Adventurous Faith | Ps Ben Moir

Today we are closing out our series

called adventurous. Adventurous. And

you're probably thinking, okay, what

does this mean? Are we going on a trek?

Are we going to Cakota? Like, are we

jumping out of an airplane? Like, what

are we talking about? When we use this

word adventurous, it's one of our values

here at Elevation. When we use this word

adventurous, what we're talking about is

we want to live a life unafraid. We

despite what our circumstance may say,

despite what the world around us might

look like, we want to live unafraid.

And our word for the year, as pastor

Luke mentioned, it is make room. That is

our word for this year. And it comes

from Isaiah 54:2. And it says, "Enlarge

Isaiah 54:2

the place of our tlarge the place of

your tent. Stretch out the habitations."

Come on. Who wants that this year in

2026? Who wants their their tents to be

stretched, their habitations to be

enlarged?

But then it says, don't hold back. God

has given you a word. So don't hold

back. But when we use this word, don't

hold back in this passage, what it's

talking about is do not be afraid.

Do not be fearful. Because God knows, I

know that one of the biggest enemies to

making room in our life for Jesus

is fear.

We can attempt to make room. We can want

to make room, but then that little voice

in our head goes, "Well, what if God

doesn't show up? What if God doesn't

come through?" So then we we slink back.

We we don't stretch. We don't enlarge.

We

we step back

and but that is not how God has called

us to live. He has called each and every

one of us to live with what we're

talking about today, adventurous faith.

He has called us to live with an

adventurous faith.

So if you've got your Bibles, turn to 1

Samuel verse 7, chapter 17. Because I

don't know about you, but I know that

our God hasn't called us to walk by

sight. He's called us to walk by faith.

So, we're going to talk about that this

morning. And we're going to go through

the story of David and Goliath. So,

verse one. Now, the Philistines gathered

their armies for battle,

and they were gathered at Soo, which

belongs to Judah, and encamped between

Soka and Azeka in Ephesim.

And Saul and the men of Israel were

gathered and encamped in the valley of

Ellah and drew up in line of battle

against the Philistines. And the

Philistines stood on the mountain on on

the one side and Israel stood on the

mountain on the other side with a valley

between them. And there came out from

the camp of the Philistines a champion

named Goliath, whose height was six

cubits and a span. He had a helmet of

bronze on his head. And he was armed

with a coat of male. And the weight of

the coat was 5,000 shekels, and he had

bronze armor on his legs, and a javelot

of bronze slung between his shoulders.

The shaft of the spear was like a

weaver's beam, and his spear's head

weighed 600 shekels of iron, and his

shieldbearer went before him. He stood

and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why

have you come out to draw up for battle?

Am I not a Philistine and you are not

servants of Saul? Choose a man for

yourselves and let him come down to me.

If he is able to fight with me and kill

me, then we will be your servants. But

if I prevail against him and kill him,

then you shall be our servants and serve

us. And the Philistine said, "I defy the

ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man

that we may fight together." When Saul

and all Israel heard these words, all of

the Philistine, they were dismayed and

afraid.

They were afraid.

What are you facing in your life today

that's causing you to live like Israel?

What's causing you to be afraid this

morning? To not be able to live in

faith, but it's causing you to live in

fear of what could happen. So, that's

what we're going to talk about. Let's

pray.

Lord, I just lift you up in this place.

I just hand this service over to you.

It's yours. It's not mine. Lord, I just

pray as I preach. It's it's your words,

not mine. You tell me what to say. Stop

what needs to be stopped. Translate that

which needs to be translated. I pray

that nothing falls upon deaf ears. That

those who need to hear this word from

you this morning, hear it. Open our eyes

to see. Open our ears to hear. Lord,

speak for your servants are listening.

In your name we pray. Amen.

So fear

in today's day and age has become quite

normalized, right? We we have we have

phrases like, you know, I just have a

healthy fear of XY Z. I it's okay to

feel this way. It's just a healthy fear.

So much so that we actually have words

for specific phobias, for specific

fears. So, we're going to do a little

bit of a fear test, right? So, if any of

these resonate with you, I looked up

some of the most common uh fears and

phobias, which I know is is a little bit

ironic. I'm asking you to put your hand

up in front of everyone to say, "This is

what I'm scared of." which most people

are scared to just put their hands up

anyway.

But let's see what happens. Number one,

the fear of spiders.

What about the fear of snakes?

Generally the same people.

What about the fear of heights?

And the one that I see every Sunday, the

fear of the 62nd meet and greet.

I see you. I see you all. It's all good.

