Undiscourageable | The Wild Work of God

So there was this fire in Lincoln City, Oregon.

Anybody know where that is?

Okay.

Actually, we made the fire.

It was uh it was a little fire on the beach.

It was my son Caleb's 15th birthday.

This was 2019, I think.

And um we were there.

I had wanted to, you know, throw them kind of like a man party where we took some dudes over with us and we did some dude things, and so we're sitting there on the beach.

Actually, we had already gone clamming.

Has anybody been clamming before?

It was my first time clamming.

We did pretty good.

We had one experienced person with us, and then the rest of us were total newbies.

But we got enough clams to make uh clam chowder.

So we went back up to the room and we made our own clam chowder, the worst clam chowder I've ever had in my life.

Full of sand and this is just the worst.

But we did it, you know, and we felt good about ourselves.

And then we were like, now let's go out and do the other thing.

We're gonna go to the beach and we're gonna light a fire.

And I had a vision for this fire.

Here's my vision was that we were gonna be there like this.

It's my son's birthday.

You know, we're gonna we're gonna go big with it.

So this is gonna be a big old fire.

So big, this is my vision, that all of the central coast of Oregon would know about it.

And they would come over to Solette's Bay where we were, and we would all and they'd all be asking us if they could borrow a marshmallow, and we'd be making all these new friends, and none of that stuff happened because the fire didn't really take off.

There was a little bit of mist in the air, a lot of wind, it was cold, you know.

We're like, this is that kind of fire.

And so I felt a little bit let down, like this was supposed to be my son's roaring bonfire, you know, for his birthday.

And it reminded me that, you know, a lot of times in life, uh, the environment does not support your fire.

The environment does not support your fire, you know?

And uh to be honest with you, there was a few years ago a time when uh I felt like my flame was about to go out.

Um we had had just some family challenges that were new and difficult, and um I my identity got stolen and my credit was in the toilet, and uh was scared about what was gonna happen financially with our family in a couple of areas, and um you know the world was shut down with something called COVID, and then I had some really big health concerns, and all that was like a quadruple whammy, and I and I thought to myself, I I don't know.

And I I just want to let you know today that if you don't find your conviction, you can be one breeze away from your flame going out.

That's all it takes.

If you don't find your conviction, if this if you're here today because uh there's something going on in your heart that's pulling you toward God, I'm so grateful.

Um if you're here today because somebody else pressured you to be here, or you think you should be here, or somebody expects you to be here, my hope, my prayer is that today it switches from that motive to the motive that you you desire to know God and to be filled with the kind of life that creates a fire inside you that cannot go out.

That cannot go out, that will last, that will carry you all the way through, that will carry you, that will light up the world, that other people will even notice, because that's the only kind of fire that's sustainable.

And I'll tell you what, in this time and in this place, our world needs people on fire with the love of God in their hearts, right?

Needs people that are gonna make it through another day, needs people that are gonna be able to get through hardship and circumstances and not let their flame go out.

Because uh that is, it's because it's a challenging time, isn't it?

It's a challenging time in the world.

Um I want you to grab your notes out of your program if you didn't already do that.

And if you're online with us, we're really grateful that you're here.

And I I just want to ask you a question, so a little more like audience participation to start this out with, because sometimes you're driving down the road, right, and you see something called a road sign, and some of these signs can be discouraging.

I thought it'd be fun just to talk for a second about which ones of the road signs do you think could sometimes feel like this is a discouraging message?

Anybody know like a road sign that's discouraging?

What is it?

No outlet.

That's a that is discouraging.

Anyone else?

Detour dead end, okay.

Road closed.

S turn on train tracks.

Uh no, what's that?

No U-turns.

No U-turns, yeah.

That's a I hadn't heard that one yet.

That's good.

Anything else?

Signs?

Merge, yeah.

Construction, yield, nobody likes to yield, right?

Uh stop, yeah.

I heard some somebody said uh wrong way.

Yeah, that's a that could be discouraging for sure.

Um what we're talking about today is is undiscourageable.

Undiscouragable.

And in fact, I actually thought I made this word up.

Uh I did.

I thought I made up a word, and I'm so proud of myself, you know?

And so I was I was like just getting my message ready, and I was like, I'm just gonna make you know, verify that I made this up.

And so I went to Google and searched the word, and it was like, duh, no, it's right there in the dictionary, undiscourageable.

So I got the definition for you because it is it's not something I made up.

