Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] How we doing tonight, guys? How we feeling?
[00:00:04] I wanted to give a shout out to everyone that was here and everyone that helped make Awaken happen last week. That was an awesome service. Can we give it up for them?
[00:00:15] And I also wanted to say, how's everyone doing online? Thank you for tuning in.
[00:00:20] We've been talking about this sermon series on bold faith over these last few weeks.
[00:00:25] Tay kicked us off, and then Jovan and Emily preached last week and we. We've been talking how we wanna take this next step to proclaim that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.
[00:00:39] So tonight I'm gonna be continuing that sermon series. But first, I want to invite God in this room.
[00:00:45] Heavenly Father, I just. I thank you so much and I love you so much. I thank you for giving me this opportunity to be up here this evening. I thank you for everyone that you've called into here tonight. And I pray that we. We can all be bold in our faith. Father, I pray that we can learn from each other, we can learn from you, and we can continue to grow and take the right steps in our faith. We love you and we thank you and we praise you. In your son's name we pray. Amen.
[00:01:12] All right, guys, I am the type of person who likes to start off with the story right away.
[00:01:17] So for those of you who don't know me, my name's Jeremiah. I am the high school youth director here at the church. And it fits me perfectly because I'm still like a high school kid at heart, so I feel like I fit in with those kids really well.
[00:01:32] But another thing about me is I'm really obsessed with pickleball. Some of you might know that, but I've been playing for a couple years now, and for the sake of the sermon, I think pickleball is really cool. So let's just say pickleball is really cool, okay?
[00:01:48] But my mom has been playing for like seven years now, before pickleball was cool. And she used to come up to me and say, hey, have you tried pickleball yet? And I'm like, mom, I haven't played pickleball. I'm not playing pickleball. What are you talking about? And she's like, I think you'd be really good at it. I think you would really like the sport. And I'm like, mom, I'm not playing a game called pickleball, okay?
[00:02:10] And then one day I was driving home from work and I was on my way to my in laws house, AKA the burgers. I'm sure you Guys know some of them. And I saw my sister in law and her boyfriend at the time. And I say boyfriend at the time because now they're engaged and they're getting married in two weeks.
[00:02:27] So give it up for Tay and Ant guys.
[00:02:33] But I had never seen anyone play pickleball. I'd never watched a video. I don't have social media, so I never saw clips or anything. And when I was pulling up, I saw them playing and I was like, that kind of actually looks a little bit fun.
[00:02:46] So I started playing a couple games with them. And I'm not lying, the only thing I fell in love with faster was my wife. Like, I was hooked instantly.
[00:02:55] And I started spending like the next few weeks I remapped the court out cause I wanted it to be the perfect measurements and make sure it was squared. I started researching paddles and indoor balls, outdoor balls, getting the best shoes. And I researched all this stuff and then I ended up spending the money to purchase everything that I thought I needed. I wanted to be as good as the pros were. So I would watch their matches on YouTube, I would watch videos on how to serve, how to hit lobs and dinks and whatnot. And I still do watch these videos. It wasn't just when I started, I still do watch them.
[00:03:28] But once I started playing, I wanted to increase my skill and my knowledge of the game as fast as I could.
[00:03:36] And maybe some of you can relate to this. Maybe some of you know this feeling you saw something that you really liked and you instantly wanted to learn more or get as good as you possibly could.
[00:03:47] So maybe it was for some of you, a sport in high school or college, and you wanted to be a starter, you wanted to be the best person on the team. So you went out and you bought all the gear that you needed to be the best.
[00:04:00] Or maybe it was a video or something that you read that piqued your interest.
[00:04:06] So you started learning, figuring everything about it, researching it, doing whatever you needed to do. So when it came time in public and there's a conversation that happens to be about this, you could be the smartest person in the room about it.
[00:04:21] This one also reminds me of my wife. She started watching YouTube videos on baking and like making bread and stuff. So she instantly went all in. She bought like all this stuff. Our one pantry is just filled with bread, making stuff and whatever, baking stuff, and then she kind of fell out of baking. So now we just have a pantry filled with all types of stuff.
[00:04:43] But thank you.
[00:04:47] But maybe for some of you, there's just something that you really want in life, and you're willing to put all of your focus in what do I need to do to get that something?
[00:05:00] So maybe it's something that you have to work for. So you start working all these crazy hours and kind of burning yourself out doing whatever you need to do to make enough money to purchase that thing that you so need, desperately need.
