Week 3 | Step Out in Faith

He saw families in our own church who didn't have enough food. Not in some far off community, but right here, people he knew by name, people who were sitting in the same row at church, seeing the same songs, they were the people who were struggling with the decision every week of whether they were going to pay their bills or feed their family. He didn't launch a ministry. He didn't write a proposal. He opened the trunk of his car. He started bringing bags of groceries just to give away to people after services. That's actually how it started. And what followed over the next four decades is one of the more remarkable expressions of what happens when a church decides that it cannot separate the love of Jesus from the needs of people that are right in front of it. That trunk eventually became a food pantry. And that food pantry eventually became the care center. It's a full choice grocery store, a clothing store, a dental and vision clinic, legal aid, employment counseling, dignity made tangible in every precise detail. And not long after that first man started handing out groceries, two members of our grounds team repaired the car of a single mother who couldn't afford to fix it. Nobody asked them to. But the Holy Spirit moved in them to see a need and to meet that need. That act of compassion eventually became our car's ministry. And to this day, we repair and donate reliable vehicles to qualified single parents all across Chicagoland. So beautiful, yet humble and practical. Exactly the kind of neighbor Jesus calls us to be. But the work is far from done. Did you know that one in five households across Chicagoland still faces food insecurity today? One in five. Now that's not an abstraction.

That's your neighborhood. That's the family that lives two doors down. That's the colleague you pass in the parking lot every morning. And when Jesus says come, we believe he means come serve, come give, come be the neighbor your community is waiting for. Whatever Jesus says, whatever you do for the least of these, you're actually doing for me. And so we cannot just look away and wait for somebody else to step in. It's up to us to take this step right now. Did you know that people drive as far as Southern Wisconsin and Northwest Indiana to come to our care center? I mean, why? I think this is because something very different happens in the care center. I think it's the way that people experience dignity and the hope of Jesus. But what if people didn't have to come to us? What if we, what if we went to them through step out? We will launch care center hubs to make the mission and the services of the care center more accessible to help those in need and to provide hope that comes from Jesus. We're not just feeding people. We're building pathways to long-term stability, a compassion and justice aren't just things that we do, they're, they're the extension of the good news of Jesus bringing help and hope to our neighbors in need. We just have to be willing to be the kind of people that see the need right in front of us and take a step toward it. Because there are people all across Chicagoland who are hungry, who are struggling, overlooked, simply waiting for somebody to remind them that they truly matter to God. That person is our neighbor. And when Jesus says come, he's inviting us to come close, to serve, to give, to love, to be the kind of neighbor somebody's waiting for. So Willow, let's be the kind of church that steps out to love our neighbor.

Well, Willow Creek, it is great to be with you today. My name's Dwayne. I'm one of the pastors here. I am so excited to spend this time with you. And whether you're watching here with me in the room or you're watching online or at one of our campuses in and around the Chicagoland area, we are glad that you are here. I also want to give a special shout out to our friends watching from the Jefferson City Correctional Center. Can we give them a round of applause? We're so glad they're here. And we are excited because we are continuing a series called Step Out that we've been in for the past three weeks. I'm so thankful for what God is doing right now in Willow Creek because we just launched a care center hub. Can we take a moment to just give a shout to the Lord for that? What a blessing. It's stories like the one we just saw that remind us that God is doing extraordinary It also reminds us of what can happen when one person chooses to take a step of faith. And that's what this series really has been all about, the idea of stepping out in faith in following God and becoming the kind of people who God can trust to take steps of faith, both personally in our daily lives, but also corporately as the body of Christ. That's what this has been all about. Becoming the kind of people that God is looking for, because faith shapes just about everything about our lives. It shapes how we live. It shapes the decisions that we make.

