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Real Faith: Faith That Shows Up Every Day
February 11, 2026 · 31 min
Pastor John Mark unpacks how the disciple John's transformation from hot-headed fisherman to the "apostle of love" demonstrates God's power to change us.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton February 11, 2026 · 31 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
Pastor John Mark unpacks how the disciple John's transformation from hot-headed fisherman to the "apostle of love" demonstrates God's power to change us. ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor John Mark unpacks how the disciple John's transformation from hot-headed fisherman to the "apostle of love" demonstrates God's power to change us.
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
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From Sons of Thunder to Real Faith 0:00 Amen, church. I'm so glad to start a brand new series. Today as we look at the book of first John, we just came out of our praise series. Did you enjoy that? Man, I loved hearing all the great0:12 feedback, seeing the swag y'all wore not only in the church but around the community. Man, we have learned to pray. Now, we roll into first John, and the new series is simply0:23 entitled Real Faith because real faith is a faith that shows up every day. Now you say, alright, who wrote first John? Well the same guy that wrote John and the same0:35 guy that wrote second John and third John, John the disciple. Now here's what we know about John the disciple, his father was Zebedee, his brother was James. James and John, there's also a James that is a brother of0:47 Jesus, a different James. They were called by Jesus when he first brought them in to discipleship. He called James and John sons of thunder.1:00 Why? Because let me tell you what they were, before they met Jesus, they were just a blue collar group of fishermen that absolutely were hot1:11 headed. There were times that you would see in scripture that something would happen to Jesus and these hot headed fishermen would say, hey you need us to take care of that for you? There was 1 time when1:23 they were rolling through Samaria on their way to Jerusalem and you know as you know about Jesus, a lot of Jews would go around Samaria. But they were rolling through Samaria because Jesus always wanted1:35 to go through Samaria and when he showed up there with all the disciples, they said hey, can we stay here and can we lodge with some of you in the community? Well the word got out that1:47 Jesus wasn't on his way to Samaria, he was just on his way through Samaria, heading up to Jerusalem. And when the Samaritans heard this, this 1 Samaritan village, heard this,1:59 they got angry. You can go look this story up in Luke chapter 9. And so what James and John, they said, you're not staying here, move along. Well they get outside the town and James and2:11 John are hacked. Comes from the Greek word hackamos, if you want to use it around the house you can say it's a bible term. And they are hacked off and they stopped and they said, Jesus,2:24 you want us to call down fire on this village and destroy them all? That's kind of the way they solve their problems. So here's what I'm thinking, so these 2 James and John, originally called sons of thunder, blue2:36 collar hot headed fishermen who wanted to deny anyone and everyone who resisted the message of Jesus or the person of Jesus then has a change.2:48 And after spending time with Jesus, they become part of Jesus' inner circle. James and John and Peter. Towards the3:00 end of his ministry in life, John is called the disciple Jesus loved. Before Jesus,3:13 hot headed, blue collar fisherman becomes a disciple that Jesus loved. And when you read the gospel of John and when3:25 you read first John and when you read second John, you read third John, and you say how did a guy go from that, hot headed, to3:37 this. Because in all of his writings, you just hear compassion and love and grace. You know what that tells me? Before Jesus, he3:49 was 1 thing. After Jesus, he was another thing. You know what that tells me? There is hope for all of us. Look to the person to your left4:01 or right and say, there's hope for you. Alright, so let's just let's just begin to walk a little bit through first John. I'm gonna start at the end of the book, alright? Now some of you are taking that a little too far,4:12 alright? Don't get up and crawl down the aisle to go find someone to say, yep, there's even hope for you. But, we're gonna start and we're just gonna walk through this book chapter after chapter and verse by4:24 verse, and you're gonna love it and it's gonna talk about, really it's John. If you think of the gospel of John, it was very evangelistic. When you think about first John, this guy is pastoral.4:36 Evangelistic, he wanted to write the gospel of John so people would believe and know the Jesus that he encountered and spent time with. First John was now John's older in his life and he's looking back and he's seeing4:48 believers who are struggling to apply their faith to their everyday life. They're even being drawn away by some heresies, which we will talk about, over the next couple of weeks. They're struggling with the idea of I5:00 want to be a follower of Jesus but I still sin, how do I handle that? And you come back next week, we're really going to talk about how do we truly handle sin. But here it is, let me jump to the end of the book because5:12 this is all working towards this verse. First John chapter 5 verse 13, he says I write these things to you. Everybody say that's us. That's us. You're you're gonna see in first5:24 John chapter 2, he defines the you. He defines them. He