Don't let DOUBT take you out | Pastor Todd Mullins

But as I continued to listen, I heard the Holy Spirit say as clearly as I'm talking to you today. He said, Todd, you're not enough, but I'm more than enough. You don't have what it takes, but I've got what you need to do what I'm calling you to do. And in that moment, I realized the benefit of doubt is that it makes you dependent on God. We've been praying for your church for years. In fact, I told the first service, it hit me, that we loved you before you were History Makers Church. We loved you when you were just a glimmer in the eye of Pastor Terrence and Emma. Like this is when they had this dream in their heart. We're going down to South Florida and we're gonna help people find God and follow God. And we got to get in on the vision way back then. And it's so good to see what God is doing now. It is amazing what God is doing now. God's hand is on History Makers Church. God's hand is on the leadership and the team and the pastors. And so you're blessed to be a part of a church like this that is changing people's lives. And my wife, Julie, and I are just happy to be here today, be a part of what's going on. I got my seventh grade girlfriend with me. I dragged her along from seventh grade. We've dated on and off since seventh grade. I always thought it was more on than off, but she said it was more off than on.

But I got the girl in the end, so who cares, right? It doesn't even matter, right? And we met in church youth group on a Wednesday night, showing up for church youth group. I always say, meet your spouse in the house, right? So if you're single, look around. They may be in the room, right? If you're married, keep your eyes right here. Don't turn to the left or the right. It'll turn into a pillar of salt or something. I don't know, so anyway. But we love the church. That's why when Pastor Terrence asked me if we could come down and preach, I'm like, yes, because I believe in the church. I love the church. I love what happens when we get together. I love God's purpose that is on His church. The church isn't perfect. Just look around, right? I mean, we're a bunch of imperfect people trying to love a perfect God. But Jesus surrounded Himself with imperfect people. Think about the, He had all sorts of people around Him. The apostles were all like jockeying for position. You know, Peter was like putting other people down, hot mouth, say this, say that. You know, Judas was backstabbing. He had tax collectors and notorious sinners that surrounded Jesus, but that did not change Jesus.

Don't ever confuse the imperfect people in the church with the God-ordained purpose that is on the church. This is God's plan to rescue humanity, and we get to be a part of it. How great is that? With all of our imperfections and everything else. I always tell people at our church, when you see things in the church that aren't going good, you should thank God. You should be glad that it's not perfect, because if it was perfect, there'd be no place for you or me, right? You'll never, if you ever find the perfect church, don't join it, because you'll screw it up. Just, you know, just be a part of what God's doing and just bless God that we get to be a part of it. You know, there's a verse of scripture in Ephesians 1, 23 that has nothing to do with my message, but I wanted to start talking about the church. Paul writes this. This is the message paraphrase. He says, the church, you see, is not peripheral to the world. The world is peripheral to the church, because the church is Christ's body, by which he fills every, he speaks and acts and fills everything with his presence. So you know what the word peripheral means. It means what's in your peripheral vision. I can see my fingers moving. I'm just not looking at my fingers

because they're off to the side. And what the scripture is saying is that the church, this, is not secondary. It's not off to the side. It's not take it or leave it. It's raining, I ain't going. I don't know if I'm gonna, you know, it is central. The world is actually peripheral, because the church is Christ's body through which he speaks. And you know the way God wants to fill this community is through his body, through his church. The way he wants to fill the neighborhoods and the schools and the coffee shops and the office building where you work, it's through you and me. So it's not everything that you're doing today, everything that we're building down here at History Makers Church, everything that we're giving to, even that property that we're gonna give to, we're gonna give some money to that property. Everything that we're doing to that, it is central to what God wants to do. It is worthy of it. You know that the church is the only entity that Jesus is 100% behind today. He said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not, cannot, shall not prevail against it in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, well, that's enough of that. Anyway, I'm glad to be here.

