I’m Done With Being Afraid

Next Steps

• I will think about where I need to face fear and take action.
  I will take a step of relational courage this week.
  I will have the courage to resist temptation and trust God.
  I will show courage in pursuing my God-given dream.
  I will have the courage to make difficult decisions.
  I will do whatever I need to do to be done with being afraid.
  I will be courageous and keep my eyes on Jesus.

Full Sermon Script

Before we get to the message, I want to say something about the series that starts next week. You should have received an invite card on your way in.

The series is called “All In!”

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Commitment can be a real scary word, because a commitment is a promise about the future. But in the future, things might change.

What if I promise to marry you, but then you change or I change?
What if I promise to be your friend, but then I don’t feel close to you?
What if I promise to follow God, but then I don’t feel like following God?

We’re afraid of getting trapped.

And yet without commitments, we don’t actually have an identity.

You see, making the right commitment… in the right spirit… to the right obligation or assignment or value or person is one of the most noble things a human being can do.

The reason we’re drawn to make commitments is because we were made in the image of a commitment making, commitment keeping God.

I hope you join us for this series starting next week… and invite a friend to join you… as we look at 3 commitments that will change your life.

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Another thing you should have received on your way in is a sticky note.

We created a board in the foyer that says, “I’m done with that.” And we would like you to write down, as kind of a declaration, what you’re done with.

In this series, we’ve talked about being done with complaining, comparing, shame and today we’re talking about fear. Maybe this series has prompted something else in you and you’ve decided to be done with that.

Whatever it is, will you write it on that sticky note and place it on the board in the foyer on your way out after the service.

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Alright, today is “I’m done with being afraid.”

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In Deuteronomy 31, Moses is talking to the people of Israel before he dies and says:

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6

Joshua reiterates what Moses commanded when he becomes the leader.

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

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All throughout scripture God says to his people, “Do not be afraid.”

So let me ask you this: What are you afraid of?

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Are you afraid of failing at work?
Are you afraid the news from your last visit to the doctor will not be good?
Are you afraid you won’t be accepted by your peers?
Are you afraid your family is not going to make it through this school year?
Are you afraid there will not be enough money this month?
Are you afraid you’ll not have enough money for retirement?
Are you afraid your relationships are not going to become what you desperately want them to become?

What are you afraid of?

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Over and over and over in Scripture, God commands his people — rather than live with fear…

Be courageous

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I have a question I want you to think about when it comes to being courageous:

When you think of courage, where do you see courage in it’s greatest, purest, most admirable form?

Where would you say you’re most likely to see courage that just delights God’s heart when he sees it? Where is that expressed?

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There are people who go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Is that courage at it’s greatest?

Some of you remember a character by the name of Evel Knievel. He once tried to jump over Snake River Canyon on a motorcycle. He apparently broke every bone in his body. Is that courage at it’s greatest?

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Years ago, in Southern California, I remember reading an account of a guy who went thousands of feet into the sky in a lawn chair, to which he had tied lots and lots of helium balloons. It’s a true story.

He went up into the sky in his lawn chair, helium balloons, a gun to shoot some of the balloons so that he could go down, and a six-pack of beer. That was his cargo.

I think a little fear would have been good for him. I think Mr. Fear would have been his friend.

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I think when we think about courage, too often we think just in terms of dramatic risks taken for risk’s sake.

We think of skydiving, x games, death-defying Motorcycle stunts.

The problem is that most of us are rarely in those kind of high stakes, very dramatic do-or-die scenarios.

I think too often, in our culture, we confuse courage with recklessness or being a daredevil.

That’s not what God calls us to when he calls us to courage.

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So in this message, I want to talk about… NOT the courage involved in going over Niagara Falls or doing a risky stunt.

I believe courage is not something that’s only needed on rare occasions when the ship is going down or someone needs to get rescued from a burning building.

I believe the courage God most longs for us to have is the courage exhibited in the lives of ordinary people like you and me in ways that will never make headlines.

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When someone is in a situation where to tell the truth would get them in trouble. If they were deceptive, no one would ever find out about it. But they tell the truth anyway.

When there’s a hard decision to be made and no one else is making it, and someone steps up to the plate to make the decision and claim responsibility… even if things don’t turn out all that great.