It's not capable of being discouraged.

Not capable of being discouraged, undiscourageable.

This is what I think we should be striving toward.

This this ought to be our identity.

If somebody, I mean, at least we could aspire toward it, right?

Like, what would it look like if somebody goes, hey, do you know so-and-so?

And they called out your name.

And then the other person's like, oh yeah, they're undiscouragable.

That's such, that'd be such a badge of honor.

What a title.

You're undiscouragable.

You're somebody that cannot, you're not, it's not, you're not even capable of being discouraged.

And as I'm saying that, I hope you have somebody in mind that you know who's like that.

In fact, let me just add a show of hands.

I didn't do this at any of the other services, but show of hands.

Anybody knows somebody who's undiscouragable?

Okay, so you do.

So there's some people in here, you got, I got a person in my life who is this way.

And you, if that's true, you got a serious advantage because they're modeling for you, right?

That's very important.

But some of us don't have that person, and so we have to look at TV shows like Ted Lasso to find somebody who's undiscourageable.

That shows somebody that guy cannot be discouraged, you know?

Anything can happen.

And he's like, oh, he just only sees the bright side, only talks about the bright side.

And um today we're in a series, we're in the fifth week of a series called The Wild Work of God.

We've been looking through the Book of Acts, the New Testament Book of Acts, which is really like a short history of the early church, all the way uh through, you know, the early times.

And we've been going through chapters one, two, three, and four.

Today's chapter five.

Next week we end the series of chapter six.

We're just doing the first six chapters.

And um, we're talking about the wild work of God.

I want to give you a little bit of review.

And so here we go.

I'm gonna talk about what is the book of Acts, how did it start out?

It started out with Jesus, he had already lived, been crucified, been buried, and risen again.

Okay, by the time the book of Acts comes, that's where we're at.

Is that he he had been through all that, and now he's the Bible says he was with the disciples for 40 days after he rose from the dead.

Isn't that a trip?

He rose from the dead, and then he's with the disciples for 40 days.

Why?

It said so that he could prove to them that he was actually alive.

He wanted him to know that he was alive.

This was apparently an important thing for them to know.

He's alive.

It's an important thing for you and me to know too.

He's alive.

All right, that's the whole hope that we have.

He was alive.

So he's he's he did stuff like um he appeared to them.

He tells he told Thomas, put your here.

I'm I promise, put your hand here in the wound in my side.

Here, look at there's the nail mark.

The other disciples were like, Yeah, but I mean, it feels like surreal.

Like, hey, what if we made him eat a piece of fish?

And let's see what happens.

So they did.

They said, Hey, Jesus, here, here's some lunch.

He eats a piece of fish, and they're like, Whoa, guys, look at he's not a ghost.

It's real, he's really alive.

And then he's with them, he's instructing them about what their mission was.

And he said, You're gonna go and you're gonna be my witnesses.

And he said, But here's the thing, chapter one says this, wait here in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes, the gift.

He called the Holy Spirit the gift, the gift that's gonna be given to every single person who believes from that point forward.

If you're a believer, you've got the gift of the Holy Spirit, God's presence with you, his spirit living in you.

And he said, wait here, don't leave.

So they got together, 120 of them were in the upper room in Jerusalem, waiting when all of a sudden, boom, in Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit came in power, undeniable, physical, visible, tangible proof that God's Spirit was with these people.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

They said they saw tongues of fire on each other's heads in the room there.

And all of a sudden, miracles start happening.

And it was it was crazy.

It was the wild work of God.

It was off and running.

And lest you fall into the trap of thinking, those lucky dogs, I wish God would do work like that in the world today.

I can I can assure you, He is doing work like that in the world today.

Um, miracles are still happening.

Chapter three of the book of Acts, we see the wild work, we see healings, we see all sorts of breakthroughs happening.

And it creates sort of this resistance.

Because here's the thing: if you follow Jesus, um sparks are gonna fly.

And so they started kind of upending the power structure of the religious system in Jerusalem, and it didn't go well for them.

And so in chapter four, what we see is Peter and John get arrested for doing the work that God told them to do.

I'm a, hey, go do this work, and then they get arrested.

And then they were freed from jail, and they got they had boldness in preaching.

This is what the Bible says: boldness in preaching, healing powers, miraculous signs and wonders, and the place where they prayed was physically shaken.

There was an earthquake from praying.

