Fear

Fear

Today I have the privilege of introducing you to a brand new friend. His name is Ryan Leak, and you're in for a treat today. He is going to speak to us about having no fear.

I'm gonna let him introduce his own family to you in a moment, but Ryan is a young adult pastor at a church in Carrollton, and in addition to that he's a film maker and an author.

 

Would you give a Lake Pointe welcome to Ryan Leak!  Knock them dead, bud. >> Thank you. [APPLAUSE] >> Lake Pointe, it is an honor to be here with you this morning. I've enjoyed my time here this weekend, and getting to know your amazing, amazing Senior Pastor, Pastor Steve.

 

Come on, would you make some noise  for Pastor Steve. I'm not brown nosing, my nose is brown. But I'm just incredibly impressed with Lake Pointe in general and just how you guys are reaching the community. And its just an honor to be here with you this morning. As he said, I'm gonna tell you a little bit about my family.

 

This is a picture of my wife. Now, here's the deal, I know exactly what you're thinking right now. How in the world did he get her?  So about five years ago, my wife, I overheard her talking to a friend. And she said, I think it would be cool to get engaged and married on the same day.

 

Now at the time I was thinking, what in the world, how does that work? What does that mean? Does that mean I had to plan the wedding? How would I do that? But I can't talk to her about it because obviously an engagement is supposed to be a surprise. I'm just talking to myself and trying to figure it out.

The Surprise Wedding

So I was like okay, we're gonna start doing some recon work, we're gonna try and figure out how to do a surprise wedding, maybe? And so three years ago, June 7th, 2013, I got down on one knee in Miami and I said, hey will you marry me? And she said, yes. I said, just kidding, will you marry me today? She was like, what? And then I opened up the spiral room door, and a hundred of family and friends were standing in there with a sign that said, today! >> [LAUGH] >> And so three weeks before the wedding I found a Pinterest page and it was entitled, My Dream Wedding.

 

It had the dress, it had everything that she could possibly want. And it was funny, at our reception she looked over at the cake she goes, whoa! My cake! >> [LAUGH] >> I'm like yeah we found it on Pinterest. And so we flew in her favorite make up artist, hair stylist, rolled in the dress.

 

You can go home and watch the documentary it's called The Surprise Wedding. It's 31 minutes. Husbands, I'm sorry if you have to watch that this afternoon, that's my bad, but it is what it is. Maybe you could go watch ESPN while your wife watches that. So the first day we uploaded the documentary of this wedding, they had 10,000 views.

 

And I was like I don't know 10,000 people. That's amazing, 10,000 people? That's a lot of people. And then we went on Good Morning America, and next thing you know it had 1.4 million views, and I definitely don't know 1.4 million people. And so that was really fun, and then we got to write a book about it, and it's really cool.

 

So that's our story. We got engaged and married on the same day. Started having sex right away and had a baby. This is Jackson Carter Lee. He's 20 months, and he is the future first round draft pick in the NBA. Write his name down right now. You know what, sometimes you just gotta make a decision for your child cause he can't make up his mind.

 

 And so we've just decided, you're gonna be in NBA, it is what it is. That's my family. And that's what you need to know about me. But today is not about me, today is about you. Today is about your dreams, your passions, and what God has put on the inside of you.

 How To Be Brave

There's a verse in the Bible that I think really is going to encourage us this morning to live our life as brave as we possibly can. The Bible says in Joshua 1:6. It says be strong and courageous, for you shall cause these people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.

 

God is taking up the ante again and He says the second time, only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have success, good success, wherever you go.

 

This morning I'd like to speak to you on the subject of how to be brave. Look at your neighbor on the right and say how to be brave.Look at your other neighbor and say, are you buying me lunch after he's done? God, I thank you for my friends here at Lake Pointe and I pray that today you show us what it looks like to be courageous.

 Fear

That you would show us what's it looks like to be brave, that you would show us what our life could look like if we lived without fear. In Jesus name I pray, everybody said? >> Amen. >> Have you ever started a project that you just didn't finish? Maybe it's the basement that you've been thinking about cleaning.

 

You swear up and down the garage is gonna get cleaned, don't you worry, it's gonna happen sooner or later. Now we are people in America of great intentions. We all have intentions of self improvement. Self improvement, physical fitness, getting healthy, career goals, relationship goals, financial goals.

 

I'm gonna save this year. You watch, this is gonna be the year. I'm gonna lose 40 pounds, it's gonna happen. Because nobody starts off the year with bad goals. Nobody says you know what, I really wanna ruin my marriage this year. Like no one says, you know bankruptcy would be an awesome idea, Chapter 11 sounds amazing.