When someone who chooses to hold fast to an honest conviction even though it means standing alone; even though it means they will face criticism and misunderstanding even from people who know and love them.

When someone takes the initiative to have a difficult conversation with a friend or a spouse or a boss even though it would be easier to shrink back.

When someone is wrestling with a pattern of sin or addictive behavior, and they take the courageous step to bring it into the light — to talk about it with a trusted friend when it would be so much easier to just keep it hidden in shame and darkness.

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I think — personal opinion — it’s in the unpublicized moments, in the midst of routine days, in the lives of ordinary people, where the most important battle over courage gets waged.

This is about your life and mine today.

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And I want to say this: On a personal level, I admire this quality immensely.

I can’t think of an area where I’d rather grow than this one.

If I could get to the end of my days and have God look back on my life and say to me, “You showed courage. You didn’t shrink back in fear.”

If God would say to me one day, “Instead of following the path of least resistance, at least sometimes you demonstrated enough grit to speak the truth… and do right things… and risk being hurt. You maintained focus. You followed me with courage.”

Speaking just for myself now, I can’t think of many things I want like I want that.

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The Apostle Paul wrote to a young man named Timothy one of the great claims in Scripture. He said:

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7

This is very important — when you find yourself experiencing the spirit of timidity, when you find fear and anxiety working away, eating at you, that’s not God at work in you.

You can be very confident. That’s not the work of the Spirit of God in your mind and heart. That’s not God’s desire for you. God wants you to live in a spirit of power. God gives a spirit of power. God never gives a spirit of timidity.

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So today, we’re going to talk about the kind of courage God delights in in the lives of ordinary people like you and me.

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And I want to give you one directive as we go through this message.

Think about where you need to face fear and take action.

Because courage grows when we face what we’re afraid of and take behavioral risks.

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So I just want to challenge you, as we walk through this message, to pick one area. We’ll talk about 5 today. Pick one area where you have the highest need to grow, and take a risk this week.

We’ll talk about areas where God wants us to have courage… and where he wants us to be done with being afraid.

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The first one is this:

Relational courage

God wants us to experience relational courage.

I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, but I believe one of the primary reasons people get stuck in superficial relationships is a lack of courage.

I think one of the main components needed to create deep community and intimacy is courage.

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This week I had a conversation with a friend. There was an incident in my life that I knew that I needed to talk to him about. I knew when we were going to have this conversation.

All week long I wrestled in my spirit because I didn’t want to tell him about this. It would bring something into the light that I knew needed to come into the light, but it was embarrassing to me. It showed a kind of pettiness and weakness inside of me. I have a sense of failure about it.

There’s darkness in it, but I didn’t want to say anything. It took about as much as I could muster in myself.

I had to do it the very first thing in the conversation. I had to say, “There’s something I want to tell you about,” and I told him.

I’m not going to tell you, so don’t get all excited. But I told him.

I think this is true — as best as I can discern it — having these kinds of conversations that are necessary but difficult are some of the most important conversations I have in my life.

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I don’t know if you’ve ever had a conversation like that with someone. But he helped me to see a level of truth about myself that just goes right down to the core.

God spoke to me this week through that person. I’m so grateful that I took the chance to say something risky.

If I wouldn’t have had that conversation, I wouldn’t have learned what I’m learning.

That only happens when someone’s willing to take a risk in a relationship.

That’s relational courage.

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The need for courage when it comes to giving someone biblical love is just so critical.

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Maybe you know someone who’s drifting in an important area of their life.

Maybe they’re drifting in their marriage.
Or maybe they’re focusing too much on themselves.
Or maybe they’re having a problem with anger.

True love is love that is courageous enough to say, “I’ll risk the pain of speaking truth to you more than I want comfort with you… because I want you to grow and flourish as a child of God.”

That’s relational courage.

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Just a quick caveat in this category: don’t just blast people.

Some of you have to work real hard to speak truth. Some of you are blasters, and you need to hold back.

If you’re wondering — how would I know if I’m a blaster? If you are one, one of your favorite phrases with other people is, “Do you know what your problem is?”

Anytime someone asks you that question, they’re not really looking for an answer.

I’ve never heard someone say, “You know what your problem is?” And if the other person says, “Yes.” Have them say, “Okay, just checking. I just wanted to make sure.”

