I don't have a recollection of that at all. All right. Well, as you guys--since you guys are all here, you guys know all the stuff that transpired over the last few days. And you also have been aware that the theme is on drifting. So it's not like a easy theme.

We're not talking about like joy or peace or loving each other or like just true fellowship. We're talking about some serious stuff. We're talking about your souls. And I think ultimately what I wanted for our group to get out of it really was rest. To sort through all of the noisy clutter and all of the distractions to come together, to look into His Word, to be challenged by His Word and at the same time uplifted by His Word and just to find rest.

There's no pastor who can give you rest. There's no great praise music that can give you rest. There's no amount of fellowship that can give you rest. The rest really comes from just communing with the Lord. Amen? And location doesn't matter. I would have preferred to have been in Idyllwild.

My kids cried because we couldn't go play with the snow. And then they kept looking at the street and they're like, "Why did the mountain break?" and stuff. So they're sad. And I was sad that they were sad. But it is what it is. And one thing that I--and I'm used to change.

You know, I was on 70 flights a year from 2012 to 2018. And a lot of times when you take 20, 30 strangers to different countries, a lot of things don't go the way you planned. And so you just roll with the punches and move. But the more obstacles that are in the way of a work of God, usually there are bigger blessings attached.

And so last night I was actually here up on the stage around 11 o'clock just praying. I had no idea we'd be here just last night. But I was just praying that God would give us a time of rest. And so I'm hoping to do that. Tonight's topic is not restful.

Tonight's topic is actually one that will cause us to struggle. Even the holiest of people will look at it and wrestle. And so fortunately the messages don't end tonight. But tonight is going to be mostly about drifting. And that is not a pleasant topic. So if you guys have your Bibles, turn to Matthew 7 and then we'll pray.

We'll ask the Lord's blessing and then we'll start our session one. Matthew 7, we're going to read verses 13 and onward. But before we do that, let's just pray to the Lord for just His guidance at this time. The Father, we pray that you would help us to understand your heart for us, your love for us, that you, God, gave your only begotten Son, that we would have eternal life.

And eternal life, we know, Lord, is not about a place, but it is about a person. It's about a relationship. And God, we get so entangled with the things of this world that we lose sight of our purpose. So we pray that tonight that you would start just the work of resuscitation for those of us who are struggling, that you would start genuine repentance and worship in our hearts and be reminded of our identity in Christ.

Protect this pulpit. Protect our hearts. We pray that you would help us not to be sleepy even, but to be fully engaged in your Word. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I didn't pick the theme. If you don't like the theme, you have your BAM inReach team and core members to thank for it.

But our theme is drifting, the dangers of drifting. And when they first told me that this was a theme, I actually was glad that we're starting with this because there are real dangers, and you guys are all very aware that there are dangers in your life. And I don't even have to go into the various things that compete for your heart's affections.

But the theme comes from Hebrews 2 to 1, or 2 chapter 2, verse 1, about how we need to take care that we don't drift. And we're going to be looking at this tonight and tomorrow. Coincidentally, you guys know that Pastor Peter started a series on the book of Hebrews, right?

And in the last two sermons, he actually brought up the dangers of drifting. And he said, "We never drift toward what? Who? We never drift towards God. We always kind of drift away." So he emphasized this. And for you and me living here in Orange County, drifting is a very real and present danger.

And so, like I said, we didn't necessarily intend for all of this timing to be put together like this, but I am very thankful because it will cause us to kind of focus our attentions on what's important and what's not. So what causes drifting? What are the things that are scary about drifting?

How do we prevent it? And I'm sure for every single one of you, you absolutely do not want to drift too far away. If you didn't care, you wouldn't be here, but you don't want to drift too far away. And I'm sure there are some of you in here, you're putting your, you know, your church face on and you're saying the right stuff, but in your hearts, you feel like you're already drifting and you're so discouraged you don't know how to swim back.

So I want, if that's you, I want this retreat really to be one that is filled with hope, okay? How many of you guys would prefer to pick someone up at John Wayne over LAX? Raise your hand if that's the case. If you have a friend coming in, if you have a family member coming in.

I hate LAX. I've been to many airports in the world. LAX sucks. I hate it. So I would much rather, so when the India team was leaving for John Wayne, I'm like, no problem, I don't mind waking up at like 4 or something. I have no problem going to John Wayne airport because it is close.