[00:05:16] Or maybe it's not something that you can really buy, but it's attention that you're seeking. And maybe you kind of change part of who you are. You change your hairstyle, you change your shoes, you change the way you look so that you can gain more friends or you can be seen by the person that you're so interested in and that you want them to be interested in you.
[00:05:39] So just like I wanted to increase my pickleball game, sometimes we get the impulse to want to increase our faith.
[00:05:47] We get this impulse to get more faith quickly.
[00:05:51] And this is a good impulse, guys. Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with wanting to learn more and get out of your comfort zones in your faith.
[00:05:59] But believe it or not, the apostles had this same impulse in Luke 17, 5, 6. I only got a little bit of scripture I'm gonna read, so thank myself for that. I'm just kidding. The apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey you.
[00:06:27] The question that the apostles asked when they said to increase our faith might have been prompted by the chapters prior to this chapter.
[00:06:36] Because in these other chapters, Christ is talking about money and divorce and forgiveness. And in these teachings, Christ is talking about how you can't serve money and God, you can't serve both things. And he warns people about the dangers of divorce, and he talks about forgiveness and how if someone sins against you seven times, that you should forgive them all seven times.
[00:07:01] And so they might have felt a little challenged in their faith.
[00:07:06] They might have felt challenged when Christ was saying these things, realizing the sacrifice that it takes to follow Christ, they might have felt like their faith was not sufficient.
[00:07:20] So they asked God, asked Christ to increase their faith. They might have felt like they needed more faith to follow Christ.
[00:07:29] So I want to ask you guys tonight, have you ever been there?
[00:07:33] Have you ever felt challenged in your faith?
[00:07:37] Maybe it was from a sermon that someone preached, or maybe you have a friend that is, like, so strong in their Faith right now and you decided that you have the impulse to want to get more faith like them, or you pray to get more faith like your friend.
[00:07:53] So tonight I want to spend some time talking about how bold faith is not about the quantity of your faith, it's about the quality of your faith.
[00:08:03] Bold faith is not an amount. Bold faith is an assurance. It's knowing who you're putting your faith into.
[00:08:13] So when I bought the pickleball gear, the paddles and the shoes and stuff, I didn't get better.
[00:08:19] I got better because I spent time playing the game.
[00:08:23] I thought that if I put all this stuff into it, I would increase my skill right away. But that's not what happened. I wanted to get better, but the only reason I got better is by practicing and playing the game and growing, using the skill that I had at the time to grow one step closer to where I wanted to be.
[00:08:45] So guys, if you want more faith, if you want to grow in your faith, use the little bit of faith that you have. Whatever it is, whatever the amount, use that faith and do bold things and your faith will grow, I promise you.
[00:09:01] Because God can do amazing things with faith the size of a mustard seed.
[00:09:07] And you see, it's not about how much faith we can have, but instead it's about how much God does with that little bit of faith we have.
[00:09:19] I waited for my faith to grow for years and years and it never did.
[00:09:24] I thought that going to church and believing in God was enough and I thought my faith would just grow overnight. But I felt stagnant where I was at.
[00:09:34] And not only in my faith, but in my life. I was at a job that I. I didn't mind, but I really didn't like the people I worked with. Luckily I have two part time jobs and I love both of them. I love the people I work with. But at the time I felt so unhappy. I felt so unchallenged in life. I felt so comfortable where I was at that it made me feel uncomfortable.
[00:09:57] And I would have these days of depression every couple weeks and I would feel so numb and empty.
[00:10:03] And then there was this one day that my wife Lex noticed I was in like a weird mood. And a lot of times, like if I work out, my brother in law knows this, like you get out of your funk right away.
[00:10:15] So Lex is like, why don't you go downstairs and work out? So I went downstairs and I ended up just like sitting in the weight room. I was just like sitting on the floor. And after like 10 minutes, Lex didn't hear any weights clanking around or me grunting or anything. So she's like, what is he, what's he doing down there? So she comes down and I'm just sitting on the floor and she asked me what was wrong. And I said, I don't know. I don't know what's going on. I just don't feel anything. I don't feel happy at all.
[00:10:44] You see, I was waiting for my faith to grow, but I wasn't doing anything to mature it.
[00:10:50] I wasn't saying yes to God and taking steps with him every single day.
[00:10:56] I was just hoping that it would grow overnight.
[00:11:00] And then this, right around that time, this opportunity to be bold presented itself to me.