If you tend to be a blaster, hold back. You need wisdom. You need to think.

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But the kind of courage that some of you need more than anything else right now, that will delight God, is relational courage.

It’s a kind of courage God loves — when ordinary people take relational risks, then make deep community possible, and allow others to grow.

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Some of you are in a relationship that’s just stagnating right now. It’s just withering.

The reason is because no one has taken a step of relational courage in a long time. You’ve got to do it.

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The second category — this takes an enormous amount of courage — is

The courage to resist temptation

Has anyone here lied recently?

Alright, let me make it a little easier for you. Has anyone here, ever in your entire life — go all the way back to when you were three years old — taken the tiniest liberty with the truth?

Anyone?

If you don’t have your hand up, you’re a liar.

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Recently someone asked me a question, and the answer — the truth — was real embarrassing.

I didn’t want to be embarrassed, and so I just lied.

I had to go back and do repair work. It was very painful for me.

When I look back on it and ask myself the question, “Why did I lie?” Why do I ever lie?

Usually it’s to avoid pain. Usually it’s fear. I’m afraid of what will happen if I’m completely truthful.

Fear prompted me to lie.

Very often sin works that way.

People are gossiping, and I join in even though I know it’s wrong… because I’m afraid of being left out.

Or I buy possessions because I’m afraid that I might be bored if I can’t spend the way that I want to spend. Or I might be insecure if I don’t have a lot of stuff.

Or I flatter someone because I’m afraid that they won’t like me if I don’t.

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You go through Scripture — over and over and over again — and you ask, “What’s behind sin?”

It’s fear.

Fear of being poor is what made Jacob deceive his brother.
Fear of being unloved is what made Saul jealous of David.
Fear of having to suffer is what made the disciples run away from Jesus.
Fear of having to suffer is what made Peter deny Jesus three times.
Fear made them betray their deepest value to their best friend at his hour of greatest need.

It was just fear.

You see, if you look at most sin, underneath it, very often, you’ll find fear.

I’m afraid that if I risk obeying God, he will not take care of me; I will not be okay; something will happen that I cannot handle.

The kind of courage God just loves best is when people like you and me are willing to resist temptation and just trust him.

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Some of you are really struggling in your spiritual lives.
Some of you are really struggling with sin.

The question for you right now is, “Will you have enough courage to resist temptation?”

You’ll never make headlines… but God will know.

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The third area is

The courage to pursue dreams

Ordinary people like you and me need courage to pursue dreams.

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It’s an interesting thing as I thought about this one this week: You don’t have to teach people to dream. Every child born into this world comes with a dream.

Ask any little kid, “What do you want to do? What do you want to be?” Every kid dreams about that.

We come into this world with dreams.

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Last week someone called me and asked if I would officiate their wedding. Every wedding involves a dream. I’ve done lots of them.

In every one of them, every groom looks down the aisle, sees his bride, and he dreams. He dreams of how he’s going to change.

Every bride looks up the aisle, sees the groom. She dreams of how she’s going to change him.

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We’re all born dreamers. We just are. Having a clear dream is core to who we are. Having a clear dream is core to what it means to be a human being.

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I want to name a few people, and see if you can say in one word what you think they dream about. I’ll give you the name — one word — what’s their dream?

LeBron James — one word — what do you think he dreams about?

Basketball

I think it keeps him up at night: how to be the greatest basketball player in the world.

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Stephen Spielberg — one word — what do you think he dreams about?

Movies

He’s one of the most popular directors and producers in film history. I think he dreams about telling stories that capture people’s hearts.

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Alicia Keys — one word — what do you think she dreams about?

Music

She was composing songs by age 12 and was signed at 15 by Columbia Records. Now she’s a 15-time Grammy award-winning singer, songwriter and producer.

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Kim Kardashian — one word — what do you think she dreams about?

Yeah, I couldn’t think of anything either.

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How about you? What do you dream about? What passion has God placed in your heart about why you are here on this earth?

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This is one of the saddest things in the world to me: Sometimes I’ll talk with someone and realize there’s no dream in his heart; there’s no dream in her heart. Somewhere along the line, they just stopped dreaming.

I know it wasn’t always that way because every person arrives on this planet a dreamer.

