August 13, 2025 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
We're glad you've joined us for today's program. Pastor Jeff
Ministries is the Bible teaching ministry of doctor Jeff Swarzentrap,
Senior Pastor of Brave Church in Denver, Colorado. Today, Pastor
Jeff concludes his message the Challenges to Faith from the
series The Greatest and shows you what can keep you
(00:22):
standing strong in your faith no matter what comes your way.
Pastor Jeff will get started in just a moment, but
first want to let you know there's a wealth of
resources to help you grow in your walk at Pastorjeff
dot com. Visit Pastorjeff dot com today to find out
more and to sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly devotional emails.
Now here's today's program.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
God Heals.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Will we believe the impossible that God delivers from demonic activity?
Will we believe the impossible that God can save anybody?
It's always come to church. We'll talk about a relative
or a friend like, oh, my goodness, you know that
are so far from God.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I don't know if God could ever save.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Them, to which my response is if I know them,
and if I don't know, YO wouldn't say this, but
I would say he saved, you didn't he? I mean, well,
I what's so hard about saving? God can do anything
he wants. I mean, the apostle Paul wrote two thirds
of the New Testament was murdering and dragging off Christians
to be persecuted. And that's who's writing to the glory
(01:23):
of God giving his life for the Gospel. God can
do whatever he wants. Do you believe the impossible part
of faith? The same, Lord, I believe, But help my
unbelief because I've been trained in our culture to not
believe that unless it's really radical.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
God is really radical.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Christ Church wants to be put on display so that
everyone knows that God still heals, and he still delivers,
and he still saves. Does that mean he saves everybody?
It doesn't. Unfortunately, Does that mean he heals everybody? He doesn't.
That mean he delivers everybody? No, he doesn't. And sometimes
the very thing we want God to deliver us of
is the thing that he's using for a.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Trial in our life.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
He gets to choose, but he does more than what
we allow him to do sometimes, doesn't he. I mean,
this is where we get to a place that our
faith can be hindered because we don't believe the impossible.
We can believe that God can heal somebody else's marriage
is not ours. We believe God can heal somebody else's
immorality not ours. We can believe that God can change
somebody else's behavior not ours. We believe that God can
(02:21):
provide a job for somebody else, but not for us.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Believe the impossible. God wants you to.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Believe him for it to look silly enough to believe.
Can you imagine if it never rained during Noah's life?
I mean, what an idiot right? Can you believe God
had brought fire down when Elijah prayed? Can you imagine
what it would be like if David said, I don't
come at you with javen or spirit.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I come at you in the name of the Lord Almighty.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
And he threw a stone and it missed Goliath by
a country mile, and then Goliath stabbed him and he died.
I mean, we see the outcome of faithful stories and
we're like, love that. But when we're we're in it
and we can't explain it and we're not sure what
the outcome is going to look like, it's hard for
us to stand up and say, yeah, I still believe
no matter what the outcome is, my God is still good,
(03:10):
just like those three Hebrew slaves shad wreck meshack in
a bed and go, oh, King, you can do whatever
you want.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
We know our God is able. If not, we'll be
with him in heaven. But if he so chooses, he'll
deliver us this very day, which he did.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
The only thing that burned on them were the shackles
that they had on their hands and their feet, and
then they came out, not even smoke on them. Our
God is able. Amen, we need to talk and believe
that our God is. Let me give you a fourth
way that faith is challenged. I think this is a
big one for all of us in North America.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
And is this.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
It's God's timing in God's way. God's timing in God's way.
It's holding on to the promises of God with an
open hand, saying, God, you can do what you want,
when you want, in the way that you want. Nosa
says in verse thirteen. All these, that's all the patriarchs.
They died in faith without receiving the promises, but having
(04:07):
seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and
having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth,
so they never even saw the fulfillment of what they
were gonna say.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
God tells Abraham, you're gonna be the father of a great.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Nation, kids like sands on the sea shore, like the
stars in the sky. That was at age seventy five.
Nothing happened. So Abraham and Sarah got together and said,
we better help God out because he forgot us. Sarah says,
why don't you use our mistress, Hagar, that'll help. That
didn't help. Ishmael was born, and guess what. Sarah was
(04:44):
mad because now the mistress has a son and she doesn't.