Like I kind of want that to happen, and I kind of don't, you know, like an earthquake.

But they they knew for sure that God was in that place and that his power was at work through them.

It was wild.

Now we're gonna pick it up in chapter five.

In chapter five, we start with an account about these two people named Ananias and Sapphira, and what they did was they lied.

They lied to God.

And if you read the account, it's like not a good idea.

Don't lie to God, because they got struck dead right there in front of the apostles for lying to God.

And it said that fear gripped the whole church.

The good kind, like the fear of the Lord, that they knew that God was powerful, that he was there, that he was holy, and he was holding them accountable.

And uh, so all of a sudden people started to realize this is this is not a fairy tale.

This is real.

God is doing wild work in the world.

And the church was ready for what was coming next.

And I do want to say this that just that just about the time in your life that the wild work of God kicks that starts up, you know, the wild work of God's gonna start to pick up, and the enemy is also going to kick up.

The wild work of God's gonna start, and he's gonna start noticing.

You're gonna incite a riot in the enemy.

And why?

Because you're upending the power structure of the kingdom of this world.

And that's make no mistake, the kingdom of God is in direct opposition to the kingdom of this world.

The power structures of this world are not gonna be pleased.

I mean, if you start following Jesus, and I mean really following Jesus with your life, you're obeying what God says, you're gonna disappoint people, you're going to interrupt things that are that are that are preying on people, you're gonna you're gonna wreck some of the stuff that the enemy's trying to do in the world, and it will be noticed.

And there will be something called opposition and resistance.

And if you've never experienced that, it's one of two reasons.

It's because you're not following Jesus yet, or it just hasn't been enough time.

And and so I want to encourage you this.

When you see opposition, don't forget you have the victory.

Don't forget you have the victory.

The Bible says that greater is he who's in you, he's talking about the Holy Spirit, the gift, greater is he who's in you if you're a believer, you have the Holy Spirit.

If you've received God's grace, I'm gonna pray in a little while and invite anybody who's not done that to say yes to Jesus.

If you've said yes to Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit.

And he says, Greater is he who's in you than he is in the world.

You already win.

You're a winner, you're gonna win.

You win.

We're winning.

We're on the winning team, we're with the winner.

Greater is he, you're a victor.

Don't forget, when you see the enemy, you see evil, you see trouble, you're the winner.

You've got to remember that.

Because otherwise it's so easy to give up.

You look at your flame, you're like, it's going.

And you're like, it's not gonna, no, you win.

It could get down to the smallest little flicker, but if God is in it, it's coming back.

And you will win.

So Acts chapter 5, verse 17.

Acts 5:17

Let's jump into the account right here.

It says this says the high priest and his officials, remember the Jewish leaders, the kingdom of the world at that point, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.

Why?

Because their power structure was being disrupted.

And it says they arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.

But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out.

Is that wild work or what, right?

Then he told them, go to the temple and give the people this message of life.

So this angel shows up, gets them out of jail, and is like, okay, now go back to the same place that you just came from and do the same thing you just did.

And I know their math was like, and we're gonna get arrested again, you know.

I imagine that was their their response.

Like, wait, go right back to the same place and do the same thing.

And and it's like, yeah, but but do it bigger this time, do it bolder this time.

Or they might have been thinking, well, if God got us through that one, he can get us through anything.

If we just had an angel show up in jail and set us free, we're good.

I think we're good, right?

I mean, they they they that would be called undiscourageable to look at that situation and go like, no, no, we can go do it, we can obey.

It says in verse 26, the captain arrested the apostles.

Yep, just like they thought, arrested the apostles, said, We gave you strict orders never again to teach in this man's name.

Instead, you've filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him.

Wouldn't that be a great accusation?

You've filled all of Aloha with your teaching about him.

You've filled all of Washington County with your teaching about Jesus.

You've filled the whole Portland metropolitan area with teaching about Jesus.

What would that look like?

What would that look like?

You've filled the state of Oregon with teaching about Jesus.

You've filled the whole Northwest with teaching about Jesus.

That would just be awesome.

Imagine that.

That's the goal.

May that be said about us.

In Acts chapter 17, it says, those who have turned the world upside down have come here too.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

I mean, they went now, they were out and do going to other places, and they're like, oh, great.

The people who turned Jerusalem upside down are here.

Well, that's because they turned the kingdom, they turned the kingdom upside down.

They upended the kingdom of the world.

