Out of My Mind - Stop Asking for a Sign

Hey church welcome today man good to see all of you whether you're at home or whether you're in the room let's get on our feet put those hands together come on. We are here to worship come bring your song and God's done great things but he's not done the sound of heaven come and flood the earth let the saints rise up as your glory fills the church for the lord is good his love endures forever come on lift it up he is always good his love from whom all blessings flow praise him on the earth below he is worthy worthy praise God won't you help me praise father son and holy he is worthy worthy praise God come on oh praise God he is worthy worthy praise God praise God foreign we raise our hands foreign He is worthy, worthy, praise God, for you have me, worthy, praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He is worthy, worthy, praise God. Come on, give Him praise. Oh, praise God. He is worthy, worthy, praise God. Praise God. He is worthy, worthy. And on that day, when the trumpet sounds, every eye will see, and every knee will bow. All the glory and power, to Christ our King. Oh, He reigns forever, all creation sing. Are you ready? Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, praise Him on the earth below. He is worthy, worthy, praise God, for you have me, worthy, praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He is worthy, worthy, praise God. Oh, praise God. He is worthy, worthy, praise God. Praise God.

He is worthy, worthy, praise God. Oh, we praise you, Lord. Come on and praise Him. Yeah! I just want to speak the name of Jesus. Over every heart and every mind Cause I know there is peace within your presence I speak Jesus I just wanna speak the name of Jesus Till every dark addiction starts to break Declaring there is hope and there is freedom I speak Jesus Your name is power Your name is healing Your name is light Break every stronghold Shine through the shadows Burn like a fire I just wanna speak the name of Jesus Over fear and all anxiety Till every stronghold captivated by depression I speak Jesus Your name is power Your name is healing Your name is light Break every stronghold Shine through the shadows Burn like a fire Your name is power Your name is healing

Your name is light Break every stronghold Shine through the shadows Burn like a fire Shout Jesus from the mountains Jesus in the streets Jesus in the darkness Over every enemy Jesus for my family I speak the holy name Jesus Shout Jesus from the mountains Jesus in the streets Jesus in the darkness Over every enemy Jesus for my family I speak the holy name Jesus Your name is power Your name is healing Your name is light Break every stronghold Shine through the shadows Burn like a fire Your name is power Your name is healing Your name is light Break every stronghold Shine through the shadows Burn like a fire

And I just wanna speak the name of Jesus Over every heart and every mind Oh, cause I know there is peace within His presence I speak Jesus Oh, I speak Jesus Jesus Jesus, Jesus Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streets Jesus in the darkness over every enemy And Jesus for our families, I speak the Holy Name Jesus Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streets Jesus in the darkness over every enemy And Jesus for our families, I speak the Holy Name Jesus Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streets Jesus in the darkness over every enemy And Jesus for our families, I speak the Holy Name Jesus We declare your name, Jesus. We declare your name over every single situation, over every single person. Over our lives, over our minds and our hearts, God. Over our desires, over our plans, over our failures, over our futures, God, we declare the name of Jesus. If you're comfortable, church, one more time, just you, your own lips, your own words, can you just speak the name of Jesus in this room? Right there where you are. Come on, speak his name. Come on, lift his name up. His name is power. His name is healing. His name is wholeness. His name is redemption. Only Jesus. Only you, Jesus. We worship you. We worship you. I feel like maybe some of us came today with burden by sin.

Maybe you have some stuff going on in your life that you've been struggling. And maybe you have carried it for a long time and maybe it's brand new. Maybe it's 50 years. Maybe it's 5 seconds. Here's what's so amazing about the cross. It's just as powerful today. The work that Jesus Christ did for us is just as powerful now, in 2025, as it was 2,000 years ago. When he went to the cross, Colossians 2 says, amen, celebrate that, yeah? Christ took the sins of all of us and he nailed them to the cross. We don't have to carry that. We don't have to fight that alone. So maybe today just the act of confession is going to let that go and let Christ take care of that. Something we've been trying to white knuckle and trying to do ourselves. We don't have to do that. That's why communion is so powerful and we do it every single week. It's a chance for us just to come clean with God. He sees it all. He knows it all. He knows us better than we know ourselves. But there's something powerful about confessing to him. So I'm going to invite you to have a seat where you are. Stay in this atmosphere of worship. There's healing today. There's redemption today. There's revival for some of us today. And it's not magic in the juice or the bread. It's just a piece of bread and some juice. That's all that is in and of itself. But when we do it in the name of Jesus and remember what he did, there's power in it. So I'm going to invite you just to spend a moment just between you and the Father. If there's anything on your heart, just to confess to him. When you're ready, when you've done that, you can receive the elements.

