How Do You Know You're a Christian? | 1 John 3:10-13 - Mercy Hill

What's up Mercy Hill? Great to be back with you. I'm excited to preach for the next two and a half to three hours.

I'm so excited for your energy. My name is Clayton King. This is my second time to preach for you here at Mercy Hill. Several years ago my son Jacob and I got to come and got to meet your students and your students came to our Crossroads summer camps and it's just always great to be back so at every campus I'm happy to be with you this weekend.

I live in the great state of South Carolina. That was not the response. Did somebody just say wop-wop? I'll rebuke a man from stage. I got the microphone. I'm not afraid to rebuke. I'm Pentecostal.

I'll call out demons. No, I lived in North Carolina for 23 years. Yeah, now we're going somewhere.

Now I got the crowd. Okay, I attended Gardner Webb University in the 1900s. So I lived in Boiling Springs for 23 years.

I married a Georgia girl. I've got two boys. Jacob is 22.

He's an evangelist, travels all over and preaches. He's graduating college in two months. I have a 19 year old named Jojo. He's six foot four with a five foot two girlfriend and they are cute.

Very, very cute. My wife Shari and I have been married now for going on 26 years and been in ministry since I was 14. I'm an evangelist. I get to help pastor a church and my wife and I run a nonprofit ministry together and I like 80s rock and 90s Christian music and black coffee just like Jesus drinks it. And I drive, in case you need to know, hey, I'm all about the environment. Drive an electric car if you want to.

But I drive a Ford F-250 diesel platinum four door because I love the environment but I love winning if I get in a wreck with a Prius. So that's all I gotta say about that. Pastor Andrew, thank you for just being a great friend, for just being a great pastor. Thank you for how you lead and how you serve and worked out great for me to be here with you this weekend to preach and I'm just gonna dive straight in if that's okay with you because like that great old country song we got a long way to go in a short time to get there and I'm gonna do my best to preach this in about 35 minutes. But I am an evangelist and the way that God wired me and what God called me to do as a 14 year old eighth grader in 1987, the night that I got saved was also the night that I sent God calling me to preach the gospel. So whether in my pastoral role or whether in my role as an evangelist, I like to bring God up in conversations with people.

I'm an extreme extrovert. I can talk to almost anybody so whether I'm on an airplane or in a restaurant or at the gym or waiting in line at Target, I just like to talk to people about Jesus. One of my favorite places to bring up spiritual things in conversation is inside of airplanes especially ones that are flying because typically it's a captive audience that cannot escape you for very long.

It's also a great place to talk about eternal things and life and death because you're a 30,000 feet above the ground in an airplane. Recently, and this is a true story, every detail of it I remember vividly, was sitting beside a guy. I got bumped to first class for free.

I made medallion status with Delta. So they had one free seat and I got bumped up to first class for free and the guy sitting beside me struck up a conversation. I said hello.

He said hello. I said what do you do for a living and he manages a hedge fund and he asked me what I did for a living and this is exactly how the conversation went. I said well if I tell you, you may not believe me and he said well try me. I said well actually I'm a I'm a pastor and he said holy beeeep. Can't say the words he said and I was like oh he goes I'm sorry I shouldn't curse in front of a priest. I said well you're not cursing in front of a priest because I'm not a priest. I'm a pastor and he goes well take this the right way.

You don't look like a pastor. I said well thank you very much. He goes you know who you look like and I said I have no idea. He goes you look like that wrestler guy Stone Cold Steve Austin and I was like and that's the bottom line because Stone Cold said so.

True story. We had a couple of laughs and I said do you mind me asking you? Do you have a faith? He said yeah I'm a I'm a I'm a Christian and I said how do you know you're a Christian? And he just looked dumbfounded.

He said nobody's ever asked me that question before. I'm going to pause the story right here. If I could only preach one sermon for the rest of my life who I'm 51 I could die tonight. Jesus might wait a thousand years to come back.

