Walking by Faith | Steve Hyde

As you do so, just within this global context,

that we're getting to hear stories from around

the world, from people who have been friends

of Heights for a long time, so much so that the

dream that it would feel like family is there.

This next gentleman. I was asking him and he's

like, I was like, I think you've been here like

connected to Heights as a partner longer than

I've even been on staff. And he goes, yeah, it's

about 20 years now, which is just beautiful,

right? It's just a beautiful thing. And then

just to get you ready, okay? Just so you're ready.

He is also known, the legend I heard of him as,

is he is the Billy Graham of Cambodia. Yeah,

that's pretty good. Would you please welcome

Steve Hyde. It doesn't get much better than that.

I mean, that bar is pretty high now, you know

what I'm saying? Hello, hello, everyone. How

you doing? Ready for lunch? All right. You know,

I just want to thank the worship team. They are

fantastic. They're back there listening, I hope,

or crashing, whatever. They've been doing this

all morning long. And I want to thank them. Sound

crew, media team, everyone, if you don't come

to church, you can see it because of them. And

if you bring kids here, there's people out there.

I bet there's hundreds of people that are making

this happen today. So just thank you to everybody,

you know, for making that happen. So, yeah, my

name is Steve Hyde. I'm a missionary in Cambodia.

I've been there for 32 years. That's kind of

hard to imagine. I've been in Cambodia so long

that they made me a citizen of Cambodia. So I

actually have a Cambodian passport. I have a

Cambodian ID card. I draw Social Security, which

is almost zero in Cambodia. They give you a little

bit of rice every month. And so that's Social

Security. So whatever you were complaining about,

it's way better. Yeah. But God's been good. God

called me 32 years ago to go to Cambodia. I want

to tell you about my wife. So I met my wife there

in Cambodia. We've been married 26 years. We've

got four kids. Yeah, we have four kids. My wife's

name is Noi. She didn't come with me. She's Cambodian.

She didn't come with me on this trip because

for her to travel for two days to get here. And

then be here for four days and then travel two

days back. She's like, you can do that, Steve.

But anyways, I'm happy to be here. I love it.

Cambodia is always hot. So it's always like 100

degrees and about 100 % humidity. And so being

here, it's very, very dry for me. But I haven't

sweat yet. This is amazing. Yeah. I bet I could

walk around the neighborhood for hours and not

sweat also. I love your. Temperature and your

climate. Although it is very cold, but I know

that in four more days, I'll be gone and I'll

be sweating again. So I'm looking forward to

that. When I first went to Cambodia, when I first

went to Cambodia, there were almost no Christians

in the whole country. Most people that I talked

to about Jesus had no idea what I was talking

about. It was 0 .01 % Christian. There were so

few Christians. There were only eight churches,

little underground hidden churches. Eight. in

the entire country of Cambodia. And most of the

people that were Christians in those churches

weren't even Cambodian. They were just like Vietnamese

or immigrants that had come there or missionaries

or that kind of stuff. They weren't even Cambodian.

But God had it in his way that he decided he

was going to change the nation of Cambodia. For

those of you that heard the name Cambodia, it's

not Columbia, just to clarify. Some people are

like, you know, come up to me and like speak

Spanish. And they're like, hola, you know, welcome

to America. It's not the country I'm in. I'm

in Cambodia, which is in Asia, borders Vietnam

and Thailand. And so that's where I am. They

speak a language called Khmer. And their language

is very, very different from Spanish. So Spanish

doesn't work with me, nor anyone in Cambodia.

And so, but God called me 32 years ago. I was

in, I had graduated from college, and I had started

to go to Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth,

Texas. And I was a good Southern Baptist kid.

And I felt like God was calling me into missions

kind of somehow or whatever. So I was in Southwestern

Baptist Seminary. And there was about 4 ,000

students there at the time studying master's

and doctorate degrees to become pastors and that

kind of stuff. And I was in a chapel service.

And there was about 20 people in the entire service

because it wasn't required. So nobody showed

up. Out of 4 ,000 students, only about 20 of

us showed up. And so I went. And there at this

chapel service, I'm not insulting the school,

by the way. I was just saying as a matter of

fact. So in case that came out as an insult,

sorry about that. But in that chapel service,

I literally heard God speak to me. And all God

said was, go to Cambodia. And then, like, the

service was over. But to me, it was audible.

Like, I could hear it. And I knew it was God.

