Hey, let's pray together. God, I thank you for an incredible morning, and God, this morning we worship you. We put your name above every other name. God, this is a Sunday morning that we lift up all the concerns that are on our heart and on our mind. And we, God, we just place 'em at your altar.

We, we, we put 'em at your feet. And God, I love what your word says. It says that you'll do more than we could ask, more than we could even imagine. And everyone watching this morning, everyone worshiping this morning, feels that, that this is more that God, we didn't see this this morning, that it would be a room so full and there would be worship. But God, today we honor you and we thank you that we have a chance to impact eternity through the next generation.

And so, God, I pray you would do more that you would allow us to see and experience a breakthrough, not in just the next generation, but in our hearts and in our minds. And so, God, we lift up your name above every other name, and we worship you strong today. It's in your name we pray, and everybody said amen. Amen. Yeah.

Listen, let's celebrate Turning Point weekend. Amen. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Alright, so this is the final session.

I mean, this is the last session of the weekend. And I gotta give you some numbers because sometimes numbers get us excited. This weekend, 620 people came together from Friday until this moment. 400. You ready?

490 students from all different schools all through South Mississippi, students from the coast, students from Jones County, students down in Stone County watching right now, students from over at the Hunt Club. And all of us gathered together, and I want you to hear this because we need to celebrate this. Where else can you bring together five churches, seventh grade through 12th grade, 620 people. Man, camp Shelby opens up their doors for us and we need to give them a hand. Let's celebrate Camp Shelby.

Colonel Michael Honeycutt. Thank you. Only thing I noticed speak your language is to say, roll tide. Okay, listen, we couldn't do it without their help. And I, I gotta do one more thing before we get to the message, because you know this, you can't take 490 students away from the weekend without leaders.

You, you, you can't set up a stage where there really is no stage. I mean, you, you can't set up tents for all these groups to gather together without adults that's sitting in there until late at night. Our team got back this morning at 3:00 AM to set up at each campus and make this morning happen. We've gotta thank them 'cause we couldn't do it without them. So let's thank our leaders.

Yeah. Okay, now here we go. You're gonna repeat after me. You ready? Here we go.

It's time. It's time to grow, to grow. What is in me, what is in me is not for me. Is not for me. Now, follow me.

Okay? We've been in a series where we've been talking about the fruit of the spirit and the idea of the fruit of the spirit is that there's something in us that is bigger than us. And so I've got these little pictures here of, of some planners because I don't know, I just kind of get into this. Like, I, I enjoy planting things and I like to see what happens and what grows over time. And I like to just see what God's gonna do with it.

But, but it's important when you're planning, and you know this man, you, you've gotta plant something in the, in the planner to expect something to happen. So like, if I take my seed and I, and I place it in here and I begin to plant this, but I don't put anything different or unique in this planter, I would be crazy to expect something different or unique to come from this planter. But this one, on the other hand, the one that I took these seeds and I began to plant them, I can expect something new, something different to come out of this planter. Now, this weekend has been about planting seeds. Man, we've planted seeds at all these different schools.

We've planted seeds at all of our different campuses. We've planted seeds in all of these different homes. And what we're gonna wait and see, just like you wait and see kinda what happens and what's gonna grow and what we can expect in time, man, if we keep nurturing this and keep growing this, because this idea of planting things in dirt was God's idea. Back in Genesis. God came and he'd up some dirt and he, he'd breathed life into it.

And that's what we're hoping is happening. We, we've gathered up a bunch of dirt and we've planted the seeds of the Gospel, the glorious seed. Now, here's what you and I know about the seed, right? Man, we, we, we know this, we've heard the message before, that in time, right when we pray and we invite Jesus to come into our heart, that something begins. And there's this new reality that there's different characteristics of God that are gonna come out of us because God is in us.

We recognize our sin, and we recognize our savior and we choose to follow him. And this is glorious seed that is now planted in us. And you and I know that because when I talk to you, we're like, yep, I'll be in heaven one day. I mean, I'm gonna see you there. I put my faith in Jesus.

