 We started having this term called keeping it real. They still use it now. Matter of fact, there's even if you type in keeping it real, you might see somewhere where it says where keeping it real goes wrong. We used to say, or we may still say, let's just be real. Let's be honest. Let's face facts. Serious. Or seriously. Or let's keep it 100. All the different ways we can say, let's just be honest with ourselves. But let's be honest also. When we say, let's keep it real, because today we're going to keep it real. When we say that, we typically mean you need to keep it real, not me. I'm not into keeping it real. Matter of fact, I want you to see me how I see me, whether it's real or not. Now, you don't think that, but the first time someone wants to keep it real with you, no, the devil is a lie, right? But when you say it to them, I don't know why they can't see what I can see. How many of you, I've done this before, it's not a pleasant experience. You all have seen this before, where you've taken a mirror, the mirror that has the two sides, the one that looks regular, and then the one that shows you real up close. You know, this is when the mirror's keeping it real. Shows you your pores and shows you your blemishes. Yeah, that's the mirror you want to rebuke, that mirror, nobody likes that mirror. Why not? Because yeah, too close, show too much. It's too honest. The mirror is really keeping it real, and you can't say nothing to the mirror, because that's you. And so what do we do? We'll put some makeup on, we'll do this, we'll do that, we'll cover something up. We do, because we all got mirrors. Nowadays, even men look in the mirror more than women. So we all are concerned about how we look. But can I be honest with you guys? You're not that, you really aren't. You're not that pretty, you're not that strong, you're not that wise, you're not any of those things. And so now it's not meant, what I'm saying is not meant to kind of put anybody down, but just to keep it real. Now, as you get older, you start realizing that all your efforts to keep it real that went wrong, that was not the world or not anybody else's you. Matter of fact, there's one somebody that will always keep it real with you. There's one somebody that will always make sure that you come back down there. I'm not talking about God. No, no, the one somebody that will always make sure that you keep it real even if you don't want to, make you face facts, face reality is life. But I can promise you, life don't think that highly of you. Can I give you an example? I've told people before that I was homeless. Folks say, but Corey, how'd you get homeless? Me keeping it real and it went wrong. I used to play football at Texas Tech and this was the summer after my freshman year. My father did not realize who I was. My father, now this is back in now, I know y'all thinking as adorable as I am back then when I had hair, even more adorable. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Yeah, how could that be? Sometimes, and some of you guys can testify, when you lose hair, you just go up in value. It's a few guys that understand that. But here I am, all of 19 years old. Almost about, as you would say when you're a teenager, I'm 19 and a half. I'm getting close to 20. And me and my father ain't saying out of eye. Daddy, I don't need you. Listen, I'm about to go back to college. I only have a few more weeks before some break is up, going back to school. And so, yeah, I don't all these rules you got and this and that and BN at a certain time. I'm grown. Okay, what do you think he said? Do what grown folks do then. Bye. Now I left in his car. I left in his car. Now this wasn't a good day because I left in his car. Got my music up, driving about 55 miles. This was when the speed limit wasn't 70 y'all. 55 miles an hour, only 45. And somebody had the audacity to stop at a yellow. And so I ran into him in my father's car. I had to call him back up, said, Daddy, here's the car, need you come get it? Me keeping it real, listen, your car got wrecked. He was hot. But I'm getting ready to go off to college. I'm gonna save my friend's house. I get a call from the football coach because he's keeping it real with me. I was a jerk in school. And so I tell you what, since you don't know how to grow up, you don't have a scholarship. So if you wanna come back, have your daddy pay for it. Now this is all in the same day. This is all in the same day. This is where you can see keeping it real going wrong. I can't go back to the house. I don't have a car and don't have a place to stay. And don't have the money. I'm homeless because of my own. Now guess what I did though? I'm gonna do like everybody else. I'm gonna blame my daddy. I'm gonna blame the coach. I'm blaming everybody but myself. But you go back and you look at examples in your life. You see all the time that you was trying to keep it real and it went wrong, that was on you. No, and they're putting people that's gonna blame everybody else for their mistakes, for their failures. They're not keeping it real with themselves. And so for me, I wanna make sure that today we keep it real. Matter of fact, let's make it even more personal since we're in church. How many of you all by show of hands? Just raise your hand if you believe that you are a Christian. Just raise your hand. I'm going somewhere with this. I don't care if you're 555, 75, raise your hand if you believe that you are Christian. Now, keep your hand up. Keep it up, keep it up. Just look around and look at the folks that ain't. No, I'm kidding. I'm not gonna tell you to do that. But can I tell you the honest truth though? The larger the room, the bigger the people that, the larger the crowd of