Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hello, everyone.
[00:00:02] I'm so excited to be here this evening.
[00:00:06] For those of you that don't know me, my name is Taylor Berger. I am an intern here at the church. I help work with our middle school ministry, and I help out in our high school ministry as well.
[00:00:20] I also go to Cleveland State University.
[00:00:24] Go bikes. Let's go there. I'm studying middle level education, and so hopefully I'll be a teacher next year.
[00:00:34] I'm super excited to share what God's put on my heart tonight. So I just want to pray and invite God into the conversation.
[00:00:44] Dear God, thank you for tonight, Lord.
[00:00:49] Thank you for your goodness.
[00:00:51] Thank you that we get to be confident because you are so near and close to us, Lord. I pray tonight that as we learn about this message in acts, Lord, that you would be so close to us that you would teach us how to be bold in our faith, Lord. Because we know that it is from you that we get to be bold.
[00:01:16] Lord, I pray you just all over this night. I love you, I trust you, and I thank you. Amen.
[00:01:24] So we are moving on from this tough question series and moving into this bold faith series. And when Emily Shrill asked me to preach on this series, I was a little bit nervous, but I was excited. I was thinking back to when I was younger and how bold faith came a little bit easier to me then when I was younger. Sunday mornings I would come to church and I would go to Kidventure. Shout out Kidventure. If you know the Kidventure days, you're a real one. Basically, Kidventure was the old name for CC kids. So it was our kids ministry.
[00:02:07] And I would go on Sunday morning and they would always tell the Bible stories in a way that was so interactive. They would teach us about these stories through skits. And so he would walk in the large group room and it would be like Daniel's in the lion's den. It would just be like, you're in the Bible story.
[00:02:30] And on a special Sunday, they would ask for volunteers, and they would be like, we need someone to play Peter. And if you got to volunteer, you got to put on a robe, you got to, like, wear a beard and like a wig and do all of this stuff. And so naturally, when they would ask, I'd be like, like, I can play Peter. I will be the best Peter anyone will be. I'm so excited.
[00:02:57] And at that time, I realized that that was me being bold in my faith.
[00:03:04] It was scary. I was in front of my peers, but I was excited and I felt so Eager to do it.
[00:03:12] And today I think about, what does bold faith look like for me now?
[00:03:18] What does bold faith even really mean?
[00:03:22] And so we get our definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1 where it says, now faith is the confidence of what we hope for and the assurance of what we do not. See.
[00:03:35] You see this definition, it can be kind of hard or wordy when you first hear it. But I think that's the thing with faith, is that it is really hard.
[00:03:45] And by definition, it's having confidence in something you can't see. It's trusting something that's not tangible.
[00:03:56] But really what faith is is having the confidence to say that God is God and he will do what he has promised to do.
[00:04:07] And so now that we have this, like, a little bit better idea of what faith is, I want to look at what bold means.
[00:04:16] We're talking about bold faith. So what does, like, boldness really mean?
[00:04:20] A quick Google search will tell you that boldness just means you're a risk taker. You're courageous, you're strong, you're loud, you're confident.
[00:04:30] And I think sometimes we can even relate boldness to maybe being, like, in your face or sometimes even like, arrogance.
[00:04:40] But all in all, sometimes we make boldness like this personality trait, right?
[00:04:46] We think that bold equals outgoing. And so sometimes we say that I can't be bold in my faith because it isn't my personality.
[00:04:58] I'm not a bold person, so I can't be bold in my faith. It doesn't come naturally to me.
[00:05:06] And we limit all that God wants to do through us because we define boldness as something that is inherently in us.
[00:05:19] And I heard this pastor once say, it was so good. He said, boldness isn't a personality trait. It's the work of the Holy Spirit.
[00:05:29] You see, bold faith comes out of the strength of the Holy Spirit in you.
[00:05:36] You know, sometimes God is gonna ask us to be really out, ask us to do really hard things, and we're gonna have to say yes, and we're gonna have to be bold, and we're gonna have to be loud and proclaim Jesus and do all of the hard, big things.
[00:05:52] Sometimes God's gonna ask us to be quiet, to be lowly, to be humble and gentle.
[00:06:02] And he's gonna give us a thought that just directs us back to him and how we can trust him better in our next step in faith.
[00:06:12] And for me, sometimes these two things, they go hand in hand.