But receive them in faith that God's doing the work in us. Thank you, Father. Thank you that your plans are greater than our own. Thank you, God, the moment we try to take control that you remind us again and again that you already have it all. Thank you for taking our sin, the price that we deserve to pay. And we held it to the cross with Jesus. God, we love you. Come and move today. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Well, hey there, Pantano, how are we? Doing all right? Hey, way to go, you braved the winter. Tucson. Hey, I wanna do something real quick. We're gonna do our online welcomes a little different today, but I do wanna welcome in our online campus, Gospel Rescue Mission, all of them are with us. So do me a favor, let them know that you love them. We're glad you're with us. But I wanna open today with a great theological spoken word from a 90s theologian. It goes like this. I, I got a new life. You would hardly recognize me. I'm so glad. How can a person like me care for you? Why do I bother when you're not the one for me? Oh, is enough, enough. I saw the sign. It opened up my eyes.

I saw the sign. Life is demanding without understanding. I saw the sign. It opened up my eyes. I saw the sign. No one's gonna drag you up to get you to the light where you belong, but where do you belong? By the way, if you're singing Ace of Base in your head right now, you got it. If you're like, who's Ace of Base? You weren't born before 2000, but now you're gonna sing this song the rest of the day in your head. I saw the sign. Opened up my eyes. I saw the sign. I remember hearing that song in high school. And like, it's one of those, you don't wanna admit you like that song, but you know every word to that song. It's like people saying, I don't like Nickelback. Why do they sell lots of records? Somebody's buying them, right? We live in a culture that's all about wanting a sign. Just give me a sign. Show me a sign. God, give me a sign. Now, online, this is where you guys come in. I wanna do something with you online today,

and it's gonna benefit the rest of us in the room, but I wanna ask you a question. I want you to type it down in the response, and we're gonna talk about those later in the message, but here's what I want you to type. What area of your life that you're waiting for God to show you a sign? Just type it down in there, and I'm gonna warn you in advance. I'm actually going to read those, so what you type is going to probably get read, okay? But put those in there. We're gonna come back to that in a little bit, but if I'm honest with myself, I usually want a sign so I don't have to do what I think God is telling me to do. That's usually why I want a sign. I rarely want a sign that I should do something. I usually want a sign to let me off the hook. Are you that way? Hey, God, give me a sign that I shouldn't do this. Give me a sign that I don't have to go through this. So I usually use God as my scapegoat to my delayed obedience. In fact, I usually make myself partially obedient by waiting for God to show up to do what I already know I'm supposed to do. I don't know if you do this little game with God, but let me remind you of this, that I remind myself, and I have to remind myself of this often,

is partial obedience is still complete disobedience. Partial obedience to God is still complete disobedience to God, and that's hard, isn't it? Partial obedience is literally saying to God, I kind of trust you, but let's just see how it plays out. I kind of want to do what you want me to do, but I'm gonna wait till you give me the perfect sign to do it. But see, waiting for a sign from God is usually me waiting to not do what I know he's calling me to do. And if I know what I should do and I don't do it, can I tell you what that's called? Disobedience. But we call it in our faith circle sometimes, I'm just waiting for a sign. Just show me a sign, God. And here's the funny thing. We think that we've got these compartments of life, don't we? Like you've got your work life, you've got your home life, you've got your recreational life, and then you've got your spiritual life, maybe your church life. And the funny thing is, if you were to tell a good God-fearing Jew in the first century about all those compartments of life, you know what they would do?

They would look at you and go, what? What do you mean you have this life and this life and this life? Everything that you have is spiritual. Everything is in the midst of your faith journey. So let me ask you, what about you? Have you had a time in your life where you know what you're supposed to do, but you keep asking God for a sign for more confirmation? You ever had that? You're like, I know I'm kinda supposed to do this, God, but I'm gonna wait for you to show me one more thing. And so we delay what we're supposed to do because we don't really wanna do it. Or even worse, we blame God for not giving us more confirmation when we know what to do. We blame him instead. And truthfully, you wanna know where our real sign lies? If you would actually read this and pray to God. He's like, I've already given you my sign. It's right here, it's in my word. I've given you a sign. You can speak to me, you can talk to me, you can ask me. He's already given us a sign. His word through Jesus. He's already given it to us. So we started this series last week called Out of My Mind. And we talked about how a little bit of our lives we spend in our heads, like we're constantly in our heads. We overthink, and this is one of those places

where I think we've gotta get out of our mind and into action. And so today I wanna open with a story that I think is the epitome of this. This is a story about this guy named Gideon. You ever heard about Gideon? If you got Bibles, I want you to go over to the book of Judges. It's an Old Testament book right after Joshua. Joshua, Judges, Judges chapter six. Now I'm not gonna read the entire story of Gideon. In fact, somebody in an earlier service looked at me and was like, thank you for not doing that because it's long. So I'm gonna encourage you, go back and read Judges six and seven. But I do wanna walk through this because Gideon's story is one I think we can all relate to. It's a person called by God, but he's stuck in the cycle of overthinking and asking God for signs to confirm what God's already told him he's gonna do. Delayed obedience. So go to Judges chapter six, verse 11. Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree of Ophrah. Not Oprah, by the way. This isn't you get a sign, you get a sign, you get a sign, you get like, that's not what this is, okay?

