Week 5 | Step Out with Courage

the course of history. A group of teenagers and young adults really began to grow. They were so passionate about Jesus, they were passionate about their friends, and eventually, they had this audacious idea. What if we planted a church that our friends would actually want to attend? We know how that story turned out, because that church that was planted became Willow Creek Community Church. Sometimes, I wonder, what did it feel like to be a part of that group of people who were already part of South Park Church? What did they think when this group of young people started dreaming differently? Were they nervous? Were they concerned about change? Did they wonder if this new generation was going to disrupt everything that they knew? Or did they see the possibility what God might do through them? Some of those young people are still a part of Willow today, and they can tell you the story. They can tell you about the people who encouraged them, the people who made room for them, the people who believed in them when they were young and their dreams were starting to take shape. Someone made room, and because they did, Willow exists today. Now it's our turn. It's our turn to help write and shape the next chapter, because we believe that kids aren't the church of tomorrow. We believe that they're actually the church today. And we want every child, every student, every young adult to have a place where they can meet Jesus, to grow in their faith, to discover the God that created them to be something special, and to truly learn about God's purposes for their life. And that means we have to do more and more to reach the next generation. We have to prepare them. We have to equip them, and eventually we have to release them.

And that's why we're stepping out for the next generation. At our Willow Huntley campus, we have an urgent need. Our kids and student ministries have exploded, and truly we are out of space. It's amazing. Those are teenagers walking through our doors. It's families finding our churches, students who are asking questions about God. It's young people finding community, and discovering that they truly matter to God. But right now, we're up against a very real limit, and we're actually turning families away because we don't have enough space for their kids. And so one of our investments through Step Out is expanding the footprint of our Huntley campus, creating more room for kids and students to experience Jesus, to build relationships, to grow in their faith. Because when a family walks through our doors, we don't want to tell them there's no room for their child. We have to make room for them. We're seeing something stir in our students and young adults. They're passionate, they're asking big questions, they're ready to lead. So Willow, let's equip them. And so through a robust internship and residency program, we're investing in young leaders with faith and character and skills and an experience to serve God's kingdom wherever God calls them. Our goal is to send a generation of Jesus followers into the world. You know, 50 years ago, a generation of young people had an audacious dream, and the generation before them had a choice. They could have protected what they knew, but instead, they made room for what God was doing next. A generation is growing up right now that will shape the future of the church, our communities, and our world. What if we were the generation that believed in them? What if we were the generation that poured into them, equipped them, and entrusted God

in what God might do through them? Because someday, they're going to tell the story of what God did through their generation. And so Willow, let's be the kind of church that steps out for the next generation. Hey, great to see everybody here this morning. Do want to welcome those of you joining us at all of our Willow locations. Those of you joining us online. There's always a big shout out to our brothers who joined us from the Jefferson City Correctional Center. Everybody here today. We are in week five of this initiative we've been calling Step Out, and the video you just watched is the last of four different pillars of our vision. We have this big dream to be the kind of church that steps out to build his church, to make disciples, to love our neighbors, and to really invest in the next generation. I mean, it is a God-sized dream. It is a God-sized vision. We are so excited and compelled to take this step out toward it. As was mentioned before, next weekend is a big weekend for us. Next weekend, we've been talking about it all series long, that this whole series culminates in the opportunity that you and I have to come together to make a two-year financial commitment to see this dream that God has given us, is see it come to fruition. So I want to invite you, come back next week. type of weekend, I think what happens next weekend will shape who we are and who we become as a church for the next five to six years. And so, make sure that you plan and show up, expect it next weekend. As I think about where we're at this week, we're gonna talk a little bit about courage. It's something that my kids needed a few years ago. We were in Lego Land, which is an amusement park

