(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

We are honored you chose to be with us.

Again, some of you have just started on this faith journey after Easter.

Some of you have just joined in over the last several months.

And what we want to begin to talk about over the next several weeks is we're kicking off a new series titled Valorous Matters.

And it's all about the church and what the church means in your life and how you can get involved with the church and really begin to grow in your faith journey as you follow Jesus.

And so over the next several weeks, you're gonna hear from many of our ministry leaders.

You're gonna hear a lot about how we operate as a church, what the function is all about, and you know what, how you can begin to really, really get plugged in and grow in the local church.

Because we believe that God has created you to come alongside of him and do ministry and be a part of his church in the world.

Come on.

We believe that the reason we are here is to make a difference in the world and grow in our faith journey.

And so we at Valorous Church here are here to help each other.

Come on.

We're here to build one another up and help our faith grow.

The Bible says in Matthew chapter 16, verse 18, Jesus declared, I will build my church and the powers of hell will not conquer it.

So Jesus declares that he is going to build his church and he's gonna build his church out of faithful people, people who trust in him and begin to follow him with their life so that he can execute what he wants to do in the world through them.

So Jesus declared that he's gonna build his church.

So in other words, the church isn't my idea, it's God's idea.

And you belonging to the church isn't my idea, but it's God's idea.

So we're inviting people to belong to this family, to this community of believers, to this house, this group of people known as Valorous.

And we really believe that Valorous matters in your life.

The church is God's idea and the church exists to bring God glory.

It's for your good and it's to bring hope to a hurting world.

Let me say that again.

The church is God's idea.

The people who are called out of darkness into the wonderful light of Christ is God's idea.

And it exists for his glory, for your good, and so that the world can find hope, a hurting world can find hope in Christ Jesus.

And we're inviting people to be a part of something greater than themselves.

But the church is for your good.

It's for God's glory and it's to bring hope to a hurting world.

And so that means we get to be a part of something and make a difference in this world.

And so the church is a family where we grow our faith in who Jesus is.

The church is a group of people that we grow in our faith and then we take on the responsibility that God has given us.

It's a family that God's inviting us, each one of us, to belong to.

And then he invites you to take on the responsibility he gives you.

You know, you belong to something so you can take responsibility.

And God wants you and I to not just be attenders, but he wants us to take on the responsibility, the task or the assignment or the gift that he calls us to give to the local church so the local church can do what it's designed to do.

And so every person here who has put their faith and trust and forgiveness of Jesus for dying for their sin on a cross is tasked with a responsibility.

But you have to take your faith and be responsible with your faith to do what God's designed you to do.

And so today we're gonna talk a little bit through that.

What am I to do with my faith and how am I to keep my faith encouraged?

Because the Bible says that the church is to build one another up, that we're here for each other.

Look at your neighbor and say, I'm here for you.

Go ahead and tell him, I'm here for you.

Now look at your other neighbor and say, you're here for me.

Go ahead and tell him, you're here for me.

I wanna get that in our hearts today that I do believe that the church is the greatest thing you can ever belong to because I believe that the church is God's idea.

And I believe that God chose you when he chose you to belong to his family or his church.

And he chose you to grow in your faith and he chose to give you a gift to operate with and he challenges you to step up and be responsible with that gift and do something with that gift and change the world to that gift and bring him glory with that gift.

Come on.

But you have a decision to make.

What are you gonna do with your faith?

Are you gonna quit, lay down and not do anything and wait on the Lord Jesus to return?

Are you gonna be a part of what God's doing in the world?

Because I do believe as a believer in Jesus Christ, you will one day meet your savior face to face.

And I want you to hear these words.

Well done, my good and faithful servant.

You did good, come on in with all I've entrusted to you.

Those who are responsible with little, that means here and now, will be entrusted with much in eternity is what my Bible teaches.

So I want you to be responsible with your faith and not be irresponsible with it.

So today, let's learn how to do this as we turn in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 12.

Because what the Bible teaches us through this little passage of scripture is how not to quit with our faith.

What the Bible teaches us in this little short passage of scripture, Hebrews 12 verses one through four, is how to remain faithful and to endure circumstances and challenges.