They took away the power structures by introducing the gospel, and now Jesus is setting people free who they wanted to keep captive.

Because remember, in the book of Acts, one thing you read is that there was this time when Paul and his associates had set free this woman who was being trafficked.

And her traffickers came after them.

Because why?

Because they took away her sort, the the guy's source of income to traffic a person.

And so then, you know, that's called resistance.

But that's the kind of resistance that we're going to receive if we live out the good news of Jesus in a world that is really ordered exactly opposite.

It says in verse 29, but Peters and the apostles replied, this is back here in Jerusalem, we must obey God rather than any human authority.

When they heard this, the high council was furious and decided to kill him.

It's just getting worse and worse for these guys.

But, if you're taking notes, circle that word.

But Gamaliel said to his colleagues, Gamaliel was the chief like leader.

He was like the religious leader that everybody respected.

He was a Jewish leader, part of the kind of enemy camp in this situation.

But Gamaliel said to his colleagues, My advice is leave these men alone.

Let them go.

If they're planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown.

But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them.

You may even find yourselves fighting against God.

Okay, so here's the recap.

Chapter five.

They got arrested.

Then they got arrested again.

Then they had their lives threatened.

Then Gamaliel shows up and goes, Hold on, hold on, hold on, guys.

I think this thing's bigger than us.

I think this new power is more powerful than us.

I think God might actually be behind this, and we may be fighting God Himself.

And this is the place, this is the shift.

This is when God starts to fight for you.

This is God, God's starting to fight for them.

This is so good.

This is so good.

I mean, if you're ever discouraged, understand something.

God Himself wants to fight for you.

And it even says in Exodus chapter 14, verse 13, that these are people that are pursuing God's purpose.

Exodus 14:13

These are people that are risking for God's plan, being obedient to what God said to do.

Exodus 14 says, Don't be afraid, just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today.

Stand still.

How many of us are good at that?

Stand still.

Somebody makes a jab at you online, and God's like, just stand still and watch the Lord.

But we're like, you know, like I want to get back at them.

I want to take revenge.

I want to make them feel worse than they made me feel.

You know, we get back into a corner, we start to panic, and it's really difficult.

Now, some of you in the room are leading young families.

You have kids at home, you're you're you're trying to figure it all out.

And um, here's what I know.

Here's what I think we should all be aware of.

If you are here online or here in this room and you're leading a young family, one, I think you are doing the hardest work in the most difficult time in a very complicated place.

So we should be praying for the young families among us.

You have hard decisions to make.

You you are juggling, it is expensive.

I don't have to tell you that.

It's expensive.

I can't even imagine having more than one kid in sports.

Wow.

The time, the money, the decisions, um, the value system, the decisions behind that.

I mean, like, you're facing a lot.

And how easy would it be for you to go like this whole thing would just be a lot easier if we just did what everybody else is doing.

So much easier if we just do what everybody else is doing.

Some of you are brand new to faith, and we are so excited and so grateful.

But you're in a situation where you're you're, you know, like if you if you are new to faith and maybe you just came to faith at West Side, maybe you just got baptized and you were here for baptism and you heard, because here's what happens with baptism: the decibels go way up, right?

We get crazy, we're like, woo! You know, everybody's clapping.

And if you're in in here for baptism, it's a it's a very supportive environment.

You got a whole crew.

Then you go to work the next day.

And you get the exact opposite reaction.

And then you go home, and your spouse or your siblings or someone in your neighborhood, they're not supportive, they're like anti-supportive.

They're opposing.

Why?

Because you're upending the power structure.

And so you start to go, it would just be so much easier if I just went back to doing what I was doing before.

Some of you are facing a job pressure of some kind.

Maybe you're being coerced to do things that are not right.

And it's difficult because there's this kingdom at work and you're feeling like you're this little pawn and you have to make a decision.

And and do you continue to live out the good news of Jesus in the way that he asked us to?

Do you continue to follow Jesus?

Or do you give up and just go and do what everybody else is doing?

Or maybe you're physically just challenged right now because maybe you've got a disease or a sickness or something that's going on in your body that just you've you've you've exhausted every avenue.

You've gone to every naturopath, you've taken every pill, you've Googled all the stuff, and nothing has changed it.

And you start to wonder, you start to wonder if God does wild work in the world, why isn't He working in my life?

So you're looking at that tiny little flicker, going, like, it's it's it's it's gone.