[00:06:16] Sometimes I'll have quiet prayer time with God, just seeking him, seeking what He Wants for me, wanting to do whatever he wants me to do.
[00:06:26] And then I'll find myself saying yes to something that's actually really hard and feels bigger than what I'm capable of. But it makes me trust him more.
[00:06:38] It's the strength of the Holy Spirit within us that makes us bold.
[00:06:45] And our scripture tonight is in Acts 4.
[00:06:48] But before we talk about Acts 4, I want us to look at what was happening to before then.
[00:06:55] So before Acts four, it's kind of funny there we find ourselves at the very first Easter Sunday, actually.
[00:07:04] And so in John 20, we see that very early on Sunday morning, Jesus is missing from the tomb.
[00:07:12] And Mary, she sees that he's missing and she's like, in distraught. She's like, where is Jesus? Like, baffled. She doesn't understand.
[00:07:21] And then we see that Jesus comes and he meets her and he's like, go and tell my brothers, the disciples that I'm going to see my Father in heaven. And Mary's like, totally amazed, and she's so excited, and she goes to tell the disciples right away that she's seen the Lord.
[00:07:42] And then in the very next verse, in verse 19, we see it says this.
[00:07:48] That Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.
[00:07:58] So if we break that down a little bit, we see that Mary, on that morning, Mary went and she went to tell the disciples that she had just seen Jesus, that Jesus is alive. And then that night, the disciples are still locking themselves in behind closed doors because they are afraid of the Jewish leaders. They are afraid of the people that put Christ on the cross.
[00:08:28] You see, the disciples, they knew these people put Jesus on the cross, their best friend.
[00:08:38] So this fear of the Jewish leaders, it would have been a real fear.
[00:08:43] There would have been tension here between the news of knowing that Jesus is alive and the leaders being outside. Wherever they are outside of the doors they've created their safety net in.
[00:08:57] I can imagine them scared at the creeks around the building, thinking that someone's gonna come in. Like, what is happening right now?
[00:09:07] Jesus just died. Like, everything they knew is not what they know anymore. And then Mary knocks on the door. And I can imagine them being kind of like, who's at the door? You know, like, what's going on? And she tells them this good news, and yet they still stay inside.
[00:09:26] Jesus is alive, and the disciples have this great news, but they're still locking it up behind closed doors.
[00:09:35] Scared.
[00:09:39] I wonder, what gifts, what bold faith are we locking behind closed doors?
[00:09:52] What whispers of things that God is calling you to do. But you keep it locked up because you're too afraid to get rid of your comfort.
[00:10:03] It's safe behind these closed doors. No one can get in. No one can disagree with me, no one can reject me behind these closed doors.
[00:10:12] Or maybe we think we're safe here at church, right? We're safe to have bold faith here at church, in our small group, in our life group, with these people in this building.
[00:10:25] We are able to have this bold faith in here.
[00:10:31] And sometimes the second we leave the doors of this church, we leave our bold faith behind the doors.
[00:10:40] And we don't open it up to our friendships, we don't open it up to our relationships, we don't open it up to our college life.
[00:10:50] We close our doors to the rest of life. And we limit our. Our boldness and faith just here.
[00:11:00] You keep it where it's comfortable.
[00:11:03] Keep it locked up.
[00:11:05] Maybe you're too nervous to say what you believe in out of fear of being outcasted.
[00:11:10] I'll just think the right thing in my heart, but I won't actually say it out loud because what if they don't like me because of it?
[00:11:17] Maybe you're too fearful of the changes you have to make in your life.
[00:11:22] It's safer to do nothing at all because I don't want to get rid of what's comfortable to me.
[00:11:30] What are you locking behind closed doors?
[00:11:34] Don't limit all that God wants to do, because you want to be comfortable where you're at.
[00:11:42] And so then Jesus, he comes and he meets the disciples behind these closed doors, and he gives them a special dose of the Holy Spirit.
[00:11:50] He gives them this intimacy between them and God to go and do all the ministry that God wants them to do. And there's going to be a lot of challenges ahead.
[00:12:01] So he prepares them.
[00:12:04] And so now fast forward. We're in Acts 4 now, and we see Peter and John, disciples of Jesus. These two, they walked with Jesus, they lived with Jesus. They were some of Jesus best friends.
[00:12:21] And not long after that Easter Sunday, we see them back in the same town where Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem.
[00:12:30] You see Peter and John, they weren't just strolling along through town.