 

No one does that. We all have these great goals of self improvement. We have this intention like, tomorrow is gonna be a better day, you just wait and see. The problem is that a lot of us end up signing up for things that we can't finish. And there is these barriers that keep us from being who we want to be.

 

Now I love January because the gym is packed, and you get all these people that sign up for the gym membership and they are ready to go. The problem is it's July and they keep taking money out of your account every month, but they ain't seen you in a while. And why? Because this is what happened.

 

We visualize ourselves at the gym and they sold this, they gave us a tour of the facilities and it was awesome. And we saw ourselves on the stairmaster. Until we got on the stairmaster. We saw ourselves lifting weights, we saw ourselves running miles, and then you saw somebody that's been there like for years and they live there.

 

They go to the gym twice a day and you don't look like them. Or you went for a month, and nothing changed cause you didn't change how you eat, and you gotta change how you eat, if you wanna look, and so you didn't do all the math, and you were drinking naked drinks, and they were like oh this is great.

 

And then somebody came to you and was like, you know those are bad for you? You're like, I thought I was doing good. You started eating healthy, and you ate healthy for one day and you felt like it wiped away all your sins for your entire life.  And then you got invited to go out and eat the next day, and you're like, I'm gonna order salad, that's what I'm gonna do.

 

And you got there and you started smelling much better food than salads, because who can really smell a salad? The food is much better, so you're like man, all right, this is one time. And then before you know it, you're right back where you started. There is often a gap between who we actually are and who we wanna be.

 

We've got great intentions of being great tomorrow. And I believe this, I believe the bridge between who we actually are, and who we wanna be is courage. And I think that this morning we might actually find the courage to be exactly the person God has called us to be. About a year ago I had a friend, her name's Liz, she was struggling with stage two cancer.

 

And so when she went to the doctor, she was also pregnant at the same time. And that's actually how they found the cancer, going through some tests through the pregnancy process. And they said ma'am, you're gonna need to abort the baby so that we can save your life. You have a choice to make.

 

It's your life or hers because the reality is this, if you wait too long stage two will turn into stage four like that [SNAP] And there are people in this room that have had a front row seat to that and you know how deadly it really is. And when we got together as a community of young adults she said, I'm gonna fight.

 

I'm gonna fight this and I'm not aborting my baby. My baby will live and so will I. And I will live, and even if I don't I will die trying to be exactly who I know I'm supposed to be. So she has baby Sophie, and three months later she was at stage four. And before we know it was too late, and she passed.

 

She's 30, marathon runner, healthy. It's like she's gone too soon, how could this be possible? Like not Liz, Liz is this person that's like carpe diem. Like she was this amazing girl. And it was a really, really sad day until we got their funeral. We were at this church in South Dallas and I'm telling you it was standing room only.

 

I couldn't believe how many people were coming to celebrate the life of this young woman. And I have my Liz story, and I knew who Liz was to me. This is what I figured out in life. You know who your real friends are on the day you're moving. Why? Because you don't like moving your own stuff, let alone somebody else's stuff.

 

And so like on the day that you're moving, people have the craziest appointments. Like come on man, I've got to check out my knee. You ain't checked out your knee in ten months.They got salon appointments. Oh man, my kid, he's got a soccer game, his kid don't even play soccer, he enrolled him in soccer that day, the day you're moving. And that happened to me.

 

I was getting ready to move, all my friends bailed last minute except Liz. Liz goes, you know what Ryan, I'd like to help you move I just don't have a car. And I was already at my new place, my other car was at my old place. So it was like okay, we're trying to figure out a bunch of stuff, and meanwhile if there's any way you can get to my other place that would be great.

 

And it started raining and we lived three miles apart on opposite ends of downtown Dallas. And all of a sudden she put on a raincoat and just took off running. In the rain, ran three miles, over the bridge, got to my house, packed up the car drove it to my new place and helped me move.

 

And I was going, who are you? At her funeral I'm telling this story and then somebody goes, I got one too. And before I knew it I realized that everybody had an extra mile story, about an extraordinary woman. And this was who she was, this wasn't a special story, this wasn't a special day, this was who she was.

 

Maybe you're gonna ask yourself the question what would somebody say about me, at my funeral? And her husband gets up and he gave a message called 25 Things I Learned From My Wife. Spoke for an hour and fifteen minutes, just bragged on her. And everything he said about her, everybody went yeah, that's true.