I think it's gone.

I don't see anything there anymore.

And it's very easy just to think I'm just gonna give up.

Like, what's the point?

And the apostles could have so easily done that.

Arrested, arrested, life-threatened?

It'd be a lot easier if we just did what everybody else is doing, which is shut up.

Right?

I was thinking about this.

What was it that invited the Lord to pick up his sword and fight for his people?

Those apostles?

Why did he send Gamaliel?

Why did he send the angel?

Why did he get them out?

Why did he keep doing that?

Why was it happening?

And it says in verse 42, and every day in the temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message.

Jesus is the Messiah.

They just would not stop.

They're just undiscourageable.

What was that in them that just would not stop?

I mean, they wanted so desperately to be a part of what God was doing.

The wild work of God is something that He will do in the world.

He will do it.

He is doing it.

Fifteen years ago, something like that, I went to Africa for the first time.

And I was confronted with this terrible hypocrisy in my life, which was that I believe God could work, but not like they believe God could work.

Why?

Because I got choices.

I got choices.

I got ibuprofen, and I got a doctor, and I got medical insurance, and I got money in the bank, and I got a home, and I have three coffee pots, and I have, you know, I'm just like, there was this woman that came up and said that her son was gonna die.

And so she was asking for prayer.

And we prayed, and then we found out that what the kid needed was his gums were diseased, and he needed uh he needed a surgery, and they said there's no way we could do it because it's too expensive.

And so if we you know, if you don't pray, he's gonna die.

We did pray, we did pray.

We also found out that the surgery was gonna cost$180.

And so he got the surgery and he recovered.

There were many times though, and these people are going, like, there we have no choice but to pray.

You know what, you know what happens when you have no choice but to pray?

God shows up and does miracles.

And I think one of the things that is um fighting against our own experience with the wild work of God is we have all these choices and we exercise all these choices.

It's like, well, I'm gonna take every pill and I'm gonna go to every doctor, and I'm gonna call every friend, and I'm gonna, you know, do all, I'm gonna take every loan, I'm gonna do all this stuff, and then if none of that stuff works, then I'll pray.

But the but these people were like backed into a corner, and they're like, oh, we have, we are desperate to be used to be a part of the wild work of God, and we will do anything, and we won't say no to for anything, we won't be discouraged.

There's nothing that could make us discouraged.

We won't back down.

And it's a beautiful thing, isn't it?

They weren't in it for themselves, they were in it for God's purposes.

Matthew 6 says, seek first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness, and everything else will be added to you.

And it and so I think what why did God go to work for them?

Because their hearts were it was God first.

God first in everything.

God first now, God first in the trouble, God first in the blessing.

It was it was always his kingdom first.

Because that was the whole thing, is that the kingdoms were at war.

Well, they still are.

And so the question is, well, which kingdom are we gonna put first?

That's really the question.

How undiscourageable are you?

It kind of depends.

If you are somebody who goes, I'm gonna put God's kingdom first, you happen to have a huge advantage because you're undiscouragable, because you know his kingdom is a sure deal.

Here's the bottom line.

Would you write this down in your notes?

Is this is when you're on when you're on mission with Jesus, when you're on mission with Jesus, like those guys were, every obstacle is an opportunity.

And every setback is a setup.

You look at your obstacles and you know what they were saying?

They're like, oh wow, we're in jail again.

God, you need to send another angel.

That was awesome.

People noticed.

They met Jesus and your work was made known.

God, send another angel.

Like, and it's okay if we go back to jail because we know what kind of stuff you do when we go to jail for preaching, we know the kind of stuff that you do.

Okay, God, do it again.

You know, they're just like, this is an opportunity.

This isn't an obstacle, but it's an opportunity.

It's like God's power is gonna shine through that.

Every setback becomes a setup.

Set up for what?

Set up for God to do something wild in your life again.

You run out of money and you go, oh boy, do I compromise and do something, you know, dishonest so that I can fix my problem, or do I go, God, you've got to do your wild work in my life again.

And I'm here and I'm open and I'm ready for that and I'm prepared.

By the way, this has been a series on mission.

We're a church that focuses on what we call three mountains, and I'm not gonna go through the whole thing right now, but this is this is about those people who are going, like, I'm I'm desperate.

I'm desperate to have God work in and through my life.

Everyone I know on the face of the earth, everyone I've ever talked to, every study I've ever read, every book I've ever read, everybody's desperate for life to mean something, right?