I was praying about this message to what to share, and I had a few messages I was praying over in scriptures I was thinking about, and I actually tried to get away from preaching this message today. I actually said, God, I don't wanna preach this message again. I wanna preach this one in scripture, I wanna preach that scripture. And he just kept bringing me back to this message. And any time the Holy Spirit does that, I'm like, okay, God, you've got a word that you want to deliver to the people of God today. So I'm ready. you're ready to receive it. Pastor Terrence mentioned that I wrote this book, Don't Let Doubt Take You Out, and it's my first book. And when I wrote it, people actually said, Todd, why did you write a book about doubt? Because you seem to have such great faith. And I actually believe that the Bible talks about the gift of faith, the spiritual gift of faith, and I believe God gave me that gift of faith. Not because it makes me better, it's like I think he looked at my life and thought, man, Todd's gonna need a lot of help, so I better give him the gift of faith. Because if you came to our church, it would not be unusual for you to hear me say something to the effect that if you walked in the doors today and your faith is running a little bit low, that's okay.

I got enough for both of us. You can borrow some of my faith. And how good to know when you go to church, you can borrow some stuff, right? We're family, you can borrow faith, you can borrow courage, you can borrow strength, you can borrow hope, and so if you need to borrow some of my faith today, you can have it. And the reason I think God gave me that gift is because he gives gifts in the area of our weakness. So I actually needed something I didn't have. And in just a minute, in a few minutes, I wanna pray for those of you that need the gift of faith in your life. Because of what you're facing and what you're up against. See, I wanna tell you that this, me even here preaching today, this almost didn't happen because first of all, I didn't wanna be a preacher. I didn't wanna be a pastor. It was the furthest thing from my mind. Had some great pastors in my life growing up, but I just didn't wanna be one. I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. That was my plan. In fact, when Julie met me, she thought she was gonna marry a doctor. That's how I got her to say yes. But right before I headed off to college, I felt God calling me into ministry. And so I got done with school, Bible school, came down.

My parents had just started this church called Christ Fellowship with 20 people in our living room. And then it had grown to about 40 people. We moved to a school, not as nice as this school. It was a little cafetorium, which was part auditorium, part cafeteria. Smelled like soured milk under the refrigerator. That's what it smelled like. And so we were small for many years, like 40 people, 50 people, six. After seven long years, we had 70 people, counting everybody, counting kids, counting pregnant women twice. I mean, if we thought you were pregnant, we counted you twice. And on a good Sunday, we'd get all the way up to 70. You know what I'm saying? After seven years, which I was thinking about that, and you know, there's times that God has you in a waiting pattern, a holding pattern, right? Don't wander in the wait. Don't walk away in the wait. Your waiting is not wasted. God is working while you're waiting. You just look at people like Joseph who had to wait, Abraham who had to wait, David who had to wait. You know, David was anointed to be king, and it was 22 years later until he was appointed to be king. He could have walked away in the waiting, but he didn't walk away.

Don't walk away. So after 25 years of serving my mom and dad's vision, Julie and I, it was time for us to step up and be the senior pastors of the church, and I had both a little bit of excitement, like, let's go, and a little bit of like, oh, dear God, what is happening? Because we were no longer 70 people. By that point, we were running about 11,000 people every Sunday, had 150 staff, a huge budget, and I'm like, whoa, you know, I could maybe handle 70, maybe even 700, but 11,000, God, I don't know if I can do this. And I didn't know how to preach because I hadn't been preaching. I'd been like running stuff in the church, and my dad's like, you've got to learn how to preach because it kind of goes with the job. You know, I'm like, okay, yeah. So he gave me a few coaching lessons. My dad's an old football coach. He kicked me on the backside and get out there and give it a go. So I get up and preach, thousands of people in the room, but there was this one guy sitting right where you're sitting, sir, and his name is John Maxwell. Yeah, famous author, famous speaker, big guy. He had just moved down to be a part of our church's teaching team.

So whenever I was preaching, he was sitting right, and I was like, oh, John Maxwell's on the front row. God, why is he here, right? And so I was like intimidated, and like I didn't do very well. And then one time I was preaching, I look back about right here, and there was this renowned evangelist by the name of Reinhard Bonnke, sitting. I know some of you are like, oh, some of you, those of you that know, you know Reinhard. Reinhard is this, was this man of God that Africa for Jesus, and he would go and hold crusades in Africa. I think he got a picture. That's one of his crusades, where a million people would show up when he would come and preach. And that guy's sitting in the chairs while I'm trying to preach. And I remember while I was preaching, I was preaching going, I think Reinhard Bonnke's here. Why is Reinhard Bonnke here? Why am I preaching? All of that while I'm still trying to preach. And I remember this was all the time right before we stepped up, and I was like, God, I don't think I can do this. I don't. I don't think I have what it takes. Because like if I mess up, everybody's gonna see it.