in California. And we were there, my kids aren't really roller coaster fans, but we like to do a lot of the different rides. But I love roller coasters, I always have. And so, I had this moment as a dad that I thought, maybe I can talk to my kids into riding a roller coaster with me. As I was working on them all day, I was bribing them. I mean, there's whatever kind of food item they need in order to get them to go on this roller coaster with me. Eventually, I got my boys to say yes. And so, they were a little at the time. They were a little nervous standing in line. We eventually get on the roller coaster. I think this is gonna be a dad win type of moment. It was a colossal failure. My kids were terrified on this roller coaster. Now, you've been on roller coasters before that when you get off the first thing that you see are all the photos that you can buy. And I've often thought, who buys these photos? They're like a million dollars. Like, it costs a small fortune to buy these photos. But when you see the photo and it looks like my photo, I thought, this one is worth buying. So, I brought the photo with you. My kids on this roller coaster. I mean, you can see it. We'll zoom in on my oldest son, Levi, who's sitting next to me.

(audience laughing) I mean, he's petrified. Now, it might have been a little bit of a dad fail moment, but I want you to hold that picture like this face of terror. 'Cause I think that's the face that was on the face of the disciples in John chapter 20. John chapter 20, it was Easter Sunday morning, resurrection Sunday. You would have thought because Jesus had predicted his death and ultimately predicted his resurrection that there would have been a lot of anticipation in the room. That was not the case. Because the disciples hadn't yet put it all together. They didn't fully understand it. They actually got up that Sunday morning. They knew that the tomb was empty. It still didn't click for them. And so, when you find them in John chapter 20, a little bit later in the chapter, here's how those early disciples are described. It says this, on the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Did you notice what's described there? They kind of had that rollercoaster face on them as they were behind a locked door and notice who they were afraid of.

They were afraid of the Jewish leaders that had just taken the life of their friend Jesus. And they were huddled behind locked doors because they thought, "I don't want my fate to be the fate of Jesus." Now, the reason why this scene is so important to us is because they were just completely wrapped in fear in John 20, but fast forward just 50 days to the book of Acts chapter four. And these same disciples, Peter being one of them, are full of courage and full of boldness, actually confronting the very religious leaders that they were afraid of 50 days before. And so if you got a Bible, turn with me to the book of Acts chapter four. That's where we're gonna be today. Now, before we go to Acts chapter four, let me give you a little bit of context to what happens in Acts chapter three. And so Peter and John, along with a few other disciples, they're hanging around in the temple court area. Now, the temple court in ancient Jerusalem was kind of the most significant piece of real estate in the ancient world. And arguably, you can still say that it's the most significant piece of real estate in the world even today. And so it's the place of all kinds of activity, and certainly religious activity. It was a very public type of place because the entire religious world centered around

all the activity in the temple. Now, Peter and John, they went there, and they passed this guy who was a lame man, who wasn't able to walk, and he was placed there every single day to beg. That's how he survived. And so you think about this person who was placed at the temple gates to beg day after day, week after week, month after month. He would have been a very recognizable type of figure. And so Peter and John are walking by, the guy begs them for money, and the response was this. They said, silver and gold, we don't have. Bro, we're dead broke. But then they said, but what I do have is by the power of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk. And this guy who had been lame his entire life was able to spring up. And it actually describes him as leaping up and almost bouncing around. It's almost like ticker from Winnie the Pooh is what he turned into. And he's like bouncing around. And it became this spectacle for everybody that was there. I think couldn't believe that this person And it got the attention, not only the people there, it got the attention of these religious leaders that these same disciples were so petrified of just a couple of months back.