 

And in fact, he even opened up 1st Corinthians 13, and he said, love is patient, love is kind, love is does not, he goes through the whole thing then he starts over and replaces the word love with her name. And he says, Liz is patient, Liz is kind, Liz does not envy. And every single time we went yeah, Liz was patient, Liz was kind, Liz really didn't boast, she really didn't envy.

 

And it's funny because people left the funeral like, I want somebody to read scripture and replace it with my name. I'm like, well you should start being kind, that would be great. You start being patient. Because the reality is we all want people to to say something about us.

 

But sometimes we lack the courage to be the thing we want people to say about us. And I couldn't help but just feel this excitement at this memorial service, and I walked away with this statement. Become today who you intend to be tomorrow. Become today who you intend to be tomorrow.

 

Because we all got great intent. We all will say, you know what, I'm gonna be a great dad later. When he grows up. Our marriage, it'll get better. Our marriage, it'll get better. I'll work on it later. Even last night, I got done preaching, I came home, and my wife knew what I had to do today.

 

And so she said, hey it's okay if we don't talk about it tonight, but can we just talk about parenting for a minute? She said there's some things I have been noticing about our son, and I just wanna talk. And sure, I can easily go, can we just do this on Monday? Can we just. No, because I don't intend to be a great dad tomorrow, I intend to be one today, regardless of what I quote on quote have to do.

 

I think some of us fall for that trap that we feel like we have to do so much, and some of us think, okay tomorrow I'm gonna start. What about today? You guys have one of the greatest resources in the world, HomePointe. And you can go there, and you could start making a decision today to go you know what, whatever season of life I'm in I'm gonna make a decision that I'm gonna give it all I've got today.

 

Not next week. No, it's the summer man, let's just relax, it's vacation. How do your kids feel about that? I mean, we all got great intentions, I'm gonna start that business next year. And like when our circumstances change it's gonna be great. And if I get a paycheck then, and I'm gonna wait for taxes to start saving, and I'm gonna.

 Be Brave

And we fill in the blank all day long with great intentions of being amazing tomorrow.But what if you just decided to have the courage to do it today? Because what you and I know about us, is that we won't do it tomorrow, will we? We've been saying that for how long? And so the question you got to ask yourself today, the question you have to answer is, what are you waiting for? Is it a better circumstance? Is it a better neighborhood? Are you waiting for a better car to start taking care of the car you currently have? Are you waiting for a better job to take care of the job you currently have? What are you waiting for? Like are you waiting for somebody's permission to be who God has called you to be? What are you waiting for? To be courageous, to be brave.

 

You can figure that out, cause you're very smart. You could go home, and you could write it down and go, okay what am I waiting for? And you could fill in the blank. But here's a question you may never know the answer to. Who's waiting on you? Who's waiting on you to write that book, to start that business, to start doing photography, to start that blog, to create that business.

 

Who needs a job right now, and they're waiting on you to start a business? What kid maybe is waiting for you to write a book about what used to be a drug addiction for you, for alcohol that you struggle with your whole life, and now God set you free? And they're waiting to hear your story.

 

And you might think, I don't wanna write a book. Why? Because I don't have that many readers. What if you only had 10? Then all of a sudden, I'm a failure, and only 10 people read my book. But what you have to realize is what if one of those 10 people is that student that's addicted to drugs? What if that one person is a single mom that feels the weight of the world on her shoulders, and she's too embarrassed to tell you that's it's hard? What if that person is a dad going through a midlife crisis, buying things, trying to fill a gap in the soul that he knows it isn't working? We have to be people that are courageous.

 

We have to be people that the people in the world know exactly who we are. Because it would be a shame if there are people in your world that were dying of cancer and didn't know who you really are, and didn't know about what your Jesus can do. We have to be courageous. And the reality is this, what often happens with us when we start talking about our dreams, and we start dreaming about being that person, being that great dad, being that business owner.

 

When we start thinking about that person we wanna be, we do this really well. We start talking to ourselves, and we give ourselves so many excuses not to move forward, because there's something comfortable about being complacent. Because you don't have to put yourself out there. You don't have to deal with critics.

 

And you constantly spend this time having this conversation with yourself, asking yourself, do I have enough to be that? Do I have enough in the tank to be who God is asking me to be? Great news. And it's found in 2nd Peter and I absolutely love this verse. 2nd Peter chapter one, it says this.