He might come back before this election. Wouldn't hurt my feelings at all. If I could only preach one message for the rest of my life I really do believe I would preach this one because this is literally the most important thing in your life.

This. How do you know you're a Christian? Do you even know it all? Most Americans don't even think you can know for sure.

That's statistically true. Most people who call themselves Christians have this concept that you can't really know the best you can aim for is a hope a wish or a guess. And it is my my goal in life before I die that every chance I get to talk to somebody one-on-one or to preach to people or to proclaim the gospel or just even share my testimony I want you to know that you can know that you're a Christian. So my philosophy of preaching is very simple.

I tell you what I'm going to tell you then I tell you then I tell you what I told you. So for this weekend here what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell you how you can know that you're a Christian and then I'm going to give you an opportunity if you don't have assurance if you're not absolutely certain that you are secure in Christ. I'm going to tell you how to give your life to Jesus and then I'm going to give you an opportunity to do it yourself because I don't want to just talk about how you become a Christian.

I want to see some people fully commit their lives to the lordship of Jesus Christ. It's a horrible way to live wondering if you're going to go to heaven or hell when you die and that's not how God wants you to live. So the guy says to me well nobody can know if they're a Christian and I said really he goes yeah I said well how do you think it works he said well you do some good stuff you do some bad stuff and at the end of all the things you just kind of hope that it balances out and the scales tip in your favor and God lets you in. Guy's name was Tony.

He was from upstate New York. I said Tony I cannot imagine living one single day hoping and wishing that that's how it all pans out in the end. Actually there is a way that you can know you're a Christian. He said well here's how I know I'm a Christian and and the very first thing he said was the first of what I call the five biggest misconceptions that people have. I'm gonna run through them real quick before I go to the scripture. He gave me this reason and I want to just unpack these because most of the people I talk to when I ask them how do you know you're a Christian they give me one of these five answers.

This is just anecdotal from my 37 years in ministry. The first thing people will say to me which is exactly what Tony said to me I'm a good person. How do you know you're a Christian? Oh I'm a good person. Now I understand we all want to be good right? You want to drive the speed limit. You want to be nice to strangers.

You want to adopt a pet. You don't want to pay your taxes but you do it because you know you should and you don't want to go to jail right? We all want to be a good person but I got news for you. There really are no good people when you get right down to it. There really are no good people and that might be offensive to you.

I'm not trying to be offensive. I'm just trying to tell you the truth that you instinctively know. You're really not as good I'm really not as good as I think I am and if you need proof just ask your spouse or your children. I remember when we were homeschooling our kids we'd be driving our kids running the minivan out of Chrysler Town & Country. That's a confession not a testimony and my son in the backseat I have a hard time I drive fast. This is this is also a confession I've been stopped for speeding in my life 21 times. Only gotten eight tickets.

Got 13 warnings. God's favor ain't fair pastor. I'm just telling you but I have been stopped and I have had to pay eight tickets and I've not had a ticket in five years. Can we praise God for his grace? But one of the reasons why is because my little son would ride around in the car seat in the back and we would be going somewhere as a family for me to preach and my son from the backseat in the booster seat would say daddy you're supposed to be a Christian and I would be like what are you talking about you're going 65 and the sign said 45 and I'm like thank you Holy Spirit how about you shut up you're like none of us that that's a true story but none of us is really good and by the way if being a good person made you a Christian how good would you have to be?

You would have to be perfect. The number two misconception that people have when I ask them are you a Christian? How do you know? They'll say I was raised in a Christian family. Just out of curiosity of every campus. Raise your hand if you were raised in a Christian family. Can I see your hands? Okay that's a pretty good majority.

I don't know maybe 50-60% maybe. I was raised in a Christian family adopted in 1973. My mom and dad raised me. I was actually raised in three churches. Pentecostal. My grandparents were Pentecostal. I went to Presbyterian Christian school and my parents were Southern Baptist.

You know what that means right? I'm still in therapy. But I was raised in a Christian family. My dad was my Sunday school teacher. But being raised in a Christian family doesn't make you a Christian. It might give you more understanding but it could also turn you against God. And there are many people who have that testimony in that story. The third reason that people give me when I say how do you know you're a Christian? They'll say oh I love everyone.