And these religious leaders confront Peter and John at the top of chapter four. But here's the principle that I want us to lean into. The courage is tested when obedience becomes costly. Here it is, Acts chapter four, verse one. It says this, "Since the priests and the captain "of the temple guard, the temple guard "was basically like the police. "They were the ones that they were enforcers. "The priests and the captain of the temple guard "and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John "while they were speaking to the people. "They were rightly disturbed because the apostles "were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus "the resurrection of the dead. "They seized Peter and John because it was evening "and they put them in jail until the next day." And so shortly after miraculously healing this guy, they immediately begin to proclaim the power by which they were able to do this. It's like we didn't do this by our own power. We did this because of the power this made possible because of Jesus and they started preaching more about the resurrection that he had just experienced. Now you notice what the religious leaders' response was. They came almost in a confrontational kind of way that said that they were greatly disturbed. It's as if Peter and John had thoroughly gotten under their skin. Now why in the world were they so greatly disturbed?

Why were they so adversarial toward what was happening? Again, the location matters. They were in the temple courts. The religious leaders' entire lives centered around the temple courts. Now specifically the Sadducees are named. The Sadducees were kind of a sect of the religious leaders. Now specifically about the Sadducees, they didn't believe in a resurrection. They didn't believe in a coming Messiah. But yet their lives were intertwined with everything about the temple because the temple really was about religious activity. It was the place that you met God's presence. It was the place where your sins were forgiven. And so think about this proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus. If it's actually true, it undermines everything else in their life. Their theology gets undermined. Their political status gets undermined. Their social status, their financial viability. Because if Jesus is actually risen from the dead, it actually means that the temple is no longer the place of God's presence because now God's presence is accessed through Jesus. The temple is no longer the place of primary spiritual activity because now that's Jesus. That the temple is no longer the place where sins are forgiven because now that's Jesus.

He is the Lamb of God that's taken away the sins of the world. And so why are they so confrontational to Peter and John is because their entire lives are now at risk? It's kind of this principle that the people who are least likely to change from the status quo are the people whose lives benefit most from the status quo. And that's true in every arena of life. And so there's quite a bit of resistance so much so that they actually seize Peter and John. They throw them in an ancient prison. Now, ancient prisons oftentimes were either like holes in the side of rocks with a gate put in front of it. Sometimes it was a hole in the ground. They were nasty. They were not sanitary at all. It was a terrible place to be. And so Peter and John were thrown into there 'cause it was evening. They didn't have time to deal with it. They're gonna just deal with it the next day. And so while they were in prison, look what it says, what Luke records in very next verse. It is but many who heard the message they believed. So the number of men who believed grew to about 5,000. Do you remember last week the church was how big? 3,000, or a couple of days later, it is grown to 5,000. God was growing the church while the apostles are holed up in prison.

Here's the principle. You can arrest the messenger. You cannot stop the message. 'Cause Jesus was really clear that upon this rock he would build his church and nothing. Not even the gates of hell could stand against it. God's actually growing the church while the apostles are actually still in captivity. And what happens in this moment, but happens all throughout the book of Acts is tremendous opposition to the work that they were doing. But I wanna make sure that we understand this really important principle, that opposition is not the evidence that you're outside of God's will. Because sometimes it's the evidence that you're exactly in the middle of God's will. Because those who are courageous in their faith, those who are even bold in their faith, Jesus was pretty clear. He said, "People will hate you because of me." My friends, God has given us a big vision as a church. We should be eyes wide open. We should expect opposition along the way. That opposition is not evidence you're outside of God's will. Sometimes it's evidence that you're actually in the middle of it. And so the next morning, the religious leaders that come and they get Peter and John, they bring him in front of this religious body called the Sanhedrin. They were kind of like the Supreme Court.

They made judicial decisions back in the day. They were going to determine whether they were innocent or guilty. And in front of the Sanhedrin, look what Peter says. It says then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers and elders of the people. Quick little aside, when I love what the first words that come off of Peter's lips are actually words of respect. He actually respected them. He actually respected their authority. Here's why that detail matters to me. That sometimes in the name of being bold and courageous for your faith, Christians have been jerks to other people. That's not the design. We can never justify mistreating other people out of just a sheer boldness and courageous nature of our faith. That you can actually be bold and respectful at the same time. And that's certainly where Peter's at. They're both boldness and respect comes off his lips in the same breath. He says this, rulers and elders of the people. If we are being called into account today for kindness shown to a man who is lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this. You and all the people of Israel, it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised the dead that this man stands before you. I mean, that's a courageous, courageous thing to say in the setting. Again, remember where we've come from. It was a few months before that they're hiding behind locked doors in fear of these people and now a couple months later, standing before them with great courage and great boldness because of what God has formed in their life. They didn't conjure that up on their own. I actually think that the text tells us how they got to that place of courage and boldness.