[00:11:08] We were all at my in laws house and Sarah was talking about how the high school position opened up.
[00:11:16] And I was kind of just like sitting there listening.
[00:11:19] And she said, she asked me if my brother would be interested in this position.
[00:11:24] And I was like, you know, probably, maybe, I don't know.
[00:11:28] And then she was like, do you think you would be, you want to come in for an interview or something? I was like, I don't know. But on the inside, guys, I'm telling you on the inside, my faith, the opportunity to be bold was screaming. It was like part of me was saying like, why my brother? Why not me? Just say it. Just say it out loud.
[00:11:49] And so I did.
[00:11:52] I felt the most clear calling from God that I ever felt.
[00:11:56] That one little moment to be bold and open my mouth led to not just moving towards the position, but it led to me learning what it meant to fast learning what it meant to pray in deep connection with Christ. I started going to all the high school.
[00:12:16] It was nighttime at that point. I wasn't even didn't have the position yet. But I showed up every single Sunday night and I got to know people and I was willing to help wherever I could.
[00:12:26] But I knew that this was a future for me.
[00:12:30] And I saw this future that I would have never imagined for myself.
[00:12:35] I could not picture myself leading this group of kids.
[00:12:39] I never would have thought that that was something that I could do.
[00:12:43] But that one yes led to more opportunities of bold faith for me.
[00:12:50] And guys, my faith because of that has grown so much and my soul has grown so much. And it's not because I had a lot, but it's because he has a lot.
[00:13:03] It wasn't about me having everything, but it's about believing that God had everything. And all I had to do was say yes in that moment. That one little Ounce of bold faith. I just had to say yes.
[00:13:18] Say yes, here I am.
[00:13:20] I'm available. God, what do you need me to do? In that case, it was just open my mouth. Say one thing.
[00:13:28] You see our desire to increase.
[00:13:30] Our desire to increase our faith. It is the right desire.
[00:13:34] Obviously, it's good to want to increase your faith and get better at things. But it's our focus that might be a little skewed. Our focus might be wrong.
[00:13:45] Because it's not about how much faith we have. Instead, it's about the one that we put our faith in.
[00:13:52] You can have the smallest amount of faith, like the mustard seed, and God can do something beautiful and amazing with it because it's about who your faith is in.
[00:14:05] Sorry, I feel like I should be flipping these a little faster.
[00:14:08] In the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, there is this beautiful woman who modeled bold faith.
[00:14:17] And she's often described as the woman with the issue of bleeding.
[00:14:22] And in this time, if you were.
[00:14:25] You were seen as unclean. If you had any issues with bleeding or anything like that.
[00:14:30] So the law said that she couldn't go into the markets. She couldn't be around people. She couldn't go into the church. Cause if she touched anything, then it would become unclean.
[00:14:40] So she suffered with this for 12 long years.
[00:14:46] She suffered with it, trying to reach out to doctors, whoever could help her. And nothing was working.
[00:14:53] And one day, she found herself in public where she wasn't supposed to be. But she was there.
[00:15:00] And it's because she heard of a man named Jesus.
[00:15:04] And at the same time, Jesus happens to be walking through this same town.
[00:15:09] And as he was walking, the crowds just kept, like, getting closer and closer and pressing in on him and pressing in on him. And I kind of picture this like, have you ever been to a sporting event or a concert, and you're, like, with a group of people and you're, like, trying to weave your way through to get where you're trying to go. Like, that's what I picture is happening here. And the crowd was getting so tight that I imagined, like, they could barely walk anymore.
[00:15:33] And you see, this woman knew the name of Jesus. She didn't have this book that we have today, but she knew what Christ was capable of.
[00:15:43] She knew that Christ was a healer. She knew him as the Messiah. She knew that if she used the smallest faith to just touch the garment, the edge of his garment, that she would be healed.
[00:15:56] She knew who she was putting her faith in.
[00:16:00] And as Jesus inched nearer and nearer to this woman, she finally stretched out her arm and touched the edge of his clothes.
[00:16:11] And there's, like, parts of scripture that talks about this, but maybe she only touched the edge of his clothes because if she would have touched his skin or something, she didn't want to get him unclean as well.
[00:16:22] So she probably hadn't touched anyone in 12 years.
[00:16:26] She probably hadn't been near anyone in 12 years.
[00:16:30] Just being in the crowd that day was dangerous and probably scared her so much.
[00:16:39] So she reaches out and she touches the clothes, and instantly her bleeding stopped.