This is very unusual for Southern Baptists to

hear audible voice of God. You know, if you're

from another kind of tradition, it's not so unusual.

For Southern Baptists, it's quite unusual, especially

in a Southern Baptist seminary. It's quite unusual

to hear. So we always say in the Baptist circles,

we're like, well, we've got to confirm it with

the word. And so I was like, well, okay. So I

felt like that was God. That was, there's no

way to describe that. I like knew in my soul

that that was God that was speaking to me. But

I was like, well, I better confirm it in the

word. So I went back to my dorm room and I was

like, I'm going to open up my Bible and I'm just

going to, you know, crack it open and look down

and read it. And then whether, whether what I

read is going to be whether I go to Cambodia

or not. And so I was like, well, if I go New

Testament, if I go New Testament. I'm pretty

much going to hit the Apostle Paul. You know,

I'm going to hit the Apostle Paul. And so that's

going to be go to Cambodia. If I go Old Testament,

there's not, you know, it's going to be some

battle or something like that. It's not going

to be the go to Cambodia kind of thing. And so

I was like, you know, what do I do? Do I go Old

Testament? Do I go New Testament? That kind of

stuff. And then I felt like the Holy Spirit was

like, come on, dude. What are you doing? You

know, just to paraphrase the Holy Spirit. You

know, he's like, if you don't trust me, go to

the Old Testament. And so I was like, okay. So

I cracked it open to the Old Testament and popped

the Bible open. And it all opened to Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. And I looked down and I read this

in verse 4. The word of the Lord came to me saying,

before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed

you as a prophet to the nations. Who knew it?

There's missions in the Old Testament. Oh, my

goodness. And I kept reading. Alas, sovereign

Lord, I said, I do not know how to speak. I'm

too young. I'm just a seminary. I'm not even

graduated from seminary. How can you use me,

Lord? But the Lord said to me, do not say I'm

too young. You must go to every. You must go

to everyone I tell you to. You must, and say

whatever I tell you to say. I lost my place,

but I've read the verse so many times. So then

the Lord reached out his hand and touched my

mouth and said to me, I put my words in your

mouth. And I was just like, I knew that God had

called me to Cambodia. And so then I went and

I was like, well, I know God's called me. So

I was like, this is unbelievable. I got to leave

right now. I know how this works out for people

in the Bible. I read the Bible and I know if

you say no to God, a bad thing's about to happen.

And so I said, I got to leave right now. So I

left my dorm room. So I went from my chapel service

to my dorm room. God used his word again to speak

to me. The audible wasn't good enough. I'm sure

Moses was a Baptist, you know. You know, God

talked to Moses, and he's like, I want you to

follow me. And he's like, well, can you confirm

that? And God's like, whatever, dude, burning

bush, you know? And it's like, okay, then we're

going to do all these miracles. He got to have

been a Baptist, you know? Hard -headed, stubborn,

yeah, yeah. Sorry for you Baptists out there,

not trying to insult you, just having fun. With

you too. So then I went to a travel agent. This

is before like internet and all these websites

where you can just like book a ticket. I can

book a ticket while I'm driving. I know that's

illegal in Arizona, but in Cambodia it's not

illegal. So I do all kinds of stuff, driving

and that kind of stuff. We don't have Frank down

there in Cambodia. Fridays with Frank. He gives

everybody a ticket. I would never want to meet

him. Everybody gets two or three tickets. And

if you don't know who I'm talking about, look

at Facebook every once in a while. So I went

down to a travel agent and booked a ticket. I

didn't even know what the capital of Cambodia

was. But we figured it out. You know, there was

no internet or whatever. But we figured it out,

and it was Phnom Penh, Cambodia. And so we booked

a ticket. And you book a ticket, and then you

pay for it later. So I booked a ticket. And a

one -way ticket was going to be $1 ,088. I was

a seminary student. I didn't have $88, much less

$1 ,088. So I went back to my dorm room, and

I was going to pray and ask God, what do I do

next? Because I feel like I should go. In the

middle of the semester, before I finished, I

just feel like I need to go. And I knew this

was God. And so I went. We have a little post

office down below and little boxes and that kind

of stuff. Open up my post office box. There's

a letter. I'm from Iowa. So I'm from a town that

even Iowans have never heard of. Any Iowans here

today? So I'm from Barnum, Iowa. So you've probably

never heard of Barnum. It's about 20 miles outside

of Fort Dodge, Iowa. And so 96 people. I was

number 96. And if you look at the census, it's

now down to about 91 people. So it hasn't changed

much in the last 54 years. And I don't know where

I was going. Barnum, Iowa kind of messed me up.