It shapes how we move when God calls us to step out. And here's what I've learned about faith. It's a small word, five little letters, but it's got big sweeping implications in how we actually live from day to day. How do you develop faith? How do you grow in faith? Especially when we know that the Christian life is all about living by faith. As a matter of fact, the Bible that self tells us that when we live out the Christian life that we walk by faith and not by sight. So how do you grow in faith? How do you develop the kind of faith that allows you to step out when the conditions on the ground change and when we need to trust God? Well, I'm glad you asked, 'cause that's exactly what we're gonna talk about today. And I believe that that kind of faith, that it begins with understanding completely who God is. Because the way that we trust God is directly connected to our faith journey. It actually shapes what we believe about God and how we move when God calls us. And one of my favorite quotes I love is from a theologian named A.W. Tozier. And I love the way that Tozier says this. He says, "What comes into our minds "when we think about God

"is the most important thing about who we are." Why? Because what we believe about God shapes how we live when it comes to faith. Let me show you what I mean. If you believe that God is distant, that he's far off, then you might choose not to pursue him because you might believe that he's actually out of your reach. If you believe that God is indifferent about the things that you're going through, that he doesn't understand, that he doesn't see what you're walking through, then the truth is, is that you probably won't pursue him because you don't realize that he actually does care about everything that's happening in your life. And if you think that God is small and you have a small view of God, then you will probably step out in small ways. And you won't choose to trust with big faith because your view of God shapes how you move when it comes to your faith. What you believe about God says a lot about what you believe as a whole. And when you believe that God is good, that he's faithful, that he's powerful, that he's worthy of our trust, that he's bigger than any circumstances that you can currently face, or even face in the future, that it changes how you live.

It changes how you move. It changes what happens when he calls you to move and live by faith. Small word, big implications. And what I've learned is that your view of God, it will shape your willingness to actually trust God. It'll change your faith. And that brings us to the conversation we're gonna explore today. Because it's a conversation that Jesus has with his disciples nearly 2,000 years ago, but it's actually a conversation that I believe Jesus is still asking us today, a question that still resonates in the hearts of people who follow him. So if you have your Bibles, here's what I want you to do. Go ahead and turn over to Matthew chapter 16, and we're gonna unpack this question in just a moment. And we're gonna start with verse 13 and move our way through the text. But I want you to get the setting of what we're walking into. So let me just unpack this a little bit. As you're turning there, let me set the stage. This is a conversation in a place called Caesarea Philippi. Now this is a city known for pagan worship. They are known and influenced by Roman culture and Roman power and authority and the culture of Caesar. And in the place that Jesus takes the disciples to, there are a lot of claims about actually who God is

or who should get allegiance. Because some believe that the pagan gods that they worship there should be the ones that people worship. Some believe that Caesar was actually the one that they should worship. And this is the place where Jesus chooses to have this conversation with his disciples. It could not be a better location. And when you get to verse 13, here's what Jesus says. he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am? Who do they say that the Son of Man is? And they replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah and still others Jeremiah, one of the prophets, and then he goes directly to them and he says, but what about you? Who do you say that I am? What a question. Because here's what he knows. That when he asks the disciples that some of them began to talk about what other people are saying. Now they say, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, some say Jeremiah, some say one of the prophets. So then he turns the question directly to the core of their souls and he asks the question a different way. He makes it truly personal to them. He says, but what about you? Who do you say that I am? He makes it personal because he knows that it's one thing to know what other people believe. But it's an entirely different thing

for you to believe it for yourself. You know, I happen to be one of those church kids who grew up in church. I grew up all around church. I played the drums in church. I spent so much time going to church. And I knew pretty well what my pastor believed about Jesus. I knew pretty well what my mom and my dad knew about Jesus or believed about Jesus. I mean, I saw it play out every day in my home. But here's what I did not know. I did not know what I believed about Jesus. I didn't have a clear understanding of who he was. And what I've learned about even as a kid, what I learned through that process is that you can grow it in church. You can sing all the songs. You can attend all the services. You can surround yourself with Christian people and never really completely understand the answer to this question. And every single one of us at some point in our faith journey is gonna be faced with the reality of answering this question. Who do you say Jesus is? And when that time comes, you can't lean on a mom and daddy's faith. You can't lean even on the pastor's faith. You gotta step out in faith for yourself. Somebody say amen.