By the way, I've read that for years as Oprah. I'm saying that more for myself. Which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abazar. Gideon, son of Joash, was threshing wheat at the bottom of a wine press to hide the grain from the Midianites. And then it says, the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, mighty hero. Isn't that a great way to be greeted by God? Mighty hero. When you hear who Gideon is, it's even better. The Lord is with you. Could you think of a greater greeting from God? Hey, mighty hero, I got you, I'm with you, I got your back, Gideon. And Gideon replies this. If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn't they say, the Lord brought us out of Egypt, but now the Lord has abandoned us, he's handed us over to the Midianites. Then the Lord turned to him and said, go with strength. Go with the strength you have. And then he says, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. And then God tells Gideon the same thing he told Moses that we talked about last week. I am sending you. I'm with you. Now, here's where Gideon does what Moses does, what we do. He starts to make excuses.

He says, but Lord, how can I rescue Israel? And then he goes into the Gideon pity party. My clan is the weakest of all the tribes of Manasseh, and I am the weakest in my entire family. I'm the least. Do you hear what he's saying? He goes, I'm nobody. Like, not only is our tribe the worst tribe in all of Israel, I'm the least in the worst tribe. Nobody is going to use me. Nobody's expecting me to be used. And I love this. He's like, God's like, okay, are you done? He's like, I'll be with you, Gideon. I've got your back. He says, and you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man. Isn't that incredible? I don't know about you, but if God comes to me and he's like, hey, hero, I'd be like, yeah, that's awesome. Then he's like, I'm going to send you to be a rescuer, and when you go, you're going to be able to fight like you're only fighting one man. And Gideon makes excuses. And you're going to notice a common theme of being in our heads and not out of our minds. It's usually this, it's thinking less of ourself than God does. We usually think less of ourselves than what God actually sees us as.

Gideon is in the weakest tribe and he sees himself as the least qualified in his entire family. And he says, he says this to God like God doesn't know the situation. Can you imagine looking at God and going, yeah, but God, you don't, listen, I don't think you know. I'm the least of the least. I'm nobody. By the way, some of you, this is how you talk to God too. You're like, God, you can't, I'm nobody. How are you going to use me? Anybody ever feel like a nobody? Show of hands. Me all the time, by the way, I'm raising mine. Here's what I love about God. You know what God's in the business of? Using nobodies to reach somebodies. That's what he's in the business of, of using us to do what he wants to do for his kingdom. Like, it's interesting to me because God knows what's up with Gideon. But here's the interesting thing about God. God's not asking Gideon to go. He didn't say, hey, do you want to go rescue Israel? He goes, no, you're going to go rescue Israel. I'm sending you. God's empowering him. God is preparing him. Now, some of you, you feel like Gideon.

You feel like the weakest, you feel like the least. You're like, God can never use me. Nobody expects you to be anything great is how you feel about yourself. But here's the problem, God sees the good that he created you for. He already knows he's created you for something, and here's what I need you to understand, God sees who we can become, not just who we are. God sees who you can become, not just who you are, and most of us asking for a sign is our lack of trust in who God actually created us to be. We're really saying, God, I don't really trust that's true of me. God, I think you may have got the recipe a little mixed up in me. Maybe you've put a little extra salt when you should have put a little extra sugar, you know what I mean? Because some of you are all salty, you know what I'm saying? That's funny, I don't care who you are, that's a riot. We go back to Judges chapter six, verse 36, it says, then Gideon said to God, okay, if you're truly gonna use me to rescue Israel, as you promised, by the way, he should have just stopped the sentence right there. There should have been a period, not a comma. He says, prove it to me in this way. So let me get this straight, Gideon, God told you,

he's with you, gonna use you, he's gonna rescue you, and now you're like, okay, prove it. He's like, give me a sign. Gideon's like, could you ace a basis for me? I wanna see the sign. He says, I'm gonna put out a wool fleece on the threshing floor tonight, and if the fleece is wet with dew in the morning, but the ground is dry, then I'll know you're gonna help me rescue Israel, as you promised. Now, I don't know about you, this seems like kind of a, like a party trick. And it's interesting, because the next scripture says, and that's just what happened. And when Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece, and he wrung out a whole bowl full of water. Now, even if I wasn't Gideon, but I asked to do this, and I saw that, I'd be like, okay, that was pretty good, God, I think I trust. Then Gideon said to God, please don't be angry, can I make one more request? Really? If I'm God, I'm like, what are you doing, man? Really? We're playing with fleece, that's what we're doing? You went and shaved a sheep for this right here? He says, let me use the fleece for one more test, this time, let the fleece remain dry, while the ground around it is wet with dew.