Fear Quotes

Verse 3, His divine power has given us everything we need for a Godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. What I love about this verse is this, is it answers the question of, do you have enough? It answers the question of, do you have enough in the tank? Yep.

 

God gave you. God gave it you. He put enough in you when he created you to be exactly who he called you to be today. And so I told you about the surprise wedding, and so as a result you know me and my wife ended up on a few TV shows. And one of those TV shows was the Queen Latifa Show.

 

So we go on the Queen Latifa Show, and on a TV show they have a producer that comes in and basically the show with you before the show, so you know the questions, and your comfortable and all that gist. So, they prepped us with three questions. Well, on national television, they go for a fourth question.

 

Queen Latifah goes, hey Amanda, do you think you could surprise Ryan the way he surprised you? And she, on TV, says yeah. I'm like what's she gonna do?  I mean, we going to the moon? Is NASA around the corner? What's gonna happen? Then she said hey, me and the queen been working on this, why don't you go ahead and check out this TV screen? And so I said okay, I look at the TV screen, and Kobe Bryant pops up on the screen and says, hey Ryan.

 

And right then, I lost my mind. I said he knows my name? How does he know my name? Who told him my name? Have they been talking to Kobe? What's going on? Now I'm a huge Kobe Bryant fan, he has retired, so I'm a Steph Curry fan. It is what it is, pray for me.Now, so at the time I'm going, what in the world is he about to say to me? >> He says hey, I just wanted to invite you out to Staple Center, come to a game, come to LA and just hangout with the fellas, just wanna hang out.

 

And I'm like, you just wanna hang out?  What is happening?  I'm like you win bae, you win, this is amazing.  And so I picked a game that would be a great game to go to. He was injured, we're just gonna go and we're just gonna hang out. But what does that mean? Cause I'd hung out with a lot of people in my life.

 

But never a Hall of Famer, that's not my normal day to day activity. So I'm not gonna lie, I began thinking about all of the different people that Kobe could have met, and all the people that are impressive. And he's met presidents, and people that run world governments. And I began to ask myself the question that we all end up asking ourselves this.

 

Am I enough? Because the reality is we've been sold this lie. That our career is who we are. Whatever your position is, whatever the title is, that's who you are. So whatever your degree says, that's who you are. And so if you don't have one of those degrees, and you don't have one of those positions, you can make the mistake of believing that you're nobody.

 

And so we live in this world where we're going, okay our title is who we are, and what we're paid to do is who we are, and I'm wondering, okay am I gonna tell Kobe Bryant well I'm a pastor? Have you met a pastor before? What is that? What exactly does that mean and is that enough to get your attention? Because I don't wanna be one of those fans that comes in, and has on your shoes, and the jersey and the shorts, and wants you to sign my entire body.

 

And I'm like, I'm not gonna be that guy, that's a rookie mistake, that's a rookie fan, I'm not a rookie fan, I'm not gonna do that. >> [LAUGH] >> I said I'm walking cool, it's an honor for you to meet me, like acting crazy. I'm like oh my gosh, what's going on in my head? I'm just freaking out.

 

And I said you know what, the only way me and Kobe are gonna have a great conversation is if I'm in the NBA. It's the only way. >> [LAUGH] >> It's the only way we can do it. That's the only one way this conversation is gonna be good. I've got to be on your level so that's exactly what I'm gonna do.

 

I'm gonna be in the NBA. So I was all American in college, so I was like okay, I can play. I'm good, but am I NBA good? Those are two different things, trust me. I had a friend who is really, really good in basketball, and he had just gotten cut from the Chicago Bulls. And we're playing one on one at the gym, I'm getting into shape, and he's beating me every time.

 

So I'm thinking to myself, okay, if he is beating me every time and he just got cut, that probably means I'm not gonna do well. >> [LAUGH] >> And I came to the realization that I was gonna fail. That I was gonna fail miserably, and then I thought what's so bad about failure? I've got a lot of fears in life, you know like, I'm afraid of bears.

 

There are some people that are comfortable with bears, they like mother nature, they like camping, and let's just go out there and live a dangerous life. And they're like Ryan, don't worry about the bears. You see a bear, just play dead. You play dead. >> [LAUGH] >> I'm running, that's what I do well.

 

I'm running. Not playing dead. I don't do sharks, I don't do deep sea diving. I'm not going to look for sharks to go, man it'd be great to just get a photo. Listen, I don't need that on Instagram, I'm good. I'll just post my baby, you can mess with the sharks. It's just a cage, the cages never break.