says, I write to you, parents and grandparents. He says, I write to you, young men and5:35 women. And then he says, I write to you, dear little children. And so as we walk our way through this amazing book, when he says, I write to you, he defines the you as5:47 all of us. It's the senior adult in the room. It's the middle aged people in the room. It's the single person in the room. It's the married person in the room. It's the widow or widower in the room, it's5:59 that young man or young woman where they got they got life, by the hand and they're going to take to it. He says, I write to you because you're strong and God wants to use you. And then he says, I6:11 write to you little children because I simply want you to know the truth of what it really means to walk with Jesus. And I can only imagine that John is writing out of a remembrance of6:23 who he was, but because of Jesus who he's become. And so he's looking at the people in the church going, I want you to experience the6:35 same thing I've experienced. And so here's what he says, he says, I read the write these things to you, those of you who believe. John, all the way through this book, wants6:47 you to live with confidence in your faith and in your faith journey. He says, who believe in the name of the son of God that you may know Everybody say, know. No.6:58 Not guess, not hope. What does he want you to know? That you have eternal life. He wants to remove all doubt. And so as we go7:10 through this book, there are gonna be some testings of things that we can see because I do know as a pastor, I spend a lot of time with people that people doubt their salvation. A lot of times it's because they've heard7:20 something, that that contradicts what they thought they knew about God's word or knew about Jesus or sometimes it's a sin in their life and they wonder to lose my salvation. We're gonna talk about that. But John says,7:31 hey listen, I want I write these things so that you would believe in Jesus Christ and know you have eternal life. Here's what John is saying, God didn't say you're saved, but I sure hope it works itself out.7:44 John says no no no, that's not what God says. He says, you don't have to come in here every Sunday doubting your salvation and checking if you are continually saved. John7:56 says, I write these things that you would know that you have eternal life. That doesn't mean doubts aren't gonna slip in, but he says as soon as they slip in, go back to the words that I wrote and drive doubt8:08 back out. Now let's look at the gospel of John and you will see if you read the gospel of John, it's much longer than first John or second John or third John, but you'll see a lot of the same themes. So if you go to John8:19 chapter 20. So remember, John is more evangelistic, first John is more pastoral. Here's what he says in verse 30. He says, Jesus performed many other signs, the same writer, same theologian, same8:31 disciple. Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. Here's what John is saying, I could have written a bunch more,8:43 but I've written enough so that you would believe. There are a lot of things in the bible. He says, Jesus said a lot of things, it probably went a lot more places and did a lot more things. He says, but I I I basically8:54 summarized it to give you the core things you need to know, to know you have eternal life. So he says, are not recorded in the book. But these are written that you may believe9:06 that Jesus is the messiah. John says, I could have written more, but I've written enough. Then he goes on, the messiah, the son of God, and that by believing you may have9:18 eternal life in his name. So the gospel of John is how to believe and how to be saved. First John is how to believe if you9:30 haven't believed, but then how to flesh out your faith in an everyday life. Now he says there does need to be some examining, we'll see that through the book. And I love what Paul said to the Corinthian believers, kind9:41 of said the same thing, that just because I believe, there are some tests, there are some things, there are some tangential items that we can look at and say, boy, we really are in the faith. Why? Because9:53 my faith shows up every day. Here's the way Paul put it, he says examine yourselves. Notice what he didn't say. He didn't say, listen if you're a Christian, go around looking at everybody else.Examining Faith and Bearing Fruit Daily 10:07 See he says examine yourselves, look at yourself, self reflection. See if all I do is look at other people, I become judgmental. Because I'm gonna start comparing those things that I'm good at with what others are bad10:18 at, so I can look better than they look. So here's what here's what Paul says, examine yourselves to do what? To see whether you're in the faith. Then notice he follows it up, not only examine yourself,10:30 but test yourself, an honest examination. He says, and do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you unless of course you fail the test? So I just thought I would10:42 stop right here today and let me just When we think about how often does our face show up daily, I just came up with a couple of ideas. Let me put, this image up on the screen for you. Just just10:54 think of your past week. And just like we started with prayer, and and it's been such a blessing to say, hey, I've started praying, I love this idea of a relationship. I just took 4 items, look it back11:06 back to your last week, and just let me ask you a question, a couple of questions. Here's here's Number 1, spent time in God's word. When you talk about your11:17 faith showing up every day, is your answer And by the way, none of these are condemnation. None? Some days? Or every day? How about