Pastor Bryan Grant | Messy Faith, Mighty God | July 28th, 2025

How are we doing church?

Ready for some more Jesus?

Yesterday I just want to tell a little story about how bad I am at swimming.

Just to start this off well.

We uh went, my brother-in-law rented a 28-foot pontoon boat because my family here is about, you know, there's lots of us, like 15 or 16 for any of the events.

And I get onto the boat and uh we're jumping off and having a great time and realizing that I'm not much of a swimmer and more of a sinker.

And when you're in the middle of the lake, that can be a little daunting, even though the boat's right there.

I'm like, I gotta get close.

And I thought I was a good swimmer until I got into the middle of the lake, and the boat's only like eight feet away from me, and I'm like, this is not great.

So I get onto the tube, and we're just ripping around, and I get wiped out, and my body hurts in some special ways this morning.

Uh, but I I fall over and I get into the water and I choked because water I fell off face first into the water, and as soon as the boat turns around to come back to me, it had a bit too much momentum, and it didn't hit me.

I know that's what you're all thinking, and kind of some of you are smiling, and like I cry and got knocked out.

That's not what happened.

Uh, it went past me and I realized how bad of a swimmer I am with the life jacket on, as the boat's doing this, and I'm swimming with everything I possibly have, and the boat's doing this, and I'm going like this with the boat.

It's pacing me, and I can't get closer and closer.

Meanwhile, all the kids that fell off had no problem getting to the boat.

I felt really inadequate as an adult man yesterday in the water.

As my 12-year-olds and 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds are all like, hey, look what I can do, and I can get to the boat.

And so just thought I'd break the ice with that story.

And it was one of those things that said, I could make a sermon out of this whole thing.

You know, like I'm a pastor, like me pacing the boat.

That's sometimes how I feel like God is, is me and him are just pacing each other and I don't really know what's going on.

I'm not gonna do that.

I'm just gonna immediately say I felt not very manly yesterday in the in the water, but God is bigger than that, and I'm glad my brother-in-law stopped the boat so I could finally get to it after he turned around and he kind of laughed at me as he's walking by.

He's like, hey Brian.

Like, that's not cool at all.

So it was uh a really good time.

So we're in a series right now on uh it's called Everyday Saints.

We're talking about people in the Bible that showed extraordinary courage, extraordinary faith, extraordinary just being extraordinary, people that were just ordinary, that God used for extraordinary things.

And today I want to talk about Rahab.

And many of you know the story, so I want to lay some context for the story uh before we get going.

And it just a little bit of history before we lead into this.

And it's actually about Jericho.

How many of you know the story of Jericho?

Wallace came down.

It was a fortified city in the land of Canaan, and it was standing in the way of Israel's conquest.

And so they were moving towards a promised land, and Jericho was in the way.

God had commanded Joshua to lead the Israelites in a really unusual battle plan.

He actually asked them for six days, wants you to just march around the city in complete silence.

How many of you know that if you're a commander of an army and you get that from above, you're like, what are you talking about?

That's not how we go to war.

So for six days, the Israelites just circled, and on the seventh day, they marched around the city seven times, and then they blew up their trumpets, and the walls of Jericho came come crumbling down.

That's some powerful singing right there, guys.

When we come into church on Sunday mornings, we sing songs like our last one.

We should be shaking the foundations of this church just for how good God is.

Amen.

But the part that is really great about this whole thing was this story that happened before the walls came down, was called Rahab.

Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute that was living in Jericho.

She had hid two Israelites, and we're gonna read through the scripture, sent by Joshua and protected them from the king's men.

In return, the promise was that if I do this for you, I want you to spare my family.

So, what I love about Rahab's story, and we're gonna get into this, is that it wasn't polished, wasn't perfect, wasn't everything that it we we look at someone sometimes on on YouTube or Instagram, and you'd be like, damn man, they must have like just like the best faith.

Everything is just perfect, and it's not everything just seems like it's going swimmingly, and all is going well swimmingly.

See what I did there, Ty.

I had faith that my brother-in-law was coming back, but it wasn't polished, it was a it was an imperfect faith that she had.

But what I loved about this is that she believed before she belonged, she moved before she understood, and she trusted before she saw it.

So I want to break this down for us as believers.