So that night, God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew. It's interesting, because Gideon's hesitation, you know what it actually shows? His struggle to trust God. He's struggling to trust God in this moment. He's delaying what God wants to do. Like, God's already told him, I'm with you, I will rescue you, I'm the God of the universe, I created you, Gideon, I'm with you, you have seen me part the seas, you have seen me do these things. And his lack of confidence is causing him to keep asking for a sign. And what's great to me, is that God does what he asks. But it's like God's going, really, Gideon? This is what you wanna waste our time with? Fleece? Fleece and dew? Like, I'm here to rescue Israel through you. And here's what's interesting, because Gideon takes two extra days, he's delayed the rescue of Israel by two days. He's delayed it. He's demanding for God to show him this sign. By the way, God's word should be enough of a sign for Gideon. It should be enough of a sign for us. God's word is the sign.

God has promised that he is with us, he'll deliver us, he will do all these things for us. Like, that should be the sign enough for us. That's why I firmly believe if we actually dive into this, God gives you the sign that you need for life. He'll actually show you what it is that he wants to do with you. Go over another chapter, Judges chapter seven. Gideon's finally done with the fleece and the dew. He's now going to do what God has called him to do. Verse one, chapter seven, says, "'So Jerubabel,' that is Gideon, "'and his army got up early "'and went as far as the spring of Herod. "'The armies of Midian were camped north of them "'in the valley near the hill of Moriah. "'The Lord said to Gideon,' I love this, he goes, "'Hey, you got too many warriors with you. "'Now, I don't know how you go to war, "'but I want to take as many warriors as possible into war.'" We live in a military town here in Tucson. We have the Air Force Base. We have Fort Huachuca down the road. We got the army. Thank you for all of you that serve and what you do. And I'm guessing when you go into battle, you don't go, hey, we're just going to take one of those planes. We're just going to take like five guys. I'm not talking about the hamburger place, by the way.

I'm talking about just guys in general, right? Even though that'd be a good thing to take with you too for some nourishment. But the Lord looks at him, he goes, "'You got too many warriors. "'If I let all of you fight the Midianites, "'the Israelites will actually, "'they'll boast to me that they save themselves "'by their own strength.'" And so he says. Tell them this, whoever is timid or afraid, you can leave the mountain and go home. Can you imagine? You're sitting in the barracks, in walks the general. Hey guys, good news, any of y'all scared to death? You can go home. You can go, you're good. Head on out. Now, I think there would have been hesitation. I'd be like, this is a trap. We're gonna have to run, aren't we? If we leave, you're gonna make us run. But they don't. It says 22,000 of them went home, leaving only 10,000 willing to fight. So of 32,000 men, 22 are like, I'm petrified, peace out. I imagine Gideon's like, wow, didn't see that coming. God, what are you doing? But then the Lord told Gideon, I love this, he goes, yeah, there's still too many.

I imagine Gideon at this point is like, wait, 10,000 is too many? Like, they have a lot more than we do, God. And God says, bring them down to the spring and I will test them to determine who will go with you and who will not. And then there's this moment that God kind of parses them out, you can go read it. And then the Lord told Gideon, after another 9,000 plus leave, with these 300 men, we went from 32,000 to 300 men, he goes, I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites, send all the others home. Anybody else think that's crazy? If I'm Gideon leading the army, I'm like, you want us to take 300 guys and defeat all of them? By the way, this is like the original movie, 300, right here, right? That's what this is. And I need you to understand, victory comes through faith, not by relying on signs or human strength. That's where victory comes from, it comes through faith. He's showing Gideon, hey, Gideon, I'm enough. This isn't about your fleece, this isn't about the dew, this isn't about your sign, this is about I am enough. You don't need signs and certainty, Gideon, you need the word of the creator of the universe that says, I will do what I say I'm gonna do. I bet he's telling us the same thing. Sometimes we keep asking for signs,

and God's like, where's your faith? And so often, I don't know if you're like me, I try to do this on my own, but just straw poll, how many of you try to do a little bit of life and faith on your own, anybody? Oh, look, we're all control freaks, look at us. Like literally, that's Gideon in this moment, and then we wonder why we're stalled out or we're not getting anywhere when we, now, there's this phrase that I used to hate, and I still don't really like it. And you know why I don't like it? Because I'm learning that it's true. But it was this stupid phrase, let go and let God. It's a stupid phrase. It's a phrase that's usually stitched on a pillow in your grandmother's living room, where the sofa has plastic on it. If you know what that room is, we can be friends, right? Or maybe it's on one of those accessories posters in an office somewhere, and it's like, let go, let God, and I was always like, I hate that phrase. Until I realized that phrase is true. That if you actually let go and let God, it's amazing the things that God will actually do when you stop trying to hold on to everything. And usually when we're asking for a sign, we're holding on for control. So a couple things. Here's the first thing.