Like if I drop the ball, everybody's gonna know it. I just don't think I've got, I have what it takes. And I remember the time when I brought that in prayer to God, all my insecurities and my fears and apprehensions, and I remember the moment when he responded to it. And it wasn't the response that I wanted. It wasn't the response I was expecting. I was actually expecting, I don't know, something from a movie like, as I was with your father, I will be with you. I was expecting something epic and ha, ha, ha, right? But what I got when I was like, God, I don't think I'm enough, he's like, Todd, you're right, you're not enough. And I remember going, oh, does that mean I should go be that doctor after all? But as I continued to listen, I heard the Holy Spirit say as clearly as I'm talking to you today. He said, Todd, you're not enough, but I'm more than enough. You don't have what it takes, but I've got what you need to do what I'm calling you to do. And in that moment, I realized the benefit of doubt is that it makes you dependent on God. The benefit of doubt is it can make you desperate. The benefit of recognizing you've got some weaknesses, and we all got weaknesses, is to realize that you can rely on God's strength and his power that never runs out. And what I realized is I've processed doubt my whole life. My whole life I've had to deal with doubt.

I've realized that everybody deals with doubt. I've been pastoring at the church where we're at now for 39 years, and I've talked to people that have been wildly successful in their business. Sport athletes that if I said their names, you would know who I'm talking about. Popular game, but they're doubting themselves in different areas of life. Everybody deals with doubt. The most confident person that you know, that you're thinking of right now, that it looks like they got it all going on, they are dealing with doubt in some area of their life. And we all deal with it in three areas. We doubt God. We all doubt God. I doubt God as a pastor from time to time. When God doesn't show up the way we think he should, or the way we've read in scripture, and he doesn't come through for us, we're like, hey, what's up with this? Does prayer even work? Does this even matter? We doubt ourselves. We don't think we can, so we don't. And we don't step out, and we end up missing out on life and what God has created us to do and who he's created us to be. And the third area is we doubt, we let doubt get into our relationships.

When somebody hurts us or lets us down, we doubt their loyalty, we doubt their commitment, we doubt their friendship, we start pushing back, and doubt is trying to take you out of relationships. But what I've learned is if we learn to deal with the doubt, it doesn't have to take us out. A doubt can actually lead to, like with God, it can lead to a deeper faith because you begin to wrestle with, well, why do I believe what I believe? Doubt can actually lead to what I call confidence. It's not confidence in yourself, it's confidence in God and that he is with you and that he is for you. And so today, I wanna look at one area of doubt that I believe that we all deal with, and if we can learn to deal with this right, it will not hold you back from being who God created you to be. When I've studied the Bible, there's this like, I would call him the poster child of doubt. Like if doubt had a picture beside it, the picture of Gideon would be right there. Gideon almost let doubt take him out. Gideon's story is found in Judges chapter six, and I'm not gonna read the whole story, I'm gonna jump through it, but it is worth reading because in just a couple short chapters, Gideon goes from being a frightened farmer to a national hero. But in order to do that, he had to step out of his doubt

and into faith, he had to step out of his comfort zone, what was comfort, and step into his calling and what God was calling him to. And when he said yes to God, it changed everything for his life. Do you know that what you say yes to will determine your destiny? What you say yes to will shape your future, and what you say no to, but he said yes to this. So here's how the story opens. For seven long years, the Israelites had been tormented by their enemies, the Midianites. The Midianites would swarm in at harvest time and take all their harvest and all their grain and all their animals and take all their possessions to the point that the Israelites were no longer living in their homes, they were hiding in caves. And this happened month after month, week after week, year after year, nothing changed to the point that they were like, it's always gonna be this way, nothing's ever gonna change, we might as well give up. They had that spirit of maybe you've been there, maybe you're dealing with a problem in your home or your family or your marriage or a health issue, and you're like, oh, it's never gonna change, he's never gonna change, never gonna get any better, and the enemy has been lying to you, telling you should give up. That's exactly where Gideon and the Israelites were. Now, it says in verse 12 that one day