Tony actually brought that one up in the conversation. Oh I love everybody. Can we unpack that for a second? You don't even know everybody. There's 8.3 billion people on planet earth. I can't love everybody if I don't know everybody. But even of the people that I know, can we be honest? There's some people. Y'all are laughing.

Y'all are looking at each other. You're probably thinking about the same person right now. There are some people that are hard to love. I know I can be hard to love at times. Loving everybody is a good virtue but none of us can love anybody until we've received the love of Christ that was poured out on the cross when he died in our place.

He shed his blood to wash away our sins. And by the way, if you think you love everybody, I double dog scooby-doo dare you. Just get on I-85 and drive anywhere. You don't love that person in front of you that's driving you. How about the person texting when you're past them? You're gonna kill somebody. It is so quick of an instinct in me to get angry at other people when I'm supposed to love everybody. This just proves my need for the gospel. It just proves our need for grace. Now in the deep south, this is an answer a lot of people will give.

But also in the northeast people will give this a lot too. I'll say, how do you know you're a Christian? They'll say, well I was baptized.

And that's a loaded statement depending on how you're raised. I was raised southern Baptist so you get baptized and then you can take communion and you got fire insurance, you're not going to hell. But a lot of my friends that I've known that were raised Catholic or maybe United Methodist, for them baptism is more like a ritual you go through that gives you entrance in. And getting baptized is really important. I believe that some people this weekend are going to get saved and give your life to Jesus. And we want you to be baptized.

Baptism is happening in December here at Mercy Hill and we want you to take that next step. But biblically, baptism is not the thing that makes you a Christian. It's the outer sun that you have become a Christian. Kind of like me wearing a wedding ring.

I'm not married to the wedding ring but it symbolizes the fact that I got married on May 1st, 1999. That's how baptism works. It's not the thing that makes you a Christian. It just says to the world, I belong to Jesus.

And here's the final misconception that I've heard just over and over again over the decades. Are you a Christian? How do you know? Oh yeah, I'm a Christian because I go to church You should go to church. I am a big fan of the bride of Christ. I am part of the bride of Christ. I love the church.

She's not perfect but she is the bride of Christ. Going to church is so important for you to grow spiritually, for you to live in community. But going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald's makes you a happy meal.

And can I tell you the truth? Some of the best people I've met in my life go to church and some of the meanest people I've ever met in my life go to church. I've had some of the most unbelievable conversations with people in the church that have left me wondering how in the world could people who say they love Jesus do what they just did. I'm not sure I'm the church right now of corrupt leadership that forgets to keep the main thing the main thing. That Jesus is the main thing. The gospel is the main thing. Seeing people transformed into devoted followers of Jesus is the main thing. So if these five misconceptions don't make you a Christian, what does? Can you even know?

Can you even really know? Like does God want you to have an assurance of your salvation? Now I'm imagining that at all of our camp campuses this weekend so many of you have a certainty because of what Christ did for you on the cross. Because he died in your place to take away your sin and to wash away your guilt and because you have accepted his gift by faith and put your trust in Jesus confessing him as Lord. Many of you have an absolute assurance and certainty that you're saved not because of you but because of Jesus. But also know that at a church of this size many of you don't have that. So in the next 20 minutes I pray that the Holy Spirit gives you the clarity that you have been looking for because there are so many things in life you can get wrong and you can bounce back from it. I mean how many of y'all had a mullet in the 1980s?

You can make a mistake and bounce back. How many of you have ever dated a crazy person? Can I see those hands?

How many of you married them and they're sitting beside you right now? Point to them. No don't do that. Don't do that. You can date the wrong person and bounce back. You can vote for the wrong candidate and bounce back. You can buy the wrong car. You can take the wrong job.