God's like, that's not the way I do things. You
gotta do it my way. So now it's twenty five
years later, Abraham's one hundred. Now he's gonna have the child,
a promise, you're gonna see it. Seventeen years later, when
Isaac seventeen, he's gonna to take him up to sacrifice him.
At age forty, Isaac's gonna get married. At age sixty,
(05:04):
he's gonna have kids. When Abraham dies at the age
of one hundred and seventy five, this father of a
great nation, guess what he has?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
He has a son and two grandkids.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
I mean, it's laughable if you were living at that
time for him to say for one hundred seventy five years, Really,
for him to say for one hundred years from time
of seventyive to one hundred and seventy five, I mean,
be the father of a great nation like bro, you
have one child and two grandkids. Was God faithful to
his promise even though Abraham never saw it? Absolutely he
was right Noah, one hundred and twenty years. The only
(05:39):
people saved were his own families. We talked about it
means when we're going God's way, we don't turn back,
even though we can't see it. Notice what he goes
on to say, for those who say such things make
it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
And indeed, if they have been thinking of that country
from which they went out, they would have had the
opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a
(05:59):
better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is
not ashamed to be called their god, for he has
prepared a city for them.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So what happened?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
He was saying this, when you step out in faith,
don't ever turn back. When you step out in faith,
burn the bridges from where you're coming from. If Abraham
would have left and said, Okay, i'll go try Israel
for a while, but if it doesn't work, or i'm
living in a tent, I'm going back to Earth. The childies, No,
he went not knowing where he was going, but he's
(06:28):
not coming back.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Men and women, if.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
You choose to get married, burn all the bridges of
everybody you've ever dated before you get married, Because when
you stand at the altar and you say you're gonna
forsake all others till death to you part, it's not well,
I'm getting married, and if it doesn't work out, I'll
go back to what I had.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
You're done right.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Stepping out in faith means I'm going this way, and
if it doesn't work out, you'll have.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
A new path to get me to where I'm going.
When Kim and I.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Were talking about the notion of moving to Denver to
Planted Church, I remember it was about three or four
weeks before we left and having a discussion, a very
practical one of do we take our furniture with us
and store most of it or do we leave it here?
And we're trying to figure it out, and I remember
Kim said to me very specifically, she said, Okay, so
we'll go out there, we'll try this church, but if
(07:14):
it doesn't work, then we'll have our furniture here so
we can just move back home, right. And I remember thinking, oh, heck, no,
we're never coming back. And I knew the only way
I could get her to feel that was if I
called the mover. So I called the movers and I said, hey,
can you pack our stuff? That like, the only time
we have is two days from now. I'm like, come
pack it all. So they packed it all. We moved out,
and our house was barren. And I told her we're
(07:34):
never ever coming back, no matter what if it doesn't
work out, God's got a different direction for us.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
That's what it means to step out in faith.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
That's what Abraham did, That's what Isaac did, That's what
Jacob did. That's what you're going to see that Moses did.
When you step out in faith, you're not turning back around.
You're going to trust God's timing and you're gonna.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Trust his ways. Both are very very difficult to trust.
Do you know why? Because he doesn't do what you want,
doesn't do it in your time.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Asia fifty five says, for my ways are higher than
your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
My translation of that versus, Jeff, I.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Know a heck of a lot more than you, and
my ways are way better than you, and you would
never understand it if I explained it anyway, So just
shut up and follow me.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I mean, that's God's waste. This is the time. Why
does God do what he does when he does? I
don't know, Because he's God and I'm not. I don't
need to figure it all out.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
I mean we got to be open to his timing
and his way in the way in which he's going
to do it. And notice how he did it with
Abraham seventeen years after Isaac was born. You can read
about this in Genesis chapter twenty two, verses one through twelve.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
God spoke to Abraham again.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
He said, get up and take your son and go
sacrifice him.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
So what's he do? Says?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Very early the next morning, he got up to take
his son. And as they're going up to the hill
on Mount Mariah for the sacrifice, Isaac says, Dad, and
he goes, I see the wood I see stones for
the offer. Where's the offering? And his dad said the
Lord will provide. Next verse or two, we see Isaac
tied down on the altar. Abraham's about ready to cut
(09:10):
his son's throat, and here's the voice of the Lord says,
don't lay a hand on that boy. But now I
know that you were willing to do what I wanted
you to do.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
This is Pastor Jeff Ministries with doctor Jeff swarzentraup Today.
