners, to bring us into a relationship with God and make us one with Him. How Do I Know If I'm Really Saved? If these questions stir something uneasy in you, that is not a reason for despair. It is an invitation. The fact that you care whether your faith is real is itself a hopeful sign that God is at work in your heart. The people Jesus warns about were not worried at all. They were confident right up until the end. So ask yourself honestly. Life or lips: has your confession dropped from your mouth down into your heart, or is it only language? Religion or relationship: are you bringing Jesus a list of accomplishments, or are you bringing Him yourself? You do not have to bring a perfect record. You only have to bring your heart, surrendered and His. That is where real life begins. Not in saying the right words or checking the right boxes, but in knowing and being known by the One who gave Himself for you. If you have never made that personal, public confession, today is the day to stop talking about Jesus and start belonging to Him.