And the writer who wrote this group of people was writing a group of people who were feeling a lot of pressure, who were underneath a lot of persecution.

Chances are, this letter was written to a group of Jewish believers who had trusted who Christ Jesus is.

And as they begin to do their journey, you know what, the writer here begins to teach them what it means to truly keep your faith in Jesus and not give up with your faith in life's journey.

Though they were being persecuted because of their faith in Jesus, you know what, and this was a group of people that obviously, according to the writing of the Bible, understood the first five books that the Jewish would study in the Bible.

So that's what makes us think they were Hebrew people or Jewish people.

The Bible doesn't say who it was written to, but it does indicate that it was written to some people who had trusted Jesus and probably from a very Jewish background.

And they were underneath a lot of persecution and the writer begins to write to them about how great Jesus is in spite of, you know what, what other people were saying and how to remain faithful on the journey and follow him all the days of their life, no matter what the struggle is that comes into their life.

And this is what I know.

Though this passage was written to some people who were under persecution and struggling with their faith, I know that you're struggling with your faith too.

Because what I know is the enemy wants to snuff out your faith that you have in Jesus.

And he wants to put pressure on your faith so that you don't continue to follow Jesus with your life.

And many of us made a commitment last weekend where we said, you know what, we wanna trust the forgiveness of sin that Jesus offered on that cross.

We wanna walk by the power of the resurrection all the days of our life and follow Jesus with our life.

But I know the moment you walk out of here that probably most of you begin to struggle with something.

Because the truth is we all struggle with challenges in life.

We all begin to have things come against us, resistance come against our faith.

And what we have to learn to do is persevere or keep moving forward with our faith and keep our hope focused on the main thing as we're doing the journey.

And this little short passage of scripture, though it's written to Hebrew people, it can apply to your life today and begin to show you how the church matters in your life.

It can begin to apply to your life today and teach you, you know what, how important it is for you to become a part of the church and be responsible with your faith.

I love how the writer, before he gets here to Hebrews 12, he writes this in Hebrews 3 verse six.

He says, we are God's house, listen to this, if, everybody say if.

If.

So he's saying, we are God's house if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.

He says, we are God's house, we are gods of people to do something great with our life if we keep our courage, stay faithful, don't give up, keep on keeping on, be brave with our faith in spite of the challenges.

He says, if we have courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ.

So what that means to me is we have an opportunity.

We have an opportunity to be a house, a refuge for other people to find hope in Christ and we have that opportunity if we'll exercise our faith and don't give up with our faith and don't quit with our faith and keep on keeping on with our faith and be the people that God called us to be in the community.

Remember, the church is God's idea.

It's for his glory, it's for your good and it's to bring hope to a hurting world and begin to help them understand who our great God is.

In other words, God's working in you, my friend so that he can work through you.

Let's give him some glory and praise.

But what I discovered is a lot of people start the faith journey with fire.

As resistance begins to come against their faith, many people quit and they give up and they pull over to the side.

And what I believe God is encouraging you today is to be a part of his church and never give up, never quit and never pull over to the side.

Don't you let the circumstances of life steal the destiny that God has for you to live.

But my friend, so many of us struggle with our faith because of the happenstances around us.

And today we're gonna learn how to get through those happenstances as we look at this short passage of scripture in Hebrews 12.

This is what it says.

Says, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, says let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.

And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates, starts it and perfects our faith is what the scripture says.

It goes on to say, because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.

The writer goes on to say, now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne.

Says, think of all the hostility, all the pain, all the hate, all the bitterness, all the ridicule, all the shame, think of all the hostility.

It says, he endured from sinful people and then you won't become weary and give up.

He goes on to say, after all, you have not yet given your lives and your struggle against sin.

And so we as a church, we wanna create environments for people's faith in Jesus to be encouraged.

We as a church wanna create environments for you to become all God's designed you to be.

But again, we can create all the environments for this to happen.

And if you choose not to step in by faith, you're making a choice to be held back from the God destiny that God has designed for you.