You can go to the wrong college. You can make so many mistakes and get it wrong and bounce back. That's what it means to be human. This is the one thing you don't bounce back from if you die and you got it wrong. You better not get this wrong. We need to have biblical clarity on what it means to be a Christian and how you can know and not just take everybody's opinions.

This is not a crowdsourcing thing that we do where we ask everybody what they think and then we average out the answers. God has been clear with us that you can know you're a Christian. You can be a Christian. You can be a Christian.

You can be a Christian. This is the testimony that God has given about His Son. And this is the testimony.

God has given us eternal life and this life is in His son. And look at verse 12, this is so simple. Don't over-complicate this. This is not complex. This is simple. abundant life or eternal life outside of Jesus Christ you can eat kale you can lose weight you can get your protein intake up you can cut out soda you can live to be a hundred my wife's grandma just turned a hundred years old you can make every right decision in this world but if you don't know Jesus you do not have abundant life now and you will not have eternal life in the next one if you've got Jesus you've got life but I really want to focus on verse 13 as it pertains to knowing you're a Christian John says I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life I have written these things to those of you that believe if you believe in Jesus John wants you to know that you have eternal life you don't need to wish hope guess or think when you can know and what's the key to knowing you have eternal life and assurance of your salvation a confidence in the complete perfect finished work of Jesus on the cross how do you get that confidence you believe you believe you take it by faith there came a point in my life to where I had to decide I need to make my own decision my mom's told me what she believes I know my dad believes I know my pastor says but do I really believe that a real literal man named Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and was murdered by religious leaders do I really believe that when he died on the cross he did it for me do I really believe that not figuratively not symbolically but literally actually he was dead as a hammer and then he was risen from the dead resurrected from the grave three days later and he's actually alive right now do I actually believe that is true because you can believe something and then you can really believe something you know what I'm talking about here's an example every year in September I believe that the Dallas Cowboys are gonna win the Super Bowl because we got to stick together if you're a Dallas fan you know what y'all can boo you can throw stuff at us it doesn't hurt us we've got a thick skin the Cowboys hurt us way more than you can so boo if you want to I'm a diehard lifelong Cowboys fan and every year in September I get up in my church and I get up at summer camp at crossroads like the Cowboys are gonna win the Super Bowl for the first time in 28 years and everybody just laughs do I really believe they're gonna do it now not really not really but I'm gonna tell you what when I when I say to you that I believe Jesus Christ is the answer to every problem the human race has ever faced I actually believe that it's a different kind of belief and the key to having an assurance is believing that Jesus really did die in your place that he really loves you and that he really is raised from the dead so how do you know then if John says I write these things to those of you that believe so that you may know you have eternal life how do you know well Romans chapter 10 tells you this is Paul's word to the church in Rome I was actually in Rome earlier this week I promise I'm not trying to just drop names of cities my wife and I were leading a trip for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association to Greece and Turkey in Rome and we were there earlier this week in Rome and I stood in the Colosseum where thousands of Christians were killed murdered and eaten alive by wild animals and I actually taught in the Colosseum on what Paul was doing during the time that this was written and what does Paul say to the church in Rome 2,000 years ago in chapter 10 verses 9 and 10 he spells it out so simply if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved okay I know there are some things in life that are nuanced I know some things are gray I know that not everything is black and white and not everything is easy to understand for instance math maybe you understand it I'm still trying this is not one of those gray areas this is not one of those nuanced subjects that we need to spend hours or days or weeks and volumes of theological books writing about what does it really mean I think you and I can read it and we can understand if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord you will be saved say from what say from hell say from the devil say from your sin and the consequences of your sin oh and say from yourself because I get myself in some big messes without Jesus and then he goes on to say in the next verse one believes with the heart resulting in righteousness and one confesses with the mouth resulting in say it with me every campus say it with me so is this not the simplest thing you could possibly read in the Bible and we like to over complicate it we want to do some good works we want to judge everybody else's