God gives us the ultimate solution to that.

He says, You're my vessel.

I'm gonna do eternal work through your life, I'm gonna bless the whole earth through you.

And so that's the invitation is to go, if you want to, if you want your life to matter, this whole series has been for you.

To go, let's get on mission.

Let's be people who are on mission.

Now, next week we wrap up this series, and then the following week we're gonna go into something that's gonna be super fun.

On our pumpkin extravaganza weekend, we're gonna start a series called the People Experiment.

And I can't wait to roll it out for you.

Uh, and it's gonna be so much fun.

We have eight weeks, we're gonna go through the New Testament letter of 1 John, and we're going to learn uh how we really find our significance together.

That's how we that's how we really find that.

But today we're talking about tapping into the supernatural power of God.

And Luke chapter 18, verse 1 says this says, one day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and always pray and never give up.

Luke 18:1

Yeah, like that's the thing.

If you're gonna be somebody who's undiscourageable, you're gonna be somebody who never gives up.

And I love this phrase I heard when I was younger.

It said, the worth of a person is what it takes to stop them.

So that's the question is what would stop you?

You know, you're blowing on the fire, you're like, no, I'm not gonna let it go out.

Would a breeze coming along?

Would you know a little rainstorm stop you?

Isaiah 40, 31 says, Those that wait on the Lord will renew their strength, they will rise up like eagles, they will run and not be weary, they will walk and not faint.

I mean, these people are undiscourageable, right?

Because they're waiting on the Lord.

They're waiting on the Lord.

Galatians 6, 9, it's in your notes.

It says, So let's not get tired of doing what is good.

And I and I get it.

I get it.

Some of you are tired.

I've been there.

I know, I know what it's like to feel like I have not one more ounce of strength.

I don't know how.

Don't cave in to the kingdom of this world.

Don't cave in to the power structure that's trying to force you to shut up, you know, that's trying to force you to not live your faith out loud.

Don't give in to that.

It is the time.

I mean, this world needs more than ever this world needs for you and me to shine.

This world needs people who are undiscourageable.

I wish every single one of you would have raised your hand when I said, Do you know anybody like that?

Probably 10% of you did.

What if a hundred percent of you could raise your hand and say, No, I'm that person.

I'm that person for my kids.

I'm that person for my grandkids.

I'm that person for my sister or my brother, I'm that person for my neighbor.

I will be undiscourageable.

I will not stop.

I will not give up.

I will not go the way everybody else goes just because it's easier.

Something I think is really important is that you know and I know we're connected to the winner.

So when God calls upon you to do something difficult, you've already won.

I have a friend named Brent who lives this out so well.

Brent was a pastor of a fairly good-sized church in the state of Oregon, distributed kind of around the state, and uh God called him to do something totally different and wild.

And they basically turned their church outward and created this movement of small house churches instead.

And um, what it meant was he had to stop being paid as the pastor of the church.

And so, you know, I mean, I don't know what that conversation was like with his wife when he's like, honey, I got an idea.

But they did it.

And God has done, I actually called Brent this week.

I was like, Brent, we're doing a series called The Wild Work of God, and God is doing some wild work through you guys.

Would you share with us a little bit about what he's doing?

So I want you to watch this.

Well, this has been a wild ride, especially over the last four months, because um, you know, out of obedience, you know, I became a tent maker and started getting my income a different way, because the Holy Spirit led me to do that, which led us to then start running ads in 27 countries across the world, including all of the Middle East, places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria.

We have had 4,000 lead forms filled out from those countries just in the last few weeks through basically 13 teams that we're working through.

And none of this would have happened if I hadn't have been obedient a couple years ago back when Jesus said, Hey, I want you to do something radical and I want you to get your salary a completely different way.

One of the crazy stories that has taken place is um where we were running ads in northern India where it's illegal to be a Christian, and a young girl responded, We thought she was college, and we found out later she was actually a teenager.

So we had women on our team take over the messaging between them.

But um, as we challenged her to do discovery Bible study and read what the words said about sharing with her family and her circle of influence, she got the courage to tell her dad, I believe in Jesus.

And when she did it, her dad's response to her was, I believe in Jesus too, I've been following him secretly.

And then after that, they told their brother, and their brother said, I've been following Jesus too, I've been doing it secretly.

And then the three of them did Discovery Bible study with their mom, and because of what Jesus was doing in their family, the whole family is now following Jesus.