Faith actually delays when you demand signs. Faith actually delays when you demand signs. It's the challenge, like, let God lead. But if we don't respond in faith, but we demand signs, that's where our faith gets delayed. In Judges 6, when he's got the fleece out in front, and it's actually slowing God's response to what he's already called him to do. Signs often become a substitute for faith. That's what they often do. They're symptoms of fear, not trust. But that's what they usually are. Like, stop waiting for perfect conditions or endless confirmations. By the way, if you're waiting for perfect conditions, can I tell you what's never gonna show up? Perfect conditions. It just won't. And I know a lot of you are like, so we shouldn't ask God for signs. I think we ought to ask God for the eyes to see the signs already in front of us. Because a lot of times we're delaying our faith by continually asking these questions, and faith begins with a single step of obedience. Sometimes you just gotta take the step. You're never gonna have perfect conditions. I had this guy I worked with a few years ago. And I kid you not, I was his boss, and he said this to me in a meeting, he goes,

I don't wanna pull the trigger until I'm 100% sure that I'm going to win. I was like, we work in a church, what are we winning? He's like, but if I take this risk, if we do this thing, like, what if it doesn't work? I'm like, but what if it does? Like, what if it does? I don't need 100% certainty to move. I don't know, maybe you're a 100%-er. I'm not. I'm like a 60%-er. Some of you guys are like, that's a solid D minus, bro. Not in God's economy. In God's economy, I'm an A student with a 60%. Like, I can see 60% and go, okay, God, you're telling us to move. I don't know how it works, I don't know what it does, but let's roll. And he kept telling me, he was like, I can't do that. And I'm like, then it's gonna be really hard for you to lead in the kingdom of God. Because you're delaying your faith, asking God to show you more. I think a lot of times we get paralyzed by asking God for more, and really what it means is we're kind of scared to move in faith. Because faith delays when you demand signs. Here's the second thing, faith doesn't depend on proof. That my faith does not depend on God proving himself to me.

Go to Matthew chapter 12. This is Jesus, I love this. He goes, one day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus. So these are the church guys, these are the religious leaders, these are the guys that are in seminary, these are the guys that know scripture, and they come to Jesus and they say, teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority. In other words, could you David Copperfield this thing for us? For those of you that don't remember that, could you David Blaine this for us, right? Be a magician, but Jesus replies this. Listen to what he says. Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign. Ooh, that's tough. He's like, evil, adulterous. But the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of a great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. By the way, I don't know if you catch what he's talking about, but he's talking about the resurrection.

He's talking about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. And so what Jesus is really saying, you want a sign? I'm gonna give you a sign. I'm gonna raise from the dead. You don't need any other signs. I don't need to go turn water to wine. I don't need to feed 5,000. I don't need to make the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk. I'm going to resurrect from the dead. That will be your sign for all of time now. That's what he says. That's the miracle. Or look at 2 Corinthians 5. It says, for we live by believing, not by what? Seeing. Belief. I have this friend, his name's Tim. Tim planted a church decades ago in Houston, also known as the sweatiest place in America in the summertime. By the way, they have this thing in Houston called humidity. Ladies, your hair looks like you had a fro nightmare when you go into Houston in the middle of summer. God had told them when they planted their church, Tim said that, Tim's one of those guys, by the way, that when you meet Tim,

there's people that you trust their spirituality and there's some people that are like, I hear from God and you're like, oh, okay. I'm not sure I buy that. Tim's one of those guys, when he tells you he's heard from God, he's really heard from God. Tim said that when they first launched and they were getting ready to launch their campus in Houston and get ready to try to reach the city of Houston, that him and his launch team, God told them that within 10 years, he said, God made it really clear that within 10 years, we were gonna have 1,000 people in our church. He said, here was the problem, at year eight and a half, we still had 75 people. He said, we were like, God, I thought you told us we were gonna have 1,000 people by year 10 and he started praying and his launch team that was with him for those eight and a half years, they started praying and here's what he said, I kept hearing, relaunch. He was like, I didn't like that word. He goes, then I started talking to my launch team that had been with me for the last eight and a half years and they were no longer a launch team, they were just my team and he said, one of them came in and was like, I keep hearing, relaunch. He's like, I don't wanna do that. God, you're gonna have to show me something else.

