Do You Believe in the God of the Bible?

The Word at the Table

I'm Neal Reyes, The Entrepreneurs' Pastor, and I'm glad you're at the table. This week I'm bringing you two distinct words again. One for your faith and one for your leadership. The faith word this week is one of the most important I have ever brought to this table. I need you to read it carefully and share it with someone you love. Let's get into it.

This Week's Word

The Opening: Do You Believe in the God of the Bible?

I want to start this week with a conversation I had recently that stopped me in my tracks.

I was talking with someone I genuinely care about. Someone I love. Someone who was raised in the church, raised in the ways and things of God, and whose prayer life used to be a significant part of who they were. And in the course of our conversation, I asked them a simple question.

Do you believe in God?

And they answered quickly, easily, and without hesitation. They said yes.

But then God dropped something into my heart that I had never thought to ask anyone before. A follow-up question.

I asked them, but do you believe in the God of the Bible? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

And their answer surprised me significantly.

They said no.

This is someone raised in a great family. Someone raised in the church. Someone who had encountered God personally through prayer. And somewhere along the way, they had traded in the God of the Bible for a version of God they were more comfortable with. A God of their own understanding. A God that did not require them to align their life to His Word.

And when I dug deeper, what I found was that education had been the vehicle. They had taken a class on a certain subject, and the conclusions of that class had led them to begin questioning. And eventually, rather than reconciling the question with God, they walked away from the answer.

They now believe in what they call the universe. Not an atheist, they said. Just a believer in something bigger. Something they cannot quite define.

And I sat with that for a long time after our conversation ended.

I am sharing this with you not to judge that person. I love them. They know who they are if they are reading this. But I am sharing it because I believe most of us, if we are honest, have someone like that in our lives. Someone we care about deeply who has slowly drifted from the truth of God's Word into something that feels more culturally acceptable but leads nowhere with eternity in view.

And that is exactly where I want to go today.

Part One: The Urgency of Eternity

We are starting a brand new series on Champion's Walk called Eternity: Waking Up the Church. And I want to open by being direct with you about why this series exists.

One of the core assignments God has given to Neal Reyes Ministries is to wake up the church. Not the lost. The church. Because in this hour, some of the most dangerous spiritual drift is happening not outside the walls of the church but inside them.

And the drift is subtle. It is not happening all at once. It is happening slowly, almost imperceptibly, through the accumulation of voices, influences, and cultural pressures that are gently, consistently, and persistently asking the church to conform rather than to transform.

Romans 12:2 NKJV is our foundation for this entire series. "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

Do not be conformed. Be transformed. That is the instruction. And the mechanism of transformation is not willpower. It is the renewing of the mind. Which means that if the mind is not being renewed by God's Word, something else is doing the renewing. And whatever that something else is, it is conforming you, not transforming you.

Faith Anchor #1: You cannot think like the world and live for eternity at the same time.

Let me talk to you about what I call Comfort Christianity. This is the version of faith that has been quietly spreading through the body of Christ, and it is one of the primary things God has called this series to confront.

Comfort Christianity says I believe in God. But it removes the parts of God's Word that call for accountability, sacrifice, and transformation. It says I love Jesus but holds loosely to what Jesus actually said. It picks and chooses which scriptures to embrace and quietly sets aside the ones that require a response it is not ready to give.

This is not a new problem. Revelation 3:16 NKJV speaks plainly about it. "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth." God would rather you be hot or cold rather than lukewarm. Because a person who is hot or cold knows where they stand. A lukewarm believer is in the most dangerous spiritual condition there is, because they have just enough of God to feel secure but not enough to be transformed.

And here is the reality that comfort Christianity has trained an entire generation of believers to avoid. There is an eternity waiting for every single person who has ever lived. It is not a metaphor. It is not a concept. It is a destination. And the decisions people make in this lifetime, which the Bible describes as but a vapor, a mist that appears and then vanishes, determine where that eternity is spent.

Faith Anchor #2: You can ignore God's Word. But you cannot escape its truth.

God is not adjusting His Word to fit the culture. The culture is being given an opportunity to align itself to His Word. And when it refuses, when loud voices purposely rebel against God's Word as Isaiah 5:20 NKJV warns us they would, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil," this is a sign of the times and a direct example of what Romans 1:22 NKJV describes when it states, "people would profess to be wise but become fools." Regardless of what culture may profess, the Word remains unchanged. Romans 3:4 NKJV says it plainly. "Let God be true and every man a liar." And it has never stopped being true.

Now here is where I want to land with you practically. Because this series is not about pointing a finger at the world. It is about waking up the church so the church can be what it was always meant to be for the world.

The question I want you to sit with is this. Are you more concerned about the temporary comfort of the people around you than you are about their eternity?

Because real love is not silence in the face of someone you care about who is drifting toward an eternity without God. Real love is having the conversation. Not with condemnation. Not with fire and brimstone. Not with judgment. But with the same love that sent Jesus to the cross in the first place. The love that says, I care too much about where you are going to say nothing about the direction you are headed.

Faith Anchor #3: Silence in the face of someone's eternity is not kindness. It is the most costly form of love withheld.

We are called to wake up. The world does not need a version of the church that has been made comfortable by conformity. It needs a church that has been transformed by the truth, bold enough to carry that truth into every conversation that matters.

This series is just getting started. Stay with us.