But also in looking up some of the most

common fears, I look some I I found some

of the most uncommon fears.

The fear of peanut butter sticking to

the roof of your mouth.

It's it it has a name. I promise you. Go

look it up. The fear that somewhere

somehow a duck is watching you.

No word of There's always one.

You're also the tallest person in the

room, mate. Anyway,

uh the fear of balloons, globop phobia.

And the they also this this one I find

so funny. The fear of really long words,

which ironically the fear has 36 letters

in its name. So you can't even the

person who's afraid of it can't even

tell you what they're afraid of because

they're like I'm afraid of the word that

I'm afraid it's circles.

But for me, right, my wife is very

weird. I'm not I'm not afraid of much.

The literally the other day I was

walking with my my my son and my

daughter and we're walking away from uh

home from footy training and then a red

belly just kind of slither past and I

was like, "Oh, whoops. Okay, cool. We're

all good." But for me, there is one

thing that I am afraid of.

mice.

Just going to be honest with you this

morning. If you see me and a mouse in

the same room, you see me on the chair.

Okay.

On the table. Yeah. Well, Billy has seen

it in real life. Uh but I'm pretty I'm

pretty like comfortable with sharing

this because also our amazing pastor

Luke has the same phobia as me. So, you

know, if there is a mouse in this room,

talk to Jif.

we gone. Because when I was about 10,

right, I I had I had a loft bed, you

know, sleeping up top, party down the

bottom, but you know, when you're 10,

that party down the bottom is just your

homework. Uh, so I would do my homework,

but then I had like spare bits of paper

and whatever. So, I needed a rubbish

bin. So, I had a rubbish bin and

sometimes I'd put food in there. My

children now definitely not allowed food

anywhere near their bedrooms. And one

day I was going to take the rubbish out.

And as I was pushing down,

as I was, you know, as I was pushing

down the rubbish to get the bag tied up,

the mouse

up me arm and off my shoulder.

And from that day forward, I said, "Not

today, devil."

But some some fears, they're irrational,

right? They're just like, "Why are you

afraid of of peanut butter sticking to

the roof of your mouth? Why are you

afraid of a duck that is somewhere

somehow watching you like is he here in

this room, right? They're irrational."

But some some are rational or we seem

they they seem reasonable. Like we have

reasons, we have excuses, we go, "Well,

no, this is the event that caused me to

be afraid." We we other people go, "No,

I'm afraid of the same thing." So

there's a multitude of people afraid of

the same thing. So you go, "Well, if

everyone's afraid of this, this must be

normal."

But fear is not normal. Fear, it says in

two Timothy,

uh 1 verse 7 17, 1 vers7, sorry. It

says, "For God gave us a spirit not of

fear, but of power and love and of

self-control.

Fear is not from God. Power is from God

to live in the face of fear. Power is

from God to live a life unafraid and

adventurous.

So today when I'm talking about fear,

I'm not talking about spiders. I'm not

talking about peanut butter. I'm not

even talking about the mouse. What I'm

talking about today when it comes to

fear is that fear that leaves us in a

state of anxiety day after day. that

leaves us frozen, being able to do

anything that leads to mental health

issues in the future. Fear that holds us

back from who God has called us to be.

Fear that holds us back from doing what

God has called us to do. That's the type

of fear that we're talking about today.

Because this this is where fear can

become dangerous.

when we allow it to rule our lives, when

we when when fear is sometimes disguised

as as wisdom, right? God has called us

to a different job. You know, God has

called you to that different career, but

you're like, "No, I'm going to stay

because maybe I'm just not good enough."

Or maybe he's called you to start that

business, but you're just feeling, "Oh,

well, now's not the right economic

time."

or God's called you out of that

relationship,

but you're fearful that you're like,

"God, well, if I break up with this

person, will I be alone forever or maybe

God has called you to tithe and you go,

it doesn't work right now, but when I

have more, I'll be more generous."

This is when fear can become dangerous.

Because the thing about fear is that it

doesn't remove faith. Fear doesn't

remove your faith entirely, but what it

does do is it quietly limits it. Fear

quietly limits you. Quietly holds you

back and stops you from being able to do

the things that God has called you to

do. And we see this time and time again

in scripture. And this is what we see

here in one 1 Samuel 17 with Israel on

one side of the valley and the

Philistines on the other side of the

valley

like they had just defeated the

Philistine army previously in the book

of Samuel. But then they see them again

and they send out Goliath and for some

reason this time it's different. And in

that moment they're looking around.