I invited him in my heart. But what we forget sometimes it's like we, sometimes we forget that the seed has a role here. There's a, there's a, there's a whole thing called sanctification where when the seed comes down in us, we become to, we begin to look more and more like Jesus. And this weekend when you worship, like you just worship this room in each room, man, you felt a little glimpse of heaven when we're gonna be in heaven. And man, we're gonna be glorious.

We're gonna be separated from our sin and we're gonna look different. But here, I believe on this earth, when the seed of the Gospel, the glorious seed is in you, you and me should look different. Now let me show you that in Scripture. And that's a great thing for you to always say is, well, where is that in Scripture? And so let's begin to look.

We've been studying Galatians and we're in Galatians chapter five. Now, here's what's happened. Paul's a church planner, alright? He loves to start things. He might like to start things.

Come on, gimme, gimme a little help in here. A little crowd participation. You like to start a fight with your sibling. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Come on.

What? Bryson Tyson. Y'all don't fight. I know y'all fight. You, you like to start things.

Well, that, that's Paul man. He was always starting things. And he started this church just like this. It was a weekend like this, right? Just imagine.

And he called it Galatia because that's where they were. And then he went on this missionary journey and he started more churches. He did more turning point weekends, he started more campuses. But then he had the chance and he began to hear things. He began to hear about Tyson and Bryson.

I gotta, I gotta, I need to write them a letter. They're doing some things. I'm not so sure it's a good decision. And so he begins to write this church because he heard about what they were doing and he didn't like the direction they were headed. And so let me describe to you, let me use Paul's words in Galatians five, and I want you to see what he says about this church.

Maybe this is the, maybe this is the kind of church you grew up in. Here's how he describes the church. He says, if you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you'll be destroyed by each other. First Baptist Galatia. Anybody want to go there this weekend?

No, thank you. It gets worse. He begins to write and he's describing what he has seen coming out of this church that he started and listen to the words he uses to describe this church. Okay? It's right here.

Let's start in verse 19. Galatians five 19, the acts of the sinful nature. They're obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fifths of rage. Come on, sounds great.

Selfless ambition. Dissensions factions, which are like cliques, envy, drunkenness, orgies and all of the, like I warn you as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, when I read that list, it just doesn't feel good. I mean, I read that list and I think surely there's another way, like is, is that the only option? Because I'm no different than you.

Like I, man, I've lived some of that. I don't wanna go back to that. I don't want that to be the way you describe me or my church. And so I'm just telling you that to say, because I don't know if you know this, there's another way, like God loves us too much to say, I wanna leave you in that lifestyle. He says, when the seed, when the glorious seed of the Gospel gets down in you, these next few verses is where he begins to describe what it can look like when you're walking with Jesus.

And listen, watch this, because it's not just a list of rules. Watch how he describes life by the spirit. Alright, here we go. Stay with me. Verse 22.

Here's the other way. Here's your other option of how we can live. But the fruit of the spirit is love. It's joy, it's peace and patience and kindness. Goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

And let me, let's just be real for a minute that, does that sound like a life that you would enjoy? Does that sound like the kinda marriage that you want where you're kind to each other and you're gentle with each other? What if I told you that your student's gonna leave outta here, not with a checklist, but they're gonna leave out here with the characteristics of God, the traits of God, and all of a sudden you're gonna see peace and joy. That is the seed that is in you and is in me. Now, this week we've made it to one of the traits.

Now you can go back on online and watch each message where we talked about love and joy and peace and even patience. Last week was kindness and goodness. Now this is so cool. This week we're talking about the same thing that Turning Point weekend talked about for the last two days. We're talking about faithfulness, and I need you to know this because I don't know what little box that you've put God in, but God is faithful.

It's who He is. It's the, it's the character of God. I read about it this, this week in our Bible reading plan. I hope you do that with us on Tuesday morning in the Bible reading plan, we read Psalm, Psalm 1 15, 1. It says, not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name be glory because of your love and faithfulness.

That's the way the writer describes God. It's the same way that you may describe your kid. Man, I got one that's, that's courageous. I got one that's kind and Paul's right and he says, well, this one that God, the God that I know and serve, David says he's love and he's faithful. And here's another example of God's faithfulness.