But if you were to pick up someone who just left JFK, you guys know where JFK is? It's New York, right? If they leave JFK on a flight toward John Wayne, but they're just one degree off, they end up at LAX. So I would hate to be waiting at John Wayne and get a phone call from one of you, let's say, you're like, actually, I'm at LAX.

Can you come pick me up from LAX? I would say sure, but in my heart I would wrestle with hatred, right? Because it would take a couple hours to get there, because the freeway usually is not that bad, it's just when you get off the ramp, sometimes leading up to the airport takes an hour in and of itself.

I hate LAX. But coincidentally, from John Wayne to LAX is 42 miles. So if you're leaving from JFK, coming toward John Wayne, and you're off one degree, you go 50 miles adrift. If you are leaving from Long Beach Harbor, and you want to go to Maui, I don't know why you would want to do this on a boat, but let's say for adventure's sake, you leave Long Beach to go to Maui, and you're one degree off, you end up in a very hostile territory of Papua New Guinea.

One degree. So one degree off course from JFK to John Wayne, no biggie, a couple hours lost. But one degree off course, Long Beach to Maui, you can end up with your life endangered. So even one degree, given enough time, can radically take you away from where you're supposed to go.

I'm looking right here, okay? What does one degree look like? I actually moved about three, okay? But one degree is not a big drift, but if you give it enough time, you end up very far off course. And you know that when we usually drift, we're not just drifting one degree.

If there's like a swell or a storm in our life, oftentimes it ends up changing our entire trajectory, and this you guys are all well aware of. If you drop your compass and you have to just figure stuff out by sight, you're screwed. One degree makes a big difference.

So we're going to start out today in the first of our three sermons by looking at how frightening spiritual drifting and strain can be for us. And imagine right now where you're sitting, I'm hoping that you are hoping to get to heaven at the end of your earthly journey.

I am hoping that you have assurance of your salvation that at the great white throne judgment, you will be pronounced innocent. That's what I'm hoping you're hoping. But what if you're convinced that you're headed there and then you end up in a place where you don't want to go?

That's a scary thought. So we need to think through seriously how not to drift. You have to pay careful attention. And what do we pay attention to? What do we avoid? And we're going to look at that tonight. So Matthew 7, 13, you guys are probably familiar with this.

This is on the Sermon on the Mount. But I'm going to outline it for you first. So if you're taking notes, you can just kind of follow along. The first point is don't follow the crowds, Matthew 7, 13 to 14. Don't follow the crowds, 13 to 14. Second, don't follow blindly and don't follow the blind, verses 15 to 20.

Don't follow blindly and don't follow the blind, 15 to 20. Third, don't follow false fruits, chapter 7, verse 21 to 23. One, don't follow the crowds, 13 to 14. Two, don't follow blindly, don't follow the blind, verses 15 to 20. And third, don't follow false fruits. If you are having a hard time keeping up, just email me.

I'll send you my notes. So don't stress too much about that. Okay. Verse 13 to 14, don't trust the crowds. Let's look at this together. Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction. And there are many who enter through it, for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

So what Jesus is saying here is the wide and the broad lead to what? Destruction. Okay. And then the small and the narrow lead to life, but only a few find the small and the narrow. And that's what it's saying. So a question that I have for you that you don't have to answer out loud, please do not answer out loud, just think through your head.

Is this person sitting on my right or my left? On the wide and the broad or the small and the narrow? Is this person on my right and on my left, is he on the broad and the wide or is he in the small and the narrow? It's kind of uncomfortable to think about, but what would you gauge that with?

What would you judge that with? Where is this person on my right or my left? Where are they headed? Are the pastors at our church on the wide and the broad or the small and the narrow? I know what you're hoping for, okay, but are we, the four of us, indeed on the wide and the broad or the small and the narrow?

And a more personal question, are you on the wide and the broad or the small and the narrow? How can you know for sure? What gate am I entering through and what road am I on? So this is a very important question. Naja has a few who'd agree with that.

And you don't want to get this one wrong, okay? Is there a way to know for sure where you're headed? Is there a way to know for sure you have the right answer and you're headed in the right direction? Because the person on your right and the left can't answer that for you.