It says they were filled by the Spirit. It's actually something that God formed in them. And then look what they say next about Jesus. Some of the most powerful words recorded for us in Scripture. It says that Jesus is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone. And then it says salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. Couple of really powerful things here. Peter starts off by saying, you know, Jesus is the stone you've rejected. He's become the cornerstone. That's language from Psalm 118, which is a temple song. Remember, we're in the temple setting. People would have been very, very familiar with what he's saying. And basically what a cornerstone is is the cornerstone was the very first stone put into place in the foundation. When you set the cornerstone, it determines the direction and the orientation and the order for everything else that follows. That's a massive statement about Jesus. In other words, Jesus doesn't just fit into your life. He doesn't just fit into your system. He changes everything about it. In other words, for you and I, for our life, is when we embrace Jesus, when we give our life to follow him, we don't just embrace him as the segment of who we are. No, he becomes the cornerstone of our lives, that he says the direction for everything that we are, everything else in our life gets reordered by him because he is the cornerstone. And then Peter goes on to say this, he says, "Salvation is found in no other name. There is no other name under heaven by which mankind can be saved." My friends, there is no other name quite like the name of Jesus. There is no other name that can forgive you of your sins. There is no other name that can bring redemption to your soul.

There is no other name that can give you life that death cannot take that away. There's nothing else that can save you but his name. There's no amount of fame that can save you. There's no amount of money that can ever save you. There's no amount of success that can ever save you. His name is the only name that brings salvation. Buddha can't save you. Joseph Smith can't save you. Muhammad can't save you. There is one name and one name only and in his name every knee shall bow in heaven and earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God, our Father. It is only one name. And maybe some are here today, and you've never surrendered your maybe God brought you here today for that very reason. But maybe you're here today to hear about the only name that can save you, that can forgive you, that can redeem you, that can give you life. He is the name above every name. As if you're somebody who goes, I wanna know what it means to surrender my life to follow Jesus. I'd encourage if you came with somebody, talk to the person you came with. And if you did know, or maybe in addition to that, you can always see a prayer team member after our service at any of our locations. You can go to the next steps area at our location. We would love to talk to you about what it looks like

to bend your knee to the name that's above every name. 'Cause he's the one that provides salvation for you and for me. What I love about what happens here is there's this bold declaration in this context. Notice what the response is by the religious leaders. It says, when they saw the, help me out, when they saw the what? When they saw the courage, they saw it. When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Where did this courage come from? This courage, they lacked some 50 days before. Where did this courage come from? This courage came from just the fact that they has spent time with Jesus. It makes me think of this. If you've ever been to a flowing river or a flowing stream and you stepped out into that river and you bent down and you picked up a stone at the bottom of that river, oftentimes what you'll find are stones that are very, very smooth stones. Why? Because it's existed in the context of a flowing river and so that flowing river in the water over the course of time is it moves over that stone. It takes the sharper edges and it rounds them off

and it kind of smooths the surface. It gets formed by the flowing nature of that water. I think the same is true when you and I spend time with Jesus that our rough edges oftentimes get shaped, they get formed, they get molded. It's what happens when we spend time with Jesus. The courage is not something that we muster up ourself. Boldness is not something we have to create on our own. It's actually out of the formed heart of what it looks like to follow Jesus. The reality is there are a lot of things that will try to form you in your life. There are a lot of things that fear will try to form you in your life. Fear wants to form your heart, anxiety wants to form your heart. There's lots of things that try to shape us. The reality is we live in a context in a world that feeds on fear. Have you seen a news cycle recently? It feeds on fear. And even watch the political landscape as we head into an election. It feeds on fear. Your social media algorithm, it fuels fear. Our hearts, our lives, if we're not careful, it actually gets formed and shaped by all the wrong things. That's why we talk about consistently. What does it look like to just spend time with Jesus to make sure of all the things that are trying to shape