professed Christians that there are the likelihood that everybody who say they are ain't. I mean, let's just keep it real. Because how bad would it be to come to church, have a Bible, have different devices where you got your Bible or the word on those different things, and you might have a shirt that has a religious statement or whatever, a Christian statement, you may listen to gospel, music, contemporary, whatever. How bad would that be? You do all that and then go to hell. Can I submit to you that the person that does that is the biggest fool ever? Let me just keep it real. Because you are this close, this close, and nobody ever kept it real with you. Now, we're gonna look at those that are and those that ain't, and how to distinguish between the two. And then you will be able to judge for yourself because we're gonna let you keep it real with yourself. Because I can't tell. I can't look at you or you or you and say, you know what, you're not safe. Because on the day that Peter denied Christ, yeah, yeah, Peter, no, no, no. Matter of fact, you did what a few ever did. Verbally, at your mouth, you realize Jesus was in his presence. He was just on the other side of the court and saw, made eye contact after he denied him out of his mouth. Now, I don't know Jesus. I swear to God, I don't know God. Kind of what Peter did. On that day and the day after that, you wouldn't have thought that he was. And so I can't judge. No one can really judge. Sometimes we can't. But there are in many cases, you really can't. And so this is where you gonna have to keep it real. This is where you gonna have to make sure that you are being honest with yourself. So what I wanna do is go to a couple passages and I wanna look at those folks who are not. Because the Bible will tell us how you can determine, how you can know if you are. And also share with us in his word how we can know that we are not. And there's gonna be a little bit of confusion because as we go through this, you might see yourself in both of them. Those that are not and those that are. But we gonna fix it and give you a way to see if you are. Amen. So if you would, go to 1st John chapter three. And the New Living Translation? New Living Translation. I tend to read out of the, actually I don't wanna read out of anyone in particular, but I'm gonna show you something because this is the same in all the translations. There's a little bit of confusion. And so let's starting in verse four. And immediately it says that everyone who sins is breaking God's law. For all sin is contrary to the law of God. Verse five. And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins and there is no sin in him. Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. Dear children, verse seven. Do not let anyone deceive you about this. When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. Verse eight. But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil. Who has been sinning since the beginning? But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born into God's family do not make a practice of sinning because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning because they are children of God, verse 10. So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love others or the believers does not belong to God. Now, here's the problem with that. Can any of you people that have raised your hand, which is all of you, ever identify with any of these things? Does it ever look like sometimes? I kind of do that stuff, though. There's, man, if you followed me around, if someone was videotaping them, pretty sure somebody has. I didn't look like a Christian. Some of y'all going to work next week. Tomorrow. And you know good and well. You don't, matter of fact, if you told your coworkers you were a Christian, they'd be, what, really? I didn't know. Because sometimes, let's be honest, let's keep it real. Sometimes we just don't look like, act like, speak like, think like, move like Christians. Sometimes what we read in 1 John 3 is what we see in ourselves. And so now what I wanna do is, how many of you all are in school, work at a school, work for a school or teach? Since we tend to have more members on average that work for a school district or in a school district, then I don't know what it is about the membership here, Pastor, but got a lot of folks here that are associated with DISD, FISD, or any other ISD. So you all can identify what I'm about to say. Hopefully you can, especially your teachers. Best of your teachers. How many of y'all know what a participle is? Uh-oh. Oh, go on it. What's happening with our students? I see. The teachers, no, I'm kidding. A participle has different nuances. So I won't go into all of the basics. Just think of this way. I-N-G. In. So when you say someone is, now it's not total, okay? This is just kind of some basic definition. But when you think run, making the participle they are running, it's like a state of this. Are you with me? Now, one of the things that God has done that sometimes our English betrays is his actual meaning. And so sometimes the English text is gonna try to give you an insight to what the Greek or the Hebrew is trying to say. Are you with me? So if we go back up to verse, let's go back to verse four in chapter three. Everyone who sins is breaking the law. For some reason, mine is off. Let me fix this real quick, because I thought I had this thing synced up. But anyway, the word that's used here, there is a participle, the one that is sinning. As a matter of fact, you'll see this word in Greek that means to do or to make, poeo, or in this case, poeon, which is the participle. This is a present active participle, which is why your English translation is gonna