But there are forces that kill dreams.

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Some of you have stopped dreaming.

Maybe it’s because you’ve had to wait. Waiting can kill dreams.

“I want it to happen now. If it doesn’t happen today or tomorrow or next year…” Dreams die while people wait.

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Or maybe you had a dream, but it was kind of fragile and other people killed it.

Some people cheer you on. Some people belittle dreams or mock them. Maybe that happened for you, and your dream kind of died.

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Obstacles kill dreams.

I want my dream to come true, and I’d like it to happen easily. When roadblocks get in the way, I’m tempted to give up on dreaming.

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Some of you stopped dreaming somewhere along the line.

If you don’t dream about your work, or about your gifts, or about your marriage, to you I believe God says, “Will you dream again? Because I put you on this earth, whether you know it or not, for a purpose.

“But this is a fallen world, and you’re going to have to fight for the dream that I created you to realize. So will you do that? Will you have the courage to pursue your dream when it takes time? Even though people get in your way, or don’t believe in you, or boulders obstruct you?”

God says, “Will you dream again about your calling, about your purpose, about your character, about your relationships?”

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When ordinary people show extraordinary courage in pursuing God-given dreams, that’s the kind of courage God just loves.

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Then there’s a fourth kind of courage for ordinary people like you and me.

The courage to make difficult decisions

The courage to make the hard call.

Now, parents need this maybe as much as anyone.

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I got to witness my daughter Lily enter this world. When I saw it, there was a sense of wonder because she was filled with value and goodness and beauty and mystery.

I saw that the day she was born.

Then the months go by, and I find she’s filled with other things too – stubbornness and selfishness and a capacity to deceive and defy her father.

Where did she get that stuff?

She got it from the Kid’s Ministry at this church. That’s where she got it.

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If I’m going to parent my children well, that will take courage.

Those of you who are parents, you need it.

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I remember visiting a family. There were a couple of young children in this family who would freely vent their anger at their parents. They would scream, “I hate you!” at the top of their lungs to their parents. They’d use the walls as coloring books.

The parents would just shrug their shoulders like, “What can you do?”

I’ll tell you what you can do. You can sit that little bundle down and say, “Little bundle, here’s some truth. You need to know that you don’t intimidate me in the least. There will be boundaries to your life. There will be options to take off the table. There will be consequences for actions. You will not like some of my decisions, but that is really too bad. Save some money to tell your therapist someday.

“Because I love you too much, and I take parenting far too seriously to make parenting decisions based on how they will effect my popularity with the parentee.”

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Some of you are parents. The truth is, for whatever reason — I don’t know what all the reasons are — but right now, to be the kind of parent that will delight God and shape a human life the way it needs to be shaped, you need courage to make hard decisions, to set boundaries, to establish consequences.

Take initiative.

Some of you have been holding back doing the kinds of things that you need to do as a parent because you don’t want to go through the pain of conflict and being disliked.

God says to parents, “Fear not.”

Have the guts to make some tough calls because when you do, when you make hard decisions, in whatever sphere, something happens inside of you.

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In the Fall of 2016, I remember having a conversation with Joe Hartley, our executive pastor, where I told him, “I think I’d like to do a message on politics.”

Talking about politics in the church could be highly controversial, as many of you know.

I think Joe looked at me and said, “You think you have the guts to do that message?” I think he used a different word than guts, as I recall. But that was the basic question he asked me.

That got me fired up. “Yeah,” I said, “I’ve thought about it and prayed about it, and I think it’s an important message our church needs to hear.”

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You see, when you make a hard decision, when you do that — not your spouse, not your parents, not your boss, not your friends — when you do that, you get stronger inside.

The willingness to make hard calls wisely, and with courage, that’s what makes great leaders in the marketplace, great teachers, great parents, great spouses.

Some of you this week need to identify, “What’s a really hard decision that I’ve been putting off making?”

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Maybe it’s at work.
Maybe it’s as a parent.
Maybe it’s in a relationship.
Maybe it’s in your personal life.

When ordinary people make extraordinarily hard calls with wisdom and strength, that’s the kind of courage God delights in.

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God may be calling some of you to do that today.

Some of you are aware of a decision right now that you haven’t been making. You can do that. It’ll make a difference.