our hearts and our lives in the world? We gotta make sure that our hearts and lives are getting shaped by the one who cares about us most. As we love to talk more about what it looks like to carve out some time every single day, spending time with God's word, leaning into prayer. It's not so that we can spiritually check a box off. It's not so that we earn anything in heaven. It's because it's in the time when we're in the presence of Jesus that our heart gets formed in the people that God wants us to ultimately be. That's why the step out journey has been so critically important for us all. And you've heard me talk from the very beginning about two different goals, and I've said from the very beginning, our spiritual goal is the most important goal. Why? 'Cause it's all about formation. And if we miss the formation piece, if we miss kind of the spirit of God moving over our hearts and lives, kind of like the flowing of the river over the stones, if we miss that, I would argue we miss everything. And so I would invite you, if you haven't already begun the journey, to spend some time with Jesus, allow him to form your journey, it has to proceed anything we do before we make a commitment next weekend.

Now here's what's at stake when it comes to the commitment side of the equation. Again, we handed you a commitment card today. This is the exact commitment card you're gonna see next week that we're gonna make commitments together. There's a couple of things that I want you to see when it comes to this commitment card and why our resources become a part of the conversation. What's interesting, scripturally speaking, Jesus talks more about our financial resources, our wealth and our money, more than any other topic that he talks about. Why? similar to the ways other things can as well. In our heart, we don't want our heart to be shaped by those things. We want our heart to be shaped by God more than anything, but there's this undeniable connection between our resources and our heart. As soon as we consider what we're about to step out and into next weekend as a church, if you took a look at the kamimic card, there's a couple things I wish you wanna make sure that you're prepared for, you're unaware of. The first is, the commitment we make next weekend is not a commitment that's above and beyond our normal giving, it actually is an inclusive thing as a part of our normal giving. We're calling it a one fun commitment.

It's also a commitment that will include things like our normal ties and offerings. Whatever step of faith that we're taking to expand our giving in the season, whatever sacrifice we wanna make, maybe from some form of stored resources that God will prompt us to give in some way. But it's the culmination of all those things that represents the commitment we're making. That's what we're praying for as far as next weekend. But can I be your pastor for just a moment? If you tell me no, I don't know what I'm gonna do in this moment. Let me pastor you for just a moment. The formation that happens prior to that commitment is everything. 'Cause the Bible says what actually matters more is not just about what you're giving to, it's actually the heart that you're giving from. As the Bible talk a lot about, that's why we wanna give from a heart that's willing, this joy filled, that's dependent, that's full of trust and faith. When we give from that kind of heart, it actually can be transformational for us in our journey. The way that God shows up and meets us, it changes us. It is the most exhilarating faith journey. God will grow your faith if you give from that place. But let me be candid.

For some people, this is a very difficult conversation. And maybe understandably so, maybe got burned somewhere along the way. And so for some of us, when it comes to this conversation, we feel pressured, we feel like somebody's twisting our arm, we feel manipulated in some way. Can I be really candid with you? If you give from a heart that feels manipulated, if you feel, give from a heart that feels pressured, it actually can damage your heart more than anything else. That truly, like listen to me here, like if you give from a pressured or manipulated heart, I would rather you not give it all. I have zero desire to damage your heart. Instead, I want us to spend time with Jesus. I want him to form us and shape us. Because in the formation, we become more faith filled. We become more passionate about his mission. We become willing to make a sacrifice for his kingdom. We become more courageous. But do not give a gift outside of spending time with him because formation matters most. All right, let me move on. Got a little passionate about that. Here we go. What's interesting about courage? The courage is formed long before it's needed. So allow God to form something in you is the most important step of the journey. Here's the second principle that I want us to lean into.

