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I want to ask you a question that might make you uncomfortable: If you gave someone permission to get close and examine your faith, what would they find? Would they see that it's alive, or would they see that it's fake?
This is the heart of what we need to explore today. The Apostle Paul gives us language in the New Testament to describe three spiritual conditions we can find ourselves in.
In Ephesians 2, Paul writes: "You were dead in your transgressions and sins." This describes our spiritual state before we know Jesus. We might be walking around physically alive, but biblically speaking, we're dead because our relationship with God is broken by sin.
I remember what it was like to be spiritually dead. For the first 14 years of my life, I wasn't a Christian. I sat in my bedroom one night next to my waterbed, and a wave of uncertainty and fear crashed over me. My family was chaotic. I didn't know who I was. I had no hope, no purpose—just darkness when I thought about my future.
Then my friend Josh invited me to church. After about a year and a half of checking things out, he invited me to camp. At that camp, I heard the most unbelievable story that I believed: that God made me, that because of my sin I couldn't fix things myself, but Jesus came, lived a sinless life, died on my behalf—and I said yes. The only way out of spiritual death is through Jesus.
As Paul says: "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved."
The second condition is what I call spiritual narcolepsy—when our faith falls asleep. Maybe there was a time when your faith was front and center, when you loved God deeply and he was a major priority. But over time, your passion faded. Your awe of God diminished. Your faith just... fell asleep.
How does this happen? There are two main ways.
When we say yes to Jesus but live in ways that contradict that decision, we "play in the dark." We have secret sins, hidden struggles. Maybe it started small—just a little pornography, just enough alcohol to help you sleep—but it grew. Or maybe it's sexual relationships you keep saying yes to, or sports betting that started as entertainment but now you need it.
The problem is this: when we live a double life, we become desensitized to God. We stop feeling his presence. We lose the desire to worship and love him. We stop letting his truth reach our hearts.
Light and dark cannot coexist. Life and death cannot coexist. We're meant to live in the light, not the darkness.
The second way our faith falls asleep is when we play church. We know the things and check the boxes: we go to services, sit in our seats, listen to music, maybe nod at the message, and leave. Nothing changes. We serve, we read our Bible a little, we tithe—but it all feels mechanical. Religious. Like we're going through motions.
I knew a couple, Alex and Kate, who seemed to have it all together. They were at every service—Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. They knew Scripture. They had memory verses. But somehow it all stayed in their head. It never reached their heart. They never moved from knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus. Years later, their marriage dissolved, their finances fell apart, and their faith just faded.
Knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus are not the same thing. Knowing about Jesus is only a means to know Jesus.
Paul calls us to wake up. He says: "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
How do we wake up the soul? Here are three things:
This means having an actual relationship with Jesus—not just knowing about him. Start your day reading God's word into your bones so it forms you into his likeness. Pray. Have a conversational relationship with Jesus. He's not far off; he's close. He's with us.
You cannot live fully awake alone. You need people in your life to encourage you, challenge you, and hold you accountable. You need people who will nudge you awake when your faith starts to drift. Join a group. Serve together. Invite people into your life. But don't try to follow Jesus by yourself—it's never going to be what he designed.
Our world needs believers who don't just sit in church and leave the same. We need people who go out and sacrifice, live generously, serve, invest, and share their story. When people get close to you, they should see a spiritual life that's real, alive, and awake—not fake.
Let me tell you about Andrea, a seventh grader from our Maricopa campus. She went to camp and fell in love with Jesus. She got home and told her parents, "I'm getting baptized and I'm going to follow Jesus." Her parents were inspired and convicted because they hadn't made that decision yet. So Andrea got baptized by her coach. Then Andrea and her coach baptized her dad. Then Andrea and her dad baptized her mom.
That's real courage. That's real community. That's real Jesus.
Then there's Joseph, a graduating senior from our Midtown campus. Joseph is deaf. He'd always felt like an outsider, especially at church. His dad had been offering to interpret for him for a year and a half, but Joseph kept saying no to camp.
This year, they said, "This is your last chance. You're graduating." With loving peer pressure, Joseph agreed to go—but his dad realized he needed professional help interpreting the main messages. So he asked if anyone could come help.
Two women—Allison and Kim—stepped up. Allison had just come back from camp with her own group. She and Kim spent all week interpreting multiple sessions so Joseph could hear the gospel.
On the second night, the speaker told the story of how people in history were so afraid of burying people alive due to disease that they tied ropes around the hands of the dead, with bells attached above ground. If the bell rang at night, they'd dig the person out.
The speaker invited students: if you want Jesus to save you, to rescue you and give you life, go ring one of those bells.
Joseph was among the first to run down. Afterward, he said: "This is the first time I've ever heard the story of Jesus in a way that made sense to me—because of Allison and Kim."
His group surrounded him. His dad stood in the back with his hands in the air, his best cheerleader. That's real courage. That's real community. That's real Jesus.
This summer at our camps, we had 1,507 first-time decisions to follow Jesus. Imagine what would happen if they came back to churches and homes where we were living fully awake. Imagine what that would do to change our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our families.
We can get there. Real Jesus. Real community. Real courage.
Next week we start our series "At the Movies." It's a great time to work on your real courage and bring someone with you.