And then he had this moment where he was like, I need to stop asking God for a sign and be obedient. So he did the unthinkable, he shut their church down. Eight and a half years in, they shut the church down and they went into a relaunch and they relaunched about a year later, about nine and a half years in, they relaunched and then about six months later, they had their 10-year anniversary as being in Houston. You wonder how many people may have showed up on that 10-year anniversary? Over 1,000 people showed up that day. How does that happen? Because years later, now they're on seven campuses in Houston, they reach over 10,000 people a weekend in their city. And as I've listened to that story over the years, I've learned something from that. Is the first moment of trust can lead to a snowball effect of trust. When you trust once, it makes it easier to trust more. When you see God move, when you don't understand it, your faith does not depend on proof. Your faith depends on watching God move when it's uncertain. See, people thought Tim was crazy, except for those he trusted, who really believed he needed to obey God. He trusted God with what he told him and what people, instead of what God, like people in his gut were telling him,

he listened to what God told him. He didn't wait for a sign. He acted out of faith and God was faithful to him. And here's kind of the challenge of that is trust the promises of scripture because God's word is enough. God's word is enough. God's resurrection should be enough for us to go, I'm in. That's the only sign I need if you're telling me to do it. And here's really the third thing, faith grows through obedience, not certainty. We talked about last week, the opposite of faith is not doubt, it's certainty. Trying to be certain that it's all gonna work out, but faith grows through obedience, not certainty. If you go back to that Judges 7, I wanna read it to you again. It says, the Lord said to Gideon, you have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they've saved themselves by their own strength. Therefore, tell the people, whoever's timid or afraid, may leave this mountain and go home. So 22,000 went home, leaving only 10,000 willing to fight. But the Lord told Gideon, there's still too many. And that's where he divvies them out into the 300. 300 men was God saying, my power and my word are enough, Gideon.

You don't need any more signs for me. And here's what I love about God. God uses our weakness to display his strength. He uses your weakness and my weakness to display his strength. And I'm living proof that he uses weakness to display strength. Like I'm a bumbling fool most of the time. Some of you guys are like, we know. We see it. Some of you guys have sat in life with me. You're like, mm-hmm, yep, that's nothing new. But this is what I love about God. He takes our weakness and he displays his strength through it. Obedience actually fosters spiritual growth and deepens trust. Obedience, not certainty. Contrast Gideon's initial hesitation with his eventual boldness. When he finally acted, God delivered. Like remember when God said, you're gonna take out all of the Midianites like it was just one person? That's exactly what happens. He does it with 300 warriors, not with 32,000. So let me ask you this. Why would we keep asking for signs? In fact, here's a couple of reasons why I think we shouldn't keep asking for signs.

And I know a lot of people are like, but don't you want people to come to know Jesus? I do. I don't think they need a sign. I think they need an obedient people to show them what Jesus looks like through faith. That's what I think the world needs, that we would live in obedience. So here's why we shouldn't keep asking for signs. Here's the first thing, it delays obedience. Repeatedly asking for signs keeps us from taking the next step. Here's the second thing, it reflects distrust. The more we keep asking for God to give us certainty, it really suggests that God's word alone isn't enough. That God saying who he says he is is not enough. Here's the third thing, it actually stalls our growth. It stalls our growth. Faith matures when we act without needing all the answers. I bet if I were to straw poll this room right now, and I were to sit down and ask each of you that have really lived out your faith, the times in your life where you've seen God move the most is where you've actually stepped out in faith the most. And the places where you felt stalled is where you were waiting for certainty. And then here's the fourth thing, is God's patience actually has a purpose too. It has a purpose. Like remember God, he kind of accommodated Gideon's request

for a few moments to, I think he did that to build a little trust with Gideon, but honestly what he eventually does, he requires full reliance. He's like, that's fine Gideon, you wanna play with the fleece, I'll let you do that for a minute. But I'm still going to use you to do what I'm asking you to do. So the big question is, what does this mean for you? What does this mean for you? Like I think there are a lot of implications in this. I wanna go back to our online audience for a minute, because we asked you this question and now I know you're really nervous if you're online. And you're like, this is why I don't come in person, right here. But here's some answers. Like Jennifer is waiting for a sign with the direction in her health. Marisol is waiting for a sign about future career after college. Marcus is waiting for a sign to get baptized. Suzanne's waiting for a sign for career. Osmer's are waiting for a sign about moving their family cross country to Tucson. Oh, I can answer that for you. Here's your sign, move on down, all right. My guess is if I were to go around the world. in this room and do that,

all of you would have similar answers. There'd be something. Now, I'm not trying to out our online audience. Thank you, by the way, for being honest. Here's what I would say to all of us, including those of you that I just read your answers. Stop waiting and start trusting. Stop waiting and start trusting. It's in that trust that God does something. There's a couple things you can do. One is just take a step of faith. Take a step of faith. Identify an area in your life where you've been waiting for one more sign. You're like, God, just show me one more sign and I'll do it. And then he shows you and you're like, okay, what I really meant was, it's like saying you're gonna go to the gym on Monday. I met next Monday. No, I mean, I met the Monday, well, one Monday I'm gonna go. See, you gotta take a step of faith at some point. So this week, I'm gonna encourage you, take a bold step without any further confirmation. Just take a step. Not 10, not 20, just one. Share your faith with somebody. Reconcile a relationship. Serve in a ministry. FYI, a step of faith is usually not going to be something