Then I would say Jesus changes how we live, not just what we believe. Love the statement from the book of Acts, chapter four. This is a few verses later. The religious leaders had basically told Peter and John like, just stop talking about it. We'll let you go, but just don't speak anything about Jesus or who he is or what he's done in your life. I just need you to go like, like mums the word. And look at the response, verse 20. He says, we cannot help speaking about what we've seen and heard. Like we can't stop talking about it. I mean, when you've seen what we've seen, when you witness what we've seen, we can't stop talking about it. It reminds me something that I heard Craig Rochelle say one time. He says this that we speak boldly about what we believe very deeply. It's just true of us, right? That we speak boldly about whatever it is that we feel deeply. I think about how true that is in our lives. Think about the things that you absolutely love. You can't stop talking about them. So you go to an amazing restaurant. You have an amazing experience. You can't help yourself but talk to your friends and family about that restaurant or you go to a movie. And it's an amazing, amazing movie. It's this cliffhanger kept you on your seat and your seat the entire time. You can't help yourself but to tell everybody about this movie.

Or in my case, if you run a marathon that's an amazing experience, I can't stop talking about it. I got to want people to do it, to join in it, right? But whatever it is that we believe deeply are the very things that we talk about. the same is true when it comes to your faith journey in mine as well, that we speak boldly about our faith when it's born and connected to a deep faith conviction. What's often true for people is when they first become followers of Jesus. They experienced God's grace for the first time. They experienced this amazing transformation in their life and new followers of Jesus. They can't help themselves, they have to talk about it. And so their friends hear about it, their family members hear about it. They're the most incredible invaders. They want people to experience what they've experienced. But oftentimes what happens over the course of time is the longer somebody's a follower of Jesus, the more that fire kind of diminishes in their journey and they're less likely to do all those kinds of things. I pray that this series kind of rekindles that fire in us that we're the kind of people that are so on fire for what God has done in and through our lives, that we just want to be about the things of God. We want people to hear about it. We want people to know about it because the same transformation we've experienced is something that they can experience as well.

It's one of my favorite things about the step-out journey. I've had a lots of conversations inspired by some of the commitments that people are making and just steps that people are feeling led to take. I've been, God put an idea some ways I've been living behind that locked door in fear for so many years. But God is compelling me to step out. I'm going to do it. I'm going to start this new ministry. And I'm so encouraged by that. I talked to another person who said, I'm going to, God put this idea for a book on my heart a long time ago and I'm ready to do it. Anxiety's kind of held me back, fear of what if it doesn't go well, it's hair me back, but I'm ready to do it. I'm going to take this step-out. I talked to somebody else fairly recently who has a relationship that has been, not been on speaking terms in over a decade. And they felt prompted that God is going to give them the courage to take a step-out and reconnect with that friendship that has dissolved over the last 10 years. And so here's my prayer. It's not just a commitment that we will make next weekend. My prayer is much greater than that. In addition to that, that we spend enough time with Jesus. They rekindle our passion for our faith, that we be the kinds of people who make courageous

in bold steps to do whatever we can to really serve the faithful God that we have the opportunity to serve. Eventually, after these interactions with the religious leaders, what happens next is they're finally released. And it says in verse 23 on the release, Peter and John went back to their own people. Basically, we went back to the early church gathering. And then we went back to their own people and they reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And so they kind of recounted everything that had happened and then just like the early church, their first instinct, just like we talked about last week, their first instinct was to pray together. And they started praying. You got to go read the prayer in chapter four. It's amazing. They start by just admiring and adoring God for who he is and what he's done. They go on to kind of celebrate what God even did in that circumstance, but then they get to the place where they're going to make a request of God. And the request baffles me, look at this, verse 29. It says, now Lord, this is part of their prayer. Now Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and to perform signs and wonders the name of your holy servant, Jesus. Now I think about all the things that I might pray