Pastor Jeff is sharing his message. The challenge is to
faith from the series The Greatest, showing you what can
keep you standing strong in your faith no matter what
comes your way. We'll return to Pastor Jeff in just
a moment, but before we do, we want to help
you live differently, to think clearly, to pray powerfully, and
(09:45):
to walk wisely every single day with Pastor Jeff's battle
tested wisdom a ten day prayer journey for real life decisions.
This resource is our thanks for your gift of support
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give a gift to keep teachings like this one today
going strong through Pastor Jeff Ministries. Again, that's Pastorjeff dot Com.
(10:10):
Now let's return to today's teaching.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
It's God's way, It's God's time. Notice what it says
in verse seventeen by faith. Abraham, when he was tested,
offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises,
was offering up his only begotten son. It was he
to whom it was said in Isaac, shall all your
descendants be called. He considered that God is able to
raise people, even from the dead, from which he also
received him back as a type. Abraham had never seen
(10:37):
Jesus raise somebody from the dead. Jesus Christ had not
risen from the dead. He didn't have any experience that
God could raise the dead. He knew the only way.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
He could be the father of a nation was through Isaac.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
And yet God said sacrifice him, And he said, okay,
I'll put him on the altar. If that's what you
want me to do, I'm doing it your way. I
don't care anymore. And if that's what you're doing, then
you probably have some other plan that I'm not even
aware thereof, that you can do, which is why we
have to continually listen to God. Because what if Abraham
would have woke up that morn and said, I heard God.
I'm not listening to him anymore. I'm just gonna go
(11:09):
slay my son. He would have missed the promise of God.
We hear, we listen, we act, then we go back
in here and listen. He was listening to God the
whole time. God, not my will, but your will be
done if you have a different way. And God had
a different way. And Isaac became a type because there
was coming a day in the future where the father
would send his son up a hill and he wouldn't
(11:29):
hold back, and his son would be slaughter, his one
and only begotten son, so that all of us who
are sinners, through the shed blood of Christ could have
life in his name.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
But he says, now, Abraham, I know you're faithful. What
does it mean.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
It means this that at times God's going to ask
us to put some of our things that we think
are so important on the altar to see if he
wants to take him. For some of us it's sports.
For some of us, is our job, for some of
us his money, some of us our kids. For some
of us is our marriage, where we say no, this
is my marriage, these are my kids, this is my job,
this is my money, and guy's like, no, everything belongs
(12:05):
to me.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Put it up here because I want to know that
if I took it, you'd still love me.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
And God is constantly growing us in those areas so
that the only thing that's.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Left is our pure love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Would you be willing to trust God and his timing
and his way for what he wants to do, and
I can stand up here and tell your story after
story after story after story of all I thought God
was going to do, only to watch him do it
in a different way than I thought he was going
to do it.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I remember I wanted to get married so bad in
my twenties.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I remember having prayers with God when I was in seminary, like, God,
I'm doing everything you're asking me to do, Please bring
me my wife.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Nothing.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
I remember I was officiating a wedding one time in
Arkansas for a couple kids in our youth group, and
there was a nineteen year old groom and a twenty
three year old bride, and I went through the whole
routine and as I'm officiating it, the only thing I'm
thinking of is Lord, this kid's like nineteen and I'm
like thirty, Like where's my bride?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Like I'm not enjoying this at all, you know that
kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
And I didn't meet my wife un till I was
thirty two, and I didn't get married till I was
thirty four. Don't cry. I would have cried if God
would have told me that when I was eighteen. But
in hindsight, looking back, I know that if God would
have brought Kim into my life sooner than he did,
number one, I wasn't ready. And number two, there's no
way I would have stayed in school and did all
the things that I did to prepare for ministry.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I would have got out.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I would have taken the easy rod because I wanted
to be married and God need to bring me somebody
at the right time. But that's now, that wasn't my timing,
That wasn't what I wanted.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
It was God's timing for my life.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Remember I went to seminary in nineteen ninety eight, Dallas Seminary.