Oh no, you love this verse. Lamentations 3 22 23 because of the Lord's great love. It's the words we're using to describe God. I don't see mad right there. I see his great love because of his great love.

We're not consumed for his compassion. Never fails. That's how he's describing God, that we've been worshiping all weekend. You ready? Then?

He says they're new. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. I thought about some other words just to help us understand faithfulness. I mean, you, you kinda already get it, but here's what came in my mind.

Loyal, devoted. I love this one. Steadfast, dedicated, constant, trustworthy, solid. Here's some phrases. Sometimes you need a little phrase to help you.

Here's another word, like a phrase to describe faithfulness. Okay? And this is who we can be with God in us. Loyal in relationships, man, don't you love friends that even when you're having a bad day, you can call them. I mean, even when you miss the PK to win the game, you're not worried because your friend is faithful.

They're loyal in relationships. They, they're dependable in all seasons. I mean, even the season where things just aren't going well at school. Talked to one of our students this week, got a chance to pray with 'em. And we just prayed about how hard difficult school was.

And I resonate with that because it was hard for me. But the idea of faithfulness is, man, we're faithful. Even when the, even when we're going through a difficult season, man, a faithful person is a promise keeper. There's no surprises with faithful people. Oh man, I just tell you, man, even as a 44 or five, I think I'm 44 or five, I don't know which one I am.

But I love people that I can count on that there's no surprises. I mean, they're the kind of people that I just know. You call them in. They're there. You don't have to wonder who's gonna show up because they're faithful.

That's who God is. He's faithful. Faithfulness matters in, in our organization, in our church, sometimes we do. We, we will talk about people and, and we'll talk about 'em being superstars. And then we'll talk about 'em being rock stars.

And I wanna talk about the idea of a rock star, because superstars have to have a stage. Kinda like, I'm not comparing myself to a superstar, but I have to have a stage like I'm needy. I gotta have a microphone. I mean, that's right. That mean they take up all the air in the room.

That's the opposite of a rockstar. A rockstar is somebody that's that, that, that they're, they're there. They're constant, they're always dependable. They work behind the scenes. They finish the task.

Organizations need rock stars. Businesses need rock stars. Hey, listen, families, my family wouldn't operate without my wife. That is the rock star. Hey, what about this churches, come on.

We just, we're celebrating 600 something people. We're celebrating all of these students. But you can't do it without the rock stars that show up to clean up and to pick up and to lead. You have been so faithful church. You have done this turning point.

We can, for 25 years, you've been faithful to give. That's how you build great things. The leader of this, remember this idea came 25 years ago. We have one person on staff that's been here 26 years that came up with the idea of Turning point weekend. He's been faithful.

Let's give Byron Malone a hand. You know, when I think about faithfulness, can I tell you the image that comes into my mind? I I, and it's because I talk to so many of you and I hear stories like this. And, and this is just the picture for me. I think about a grandmother.

Yeah, it's the story of how, you know, my, my mom and dad, they didn't bring me to church or you know, it just didn't happen with my sibling or something happened in my home or whatever it may be. But you know, my, it was my grandmother. It was my grandmother that took me to practice coming. It was my grandmother that sat me down and was there when times got difficult. It was, it was my grandmother.

It was the first one that took me down to her church. And I remember singing on her pew. And I remember, and sometimes we say difficult things about old traditional churches, but sometimes it's grandmothers and old traditional churches that lay a foundation of the Gospel of faithfulness. And people are faithful. It shines, man.

God gets the glory. You have been faithful. Lemme call. Let's be honest, this has been a year of transition for our church. We've had the same leader for 38 years, and you've been willing to be faithful.

You're still giving, we're growing. Man, I just need to say to you like church, thank you. You've been faithful to a mission that's bigger than just a person. And God honors, God blesses faithfulness. Now this morning I wanna give you a few things that can help you in me kind of grow in faithfulness.

Now, before I get there, students in the front, let's just, let's just kind of raise our hands so you don't fall asleep. Kind of do something like this. This is okay, still with me. Alright, here we go. We can put 'em back down.