 

Have you ever watched Shark Week before in your lives? I have. I'm good. I've got different fears, but if there's one that I believe plagues us the most, it's the fear of failure. It's the idea that you know what, what if I fail? What would happen if I fail? And if you're looking at Joshua, Joshua has more to lose than almost any other Biblical character.

 

And just think about Joshua. This is what Joshua is stepping into. God is having a conversation with Joshua and He's going, be strong and courageous. Now you gotta realize this, this is God talking. G-O-D of the universe. He repeats Himself. How many times have you ever seen God repeat Himself? Because He's God He doesn't have to, He only has to say it once.

 

He didn't say thou shall not kill and then come back again and go, like I said before, thou shall not kill. But He's having a conversation with Joshua. Joshua must be scared. Now you gotta realize here's why he's scared. He's replacing Moses. If you don't know anything about the Bible, Moses is a big deal.

 

Everybody loves Moses. When Jesus is talking to people and He said He was greater than Moses, people through a fit. They were about to stone Jesus over that statement alone. Like, how could you be greater than Moses? He's the one that walked people to the Red Sea, he's the one that brought us the law.

 

Nobody is greater than Moses, Jesus you must be somebody special if you think you're greater than Moses. Moses is so amazing in the Bible, that God Himself in Deuteronomy came down when Moses died, and buried him in a mountain where no man could ever find him. You know you're amazing if God comes to your funeral.

 

 And Joshua is taking over from this guy to lead what some scholars believe is over four million people with kids, and animals in a desert. Not mayor of Dallas, desert. With a bunch of people that are like, hey Joshua if you was just more like Moses, this would be awesome.

 

Joshua was like, at least I don't have a stuttering problem, Moses did. So you better be glad that you've got me. I mean, they're going back and forth. I mean, just imagine trying to lead these people who are constantly going, it was better with Pharaoh. Well then why don't you go swim back across the ocean, and see what happens over there with Pharaoh.

 

There is this tension going on. And he's got a lot of enemies, he's got a lot to be afraid of, and God is going, can you just be strong and courageous? And then He goes, let me just say it a second time, be strong and very courageous. And so I'm going, what do I do with this verse? How does this apply in my life? What am I gonna do? And so when I meet Kobe Bryant, I just go hey, I'm gonna chase failure.

 Fear of Failure

Yeah, I'm just not afraid to fail, and I don't think the world should be afraid to fail either. In fact, I wanna spend my life teaching people how to fail. Because the reality is this, every successful person you know has failed. So why do we spend so much time chasing success? I'm just going to fail first.

 

Why not? The line for people trying to be successful is really long. The people trying to fail, I was the first one there. I was like, this is great > Hey, and Kobe Bryant goes, man that's great, do it. And I was like, oh man I forgot to tell him what I was gonna fail. Hey, so like I was saying about that failure thing,  I'm gonna be in the NBA.

 

And in this moment, I thought Kobe was gonna do the thing that most people do when we tell them our dreams. I thought he was gonna laugh, cause he should have. But he didn't. He said, straight faced, looked me in the face and he goes, do it. Do it. I went oh man, now Kobe told me to do it? It was kinda like a cool idea.

 

 I have to do it. And you have all these critics in your head, we're constantly to ourselves. And like Joshua, like myself, we all have people in our life that have a plan for us, don't they? You've had your whole life, God's got a plan for you and He does, so do other people.

 

And they've got a plan for what you should drive, what you should wear, where you should live, where you should work, how long you should work there, and when you should do everything. What your kid should look like, how they should dress, where they should play, what school they should go to, what college.

 

And I wonder who's in the room right now, living out a dream that's somebody else's. I wonder who's in the room right now, that has a career that was given to them by somebody else. I wonder who is in the room, that falls asleep at night, living out the plan that somebody else had for them.

 

And you have spent decades, ignoring God's plan for your life. Ignoring passions, ignoring dreams, because you're afraid of stepping outside of the box the world has created for you. And you spend your life waiting for permission from other people to be exactly who God has called you to be.

 

And so here's what I did. I decided, okay I've told people, Kobe Bryant, my family and friends, that I'm gonna try out for an NBA team. Now the problem is, if you didn't know this, in the NBA, they don't let pastors try out for their basketball team. And then give them money if they make it.

 

I don't have Mark Cuban's number in case you're wondering. I can't just say, hey man, I'm gonna stop by around noon, just gonna try. Like that's not how it works. Usually you have to be an outstanding player in college, D1, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, stuff like that. And then they draft you, and you go to New York, it's this whole deal.