while the angel of the Lord came up behind Gideon who was thrashing weed down in a hole, and so he's down in this hole taking care of his weed, he's hiding from the enemy, and the angel of the Lord comes up behind him and says in verse 12, the Lord is with you, mighty warrior. Warrior, warrior, warrior, warrior. There's some reverb on that angel's mic, you know what I'm saying? It probably scared Gideon to death. Oh, what are you talking about? Because he's hiding, and the angel comes up behind him and says this word to him, and he had to think, who you talking to? This is no mighty warrior here, buddy. I'm hiding in a hole from the enemy. But what we know is that God did not make a mistake that day. We know that God did not show up at the wrong address that day, which tells me something very important, that the way God sees you is different than the way you see you. The way God sees you is so different, let this get in your spirit, than the way you see you. You tend to see your own failures and mistakes and flops and the thing, you know, right? All the ways you messed up. I think God cares less about the way you messed up,

and he just wants you to step up and be who you're called to be. He sees all the things he's put inside of you, the talent, the calling, the abilities that you don't even know are there yet, but he's put them there. So he knew who Gideon was long before Gideon ever knew who he was. He called that out in him today, and I wanna tell you, I'm calling it out in you today. I'm calling out the warrior inside of you. The man of God is a son of God inside of you, the daughter inside of you, to be who you're called to be. Man, you have got things inside of you that you need to let that get out. Some of you, it may be, isn't that you just feel like unqualified. You might be thinking, well, I just don't know that God can do anything great with my life. I just don't even know I'm qualified to be used by God this way. Can I tell you who you are? I wrote these down. This book is full of prophetic declarations of who you are when you are in Christ. So when you give your life to Jesus and the spirit of God starts to dwell inside of you, the Bible says you are a child of God,

that you are a new creation, that you are a member of God's own family, an ambassador for Jesus to this world in South Florida. You are a living temple of the Holy Spirit. You are the righteousness of God. That means you are made clean and right before God. You are loved unconditionally, Romans 8. You are seated with Christ in heavenly places, Ephesians 2. You are more than a conqueror, which means there's gonna be some things you gotta conquer through. So if you're in a battle, you just go, hey, I'm an overcomer. I'm not overcome by this thing. You are chosen and set apart from God. That's just like about 10 things that you are in Christ. Yet so often, we live so far below who God says we are. We either listen to lies that were spoken over us as a kid growing up, or by some ex that walked out on us, or we have been pinned down by our past failures and our own mistakes. I guess I'm just getting what I deserve. Hey, hey, what if we stop listening to the lies and we start listening to what God says about us? It says in 2 Corinthians 5 that if anyone is in Christ, he is a what? A new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. Do you know that word anyone means anyone? Doesn't matter what you've done,

what you did last week, last night, doesn't matter. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. Can I tell you something? The truest thing about you is what God says about you. The truest thing about you is what God says about you. Not what somebody else said about you, not what you say about you, what God says about you. God says you are loved, God says you are chosen, God says you are anointed, God says you are full of destiny, God says you are full of purpose. That's what God says. That's what's true about you. So here's what I know. I know that God, he always sees the best in his kids. He does, he sees the best in you. And you know what? You know this is true if you have a little kid. Like if you ever had a little kid, you just like saw, aw, little baby, aw, little toddler, aw. And if they ever got into a fight with another kid, it was always the other kid's fault. What'd they do? Couldn't be my perfect angel, right? Or if you go into a teacher meeting and your kid's acting up in school and you're like, well, he's just not being challenged. That's the problem. He must be gifted, right? Because we see the best in our kids,

just like God sees the best in you. Like he saw the best in Gideon and he called that out in Gideon. Now Gideon, when the angel says the Lord is with you, mighty warrior, Gideon begins to make all excuses. Like I'm the Lord. least of the least of the least, I'm disqualified, I can't do it. Can I tell you, God knows your weaknesses before he called you. He is not surprised at your humanity. He's not surprised with your struggles. He's not surprised with your doubts and your insecurities. He just doesn't want you to be controlled by them. He wants you to move past it, to move out of it, to get out of that hole and be who you've been created to be. So then the angel of the Lord in verse 14, after Gideon's just like complaining, the angel of the Lord interrupts him and says, go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hands. Say that last part with me out loud. Have I not sent you? So the angel says, go in the strength you have. Have I not sent you? I wanna tell somebody today, God sent you. He sent you to that workplace. He sent you to that school. He sent you to that friend group.

