What are you KNOWN for?
When someone says your name in a room, what comes to mind?
Every person has an identity that becomes associated with them. Say Steve Jobs, and people immediately think of Apple. Mention a person you know, and an image, personality, or reputation may come to mind before you have even finished saying their name.
But what happens when the name being mentioned is yours?
What do people remember you for? What emotions come up when your name enters a conversation? How does the temperature of the room change when people begin talking about you?
We all have a reputation. A reputation is formed through repeated behavior. One foolish decision may create an impression, but when something is repeated again and again, it begins to establish an identity.
The question is not whether we should worship what people think about us. We are not called to live our lives trying to make everyone like us. But we are called to be an influence in this world. We are called to be salt and light, to walk in the authority and power of the risen Savior.
So the question remains: What are you known for?
In Romans 1:8–17, Paul gives us a picture of what the church in Rome was known for.
From there, I want to make the question personal.
A Church Known for Faith
The church in Rome was not one large church meeting in one building. It was made up of multiple churches meeting in homes, perhaps at different times and with different styles of worship, but gathered together as one body of Christ.
And there was conflict.
Jewish Christians had been removed from Rome under Emperor Claudius. When they eventually returned, Gentile believers had been leading the churches. Now there was conflict over leadership and priority. The Gentile leaders had their experience of leading the church, while the Jewish Christians believed they had historical priority.
There was racial division. There was disagreement over worship, leadership, and how the church should function.
Paul had never been to this church, but he longed to go. In the middle of all that noise, he wanted the church to regain the effectiveness it was supposed to have.
And yet Paul does not begin by praising the church for its building, its social work, its music, its book sales, or how many people attended its services.
He writes:
“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.”
Faith.
In the middle of conflict, the church could still be known for its faith.
Every church has flaws. Even churches planted, taught, and served by the apostles had conflict. But there is something a church can still be known for: faith.
Faith Is More Than Belief
So what is faith?
Faith is not merely head knowledge. It is not blind trust. It is not simply hoping that everything will work out.
Faith is confident trust in God’s character and promises, expressed through loyal commitment and faithful action.
The promises of God matter. But there is something else that matters just as much: knowing the character of the God who made those promises.
It is possible to know what the Word says without knowing the Father who gave the Word.
Jesus illustrated this through the story of the prodigal son. The son had rejected his father, taken his property, squandered everything, and eventually found himself sitting among the pigs, longing for what they were eating.
Then he came to his senses.
He remembered his father’s house. Even the servants had food to eat there.
The father had not given him a guarantee before he left that he could simply return whenever he wanted. But sitting in the pigsty, the son remembered the character of his father.
And he got up.
That is where faith becomes action.
The prodigal son did not make his way home because he had somehow worked up enough righteousness within himself. He remembered the character of his father, and that knowledge moved him toward home.
You can be the prodigal who has run away, failed, fallen, created conflict, lived in shame, or gone farther than you ever thought you would go. But if you know the character of the God who created you and the God who went to the cross to take away your sin, faith begins to rise.
You begin to make your way home.
Faith is confident trust in God’s character and promises that gets you moving, no matter how far you have gone.
Faith When Uncertainty Comes Knocking
Faith is not simply a church word. Every person walks in faith every day.
You sit on a chair trusting that it will hold you. You eat food without knowing everything that happened inside the factory where it was made. Every day, you make decisions based on things you cannot completely see or know.
Faith acknowledges uncertainty.
Anxiety is fear that comes in a season of uncertainty. It is the feeling of fear when you are walking into the unknown.
Faith does not pretend uncertainty does not exist.
Instead, faith acknowledges uncertainty in the light of God's character, nature, greatness, and truth.
Anxiety may knock on the door, but fear does not have to open it.
Faith opens the door.
We develop pathways in our minds based on how we have responded to things before. When conflict comes, we can immediately return to the same patterns we used the last time. When heartbreak comes, we reach for the same things we used to soothe ourselves before.