And when she did all those things, this is what I love what God said.

I she he saw that and said, That's what I'm looking for.

So I just want to pray this morning, Lord.

You're so good.

We've been singing about how amazing you are all morning, Lord.

You're so good.

So Lord, as you're as we hear your word today, Mather, you just give me the right words to say.

Lord, let your Holy Spirit move in this place so that we're open and ready for your for your word, for your transformation, so that we would be a changed people.

Not just challenged, but we would be changed because of who you are in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks, worship team.

Let's give them a hand.

They were amazing.

So let's talk about Rahab.

Rahab is an interesting character.

She was Canaanite, living in Jericho.

She had a love but she wasn't raised in church, she didn't know any memory verses, or she didn't go to Sunday school.

Uh, she wasn't doing any of those things.

She was a Canaanite prostitute that was in an unbelieving culture with a city that was doomed for destruction, and she didn't know any of those things.

She had a past and she had a job that she probably wasn't really proud of and wasn't talking to anyone.

I mean, how would it feel if you were to walk up to someone for the first time that you ever met them and just shook their hand and said the worst thing about you?

Like your biggest sin or the thing that you struggle with the most.

Like, hi, I'm Brian, I struggle with pride and say dumb things all the time.

That just it just doesn't, it's not something that you do.

Like, and so she probably wasn't very, very forthright with what she had done.

And yet, what I love about Rahab is that she is in the Hebrews Hall of Faith.

She's in Hebrews 11, 31.

She's part of the genealogy of Jesus.

She is someone who was redeemed.

She's someone that who struggled with things, but God used her.

And part of the tension with Rahab is that what do we do with her when you hear the story?

Because really, her story reminds us that it's kind of an uncomfortable truth, that God picks the people that we would never pick.

I mean, it's pretty, it's pretty good that he's God and I'm not.

Because if I'm on the road and I have some road rage, it's a good thing God loves them.

And he loves me in that moment because I'm not feeling very forgiving or or any one of those things.

It's, you know, like a good thing that God is God and I'm not.

But God uses people that are the most unlikely of people.

And if we've seen anything, every time we talk about one of these people in the Bible, God used them in absolutely extraordinary ways.

So it's easy for us to kind of take the story of Rahab and just kind of brush past it.

Or maybe, maybe we leave it a little bit out of history, don't want to really want to talk about it too much.

Because what we would call a disqualified person because of her history, where she was, what she was doing, all of those things, God calls just the kind of faith that I'm looking for.

It's amazing to me.

And somehow in all of this, she is right next to in the grand in the hall of heroes.

She's right to right there with by faith Abraham.

By faith, Moses.

Then you get to 31, it says, by faith, Rahab the prostitute.

That's amazing to me.

So how would a woman with such a risky, messy type of past be something that God would use for something bigger?

So let's let's read into this.

So if you want to turn with your Bibles to Joshua 2, it's gonna be on the screens, but Joshua 2, 1-7.

And Joshua the son of Nun set two men secretly from the, I'm not gonna say that word, I might get it wrong, as spies, say, Go view the land, especially Jericho.

And they came and went into the house of the prostitute whose name was Rahab, and lodged there.

And was told to the king of Jericho, Behold, men of Israel have come through here tonight to search out the land.

Then the king of Jericho's, the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, Bring out those men who have come for you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search, they have come to search out for all of the land.

But the woman had taken the two men, Rahab, had taken the two men and hidden them.

And she said, True, the men came to me, but I did not know where they came from.

And when the gate was about to be closed, at the dark, at dark, the men went out, said, I do not know where the men went.

Pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them.

So sent them in the wrong direction.

But she brought them up on the roof and hid them under the stalks of flax that they had laid in order on the roof.

So the men pursued them out of the way of Jordan to the as far as the fords, and the gate was shut as soon as the pursuers had gone out.

Interesting story this is.

Rahab hears that two Israelites, spies, have come to scout Jericho.

And in that moment, instead of reporting them, she hides them, she lies to protect them, sends the soldiers on a wild goose chase.

This wasn't a spiritual curiosity that she had just in the moment.

This is actually treason.

She had gone against the king.

The king would have killed her immediately had he known that she had lied to them.

Rahab didn't seek to peek out behind that curtain.