that is going to harm you or someone else. God's not gonna use you to do that. It's always to move the kingdom forward. It's always gonna be an opportunity for you to experience hope and transformation, either in your life or the life of someone else. But it also doesn't mean it's something that's going to be easy. It's not gonna be easy, but I promise you it will be hopeful and transformational. I don't know what that thing in your life is, but maybe it's time to take a step. And then the second thing is, implement a practical action plan. I'm gonna give you three things in this action plan that you can do. These are so practical, so painstakingly easy, that you're gonna be like, well, that's not very much, yet we don't do it. Here's the first thing in there. Your action plan is pray. Like, ask God for guidance daily and listen to his word. Like, I think if we as God's people would just go, every morning wake up and go, okay, God, what do you want me to do today? We might be amazed that he might start answering us. And I think a lot of us think it's gonna be some grandiose thing. It might be, could you just encourage that person you see every day?

Could you help somebody find hope in a moment? Show somebody that they matter? Just pray. And after you pray, then commit. Write down one clear step that you're gonna take today. I would even encourage you today, if you've not already done this, pray, hey, God, what do you want me to do today? And then find one step that you can just commit, I'm gonna do this today. One thing. One thing. And then the third thing is act on it. Just act on it. Move forward, trust that God is with you, just as he was with Gideon. I know some of you, you've already gone here, you're like, yeah, but an angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and told him what to do. You're like, I don't have any angels showing up in my house. In fact, if you've been in my house, there's no angels in my house at all, right? But actually, it kind of leads to the third thing, is engage community. Engage community. See, when you share your step of faith with someone else for accountability and encouragement, it keeps you where you need to be. That may be your angel showing up, is the people around you, the community that you build.

Why do I think that rooted is imperative? Like, you hear me talk about rooted all the time. It's a 10-week discipleship experience. It is not a program. It's an experience to lead you in a way of community that helps you grow in your faith, in your obedience. By the way, you can still sign up for rooted for this semester. In fact, I'd encourage you to do so. Well, why do we have man church? By the way, man church this last week, almost 400 dudes showed up here last Monday morning at 6 a.m. If you were not one of them, shame on you, you should show up tomorrow at 6 a.m. right here. Again, I'm not bringing you coffee or food, but we will bring some Jesus. And here's what I love, is to sit in a room with almost 400 guys that were having conversations about faith. Ladies, why should you come to She in a couple weeks on the 17th? Friday morning, 8.30 a.m. right here, because we know you need a couple extra moments to get everybody out. Why should you show up? Because you engage in community, it changes how you live your life. Why would we encourage you to be in a group of people? Because when you engage in community,

you have an opportunity to be accountable to the things that God is calling you to be faithful to. You have a support. So what happens if we would all throw out our doubt and put faith in front of it? Because here's what I know, faith moves us forward, but doubt keeps us. stuck. In fact, usually certainty is what keeps us stuck. And if you step out in faith, I know this, it will move you forward. First of all, I know it personally in my own life. Is it scary? Oh my gosh, yes. Is it worth it? A thousand times over? Yes. Like every time I've moved out in faith, God has shown me his faithfulness. Like I did a personal inventory of my life the other day. By the way, that's a scary thing to do. You ever done that? It's also getting a lot harder for me to think back further. By the way, I'm way cooler now in my mind than I was like 10 years ago. Dude, I was awesome back in the day. And I'm like, probably not. But I began to take an inventory of my life. And I look back and I was like, where are the moments I stepped out in faith where God just didn't show up? And I couldn't think of any. And I thought, well, I'm starting to turn that hump of life where I don't remember things, so I'll ask some other people. And I asked my wife, I was like, hey, can you think of a time? She's like, no, God's always been faithful. I asked my mom and dad. I said, hey, dad, I've taken these steps of faith in my life. Can you ever think of a time where God didn't show up? He was like, no, son, I can't. He said, now, full disclosure, I'm 81. I don't remember a lot of things anymore. So maybe. I couldn't think of one where when I stepped out in faith, God

didn't move. As a church, Pantano as a church, we've stepped out in faith for 60 plus years. And every time God has showed up, we stepped out in faith. Again, we're anticipating experiencing God's power. We've laid our fleece aside and we're asking God and praying that God's going to move in Benson. I'm so excited about Benson. One of our online campus and another service, you know what they said? They were asking for a sign on whether or not God wanted them to move to Benson to help us start a campus. By the way, I told him this was their sign. Yes. I really think God's going to explode in a community that desperately needs it. It takes faith. I think going into the prison system and helping people find Jesus in a place where maybe they're physically in prison, but they can be spiritually free. I think it takes a little faith. Here at Houghton Road, where you're sitting right now, if you're in this room, there's other things we want to do here. We're not done here. There's a lot of room for growth here, too. We're going to keep taking steps of faith. We're not going to look for certainty. We're going to look for faith in Jesus. So for us today, what if we were to lay our fleece aside? Trust that God will do what he's going to do, that God's initial call is enough. What if in your own life this week, we are a church that will stop asking for a sign and know that his sign is one of being faithful and asking us to do his will? See, faith isn't about having all the answers. It's about trusting the one who does. That's what faith is about. You know how freeing that is? You don't have to have all the answers. Just let God take care of it. In the words of stupid phrases, let go and let God. I'm learning to love that phrase more and more. So this week, let me encourage you to