[00:12:34] They were teaching people about Christ. They were teaching and healing, and Jesus was alive. They wanted to go and tell everyone about it.
[00:12:45] And while they did so, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the temple guard, the Sadducees, basically anyone who held high power and influence.
[00:13:02] See, this would have been an intimidating sight. These people, they did not Like Peter and John, they didn't like that they were followers of Jesus. They didn't like that they were teaching about Jesus. They didn't like that they were speaking in the name of Jesus.
[00:13:17] They didn't like it at all. And so they arrested them and they put them in jail for the night.
[00:13:25] And I don't know about you, but once I hear about jail time, I'm good. Like, I'm ready to back out. That's not for me. I would be like, all right, I'll just say, sorry, we'll be done really quick. I don't like confrontation.
[00:13:39] I don't like jail. Dare I say so. I would be ready to back out. Okay.
[00:13:46] Have you ever been in a situation like that where you're trying to do the right thing and you want to do something kind, but it kind of just doesn't work out? And so you're like, all right, I'm just not going to try again. I'm good. That's it for me.
[00:14:01] Peter and John, they were trying to do the right thing and they were put in jail for it.
[00:14:08] I can only imagine how actually, like, really hard that felt.
[00:14:14] And so the next day, the rulers and the elders of the teachers of religious law, they came for a hearing of Peter and John.
[00:14:22] And so what this would look like is they would meet at a place in the temple where all these people could, like, surround the person being accused.
[00:14:33] So in today's terms, it was literally like two guys and like Congress and the Supreme Court surrounding you with no representation at all.
[00:14:43] It would have been very intimidating and very scary and feel probably impossible.
[00:14:51] Not only would it have been those things, but not long ago, Jesus, their best friend, stood there in that position.
[00:15:02] He stood there with his fate on the cross already decided by these people.
[00:15:10] And so I can only imagine what that would have felt like to be there.
[00:15:17] Scared, helpless.
[00:15:23] It wouldn't have been a safe position to be in. You see, there was no rescue. There was no. There was no big shot lawyer coming in to save the day.
[00:15:35] And here we see this idea that we see in scripture again and again.
[00:15:43] We see that following Jesus was never meant to be safe.
[00:15:52] In Scripture, we see that there's hardship in what it means to follow God.
[00:15:58] Daniel was thrown into the lion's den for refusing to pray to anyone other than God.
[00:16:05] Peter and John are put in jail. Paul was put in jail for preaching about Jesus.
[00:16:12] You see, living lives that matter are never meant to be comfortable.
[00:16:19] I find myself at different times in my life telling my mom that I just feel like I'm struggling to do all the things.
[00:16:30] I feel like life isn't comfortable, and it actually feels exhausting.
[00:16:35] And I tell her that I feel like I'm moving from one hard thing to the next hard thing. And it just kind of feels like, always stressful.
[00:16:45] Can I get an amen? I mean, that's hard. Isn't that what life feels like? Like, it feels hard. Like, hard thing, hard thing.
[00:16:53] And at times it can leave me feel, like, lonely and anxious and overlooked, exhausted, overworked at times.
[00:17:04] And when she tells me that growing is uncomfortable, I want to be like, yeah, I know. I'm feeling it. It's hard.
[00:17:13] But when I think about, and I recognize what it means when I'm uncomfortable in life is that it's actually giving me an opportunity to be much more connected and dependent on God in my life.
[00:17:31] It gives me an opportunity to say, less of me, God, and more of you.
[00:17:38] When we follow Jesus, we aren't guaranteed this safety in life of that everything will go perfectly according to plan.
[00:17:47] But what we are guaranteed is a safety in knowing that we have a God who is for us.
[00:17:57] We have a God who loves us, whose mighty hand pulls us through our hardships.
[00:18:05] We are guaranteed a great confidence, not in creation, not in what's going on in the world around us, but in the Creator Himself.
[00:18:15] And so even if you are feeling comfortable right now, I want to challenge you in that it might be a time to just take a next step in faith and just connect with God and see what he puts on your heart.
[00:18:32] Just a whisper of a prayer.
[00:18:37] Some of my hardest and most uncomfortable times in my life have been full of some of the most beautiful moments where I had the confidence to say, God is God, and he is my safest and my closest friend.
[00:18:53] And so Peter and John, they are surrounded by all of these people, just circled around them. And I envision everyone in the room kind of like staring right at them.
[00:19:03] And I imagine that the room is just so quiet with tension in the air.