in that scenario and I don't think that that would have been at the top of my list. Typically for me, when I face opposition, I'm going to pray, God, would you protect me? God, would you grant me safety? God, would you make the hard circumstances go away? They don't pray any of those things. They basically say in great opposition, God, would you empower me to speak your word with greater boldness? I love the difference between what I would say, fear-based prayers, encourage-based prayers. Let me just put them side by side to you. I'd say this, fear-praise this. Fear-praise, Lord, consider their threats and make the threat stop. Courage-praise, Lord, consider their threats and make us bold. Fear-praise, God, change my circumstances. Courage-praise, God, change me in my circumstances. Fear-praise, God, get me out of the situation. Courage-praise, God, use me in the situation. My challenge to you is this. Never underestimate what God will do when you're willing to pray courageous prayers. It was just a couple of weeks ago that Lindsey and I had somebody coming over to her house. Somebody we know real well, love dearly, does not attend this church, but somebody very important in our lives. Now what we knew is this person had recently made a series of very poor choices that was having devastating implications not only of them, but a few people around them.

And as we were preparing for this person to come over, Lindsey says to me, "Shawn, you need to have a direct and almost confrontational conversation with them about the choices they made." And my immediate reaction to my bride was, "I don't want to have that conversation. I've had those kinds of conversations with this person in the past and they haven't gone well frankly. They weren't received well, was met with a lot of defensiveness, and frankly I was just kind of tired of having these conversations because it didn't seem to have any kind of lasting change. And my wife was kind of relentless about it. She's like, "If you don't have the conversation, who in their life will?" And I'm like, "Fair, and I still don't want to do it." And so we kind of had this conversation back and forth and finally honestly to get her to leave me alone. I said, "I'll tell you what, I'll pray about it, and if God opens the door and makes it really, really obvious, I will walk through the door and I will have the conversation." She goes, "All right," and so we literally grabbed hands in that moment and we prayed a prayer. We prayed for two things. "God, would you open the door for the conversation? And God, would you give me courage and boldness to have this direct conversation?" So a person comes over and I'm telling you if it wasn't in the first five minutes they brought up the situation and the door flunk wide open. My wife just looks at me and goes, "You know, so I walk through with a lot of grace, but very direct, had a very direct conversation, and wouldn't you know it, they received it unlike anything that they'd ever done before." They received it, they took ownership of it, they talked about the struggle that they're experiencing, they asked for help in it. It was this beautiful, God-centered moment. I learned two things that day.

First is, I don't often enough pray for boldness and courage and opportunity. When you pray for boldness and you pray for open doors, it's amazing how God will respond. The second thing I learned is my wife is always right, drives me crazy, but pray for courage. Here's the third principle, "Grage's faith changes how we hold everything." This is how chapter four ends, it says, "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions were their own. They shared everything they had. With great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's grace was so powerfully at work in them that there were no needy persons among them. From time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them, they brought the money of the sales and they put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need, that their courage wasn't just about what they proclaimed, their courage is spilled over into every aspect of their life that they became open-handed with how God might steward what wasn't trusted them to benefit everybody around them." That's Mario and Katie's story. Check this out. We're standing on the shoulders of so many people at Willow that have been generous through generations. I'm Mario. I'm Katie. I grew up here at Willow, so I've been attending here my whole life. And I've also been on staff for the last almost 10 years, and I work in our global compassion and justice ministry. I was 13 when I started coming here, and I was a worship pastor here at our South Barrington campus for many years, and now I'm our Young Adults Experience Pastor, which has been a lot of fun to do these last few months. So we met through friends, obviously, we knew of each other, like serving at the church, and yeah, there was an exercise that was kind of, we were going to pray for one another,