They're looking at each other. Are you

going to go down? I'm not going down. If

you're not going down, we're all not

going down. So, if we're all going to

stay up here, we're all going to be

okay. This is a healthy fear we have.

In that moment, they had a choice. Do we

live in fear or do we live in faith? And

they chose fear. For 40 days, they chose

to live in fear. Every day, they woke up

and they made a choice. We're going to

stay on the on the mountain. Every day

they woke up and stayed on the mountain.

But then in verse 12

says, "Now David, in walks the future

king of Israel. [snorts] In walks the

the man that leads into uh the lineage

of Jesus Christ." And he walks in. He

walks into the same battlefield. He

walks into the same valley. He sees the

same giant, but he has a different lens.

and he sees it differently. He doesn't

choose fear. He looks at Goliath and he

chooses faith

because he doesn't deny the reality of

what's going on,

but he knows that his God is bigger.

And just like David, just like the

Israelites, we have a choice. Do we live

in faith or do we live in fear? And we

can look at the world, what's going on

in the world around us.

We can go, well, there's wars happening,

civil unrest around the world. There's

enough Instagram res to fill you full of

fear.

Even back home, the the increased cost

of living. We can look at it all and we

can rationalize fear as normal.

But we have a choice. Are we going to

live in fear or are we going to live in

faith? Because here's the thing, as

Christians, what we live in, we steward.

If we live in fear, we're going to

steward that fear into our world. But if

we live in faith, we'll steward that

faith into our world. So the question

is, are you going to live like the

Israelites or are you going to live like

David? So that's what we're going to

talk about. How do we live like David?

Number one, adventurous faith puts God

at the center. That's what it does. The

Israelites, they understood who their

enemy was. They understood who Goliath

was. There is the first four of 11 first

verses talks about the size and weight

of Goliath. They understood who Goliath

was. They understood who their enemy

was. But what they had done was they had

forgotten who their God was. And we can

read this passage and we can know that

eventually David kills Goliath. Why was

David scared? Why was he sorry? Why were

the Israelites scared? Like David wins

in the end. Like Goliath couldn't have

been that tall, right? And I'm so glad

you asked. I've actually got an

illustration that I'd love to show you

about how tall

Goliath really was

cuz he was about 3 m tall, which is

definitely far taller than what I am. So

Goliath.

Hey, we're talking about fear. We're all

good.

Goliath was 3 m tall.

Huge. And right. And next to me or next

to Katon, you're probably going not that

tall. However, back in the day,

Israelites were about 150 to 160 cm

tall. And I brought someone with me that

is about that height.

my wife.

So, if you'd like to come up,

this is the difference.

This was about how big David and the

Israelite army was, and this is how big

Goliath was.

When you look at this side by side, you

go, "Yeah, I get it."

Right? If someone was coming to me on

the battlefield looking like this, I'd

be like, "No, no, you're most welcome.

It seems rational."

But the issue was that the Israelites,

they were not looking at their God. They

focused on themselves.

What can I do? What am I capable of?

Let's give it up for my wife as I work

out how to get down.

Two services down. We're good.

Thank you. Because here's the thing.

Fear places you at the center, but faith

places God at the center. And that's

what David decided to do. We see it in

verse 24. All the men were scared. And

they said that whoever fights and and

beats Goliath, Saul will give them

riches and his daughter. And then in

verse 26, David is like, "What shall be

done for the man who kills this

Philistine and takes away the reproach

from Israel? For who is this

uncircumcised Philistine? Who is this

guy that he should defy the armies

ready? Of the living God."

Israel was worried about themselves. And

David walked in and in one word reframed

everything. Have you forgotten who our

God is?

This is not a fight between day, between

the Philistines and the Israelites. This

is not a fight between Goliath and you.

No, this is a fight that belongs to God.

Goliath is not trying to kill us.

Goliath is against our God. And that's

how David walked in with such boldness.

He walked in and knew because he's like,

"This fight is not for us. This fight is

for God."

And that's how David placed God at the

center.

David, he reframes the whole situation.

He doesn't walk in fa fear. He walks in

with faith.

So for you today,

what situations are you viewing through

the lens of fear? What situations are

you

facing that need to be reframed, that

need to be turned up themselves? Are you

looking at through the lens of fear? Or

are you looking through the lens of

faith?

Maybe you are single and fear is telling

you, you know what, you're you're going

to stay that way forever.

Maybe God is working on that spouse for

you to make them the person that he

wants for you.

Maybe you just feel like you're not

financially stable.