take one step of faith. And here's what you need to know. God doesn't need your perfection. He just needs your trust. Maybe it's trust to invite one person into this journey with you. Maybe for some of you, sign up for Night to Shine, our special means prom coming up in a few weeks. By the way, if you're not a part of that, you're going to miss out. I'm just telling you, it's one of the most beautiful nights of the year. Come to Man Church. So you know, I'm going to take one step. I'm going to show up tomorrow morning. Ladies, show up to She. Get in a rooted group. By the way, if you need a sign here, let me help you. Do it. There you go. You good now? Just do it. Because if we're going to be out of our mind in 2025, we got to take steps of faith. In a moment, we're going to sing the song called Trust in God. I'm going to encourage you. I want you to make this song your prayer. I know I say that a lot. I know sometimes you want to beeline out of here. Please don't. First of all, it's cold enough outside in Tucson. You should stay in here. It's nice and warm. I don't stay too long because we got other people showing up. But I mean, you can stay for a few extra minutes. But I want you to make the words of this song your prayer. And this week, I want you to take a step of faith and trust God to be faithful in the step that you take. It could be as simple as inviting somebody in, is encouraging somebody with what it looks like to be like Jesus to them. I don't know what it is for you. But I want you to make this song your prayer in just a moment. I want to pray for you. If you're brand new to church or you're brand new to faith, you want to talk to somebody that You'll get instruction. You can come to our next steps across the courtyard.

We'd love to talk to you, pray with you. But I wanna pray with you right now, if that's okay. So if you would, would everybody get on your feet for just a moment, if you don't mind? Well, let's pray today. Father, we thank you. Thank you for being a God that we can put our trust in. God, that when everything around us seems like chaos, whether it's our family, whether it's our jobs, whether it's just the world around us, God, you're faithful when we're faithful to you. God, I pray that this week we would not get consumed with one more confirmation. But God, let your word this week be the confirmation. Let your resurrection be the confirmation that we serve a living God, that we can step out in faith because you've shown us that you keep your word. God, that we would trust in God and God alone. So God, today we thank you for being a God that is worthy of our trust and is faithful to us, even when we're not faithful to you. God, we love you. And it's in the powerful name of Jesus that we ask all these things, all God's people said. Love you, church. Yes. Thank you. Jesus.

♪ Blessed assurance ♪ ♪ Jesus is mine ♪ ♪ He's been my fourth man in the fire time after time ♪ ♪ Born of his spirit, washed in his blood ♪ ♪ And what he did for me on Calvary is more than I know ♪ ♪ More than enough ♪ ♪ I trust in God, my savior, the one who will never fail ♪ ♪ He will never fail ♪ ♪ I trust in God, my savior, the one who will never fail ♪ ♪ Who will never fail ♪ ♪ He will never fail ♪ ♪ Perfect submission, all is at rest ♪ ♪ I know the author of tomorrow is always with me ♪ ♪ I know the Lord of my steps ♪ ♪ So this is my story and this is my song ♪ ♪ I'm praising my risen king and savior all the day long ♪ ♪ I trust in God, my savior, the one who will never fail ♪ ♪ He will never fail ♪ ♪ I trust in God, my savior, the one who will never fail ♪ ♪ Who will never fail ♪ ♪ He will never fail ♪ ♪ He didn't fail you then, he won't fail you now ♪ ♪ I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered ♪ ♪ I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered ♪ ♪ I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered ♪ ♪ That's why I trust Him, that's why I love Him so ♪ I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered That's why I trust him, that's why I'm trusting him I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered

I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered That's why I'm trusting, that's why I'm trusting God He's my saviour, the one who will never fail He will never fail I trust God, my saviour, the one who will never fail He will never fail He will never fail Won't you seek the Lord? He will heal you as he will Won't you sing it out? I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered That's why I trust him, that's why I'm trusting him I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered That's why I trust him, that's why I'm trusting God Sing it out My Savior, the one who will never fail He will never fail One more time I trust in God My Savior, the one who will never fail He will never fail Our God is worthy of our faith In fact, he's the only one that's worthy of us putting our trust in So my encouragement today as we leave this place or leave our living rooms is that That's exactly what we would do, we would take a step of faith That looks different for each of us, right? But take a step of faith Maybe you need to go through Rooted and get involved with some community here at Pantano

Could be a thousand things But let's take a step of faith and trust that God is going to meet us right where we are, amen? One more time, can we give God thanks and praise in this place? Amen Amen, thanks for being here today y'all Have a great week, we'll see you next time