So you have to choose whether you're gonna continue to follow Jesus by faith and keep your eyes focused on him all the days of your life, or you're gonna let the distractions of life that we all live in, because we all live in this life and we all have distractions, are you gonna let that keep you and hold you back from being the person that God has designed you to be?

So what we desire here at Valorous is to create environments for people to begin to be all God's designed them to be.

And the first environment that I wrote down that we create is a environment for people to strip off, not their clothes, but the weights that are holding them back and the sin that so easily trips them up.

Because the writer says, if you wanna keep on keeping on, he says, you need to begin to let the people of faith, which he is speaking of in Hebrews 11, begin to speak to you so that you can strip some things off and keep moving forward with your faith.

And so Valorous matters in your life because we have environments here for you to strip off the weights, to begin to denounce the sin that so easily trips you up.

We have what we call life groups or small groups for people to meet in.

Why does Valorous matter?

Because you're gonna be able to surround yourself with a group of people who are living a life of faith that's gonna allow you to get real and shed away some of these weights and some of this sin and begin to talk it out with them and begin to strip some things off.

But my friend, if you're gonna move forward, you gotta have a safe place where you can begin to strip the old stuff off.

You have to have a place and a people that you can talk to and say, hey, I'm working through this, can get real with.

And small groups is a great place to begin to do this.

Small groups or life groups is a great place to study the Bible, but they exist so we can build each other up in our faith.

And a small group isn't going to tell you whenever you begin to confess and talk about all the challenges you got and all the sin that's going on in your life, they're not gonna be a people that's gonna sit there and tell you, well, that's okay.

No, no, no, they're gonna begin to say, you know what, God forgives you of that, but let's begin to work through that and get those things off of you so you can move forward with the life of faith and be everything that God has designed you to be.

Come on.

In other words, we're not gonna tell you the life you're living if it's full of sin, it's gonna be a life that God's just going to just let you get by with.

No, no, no, it says get rid of the sin that so easily trips you up.

And the only way I can get rid of it is to begin to talk to God about it, let Jesus forgive me, but have a group of people that are witnesses to a life of faith, testimonies around me that begin to help me get over what has taken over my life.

You got to have a safe group of people to talk to and communicate with.

But God, so help us.

May we not be a group of people that let you stay in a place to keep those weights on you.

May we speak truth into one another's life.

May we speak hope into one another's life.

May we begin to talk about how God has brought us out of some things and helped us through some things.

It's great to get around a bunch of people that are on fire for the Lord, but let me tell you, you need to be around that fire sometimes that are new to the faith.

You need to be around that sometimes, but you also need to get around some people who are maturing and mature with their faith.

What is a mature believer?

It's not just a person that has a lot of knowledge.

A mature believer in Jesus Christ is a person that's been through some stuff.

And God got them through some stuff, and they can sit down and be a testimony, a testament to what God has brought them through, and they can share it with you and encourage you.

You know what?

If God brought me through it, He can bring you through it, so you need to get yourself around some people who have got through some stuff.

Come on.

Who have had some things come against their faith, and they worked through it and got to the other side.

Get some people in your life that's gonna speak hope into you in your circumstance.

That's what I love about this church.

There's testimonies of faith all around me, and I'm encouraged each and every day on my journey.

You know what?

I get down just like you get down.

But when I ride in and I see people who are committed to the Lord and committed to the house and committed to being a part of what God is doing and bringing Him glory and bringing hope to the world, and I begin to talk to these people, and we begin to share stories, man, I'm encouraged to hear some of the things people have been through.

People who had addictions come against them.

But you know what?

They're no longer letting those addictions take over them, and they're 12, 14 years on the other side of those addictions, and they were heavily involved with addictions, but they put their faith in Jesus.

Somebody come alongside of them, help them grow out of that.

And it doesn't mean that, you know what?

Things don't still come against them, but they got through something, and you need to pull up beside some of those people.

If you're young in the faith, if you want your faith to be encouraged, you need to pull up beside of them because they can tell you how to get that stuff out, put the right stuff in, and begin to coach you to greatness.

The church matters.

Valorous matters because it's full of people and testimonies.

But the reality of it is, is you gotta take your faith and make a decision to get in with a group of people that's gonna speak life into you, that's gonna speak truth into you.