salvation we want to measure up well they're a Democrat they're a Republican they're an independent they drink beer they go to NASCAR races on Sunday sometimes they they're not Southern Baptist that they're not Catholic we love to measure up according to some kind of personalized standard that we have this is the standard the Word of God is the standard and the Word of God says that if you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and if you confess with your mouth out loud verbally Jesus is Lord which by the way was a political affront to the Roman Empire because the Romans recited a slogan Caesar is Lord it was minted on their coins it was written on the Roman arches as you would walk into cities that they had taken over if you were walking down the street of a Roman colony or a Roman city and you passed a Roman soldier that Roman soldier could stop you and say recite the slogan you had to drop your head show the palms of your hands and say Caesar is Lord and if you refuse to do that he could take his sword out and take your head off right there on the spot so when Paul writes of the church in Rome and says if you want to really know you're saved you've got to confess that Jesus is Lord don't miss the point this is not some easy mantra some little phrase that you just throw out there like a magic wand waving in the air no there were consequences if you call Jesus Lord in the first century it meant Caesar is not Jesus is Lord so what's required of us well before I answer that question look at verse 13 look how simple this is for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved so here it is number one if you want to know you're a Christian how do you know confess with your mouth it's right there in the scripture it's in the plain text of the Bible confess with your mouth there must be a verbal not just a mental assent but there's got to be something happening in your heart that is so powerful and real that your mouth talks about what your heart believes confessing with your mouth I have no problem telling y'all that I love black coffee I have no problem telling you I drive a Ford pickup truck I have no problem telling you I'm a Clemson Tiger fan I live 19 miles from the campus that I grew up loving the Tigers I've got no problem telling you I'm a Tar Heel fan I met my wife at Chapel Hill I had a problem telling you that when I believe something in my heart I'll talk about it right you ever met a grandparent with grandkids you don't even have to beg them to talk about their grandkids they pull out pictures they they start scrolling on their phone you're done after three pictures but three minutes later they're still scrolling and here's one when you and you're like yeah you're thinking about something else you just talk about what you love confessing Jesus as Lord verbally is not hard if you actually do number two if you actually believe with your heart because that's what it says if you believe with your heart that he is raised from the dead then you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing with your heart it means something it means that you are convinced the Greek word is pesto and it means that you have you have seen the evidence and you have changed your mind that's what it means to believe that you you have now been convinced of the truth of something when you believe that Jesus Christ died not just for the sins of the whole world but because he loved you it touches your emotions and it overwhelms you because you realize that you didn't deserve that grace but God extended it to you so if you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth there is one more thing according to verse 13 that can help you know you're a Christian and that is simply to ask Jesus to save you the most common question I get in pastoral ministry at our summer camps at Crossroads when I'm traveling preaching for churches like yours this weekend this really is the most common question I get how can I know I'm really going to heaven when I die you don't always ask people have you ever asked Jesus to save you I mean I'm not trying to dumb it down I'm just trying to simplify have you ever asked Jesus to forgive you of your sin to come into your life and to save you because verse 13 says everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved that means straight people gay people by people trans people that means Jews and Gentiles that means murderous members of Hamas if they will repent of their sin and ask God for mercy they still need to pay for the consequences of their sins in this life but they can have the assurance of eternal life after they die if they will bow their knee to Jesus and ask for his mercy if you ask he'll say yes my wife and I are gonna celebrate let's see 20 yeah we're gonna celebrate 26 years in May May 1st we'll celebrate 26 years of marriage and I'm gonna tell you why we're married there's a lot of reasons why we're married we actually stayed up late last night talking about it cuz we're both jet-lagged we took a long nap and couldn't sleep and we're staying up late last night just talking about our marriage we have the we have similar interests we love the same movies we like the same kind of music we we typically like the same kind of foods we love to travel I think we've been to 35 or 40 countries together now we both love to teach the Bible she's got a women's event this weekend up in where we live I mean we have so much in common but if you want to get technical about it there's one real reason why Shari and I are married