[00:16:49] What she had suffered with for 12 years, what she tried seeking to get away from, stopped the moment she touched Christ's clothes.
[00:17:01] And at that moment, as soon as she touched him, Christ stops and he says, who touched me?
[00:17:11] And this woman probably felt so afraid at that moment, like, oh, something bad's about to happen here.
[00:17:18] She wasn't supposed to touch anyone, and she touched him.
[00:17:22] And then Peter, one of the disciples, was like, what do you mean? Who touched you? We can't even move. Everybody here is touching you right now. Like, what do you mean?
[00:17:31] But Christ knew exactly who it was.
[00:17:35] And Christ was waiting for this woman to use her little bit of boldness and say it for herself.
[00:17:44] And then it says, when the woman, with fear and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him, and in the presence of everyone there, she told him what she did.
[00:17:58] She said that she touched his clothes and that she was healed instantly.
[00:18:04] Now, I know that I can relate a lot to this woman. I'm sure a lot of us can. It may have not been 12 years, but I know a lot of us have suffered at some point in our lives, right?
[00:18:16] I was once a person who suffered for I don't even know how many years with addiction.
[00:18:21] And it was something that took a lot out of who I was.
[00:18:26] I struggled with ways everywhere I looked. And I just was becoming more and more lost in my addiction.
[00:18:34] And I felt like things weren't ever going to change.
[00:18:39] And all I was doing was pushing the things I loved away, pushing the people I loved away, the people who cared most about me. I just kept pushing them away. And I completely outcasted myself from life.
[00:18:57] The person that I am now, I don't really even recognize that person anymore of who I used to be. Nor do I even really like to think about it or talk about it.
[00:19:08] But it led me to where I am today.
[00:19:11] But in that moment of my struggle, I so badly needed to reach out and just touch the hem of Christ's cloak.
[00:19:21] I so Badly needed to reach out to my Savior, to be delivered from that deep, dark addiction that I was in.
[00:19:31] And so I decided to fully surrender, to be confident in Christ and what he's done for me.
[00:19:40] And he. I just wanted to give it all to him.
[00:19:43] I just wanted to surrender and say, christ, take it all.
[00:19:48] That small decision that I did, that I made, he healed me from that.
[00:19:54] And now I've been sober for, it says four and a half years. I wrote up here, but let's just say 38,000 hours. Put it that way, sounds better that way.
[00:20:07] But my life now is so much more beautiful. And I have so many amazing things with Lex and Selah. And we have a home in Berea. And every part of my life, like, I don't ever.
[00:20:18] I don't like thinking about that stuff because I don't feel like that anymore. And I love what I have now. And it's not because of anything that I had. It's not because of anything that I did. It's because who I put my trust in in that moment. It's cause I put my trust in Christ.
[00:20:39] The text goes on to say that Jesus responds to this woman, to this woman's act of boldness.
[00:20:48] This woman, I'm just going to move this out of the way for one second. This woman, it says that she fell before him.
[00:20:57] And when I picture this, I picture Christ because she's like down on her knees, her head's probably down. I picture him getting down on his knees right in front of her.
[00:21:07] And I don't know if he puts his hand on her face or he lifts her chin up, but he says, my daughter, your faith has saved you.
[00:21:16] And I just feel like this might have been the first time in 12 years that this woman has felt or heard something so endearing.
[00:21:28] This may be the first time in 12 years that she felt loved or valued.
[00:21:34] And church, When Jesus saves you, he calls you his child.
[00:21:39] You are no longer known by your mistakes. You are no longer known by your issues. You are no longer known by the pain, the trauma.
[00:21:49] You are known as a child of God.
[00:21:53] And Christ not only saved her physical body that day, he saved her eternal soul.
[00:22:00] That's what he does for us. He saves our eternal souls.
[00:22:04] That was a gift that was so freely given from him.
[00:22:09] And it wasn't by her own might, but instead it was by the healing work of Jesus Christ.
[00:22:15] Our faith is a gift from God. It's not something that we get from ourselves.
[00:22:22] Ephesians 2. 8 says, for it is by Christ you have been saved through faith.
[00:22:29] And this is not on your own doing.
[00:22:32] It is a gift of God.
[00:22:37] It's not about what we do or an amount that we have.
[00:22:42] It's about the quality, the quality of the one that we put our faith in.
[00:22:48] It's a gift from God, and it's a maturing of our soul that we take with us to eternity.