[00:19:10] And so the high priest asks him, in whose name have you done this?
[00:19:16] And starting at verse eight, it says this.
[00:19:20] Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we've done a good deed for a crippled man?
[00:19:31] Do you want to know how he was healed?
[00:19:34] Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the man you crucified, but whom God raised from the Dead for Jesus is the one referred to in scriptures where it says, the stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.
[00:20:00] There is salvation in no one else. God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.
[00:20:11] Talk about bold. Okay. I mean, even in the next verse, the council members, they were, it says they were amazed by the boldness of Peter and John.
[00:20:21] How could they be so bold in their faith?
[00:20:25] I mean, these were people that could literally destroy them. And they're proclaiming Jesus to them.
[00:20:32] Not too long ago, they were locked behind closed doors with the same news, and here they are declaring it to the same people that put Jesus on the cross.
[00:20:46] How could they be so bold?
[00:20:52] When we look back at verse eight, we see that it says, then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit.
[00:21:03] You see, Peter was able to be so bold in his faith because the Holy Spirit filled him.
[00:21:10] And that doesn't just happen by accident. You see, Peter and John, they were so intimately close to God.
[00:21:17] All they did, all their time was spent talking and preaching about God and praying to him.
[00:21:23] And the Holy Spirit empowered Peter to speak boldly.
[00:21:31] God wants us to live with bold faith.
[00:21:35] And when our will aligns with his will, there is no stopping what he will accomplish.
[00:21:44] And so now Peter, he has been bold in his faith, and he stood firm against these religious leaders. And we see that in verse 16, these men go back and they ask, what do we do with these two? What do we do with these men?
[00:22:02] And they decide that they're going to warn them to not speak or teach in the name of Jesus ever again.
[00:22:10] And in verse 19 and 20, it says, Peter says, do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him?
[00:22:20] We cannot stop telling about everything we've seen and heard.
[00:22:25] Peter says, we cannot stop.
[00:22:28] Why would we obey you over God?
[00:22:32] And I think there's some times in our life where we can relate to Peter in this.
[00:22:38] Because at some point, in one way or another, culture tries to give us this warning about our faith.
[00:22:48] Sometimes we feel like we are directly or indirectly asked to be quiet about it.
[00:22:55] Maybe your professor says that faith is ridiculous and that every single person who's a Christian is the same judgmental person.
[00:23:05] And so you begin that you have to feel. You begin to feel like you have to be quiet about it.
[00:23:11] Maybe you feel like you have to beat around the bush about it or tiptoe because you feel like you have to qualify yourself as, like, I believe in God, but I'm not religious like them. Like, don't rope me into them.
[00:23:24] And you have to qualify yourself.
[00:23:28] Or maybe for some of you, you're the friend that people have to, like, explain away.
[00:23:34] Oh, she's like that because she goes to church.
[00:23:38] Oh, don't say that. Because she goes to church and you feel like now everyone in the room is, like, uncomfortable around you.
[00:23:47] Maybe you feel pressure not to talk about Jesus or talk about going to church because the second you mess up, people start to call you a hypocrite.
[00:23:56] Maybe you don't want to say something about Jesus or about church in your school because your major, they don't talk about that stuff. And so you will be seen as an outcast.
[00:24:08] See, instead of being bold, culture tries to tell us to be careful.
[00:24:16] But are we going to obey culture rather than our God?
[00:24:22] Or do you want to take that step in faith and be like Peter and John and just unapologetically proclaim what he's done in your life?
[00:24:37] And out of fear of an uproar in the public, the council, they decide to release Peter and John.
[00:24:46] And I think most of us, we would want the story to just end there. Like Peter and John, they won. Let's go. Maybe they could take a little time off preaching once things cool down.
[00:24:58] But I think that we would want them to just be okay, they were bold and now they can take a break, right?
[00:25:08] But the thing with your faith is, is that there's always a next step to be taken.
[00:25:15] Peter and John, they knew that this wasn't the end of the ruler's campaign to just crush the church.
[00:25:23] And so once they were released, they went to the other believers and they began to pray.
[00:25:33] They didn't pray that the rulers would, like, be killed off or that they would just be picked up and put in a different, safer spot.
[00:25:42] They sat and they prayed for a bold faith.
[00:25:48] You see, this is where Peter and John's thought life went to. First, it was prayer.