She burned the bridge back to her old life.

If something would have happened, she would have had no way to get back to the life that she had before.

What I love about this, this wasn't a safe time of faith, a safe, safe type of faith.

This was a faith that says, if I get caught, I will die.

She put her whole life, her house, her reputation, her family on the line for a god she didn't know.

She was committing treason, she was harboring harboring fugitives.

There's no guarantee that the plan would work.

Rahab didn't come to faith in a tent revival or a worship service.

What I love about this, her faith showed up in real time.

In this moment right here.

She hid strangers in her attic.

It was risky.

She risked her life on a God she only knew stories about.

That's not the neat and tidy faith that we oftentimes see.

That's real, that's risky.

And that spirit breathed faith in that moment.

And scripture says that's the kind of faith that saves.

Amen.

If we're at our worst, if we're at our hardest struggle, we're having our biggest issues.

So often that's when we see God move in our life because we're more aware of what He's doing.

That's not polished.

Rahab's faith isn't safe.

It was risky.

I look in my own life, I know that, man, it's real easy to have faith when, like, or real easy to have faith when everything's going perfectly.

I got money in the bank account, the car's running fine, food is in the back, the kids are doing alright, everything's going all well.

It's really easy to have faith when things are good.

But Rahab started her faith journey when things were not going well.

Real faith in Christ, real faith in Jesus is risky.

You agree?

Real faith involves risk.

Real faith makes you nervous.

Real faith challenges your comfort.

If your faith never costs you absolutely anything, you might not be living a biblical faith.

You might be living a cultural faith.

Rahab risked her life before she even got to see the miracle.

Before the walls came down, before the promise was even extended to her, she knew that these, she didn't even know if these two spies, when she came to her house, were actually going to keep their word.

She moved in faith when she had zero guarantees.

But she still moved.

I don't want us to miss this.

This is important.

The book of Joshua doesn't tell us when Rahab got saved.

It doesn't give us her conversion prayer.

But Hebrews shows us how important she was and what she did.

It says in the Hebrews 31, by faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient.

Because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

She was obedient in that moment to what she felt God had asked her to do.

It's not just boldness, that's not just kindness.

It was belief, and she believed.

And I love what Hebrews 11:1 says is faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1

She didn't see anything.

And she put faith.

She didn't risk her life out of a blind courage.

She didn't risk her life because her she wasn't rebelling just because life was hard at the time.

She knew what she was doing.

She knew the things that were going on.

She had reason.

She had heard something.

She hadn't even seen it.

She had only heard rumors, but before the walls fell, the spies gave a promise and she had made up her mind.

Real faith is risky.

And sometimes real faith means that we believe before we see.

Joshua chapter 2, verses 8 to 11.

Joshua 2:8–11

Before the men lay down, she came them to the roof, and this is where we hear the read the promise.

And she said to the men, I know.

I love this right here in this passage of scripture.

I know.

Have you ever had your teenager say something to you with such conviction, even though they have no experience with said thing, and they said the words to you, I know.

Like, I need you to do this thing.

I know.

Do you know how to do this?

I know.

And you believe them because you're like, man, you're passionate about that thing you've never seen, done, or even touched.

Teenager, she says this, this word like this, I know.

When I say those words, I know.

When my wife asked me to do something and I actually know how to do it, I'm gonna say I know.

And probably when I don't know how to do it, I know.

Let's be honest, church.

But she says this thing, and he said to the man, I know.

Wasn't a just a stop, wasn't it?

I may have heard it was a I didn't, wasn't a think, I've heard rumors, it was I know.

This was just I know that the Lord has given you this land.

And the fear that has fallen on upon us and all the inhabitants of the land may melt before you.

This is a dead set faith in the moment.

She's like, I know.

And she's only heard about God, not seen him move, not seen the Israelites.

She's not even know who the Israelites are, she's not shared food with them, she's only met two of them, and they were spies.

She doesn't know anything yet.

She says, I know the Lord has given you this land.

For we have heard the news how the Lord dried up the water.

Here, this is where she's hearing, heard the water of the Red Sea before you came out of Egypt.

And what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.

And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted.

That's the kind of faith that I want.

God, I heard, I heard you would do something, and I just want that one.

My enemies around me just to melt.