[00:22:55] And so I wanted to challenge some of us tonight.
[00:23:02] Stop wishing for more faith. Stop hoping one day you can grow in your faith. And start today.
[00:23:10] Don't make it about your future. Use the faith you have today. Start today.
[00:23:16] And I want to talk to a few groups of us tonight. For some of you, you need to look at how you spend your time.
[00:23:24] When's the last time you opened up your Bible?
[00:23:27] When's the last time you sat in the presence of God, allowing him to speak to you?
[00:23:33] Do you have time with our Heavenly Father every single day to sit in his word?
[00:23:41] Are you taking this book seriously?
[00:23:46] Guys, I'll be honest with you.
[00:23:48] This is something that I struggle with for a long time, and I still go through times when I'm struggling with it.
[00:23:54] But I can tell the difference in my faith when I'm in the Word versus when I'm not.
[00:24:01] It is a huge difference.
[00:24:04] The spiritual discipline of Bible reading has made all the difference in my life.
[00:24:11] And for some of you, you might need to grow deeper roots with God.
[00:24:18] Maybe you recently have gotten baptized or gone on a mission trip, or you just got involved with the church, or you're in the middle of this awesome Bible study, and you're just, like, absolutely on fire and feel so close to God. You need to grow deep roots in your faith. Because when that spiritual high fades, and I felt it before it does, you can't let your faith fade with it.
[00:24:44] If your soil, if your seed is in shallow soil, it's gonna be scorched. You need to plant it in deep, rich soil. In the Word.
[00:24:55] That means walking with him every single day. Even when life's hard, when that mountaintop moment turns into a valley and everything's closing in on you, you gotta stick with it.
[00:25:10] Grow deep roots in your faith so you don't fall away.
[00:25:15] Just keep seeking him.
[00:25:23] For some of you, this was a big one for me, too.
[00:25:28] You might need to prune some things out of your life.
[00:25:31] Maybe you've been battling temptation or addiction or abuse, and it's gotten in the way of your relationship with God.
[00:25:39] I've had to completely cut things out of my life because I kept going back to them. And I kept taking a step back.
[00:25:48] If you struggle with lust, just delete whatever it is off your phone. Cut it out. Cut it out of your life.
[00:25:56] It's a lot easier to deal with when it's not there anymore.
[00:26:02] If you struggle with substance abuse or something, delete the contacts or stop hanging out with the people that are pulling you into that situation that you're struggling with so much.
[00:26:15] Throw it away and surrender it to God.
[00:26:19] And for those of you who feel like you walk faithfully day by day, you feel like you're doing all the right things. You feel like you're praying constantly, you are deep in the word. You. You feel like everything's going good, but for some reason, you feel stagnant still.
[00:26:38] Maybe it's time for you to step up.
[00:26:42] Find somebody and mentor them.
[00:26:45] Find a disciple. Lead them. Show them what it looks like to live a life that is so enriched in God.
[00:26:54] Lead them and teach them what that relationship looks like.
[00:27:01] Guys, all of us have these moments.
[00:27:05] All of us have these times in our life where whether we hear a whisper in our heart or whether it's someone close to us that's trying to tell us something, we all have these moments in our life.
[00:27:20] And it's up to us to be sensitive to that call that God's trying to show us.
[00:27:27] It's up to us to say, yes, take those next steps in your faith.
[00:27:35] Be available to him.
[00:27:38] Say, God, I'm here.
[00:27:41] If it's a moment that you need me to open my mouth and say the right thing in front of the right crowd, I'll do it.
[00:27:50] If it's something that I need to step away from, take me away from it. If it's something in my heart that isn't pure, get it out, whatever it is. Father, I'm available.
[00:28:02] I'm yours, and I want to be yours forever.
[00:28:09] Heavenly Father, I thank you for the opportunity of being up here.
[00:28:21] I thank you for the gift of boldness.
[00:28:25] I thank you for all those little things that you do in our lives that we don't always recognize.
[00:28:31] I thank you for the gifts that you've given each and every one of us, no matter how small, how big they are. Father, when we think about the good things we have, we know they come from you.
[00:28:43] And I pray that we can just continue to be bold in our faith.
[00:28:47] I pray that we can continue to love each other the way that you love us, the way that you love the church. Father, I'm just so grateful for everyone here, Father. And I pray that I can continue to be bold. And we all can just continue to be bold. We love you and we thank you and we praise you. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen.