Oh, yeah. So there was a letter. From a church

secretary from a Baptist church in Iowa. It doesn't

get any crazier than that. And a secretary from

a Baptist church in Iowa never wrote me before,

never wrote me after. She's in heaven now enjoying.

what God used her. And I've told this story again

and again. I opened up the letter and there was

just a short note there. And she said, God spoke

to me, a Baptist seminary, a Baptist secretary

in a church in Iowa. God spoke to me and told

me to give you my one month salary. And it was

a check for $1 ,088. Having read the book of

Jonah, I left immediately that week. Oh, God

is good. God is good. All my professors said,

nobody encouraged me to go. They all said, finish

your degree. There's always going to be lost

people out there. Get your master's degree first.

Get a PhD. Then you'll be able to contemplate

people better. I don't know. But just keep going.

Keep going. And don't leave school because your

calling is still going to be there. But I just

knew it. The way that God had spoken to me in

that 12 -hour period, I knew that I needed to

go and go immediately. So I did. When I got to

Cambodia, I didn't know where I was going to

stay. I didn't know who I was going to meet with.

I didn't know who I was going to connect with.

I ended up sleeping on the balcony of an orphanage

in Phnom Penh for several months so I could learn

the language and get to know people and make

connections and that kind of stuff. And even

house -sitted for Baptist missionaries that were

there. That was nice. So I was still being kind

of provided for by the Baptist church. When God

got me to Cambodia, it was a difficult place.

When I landed on the plane into Cambodia, the

airport was kind of like a steel building. And

when we landed on the plane, we're kind of bouncing

on the runway. It's like, I'm looking out the

window. And it's full of like bomb scars all

over the runway. Because during the wars, they

had... You know, artillery and that kind of stuff

had hit it. And it's a very distinct, anyways,

if you've ever been in war, you know what it

looks like. You know, it's all the shrapnel and

everything rips the concrete apart and that kind

of stuff. But there were so many bomb scars and

that kind of stuff were bouncing down there.

We get off, and there's military police. There's

military police that are kind of the security

at the airport. And we go in this steel building,

and people are trying to get. get to me and like,

oh, take my taxi, take my taxi. Let me take your

bags and all this kind of stuff. It's chaotic.

And the military police had these shock batons.

They were these batons with like electric shocks

on like kind of like a cattle prod kind of thing.

And they're shocking people. And like, it's like,

people are like, you know, like, get back. And

they're literally shocking them. And I was like,

God, really? Here? You know? All the roads were

dirt roads, potholes everywhere, you know. You

needed to be four -wheel drive in the capital

city. It was horrible. There was electricity

only a few hours a day, no stoplights, no, you

know, there would be traffic police that would

sit at the intersection. This is traffic police,

okay? So those are the guys with, like, a whistle

and that kind of stuff with a rocket launcher

next to them. Traffic police with rocket launchers

and AK -47 strapped to them. And it's just like,

Lord, really? Really? You know, couldn't we have

done the PhD or something, you know, and then

things clear up. But God had a plan. God had

a plan. So I want to give you some examples from

the Bible because I've read it and I think you

should too. Today I want to talk about living

by faith and what that's about. And a friend

of mine talked about living by faith is kind

of like having a chicken line in front of you.

And you need to decide whether you're going to

cross that chicken line or not. And when you

live by faith, you cross that chicken line, you

know. And so I want to tell you about Abraham.

You know about the story of Abraham. Abraham

did incredible things. He's talked about the

father of faith and that kind of stuff. And so

you know all the stories. I'm not going to go

through those stories because my timer is going

down quickly. But as one of the stories really

impacted me. You remember Abraham was promised

to be the father of a multitude. You know, the

father of his descendants would number. Greater

than the stars in the sky and the sand in the

seas, you know. And it's incredible. And he had

no children. And then God gave him one son. God

gave him one son. He tried to do his own way

for a while, got Ishmael. And then he got his

son, Isaac. And he got his son, Isaac. And then

in Genesis chapter 22, God said this in verse

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

1 to 3. Sometime later, God tested Abraham, and

he said to Abraham, he said to him, Abraham,

and he replied, here I am. Then God said, take

your son, your only son, who you love, Isaac,

and go to the region of Moriah, sacrifice him

there as a burnt offering on the mountain that

I will show you. What, God? What? How am I going

to be the multitude of a great nation? Abraham

is confronted with a chicken line. Is he going

to do it? Is he going to put his faith in God?