That is something that you have to discern, okay? So here's a description. Jesus is saying, "Many are headed toward destruction. Few are headed toward life." So for you and me, it's absolutely imperative every now and then to look around to see where my spiritual feet are, okay? So don't blindly follow the crowd.

Matthew 7, 13 to 14 is a very strongly worded passage. 15 to 20, I'm going to read this for you. "Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous foals. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?

So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know these false prophets by their fruits." Do you guys know how to pick out a false prophet from a true one?

Some of them are more obvious. If you're a false prophet and it's very obvious to everyone that you're a false prophet, you're a pretty bad false prophet, okay? So the ones that are really like obviously heretical and false, you don't need to worry about them. They're dumb, okay? But can you recognize a false prophet when you see one?

And this question, this is maybe a little bit tough, okay? You know what about something about false prophets? It may not be obvious right away that they're false prophets. And another thing that's scary about false prophets is they don't realize that they're false prophets. You know 2 Timothy 3.13 says, "But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." So I actually often ask myself this question, "Am I a false prophet?" I stop and I ask myself this to align myself to make sure I am really seeking to speak on behalf of the Lord and not on behalf of myself.

But can you discern a false prophet? Many of the false prophets that are around you are ear ticklers. If you look at 2 Timothy 4.3, they will say what the masses want to hear. In Southern California, in Orange County, in the United States of America, and I guess globally, nod your heads if you would think that there are a lot of false prophets saying all kinds of things, guaranteeing all kinds of bad things, good things that are bad.

Yes, yes, right? Matthew 7.15-20 says that you and I need to beware, okay? That you will be able to pick out a false prophet by his fruits. Grapes grow on grapevines, figs grow on fig trees. True God-word genuine and real fruits come from true servants of God. Bad fruit comes from the likes of these false prophets.

Okay, you guys logically following this? So here's an important question. What are these good fruits that Christians must look for, not just in their spiritual guides, but in their own lives as well? What are these good fruits? What do you need to judge your pastors by? What do you need to judge your own life by?

Can you discern a good from a bad fruit? And that is the question that I want to ask you today. Matthew 7.13-14, don't follow the crowds. Matthew 7.15-20, don't blindly follow, don't follow the blind. So make sure if you really want to find yourself on the small and the narrow, that you're paying attention to the right guides.

And you get to this last section in Matthew 7, and this is where I'll be spending most of the time this evening. Okay, don't follow false fruits. So let's read this together. Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.

Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness." This is one of the scariest passages in all the Bible.

This section here used to keep me awake at night. I never knew you. What we may think of fruits and what Scriptures define as good fruits actually may be very different. Many will say to me on that day. So there are many, okay? And so what do these many, what kind of fruit do these many have that doesn't quite fit the bill?

What are the things that these many did? First they called Jesus by the right title, okay? Lord. They say it twice, "Lord, Lord." So these false people believe that Jesus was God. And you guys know that just believing God is not enough, right? You believe that God is one, you do well.

Even the demons believe and they, you guys are, the 69 of you who are memorizing James, you've caught this, okay? Even the demons believe and they shudder. So these guys also prophesied in Jesus' name. And prophesying is not necessarily teaching about or predicting the future. When the Bible talks about prophesying, it means handling the Word of God in Jesus' name.

So these many, these fellows who are on the wide and the broad, they are calling God correctly and assessing His Godness. They are accurately in Jesus' name teaching the Scriptures, handling His Word, perhaps even predicting things to come. What else are they doing? They are casting out demons in Jesus' name.

If you saw someone casting out a demon legitimately, you would assume that that person is on the right side of God. I would. If someone was like flailing, clearly demon possessed, and a pastor of the church walked up to that person, laid his hand, and just prayed, and all of a sudden the person calms down, I would be like, "Dude, you're legit.

You've got some spiritual power. I would be scared of that pastor." It's like, "Do you see a demon in my life?" You would literally be a little uneasy when you're around someone with this kind of power. So this guy, Lord, Lord, handles prophesying in the name of Jesus, casting out demons in the name of Jesus, and they are performing a miracle, miracles.

If you saw me, Peter Chung, perform one miracle, if you saw me perform just one miracle, you would be amazed, especially if it wasn't like an illusion. If it literally was a legit miracle, you'd probably be amazed. And you may be tempted to think without a doubt, "Oh, that PPC guy has divine power." One, what if I performed five?