say the one, as we're reading, the one who makes a practice of sinning. Not sinning, because all of you sin. Matter of fact, you were born to sin. If you don't think you're born to sin, grab the nearest two-year-old, or five-year-old, or 20-year-old, or 40, and see, that's just what we do. I used to wet the bed. My mama asked me, Corey, why you wet the bed? Because mama, that's what I do. I wet the bed. That's why that's what I am. I had a practice of doing, and I was comfortable in it, because I know somebody's gonna change the sheets, and I'll get washed up, and I'm good to go. I said, why? I would say that I wasn't that old, but I did get to be a little bit older. I'm not gonna tell you how old I was when I stopped, but that was my, that was what I did, right? I had a practice of wetting the bed. Now, don't raise your hand, but ask yourself, do I have a practice of sinning? It might be difficult to figure that out right now, but just let your mind work a little bit. Now, what I wanna do now is, I wanna go to the next chapter, because I wanna talk about what God says about those, or how you can know that you are one of His. These are the people that were subscribed that are not believers, but now I wanna look at the people that actually are believers. And so, standing first, John, going over to chapter five, matter of fact, let me put this on here, because it's by of me. I'm trying to look at the actual text here, and it's killing me. I've got two different texts up. Okay. So now, okay. So, if I look at verse five, it says everyone who believes, verse one, that Jesus is Christ has become a child of God. The word that's used there, and it's the Greek past, present active participle, it is past, hapistoan. That pistoan, belief in Greek faith, is the present active participle. So what does a participle mean, teacher? Those that are doing is a state of. The Bible does not describe a Christian as someone who believed, or believes it describes a Christian as someone who is believing. That's why you need to become very familiar with the ING, the in in your life. So he says everyone who is believing, pasapistoan, all the ones that are believing that Jesus is a Christ. Now, you need to understand something. There's a head knowledge. An unbeliever can believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for us. An unbeliever can believe that he had to do it because a debt was owed, we couldn't pay it, and that by having faith, or believing that that he did, would gain us eternal life. An unbeliever can believe that, can make what we call mental ascent. Can I recognize the facts? I see the facts and I agree with that. But there's a difference between that kind of belief and the belief ING that we are as Christians. So he says everyone who believes or was believing that Jesus is a Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves, and oh, by the way, it's agapone, guess what that is? ING. When you see what God is talking about that he's describing us as the Ings, sounds bad, it's not good English, but that's what a believer is. I believe in one, a loving one. John 10 makes this case, we won't go there, but in John 10, he talks about how he is a shepherd and how his sheep are following him, how his sheep are hearing him, and when they hear a stranger's voice, they will run away, they'll fall away, and then he makes this statement in 27, 28, that my sheep I give eternal life and they shall never ever perish. Not only will they not fall away or walk away, nor can anyone snatch them out of my father's hand. So a sheep is someone who has a habit of following. Now, have you ever seen a sheep? Have you ever seen them follow? You may not seen one, but you've seen the sheep's cousin, the kid's children. Have you had your children follow you? Do they follow you in a straight line? Now, the priors got about, what do you got? 12, 11 kids? Something like that. So I can imagine when y'all go somewhere, can you just imagine all the kids following? I can imagine, because I know. They don't follow in a straight line. Matter of fact, every now and then, you gotta say, hey, come on, you gotta grab one, you gotta pull one. I've even seen folks get to the point where they put lassoes or leashes on their kids, because hey, this, so just to keep them following, just so they don't struggle, but guess what they will do? Every time mama or daddy say, come on, what do they do? Pop up and keep coming. They may follow sideways, they may follow going forward, they may even follow, because their kids follow backwards. That's what kids do. That's what sheep do. Guess what he describes us as, as sheep. So we make a practice of following. In First John 5, though, he says that everyone who is believing that is Jesus, is that he's a Christ, has become a child of God. Everyone who is loving the Father loves his children too. Look at this. We know we love God's children if we love God and obey his commandments. Loving God means keeping his commandments. This is not referring to the Ten Commandments, guys, just keeping his teachings. And his teachings are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil one. The word for defeat or overcome in some of your verses might say is this Greek word for nike or nikke or nikon. It is a, what tense of the verb you all think that's in? I-N-G. You ain't even got to remember, you ain't even got to remember participles. All you got to remember is the Ings, I-N-G. This is what we do. We are overcoming. Who overcomes the world? Now, how many of y'all believe you're overcomers? But how many of y'all feel it all the time now? I don't feel like it. Matter of fact, Lord, if I'm such an overcomer, why don't these bills know it? Lord, if I'm such