They promised they would teach us every single book of
the Bible. It's four year degree. I'm like, okay, Good
nineteen ninety eight. By two thousand and two, I'll know
everything there is to know about the Bible. I'll never
need to study it again. That clearly didn't happen. The
more I study God's word, the more I realized I
don't know as much as I think I do, and
the more I want to be in the presence of
(13:55):
our eternal Savior. Remember when we started this church in
twenty ten and we moved here, you have to realize
what I did for a living prior to coming here.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The only message I preached, from a.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Variety of passages was the Gospel of Jesus Christ and
his Cross and the need for people to turn from
their sin and repent.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
And trust Christ. That's all I did.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
And then everywhere I went I called people to repentants,
like come forward, now, give your life to Christ.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Now. That was my message.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
And so every weekend we would see like four people
or forty people, or five hundred people or however many
people get saved. That was so normative that when I
preached the gospel, I just expected people to get saved.
So I knew when we planted a church and people
were telling me, it's so hard, it's gonna be really
hard for you. You're gonna have a small venue. Nobody's
gonna show up. I remember thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
(14:39):
what it's like for other people. We're gonna see hundreds.
I thought personally we'd be about this size after the
first year.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I really did.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
I thought we'd be seeing thousands of people saved and
all this kind of stuff, and Easter would look like
Bandamere year one.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
And it didn't happen. Folks.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
We started off with two hundred and eight people. We
grew it quickly to one hundred and thirteen, and then
you know, progressed from there. Sure, right, Because God's ways
and his timing are different. I still have vision for
how we're going to reach our city, nation, and world
for the gospel. I still see Brave Church being a
player in our great nation. For what God's going to
do to bring revival to our world. I see it,
(15:16):
but it's not happening to my timmy. It's going to
happen in god God's I remember buying our first building,
the one we bought next door, wondering how in the
world is this going to happen. I remember preaching on
a Sunday and so fired up that God was going
to do this incredible work because we had to raise
one point seven three million dollars in six days, and
we had three hundred and thirteen people that gave to
that the Saturday before, the day before we you know,
(15:39):
the day we raised all the money. The day before
that Sunday kids were coming up bringing Baby City money
and pouring it in all this stuff. Our annual budget
was eight hundred thousand dollars. We're trying to raise one
point seven three million in a week. And I remember
being terrified on that Thursday, like, this is the stupidest.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Thing I've ever led a group of people to do.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Not only are we not going to get the building,
we're gonna miss by a country mile, and all the
people that are trusting me are going to leave, and
we don't have that many people.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
To leave to begin with, so we're not gonna have
a church.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
And I remember I was praying, and I was praying
through Psalm twenty seven, and the Lord spoke to me
through Psalm twenty seven and basically said, you know, do
not fear, You'll see the goodness of the Lord in
the land of the Living. Jeff, you're not taking into
account that I'm coming to the meeting. It's done, and
so on Thursday, I'm like cool. So he walked through
the weekend. I didn't know till Sunday morning what we got,
but we needed one point seven three million. We raised
(16:28):
one point nine three million dollars in six days, and
God did an incredible work, am Im and friends.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I got all sorts of ideas.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
The guy keeps birthing in my heart as I listened
to him. I never ever dreamed we would have a school.
It is so on my heart because I look at
our next generation. I'm like, if we don't do something,
who is like how are we gonna start Brave Academy?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
And where are we going to do it?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
And as we put campuses all over our city, we're
putting schools all over our city.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
And what's it going to look like? And where's it
gonna be?
Speaker 3 (16:58):
And if you ask me how, I tell you one
step at a time.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
But it's gonna happen because we have to.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
We have to educate our kids, not just on Sunday mornings,
but holistically all throughout the week. M N have ideas
for campuses and sports and all sorts of things. I
remember we started this campus idea and people like, that's
never gonna work. You have like thirty five people meeting
in a small building. That's never gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Our Westminster campus has over a thousand people. They call
Brave Church their home and they love Brave Church. We
love Westminster. God's doing an incredible thing. And that's just
one campus. I want to put them all over the city.