You can't do this journey alone.

God never intended for you to do this journey alone.

Why do you keep trying to?

Why do you keep trying to make your family be so isolated from what God wants to do?

Involve yourself, involve your kids.

We have incredible ministries here.

And I can tell you right now, kids, students, they're gonna have fun.

But they're also gonna hear a word of discipline, and they're gonna hear a word of, you know what?

That's gonna take you to the wrong destination.

That stuff is gonna destroy your life.

You need to get rid of that stuff in your life, and you need to get on with the life and the journey God has before you and step into it.

See, it's about speaking truth with love.

And so many people today just wanna be patted on the fanny.

Well, God'll pat you on the fanny, but he'll give you a little bit harder pat sometimes than just, hey, good job.

My Bible says that God disciplines those he loves.

In other words, sometimes God spanks you.

And if someone loves you, and you understand they're spanking you to correct you, to help you get over something in your life, to move forward with something in your life, then you'll begin to experience something greater in your life.

But see, you know what?

What happens a lot of times, the first time someone speaks truth into someone's life, they're like, they don't love me because they're not condoning what I do.

My friend, if someone is telling you to keep going in the wrong direction, in the direction of destruction, and it's okay, that really isn't love.

And so I'm inviting you to get around a group of people where you can begin to strip off some of the old stuff and put on the new stuff that God is providing.

That doesn't mean we're perfect.

We're imperfect beings that share with one another.

But if you're gonna choose to take your life in a continual direction in the wrong way and not get it on track with where God is taking it, you know what, that's the decision you make.

We're inviting you to get in an environment where you can strip off some of the old stuff and put on the new stuff.

It's a community that offers life groups, stories, testimonies.

It's a safe place to work through the challenges.

But if I'm truly gonna live a life of faith, I can't just have the people around me telling me what's wrong and how to get it right.

I have to have the endurance to get through this stuff.

And what I've discovered is you don't just show up to something and have the endurance to get through it.

Because endurance is built on a journey.

Endurance is built with time and resistance and consistency.

Let me say that again.

Endurance in your faith or in your life is built with time, with resistance and consistency.

You have to be consistent in order to develop endurance.

And what happens sometimes is when resistance comes, people aren't consistent because the resistance is a difficult moment.

But maybe that resistance you're feeling is there to build your faith instead of destroy it.

Maybe it's there to develop endurance so you can begin to be perfect in every way.

I think about a journey that I go on or I used to go on when I used to run, you know what long distance is like run miles, jog miles.

You know what I'm talking about.

I didn't just go out and start jogging 15 miles.

I had to go out and build endurance to go out and jog 15 miles.

And how I would build that endurance is I was consistent.

I couldn't just go out once in a while and just run.

I had to consistently over and over, you know what, be able to set goals in front of me like, hey, you know what, I'm gonna run 100 yards today.

I'm gonna run to that mailbox.

So I'm gonna be completely out of breath.

I'm gonna make it to that mailbox.

And then three days later, I'm like, you know what, maybe because I've got a little bit more endurance, I can make it to the second mailbox.

I can make it 200 yards.

And as I continue to be consistent and I can continue to work against that resistance, maybe then I can make it a half a mile.

And then in a couple of months, maybe I can make it two miles.

And then in a few more months, maybe I can make it five miles.

But I didn't wanna just show up and run five miles the first day.

I have to be consistent.

I have to have resistance.

And I have to keep on keeping on and never give up.

It takes time.

But so many of us are like, you know what, I'm gonna come to Jesus.

And all of a sudden, everything is gonna be incredible and phenomenal.

And the moment that first mailbox comes, we say, I'm gonna quit because Jesus didn't deliver all He said He was gonna deliver.

Let me encourage you today.

The Bible says this in Hebrews 12 verse one, it says, let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

Don't you quit at the first mailbox.

God's gonna do what He says He's gonna do, but you can expect there to be telephone poles and mailboxes on your journey of faith.

And if you are going to quit on where God is taking you at the first mailbox, that is a choice that you make.

Some things are coming against your faith to grow you in endurance, to prepare you for greater things and greater heights and to do more with your life, but it don't happen overnight.