What if I could raise someone from the dead? What if someone had cancer, and I put my hands on that person's shoulder, prayed for that person, and next thing you know, the following week, that person is healed of cancer? You would think that I am on the right side of God for not just one miracle, but many.

In verse 23, Jesus says to these guys who have called him the right name, prophesied in his name, cast out demons in his name, and performed many miracles in his name, Jesus does not say, "No, you didn't do these things." Do you guys notice that? He doesn't say, "No, you didn't." And that's what's scary.

Acknowledging rightly who the Lord is, accurately handling and spouting off teachings and correct doctrine, casting out demonic influences and performing supernatural miracles are not the fruits that we're supposed to look for. These are not the distinguishing marks of a God-approved spiritual leader or a God-approved saint. Nod your heads if you understand.

Okay? So in other words, I'm going to personalize this a little bit for you. Don't automatically assume that every pastor or elder at Berean are ourselves on the small and the narrow. Don't ever blindly trust me as the BAM pastor. I may be a charlatan or a fraud, and I might not even be aware of that.

So don't ever trust me blindly. And here are some things that you guys now have known me for about a year, for most of you. Some of you I've known for over 15. But here are some things you may be tempted to trust in me. One, it's hard to become a pastor at Berean.

There are many people who would love to be a pastor at Berean. It's hard to get in here. Nod your heads if you already do that. We take our sweet old time. The church took five years to ordain me. How many years? Five. Okay? So I could have purchased my ordination in Korea, but I waited five for here.

All right? So the qualifications are high. I got in. Second, I've spent nearly a decade doing Great Commission work. In fact, you can say I've even risked my life. I've gone into North Korea twice after having a will written to scope out orphanages all over that place. I done that.

I care about the poor. I want you to care about the poor. And I've seen, people say, to have a decent handle on the Bible, Pastor Peter Kim trusts me. And when I preach, occasionally, not all the time, I may even cry. Okay? So these are things that might cause you to want to put your trust in what I say and listen to it with any kind of authority.

Those are solid qualities. If I objectively assess myself and if I could raise someone from the dead or heal someone from cancer, that really would help my case, would it not? Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles?

I want to draw your attention to someone who did these things in even the context of the gospel accounts. There was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the name of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. You guys heard of him? Apostle Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. Let me tell you a little bit about him.

He was with Jesus just like the other apostles for most of the three years Jesus did his public ministry. He was with Christ. Also, he was the keeper of the money bag. Usually the people who are in charge of finances or accounts, you just assume that they're responsible and upright, right?

So we have some people in charge of our money, our BAM account, right? I'm hoping that they're trustworthy. I assume that they're trustworthy. Whoever is handling money, we naturally assume that they're a little bit more trustworthy than the others and that they're good at math, hopefully, right? In Matthew 10, you also see that Judas was given authority to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, cast out demons.

Freely you've been given, freely you've received, freely give, it says in Matthew 10. So Judas had all of these things. He knew how to even perform miracles that at that time would have astounded people. Judas actually usually gives the right answer too and he's fast. If you actually look at Matthew 25, it ends with this whole thing on why we need to serve the poor, okay?

Matthew 25, when I was hungry, you gave me something to eat. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was a wanderer, a soldier, you took me in. When I was naked, you clothed me. When I was sick, you took care of me. And when I was in prison, you visited me.

And this whole section about how God is judging depending on how they handle the poor is immediately preceded by Matthew chapter 26. A woman breaks an alabaster jar of fine perfume and one of the disciples in Matthew 26 says, "Why this waste? This could have been sold in the money given to the poor." It was worth what?

A year's wages. And you look at John's account, that was Judas who said that. Judas can hear a good sermon and verbally give the right answer where the other disciples rarely ever did. I want you guys to look at John 13. Keep your finger here on Matthew 7 and I'm going to do a little bit of Bible study with you.

John chapter 13. In John 13, people know better as the love chapter, okay? I want to show you, I think of it as the Judas chapter. John 13. So verse 2, we see that the devil has put into Judas' heart to portray Jesus. You guys read that? On a side note, Jesus washes his feet with tender love.