He's put you in that family. He has sent you. God said, have I not sent you? Go in the strength you have. It may not feel like a lot of strength. It may not feel like a lot of faith. You might be dealing with a little bit of doubt, but go with what you got. Go with, Gideon didn't feel like he had much, but the angel of the Lord said, go with what you got. I drove all the way down from West Palm Beach in the rain this morning at like 6 a.m. to tell somebody, go with what you got. It may not be a lot, but you got something. You got some faith because you got to church this morning. The devil tried to take you out, but do you know on your worst day, the devil didn't take you out on his best day. You're still here. You're still standing. You got faith. You got calling on your life. Go with what you've got. And wasn't it Jesus who said, all it takes is just a little bit of faith, just a little mustard seed faith. That's all it takes. Look what he says in Matthew 17. If you have faith as small as a mustard seed,

one of the smallest seeds on the planet, you can say to that mountain, that mountain of sickness, that mountain of doubt, that mountain of debt, whatever's up against you, move from here to there and say it with me and it will move. All it takes is mustard seed faith. But can I remind you that a seed was not created to stay a seed. A seed was not created to stay small. It was created to get planted and to grow into something big that is life-giving and strong, right? I'm afraid too many Christians hold on to that verse for far too long and they're walking around going, I got my mustard seed faith. Jesus said, all I need is a little mustard seed. Here's my little mustard seed. Jesus also said, oh ye of little faith, grow that thing. Come on, grow up in your faith. Let your faith get stronger. Plant that thing. Water the thing. And can I tell you, that's what you're doing today. By being here today in church, you have planted your seed. That faith seed, it's growing. Your faith is gonna get bigger. Every time you jump in to groups,

your faith gets bigger. When you get to the Sons Conference, man, your faith is gonna get bigger. You're planting that thing. You're not just keeping it small. It's okay that your faith starts small. It's just not supposed to stay small. Grow that thing. One other thing from this part of the story and then we'll move on. I love where God meets Gideon. Think about the story. God meets Gideon down in a hole, hiding from the enemy. Like God does a way for Gideon to get his act together. God does a way for Gideon to start acting like a mighty warrior before he calls him out as a mighty warrior. He meets him right where he was with all his fears and worries and doubts and insecurities. Here's the point. God meets us where we are today. God meets you right where you are. Where are you on your spiritual journey right now? What doubts and fears and hangups are you dealing with? It's okay. God meets you right there. He doesn't wait until you get everything in your life, all your issues, your anger issues, all that stuff, all worked out before he wants to use you

because if that were the case, I wouldn't be up here today. Pastor Terrence and Pastor Emma would not have planted the church, right? Because we're working through it with God. But he meets you where you are. So Gideon finally takes the angel of the Lord at his word. He gets out of the hole and before he can go fight the Midianites, the angel tells him he has to go tear down an altar to the false god of Baal that his father had set up. There had been some things, listen to me, that had been passed down generationally. He didn't set the altar up. His father had set it up to this false god. And the angel of the Lord said, you've got to go tear that down before you can go out and be who you're called to be. Can I tell you there's some things in our lives that has to be torn down so that God can build you up into the man of God or the woman of God that he's called you to be. There's some things that you put up with for far too long. There's some things that maybe have been passed down from you from generation to generation. and God wants you to break that off so that you can step up and be who you're called to be, you gotta go tear that down. What is that thing? What is that thing you put up with? What is that thing in your home or your family?

Or yeah, my mama always did it, my dad always did it, my grandma always did it. God's like, no, stop that. Do not carry that forward. You cannot be who you're called to be, dragging that with you. Cut it down. And when the angel told him to go do this, he couldn't do it alone. He actually got a group of guys with him from the Sons Conference to go down and tear that thing down. See, sometimes there's things in your life that are too big for you to tear down alone. And the reason I know this is because you've tried. There's things you've tried to stop doing and break free from and habits or addictions or things that are holding you back and you've told God, I'm never gonna do that again and I'm not gonna do like that again and there you are again. It's just because you're not meant to tear it down alone. The only battle you can't win is the one you try to fight alone. You weren't created to fight alone, which is why your pastors are telling you, you may group up, get in a group. I mean, if you get in a group, somebody's gonna help you. Somebody that's torn that down is gonna help you tear that down.