because on October the 27th 1998 we hiked to the top of gingercake Mountain in limbo Gorge and I asked that's what we're meeting at the end of the day I invited her to come and be my wife and she said yes I had to ask the hardest thing about asking Jesus to save us is that it forces us to confront our own pride our own stubbornness and our own self-sufficiency and when you ask Jesus to save you you're admitting that you can't save yourself and he's the only one who can so I just want to ask you do you need to ask Jesus to save you because for some of you this is the first time you've ever done this for others of you you've prayed the sinner's prayer so many times you don't even know which one really stuck and I can relate I did that as a kid I'd pray it over and over and over again I would keep rededicating my life I would rededicate and recommit until I finally realized I I keep trying to rededicate my life but I've never actually dedicated it I keep trying to recommit my life but I've never actually committed my life and that's when I really got saved I understood it and I meant it I just asked Jesus to save me and he did and before I close out this message and invite you to ask Jesus to save you if you need to you need to know this he loves you and he wants a relationship with you and if you ask him he will say yes guaranteed he will not say no he will not turn you away so I'm going to ask you right now to ask Jesus to save you if you do not know for sure that you're a Christian would you close your eyes and open your hearts at every location every campus I'm gonna make this very simple if you are ready to give your life to Jesus whether it's the first time you've prayed this or the 31st time you can mean it right now for real so if you want to be saved if you want to know that you're a Christian that your sins are forgiven and you have a new relationship with Jesus pray this to him right where you are right where you're sitting and he will save you praise to him in your heart right now Jesus I need you please save me you're my only hope I believe with my heart that you are alive I confess with my mouth that you are Lord and I invite you to rescue me I repent of my sin and I give you my life thank you for loving me Jesus and thank you for saving me I'm all yours and I'm all in I'm gonna ask you just keep your eyes closed for a second before we worship before we come to the altar and pray for any burdens you may have at your campus if you just prayed that prayer to Jesus right where you sit eyes closed hearts open if you just responded to the gospel and invited Jesus to save you I want you to do something bold and I want you to do it deliberately you do not have to be afraid or ashamed if you just prayed that prayer to Jesus would you raise your hand straight up above your head right now and keep it up for a second please I'm not gonna make you do anything but I want to count hands I can only see this room right now raise them high 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 you can put your hands down can y'all open your eyes and look at me at every location all of our campuses just in this room 30 people just responded by asking praise the Lord for you don't tell it how many all weekend long but I want to say this if you just prayed that prayer it's not a prayer that saves you it's Jesus okay prayer is the way you connect to him and invite him to come into your life and take control so I want to say congratulations whether it was the first time or you just needed assurance security you wanted to know for sure you have a relationship with Jesus that's what Mercy Hill Church is for so I want to invite you to do a couple of things would you mind handing me that card right there on the front would you just think I can reach that thank you very much in your seats there's a card and at your campus I'm gonna ask you to do this if you just prayed that prayer the band's gonna come out right now and prepare to lead us in worship we're gonna sing and we're gonna worship and I'm gonna invite people to come to the altar while you're singing and worshiping and some of you are praying at the altar at your campus would you just fill this card out if you just prayed that prayer and then someone's gonna come and remind you that baptism is coming up just not too far from now and we want you to take your next step to boldly declare to the world I'm a Christian I've received Christ the gospel is real and I belong to Christ now I'm gonna ask you to do this to at your campus I'm gonna go ahead and ask everybody to stand up at every campus right now the altars are open and I want to invite you we're all gonna close our eyes the band's gonna prepare to lead us in worship if you have a burden I want you to come to the altar and pray if you need to come for healing I want you to come to the altar and pray you can begin to move right now just before you even begin singing the altar is open we need to pray about a lot we need to pray about the election we need to pray for peace in Israel we need to pray for peace over the world when we have so many things we can bring to the Lord right now or maybe you have just prayed to receive Christ and you want to come to the altar and just get on your knees in front of Jesus and tell him I love you thank you for saving me Jesus as we prepare right now to worship you as people are coming to pray at the altar we want to say thank you for the power of your salvation and the miracles we have witnessed today at Mercy Hill in Jesus name we pray amen