And that's something that is dumbfounding. He knows that Judas set up this betrayal already and he's washing Judas' feet like he would the other 11 with the same compassion and love. That's our God. But anyway, in verse 2, Judas is put, the devil puts in his heart to portray him.

Verse 10, Jesus is starting to get a little bit spiritually agitated and he says in verse 10, "Not all of you are clean." You guys see that? That's the first time Jesus is pointing to a betrayer. Not all of you are clean. Verse 18, "I do not speak of all of you." Okay?

Second time Jesus is talking about a betrayer. Verse 21, "One of you will betray me," he says more explicitly. Third time. Verse 22, "The disciples began looking at one another at a loss to know of which one he was speaking." They have no idea it's Judas. You guys pick up on that?

If you don't pick up on that there, we're going to keep reading. Verse 24, Peter says, okay? So Simon Peter gestured to him and said to him, "Jesus, tell us who it is of whom he is speaking. We have no idea one of us is going to betray you." Verse 28 to 29, Jesus in front of everybody says, "Whatever you're going to do, go and do quickly.

Here is the morsel." Jesus said, "Whoever I give this to is going to betray me." He gives it to Judas and Judas hears, "Whatever you're going to do, go and do quickly." In verse 29, 28, 29, "Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose he had said this to him.

For some were supposing because Judas had the money box that Jesus was saying to him, 'Buy the things we have need of for the feast,' or else that he should give something to the poor." Because remember, he said that, right? He had the right answer and Judas leaves. That's fourth time that Jesus says, "One of you is going to betray me." He actually points to Judas as the betrayer and the disciples have no clue.

I remember as a child, I've had lots of children's Bibles, but I remember there's a one coloring book, like a Jesus and his disciples coloring book that I had, and in every page, you could tell who Judas was. You know why? He always has like a ... He's always like, "Every page, you knew right away who Judas was.

If you look at paintings of the disciples, you know who Judas is. But you know what I learned from John 13? Judas was probably the last person they assumed would betray Jesus. Judas probably had no idea that he would do this when he signed up to be a disciple.

What does all this teach us? Why does God tell the likes of Samuel, and in a sense, to all of us, not to appearances? Because your spiritual vision and my spiritual vision are horrible. We do not know how to judge people rightly in the flesh. So Matthew 7, 21 to 23, I want to turn our attention back there.

Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord, we'll enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter." Many will say to me, like Judas, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? In your name cast out demons, and in your name perform merry miracles, and then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you.

Apart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'" Matthew 27, verse 3, it says, "When Judas saw that Jesus had been condemned, he felt remorse and he returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders." And that's Matthew's account. And I like to think through sometimes what was going through Judas' mind.

It doesn't say he wept, but I would assume he did. I have shed innocent blood. And I heard initially when people commit suicide or attempt to commit suicide, there's a lot of weeping and a lot of snot and a lot of tears the first time around because there's a terror.

Judas felt remorse, sadness, regret, remorse. That's important to remember that the worldly sorrow does not lead to life. So you and I feeling badly about not being perfect, you and I feeling badly about a sin or two that we commit is not repentance. That could just be worldly sorrow, aka remorse.

Scariest passage in all the Bible. Verse 21 to 23. Verse 23, Jesus makes a declaration, okay? The Greek word is homologuesoi, so, so, homologueso. That's a Greek word for declaration. This is the only time he uses this word in all the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus says, "Then I will declare homologueso to them.

I will pronounce, 'I never knew you.'" If you read John 5:22, you'll read that God the Father gives God the Son all judgment. So the Father doesn't judge. The Son judges. And here you actually get a little preview of Revelation 20, the great white throne judgment. And you see in verse 23 the shock of many who say, "Did we not?" And the judge says, "I never," he declares it.

A declaration is a pronouncement that cannot be reversed. "I never knew you, depart from me you who practice lawlessness." So can you imagine with me, let's say you've given tons of money to the church. Let's say you ended up serving the Lord as a pastor or a long-term missionary.

Let's imagine that you've shared verbally the Gospel with people. Let's say you've done lots of, lots of Christian-y things. You've been a member at a Bible teaching church for a few decades. You're a deacon. You're an elder. And you get to the throne of God and you hear this irreversible pronouncement, "I never knew you." Yeah, you would go out weeping.