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The final kind of courage — this may be the hardest kind — is the courage to endure.

The courage to endure

I want to tell you about a six-year-old-girl who went to school a number of decades ago, now. Her name was Ruby — Ruby Bridges. She lived in New Orleans.

When she was six years old, a federal judge said the schools in that city had to open their doors to African-American children.

The day when little children would be separated because of the color of their skin was over.

Almost all of the white parents decided that if they had to let black children in, they’d keep their children out. They also said that if any black children actually came, they’d be in for trouble.

So the black children generally stayed home too… except for Ruby.

Every day, six-year-old Ruby Bridges would kiss her mom goodbye and march off to school. Only she had two federal marshals walking in front of her, and two federal marshals walking behind her. She needed them because she had to walk through a heckling crowd into an empty school building — she was the only one who went to school.

She had to walk through a crowd of people, and they shook their fists at her — a six-year-old girl. They yelled at her, and they threatened her and her family if she kept coming back to school.

Every morning, at ten minutes to eight, Ruby Bridges walked past all those people, with her head up, her eyes straight ahead. She walked into that empty school building to learn. Then she went home. Every day.

What’s amazing about her is not just that she kept coming back. What’s really amazing about her is how she did it.

The white schoolteacher described what she saw when Ruby walked into school. This is what she said. Think about this being a six-year-old girl.

She said, “I saw a woman spit at Ruby, but miss. Ruby smiled at her. I saw a man shake his fist at her, and Ruby smiled at him. Then she walked up the stairs, and she stopped at the building, and she turned and looked at the crowd, and she smiled one more time.

“Do you know what she told one of the marshals? She told him she prays for those people — the ones in the mob — every night before she goes to sleep.”

A six-year-old girl kneeling by the side of her bed, “God bless those people who are mad at me. Help them God.” Then the next morning, the little six-year-old girl gets up, kisses her mom and dad goodbye, and walks to school with two U.S. marshals in front, and two behind.

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There’s a Harvard psychiatrist named Robert Coles who wanted to know what could create that kind of courage, that kind of heart in a six-year-old girl.

So he went to New Orleans to interview her and her family.

He found that conventional psychiatric, psychological language could not explain this girl and her courage.

He wrote a fascinating book called “The Moral Life of Children.” In it, this is what this non-believing Harvard psychiatrist said about this six-year-old girl, Ruby Bridges, about what made her the way she was. He said:

“If I had to offer an explanation, I think it would start with the religious tradition of black people, which is of far greater significance than many white observers have tended to allow. In home after home I’ve seen Christ’s teachings, Christ’s life, connected to the lives of black children by their parents. Such a religious tradition connects with a child’s sense of what is important, as anyone knows who has been in a black church and seen the look of pain give way to the look of hope.”

This Harvard psychiatrist went down to New Orleans to look at this amazing thing and said, “I think it’s Jesus.”

Ruby was the little six-year-old girl who didn’t really go to school alone. It wasn’t the marshals who gave her courage, and it wasn’t the authority of a federal judge who gave her her strength — not really.

That is something that no government, no political or human power, can do for her or for you.

There is no human resource. There is no amount of merely human strength or courage that can transform a heart like that. That takes Jesus.

Ruby knew about Jesus. She knew that he understands all about facing hostile crowds. He knew what it was like to have someone spit at him and mock him and threaten him just for doing the right thing. He never turned back. He never stopped loving the very people who were so ugly to him, and he prayed for them.

Ruby knew about Jesus. Somehow she knew that she was not going to school alone.

So this six-year-old girl kept walking down a very hard road because she walked with a God who knows all about very hard roads. That’s the courage to endure.

Some of you need that courage so much.

Some of you need courage, not because you’re choosing to do a risky thing, but because you’re in a situation you didn’t even choose. You have to walk down a road you don’t even want to walk.

God is saying to you today, “Will you trust me? Will you walk this road with me one day at a time?” Because you get the courage to endure one day at a time.

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All you can do is walk down this road today. You can’t solve tomorrow’s problems. You can’t carry tomorrow’s burdens. All you can do is walk down the road today.

But Jesus will walk down this road with you.

So you’ll need to ruthlessly discipline your mind to be rooted in today.

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Maybe you’re deeply worried about your children, and you want some guarantee about their safety and their well-being. That’s not going to happen.