[00:25:56] And I think that it could have been so easy to just start feeding into the fears of the future, repeating to themselves worries about, we just did this and so now what's going to happen? Like, what's the outcome of what we just did? Like, I'm worried, I'm scared, because that's so easy to do, right?
[00:26:15] Like, we do it all the time, okay? I do it all of the time.
[00:26:24] And I'll let my anxious thoughts just take control of my thought life.
[00:26:30] And when I try something new in ministry or in school or in work and it doesn't turn out exactly like I thought it would, I start feeding into the Lies like you're a failure, you're a loser.
[00:26:45] Why are you even trying? It's just embarrassing.
[00:26:50] And what I end up doing is I end up letting these thoughts dictate my next step in faith.
[00:26:59] And you know what that makes me want to do? It makes me want to quit.
[00:27:04] Those thoughts make me want to stop trying.
[00:27:07] They make me want to never do it again.
[00:27:11] And even as I prepared for this sermon, I started to think like, maybe I'm just not really good enough for this kind of stuff. Maybe I should have just said I was too busy.
[00:27:21] But you see, our thought life, it can stop us from being bold in our faith.
[00:27:28] And for some of you today, I just want to tell you to stop letting the insecurity win.
[00:27:36] Don't let your uncomfortability or your embarrassment stop you from getting up and trying again.
[00:27:44] Don't let your thought life be the ruler of your life.
[00:27:50] Because prayer, it has changed the game for my thought life.
[00:27:57] And as I look back over the years, I write a lot of my prayers down. I have a prayer journal.
[00:28:04] And when I look through this journal, I get to see God's faithfulness in my life time and time again.
[00:28:13] And when I prayed and I have these really hard thoughts of like when I was in high school and I decided to quit my sport because I wanted to start volunteering in the church. And I felt so scared, I felt so nervous about it. And then I did it and then I felt lonely because I wasn't a part of the sport anymore. And I felt embarrassed because I had quit before my senior year.
[00:28:39] And I see how God used that in my life.
[00:28:43] He used it and let me step up more in ministry. He helped me lead in ministry. He helped me get connected with kids who's been through the same thing I've been through.
[00:28:55] And then again I get to step up. And I preached in high school and then last summer I preached at CC midweek for the first time.
[00:29:04] And I look back at those prayers and man, was I so scared.
[00:29:10] I was just bubbling with anxiety, with these anxious thoughts, not feeling good enough, not feeling smart enough.
[00:29:20] And I look at my prayers and I see that I wasn't asking God to take these steps away from me.
[00:29:32] My prayers, they were asking God to grant me with the confidence to walk through them.
[00:29:39] God, make me bold. I want to be a part of all of what you're doing in the world. Help me do it. Make me the kind of woman you want to be on your. Your team. There are going to be hard things and I'M going to be scared, but I don't want to back down.
[00:29:56] You see, bold faith can look like standing up here on stage and saying yes, even though you feel unworthy.
[00:30:03] Just an example.
[00:30:06] But bold faith could also look like standing up for what's right at your job.
[00:30:12] It can look like bringing Jesus back to college with you.
[00:30:17] It can look like letting go of the weight of what others say about you because it's actually holding you back.
[00:30:25] It looks like having hard conversations even when it feels uncomfortable because you know it's what's right.
[00:30:32] It looks like saying no to hookup culture and what your peers accept as normal.
[00:30:38] It looks like putting in the work behind the scenes so. So that you can step boldly into your faith.
[00:30:48] I think sometimes we can be so focused on other people's outcomes and on what other people are doing, and we can start to play this comparison game.
[00:31:00] We see what other people are doing and we see the great outcomes of their life. But what we don't see is all the work they're putting in behind the scenes.
[00:31:12] What we don't see is the sacrifice. What we don't see is the hours they're putting into their work. What we don't see is them praying each and every day, even the greatest of all times of anything. Like, they put in all of the work behind the scenes, and we become so focused on the outcome, we don't put any of the work in behind the scenes.
[00:31:42] And today I want to challenge you to be bold in your faith.
[00:31:48] Get on your knees, pray to God, spend time with him each and every single day. Put in the work not for the outcome of that image or that role or that title or that job, but put in the work because you believe in the outcome of. Of Jesus Christ, what He has already done for you and what he will continue to do through you.
[00:32:14] You see, being bold in your faith doesn't even have to involve people at all.
[00:32:18] Maybe it's just being bold and just spending more time with him. Maybe it's actually stop hanging out with those friends.