I want my faith to be so strong.

He says, Our hearts melted, there is no spirit left in any man.

Because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

All from someone who's never even experienced God yet.

This is a powerful moment that we see in Rahab's story.

All she had was stories.

She'd heard about the Red Sea, she'd heard about the kings, she didn't, like I said, didn't eat with the Israelites, didn't even know who they were.

They knew that they were coming.

All she had was testimonies.

Testimonies from across the rivers, across the lakes, across the she'd only had just heard about these types of things, and yet she believed more than most of the Israelites who were walking with them.

And this is what blows my mind is that she believed on hearsay.

She believed God on hearsay.

I've seen miracles, church.

I've seen God move my life.

I've seen God, many of us in this room have seen God move.

Amen.

But sometimes we still hesitate.

I've seen God work in my life in unbelievable ways, and sometimes I don't put my faith in him.

I've seen prayers answered in unbelievable ways.

I've seen my freezer refilled with food when no one came to give us any food.

Mom Natalie told me one time, she's like, Brian, we got one chicken breast left, didn't have any checks coming in.

I was a business owner, hadn't have any checks coming in.

We have one chicken breast on a Monday, and Wednesday she goes back, and there's six.

We had people dropping off money, we had people paying just to hey, we know that you're hurting.

We just felt the Lord asked us to give you more.

I've seen miracles.

God healed my back.

For 15 years, I had back problems, worked really hard jobs, but I had back problems.

One day I was praying, I just felt something happen on my back.

I've never had back problems since.

Because God is good and faithful.

He's healed my kids, he's done amazing things in my life.

I know people in this room that have been healed by God.

That God has done something amazing in them.

And still, sometimes I don't put my faith in him.

Why?

Why, God, why in these moments do I struggle to do this?

It makes no sense.

And I heard someone say it like this.

It's like watching a firefighter pull you from a burning building, and then the next time you see smoke, you doubt that he's coming.

We've all been there.

We all do this.

Why?

Because faith isn't just about memory.

It's good, church, that we remember, we sing these songs, we remember what God's done.

Amen?

It's good that when Jamin sings it, he's like, hey, just let the Lord know how good He is, how grateful for we are, and we lift up our voices and we worship, we say, God, you're so good.

That is an absolutely, it's an amazing thing that we do.

It's always good to remember what God has done.

It's another thing to, in this moment right now, trust him with the things that are going on in your life.

It's amazing to me that Brian can forget how good God was for 25 years.

But then something comes up and I struggle with putting my faith in him.

Sometimes I treat my faith like it's the backup plan.

I treat God like He's the backup plan.

I did, I used my brains, I used my charisma, I used my skills, I did all the things I was supposed to, I would put my strength into it.

I did everything I was supposed to do, but then I go back to God with my tail between my legs, thinking, God, you're not the backup plan.

I should have gone to you first, but I didn't.

I did everything that I know how to do.

Here's the thing, churches, and we see in Rahab, I love this.

I know faith isn't about wavering, it's about always returning.

Because there's times in your life where you will doubt what God is doing, you will see what God is doing, and that's okay because God is a big God that has good shoulders, that can take the heat of the things that are going on in your life.

It's not about never wavering, it's about when you waver, you go back to God.

And you say to him, Here I am, Lord, again.

I need your help again.

I made a mess of things again.

And every time you go back to him, a little bit more shifts in your life, and you trust him just a little bit more.

We just don't arrive into really good big faith one day.

You have to fight for it.

You know, faith in God is not a fast food thing.

You want faith in God?

You work for it.

You fight for it.

You go tooth and nail every time something goes on in your life, you go right to God first.

I sit with so Sir Norm, every two weeks.

Most of the time it's really good.

Sir Norm has been with this church for f many, many years.

He's someone that is important to me.

He's mentored me, but you know what he does?

He challenges me.

And he challenges my faith.

And I look at Sir Norm's life, and he is very open with about the things that are going on.

But you know what he does?

He's like, I missed, I missed it here.

And I went back to God.

He's more mature than I am.

Got some gray hair.

But do you know what I want?

I want faith that like Sir Norm's.

I want I don't want Sir Norm's faith.

I want faith that I have in God because I'm not going to compare mine to his.