You can't tear it down alone. And some of y'all think you don't need any help tearing anything down. Let me tell you, God has ordained you to help somebody else tear down what they need tore down. That's why you need to go to the group training that's happening on Wednesday, May 20th at 630 at the HQ. If you get there, you're actually gonna learn how to help some other people tear some stuff down to be who they're called to be. So Gideon tears it down with his friends, finally gathers 32,000 men to go fight the Midianites. And you hear 32,000, I read that and I'm like, that's a lot of guys. But there was 135,000 of the enemy. So they were outnumbered four to one. Now I've seen enough good movies to know they could take them out, right? That's not impossible, it could happen. So God said, you got too many guys, you're gonna think it's you. Tell everybody who's afraid to leave. Gideon's like, tell them to leave if they're afraid. Can I go, can I leave too? He tells them that and 22,000 of the 32,000 guys walk out the door. There's nothing I don't think is painful is when somebody walks out on you. Somebody's like, I'm gonna be there for you, pastor. I'm gonna never go, I'm in at Hardin's.

And they're out the door, they're gone. Okay, great. Or when a business partner walks out on you or a spouse walks out on you or a best friend walks out on you, it opens the door to doubt all over again, doesn't it? Like, what's wrong with me? Like, why did they leave me? Two thirds of his army walk out. I'm sure he was already feeling a little bit unsure and insecure. And now he's left with just 10,000. And the Lord says, you still have too many. Take them down to the spring, have them drink water. And all of them that scoop water up with their hands and drink it, keep those guys. But everybody that gets down on all four and drinks like a dog, kick them out. So he takes them down to the water well and they're all around the spring and they're all drinking and 9,700 of them laugh it up like a dog. They're gone. He tells them, you gotta leave, you're drinking wrong. They had to be going, what are you talking about? That's stupid, why would you send us away for drinking water wrong? They were questioning his leadership. They were questioning him. I'm sure Gideon was doubting himself all over again.

He was doubting, God, did I even hear you right? Or was that just like the bad hummus I ate last night? What was that? He's left there with just 300 guys. Back in 2021, Julie and I got to go to Israel. And I'd been to Israel about a dozen times before, usually leading large groups. But I wanted to go back with just us and a couple friends and experience it firsthand and go some places I had never gone. And I'd never gone to Gideon Springs. They've got a picture of the exact location and they know because of the archeological digs around this watering spring that this is the, you got the picture? The exact place where Gideon took his soldiers that day. And it's bigger than this. That's where the spring comes out of the rock. But because of some cities that they found that are mentioned in the Bible, they know that they know that Gideon and his men were right there. And when I got there, I was not expecting to be emotionally turned upside down by a spring coming out of the ground. But I started to like fight back tears and all this emotion. And I'm like, what is going on? Why am I crying over water? It doesn't make sense.

But I think I was relating to what maybe Gideon was feeling in that moment when people were coming against him and he was doubting himself and he was feeling insecure because man, I'll tell you in my leadership, there's been so many times where I felt insecure. So many times where I doubted myself and decisions I had to make and still, God, am I up for this? I was questioning that and I was like, relating to Gideon's maybe pain in that moment, right? But I think what really hit me is I. processed it, was that it was Gideon's obedience to God. That he cared more about what God said to him than what others might say about him. And that he obeyed and he said, you gotta go. 9,700 of you, gotta go. Like you can't, I gotta do what God said. Even though he didn't understand how it was all gonna work out. Even though he had no way of understanding if it would even work out, right? Here's what I learned in that moment. I was reminded that you don't have to understand completely in order to obey immediately. You don't have to understand completely in order to obey God immediately. Because there's no way that Gideon understood how this was gonna work out or if it was gonna work out, but God was expecting obedience

to follow the plan that he laid out for. And can I just tell you, there are so many times that God is gonna do the same thing with you and me. So many times, he'll give you a word, just a word. And you're like, okay, how do I step out on this word, right? It's like a piece to a puzzle. Have you ever put puzzles together? I don't really do that, but my mom loves to put puzzles together. I remember there's all these puzzle pieces laid out. But she's got the top of the box laying there so she kinda knows how it all fits together. Sometimes God gives you the piece of the puzzle, but he doesn't give you the puzzle box top. So you don't even know where this piece goes, but you know what you're supposed to do with this. You're supposed to move forward. He's given you a word about obedience and trusting him in an area or surrendering a part to him or giving him that relationship. There's been things that he's told you to do. And so when he calls you to step out, it's kinda scary. Had to be like when Abraham, when God called Abraham to leave his home country, everything that he knew, God said, I wanna start a people through you, Abraham, but you're gonna go to a land that I'll tell you of when you get there. So he just had to head out, just like pack up the bags. We're going.