Is he going to trust God? Or is he going to say,

ah, me and Isaac, we're going fishing. You know,

he had a choice to make. But Abraham, in verse

3, here's one of my favorite verses in the Bible,

actually. In verse 3, early the next morning.

Early the next morning, Abraham got up, loaded

his donkey. He took with him two of his servants

and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood

for the burnt offering, he set out to the place

where God had told him about. Early the next

morning, he left. And we know the end of the

story. Abraham didn't know the end of the story.

He had to make a decision. Was he going to cross

that chicken line and live by faith? Or was he

going to stay back and say, nah? That's too awkward.

I'm not going to kill my own son. I'm not going

to do that. He didn't have the next chapter.

We have the next chapter. We know the end of

the story. He didn't. Do you know the end of

your story? I don't think so. But God does. So

he's an example to us of somebody who lived by

faith. Joshua is another great example. You know,

he was selected to be of 12 spies to go through

the land of Canaan to spy it out. Remember, 10

of the spies said, oh, these people are going

to kill us here. You know, and Joshua, what did

he say? Joshua said, God said we can take it,

so we can take it. He said, I'm taking it. You

know, he stepped across the chicken line. He's

like, we're going to do it. And it says about

Joshua, so we know the end of the story, he did

take it. And God used him to lead the people

of Israel. And it says when he was 80, so in

the end of the book of Joshua, when he was 85

years old, he was as strong. And as vibrant as

when he was young, when God called him as a spy,

he could still battle like all the young people

because he was still doing what God wanted him

to do. He lived by faith his whole life. He lived

by faith his whole life. Gideon is another great

example. Gideon wasn't even a soldier, and God

said, I want you to take the army and go defeat

the Midianites. And Gideon's, you know, remember

the testing thing, throw the fleece out, that

kind of stuff. He's like, I don't know, I don't

know, I don't know. He must have been Baptist

too. But prove it this way, God. Or how about

this way? Or how about this way? Oh, God has

a lot of patience with us. So eventually he had

10 ,000 soldiers. And they're going against the

Midianites, which are over 100 ,000 soldiers.

They were going to lose. But God kept saying,

okay, whoever's afraid. So God gave him a chicken

line. Who's ever afraid, go home. So what did

they do? Most of them went home. And so then

they're left with a few thousand. And then God

told them, whoever drinks like a dog, you take

them. So he's down to 300 people. 300 people.

And what did God do with those 300 people? They're

like, chicken line, whatever. We're going with

God. Wherever God tells us to go, we're going

to go. They crossed every chicken line there

was. And God used 300 people to defeat the entire

Midianite army. Wow. Mary, to me, is a great

example also. The angel Gabriel came to talk

to Mary and said, Mary, you're going to have

a baby. All right. Teenage girl, pregnant. Has

that ever happened before? Oh, no, it wasn't

my fault. Oh, yeah, what are the neighbors going

to say? Yeah, they're going to say, yeah, whoops,

oh, awkward, yeah. Why don't you quickly get

married and, you know, wear a loose dress, you

know, right? If Mary was around here today, what

would be her options? I bet all her friends would

say, get an abortion. Hide it. Get an abortion.

Nobody will know. I want to tell you, 2 ,000

years ago, they had abortions too. They've had

abortions since the beginning of time. There's

a carving on it. So in Cambodia, there's an ancient

temple there about 1 ,000 years old. And there's

a carving on the back wall of the temple, which

is a depiction of an abortion being done by demons.

It was carved 900 years ago. It was carved 900

years ago in Cambodia. Is it any wonder that

death reigns over the nation of Cambodia? Is

there any wonder that there's been genocide and

millions of people have killed in Cambodia? They

follow Satan, who not purposely follows Satan,

but Satan wants to destroy everyone. He wants

to destroy God's creation, and abortion is one

of those ways. Mary had a choice. She kept her

baby. She stepped across the chicken line. And

she kept her baby. She probably endured shame

and insults. And she's the mother of Jesus. The

mother of Jesus. She carried the Savior of the

entire world with her. The Bible says that Mary

is highly favored among God. The only one that

the Bible says that, Mary's highly favored. Because

she stepped across that chicken line. And then

you got people like Jonah. If you've ever read

the book of Jonah, you'll probably get to the

end of the book of Jonah. And it's like, what

on earth is that there for? It ends badly. Like

God calls Jonah to go save the people, the Assyrian

nation, you know. And what does Jonah do? He's

like, well, I hate those people. I'm going fishing.