another11:29 1? We're gonna see this a lot in this book. Did you encourage someone else or encourage a believer, out of faith because you saw them discouraged or were you encouraged by another belief?11:42 None, some, or every day. Here's another 1, did you make choices this week that reflected God's character11:54 when the temptation caused you to desire to choose the lower path? Were the things in your life where, man, you got you got mad hot headed like John, you12:06 wanted to call out fire and, thunder on someone and then you say, you know, that's just not the right thing to do. God would have me operate in a different level. Did you make decisions, choices that reflect God's12:18 character and not your own? Here's another 1, did you confess your sins and trust in God's forgiveness? If you're in here today and and you have these lingering past12:29 sins that you just can't let go or Satan is always throwing them up at you, be back here next week because we're gonna talk about how to deal with those sins once and all. Why? Because12:41 God already has. Alright? So do Or do you struggle? And and I want you to know, I don't put those up there because if you if you answered none for all 4,12:53 it doesn't mean there's no hope. It just means there's a lot of opportunity for growth and that we can let our faith show up every day. I I I love what Jesus said in John chapter 15 verse 8, talking about faith showing13:05 up every day. It's what John and it's in the gospel of John. He says, this is to my father's glory, Jesus talking, that you would bear much fruit. Everybody say much. Man, we're not looking as13:17 believers to bear as little fruit as possible. We wanna bear as much fruit as possible. Notice notice sin. And what do you do when you bear much fruit? You show yourselves to be my13:28 disciples. Let me put an image up on the screen for you. There's 2 different trees. One's an apple tree and one's an orange tree.13:40 How many of you in the room can tell which 1 is an apple tree? That's good. How many of you in the room can tell which 1 is the orange tree?13:52 How? By the fruit. The apple tree doesn't have to run around every day and yell like some, some Christians think I gotta yell in someone's face, I gotta tell everybody this, I gotta yell it.14:04 The apple tree doesn't put a sign up and say, I'm an apple tree. You know what it does? It grows fruit. The orange tree doesn't have to roll through life every day going, I'm an orange tree, I'm an orange tree. You know14:15 what it spends its day doing? Growing oranges. And so child of God, that's the way we want to be. We want to bear much fruit, so much fruit in our attitudes, in14:27 our thoughts, in our talk, in our relationship, in our interactions with other people, in our serving and loving other people, that people look at us and go, pretty sure they're a Christian.14:40 Then if they ask a question, you're gonna say, you nailed it and I'm glad you asked. Can I tell you more about my faith? So that's when we talk about real faith, a faith that shows up every14:52 day. This is about us journeying forward and doing everything we can to grow and bear much fruit, so much fruit that people will look at us and say, there's15:04 something different about them. You don't have to walk into your place of work or lifetime fitness and go, just let everybody know I'm a Christian. Man, if15:16 they can't figure it out, you telling them I'm a Christian, not going to let them work it out. So let me give you a couple of thoughts today. We're just going to walk through these verses and this15:28 kinda kinda lays the foundation for what we're gonna see next week where we're dealing honestly with sin next week. And let me tell you, it's not gonna be a hard message, it's going to be an encouraging message. But15:37 first of all, if you're if you're going to walk in the light, remember this, real faith always pursues the truth, not opinions. Go back to first John chapter 115:49 verse 1. We're walking through it. There we're now at the beginning of the book. He says, that which was from the beginning, that's a Greek idiom and a Hebrew idiom for eternity past, which we have heard with what? Our16:00 ears. We have seen with what? Our eyes. Which we have looked at and our hands have touched, flesh and blood. This is what we proclaim concerning the word of law the word of life. So notice16:12 this, he says that which we have heard, seen, touched. Remember the story of Doubting Thomas? How many of you remember Doubting Thomas? Thomas was with Jesus, 1 of the early disciples, spent time16:24 with him, did a lot of incredible things. But Thomas was 1 of those guys that struggled with doubt all of his life and all of his ministry. So much so that when Jesus, was nailed to the cross, Thomas just kinda said, I'm16:35 done. And so Jesus rises from the dead, appears to the disciples, but Thomas wasn't with them. Some of the disciples came by and they said, hey Thomas, I got good news.16:48 Jesus rose from the dead. And he goes, I won't believe it until I see it with my own eyes, hear it with my own16:59 ears, and touch it with my own hands. They went back and told Jesus this, Jesus, you know what he did? Jesus didn't say this about Thomas, well forget him.17:12 Jesus said, I'm a make a straight line to him. Came up to Thomas, said, do you hear this? Do you see this? And he went, Thomas, touch this.17:24 You see the scars? You see the hands? And it said Thomas believed because what he saw, heard, and touched.17:36 You see, real faith pursues the truth that Jesus is the Christ. I I love our next verse, John chapter 1 verse 1. Remember a lot of a lot of similarities from17:48 first John and John. Let me jump into, John chapter 1 verse 