And I'm sure his wife was like, Sarah was like, where are we going? He's like, I don't know. We're just gonna go that direction. And when we get there, God's gonna show us. See, anytime God calls you to step out from your known into what is unknown, you need to remember it's only unknown to you. It's not unknown to God. Nothing is unknown to God. So you're back in your known going, oh, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. And God's like, you gotta go there. Like, I don't know what that is. But as soon as you step into the unknown, knowing that God knows where you're stepping into, he's waiting for you there in the unknown. You actually get to know God a whole lot better because you learn how to trust his hand. You learn how to learn his voice. You learn how to trust in him, not in yourself. And so God's gonna call you. I wonder what God's been asking you to step out and trust him in. Maybe an area of your life that he's been talking to you about to trust him in. Maybe in a relationship to trust me with that. Or get out of that relationship. Or maybe he's been talking to you about your career, your future.

Maybe he's been talking to you about finances. Because you know, Christians, we love to give God everything and trust him with everything but our finances. Think about it. We trust him with our eternal salvation. Yes, Lord, my soul for all eternity, right? We trust him with problems. God, take my problems. We trust him with our children. God, take my children. Sometimes our children are our problems. God, take them. Just take them. But then when it comes to finances, we're like, oh, I think I can do better. I think I need to manage it. I think I need to control it instead of just trusting him completely. Where do you need to step out and trust God? So Gideon steps out and trusts God. And he's got 300 guys going to go. It's 135,000 guys. So the odds are completely stacked against him. He had to be thinking, this isn't gonna work. Like, okay, but this isn't gonna work. 300 against 135,000 people. Maybe you've got a situation like that in your own life where it feels like the odds are stacked against you and you feel like it isn't gonna work.

It could be a dream that God put in on your heart and it just feels like it's not gonna work. Maybe you don't have enough resources, enough time, enough money. But what if not enough is all you need? What if not enough is just enough to keep you trusting in God and not in yourself? What if not enough is just enough to keep you looking to the Lord and not to your own power or your own strength? So Gideon, with not enough, took his 300 men, gave them a torch, a jar to put over the torch, and a trumpet to blow, and they went up on the mountaintop around the enemy that was down in the valley, camped out. They snuck up there. They had the torch covered with a jar so they couldn't see him, and then all of a sudden, they all broke the jars, the torches came out, they blew the horn, and they shouted, for the Lord! and for Gideon, and the enemy, it says, turned on each other, the 135,000. They all thought this huge army was attacking. They start killing each other. And so then Gideon and the guys get to go down and raid all the plunder from the Midianites that they had been taking from them. They got everything back. That one day, everything changed.

That one day, what I want you to see is that one day, what had been going on for seven years, month after month, year after year, changed. People of God were set free. The harassment of the enemy, it stopped, but it wouldn't have happened if Gideon had stayed in his hole, if Gideon had not believed who God said he was. And see, when Gideon stepped out of that hole, he actually became a mighty warrior. He became who God says he was. It changed him, but it didn't just change him. It changed a whole nation of people. There was a whole group of people that were forever changed because Gideon got out of the hole. I would even say people that Gideon would never meet. He would never know all the people that would be set free because of his one action of being who God called him to be. Can I tell you the same is true with you? When you step out of your hole, when you step in to who God has called you to be, yes, it's gonna change you, but let me tell you, it's gonna impact your family, it's gonna impact your kids if you've got kids, it's gonna impact generations to come outside of you, it's gonna impact your neighbors and the people at your work and the kids you go to school with when you step up and be who God has called you to be.