Because that's the decision that every person has to make if they choose to follow Christ or not. And their answers matter and our answers matter and the disciples answers matters. Because the answer to that question shapes who we are. It shapes how we live. It shapes how we respond when Jesus calls us to step out by faith. And that's why I want to sit in this conversation for a while today. Because this is the question that he asked 2,000 years ago. But it's a question that Jesus is still asking today. Who do you say I am? And I wanna look at three central truths that we can pull from the text. Because if we're gonna be the kind of people who move by faith, we certainly need to understand these truths. And I think that this passage is one of the central passages to understanding how to walk out a life of faith. Now let's look at the first truth that we can see right from the text. Is this, that faith begins with a confession. Let's go back to the story for a moment. When you look at Matthew chapter 16, if you were to go to verse 16, the Bible says this, Simon Peter answered, you are the Messiah, you are the son of the living God. That's a bold confession of faith.

I mean, right from face value, you know that this is not him repeating the popular opinion of what people are saying. This is him going both feet on the ground, really, really clear about what he believes and about who he believes Jesus is. It is a declarative, definitive statement of his faith in Christ, just of face value. But when you dig a little deeper, you find out there's a whole lot more there than what he's talking about. Because here's what you know about the culture. What you know about the culture is that there would have been many people who would have been worship in that place. There would have been many false gods. And they also know that there has been a Messiah that has been promised. And so when Peter is saying you are the Messiah, you gotta understand what he's saying. It's much deeper than just the moment. He is not calling Jesus just a good teacher. He's not calling him just a prophet. He is calling him Lord. He's saying you are the Messiah that has been promised. You Jesus are the one that we have all been waiting for. [BLANK_AUDIO] and what he really does is give a little bit of an affront to people who would have worshipped Caesar during that time because he knows that many have allegiance to Caesar and what he's saying is Jesus you're the one we've been waiting for you're the God that is promised you are the only one

who deserves our allegiance you are Lord and Savior you're the Messiah this couldn't have been a more weighty statement this is Peter's confession when Peter calls in the Son of the living God he's declaring that Jesus is worthy of his ultimate trust of his allegiance he's willing to serve the Lord and he's saying in a word in a place where Caesar claimed authority Peter recognizes that Jesus has actually the ultimate authority and this confession was more than a religious statement because it declares who Jesus is and where Peter's allegiance belongs and it's still a powerful confession of faith 2,000 years later we still talk about Peter what a powerful moment right and what we can take away from this is that faith always begins with a confession a confession of who we believe Jesus to actually be a confession of who he is and your confession answers the question that we asked earlier because what you believe will come out at some point in the way that you actually live your life and our confession isn't just verbal it's in the way that we actually live so when we make that confession that's the beginning of our journey of faith in following Jesus it's a step across the line and that's why we ask people to pray a prayer of faith it's not that the prayer somehow symbolic in a way what it actually is is this moment of confession of faith in following Jesus Christ and I remember that moment for me I remember when my confession began to change you know my story of faith in Christ it may be a little bit different from some of you I told you earlier that I grew up in church I spent a lot of time in church as a kid I played the drums in church but I never really got it I never really said yes to Jesus and so when I went away to join the Marine Corps in my mind I left Jesus at home and I know that there's some teenagers who are thinking about that right now take Jesus with you because I had no idea what the road ahead was going to be like right and so fast forward a year of me being in the military I meet this beautiful women who is still beautiful today I'm gonna get a hug later let's keep it moving I meet this beautiful woman and she is a Christ follower and she begins to compel me to follow Jesus but I was resistant I didn't want no parts of it I had grown up in church seeing all the things I'm gonna do my own thing right now and within a year I married this young lady we got married we had our first baby we bought our first house and I was 21 y'all I needed Jesus but God was gracious to me and he sent me a mentor and this man began to spend time with me on the base and I knew there was something different about him he walked a certain way he talked a certain way and I wasn't sure what he was certain about but I knew he was certain about something and so one day he invited me to join his church and to come hang out at his church and I was like

