Our journey with God is a very wonderful wonderful wonderful thing and I'm asking you today to choose boldness
Don't live a little bitty narrow
nothing life
When there's such a great big wonderful life available to you just because you won't take that
Chance
That just maybe maybe maybe maybe maybe what you feel really is God
God has not given us a spirit of fear. He doesn't want us living timid weak wimpy
fearful lives
he wants us to be bold and
Courageous and strong and not afraid to try new things
I think a lot of the reasons why people don't step out and try new things
is they already think before they even try about all the things that might happen if they fail
And I think that if you know that how much God loves you really understand how much he loves you
Then you can live without that fear of failure, which immediately sets you free
to try things
If you just do the best you can when you step out
Then God will promote you a little bit at a time so often I think we look at the way
We think it needs to be in its perfection and if we can't do that yet
Then we won't even step out and do anything and I can tell you my beginning was pitiful
But I was following God
I think that some of you are at a point in your life
and I just I feel this in my heart that some of you
You're facing something new
Maybe something in your life has come to a close
and now
you're facing something new and
Fear always comes against us when we face new things. You're not the only one
Every time you try to make any kind of progress
you can be assured that Satan will try to frighten you that's the way that he keeps people from going forward
And courage is not the absence of fear, but courage is actually forward motion in the presence of fear
I don't want you to forget that
You're not afraid you're not a coward because you feel fear
But we're cowardly when we let the fear control us
Rather than continuing to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit. God will lead us through fear
And into His perfect will for our lives
If you ever really want to live your life led by the Holy Spirit
you have to understand that God doesn't even usually call people that are qualified
or who feel ready to do what they're being asked to do that's why it takes faith to do it
And faith means if you step out based on what's in your heart
Not based on what's in your circumstances
Instead of being afraid of new things we should be excited about new things
and I know this sounds really like kindergarten simple, but honestly and truly if people would just
have the courage
to just follow God for their
individual lives
You would have an outrageously
Wonderful life not everybody might like what you do, not everybody might approve of your choices
You might not always get a lot of encouragement and handclaps when you begin but God will prove himself to you if you'll be bold
Enough to follow God and not the crowd
Myself included we regularly come to places in our life and we haven't been there. We haven't done that
We have no experience with that
And so we have a tendency to want to start backing off from it and just say in our little boat of safety
But God's encouraging you today
to step out
and be bold enough
To follow the leadership of God for your life
and it never ceases to amaze me what God enables a person to do if they will just
Step out
Bold faith
Christianity is viewed increasingly with not only skepticism but open hostility
And it requires of us a bolder faith and willingness to say out loud. I'm for Jesus
I'm for Jesus. I think Jesus is a good thing. I think he'll help you
It's now acceptable in our culture, if you hold that worldview
It is suggested openly not hinted at not nuanced. It's openly suggested that that somehow you're not quite up to speed with the 21st century
That intellectually even left a little behind that your your moral development and your philosophical awareness
And your worldview is is a bit jaded a bit skewed it's it's underdeveloped and you're a diminished person in some way
It takes bold faith to be a Jesus person in these days
and I want to encourage you
And let it be known in your circle of influence with your friends and your neighbors and your family members and your co-workers. You're with Jesus
It's important. They need to know people like you love Jesus
Bold faith
A faith that says on the daily basis, I want to do my best to make choices that honor Jesus of Nazareth. I'm for him
And I would encourage you to be for him. He's made my life better
Jesus doesn't diminish life. He extends the quality of life. He expands the contentment in life
Bold faith
Not critical not harsh not mean-spirited but a passion for Jesus that influences your life
If we would go to Joshua 1
We would see that when God sent
Joshua to take Moses's place to lead the Israelites across the wilderness into the Promised Land
He there's only one thing that you have to do
Fear not and be bold
God can't work through fear. He works through faith
Fear opens the door for the enemy to work in our life and faith opens the door for God to work in our life
Fear comes out of your flesh out of your circumstances out of what you think and feel but faith comes out of your heart
And you have to follow your heart you have to keep your heart safe and you have to keep your heart free
And if you're not following the leadership of God for you, then your heart is not going to be free. It's going to be burdened
And I believe that
Even if you step out to try something that you believe is God and you don't make it all the way God likes that
spirit of
aggression and that boldness
That says I'm gonna step out and try it. I'm not gonna live in fear
So we have a choice of facing the difficulties we face in life in one of two ways
We can do it courageously or we can do it fearfully and God doesn't want his people living fearfully
He says I have not given you the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind
God wants us to be triumphant
he wants us to be courageous and bold whatever we face in life
and he's made promises to make it possible for us to face anything and everything
and still be standing when the battle is over in difficult times dangerous times. We don't look around
we look we're up
And so we get courage and strength and we're willing to trust God be fearless and bold no matter what God requires of us
God will change your life
God is ready to give you the best the question is are you ready to trust him for it
Couple of scriptures just for encouragement. And your ear will hear a word behind you saying this is the way walk in it
When you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left God is promising us now get this
This is a promise to every one of us that when we step out
Into what we believe is God's will that he will guide us every step of the way
But he's not going to give you a blueprint for the next ten years before you make the first move
Psalm 118:6
The Lord is on my side. I will not fear
what can man
do unto me. Isiah 12:2
Behold God is my salvation. I will trust
Not I feel
But I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord God is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation
Isaiah 45:2 is another great promise and I man I pray this one all the time
And I will go before you and level the mountains
to make the crooked places straight
And I will break in pieces the doors of bronze. I'm cut asunder the bars of iron. I know that everywhere that I go
There's always opposition
There's always a plan that the enemy has
To stop the good that we want to do
But I just pray this scripture that God will go before me and send His angels before me and he'll prepare the way before me
And prepare the hearts of the people before me and you know, what if you will make a decision
To stop letting other people make your decisions and to step out and try some things
You'll find God's destiny for your life
You'll find what's going to fulfill you and what you're meant to do and what you're meant to be but you've got to be bold
You have to be bold enough to step out and find out