And fear is telling you you're always

going to be broke. You're always going

to be behind. Maybe God is trying to

help you understand how to steward your

money. Maybe God is trying to help you

how to finance better. Maybe you hate

your job

and fear is telling you life doesn't get

better.

Maybe God is trying to stretch your

patience.

stretch you to be who he has called you

to be. Because here's the thing. When

God is at the center, the giant doesn't

look so big anymore.

When we're at the center, we are the

smallest thing. But when God is at the

center, he becomes the biggest.

When Israel walked into that valley,

they saw a giant. When David walked in,

he saw God.

That's how we live like David. The

second thing, adventurous faith

remembers God's faithfulness. See, David

walks in, he walks in with boldness.

And he doesn't walk in, it's not an

arrogant boldness, right? Even his

brother's kind of looking at him going,

"How can you do this? Why are you here?

He's just got a couple of sandwiches."

He's like, "You're just here because

because you just want to watch the war.

you're just here because you you have a

a a bad reason for being here. They're

seeing David's boldness as arrogant.

Yet, his boldness is not arrogant. His

boldness is memory.

His boldness comes out of I know who my

God is because I know what he's done.

David time and time again remembers, it

talks about it in the Psalms. Remember

what God has done. And that's how David

walks in. In verse 34, David says to

Saul, "Your servant was a shepherd, and

when a lion came or a bear and took a

lamb from the flock, I went after him

and struck him and delivered it out of

his mouth. And if he rose against me, I

caught him by his beard and struck him

and killed him. Your servant has struck

down both lions and bears, and this

uncircumcised Philistine shall be like

one of them, for he has defied the

armies of the living God." And then

David said, "The Lord who delivered me

from the pore of the lion and from the

pore of the bear will deliver me from

the hand of this Philistine." So Saul

said to David, "Go and the Lord be with

you." David walked in memory of who his

God was. Time and time, God showed up in

David's life in in situations where

David felt outmatched.

He knew that God would have his back and

he could walk in faith.

See here, remembering God's faithfulness

will strengthen, will fuel our faith.

Because in Romans 10:17, what does it

Romans 10:17

say? Faith comes from hearing and

hearing the word of God. So when we when

we hear what God is capable of, when we

hear the stories and testimonies of what

God has done, it increases our faith.

The Bible is full of stories about who

our God is and what our God is capable

of. You're looking to switch careers.

David went from shepherd to king.

I think I think we're capable of doing

some stuff cuz God's with you.

>> Go look go read and understand who our

God is so you can walk in the

faithfulness and remember who he is.

Even because as you what you know about

God will dictate what you do.

Because for me uh many of you would know

that a few years ago I was told I have

this thing called Kiari one

malfformation which basically means that

a part of my brain has grown outside of

my skull. Uh a lot of the staff love to

call it big brain. It's you're allowed

to laugh. We're all good. It's I'm all

I'm still here. It's fine. Um, and I I I

I'm praying and believing going, "You

know what, God? I I believe and I know

you'll heal us. So, Lord, heal me. Do

it. Take it away."

And two years later, I still have the

pain. I still have the headaches. So, I

can know, well, he hasn't done it yet.

And even this this Wednesday, I'm having

another MRI to see uh if it's uh gotten

worse or if it's stayed the same. And I

have a choice. Do I live in fear going,

"He hasn't healed me, so he probably

won't." Or do I remember who my God is?

And I go, "Has my God showed up in my

life?" 100%. Has I have I seen healing

in this room? 100%. Is there healing in

this Bible? Yeah. Have I laid hands on

other people and see them being healed

in a moment? Yes. So, I'm going to

choose to remember who my God is and I'm

going to walk in faith. That even this

week where there's an MRI, I'm going to

believe and pray that God is going to

heal me

cuz that is who our God is. He is the

same yesterday, today, and forever more.

and what you are facing. You need to

remember who our God is cuz he is

capable of doing the impossible because

nothing is impossible without God.

Fear asks what have you done but faith

asks what has God done?

That's how we live like David.

And the third point is adventurous faith

uses God's weapons. See David walks in

bold. King Saul hears about it, brings

him in, and says, "If you want to fight

David, go for it." If you want to fight

Goliath, go for it. Here, use my armor,

use my shield, use my sword. And David

puts them on, and he kind of walks

around. He's like, "These are all way

too big for me. This armor won't work."