I want God, what's your faith in me?

I will do what you've asked me to do.

But I want a faith so strong that says, no matter what happens, I'm going to go to you first.

I'm going to stand on your promises first, on who you are first, and say, God, I will do what you've called me to do.

It's not about never wavering, it's always about coming back to Him.

Maybe the most faithful thing we can do today is say with confidence, God, I've seen you move.

I need to see you move again.

Rahab trusted in a God she hadn't met, based on miracles she didn't see, with people she didn't know, and God said to her, That's a faith that I can work with.

I know people that have sat in church for years and still don't believe that God can actually change their heart.

When we say from this pulpit, when we say, when I'm sitting with you in conversation and I say to you, I believe that when you come into contact with the Holy Spirit, that you won't leave the same as when you came in, I mean it.

Do you know why?

Because I've experienced it.

Pastor Brody's experienced it.

Pastor Malachi's experienced it.

Sir Norm has experienced it.

We've seen God move over and over and over.

So when we say on a Sunday morning, you're coming and you're ready for the Holy Spirit to move, you will not leave this place the same way that you came in.

There will be a burden that shifts, there will be a chain that's broken, there will be a mind shift that happens here, but you come in with your heart open, with a faith that says, God, I believe that you're going to do something.

I believe that you can change me.

I believe that you're going to change me.

And then your heart is in this position.

God, I'm ready for whatever you got.

I'm ready to face the pain.

I'm ready to face the frustration or the anger or the things that are going on.

I'm ready to face my own problems.

I'm ready to look at my own sin.

I'm ready to repent before you and say, God, I will do whatever you've called me to do.

Real faith is risky.

Real faith costs you something.

Being a disciple of Jesus costs you something.

It might cost you reputation.

It might cost you family members.

It might cost you your friends.

It might cost you your job.

It might cost you comfort.

There's a saying that we hear all the time.

It says you can have uh girls or you can have comfort, but you can't have both.

Are you with me, church?

Real faith always spills over.

Not only is real faith risky.

Not only is real faith that believes before seeing, but real faith that covers others.

Let's read this in Joshua 2, 12 to 14.

Now then, please swear to me, this is where the promise comes in.

Please swear to me that by by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, you will also deal kindly with my father's house and give me a sure sign.

That you will save alive my father and my mother, my brothers and my sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver them, deliver our lives from death.

And the men said to her, Our life for yours, even to death.

If you do not tell this business of yours, then when the Lord gives us this land, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.

She just didn't hide the spies.

She interceded for her family.

She believes that God's mercy could extend past her story, past her history, past the things that she's done, and that God's people would be taken care of.

I love that.

I love this.

Some people fight with a sword.

Maybe it's different now.

Others fight by creating a hiding place.

She didn't go to battle, but she made sure that people's, God's people got where they had to go.

And I had this question come to me this morning, and I was on the phone with someone just a few weeks ago.

Really tough, tough conversation.

It was part phone call, part text message.

And he said to me, he doesn't feel like what he does matters.

Which is not just him.

I know many people that struggle.

Is what I'm doing matters.

Does what I do matter at all?

And if we were to put this into context of who God was, the faith that we have in him, when we risk it all, when we move in this way that he's called us to, out of this, come to this place where where you stop wondering if what you're doing matters because you have a relationship with God that tells you how valuable you are.

See, this is the truth is that I can't sit across from a man or a woman.

I can pastor them, I can teach them, I can share all that I want, but I can't make them understand deep down how valuable they really are.

The only one that can do that is God, and that's only because you have a relationship with Him.

Real faith when we're willing to risk something brings us closer to this understanding of who God is.

We get to know Him a little bit more, we get to know His promises, His character, who He actually is.

And then we we get to this place where no, I know who I am because of who He is in me, because of what He's done in my life, the things that He's accomplished, what He's actually shared with me.

You're wondering if He sees, but understand that God sees you.

God sees.

God sees the prayers, God sees the struggles, God sees when you're on your knees, God sees when you're celebrating, He sees.

And I can tell you, because of my mother praying, I'm here.

How many of you have family members that are just prodigals that have just don't want to serve the Lord, they're doing their own thing?

Just think that if you don't think that what you're doing matters, understand that when you pray and intercede for those family members, that you're doing something in the spirit realm and God's gonna move.