There is nothing wrong with evaluating your life, talking to counselors, or meeting with pastors and trusted people. But we have to ask why we are doing it.
Are we allowing fear to open the door?
Faith says, “Stop.”
Pause. Remember the character and nature of God.
Then rehearse the promises of God. Pray. Bring petitions and thanksgiving before Him.
And then act.
Stop. Remember. Rehearse. Act.
When God has spoken, faith takes the next step.
Go to sleep.
Go to the interview.
Send the email.
Take the courageous step.
Faith says, “God said it, that settles it.”
The issue is not whether uncertainty will come. It will. The question is what we will allow to answer the door when it does.
That is what the church in Rome was known for. In the middle of conflict, they were walking in faith.
A Church That Submits to God's Righteousness
There is another characteristic Paul points toward in Romans 1:17:
“For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”
Faith reveals the righteousness of God.
As we trust God's character, we begin to see more of His nature. And as we see His righteousness, we recognize that we cannot live by our own wisdom, courage, friendships, or goodness.
Romans 3:21–22 says that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it. This righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus came and lived the righteousness that humanity could never live.
And that righteousness is given to those who believe.
The church in Rome was known not only for faithful confidence in God's character, but for submission to God's righteousness.
Faith leads to joyful obedience and surrender. It leads us away from dependence on ourselves and toward dependence on God and the righteousness of Jesus.
That matters because many people struggle with the idea that God could give them His righteousness.
So they try to act worthy of it.
They try to deserve it.
But that is not faith.
Faith recognizes, “I am not worthy. I don't deserve it. But I am going to trust the character of God.”
He said it.
That settles it.
Knowing the Promises Without Knowing the Father
There is a danger in knowing a great deal about God while never actually knowing Him.
Paul addresses this in Romans 10. He says there were people who had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. They were ignorant of God's righteousness and were seeking to establish their own righteousness rather than submitting to God's righteousness.
It is possible to tithe regularly, attend church regularly, read the Bible every day, have devotionals on the shelf, and know Scripture—and still not know the Father who made the promises.
It is possible to be in church and not be saved.
It is possible to know the writings while your eyes are not on His face.
Paul also writes in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned.
The message has to be received.
God isn't looking for your good works. He's looking for your faith.
Jesus asked in Luke, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
That question matters.
The grace of God is calling people to receive the message, to let faith arise, to remember the character and nature of God, and to rejoice in the righteousness of Jesus.
This is not merely about having more information in our heads.
It is about relationship with the God who wants to give us faith to see His character and nature.
When a Church Becomes a Tourist Attraction
While visiting Greece, there was a picture that stayed with me.
Tiny wooden churches were scattered throughout the islands.
They were everywhere—on the mountains and near the ocean.
I asked local people about them.
What do they do in these churches?
The answer was essentially that they had become tourist attractions. People liked the way they looked against the backdrop of the ocean. Sometimes people held weddings there. Sometimes homeless people slept there. But for the most part, they were no longer places where church services happened.
These places had history. The apostles had come and taught there. There was a history of wisdom, faith, and righteousness in Jesus. And yet, for the most part, people no longer cared about Jesus. They were returning to man's wisdom, philosophy, arguments, and debates.
And the Holy Spirit was bringing such deep conviction.
He said, "Joel, if the church loses sight of the Holy Spirit, this is what will happen to every single church. It becomes a tourist attraction. It becomes a place where people can take pictures. It becomes just a caricature that tourists will buy and take back home to put on their shelf."
The purpose of the Living Church Boise is not simply to be a space that meets. It is to be an organism that comes together and is known for something.
Known for faith.
Known for celebrating God's righteousness.
“My Jesus, My Savior”
The question eventually becomes personal.
What are you known for?
But there is an even more important question:
Are you known by Him?
I want to tell you why that question is so personal to me.