It is a journey.

It is a faith journey.

And faith has to be built just like your muscles, just like your lungs.

It has to be built on a journey.

And if you're gonna have the endurance, to do all God's called you to do, you have to stay the course and not give up.

My friend, I've been doing this nearly 20 years now.

We planted this church over 20 years ago in a living room.

We moved it to hotel conference rooms.

We've seen people come and we've seen people go.

We had multiple campuses.

We've had campuses on, again, we've seen people come and put their faith in Jesus and then walk away instead of becoming all God's designed them to be.

And again, my encouragement to you today is God didn't bring you to be a part of a church family to walk away.

He brought you into a church family to build you up in your faith so together we can bring him glory and we can be all he's designed us to be and we can bring hope to a hurting world.

But you've gotta make a decision that you're gonna allow God to build you up.

And at the first sign of resistance, you don't have to quit.

I've watched people over the years serve.

Serve and quit.

And I need you to know today, God did not call you to do everything in the church.

But serving is the way you build endurance.

The Bible says, as a matter of fact, you're created to serve in the local church.

Says it this way.

It says, we are God's masterpiece.

Ephesians two, verse 10.

We, everybody say we.

That means multiple people.

We are God's masterpiece, created anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good works he created for us to do before the foundation of the world.

So what that tells me is we have ministry to do but it's bigger than just one piece, it's lots of pieces.

And together, if we work it together, we can grow in our serving and our serving doesn't snuff out our faith.

But I've watched people along my journey say, you know what, I'm burnt out on ministry.

And if you're burnt out on ministry, I gotta ask you the question, are you trying to do too many of the parts that you don't respect the rest of the people around you?

But I also gotta declare to you, with responsibility or with what God's entrusted to you, there will be more and more responsibility that you have to take on.

But God will not entrust things to you to burn you out.

He entrusts things to you so you can become great in ministry.

So maybe some of the things that are coming against you and making you tired are there to build you up instead of break you down.

And I just wanna encourage you today that ministry teams are a great place to serve.

But you know what, it's not a place where you quit.

No, ministry teams are there to develop my endurance with my faith as I do my part.

And that's why we invite people to serve on a ministry team.

Get in the game.

Do something with your life because God designed you to do something with your life.

And again, 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse seven says it this way, a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

So we can help each other on this journey of faith.

And so if you put your faith and belief in the finished work of Jesus on a cross and you believe he died to pay the penalty of humanity's sin and he died for your sin on that cross and three days later he rose from a grave and you have put your faith in that resurrected Jesus, I'm here to declare to you that my Bible says that God gives you an assignment, gives you a spiritual gift.

And the reason he gives you a spiritual gift is so that you can participate with that gift in the local church and bring hope to a hurting world and develop your own endurance and bring glory to him.

It's to help each other.

So my gift is developing me, helping me have endurance with my faith.

And I can't quit on the journey because I'm getting tired with my gift.

I might need to pull back and get some physical rest sometimes with my gift, but my gift is here for helping the local church and it's to build my endurance inside of me.

And yours is the same way.

It's to build your faith endurance.

As you're doing that ministry, God is going to build your endurance.

The Bible also says in Romans 12, as it speaks about spiritual gifts in verse 11, never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

So again, valorous matters because we offer environments for you to step in and serve with your spiritual gifts.

Life groups are a place that you can begin to get real stripped down, you know what, and get rid of some weight, but ministry teams are the place you step in and begin to develop endurance.

And then the last thing I wrote down about this passage of scripture is valorous matters because we create environments for us to stay focused while running the race.

As an old coach used to tell me, keep the main thing, the main thing.

And I need you to know today what the main thing is here at Valorous Church.

The main thing is Jesus resurrected from a grave so you could have life and have it everlasting.

But you have to develop your endurance to develop your endurance so your faith can grow.

You have to stick yourself in the game.

Some people say, man, I don't feel like I'm fulfilling my destiny in life.

And I gotta ask you the question, are you developing your endurance on this faith journey?

Because again, that's what God calls us to do, but we have to stay focused on the main thing in this race.

Listen to how it says it in Hebrews 12, verses two and three.