Part Two: The Difference Between a Big Dream and a Big Idea

Now let me bring you the second word for today. And I want to open with a distinction that I think is going to unlock something for a lot of you who are building something right now and wondering why it does not feel like it is going anywhere.

There is a difference between a big dream and a big idea. And most people do not know which one they are actually carrying.

Here is the distinction.

A big idea is something generated in your mind. It is creative, intelligent, and can be genuinely innovative and exciting. And a big idea can absolutely be God-inspired. The distinction is not that one is better than the other. They are both very much needed. But there are right seasons for each, and both will require different things of you. The challenge with many big ideas is that when things get hard, there is nothing underneath them strong enough to keep you moving forward. A God-given dream, on the other hand, carries a why that outlasts the difficulty.

While a big idea operates from the intellect, a big dream goes deeper than that. A big dream is something that was placed inside of you. It is not just a thought you had. It is a thing that grows. It gets bigger the more you sit with it. It scares you a little because you can see it clearly but you cannot yet see how you are going to get there. And if the dream is from God, which I believe the best dreams are, it will always be bigger than what you are currently capable of executing on your own.

Leadership Truth Bomb #1: Your dream is the why that keeps you going when it gets hard.

A God-given dream carries something underneath it that pure ideation alone cannot. Because when you know the why, the how becomes a problem worth solving. The setbacks become detours, not dead ends. The obstacles become education. And the difficulty becomes the very thing that forges the character required to steward what you are building.

Let me give you the navigation app illustration to bring this home. Before we had Google Maps and Waze, if you were taking a road trip you had to pull out a physical map. You had to know your exact destination before you could trace the route. You could not just start driving and figure it out.

A big dream functions like knowing your destination. You may not have every turn mapped out yet. But you know where you are going. And that knowledge, that fixed destination, is what allows everything else to be organized around it. Without a destination, you are just driving.

Leadership Truth Bomb #2: Without a destination, movement is just motion. Dreams give your motion direction.

Now let me talk to you about the people who have stopped dreaming. Because I know some of you are reading this and the dream that used to live in you has gone quiet. Life got hard. Resources ran out. People did not show up the way you expected. And somewhere along the way you stopped dreaming and started just managing.

I want to speak directly to you right now. That dream that was growing inside of you did not disappear because you stopped pursuing it. It just went dormant. And it is still there. And there is someone waiting on the other side of your obedience to that dream for what only you can bring.

Leadership Truth Bomb #3: Someone is waiting on the other side of your obedience to that dream.

Big dreams require action. And here is what I have found in years of coaching leaders and executives. The people who are dreaming without acting have usually confused dreaming with planning. They are still in the ideation phase. They feel the dream, they talk about the dream, they think about the dream. But they have not made the first committed move toward it yet. And without that first move, the dream stays exactly where it is.

The gap between where you are and where your dream leads, is closed by decisions. Committed, specific, faith-filled decisions that you make and then act on. Not when everything is perfectly lined up. Now. From where you are. With what you have.

Leadership Truth Bomb #4: The gap between your dream and your reality is closed by committed decisions, not more planning.

I want you to know I believe in you. You have something great on the inside of you. Cultivate it. Grow it. Develop it. And then bring it out where the world can see it. Because that dream was never just for you.

Take This With You

This week I want you to do two things, one for each word we covered today.

On the faith side, I want you to think about the person in your life who is drifting. Not to judge them. Not to confront them in a manner that pushes them further away. But to pray for them specifically this week. Ask God to give you the right words, the right moment, and the right posture to love them enough to tell them the truth. And if you have been the one drifting, this is your moment to come back.

On the leadership side, write down your dream. Not your idea. Your dream. The thing that has been growing inside of you that scares you a little. Give it words this week. Then identify the next move you can make toward it, and commit. Not next month. This week. Because someone is waiting on the other side of your obedience to it.

From the Table Last Week

On Champion's Walk, my faith show that teaches Real Help For Real Hope, I brought you The Urgency of Eternity: Why the Church Needs to Wake Up Right Now. This is Part 1 of our brand new series Eternity: Waking Up the Church. I opened with a personal conversation that stopped me in my tracks and took you through Romans 12:2 as the foundation scripture for the entire series. I addressed the danger of Comfort Christianity, the lukewarm believer, and delivered three faith anchors that will challenge the way you think about eternity, the people around you, and your responsibility as a believer in this hour. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zybTfy4XUt0&list=PLMPDSgKkGZNvHLzeBuhqHvZhuCSMEQEgV

On The Executive Perspective, my leadership and business show that delivers Real Help For Real Success, I brought you Big Dreams vs. Big Ideas: Which One Actually Moves You Forward? I broke down the critical difference between a big dream and a big idea, why dreams define your destination, how ideas and dreams work together, and four leadership truth bombs that will challenge how you think about the thing that has been growing inside of you. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5xJXJKd-SU&list=PLMPDSgKkGZNuJ-dNFVFCWc3lb7BmJ07mM

Until Next Time

Wake up to the urgency of eternity. Wake up to the dream that is still living inside of you. Both require the same thing from you: the courage to stop being comfortable and start being intentional. The world needs a church that is awake. And the people around you need a leader who is moving on purpose.

This Wednesday on Champion's Walk, we are continuing our new series Eternity: Waking Up the Church with Part 2. Do not miss it.

Then Saturday on The Executive Perspective, I am dropping something for the leaders and entrepreneurs who are ready to operate at their next level. Be there.

I'll see you at the table next Tuesday.

Neal Reyes, The Entrepreneurs' Pastor