As a teenager in a home church in Vizak, India, I was a runaway from home. My family did not know where I was, and I did not know where I was going. Fear was opening the door in my life every day. I was extremely suicidal and had been using drugs to escape the misery of overthinking.
A missionary from Australia was part of a tiny house church.
One Sunday morning, the song “My Jesus, My Savior” was being played. The guitarist was playing plenty of wrong chords, and I was irritated enough that I went into the house church looking for a fight.
I kept coming back, though.
Not because I had already been saved, but partly because the missionary had a daughter.
Then the song came around again.
As we sang about mountains bowing down and seas roaring at the sound of His name, something happened.
I got on my knees.
I had been a prideful, arrogant teenager who was simply waiting to die. My father had left. I carried serious abandonment. I did not care if I lived.
But there, something changed.
I heard the words, “My Jesus, my Savior,” and the Lord asked me,
"You're hearing them sing, 'My Jesus, my Savior,' is He yours, Joel?"
That question changed my identity.
Life did not become perfect afterward. There were still storms. There were still times when I doubted. Even recently, there have been times when God felt far away.
But over the past two decades, I have learned not to let fear open the door.
Faith does.
I trust that the Father in heaven will come through.
I trust that He will never abandon His people.
And that brings the question back to every one of us.
What Are You Known For?
That is the homework.
Every morning, ask yourself the question - "What am I known for?"
You may need to ask people you trust what they believe you are known for. You may discover something God has placed in you that you have been ignoring for a long time.
But before you answer that question, there is another one you have to answer.
Are you known by Him?
Do you know Jesus—the author and perfecter of your faith?
Do you know Him well enough to move even when you are in doubt?
To move even when you are in pain?
To move even when you are depressed?
To move even when you are broke?
To move even when you do not know what tomorrow holds?
You can move because the God you worship is the God of your tomorrows.
“My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like You.”
There is none like Him.
His holiness matters. His righteousness matters. But the greatest gift is His love.
His love helps us see His righteousness and the healing He wants to bring into our lives.
So this week, ask yourself the question:
What are you known for?
But first:
Are you known by Him?
Every person has an identity that becomes associated with them. Say Steve Jobs, and people immediately think of Apple. Mention a person you know, and an image, personality, or reputation may come to mind before you have even finished saying their name.
But what happens when the name being mentioned is yours?
What do people remember you for? What emotions come up when your name enters a conversation? How does the temperature of the room change when people begin talking about you?
We all have a reputation. A reputation is formed through repeated behavior. One foolish decision may create an impression, but when something is repeated again and again, it begins to establish an identity.
The question is not whether we should worship what people think about us. We are not called to live our lives trying to make everyone like us. But we are called to be an influence in this world. We are called to be salt and light, to walk in the authority and power of the risen Savior.
So the question remains: What are you known for?
In Romans 1:8–17, Paul gives us a picture of what the church in Rome was known for.
From there, I want to make the question personal.
A Church Known for Faith
The church in Rome was not one large church meeting in one building. It was made up of multiple churches meeting in homes, perhaps at different times and with different styles of worship, but gathered together as one body of Christ.
And there was conflict.
Jewish Christians had been removed from Rome under Emperor Claudius. When they eventually returned, Gentile believers had been leading the churches. Now there was conflict over leadership and priority. The Gentile leaders had their experience of leading the church, while the Jewish Christians believed they had historical priority.
There was racial division. There was disagreement over worship, leadership, and how the church should function.
Paul had never been to this church, but he longed to go. In the middle of all that noise, he wanted the church to regain the effectiveness it was supposed to have.
And yet Paul does not begin by praising the church for its building, its social work, its music, its book sales, or how many people attended its services.
He writes:
“First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.”
Faith.
In the middle of conflict, the church could still be known for its faith.
Every church has flaws. Even churches planted, taught, and served by the apostles had conflict. But there is something a church can still be known for: faith.
Faith Is More Than Belief
So what is faith?
Faith is not merely head knowledge. It is not blind trust. It is not simply hoping that everything will work out.