He says, we do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus.

Jesus is the main thing.

The champion who initiates, listen to this, he starts our faith and he perfects our faith.

You want your faith to become perfected?

You gotta keep your eyes on Jesus.

And it goes on to say because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross.

There was something out in front of him that caused him to endure the pain of the cross, that caused him to go through the difficulties and the ridicule and people spitting upon him and whipping him and talking about him and doing all of these things.

He felt the sin of the world on his shoulders.

He held the sin of the world on his shoulders, but the Bible says he still endured the cross.

And the Bible says the way he endured that cross is he had a joy set before him.

What was that joy that was set before him?

It was that you and I and people down through the ages would respond to the gift that God gave on that cross and begin to operate by faith in this world and trust him with our heart.

The joy was you, my friend.

The joy was me.

Jesus took on the weight of that cross, the cruelty of that cross, all the pain of that cross for you and for me so that we would come to know God's amazing love, step into his presence and begin to let him nurture our faith and build our faith so that we could be all he's designed us to be.

And the Bible says he starts it and he perfects it.

And I like to say it this way, all of it begins with Jesus and ends with Jesus, but everything in between has to do with Jesus and you putting your faith in it and choosing to follow him all the days of your life.

And so the Bible says he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and now you're seated in the place of honor beside God's throne.

Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people.

And then you won't become weary and you won't give up.

You won't give up on the life of faith.

See, the church matters because the church is a place that you can strip off the weights and the old stuff.

The church is a place where you can get involved in bringing hope to the world with the gifts that God has given you and begin to develop your faith.

The church matters because the church is what's designed to keep us all focused as we're running this race called life and keep the main thing the main thing.

And we need to understand something.

We put our hope in a Jesus that hasn't just quit on us.

We put our hope in a Jesus that defeated sin, defeated the grave, rose, and he sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

And we are a church that believes that he is coming back for his family and his people.

And we're a church that believes he is on the way.

And those who remain faithful are gonna hear, well done, my good and faithful servant.

You see, this isn't just a religious community.

This is a community that we have chose to put our faith in Jesus.

And we have chose to stick and let God develop that faith.

The Bible says this in James 1, verses three and four.

It says, you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

See, I love that.

It says, let your endurance grow.

My friend, every one of us has a choice.

We can begin to let our faith grow by rooting ourself down in the house of the Lord and surrounding ourself with a group of people that's gonna build us up, or we can keep trying to do it on our own.

And again, if this community of believers, if Valorous Church is a family of believers that God's trying to connect you to, I wanna encourage you today.

Find a family or a group of believers that you can connect to to begin to build you up in your faith.

But I'm also inviting you to not just join up with a group of people who are gonna pat you on the fanny and tell you everything's okay and never challenge you.

Because our God doesn't just pat us on the fanny and never challenges us.

Our God says, look, no, no, I'm trying to get the old stuff out to get the right stuff in.

I'm trying to help you run this race and fully be complete in your life.

So get around some people that's gonna challenge you.

Get around some people that's gonna grow you.

Get around some people who's gonna help each other develop on this journey.

The church isn't my idea.

The local church is God's idea.

It's for you.

And it's to help a hurting world find hope.

So let's be a church that brings God glory, that builds each other up in our faith and begins to help a world around us respond to that faith.

Let me pray for you today.

God, you're an amazing God.

I thank you for this message.

I thank you for speaking to this group of early believers who were under persecution.

And God, may we be a church that keeps the main thing the main thing.

We keep Jesus at the center of our heart, the center of our lives, the center of our church.

May He be our focus.

And God, may we be a church that involves ourself, works together, uses our gifts and surrounds ourself with people who are going to forgive us, speak truth into us and build us up in our faith.

May we be a church that's a shining light in this community because we are here and our love for one another shines brightly as we work through the challenges.

God, may we be a committed people.

May we be a strong, committed people.

May we be an anchor of hope in this community for people to find hope in Christ Jesus.

May we keep on keeping on.

And God, we pray that in the midst of the struggles, Lord Jesus, you come.

You come, Lord Jesus, you come as we begin to speak this truth to the world around us.

It is in your name we pray.

Amen.