What you're doing matters.

Who you are in this world matters.

What God's called you to do matters.

This is what we see with this is that we see when God finds faith, he moves.

He found faith in Rahab.

Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please him.

Hebrews 11:6

I want to please God more than anything else, but the way that I do that is with faith.

For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists.

We believe that, and that he rewards those who seek him.

Rahab didn't have a perfect resume, she had an I will.

And that's not a one-off story.

We've seen for the last few weeks that we've preached these messages.

We've seen Noah, we haven't done Noah yet, but Noah built an ark in the middle of a drought.

People were probably thinking he's a little loony.

Abraham left without a map, just went.

David ran towards the giant with a sling and some rocks.

Rahab tied a rope around.

This is the part of the scripture I didn't read.

He tied a rope out to signify that she's the one, and that they would protect that house.

What do they all have in common?

What do we have in common with them?

None of them had a full picture of what God wanted them to do.

We've said this very many times in our marriage.

Lord, I have faith in you, but I only see three rungs of the ladder.

If you could give me ten, just ten, so I could see a little bit further ahead than what's going on.

Then he doesn't give me ten, and I start praying.

He said, Lord, could you give me six?

I just need six.

Then I don't get six, and I start okay, Lord, I could do four.

Can you give me four?

Just need four of the and we keep praying and we keep pushing.

But really, if we knew the whole story, we sometimes we wouldn't execute the story because we know what's going to happen.

If I knew what God had called me to when I moved to Kelowna, I may not have come.

Not because I don't love you guys.

I love this place, but there's been some unbelievably hard and challenging times in Kelowna with family, with friends, with sickness.

If I knew that and the suffering that I may have had to go to, I wouldn't probably wouldn't have come here, truthfully.

But God gave me three rungs on the ladder, and I came on faith that God was going to do something while I was here.

If he gives us too much, we're not going to do it.

But if he gives us a little bit and says, hey, put your faith in here, he'll give you another one as you step forward.

He'll give you another one as you step forward.

Sometimes all you need is one step.

This is what I find in my walk with God is that faith doesn't need perfection, it just needs direction.

We need to direct it.

Luke 5.32 says this, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

I love that.

She didn't clean up her life first and then take the step.

She took the step and God rewrote her life.

Sometimes we say this as Christians.

Once I get everything together, I'm going to trust God.

Okay, just me?

Sweet.

Faith doesn't work for the wait for the perfect conditions.

If we're waiting for the perfect conditions, I'm never going to get there.

How many of you have said before you had children, oh, we're just waiting until we're financially ready, then we'll have kids.

Y'all laugh because you know you're like, that's never a thing.

Maybe your life isn't tidy, but neither was Rahab's.

But what she did was she turned towards God.

I love her story so much.

We look at some of these other other people in the Bible, they had already had multiple experiences with God.

Seen him do things, seen him talk to them.

Rahab had no experience and only had anything on rumors, and she still moved forward with what God had called her to do.

Okay, church?

Faith acts in the middle of the mess.

I love this.

Faith acts in the middle of the struggle, in the middle of the mess.

If you haven't gone to God already, because he's the backup plan and you're still learning how to go to God first, just know that faith will still act in the middle of that mess.

So here's the question.

What about you in this moment?

And these things that are going on.

Maybe your life is a little messy, maybe your their past is a bit of a struggle.

But I wanted to tell you this is God is looking for your faith.

Not a polished faith, not the type we see on Instagram, TikTok.

Talking about faith that just is raw before him and says, God, I don't have it all together.

I keep doing this wrong.

I need your help.

So maybe for some people in the room, maybe for many of us, because when I read these types of messages or I preach these things, so often I'm deeply convicted of my own faith, my own belief, the things that I learned through this.

And I was convicted by this.

So this is the question that I had asked the Lord.

Lord, what do you want me to do?

And I felt as I was praying about it this morning that this is what he wants me to ask.

He wants you to stop waiting, wants you to stop fixing, stop planning.

Stop to try to qualify faith that you were never meant to earn.

And just say, I will to him.

There's something that someone had said to me a long time ago, it's not too late to trust God.

You know what I love about this message?

Is it's for all people in all walks of faith.

For where are you on in the journey?