an overcomer, why did my loneliness know it? Lord, if I'm such an overcomer, why doesn't the job get it? It seems like at some point in time that I'm not overcoming. Well, because overcoming is what you will realize at the end. It's kind of like anybody watched a basketball game or a football game on repeat, you know the score, but you go back and watch it. You know your team won, but it's the first quarter, they're down, don't you still look at that team as winning, having won? Same thing here. So God looks at us as overcoming, but what do we do? We look at the different obstacles in the way and cause us to feel like I'm not overcoming. So let's look what he says. He says, verse five, and who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe, and this word, let's make sure I'm reading it right, those who are believing that ING is still there, the high pistol one, or in this case, the high pistol one, the believing. And then he makes a statement down at the bottom. He says that, how do we know that we overcome? What caused us to overcome? What is it that overcomes? It is our faith, this believing. Now the question is, and this is where the confusion comes in, so, Anthony, I need you to help me out. This is where the confusion comes in. Because as I'm trying to keep it real, I don't fully, I wanna keep it real, come on Sage. I wanna know which one I am. Cause I think I'm safe, but then I might be safe. Has anyone ever questioned your salvation? Come on, come on, let's keep it real. If you've never questioned your salvation, you might not be safe. Why would I say that? Because if you really are saved, when you mess up and you do mess up, it's gonna bother you. And you'll have a string of successes, successive mess ups. Christians don't keep messing like that. No, but you do. Paul says the good that I wanna do, I don't do the bad that I wanna stop doing, the things I wanna stop doing, I keep doing. Now this is Paul, this is Paul. Yeah, but that's Paul, I ain't Paul. I ain't Paul, and if you would've saw what I was looking at last night, you wouldn't think I would say. I'm questioned, matter of fact, I got this habit, this thing I just can't shake. So now, what I wanna do is kinda make a distinction, and we'll go ahead and close. Sometimes you feel like you are first John chapter three. You are sinning. And then sometimes you feel like you are first John chapter five, believing. Sometimes you feel like a Christian, sometimes you feel like you're not. Sometimes you feel like you're a believer, sometimes you're not. Sometimes you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don't. I was wondering, I knew somebody, there we go, there we go. So how do I know the difference? Well, I'm gonna need Preston to come help me out as well. Move the microphone. Now, I've got this young man who I dearly love. He's got some problems though, he's not the biggest. He's got some hair out of the way. He's got too much hair. I don't like his hair, but I love him to death. Preston, need you to stand up. This is what I want y'all to see. This is what I want you to see. Y'all do realize that Christians abide in Christ. Christians keep abiding. Christians keep believing. Christians keep following. I'm a Christian, but today I wouldn't abide and I wouldn't follow. I wouldn't, I believe, but I was on something else. How do we become overcomers? How do we know we're saved is because we what? Believe. Is that right? No, it's not. I just told y'all, believing. We are believing. Not believed. Anybody can believe or believe duh. Look at Luke eight as he talked about the parable of the seed, the sower. He literally talks about people that believed and then Satan comes and takes it out of their hearts so that they won't be believing. That's literally what he says in the Greek. And so you can believe. Yeah, I know Jesus is a Christ. I know that. Yeah, I know, yeah. But I'll get real with him later. So now, how do I know that I believe? The word for believe means trust. Okay, so we say believe or trust. How do I know I trust? Here we have a chair. I don't know why Luther just popped in my head, but a chair is still in anyway. Some of y'all don't. Let's keep it real. Some of y'all know who Luther is. But he pressed it to keep it real. What is the chair made for? To sit in. Right now, nobody's sitting in it. But the chair will give you rest. Take the load off. Now do me a favor. What's your name again son? Okay, okay. Want to be Corey? Have a seat. Does the chair suit you, is it holding you? Okay, cool. All right, you know it holds you. Okay, get up. This chair would represent Christ. So whenever you want rest, you sit in the chair. I believe that the chair can hold me. I'm tired. I'm sick of my feet hurting me. I've got fallen arches. I've got swollen corns. I've got all kinds of issues. I've got athlete's feet and I've got gangrene. All that I want to sit down. My knees hurt. I'm just tired. Wouldn't it be cool if the Bible actually put a verse in there that says if anyone is heavy laden, burden. Wouldn't it be cool if the Bible actually had a verse that said to come to him and he'll give you. That'd be cool. Maybe we ought to write that in the Bible somewhere. Oh, it's in there? Oh, okay. It actually is. Okay, okay. So there we've got rest. I want to make this as visually clear for you guys. This is a brother who says he's a Christian. I know he is. I see him get up. I see him read his Bible. I see him bathe his children in the Bible. I see him, they don't, good men of God. At least it looks like it. Looks like it. I don't know what's on his phone. I don't know what he does when he drives to work. I don't know what he's looking at when Morgan's not around. I don't know. Have