And if God could do this with a frightened farmer, just imagine what he can do with you, filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with the presence of God, planted in a church like this that is full of faith. Imagine what he can do with you if he could do that with Gideon. Do you know that fear and faith both have the same root definition? Listen to me on this. Both of them believe that what they cannot see is going to happen. So fear believes that what he cannot see is gonna happen. Faith believes that what he cannot see is gonna happen. And whichever one you align your life with will direct the future of your life and who you're gonna be. You're either gonna be controlled by this one or this one. You get to choose and you get to choose today. As I was praying about the service and you, I wanted to pray over you. And I wanted to pray specifically for those of you that have been struggling in this area of doubt. And if you were to admit, you would say, yeah, Todd, I feel like doubt's really been coming against me and holding me back. I've been intimidated by some things going on in my life. I just don't know that I have what it takes to step out and be who God's called me to be. I wanna pray that the gift of faith

that I believe God has put on my life, I wanna pray that over your life. It doesn't mean that doubt is never gonna come back because it comes knocking at my door all the time. But I'm able to combat it with this spirit of faith that God has given me. And I wanna pray that over you. And so if you're here today and you have, you've been struggling with a spirit of doubt or discouragement that's trying to take you out, I'm gonna ask you to do something brave. I'm gonna ask you to stand up right where you are, if that's you, so I can pray over you. And by standing what you're doing, and I'm not expecting everybody to have to stand, but if this is your struggle, if you're saying, Todd, today, what you're talking about, you're talking to me. And I'm not gonna stay down anymore. I'm not gonna stay back anymore. I'm gonna step in and be who I'm called to be. What you're doing by standing up is you're activating that faith. You're actually getting out of the hole. You just took a step that Gideon had to take in order to say, I'm gonna operate in faith, not in fear. I'm gonna walk in my destiny and my calling, who God has called me to be, who I am. And so I wanna pray over you. Those of you standing, would you just open up your hands

to receive as I pray over you. Father God, I thank you for the men and women and the students that have stood in this room today out of faith. God, they've stood up, maybe some of them with their doubts and their questions. That's okay. But Lord, you're gonna fill them today with the spirit of faith. And Lord, I actually pray for the gift of faith to rest upon them, the faith that you've given me spiritually. God, I just convey that to my brothers and sisters in this room today, that they would not be controlled or dictated by fear any longer, but that God, faith would rise up on the inside. And when the enemy tries to hold them back and keep them down, that God, your word would echo over them, that the truest thing about them is what you say about them. Who they are is who you say they are, that you have called them and anointed them and purposed them for great things that will change them, but it will also change the people around them. And so I pray faith, I pray courage, I pray spiritual eyes to see in heavenly places. As we continue to pray,

I just wanna ask everybody else to stand for this second prayer. If you'd stand with me today. The second prayer that I wanna pray is a prayer of faith in Jesus. And you and I will never have the life God's created us to have, we'll never live the way we're supposed to live apart from a relationship with Jesus. Not about religion, not about joining a church, it's about a relationship of knowing God. And so the second prayer is gonna be for you to get that relationship with God. If you're here today and you need that relationship with God, like maybe you didn't know it was about a relationship, but you need to have that. Or if you were honest, your relationship is not where it needs to be. I wanna pray this prayer to help you bring that relationship into right alignment. And if you would say, Todd, include me in this prayer, right where you're standing, would you just raise a hand in the air so I know who I'm praying for today? You're about surrendering your life back to Jesus today. That's right, hold them up high. You're not ashamed of what God wants to do. We're gonna pray this prayer out loud. And those of you with your hands up,

you just pray it a little bit louder than the person standing next to you. Pray this after me. Say, dear Lord Jesus, come into my life. Forgive me of all my sin. Make me a new person from the inside out. Fill me with your hope. Give me your joy. I receive your peace. And I will walk with you every day of my life. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Come on, let's thank God today for those that made that decision for Jesus. Love you, church. Amen, hey, heaven is celebrating and we are celebrating with you. And we wanna walk this journey together. So if you prayed that prayer, or you just wanna know more about Jesus, follow the prompts that are on the screen right now. We are so proud of you. And honestly, God's vision for you is to see you live that better story, epic and eternal. We say it like this, to see you holy, healthy, happy, and bring in heaven to earth. And if you're watching and you wanna help others find Jesus like that, you can partner with us and together we can make that epic difference.

Hey, giving details are coming up on the screen. And we just say, if God's blessed you, you can be a blessing to other people as well. And hey, if you're here in the South Florida area, we'd love to see you in person. Check out the description below for times and the location where you can come to a service. We would love to see you soon. This is History Makers Church where friends truly become family. See you soon. you