Faith is confident trust in God’s character and promises, expressed through loyal commitment and faithful action.
The promises of God matter. But there is something else that matters just as much: knowing the character of the God who made those promises.
It is possible to know what the Word says without knowing the Father who gave the Word.
Jesus illustrated this through the story of the prodigal son. The son had rejected his father, taken his property, squandered everything, and eventually found himself sitting among the pigs, longing for what they were eating.
Then he came to his senses.
He remembered his father’s house. Even the servants had food to eat there.
The father had not given him a guarantee before he left that he could simply return whenever he wanted. But sitting in the pigsty, the son remembered the character of his father.
And he got up.
That is where faith becomes action.
The prodigal son did not make his way home because he had somehow worked up enough righteousness within himself. He remembered the character of his father, and that knowledge moved him toward home.
You can be the prodigal who has run away, failed, fallen, created conflict, lived in shame, or gone farther than you ever thought you would go. But if you know the character of the God who created you and the God who went to the cross to take away your sin, faith begins to rise.
You begin to make your way home.
Faith is confident trust in God’s character and promises that gets you moving, no matter how far you have gone.
Faith When Uncertainty Comes Knocking
Faith is not simply a church word. Every person walks in faith every day.
You sit on a chair trusting that it will hold you. You eat food without knowing everything that happened inside the factory where it was made. Every day, you make decisions based on things you cannot completely see or know.
Faith acknowledges uncertainty.
Anxiety is fear that comes in a season of uncertainty. It is the feeling of fear when you are walking into the unknown.
Faith does not pretend uncertainty does not exist.
Instead, faith acknowledges uncertainty in the light of God's character, nature, greatness, and truth.
Anxiety may knock on the door, but fear does not have to open it.
Faith opens the door.
We develop pathways in our minds based on how we have responded to things before. When conflict comes, we can immediately return to the same patterns we used the last time. When heartbreak comes, we reach for the same things we used to soothe ourselves before.
There is nothing wrong with evaluating your life, talking to counselors, or meeting with pastors and trusted people. But we have to ask why we are doing it.
Are we allowing fear to open the door?
Faith says, “Stop.”
Pause. Remember the character and nature of God.
Then rehearse the promises of God. Pray. Bring petitions and thanksgiving before Him.
And then act.
Stop. Remember. Rehearse. Act.
When God has spoken, faith takes the next step.
Go to sleep.
Go to the interview.
Send the email.
Take the courageous step.
Faith says, “God said it, that settles it.”
The issue is not whether uncertainty will come. It will. The question is what we will allow to answer the door when it does.
That is what the church in Rome was known for. In the middle of conflict, they were walking in faith.
A Church That Submits to God's Righteousness
There is another characteristic Paul points toward in Romans 1:17:
“For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”
Faith reveals the righteousness of God.
As we trust God's character, we begin to see more of His nature. And as we see His righteousness, we recognize that we cannot live by our own wisdom, courage, friendships, or goodness.
Romans 3:21–22 says that the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it. This righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus came and lived the righteousness that humanity could never live.
And that righteousness is given to those who believe.
The church in Rome was known not only for faithful confidence in God's character, but for submission to God's righteousness.
Faith leads to joyful obedience and surrender. It leads us away from dependence on ourselves and toward dependence on God and the righteousness of Jesus.
That matters because many people struggle with the idea that God could give them His righteousness.
So they try to act worthy of it.
They try to deserve it.
But that is not faith.
Faith recognizes, “I am not worthy. I don't deserve it. But I am going to trust the character of God.”
He said it.
That settles it.
Knowing the Promises Without Knowing the Father
There is a danger in knowing a great deal about God while never actually knowing Him.
Paul addresses this in Romans 10. He says there were people who had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. They were ignorant of God's righteousness and were seeking to establish their own righteousness rather than submitting to God's righteousness.
It is possible to tithe regularly, attend church regularly, read the Bible every day, have devotionals on the shelf, and know Scripture—and still not know the Father who made the promises.