 

I didn't do any of that. People asked me where I play, I say I play in Carrollton, it's great. I mean, that's just not how it works. So I just started emailing teams. And I just said hey, I'm a pastor and I wanna try out for your team. I wanna teach people how to fail, I need something great to fail, and so I wanna fail making your roster.

 

And here's the reality, I don't know if I can make it in the NBA, but there's only one way for me to find out, try. And so here's the reality, there are people in your city, fans that you have, that have dreams on the shelf. Let's get them off together. Let me fail. What do you have to lose? What if I'm amazing? You don't know, you've never seen me play.

 

And so the Boston Celtics wrote back. They said, hey man this is a great story. And I was like, wait a second, am I emailing the Boston Celtics right now? How did this happen? Courage. I can tell you how my hand was shaking with the mouse before I hit send. I even emailed Nike. I just found their email on the internet, because it's the internet, right? And I said hey, I'm doing this thing and maybe you guys wanna sponsor it? They sent me $2,000 worth of gear to my house.

 

From an email. No connections, this was just waking up and just deciding I'm just gonna be brave and take one step towards what I told people I would do, and I don't know how to do it. Like I don't have don't have a blueprint for this thing. Then the LA Clippers wrote back and they said, hey we got a 100 request a month, and it's $50,000 fee just to get a permit to film.

 

I said no, thank you. Bless you. And then the Phoenix Suns said, we love this idea. Why don't you come on Monday? I said, you know I was kinda kidding. I was just hopping that I would make a documentary about me emailing 30 NBA teams and them all telling me no? And you just said yes, which means I have to come now.

 

And they were like yeah, bring your camera crew. And I was like camera crew.  Yeah, yeah, we'll be there, we'll be there. Calling buddies like, you're not gonna believe where we're going on Monday, but pack your bags, it's gonna be fun.  So I show up to Phoenix.

 

And maybe you can tell maybe you can't, but I'm 6'3. So I'm rather on the tall side. I walk in the gym, and I'm the shortest person in the building.  I'm like my voice isn't the deepest thing ever, but I changed my voice that day. What's going on guys? You good? What's up? What's going on?  Good to see you, yeah.

 

You know, you feel like you're literary facing giants. And here's what you get to do. You get to go home and watch two documentaries. You get to go home, you go to chasingfailure.com and you get to watch me try out for the Phoenix Suns. Spoiler alert, I fail.  And it was one of the greatest days of my life.

 Go Big or Go Home

Because there's something amazing that happens when you're not afraid to fail. And let me tell you why. It's because of how Joshua 1 ends. In verse 9 it says this, God says, have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

 

Woah, woah, woah, woah. God let me get this straight. You're saying I have to be strong and courageous? Woah, woah, woah, God let me get this straight. Honor my father and mother, keep the Sabbath holy, don't kill anybody, don't steal, don't envy, and you're gonna throw in there be strong and courageous? In the Bible courage isn't optional.

 

It's commanded. And that might be the best news you've gotten all your life. So now if you're a Christian and you're afraid, you can't be. You have to be strong, and you have to be courageous. And here is why God will tell a bunch of people to be strong and to be courageous. It's because He says this, I'll be with you.

 

I'll be with you. And I wonder what would happen in this room if people didn't just answer this question. What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? And you fill in the blank. Here's a better question, what would you do if you knew God was with you? What you do if you knew God had your back? And the reality is, there are people in this room right now that believe that God is not on their side.

 

God's with the good people, God's with the people that have been here a long time, God's not with me. Here's even better news. God sent His only son to die for each and every person in this room. And when Jesus came to the planet they gave them this nick name, Emmanuel. Which means God with us.

 

So humanity is going, for the first time ever God's on our side! He sent somebody to save us! And 2016 years later we're still getting together to talk about it. Like that is the good news. And so the proof that God is with you, just look at Jesus. Just look no further than who Jesus is.

  intentional living

His very existence, His very arrival to the planet sent a statement to humanity for forever, God is with you. So, you get to be strong and courageous. Not because you're awesome, but because God is. So what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? What would you do if you knew your God was with you? I think you'd be the bravest person in the world.

 

God I thank you for my friends Lake Pointe. I pray Lord that today You would show us what it looks like to chase failure. To be fearless. I pray that you would show us a revelation of what it looks like to be that person that we know you're calling us to be, and that we wouldn't be afraid to walk into that.

 

We wouldn't be afraid to take courageous steps towards exactly who you have called us to be, without fear. In Jesus name I pray, everybody said >> Amen .