cool I'll go to church I want the church growing up I'll go no problem you invited me you're my mentor let's do it so I bring my family and we go to this church and I remember him talking to me at the beginning of the service and him saying hey when this thing ends today I'm gonna come back and grab you before you go home I would love to take you and your wife to dinner cool I get church and dinner praise God I'm all for this and then he goes up and he sits on the stage and I'm like oh he's sitting in the pastor's seat and plot twist he was the pastor and he sits on the stage and when the sermon time comes I am glued in on this guy and he begins to share his faith and then he communicates the gospel in this way that was so winsome and so clear it was clear not only that the gospel was relevant and that I needed a Savior it was clear that God had been pursuing me for a long time that he didn't leave me out there in the street amen he sent somebody to share the good news with me and that was the day my confession changed and I trusted Jesus with my life that was the day And I remember it like it was yesterday, right? Because this was the time when they would come down the aisle and they would have you make a confession of faith and you would say out loud, I'd choose to follow Jesus and then they hoped that you would join the church that day. So you would reach out to your hand and shake the right hand of fellowship. I was so excited about the decision I made. I shook the right hand, I grabbed the left hand, I grabbed the foot. 'Cause I knew my confession had changed. And when your confession changes, your life changes. You begin to live a life of faith. A life that is marked by following Jesus. And something had changed in me. My mentor's commitment had led to my conversion. His continuous efforts had led to my confession of faith. And in the same way that Peter made that confession,

I made that confession. You know, Peter makes this bold confession because he knows who Jesus is. And this actually isn't his first step of faith. If you were here a few weeks ago, we talked about him stepping out on the water to follow Jesus and putting both feet on the water. And not because he believed or trusted in the water, not because he believed or trusted in Peter, it's because he believed and trusted in Jesus. Huge step of faith. He takes another step of faith that we talked about last week, the idea of casting his nets into the deep water because he realized that Jesus was sending him to the deep water and because Jesus was sending him, he was willing to go. This has been a long journey of Peter's faith in action. And then when he comes to this place where they ask him, who is Jesus? He can boldly say, you're him. You're the God that we've been waiting for. You know, he has already done so much with Jesus over time. He's watched him heal the sick. He's watched him feed the 5,000. He's watched Jesus command the winds and the waves and his faith has grown as he has walked with Jesus because what I know is that faith doesn't grow just by hearing what Jesus says. Faith grows when we trust Jesus enough

to actually do what he says. And over time, Peter had taken step after step of faith and because of that, he is now living a faith-filled life. A faith-filled life. One where he's consistently being challenged to take steps of faith and he's responding to those challenges. And Peter's life is interesting. It's kind of like this study in humanity because he gets some things right, but there's some things he just, he doesn't. And I think that is true of all of us. This faith journey is not these perfectly planned, precise steps. It is us trusting God moment by moment, day by day, minute by minute. And it starts to change us. You know, the second truth that we can extract from the text is this, is that faith produces a new identity in who we are. If you go back to the story in verse 17, it says these words, "You are blessed, Simon, son of John, "because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. "He's revealed this confession to you, "and you did not learn this from any human being. "So now I say to you that you are Peter, "which means rock, and upon this rock, "I will build my church, and the power of hell, "the gates of hell will not conquer it."

And there's an interesting juxtaposition that happens here in this moment because Peter declares who Jesus is with his confession, and then Jesus actually declares who Peter is. This is an important note. One of the things that you'll know about this moment in passage scripture is that he says that on this rock, I'll build my church. There are some different schools of thought. If you grew up in a primarily Catholic environment, what you'll probably believe is that what the text is talking about is Peter actually being the rock that Jesus builds his church on. And here's why, because they have something called apostolic succession where they believe they can track even the papacy all the way back to this very moment, and they try to have a lineage of people who are leading in that way. If you grew up in a Protestant environment, what you'll believe is that the rock that Jesus is building his church on is not necessarily Peter, but it's the confession and the reality that Peter makes. Now here's what I know. That Jesus is building his church. That Peter will be a huge part of it, and that the church that Jesus is building, ain't nothing gonna stop it. (congregation applauding) Nothing, nothing can stop it. When you read through Peter's life,