God is saying, “Will you let them go? Will you trust your children to me?” “Whatever happens,” God says, “Will you trust them to my care?”

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Maybe you’ve lost someone you loved. Maybe you lost someone to death, or divorce, or there was some kind of a break-up, and you’re afraid.

You’re afraid of never loving again because you might be alone.
You’re afraid of never loving again because you might get hurt.

God is saying to you, “Will you take the risk of staying alive and of continuing to love even though you might get hurt? Because I’ll walk with you.”

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Maybe you’ve lost a job, or a financial position, or health, and you find yourself afraid of the future. God is saying, “Will you keep believing? Will you keep risking and dreaming and growing?”

Because when God walks with you, life gets real different.

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A mom was in her bedroom while a pretty bad thunderstorm was going on. She was concerned about her young son in the next room by himself.

Then there was a tremendous flash of lightening and crash of thunder, so she headed to his room because she knew he would be scared.

She goes running to his room. But when she gets there, he’s not scared at all. He’s looking out the window with a big smile on his face.

He said, “Mom, you’ll never guess what happened. I was looking out the window, and God took my picture.”

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When human beings perceive themselves to be alone in the universe, it’s a scary place to be.

But the good news is — you are not alone.

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Let me just show you one example from Scripture as we close.

Matthew 14:25-31

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

“Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.

I want to ask you to picture this scene in your mind.

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Peter was a fisherman who had been around boats his whole life.

He was with the other disciples in a storm that was so rough that they could make no headway in the water.

Jesus comes to them sometime in the early morning around three o’clock… and they hadn’t made it across.

Picture in your minds the size of the waves, the strength of the wind and the darkness of this night.

This boat was struggling to avoid being capsized and was being battered by the waves.

They were cold, wet, exhausted and terrified.

These were the conditions under which Peter was going to get out of the boat.

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It’s tough enough to walk on water when the water is calm, but imagine trying to do it when the waves are crashing, the wind is storming and it is three o’clock in the morning.

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Well Jesus comes to his disciples. The writer said they were all afraid.

Jesus said what God says to people over and over and over again in Scripture, “Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“I will be with you. You can trust me. You know my character and my competence. You can safely put yourself in my hands. Do not fear.”

Peter said, “What do you want me to do? Command me.”

Jesus said, “Peter, get out of the boat.”

Peter walked to the side of the boat… and you have to imagine this scene.

The other disciples probably wondered how far he was going to go with this.

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He put one foot over the side of the boat and then another. Then he let go, took one step and then another one.

For a few moments, it was like the only two people in the whole world were Jesus and Peter.

Peter was walking towards Jesus.

For the first time in human history, an ordinary, regular, flesh-and-blood human being was walking on water.

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Then something very important happened.

The writer said Peter stopped looking at Jesus… and noticed the storm.

His faith was weak… he was afraid… and he began to sink.

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Peter walked on water when he focused on Jesus.
He sank when he focused on the storm.

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When it comes to fear… a key question is — where are your eyes fixed?

Is your attention focused on God and his power… or on the fear?

If it’s the fear, it will overwhelm you every time.

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Question: Did Peter fail?

Yes!

His faith wasn’t strong enough. He took his eyes off where they should have been, and he sank.

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But I would say there were 11 bigger failures sitting in the boat… who failed quietly.

Their failure was private and safe, went unnoticed and generally went uncriticized.

It’s always safer to stay in the boat.

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I don’t know what your boat is today.

Maybe it’s deep aloneness.
Maybe it’s some failure.
Maybe it’s great pain.
Maybe it’s opposition.
Maybe it’s an uncertain future.

I don’t know what your boat is, but if you get out of your boat — whatever your boat might happen to be — there is the possibility that you might sink.

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However, if you never get out of the boat, there is a guaranteed certainty that you will never walk on the water.

If you want to walk on the water, you have to get out of the boat.

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The writers of Scripture make this tremendous statement that God never gives a spirit of timidity — never. He gives a spirit of power.

God delights in the courage displayed in the lives of ordinary people in unseen moments.

He promises — he promises — to give adequate resources to all who follow him. But he only does it one day at a time.

God’s just waiting. If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.

Alright, let’s pray as the band comes to lead us in a closing song.