It is possible to be in church and not be saved.
It is possible to know the writings while your eyes are not on His face.
Paul also writes in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned.
The message has to be received.
God isn't looking for your good works. He's looking for your faith.
Jesus asked in Luke, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
That question matters.
The grace of God is calling people to receive the message, to let faith arise, to remember the character and nature of God, and to rejoice in the righteousness of Jesus.
This is not merely about having more information in our heads.
It is about relationship with the God who wants to give us faith to see His character and nature.
When a Church Becomes a Tourist Attraction
While visiting Greece, there was a picture that stayed with me.
Tiny wooden churches were scattered throughout the islands.
They were everywhere—on the mountains and near the ocean.
I asked local people about them.
What do they do in these churches?
The answer was essentially that they had become tourist attractions. People liked the way they looked against the backdrop of the ocean. Sometimes people held weddings there. Sometimes homeless people slept there. But for the most part, they were no longer places where church services happened.
These places had history. The apostles had come and taught there. There was a history of wisdom, faith, and righteousness in Jesus. And yet, for the most part, people no longer cared about Jesus. They were returning to man's wisdom, philosophy, arguments, and debates.
And the Holy Spirit was bringing such deep conviction.
He said, "Joel, if the church loses sight of the Holy Spirit, this is what will happen to every single church. It becomes a tourist attraction. It becomes a place where people can take pictures. It becomes just a caricature that tourists will buy and take back home to put on their shelf."
The purpose of the Living Church Boise is not simply to be a space that meets. It is to be an organism that comes together and is known for something.
Known for faith.
Known for celebrating God's righteousness.
“My Jesus, My Savior”
The question eventually becomes personal.
What are you known for?
But there is an even more important question:
Are you known by Him?
I want to tell you why that question is so personal to me.
As a teenager in a home church in Vizak, India, I was a runaway from home. My family did not know where I was, and I did not know where I was going. Fear was opening the door in my life every day. I was extremely suicidal and had been using drugs to escape the misery of overthinking.
A missionary from Australia was part of a tiny house church.
One Sunday morning, the song “My Jesus, My Savior” was being played. The guitarist was playing plenty of wrong chords, and I was irritated enough that I went into the house church looking for a fight.
I kept coming back, though.
Not because I had already been saved, but partly because the missionary had a daughter.
Then the song came around again.
As we sang about mountains bowing down and seas roaring at the sound of His name, something happened.
I got on my knees.
I had been a prideful, arrogant teenager who was simply waiting to die. My father had left. I carried serious abandonment. I did not care if I lived.
But there, something changed.
I heard the words, “My Jesus, my Savior,” and the Lord asked me,
"You're hearing them sing, 'My Jesus, my Savior,' is He yours, Joel?"
That question changed my identity.
Life did not become perfect afterward. There were still storms. There were still times when I doubted. Even recently, there have been times when God felt far away.
But over the past two decades, I have learned not to let fear open the door.
Faith does.
I trust that the Father in heaven will come through.
I trust that He will never abandon His people.
And that brings the question back to every one of us.
What Are You Known For?
That is the homework.
Every morning, ask yourself the question - "What am I known for?"
You may need to ask people you trust what they believe you are known for. You may discover something God has placed in you that you have been ignoring for a long time.
But before you answer that question, there is another one you have to answer.
Are you known by Him?
Do you know Jesus—the author and perfecter of your faith?
Do you know Him well enough to move even when you are in doubt?
To move even when you are in pain?
To move even when you are depressed?
To move even when you are broke?
To move even when you do not know what tomorrow holds?
You can move because the God you worship is the God of your tomorrows.
“My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like You.”
There is none like Him.
His holiness matters. His righteousness matters. But the greatest gift is His love.
His love helps us see His righteousness and the healing He wants to bring into our lives.
So this week, ask yourself the question:
What are you known for?
But first:
Are you known by Him?
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