And then God used him as bait. And so then in

the stomach of the whale, he repented. Fortunately,

if he didn't repent. He'd just become fish food,

I guess. But he repented in the stomach of the

whale. And then the whale or the big fish, whatever

it is, spit him out. And then he goes to Nineveh.

And he shares with them the gospel. The people

repent. And then God doesn't destroy the city.

And then it ends with Jonah sitting on the edge

of the city. And it's like, well, that's no fun.

God didn't destroy the city. And that's how the

book of Jonah ends. I think the point of Jonah

is he had a chicken line. And he's like, no,

no, I'm not going there. I'm not going there.

He went fishing. But he repented. And then God

said, I'll give you another chance. And he repented

and he crossed back over. And God used him. But

he still didn't learn his lesson. When God called

me to Cambodia. For two years, I shared the gospel

and nobody came to faith in Christ. Nobody. Nowadays,

I see people come to faith in Christ almost every

single day. But for the first two years, yeah,

thank God. Thank God. The first two years, nobody

came to faith in Christ. They didn't know what

I was talking about when I was talking about

Jesus. Nobody knew what I was talking about.

But then one day I said, you know, I think we've

been doing this all wrong. I've been doing it

the Baptist way. where you study the demographics,

you look for the right people, you have a certain

plan that you go through and you share with them.

And it just didn't work. Not that it was bad,

it just didn't work. And so we said, why don't

we ask the Holy Spirit, what do you want us to

do? Who do you want us to talk to? Because it's

the Holy Spirit that points people to Jesus.

It's the Holy Spirit that brings salvation to

people. It's not us. We're just his hands and

his feet, that's it. I'm nobody special. I can't

even play guitar. Or keyboards. Yeah. Yeah. Even

though I had eight years of piano lessons. Yeah.

My mom is still disappointed. Yeah. But we prayed

and we prayed and we worshiped for three days.

And after three days, so three days we just sat

there and we're like. I don't feel anything.

I haven't heard anything. I haven't seen anything.

I don't know what to do. And finally, one of

my friends who was with me, there were three

of us there, he said, I feel like God's telling

us to go to this village called Rosai Sro. And

we go to this village, Rosai Sro, and there you're

going to meet a girl, and the Holy Spirit's working

in her heart. And so we went to this little village,

and we're walking on these planks. There's raw

sewage everywhere. It's just a slum village.

And we see down these planks, we see this little

girl sitting in front of a house, just like my

friend said. He saw a vision of a little girl

sitting in front of this house. So we went and

we talked to her, and we sat, and she offered

me her chair. She'd never seen a foreigner, huge

foreigner like me, come into her village. Most

Cambodians are about this tall and this small,

and I'm not that way. And I went and sat in her

chair, her only chair, her only ass. sit in her

whole house, which looks like it's made of garbage.

And what happened to the chair? It broke. How

is she going to come to faith in Jesus Christ?

It just broke her only chair. But we shared with

her about Jesus. And you know what? The Holy

Spirit was already working. She came to faith

in Jesus Christ. Her name is Mom. And then her

mom, her mom came to faith in Jesus Christ. And

today, she's the head of Operation Mobilization

for Cambodia. She has led thousands upon thousands

upon thousands of people to faith in Jesus Christ.

Because we listened and we were obedient, we

crossed the chicken line to go into this little

slum village and we shared with them about Jesus.

And he's done that day after day after day after

day. I went into an area that was controlled

by the Khmer Rouge who committed genocide, killed

millions of people. And I met a female commander.

And the same thing. The Lord was working on her

heart, so I shared with her about Jesus. And

she came to faith in Christ. And then God said,

well, help educate her children. Her entire family,

nobody ever went to school. Nobody ever got educated.

She was educated. She could tear apart an AK

-47, blindfold it, and then shoot you with it.

before you could count to 10 backwards. She was,

and that's all her education was. And God told

us, why don't you, I want you to educate kids

like her and give them a chance and give them

a future. I've now sent, I've raised over 300

kids like that. I've sent 86 have gone into university

and graduated from college. Never, their families

had never even been to elementary school before.