you see Peter's humanity. You see that Peter is impulsive, that he is outspoken, that he's sometimes inconsistent, that he steps out of boats, that he says things before he actually thinks them all the way through, that he sometimes spectacularly gets things R-O-N-G wrong, even when he should get them right. When you watch his life, what you see is all kinds of issues, and what's really interesting about this, is that Jesus declares who Peter is before Peter actually does some of the things that Peter would do. Jesus looks beyond his imperfections. He looks beyond his humanity, and he realizes that Peter is somebody he can do amazing work for the building of God's kingdom. And I think that's important for us to take note of today, 'cause I think sometimes that we think, if God knew me, he probably wouldn't use me, because he knows my past, he knows my history, he knows the mistakes that I've made, and the things that I've come from. And yes, he knows that stuff, he sees all of that stuff in the same way that he saw in Peter. But we start to think that that somehow disqualifies us from the work that God has for us,

and so we start taking steps backwards, instead of taking steps forward in faith. And here's what I need somebody in here to hear today, that your failures do not define your future when your life belongs to Jesus. You gotta know that. (audience applauding) Peter's failures, they didn't define him. And he either do ours. And that doesn't mean that our character doesn't matter, because our character matters. We should be people who boldly hold up the banner of Christ. We should walk as though we are followers of Jesus at all times. But here's what it means. That Jesus knows what we can become. That we belong to him. That it is him who is forming us, and while we are not perfect, he is perfecting us through his beautiful work on the cross. One moment at a time, one step at a time, one faithful step out at a time. He is shaping us into who he desires for us to be. And this shows up in how we love, and how we forgive, and how we serve. It shows up in how we lead our families, how we respond to the needs around us, how we love our neighbors, and how we use what God has entrusted to us for the building of his kingdom.

And when you know who you are, and when you know who you are, it changes the way we do life. And this is why we've been calling our church to step out. Because I wanna be clear in saying that we are not simply trying to raise money to complete a project. We're not simply trying to raise money to reach a financial goal. We are asking God to form us into the kind of people who he can trust to boldly step out in faith, and to reach people who do not know him with the message of the gospel and the hope of Jesus Christ. That's what we're doing here. (congregation applauding) And that leads me to the third truth. It's that faith, faith always demands a step. When you look at chapter 16, verse 18 through 19, it says that he, Jesus, will build his church and that the gates of hell, the gates of Hades, will not overcome it. Now I want you to remember where this conversation is taking place. This is a place built to worship idols. It's surrounded by all of the things that would be counter to God. It's in this place where Jesus has this conversation. And when he talks about the gates of hell, it's important to note that gates are something

that usually keep you in. It's kind of meant to be a defensive posture and you stay behind the gates, right? And what I've learned over time is that the church was never meant to be in a defensive posture behind the gates. We were meant to always go out and make impact God, yes, we gather to read the scriptures together, to spend time together, to understand where we are headed and where God is leading us. But then we take all of that energy outside into a world that desperately needs to know Jesus. So we're not interested in hiding behind the gates. We're interested in storming the gates of hell. With the message of Jesus Christ. And the idea that we would go on the offensive, that we would move forward by faith into what God is calling us into, is an idea that we see the church embrace all throughout history. Because all throughout the New Testament, we see a church that is moving into the message in the world that Jesus has sent them to. A church that's making disciples, a church that's serving the vulnerable, that's carrying the hope of the gospel with it. It's a church that has gathered to worship the Lord, but then takes the Lord with them out into the streets to share it with everybody who is willing to listen. You know, I was here on our Good Friday service

and the whole building was packed with people. And I walked over to my wife at the end of our time and I had just got done asking the church to give a bold shout to the Lord. And the shout that the church gave almost knocked me off the stage. And when I sat down, I was a little bit sad and I was talking to my wife and she said, she said, "What's up? You okay?" I said, "Yeah, I'm fine." I just know that this is the kind of noise that we can make in Chicago land for Christ. (audience applauds) And in order to do that, I know that we gotta live by faith. I know that we're being set into our neighborhoods, into our workplaces, into our schools, into our own homes with the life changing message that is hope in the gospel. And we don't need to stay behind the gates. We need to go on the offensive with the message. We need to be willing to step forward by faith and to step out into what God has called us into. And I think that that's why we are asking everybody to invest in our existing campuses. That's why we're thinking about the idea of exploring new locations. That's why we wanna encounter every person with Jesus and we wanna replicate the care signal model all across Chicago land.