Yeah, you would go gnashing your teeth. Would you not? This freaks me out. I did all this stuff. I thought, "Get out of here, forever." I think I would do more than weeping and gnashing of teeth. I'd probably like sock myself in the face. I wouldn't know what I would do.

The point of this first sermon that we're talking about tonight, here's what it's not. First, I'm not encouraging you to start judging people and wondering whether or not they're saved. Okay? Pastor Peter, his child is saved. You know? Ryan hasn't cooked as often lately. Is he really saved? You know, that guy lost his temper on the basketball court.

Yeah, see, that's an unbeliever. Elder Philip occasionally falls asleep during service. Is he saved? That's not the point of this. For you to go around and say, "Ooh, bad fruit. Ooh, real fruit. Ooh, preaching in... Oh, you had a good sermon, but that doesn't mean you're a Christian." That's not the point of this.

Okay? Second, I'm not telling you to never trust or submit to the leadership at Berean. Just don't fully give all of your trust to us. You guys following me? Is submitting to the leadership of the church, is that biblical? Yes, it is. Just don't treat us like we're Jesus.

Third, I'm not telling you to spiritually freak out and start doubting your salvation, although that might be what you feel like doing right now. Do I really have real fruit? You might right now be wondering, "How do I then know? How do I judge this?" Because right now, I am scared that verse 23 is going to be said to me at the end of my life.

Don't freak out yet. This is what I am doing to start off our retreat. Two things, okay? First one, 2 Corinthians 13.5, there's an encouragement for you and me to examine ourselves. It says, "Examine yourself to see whether you are of the faith. Test yourselves. Don't you realize that Christ Jesus is in you?" Unless what?

Unless, of course, you fail the test. It is a healthy thing for you, occasionally, to check the location of your spiritual feet and wonder, "Am I on the small, gated, narrow road?" It is a healthy thing for you, occasionally, to examine your location with the help of a spiritual GPS.

And you will discover, if Christ is in you, you will be sure. If the Holy Spirit of God is residing in your heart, you will know for certain. You can't not know this if Christ is in your heart. You guys following me? If you look into your heart, if you check your spiritual feet and you're thinking through, "Am I on this small and narrow?" If the Word of God, by the empowering of the Holy Spirit, starts judging the thoughts and attitudes of your heart, He will make clear whether or not you really have His Spirit residing in your heart.

You can't not know it. You guys with me? Okay. This is not a call to trick yourself into thinking, "I am saved," when you're not. But if Jesus Christ is powerfully residing in your heart, you will know for sure. If you don't, keep examining yourself, is my encouragement. And also, the second thing I want to do is just kind of set up the parameters for our retreat.

Recognize that you and I are naturally religious creatures, okay? Our natural response is, "Oh, what do I do?" And we judge others and ourselves by what we see on the outside, right? We actually look at the visible to judge. But here's what a relationship with Christ is not, and this is what I tell our Sunday school teachers all the time.

A relationship with Christ is not morality. If you are trying to be more moral, you may succeed in improving your morality, but that doesn't necessarily change your standing with Christ. Morality is not faith. Two, conformity to the church's expectations is also not genuine faith. "Oh, this church says don't drink." I won't drink.

"This church says don't smoke." Oh, okay, I won't smoke. "This church says tithe 15%." Oh, I got to tithe 15%. "This church, everybody seems to have NASB." I got to get NASB. All of these things that you feel conforming to the church's standards is not genuine salvation. Nod your heads if you understand.

First one is morality. Second one is conforming to the church's standards. Third, Bible knowledge. Bible knowledge is not salvation. Now, if the spirit of Christ is dwelling in your hearts, will you be more moral? You will be an upright person. If the spirit of Christ is dwelling within you, will you conform and fight for the church's passions?

Yes, you will. You won't feel judged by the church's expectations or that bar, but you will set it. Third, your love for His word will increase. But that's an inside-out change. It's not an outside-in change. So the application to this sermon is not to try to cuss less, to watch less, to do more, to drink less, to party less.

That's not the application. The application is, "Is Christ in my heart?" and to examine that. Jesus Christ wants your soul, but you know who wants to kill your soul? It's like Voldemort. Name him. Satan. He wants you dead. He wants to destroy you. He's out for blood. And He will do everything in His power to kill you and everyone around you who loves Jesus Christ.