1. Here's what he says again. Same words, in the beginning, just like he used in verse John, eternity past. In the beginning was the18:00 word. Now when you hear word, logos, we'll go into this a little more later, but, just know he's talking about Jesus. In the beginning was the word, because he's speaking to a Greek audience, and the word was with God,18:11 and the word was God. Everybody say word was God. Word was not a god, wasn't 1 of many gods. Says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word18:23 was God. And notice this, if anything, that's kind of a theological mic drop right there. It's kind of a boom. Alright? In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God. Now fast18:35 forward to verse 14. Alright? So we have God there in eternity past creating everything. Now verse 14, he says, and that word, everybody say Jesus. Jesus. That word Jesus18:47 became flesh and made his dwelling among us. John's not saying this is a once upon a time in Bethlehem story. He's saying, no, this story back started back in18:58 eternity past. In the heavens with God and now Jesus who has become flesh. And then notice what he says, we have seen his glory, the glory is of the 1 and only son19:10 who came from the father, full of grace and truth. Both of them. Alright? Grace without truth is soft.19:23 Truth without grace is harsh. And he said, Jesus showed up with the perfect manifestation of grace and truth. And the more you and I can19:35 live life with a lot of grace and a lot of truth, not only for myself but for those I interact with, man, my joy is going to explode. Kinda interesting, you say, why did he continue to say in the19:47 beginning and and and flesh and we heard and we saw? Because in their day, there were 3 big heresies that he was talking to. So by the time remember, first John is a pastoral letter, Then19:59 you have had people around, heretics around that were called docetics. They they were they were beginning to make judgments about about Jesus. Jesus has, been, he died, he was buried, rose20:11 again the third day, Acts chapter 1, went back up into heaven to be with the father. So you had a bunch of docetics around the areas that John would encounter that were Greeks, that they were like, we never touched him,20:21 we never saw him, we never, we never were around him. So Jesus, we believe there's something divine because we've heard enough of these miracles, but we don't believe he was actually in the flesh, we just believe he20:31 appeared to be in the flesh. Kind of like a Jesus angel walking around. That when you looked at him, a kind of a hologram, you're like, alright, I I can see that. Because they had heard20:43 so many opportunities of the miracle and even the resurrection, they didn't want to discount Jesus but they didn't like the idea that God could take on flesh. Why? Because they were dualists. They believed that spirit20:54 was good, matter was evil. And so there's no way that they could accept that God became a man. And so that's why John, over and over in the gospel of John, as21:06 well as in first John, as well as Paul does it over and over again, said Jesus came in the flesh. Jesus came in the flesh. So everybody knows, this wasn't just an angel figure of the Godhead, it was a fleshly figure.21:18 Another 1 was Gnosticism. The Gnostics were were a Greek group that, they followed out of Aristotle and Socrates. They believed that they were the smartest dudes in the room. Room. Anybody?21:30 No, don't say you're sitting next to them. They just always believed, well, see, Gnostics believed they had this secret knowledge. And if you could just come into them, they would share some secret knowledge21:42 with you and then you could get saved. And that's why over and over John says, hey, this isn't secret knowledge, this is public testimony. We saw him, we heard him, and then John21:54 re, basically refutes them by saying, you don't have to go into a private room, gain some secret knowledge, we're gonna proclaim it to you. Over and over and over again. Then there was another group of heretics that that22:05 said Jesus was adopted. They said there's no way that he could have been, from eternity past. Maybe it is once upon a time in Bethlehem. This didn't start in the beginning. John said, no, it started in the beginning. And22:17 so what they believe is that Jesus was 1 of these guys that lived a really good life. You remember his baptism? So he comes up to John the Baptist and says, you're gonna baptize me. John the Baptist said, no, I need to22:27 baptize you. Jesus said, no, you're gonna baptize me. So he baptizes Jesus. Remember what happened? It says when Jesus was baptized, it says Jesus the son, then the holy spirit came22:39 down like a dove, and the father in heaven said, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased. Well these adoptionists believe, that's when Jesus developed a divine spark. And so a lot of22:51 people even today, you'll hear, hey, we have a little divine in each of us and if you'll live right, God will come down someday and say I'm proud of you. So So thought number 1, real faith23:02 always pursues the truth. Here's number 2, real faith always lives in fellowship. See, we were never created in our ministry, in our life to live in isolation. I just did a wedding23:14 the other night. Passage I went back to is Genesis chapter 2. All the way through Genesis chapter 1, God created this and it was good, and this and it was good, and this it was good, and this it was good, and then he23:26 created Adam and it was good. And it says he brought all the animals to Adam and Adam named all the animals. And when Adam Adam was naming all the animals, it says no suitable helper23:38 was there