Because we realize that if we are committed to following Jesus in faith, that we will reach families, that we will make disciples, that we will empower the next generation, that we will do the work that God has called Willow Creek to do. Somebody better say amen. (audience applauds) That's what we believe. Not because we wanna be bigger and better. Because we recognize that people matter to God. And this area has so many people who do not know Him. And that's what this is about. And the question that we've been asking our whole church is what does your next step of faith look like? What does it mean for you, for your family, for your home to step out in faith? And what I know is that for some of you, it means that you place your faith in Jesus for the first time. And if you've never done that, we're gonna have an opportunity for you to do that today. We're glad that you're here. Willow Creek, let 'em know that we're glad that they're here. (audience applauds) We wanna give you that opportunity to say yes to Jesus and change your confession for the very first time, even today. But we also know that there are some of you that might not be your first step of faith or your next step of faith. Maybe for you, there's a relationship that's gone wayward

and you need to pick up the phone and call somebody. If that's you, take that step of faith even today. Maybe for you, you need to reconcile something that has gotten away from you. Maybe one day you were faithful and you were following Jesus closely and you feel like now you're not really sure where you are, what a day could be the day that you get back on track. And we invite you to do things like join a group or step up to serve or connect to other people. All of those things are things that'll help you get back on track. And if that's your next step of faith, we are asking you to actually take that step of faith. And then we recognize that all of our church also has a step of faith in front of it. You know, on November 8th, we are going to invite every single person in our church to step forward by faith and to step out into where we believe God is calling us. And on that day, we're going to take what would normally be our ties and offerings that we would prepare for and we're gonna combine them together, and we're gonna make a commitment together following the Lord into what we believe He's calling us into, and not by our might or not by our power, but only by the Lord's direction and guidance. So we're gonna move into this by faith, and we want you to be prayerful about that, we want you to be thoughtful about that, because here's what I know is that faith and wisdom

are not opposites, they're combined. And so we want you to use wisdom, we want you to walk through this with all of the prayer and everything that goes with it, but we also want you to step forward in faith. Because we just see a Chicagoland for generations to come that can be changed by what God is doing. You know, we love hearing the stories about what God does in that way. We love hearing what God does when one person takes a step of faith, and it leads to generational impact. I mean, you heard about it earlier in the care center. And when we hear those kinds of stories, we like to bring them to you so that you can know, it's not just you that's being asked to take a step of faith, that generation after generation has been asked to take those same kinds of steps. And so we wanna share a story with you, of a member of our staff team here at Willow Creek. So for just a moment, would you check out Ben's story? - The journey that God has taken me on is hard for me to comprehend. A big turning point in my life, even though I didn't realize it at the time, was when my dad came to the US to have a church exposure trip. And he came to Willow Creek, and it was in 1991. I was 12, and he came home as a senior pastor with a brand new vision of how he could reach people

in Australia. And so I learned all the different elements of creativity, both on platform, off platform, behind the stage, front of the stage, under the stage. Everything we just were running around making church happen in this new creative way. And then I went on to become a senior pastor, and I felt something stirring in my heart that God was gonna lead my wife and my family into something greater and more impact. We felt called to the US, and we felt called to LA, and we felt God speak to us about getting involved in film and television in Hollywood. And so we packed up our family and moved to LA without knowing anybody. Right near the end of that trip, we met a church in Las Vegas, and they asked me to come and join their staff and as an executive pastor. And we spent a bunch of time there serving there as I was able to get a green card and ultimately my citizenship. We took a step back to LA, and I took a really low-level job in a TV studio, and within six months I was promoted to running the whole studio. And then shortly after that, I launched a feature film division, and within six months of that, our first theatrical production

was released across cinemas in the US. That was a really key moment for me, because it was 10 years earlier. I mean, when you say it like that, it's short, but it was 10 years earlier. That guy to promise that and to see it take 10 years to come to film it was incredible. And then we started to feel him stir us again to step out and to trust him. Yeah, that's when we ended up getting called to come here to Willow Creek. We turned up to Willow 15 years into our American journey. We'd seen some great things, but had some incredible challenges. When Sean put the call out to get involved and step out financially, I was hesitant because I had what I called trust fatigue. I was like, man, I've trusted you so many times a lot and taken steps out. And then he started to remind me, the Holy Spirit, he started to remind me about times where we'd stepped out through our whole journey and how every single time he'd come through. And I realized I miss being a part of the miraculous. I miss the miracles that are a result of obedience. So much of what we'd seen happen was a result of stepping out. When God calls just to do something and we obey even if it has tremendous sacrifice attached. Absolutely, I've seen it so many times you enter into a place where the miraculous starts to happen in your life.