And now they have a completely different life.

They have a completely different career path

and everything. God has blessed them. God called

me to help mothers that want to abort their babies.

Abortion is completely legal in Cambodia. It's

a communist country. The more you abort, it seems

like the more happy they are. They have over

4 ,000 abortion centers in the tiny nation of

Cambodia, which is actually smaller than the

state of Arizona. So we have more than 4 ,000

abortion centers. And women are having abortions

constantly. And so I said, well, let's go and

share Christ. Let's go and share Christ and share

the love of Jesus with these mothers. And in

the last 10 years, we've had over 3 ,000 babies

saved from abortion. It's been incredible. Thousands,

thousands of mothers have come to faith in Christ.

And with all these babies being born, we have

whole communities now that didn't exist before.

And it's been incredible what God has done. We're

doing a nutrition program now. We're doing livelihood

training with them, giving them jobs and careers

and that kind of stuff. God is good. We started

63 churches just from our crisis pregnancy center.

63 churches out of that. God is doing incredible

things. Every day, every day. There's chicken

lines in front of me. And I think you've got

those kind of things in your mind. You know what

your chicken line is. You know what it is. Your

chicken line is not my chicken line. Don't sit

there and think, oh, I want to do like Steve.

I wouldn't do that. You don't want the difficulties.

I was on the front lines of a battle zone a week

ago with Thai Army and tanks, F -16s flying around.

And I was on the front lines with Cambodian forces

here, Thai forces here, and I'm right here. Because

God said, I want you to go there and I want you

to help the civilians. And I had zero fear. Because

I've walked with Jesus so much that when Jesus

says go to the front lines of a battle zone,

the ground is full of landmines also. I know

when I walked there, I was completely safe in

Jesus Christ. Because I was exactly where he

wanted me to be. I'm not bragging about myself.

I'm just, I want you to know that to live by

faith, I've learned from the Bible what they

learned. That you've got to cross that chicken

line. So some of you here today, I want to challenge

you on two things. Number one is. Some of you

can't live by faith because you haven't even

fully given your life to Jesus. We have a word

in Cambodia that we say for giving your life

to Jesus. It means twi klun. And twi klun means

to give your entire life and body over to Jesus.

And I think some of us, when we say we want to

believe in Jesus, we're like, okay, Jesus, I'll

give you my mind. I'll give you my heart, but

not my hands. Not my feet. Not my career. Not

my education. Not my boat. Don't touch my boat.

Okay, Jonah. You should name your boat Jonah,

just to remind you. Remind you of people on boats,

what happens. I love fishing, by the way. But

some of you need to make a decision that today,

I'm going to walk with Jesus from today. I'm

fully going to give my life to faith in Jesus

Christ from today on. And then others of you

said, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but I don't want

to cross that chicken line. What will people

say? And your chicken line may not be going to

a war zone in Cambodia or Ukraine or wherever,

Gaza. But your chicken line might be talking

to your neighbor that's lived next to you for

12 years and you haven't ever said a word to

him. Your chicken line might be talking to a

cashier that there's something in your heart

that jumps when you see that person. But you

know, it's like, wow, it's kind of weird to say

something to him. So he's just not going to do

it. That's your chicken. That could be your chicken

line. It could be helping a mother who's. who's

full of anxiety, she's pregnant, she doesn't

want to do, and you want to, you're just going

to come around and love her. And hey, how can

I help you? Whatever your chicken line is, you'll

know. Just listen. Just listen. And whatever

God tells you to do, do that. Your faith will

grow. Let me just end with a word of prayer for

you now. Lord Jesus, I pray that you will be

with everyone here, that you'll speak to them.

Speak to them in an incredible way in their heart.

Let them know it's you. Show them that chicken

line in front of them. And Lord, give them the

courage to step across it and say, okay, God,

I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm

with you. Let's do this. Lord, I thank you for

allowing me to experience incredible things.

To see thousands of people come to faith in you.