Now, we got four things this morning that help us grow in faithfulness. The first one is this. As our relationship with Jesus grows, our faithfulness grows. It's just, it's, it's kind of a simple term, but I, I know what you're thinking. You're like, Hey, there's never been a picture in my family of faithfulness.

Like my parents were divorced. My dad changes jobs all the time. Uh, my mom's not here doing the things that other moms are doing. How do I know how to be faithful? You know how to be faithful because of what Jesus has done.

And as you grow in your relationship with Jesus, no matter if you haven't been modeled faithfulness, you can also be faithful because it's connected to your walk with the Lord. Changed. People do changed things. Give you a great example. The, uh, just this week, I, I showed up after lunch.

It was about one 30 and I, I'd been to lunch and, and I got back at lunch and I went upstairs over here in the kids' building and I was kinda walking around finding me a classroom to get in and, and work on my message a little bit for today. And I saw somebody on our staff that I have worked with him for 12 years and he was doing something that I've never seen him do. Like I have seen him sit in meetings all day long and drink diet Cokes. I have seen him be present and be sitting and be drinking and snacking. But on this day, at one 30 in the afternoon, after 12 years of being with him, I saw him pacing the halls, drinking water.

He's lost 35 pounds. He's doing things different because he has changed some of his values in that system. And, and just like that applies to your health and losing and managing your body, it applies to your faith. When you begin to do things differently and you begin to lock in and grow and nurture and watch all these different things happen, the seed begins to come up and there's something different. You begin to find strength and power in that and change.

People do change things. You grow in faithfulness when you grow in your walk with the Lord. Now, here's number two. You ready? Faithfulness grows in a healthy garden.

Now I'm just telling you, I need to be around faithful people because here's what I've noticed about me. If I get around critical people, I get critical. I don't like that about myself, but I'm, I'm just telling you. But when I get around, when I get this, this is just real for me, okay? When I get around dads that are like incredibly present and they're helpful when they're doing dishes, I start to think maybe I should do the dishes when I watch dads that like take out the trash without, you know, making a big to-do of it.

And, and like everybody needs to thank me that I'm taking out the trash. I start doing that on my own. But if I get around people that are critical, I start being critical. I get around negative people. In fact, your environment, man, it is shaping you.

Here. Here's how this played out in my life. Uh, we got, I know I already talked about Tyson and Bryson and, and I think it was, it was Tyson. Tyson was one of one of my baseball teams and me and another guy that's in this room, we coached it together. And here's what's important.

And if you've ever been around little league baseball, it's one of the most intense environments ever. Uh, you could probably say it's a pretty sick environment in some ways. Parents lose their minds, coaches lose their minds. And one thing you need to know about me is I'm competitive and I like to win. Now I'm gonna say this in love.

I don't know that I'm as bad as our previous lead pastor Jeff, but I am competitive. I love you, bro. I know you're watching. Here's the truth. I need to find a co-coach that is the opposite of me.

And so I always coach with, with one of my best friends because he's calm, he's steady, he's consistent. And so when things don't go right, and I get worked up and I'm kind of arguing the call and I think the score is something different, man. I look, I look down at the bench and what's he doing? He's just easy because he runs like that. That's the only gear he knows me, him.

Here's what, here's what Psalm says about it. It's in the book of Psalms. And this is a great verse. Psalms one, three, that person, the one I'm describing, he's like a tree that's planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in seasons and outta seasons, and whose beliefs don't wither. Whatever they do, they prosper.

Listen to me right here. Those are the kind of people that you wanna build your life around. If you're a senior right here, if you're a senior at any of our campuses and you're about to go next year, you're gonna be in a whole different university or a junior college or you're going to work. You need to find people that you wanna plant your life next to and by that are gonna yield fruit in season and outta season. But you know what convicted me?