for Adam. And God looked down and said, it is not good for man to be alone. And so what happened? He created Eve. Not as his assistant,23:51 but his helper that is suitable. Because see even as believers, man we're not supposed to do life alone. Here's the way John put it, he says we proclaim what we have seen and heard24:02 so that you also may fellowship, that's the word koinonia, it's a it's a shared life that you would share life together with us. And our fellowship, listen to this, it's a vertical and horizontal fellowship. And our24:14 fellowship is with the father and his son Jesus Christ. And notice what he says, he says we write this, verse 4, to make our joy complete. Child24:26 of God, isolation always puts a lid on your joy. When we fellowship with other people, in relationship with other people, it doesn't put a lid on it, it24:38 multiplies our joy. Man, the number of times that I'm kinda rolling through a day and if you're wondering I do have bad days, just ask Gina. You know what, sometimes it24:50 seems like God will always put someone, I'll end up on a phone call or whatever and and I'll say, Pastor can I just tell you something cool that happened today? And I'm like, yes. I could use25:01 some cool today. How many of you know what I'm talking about? See when we live in isolation it puts a lid on our joy, but when we live with fellowship with other people and God, it's a horizontal and a vertical.25:13 Man, that you and I understand that God wants to do something special, so don't isolate yourself. You're in the right place, you're in God's house. Here's number 3, you ready? Real faith25:25 always loves the light. If you're truly a child of God, you're gonna look forward to becoming better and better and better every day. Not to earn25:37 your salvation, but to show and demonstrate the fruit of your salvation. You say, where do you see this? Verse 5. This is the message, remember not a secret knowledge. He says this25:49 is a message we heard from him and now declare to you. Not a secret message to a chosen few, it's to anyone and everyone who wants to believe. And here's the message, God26:01 is light. Everybody say light. There is no dimmer switch on God. God doesn't have mood lighting. Can't turn him off and then turn him on in your light.26:13 He says God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. Said if we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, You know what happens when26:27 a room is dark all the time mold grows. Spiritual mold too. He says, if we claim to be in him but we walk in darkness, we lie26:39 and do not live in the truth, live out the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we what? We have fellowship with 1 another and notice this, and the blood of Jesus,26:51 his son, does what? Purifies us from all sins. You say how does that happen? It's exactly what we're gonna27:03 talk about next week. That when I have faith in Jesus Christ, it was his blood, not my work, that purified me from all of our sins. And here's number 4,27:15 real faith walks with genuine humility. Real faith walks with humility. Just kind of was thinking today, you know, always say the word humility, whatever.27:27 And sometimes my mind is is a little goofy, so see if you can follow this and if y'all don't laugh, no 1 else is gonna hear this joke. I thought, humility's a lot like bad27:39 breath. Now I know you're questioning this joke already. Genuine humility is like bad breath. Because everybody else27:51 knows they have it but the person who truly does. Does that make sense? See, the person who walks around pretending to be humble and acting humble, they're really not humble.28:04 It's the person that just understands, I don't deserve God's love. I don't deserve God's blessings. I don't deserve God's faithfulness.28:16 I don't deserve all the goodness that God has given to me. As a matter of fact, I still wonder why do I keep doing this? But at the same time I'm walking in28:28 humility knowing God's got this. So here's our last verse, first John chapter 1 verse 8. This kind of sets us up for what we're gonna talk about next week. So here's the genuine humility,28:40 if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. You know there are a lot of people that28:52 walk around thinking they're God's gift to everybody. Let let me just do a little honesty check. Just turn to the person next to you and say you're a sinner.29:05 It's always good to reemphasize that point. Okay. Alright, now look back to that same person and say, but I'm a bigger 1.29:21 See our our heartbeat is these dear children he's writing to, as these young men and young women he's writing to, and these mothers and fathers he's writing to,29:34 and these grandmothers and grandfathers he's writing to. He says don't ever ever ever walk around thinking or acting like you're perfect, but29:45 understanding when real faith shows up every day. I'm not perfect, but I'm getting better every day. Let's pray. God thank you so much29:58 for the words of John, as we just get to open this book up and just scratch the surface. God my prayer is even that little self test we took a while ago that that we would make a decision to30:10 let ourselves let our faith show up every day this week by getting into your word, by encouraging someone else or being encouraged by other believers. And30:22 by trying to simply bear fruit, the fruits of righteousness. And when we fall, confess our sins and trust in your forgiveness.30:34 In Jesus' name we pray, Amen and Amen.In this video 0:00 From Sons of Thunder to Real Faith9:59 Examining Faith and Bearing Fruit DailyComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
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