and we wrote our phone numbers down in our prayer, and so you just had to randomly select, and she selected mine, so she texted me, and we texted back and forth, and at some point, she left me on red. She didn't reply for like, "Did you do it or did you reply?" And I didn't want to double text her. So we dated for two years, and then got married in 2020. My parents started coming here when they were in their early 20s, and it's actually where they became Christians and met Jesus. One of the difficult times for my family financially was during the recession. My mom had lost her job and was unemployed, and even in that season, I watched my parents continue to be faithful in their generosity, which really impacted me because I look back now and think about wow, that was a hard season. And I can't believe my parents continue to still give and just be generous and faithful to what God is asking them. - One of the hardest seasons of generosity for my family was in the years like 2013 to 2015, our family company, we have a family business that our whole family really depends on. We were so close to shutting down our doors and we were looking at our finances and going, all right, well, here's how much we're giving to the church. And remember my brother and my dad, we sat together and we talked and we said, let's keep getting, like, let's put it on autopay and let's keep doing that. Let's not stop being generous and God provided through that whole season and we could have never planned it in that way, but it was like a really hard decision to say, God, we're gonna be faithful to this.

- I wanna be able to tell our kids about our generosity and to be able to teach them about it. In order to be able to do that, I want them to see our actions and not just here as talk about generosity or what we should be doing, but I want them to be able to see actually how we're putting our faith into action and how we're being generous. And I think that they'll then one day be able to look back and hopefully tell stories about how their parents were generous and how they want to live in a similar way. And I think that it also, hopefully one day, we'll all be looking back on just this season and we will just be in awe of what God is gonna do and be just so grateful that we were making decisions to be faithful in our finances and faithful just in every aspect of our life. - We really think about 50 years ago for the people that gave and where we're at today, but then right now we're giving, but we don't know what 50 years from now will look like and that's what trust is and trusting in God for him to do his work and being a part of something meaningful in God's kingdom. (congregation applauding) - It's the beautiful thing about what happens when courage gets formed in you. It's the courage to be great proclaimers of the good news of Jesus. It also shapes every aspect of our lives that we become people who are so open-handed

with great courage, respond to the needs of people around us and really push God's kingdom forward. I wanna leave you with three things that I want you to consider this week. Here's the first, I want you to spend time with Jesus this week. Every day, 15 minutes a day, would you carve it out to spend some time in God's words, do you spend some time in prayer, would you just allow God to shape your heart and shape your life, formation matters most? Spend time with Jesus. Second thing that I wanna challenge is to do this. I want you to be people who identify one courageous next step. I just kinda think about that in your own journey. If you were to be led by God to step out in some way, how might God want you to step out? Is it to start something new? Is it to reach out to somebody that you need to have a tough conversation with? Whatever it is, identify one courageous step that you need to take, take that step this week. Here's the third thing that I wanna challenge you with. I want you to be people that pray and prepare for a courageous commitment. Again, next weekend, again, I think it's gonna be an amazing, amazing weekend. Make sure you're with us next weekend. And this week, would you pray and prepare

to do something courageous next week? 'Cause this has been my prayer throughout the entire series, is that God would form us as a church. Because generations from now will look back to what we do next weekend. And may we be the kind of church that grows our trust. May we be the kind of church that's willing to make us sacrifice. We may be the kind of church who steps out in courage and because of that, people that we don't yet know. We'll experience the goodness, the grace, the mercy, the transformational power that comes in His name. Let's pray and prepare to be courageous next week. God, that is our prayer. We just ask that you'd move in and through our church. But God, we don't wanna take a step apart from how you're leading us. But God, may we be people that don't cower behind locked doors in fear? But God, would you form in us courage to take steps out that are full of faith, that are willing to make us sacrifice, that are full of courage to help more people come to know you. God, we love you. We say thanks in Jesus' name. Amen. [MUSIC PLAYING]