To see broken lives mended. To see people that

the world had no hope in or interest in when

you got a hold of their life. Oh, you just did

incredible things. Lord, help me to cross my

chicken line today and tomorrow. that I grow

in faith and I lead others to do the same. Thank

you, Jesus, for being my savior and my master

and my leader in what I do. Thank you, in Jesus'

name I pray, amen. Amazing, right? And yet, I

don't want you to miss something. The way we

started, we started by this being about you and

God. We started that this is, you're here because

you need to hear from God. And while we've got

to enjoy hearing stories from Jamel and Steve

about them hearing from God and them stepping

out by faith. I just want to encourage you that

we're going to slow down and have a moment as

a family. And that moment looks like you having

a conversation with God and going, God, what

is my chicken line today? And then collectively,

together as a family, we're going to have a moment.

Because sometimes these moments get caught up

in the personal, right? Like you sit and you

have a really... in -depth conversation with

God and then you feel really moved but you don't

really act on it and then you get up and leave

and you get into the parking lot or out on the

road and something happens and then you completely

lose what you were thinking about because now

you're worked up about that and then you're on

into football and whatever else, right? But today

we're going to slow down and go, God, what's

my chicken line? Where are you calling me to

live by faith? And then we're gonna have a declaration

of faith, a declaration of faith in action. That

as you go, God, you are calling me to that. And

today I choose to say yes. I'm gonna, I'm going

to step across that chicken line, whatever it

happens to be. And I wanna be really clear. There's

some of you in the room that your yes is you

have not said yes to Jesus yet as your savior.

And so your chicken line is, is today for the

first time, I am declaring, Jesus, I need you

to save me and I'm gonna cross that chicken line.

But there's a lot of you because I know some

of you, I see you, I hear about you, what you're

doing, how you walk with God. Some of you just

need a fresh call to faith today. Some of you

need a fresh call to your families and the things

that Steve mentioned. And for some of you, it's

a fresh hearing from the Lord to go, God is calling

me forward. And can I help you? It doesn't have

to be going to Cambodia. It could just be to

be faithful to what he told you in this moment

about today. But the declaration is that we're

going to stand and we're going to gather at the

front. The people that go today, I am crossing

that line and I am. visibly in a community of

faith, gonna say, I am crossing that line. It's

just a visible representation of crossing the

line. It's a step of faith. Why? Because it matters

that much that your faith is in action. So here's

what we're gonna do. I'm gonna give you a minute

for you to just talk to God and go, God, what

is my, what is my, Step of faith today. And then

after that, we're going to have a moment where

you're invited to go, I will say yes today to

what God is asking me. And I will walk with others

to go, we're going to stand together as a declaration

of what God's doing. So the next moments are

yours to ask God, what are you calling me to

do? of taking our faith from private to going,

today I stand by faith and I will put my faith

in action. If that's you today going, I am stepping

in, I am saying, yes, I see the chicken line

and I am crossing it by faith. Now I'm gonna

count to three and then we're just gonna move

to the front and we're just gonna gather with,

each other and encourage each other. And so one,

don't be a chicken. Two, it's by faith that you

say yes to what God is calling you. Three, if

you are here and you go, I am stepping forward

by faith into what God is calling me, come on

down. Right where you are, get up and come on

down. Don't let the enemy keep you in your seat.

Come on down. We're going to pack the front.

Come on down. Don't stop clapping. They're still

coming. Don't stop clapping. God is working.

I would ask this, that if you're a leader in

the room, you come on down and put a hand on

somebody. If you're a pastor or you're one of

our life group leaders, come down, put a hand

on somebody and just pray for them. You guys,

this right here, I just need you to know from

the inside. The enemy has not wanted this weekend,

okay? So your step of faith, don't let the enemy

try and slow it down. The enemy has been active.

I could give you eight things that the enemy

has not wanted you to be here and go, by faith,

I will stand. Keep coming down. We can pack this,

come down. Because we're gonna worship together.

The courage to say yes. To go, I will walk by

faith. It's amazing. It's amazing. Don't let

the enemy, don't let the enemy take this moment.

This moment is your plan. You plant your flag.

So what we're going to do is we're going to sing

gathered like this because it's uncomfortable

and it's awesome, right? But by faith, we're

just going to go, God, I am available. And then

we'll pray, you know, whatever God does, he does,

okay? So let me pray over you and then we're

gonna worship together. God, I thank you for

the faith of the people that you have stirred

that are willing to cross that line of faith,

of the chicken line today by faith to go, God,

what you've called us to do, we will do. And

so God, in one voice as a family declarative,

we lift to you. that we are available. God, would

you use us for your kingdom mission, we pray.

We ask, hear our voices as we sing.