Whether or not you're 45 years into this journey, you're 45 days, 45 minutes.

God is saying to you today that if you're willing to say to him, I will, and understand that if you put your faith in him, it will be risky.

And even before you see the miracle or the breakthrough that you're hoping for, that you say yes to him, and he will come and he'll be so clear with you.

I want to say this is that God hasn't given up on you yet, and he's not gonna start.

Can you stand with me?

So I love is that he's not looking for perfect people, which is comforting, because we're not perfect, but he is looking for people, for Christians, for people that'll just say I will.

He's looking just for you to say I will and take one step.

And in the context of the story, maybe the way I've laid it out seems like, well, it's gonna end up being a really big thing, or it seems like it's out of out of out of character, or it's out of step for you to do something like this.

Sometimes this what do we say about discipline?

Discipline is you do small, consistent things that lead to a bigger thing.

If if your life has has gotten to this place where, and I've been there, I'm a pastor.

I've been I'm I've been there in the last 10 years.

I've been to this place where like my faith seems like it's stalled right here.

God, you gotta do something.

I don't know what to do.

And oftentimes it literally is just me stopping and looking at it differently than I had before and say, God, I will.

I will do what you ask me.

I I don't I try not to say, God, I know.

In the sassy teenage way.

He asked me to do something, I know.

But he's just saying to us, no matter how small this morning, how small you think the thing that you need to do is, just know that if you say I will, it'll be the biggest move that you ever made and have the most impact on your life, maybe that you ever had on your life because you're willing to let go of something that you're actually holding firmly in your hands right now.

I heard this word, and it's for someone in the in this room today, maybe a few.

You came in with the attitude, I am done.

And God is telling you, He is not done with you.

Can you close your eyes with me?

I'm gonna pray two different prayers because I feel like there's two groups in this room today.

If you are part of that group with our eyes closed, if you are part of this right now, where there is somewhere in you you're just saying, God, I want a little bit more, and you're wanting to say I will, I want you to raise your hand, not so everyone else can see you.

I want you to raise your hand and say in that moment and say, I will.

If that's you, just raise your hand high.

Say, I will take a step of faith.

I will go where you want me.

If that's you, just raise your hand.

Don't be shy, no one's looking.

This is what I want to pray with you.

I want to pray this over you.

Just keep your hands up.

But you see the hearts of people right here, right now, in this moment, that they're struggling with something that's going on in the faith.

I don't know what it is, but you do.

God, as they say the words, I will today, whether it's right now or it's 15 minutes from now or later today, Lord, when they say I will, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would just give them a peace and a direction in which way they gotta go.

Lord, they've struggled to trust you, and they're saying by putting up their hand, they're saying, God, I don't want this struggle.

I want to walk in what you've called me to, and you were gonna say to them that I will will lead through breakthrough.

The I will will lead to a new level of walking with the Lord, a new level of freedom.

For whoever said, I am done when they came into this place, God is not done with you.

You are not finished because God has a plan for you.

But this I will, Lord, in Jesus' name will be breakthrough for families, breakthrough in lives, breakthrough in addictions, breakthrough in jobs, breakthrough in finances, breakthrough in marriages, breakthrough, Lord, that this I will is a step that leads them to the next thing that you've called them to because you love them and you care for them.

Jesus' name.

For those of you that are in this room that have never given their life to Jesus before, maybe you've heard this for the first time, maybe you've been here for a long time and you you've just you've heard the prayers, but you haven't wanted to do it.

If today you want to give your life to Jesus, I want you to put your hand up.

The church's eyes are closed.

Just for me, I want you to put your hand high.

The church is gonna say something with with us together.

Amen.

I want you to say this with me, Church.

Jesus, I need you.

I believe you died for me and rose again.

Forgive me of my sins.

Wash me clean.

I give you my life, my past, my future, and everything.

And I say I will to you.

I trust you before the walls fall.

I'm yours now.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I just want the team just to close this, just in a little bit of worship, just keeping this attitude.

Team's just gonna close in worship, and then I'll pray for us, and then we'll be let go.

But just if this is you and you prayed that prayer to give your life to Jesus, or just the I will, just seal this with worship and say, God, I'm gonna commit to you in this.

Amen.

Let's just worship him.