[00:32:27] And sometimes being bold in your faith can look like something you never thought it would look like at all.
[00:32:35] You see, at my high school, everyone was required to take this speech class, and so you had to take this class to graduate, and you had to do an informative speech and a persuasive speech.
[00:32:50] And my brother and my sister and I, we all went to the same high school, so we all had to take a speech class.
[00:32:56] And my sister, being the oldest, she went through the class first. And she is the oldest, so she's like the get it done, get it right the first time kind of girl. Set this high expectation, this high bar. And so she did her speech on Christianity and why you should believe in Jesus.
[00:33:19] Talk about bold to your peers. Okay, Peter who? I don't know what I'm saying.
[00:33:24] And so, as a little sister normally does, I saw what she did and I was like, I'm gonna do that too.
[00:33:31] I wanna do that too. That is so cool. And so me and my sister, we had the same speech teacher.
[00:33:38] She was a Christian. And we ended up pulling from a lot of the same resources to prepare for this speech. And we both got really good grades on these speeches.
[00:33:51] But years later, when my brother went through his speech class and he ended up going through Tri C, smarty pants. And he did his speech class through Tri C. So it was a professor, and they had a very different worldview.
[00:34:11] And he chose the same topic and he pulled from the same theologians, the same research sources, and he got a very different response.
[00:34:26] He was told by his professor that this wasn't good enough, proof that this topic, it wasn't fact enough.
[00:34:37] And so for that reason, even though his public speaking was good, he ended up getting a bad grade on that paper, which brought him down in the class.
[00:34:51] It took the same bold faith to do that.
[00:34:55] He still had to go up in front of his peers and proclaim Jesus to them. It took the same bold faith, the same time, the same research.
[00:35:06] And our outcomes, they were very different.
[00:35:11] It was unexpected.
[00:35:14] You see, bold faith may not get you the outcome you think it deserves, but I promise you, our Heavenly Father, he sees your faith.
[00:35:26] I promise you that the opinion of the teacher does not outweigh the opinion of God.
[00:35:34] Even when you are mocked for what you believe or shamed or get a bad grade for what you believe, do not be afraid to tell everyone about all that God is doing and all that he has done.
[00:35:48] Do not be afraid to please him, rather than pleasing the culture around us.
[00:35:56] Because our bold faith, it creates connection with God even when the outcome feels unfair or unsafe, unstoppable.
[00:36:07] Our God, he shows up.
[00:36:11] And after Peter and the others, they prayed for this bold faith. It says in verse 31, after this prayer, the meeting place shook and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.
[00:36:29] You see, after this time, that probably felt so uncertain about what was coming next.
[00:36:35] After their prayer for boldness, God shows up in a powerful way.
[00:36:43] They didn't know what would Come next, they didn't even know the outcome of their lives. But still they sat in prayer.
[00:36:53] They sat and prayed to God. And God fills them with the Holy Spirit and helps them preach boldly.
[00:37:03] You see, I don't know what your next step in faith looks like.
[00:37:07] Maybe you do. And maybe as I'm talking, you're thinking about it right now, maybe you don't.
[00:37:15] Maybe for some of you, your first step is just saying yes to God.
[00:37:22] And it's not what your family's used to. It's not what your friends are used to. And it feels hard to do that.
[00:37:30] But I just want to tell you that there is a God in heaven who knows you by name, who died on the cross for you, who is a comforter when you need comforted, who is a friend when you feel lonely, who is a savior when you feel like you need saving and friends, a life with God.
[00:37:56] It may be hard sometimes, it may be uncomfortable, but it is far, far better than a life without Him.
[00:38:07] And either way, whatever your next step in faith is, I encourage you to pray for boldness.
[00:38:16] Because our God, he shows up in a mighty and powerful way. And I have never regretted saying yes to God.
[00:38:26] Let's pray.
[00:38:29] Dear God, thank you for this word, Lord.
[00:38:34] Thank you for putting this on my heart.
[00:38:37] Thank you for making me step into this boldness, Lord. I just praise you for who you are, who you've called us to be. You've called us to be bold men and women for you.
[00:38:51] I pray that even if it doesn't feel like it comes naturally, even if it feels uncertain, Lord, that we could be just on fire with bold faith for you, Lord, to say yes, even when it feels hard.
[00:39:08] Lord, I love you so much, and I trust you with my whole heart. Amen.