So, what does David do? He goes down to

the local stream, grabs a couple rocks,

puts them in his back pocket, then he

walks out onto the battlefield,

seemingly unarmed, seemingly

unprotected. Yet,

what do we read? When David and Goliath

are walking towards each other in that

valley, when they're walking towards

each other about one of them is about to

die, what does David say? He says, "You

come to me with the sword and with a

spear and with a javelin, but I come to

you in the name of the Lord of hosts,

the God of the armies of Israel, whom

you have defied. You're against me,

you're against God. This day the Lord

will deliver you into my hand, and I

will strike you down and cut off your

head. And I will give you the dead

bodies of the host to the of the

Philistines this day to the birds of the

air and to the wild beasts of the earth

that all the earth may know that there

is a God in Israel and that all this

assembly may know that the Lord saves

not with sword not with spear for the

battle is the Lord's and he will give

you into my hand today.

>> That is how David walks into the

battlefield and that is how God has

called us to walk into the battlefield.

[music] See, David knew that his his

fight was never with Goliath.

His fight was spiritual. He did not walk

in alone. He didn't walk in unarmed. No,

he walked in clothed in the spirit of

God. And he walked in with the backing

of heaven's armies behind him. And this

is why in Ephesians Ephesians six, Paul

reminds us, put on the whole armor of

God that you may be able to stand

against the schemes of the devil. For we

do not wrestle against flesh and blood,

but against the rulers, against the

authorities, against the [music] cosmic

powers, over the present darkness,

against the spiritual forces of the evil

in the heavenly places. [music]

Our battle is not physical.

Our battle is not against Goliath. Our

battle is spiritual. And if your battle

is spiritual today, you need spiritual

weapons.

David knew this. So, we need if we want

to live like David, we need to pick up

our shield of faith. We need to pick up

our sword of the spirit and we need to

go into battle knowing that we have God

on our side.

So, what what battles are you facing

today?

What do you need to fight today?

Because fear

fear says what could you do? But faith

knows that the battle belongs to God.

And you have everything. You have access

to everything that David had access to.

The same spirit that he was clothed in,

the same power that defeated Goliath

is available to you this morning.

You can leave this room with the same

weapons that David had to beat Goliath

so that you can go to war [music]

against your enemy, against your giant.

Whatever you're dealing with this

morning, you can leave this room full of

the Holy Spirit like that. One moment in

the presence of God can change your

life. And why can we be so bold and

confident to know this is who our God

is? Because of Jesus.

Because of what he did on that cross.

Because of the price that he paid.

because of the the debt that we couldn't

pay that he hung upon that cross. He

died and three days later he came back

to life and then 50 days after that he

sent the spirit and he said to his

disciples, "Wait until you have the

spirit. Wait until you're filled with

power."

And it's all because of Jesus.

So if we want to step into adventurous

faith today,

we need to step into relationship with

Jesus.

That's where it starts. And I don't know

what your journey looks like or where

you're at with Jesus today, but maybe

this is the first time you've heard

about Jesus. This might be your first

time in church. Or maybe you've heard

about Jesus before, but you've either

walked away or you've just never

actually made a decision to respond to

Jesus. Today's your day to say yes.

Today's your day to say yes to Jesus. to

respond to be filled with this

adventurous faith

so that you don't live in fear, but you

can live in faith. So, if that's you

this morning, in a moment, I'm going to

give you an opportunity to respond. I'm

going to ask you to boldly raise your

hand. Not that anyone's going to be

looking, but so that we know who we're

praying with, we're praying for, and who

we're going to do this journey with. So,

with eyes closed across the room, if

that's you, if this morning you need to

say yes to Jesus, yes to this

adventurous faith, yes to saying no to

fear,

if you're saying, I need a little bit of

what is go what David had, or maybe

you're feeling, I need a lot of what

David had. Whatever it might be, on the

count of three, I'm going to give you an

opportunity to [music] say yes, to

respond.

So on the count of three, if that's you,

I'm going to ask you to boldly raise

your hand. One, G Jesus loves you so

much that he went to the cross for you.

Two, God sent his son to die because he

knew you before you were even in your

mother's womb that he would die for you.

And three, if that's you this morning,

I'm going to ask you to boldly raise

your hand right now if that's you. Yeah,

I see that hand at the back. Come on.

Yeah, I see that hand over the back.

Yeah, I see that hand over the back as

well. Phenomenal.

If that's you this morning, if you want

to say yes to Jesus this morning,

just going to give you a couple more

moments. This is the most amazing

decision that you could ever ever make.

Phenomenal. Well, we're going to say

this prayer together. So, repeat after

me. Jesus, I give you my life. Give you

my all. Thank you for dying for me.

>> [snorts]

>> fill me with his adventurous faith and

your spirit that I may walk this week

in your power

and in your mighty and majestic name.

Everyone said, "Amen.