First Timothy 6.12, it says, "Fight the good fight of the faith." The word "fight" is agonizomai. Agonizomai. What's that sound like? Agony. It says, "Agonize the agony." It's fight the good fight. And back then, when you say, "Agonize the agony," you're looking at two boxers who have leather-like sashes wrapped around their hands, and inside those sashes are woven in glass, bone, sand, rock, so that when you fight, what happens?

If you hit someone in the face with that on you, what happens to their face? It becomes less of a face. Usually when two boxers in those times, usually slaves, are pitted against each other, one of them died. But usually the victor ended up crippled. So the loser died, the victor ended up crippled.

Guess what? Because why? One of his eyes got punctured. Okay? So the rest of his life, he's walking around laying. He's walking around blind. But that is the kind of picture that we see when Paul says, "Fight the good fight of the faith." You need to fight like your life and soul depends on it.

Not when it's convenient, but to fight. The enemy hates you. Did you guys know that the enemy hates you? Satan hates you. He hates you with a passion and a fiery hatred. But you know what he does to kill you? He doesn't just go for your head and chop off your head, figuratively speaking.

He would prefer to infect you with some kind of disease so that you take it back and infect everyone around you so that everyone's dead. It's like a roach. How many of you guys like... Anybody like a cockroach? No. Okay, common enemy, right? La cucaracha, right? If you see a cockroach, you can do one of two things.

One, crunch. Or you could set a trap, and a lot of those traps have what? The little poison things. So this cockroach is going to town on this little, like, the trap, medicine ball. Long time ago when I was growing up in like the '80s, they had actually the sticky traps where the cockroach would be like...

You guys see those? But now they got creative and had these poisons so the roach goes into their nest and kills everybody. That is, in a way, Satan's strategy for you. The way he wants to kill you is not outright just chop off your spiritual, like, neck. He wants to make you useless.

He wants to make you a compromiser. He wants you to drift so that everyone who's looking at you as the Christian standard in their life will also think it's okay to drift until you have a whole army of people on this wide and this broad. At the end, we've done the Bible church stuff.

We've done all this stuff. Look, Lord, in your name, look at... Did we not go to India? Did we not go to Japan? Did we not serve the poor? Did we not do these things? I never knew you. Scary stuff. One degree of drifting can destroy you. And usually we don't drift this one degree.

Is it important to regularly check to see where your spiritual feet are? Nod your heads if you think it's yes. Application for tonight is not dread because in my skewed opinion, it's tainted, okay? Don't take my word for it. My assumption is most all of you are saved. Not all, but most.

Otherwise, you wouldn't want to be here listening to the Word of God. But examine yourself so that you can know for a little bit more of a certain standard because you do not want to drift. Because even if an apostle of Jesus Christ can drift and end up where he had no idea he would be, you and I could be the same.

My hope is that it sobers us so that tomorrow when we're thinking about what then do we do, we assess and apply correctly. Amen? Assume that you may not be on the small and narrow and then work backward. You know, Scripture says, "Well, you know, believe and don't doubt." That's a different context.

Here it says, "Examine your life really to see if you are of the faith." If the fruits of the Spirit, if that spiritual DNA is evident in you, examine that. If it's not, repent because it's not too late. These are things that we want to talk about in our small groups.

This is a great way to start the retreat, huh? You might not be going to heaven, but again, remember my purpose in sharing this is to show you how a slight drift can cause you to become a Judas Iscariot, which is the last thing you want to be. He heard, "Depart from me.

Though you spent three years by my side, though you had authority, I never knew you." And that's an irreversible pronouncement. In the book of Acts 1, it says, "It would have been better if he wasn't born." So examine. And tomorrow, we're going to start seeing as we examine and conclude that Christ is in us, what do we do to protect ourselves from drifting?

So it's important stuff. Amen? It's important stuff. And I pray that you commit to me that I don't drift. And I need to commit to you that you don't drift. And we're going to learn about that tomorrow too. So that together, we really can serve the Lord faithfully so that the end of our lives we hear, "Well done." And that's in Matthew 7 too.

It's all there. The "well done" is in there. Not those words verbatim, but it's in there. So we're going to break up into our small groups. But before we do that, let's pray.