We wanna make that little phrase, that idea about our students that's way bigger than our students. Because I started looking around this weekend about and watching and seeing some of the people that were serving. I saw a granddad out there serving. I wondered what kind of influence that granddad would have on other granddads if they saw him serving. I talked to a lady right out here before that said, Hey, this was the first year that two of my, that my kids were able to come to Turning Point weekend because we needed a scholarship this year.

And we got it because you gave, what I'm telling you is that's not, that's not just a student theory. If you're a young couple, you are about to plant a garden and you're about to see what grows. And you're gonna have to get in there and go, you know what? This couple that we're around right now, I love them, but I gotta put them in a different place because they're not good for us. If you're in middle school or you're in high school and you're developing these friendships, I need you to understand something.

It's not wrong to say I love you, but I need some boundaries from you. That's not wrong. We're gonna still encourage them. We're gonna still pray for them. And there may be a season that we let them back in a different role, in a different place in our life.

But man, healthy gardens, sometimes you get down in there and you have to pull some weeds so that you can continue to grow. Okay? You're doing so good, we're almost there. Number three, faithfulness grows. I love this one.

Faithfulness grows in the little things. Now, this worked out perfectly for this moment. Two Wednesday nights ago, we did something called Trunk or Treat Man, I'm gonna tell you, it was awesome at the Gulf Coast. I'm so proud of you. Uh, man, you partnered with, uh, orange Grove Elementary School and they all came to your campus.

It was incredible. Hunt Club campus was over at North Forest School and man, they just flooded it with cars. And all of those students came and they trunk or treated all night long. Lincoln Road Campus, you partnered with Tim's Elementary. And I hope you've heard that story because there were more people at that trunk or treat than most of the football games on Friday night.

But I started watching and I saw all these cars pull up and they started getting in their places. And all of these people that had partnered with other families or house churches opened up and, and Candy everywhere. So I'm talking about students, all of these students. But I watched, I saw one of our partners, he came here when he was a freshman in college. He's now 50 years old.

He's been a partner at our church, talk about faithfulness for 33 years. Guess what he showed up with that night? He showed up with a bucket and his little claw and he just went around the whole night. Instead of making a real big deal, he just picked up trash all around the track. Guess who the la Just give him a hand.

Yeah. That's faithfulness. Lemme, lemme me tell you about him because you're gonna love this. I started thinking about last year at Trunk or Treat. We had a thousand, over a thousand people there.

You know, the same guy that was there this Wednesday night picking up trash. He was the last one to leave, the last time we did it. And he's the one that pulled the lights out of there. You don't even know his name and I'm gonna tell you his name. But here's what's so unique.

When I saw the bucket, you ready? You'll be known by your fruit. When I saw the bucket, I knew who it was just by the bucket. There's his name's not on the bucket. It wasn't Sherlin Williams.

That's a paint store. It it, his name's nowhere on here, but he is known by his fruit because every time we do something, he's one of the last ones here to clean up. I'm gonna tell you, that makes a difference when a 50-year-old man's not back, back going, oh honey, go do this. Go get some more candy for him. It's about the kids.

What he's out there serving, he's doing the little things. It's the little things that grow in faithfulness. Now I need to be real careful here. Don't miss this. You ready?

I love Turning Point weekend. I mean, I love the excitement. There's no Sunday morning like this Sunday morning. I've been looking forward to this Sunday morning to preach. But I don't think it's the big things like Turning Point weekend where we grow in faithfulness.

I think it's the little things. It's what happens when you leave here. It's when you become a self feeder. And when you walk outta here and on Monday, 'cause you're gonna sleep today, don't try it today. But on Monday, you open up your word and you begin to get into the gospels.

You open up that little venture app or whatever app you want to use or whatever devotion you have, and you begin to get in the word. That's where we develop faithfulness. It's when you begin to pray all day long. He said, you can pray without ceasing. And you begin this relationship and dynamic with God and you begin to experience, see all of these characteristics of God that we're studying.

It's not that they come outta you, it's they're, they're from God. The seed. It's the seed of glory that's in you. And you experience God's love and his joy and his peace and his patience, his goodness and his kindness with and for you. Now you've made it to the last one, final one, turning point weekend.

This is so good. You've done amazing. Give these guys a hand. They are still awake. I'm looking.