no idea. Morgan's over there wondering like, what is he watching? What is he? But he looks like a good Christian brother. How we know he is is by who he trusts. So let's make this real. So if you trust this chair to hold you, what would you do, Anthony? Sit in it. Now, I mean, you step over there for a little bit. I need Preston to stand right here. Pret, no, not in the chair. Preston got some nice eyes on him. Now, if we look at, matter of fact, let's move it over, I want everyone on the camera to be able to see it. If we look at Anthony, stand beside him Preston. I mean Anthony. It's a little bit of a difference. Now, I'm pretty sure if we said if there was a fight, most folks putting their money on Preston. Preston got some size on him. Preston got a decent haircut and all. So Preston like, you know, maybe, maybe not. Here's what we tend to do. Anthony, can you face Preston, please? You face him too. This is typically how we are as Christians. The problem, we face the problem. Right behind him is what? The chair, the solution, the trust. And so we go all day long, all week long, all month long, talking about the problem. It's a chair right there. He's not stopping him from getting in the chair. He's just in view of him. Anthony, can you do us a favor? Instead of you fighting, possibly getting beat, you might win, you might win for the moment. But what's the smart thing to do? Now, what he doesn't have to realize, what he doesn't have to do, stay right there for a second, Preston, what he doesn't have to do is question the chair. You can sit in a chair, brace yourself, hold on, get a good wide base, just in case the chair don't hold you. You can do that. If you do that while sitting in the chair, what does that tell us? You don't trust the chair. So now, can you do me a favor, Preston? Can you hover over him for a little bit? However you want to. Now, what would the normal person do who's sitting in the chair and face the problem? You let, so what is he showing he's not doing? Believing, trusting. But go back and sit in the chair. Do me a favor, Preston. You got some size on you. Can you grab the back of that chair for us? I just wanna see if it's gonna work out. I wanna make sure I've got some things straight. Can you just shake the chair a little bit? Okay. But yet he's still sitting in the chair. He came right now, what Preston can't do? Matter of fact, get up for a second, Anthony. Do me a favor for a second now. This is only a problem, life, world. Can you break that chair for me? You can't pull it apart? Okay, I'll just. Now, it's just a chair. Y'all do know somebody gave us the ability to create this chair, right? Y'all do know somebody's actually stronger than this chair, right? So why do we treat the chair any better than we treat God? If you are, now this is how you know. Today is Sunday. It is 1205. 12, 15, 12, 30, something's gonna happen. Preston's gonna show up. Yeah, Preston's gonna show up. Maybe two Prestons. Maybe, listen, I'm not getting on your looks, but maybe a prettier Preston. A more shapely Preston. Yeah. A batten her eyes Preston. Switching her hips Preston. They got all kind of stuff. By the way ladies, y'all keep some stuff covered up please. It's just a little FYI. Yeah, can I just say y'all this? Listen, I don't care how godly the man is. You still don't put it in front of him. Amen? That's just side note, side note. But Preston comes in all different form shapes and sizes. It's gonna come 12, 15, 12, 30, Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Thursday night, three in the morning. In your dreams. Preston's gonna show up. I shouldn't say Preston, now we're gonna make Preston's synonymous with the world in the sand. But this big brother's gonna show up. What you gonna do? I submit to you, this is how you know. If you are, if you're not. Anthony, can you demonstrate again please? Just so we can have visual. That's it. You know you are his because you keep doing that. You keep trusting. You keep believing. You keep, now, so let me just put it this way. I said all that to say this, you ain't all that. Let's just keep it real. You're not that pretty. You're not that smart. You're not that wise. You're not that strong. You don't look that good, but I know someone who does. You're not that smart, but I know someone who is smart. You're not that wise, but I know someone who is. More to the point, you're not that faithful, but I know someone who is. You're not good, keeping it real, but I know someone who is. And all you gotta do is rest in him or trust in him or have faith in him by ING part. Because if you're doing that, what you cannot do is that this is the pattern of your lifestyle sitting in this chair, you can't be practicing the other thing. Are you with me? So, as I said before, you would be a fool to the 10th degree. I don't know if that's even proper to say it that way, but you'd be a big fool to be here, or any church, or to have any Bible. You literally have what God decided to leave with us, his word. I don't have a better word than you have. My Bible is no better than yours. Matter of fact, we got access to every translation on the planet. You would be a, let me say it again, I wanna make this clear, I wanna make this concise, and for some people, I wanna make it biting. You are a fool if you leave here today, and you don't know which one you are. Keeping it real. Because if you go to hell, you keep it real there. You'll know where you are. You would be a fool, it's all you gotta do. Lord, I'm not sure. Okay, I'm not sure. As the man said, did Jesus help my unbelief? As Jesus is speaking to Lazarus' sister, he asked her, do you believe? Do you believe? More to the point, are you believing? Amen.