And I thought, man, I don't want to miss that. I want to be part of the miraculous move of God and seeing God doing something in my life, in our church, in our kids' lives. And so I got really fired up to take proper time out and say, Father, would you speak? And then when you speak, would you give me the courage to obey? 'Cause I want to get on this dream of what you're doing here and be part of something pretty special. It's just like God after all these years to put me in a seat where I'm now the executive pastor of Weekends at Willow Creek. And the very church that shaped me as a young man. many years in Australia. All the way through my career now he's put me in a seat where I'm now leading and shaping the ministry that we get to do to people in Chicago, Atlanta, beyond. I didn't even know what to say about that. I don't even, it's just, he's just so faithful and so kind to think that he would put someone like me in a seat like this to have impact in so many lives, helping move them to, to get to know him and experience his love for them. [MUSIC] >> Praise God. >> [APPLAUSE] >> Yeah, I love. I love that story. It's about one person taking a step of faith and it bringing generational impact. You know, in just a few days we're going to ask our leaders to step forward first in an advanced commitment at night because leaders always go first. And we're asking them to take the step of faith of doing exactly what we talked about earlier. To take what they would normally plan for in offering in ties and to connect that to anything above and beyond that and to make a pledge in commitment for two years. And here's what we know. We know that if we're not careful, this can feel like

pressure. And I want to be clear here in saying that we don't want this to feel like pressure. We want this to be an opportunity for discipleship. And so the question isn't how much money can we raise. The question is what kind of people is God forming us to become? That's what's in front of us. You know, we're going to ask people to take a step of faith and for you that might look like trusting Jesus for the first time or it might look like you doing what we talked about earlier and calling a neighbor or friend and reconciling a relationship. It might be jumping into a small group or serving for the first time. But it might look like taking a first step in the generosity journey. And if you never give them before we invite you into an opportunity to give and if if you have done that already, if you have stepped into giving for the first time, but it hasn't been something consistent. We want to invite you to your next step and that might be being a consistent giver or giving your first fruits which the Bible calls a tithe. We invite you into that journey as well or maybe God is calling you to do above and beyond that. And if that's you, we invite you into that as well. Our whole church, we're asking the step out on faith. Every single person and to trust God with the future of Chicagoland and trust God with His power to use us as a church to reach people who don't yet know Him. If you're here and you don't know Him yet, can I invite you to know Him? Because above every step that we could take, this is the first step, to change your confession by trusting in Christ even today. And everything doesn't have to be perfect in this very moment but we're asking you to say yes to Jesus and to begin to allow Him to shape your next steps of faith on the journey of following Him. And so if you are that person today, I'd like to close our time with the word of prayer and I'm going to ask that you repeat after me and with every head bowed and every eye closed, all of our campuses watching online, every head bowed, every eye closed, can we just take a moment to pray? Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for your grace and mercy. We know that there are some here who do not know you. We pray that today would be a day that they would get to know you. We pray that we would be the kind of church

that lives by faith that follows you into wherever you call us, would you guide us, would you keep us, would you show us how to be faithful people in you. And with every head bowed and every eye closed, if you want to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior today, if you're in that same position I was so long ago where you recognize that certainly you need guidance but more than that you need a Savior and I invite you to pray this prayer with me. You can simply say Jesus, I believe you are the Messiah. I believe you are the Son of the living God. I know I can't do this life alone. I ask you to forgive my sins, to help me to turn our way from sin and towards you. Today I place my trust in you and I give you my life. Would you wash away my past? Would you guide my steps? Would you lead me by faith from this day forward? In Jesus' name.