And it's amazing to see how God is revealing who he is to so many people in the world today.

And sometimes it just takes us walking in faith and obedience to spur somebody on to do the next thing.

That's why we need the body of Christ.

And then one more story that happened right here in Portland.

We had pushweek, and our push week is where we go out among the lost, have spiritual conversations with people.

But we ran ads specifically for people dealing with certain pain points in their life, one of them anxiety, fear, and suicidal thinking.

And a guy responded to the ad.

Um, I'll hold his name back because I don't have the permission to tell his story yet.

And uh he uh just continued to walk in obedience to the point where he's gotten baptized and started a discovery Bible study.

And when he was in my neighborhood, we run ads only in neighborhoods where we have disciple makers who are willing to take responsibility for the people God entrusts to us.

And um, I was following up with him and he said, Hey, I want to take you across the street.

There's a couple families in another apartment complex that they really need Jesus.

And so he said, Hey, just let me do all the talking at the beginning because I need to spend the first few minutes convincing him that you're not a cop and you're not ice.

And uh, so I was like, All right, here we go.

And to make a long story short, there are now not one Discovery Bible study, but there are three Discovery Bible studies happening because of what God is doing in these families and in their obedience to following Jesus.

Hey, if you need some courage about your situation, think of Brent.

You know, Brent is an example of how God opens doors when we step out in faith.

And um, I want to ask you uh if you would do me a favor right now, if you would just bow your heads with me, because I think that God wants to stir us and encourage us.

Father, I pray right now for those who are here that are wanting their life to matter, wanting their life to make a difference.

Really, really, if the truth be told, they desperately want you to work through them.

They desperately want to follow you and be faithful to you.

It's just hard right now.

I pray that you would blow wind on their fire, that you would, that you would accelerate the fire in them, that you would bring it back, God, that you would stir it back up.

Lord, that you would stoke the fire that's in them, that you would bring life back into them, breathe life back into them.

God, give them strength.

Let them hear clearly from you.

God, if they need the answer to a question, God, would you would you give them the answer to the question?

If they need to be freed from something, would you free them from something?

Lord, I pray that you would position us, your kids, to be strong.

Lord, I pray for those who maybe, maybe you're here and you're dealing with a situation where you just you just don't have any support.

And um, you know, we call that here the community mountain.

It's about letting people in.

And Father, I pray that if there's anyone here who just feels like they're all alone, I pray that you'd give them the bravery to reach out, to put themselves out there.

Maybe in a group, maybe on a team, maybe with a friend, maybe for just a conversation.

Maybe today when we pray, they'd come forward and just ask for prayer.

But I pray for courage.

Courage, not discouragement, but courage.

And Father, I pray for the people that are here that actually don't have any experience with a God who loves them unconditionally and has promised to give them the gift of the Holy Spirit that's greater than anything they're ever gonna face.

And if you're here and you you don't know what that's like to have God's spirit in you, but you want that, this is your day.

Isaiah said, today is the day of salvation.

Jesus said, If anyone believes in me, I'm gonna give them the power to become the children of God.

And then he promised to give all of his kids his own presence, his spirit.

If you've never said yes to Jesus, I want you to do that right now.

I want you to pray this prayer with me and ask him to be your savior.

Ask him to forgive your sins.

I want you, I'm gonna lead you in this prayer, and I want you just in your mind and heart just to repeat it back because God, this is no, there's no hocus pocus in this, okay?

There's no magic in these words.

This is an attitude, and God knows you and he sees this and he hears you.

Here's the prayer.

You can tell on this in your mind and heart, Jesus, I give you my life.

Thank you for saving me.

I believe in you, your life, your death on the cross, and your resurrection.

Forgive me of my sins.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit, lead me and teach me to follow you.

God, I thank you for those who today are just opening their hearts like so many around the world.

And even right here in this church, right here in this community.

You've been doing that all year long.

So many people opening their hearts to you.

I thank you for those who today have just said that prayer, just open their hearts, simply, believed.

We pray that you would strengthen them, steady them as they walk along, surround them with community.

God, make their mission clear.

We're so grateful.

We love you, God.

We ask that this week as we go out, that we'd be those people that are undiscourageable.

That we'd be the people that someone else would raise their hand and say, Yeah, I know somebody like that.

And they'd be talking about us.

God, help us to be the role models this week.

We love you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.