I was gonna call somebody out. I, I really hope somebody fell asleep. Here's the last one. And we said it at the very, very first. You didn't even know you were saying it.

You said, this is what you said when we started the message, it's time. And you said, it's time. I said to grow and you said to grow. I said, what's in me? And you said, what's in me?

It's not for me. Now here's, here's the last point for Turning Point weekend, all of these things that we've been talking about, the fruit of the spirit. Our goal is not that you would look like a big old Christmas tree and you would have all these ornaments on you that are love and joy and peace and patient. And you would just stand there for people to look at your tree and go, oh, look at that tree. Oh, look at them.

They sure are fruitful. Oh my, you've come back in your awe and your head get, we said, we said that you develop fruit and you begin to walk with the Holy Spirit. And it's not for you because you're around people all day long that are hungry. In fact, they're hangry. And now as the spirit, as the seed of glory grows in you, it's not meant to be for you.

It's for you to share love and for you to share joy. And you do that because I see your smiles and it influences us. You just experienced this room to worship in ways that most people in this room have never worshiped because of you. You shared that with us. You are a contributor to something bigger than yourself today.

And that's really hard for students to do. I'm gonna tell you something that's hard for dads to do, that's hard for preachers to do. 'Cause we wanna make it about us. You know, the most fruitful person that ever live, Jesus. And what did Jesus do?

He gave up his life so that you and I may have life. He gave up his fruit. He shared, he encouraged, he met people where they were. And you're gonna have a chance to do that. That's what's so exciting for me is this week, like tomorrow, when you go into a classroom, when you go to practice, when you go back to your homes, I want you to pray something for me.

This isn't just about the students. Now here's the prayer. You're gonna pray this week. Holy Spirit, how can I feed? And you just fill in the blank.

How can I feed my coworkers? How can I feed my wife Holy Spirit? How can I feed and encourage my husband, holy Spirit? How can I feed and encourage my team, holy Spirit, how can I feed and encourage my teacher, teachers, oh, holy Spirit, I need your help to feed and encourage my students. So here's what we're gonna do.

I want you to go ahead and stand up with me at all of our campus. You can stand up and man, you've done so well. The challenge for us is come on. We, we, we've, we've gotta break a culture. I mean, look, this was a week where man, there was a major election and there's been news and there's been all of the things that drive us all crazy.

And they make us nervous and they make us anxious and they discourage us. And if we're not careful, we're gonna miss this moment. Look around, look what you're giving to look what you're affecting. The next leader is right here. And what I'm challenging you to do this week is for too many generations and too many years, we have been fruit inspectors.

Hmm, let's look at that church's fruit. Hmm? Let's look at this one. Huh? She's judgmental.

Oh, I don't like the fruit on that one. And we want to judge, what I'm telling you is Tyson and Bryson, you guys are about to be gardeners. You guys, this generation, you're gonna break outta here. And instead of being a church that's judgemental, you're gonna be a church that grows and grows, goes and makes disciples. This is what Jesus had in mind.

So don't be an inspector this week, instead this week we're praying. Holy Spirit, help me be faithful. Come on, let's pray together. God, this is bigger than us. This task of being faithful and difficult seasons of life is beyond our own strength.

It's beyond our own capacity. That's why we need the seed. God, that's why you came and you did what we couldn't do. And now, father of all different seasons, of all different times, if we could place our hope in so many different parties, in so many different people, we're choosing today to place our hope in you. God, we're seeing a different future.

We're seeing students that worship differently. We're seeing students that walk out of a retreat this weekend, not with the checklist, but with the characteristics of God that are gonna begin to come out of them because you're in them. God will be known by our fruit. And I pray we would be a people that are known by love, by joy, by peace. God, we all need it.

By patience, by gentleness and kindness and by faithfulness. Father, we worship you. We give you all the glory. We pray you would do more with this next generation than we could ask or imagine and we pray You would use us. Let us lay down our life in the same way that Jesus laid down His to you be the glory to you.

Be the honor. It's in your name we pray, and everybody said amen. Amen. Let's worship.