I want people Brave to be known in our city
where people are like, well, how do I get there?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Oh, there's one ten minutes from my house. There's one
ten minutes from my house. Oh, there's one ten minutes
from my house. I know what they're about. They're about
the Lord, Jesus.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Christ and his glory and growing us up so we
can impact the world with the.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Kingdom of God. I believe that's gonna happen. Imn.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
But it's God's timing and it's God's way. And if
you ask me, how's that all going to happen? If
I was able to tell you, then I wouldn't be
depending upon the Lord.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Here's how it's gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
It's gonna happen through us when we're faithful to seek
his face and trust what he wants to do in
his timing and in his way.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
And let me give you a final challenge, because this
one's super important.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
If we'll trust God's timing in God's way, one of
the final challenges is this.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
It's living for a legacy. One of the challenges of
faith is living for a legacy.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
We just read that all these men died in faith
without receiving the promises. If your vision is of the Lord,
you will not see all of it realized in your lifetime.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
You can't. It's bigger than you.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
And the more you walk in your vision, the more
you realize it's way bigger than you. Notice what he says,
by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob, and he saw even regarding
things to come.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
By faith.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each one of the
sons of Joseph and worship leaning on the.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Top of his staff. By faith.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus
of the sons of Israel and gave orders concerning his bones.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
What do you see?
Speaker 3 (18:59):
And Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, they were facing all the
way through the finish line.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
They didn't give up.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
What I find is so tragic of most men my
age is they start thinking about retirement, which is fine.
If it's a transition to serve the Lord greater, it's
not a problem. But for some that are my age,
their biggest goal in life is to get a cool
retirement home or a lake home, or to play more
golf or more pickleball or whatever it is that they're
(19:29):
going to get to a place in their faith where
it's like I've done everything.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Now it's for the younger people. You don't see that
in the Bible.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Joshua and Caleb got their call at eighty and eighty five,
Moses went in an eighty, Abraham's one hundred. I mean,
if you're younger than one hundred and twenty, got so
us great things for you to do in your life.
And we need to see more people, men and women,
but especially men, not believe the lie that says you
(19:58):
already faithed enough.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Now just relax.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
You should be accelerating in your face when you die.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Right, Jacob is on his cane, leaning forward.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
He can't even the brother can't even stand up, and
he's worshiping God, blessing all of his sons and grandsons.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
That's what it looks like. And when you I'm not
talking about leaving the legacy, like.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Well, I left the house, I left the car, I
left money for my I'm not talking about leaving the legacy.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I'm talking about living the legacy.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Because when you live all the way through the finish
line and people see that you're life to your very
last breath was for Jesus Christ, you live, and you
leave a legacy of people that want to follow after that,
and your life still speaks long after you're gone. John Wesley,
the great evangelist, started the Methodist movement the very wee
(20:47):
hours of his life, set up in the morning that day,
sick all morning, and here's his last words. The greatest
news of all is God is with us. And he
laid down and died cool way to go.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
All the way to his end.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
What was he doing preaching the gospel, helping people live,
saving souls, living for the glory of God.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
It's why we still talk about him.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
It's true of every man and woman that accelerated all
the way to the finish line. Joseph understood he would
never be back in Israel, but he said, of this
I know God's gonna deliver us, so make sure, even
though I'm gonna be dead, take my bones back with you.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
I want to go into the Promised Land. I won't
be here. Here's what it means.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Your legacy they got put you on the earth for
that you're called to live goes far beyond presently what
you can see with your own eyes. It goes through
your kids, it goes through those you invested in friends
Brave Church. My prayer is, if Jesus doesn't return during
my lifetime, Brave Church far exceeds my life, that we're
(21:49):
turning it over to other young men who are living
the legacy of Jesus with new and great ideas that
are taking it further than I ever could. I'm wanna
be up in heaven receiving reward like to ying Chiching
chi ching from other people that are doing the work
that I'm currently doing now, because I want the vision
to be big enough for anybody anywhere, at any time
(22:10):
to get involved.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Want to outlive me.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I don't want to get to be like sixty or
seventy and tell my kids we did it. We planted
a church, We have more campuses now, we planted some churches.
We're going to Florida. Baby, We're gonna dip our toes
in the water and something else in the sand, and
we're just gonna have fun.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Not doing that.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
I want to live for the glory of Jesus Christ
until He returns and I see him face to face.
Let me tell you something about your life. Not every
single person is called to do the same thing. The
question is, how's God asking you to live faithfully?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Now? What's the next step in your life? Now? How
do you take the next step of faith? Now?
Speaker 3 (22:54):
How do you keep taking the steps of faith? And
keep taking and keep taking and keep taking so that
the glory of God is working in and through your life?
To others, Because I'll tell you this, there's no more
exhilarating life than knowing that Christ is using you. There's
no more exhilarating life than being part of a community
where Christ is using us. And friends, we're gonna see
God do eat amazing things. I'm telling you you need
(23:17):
to believe this with your who art. This message is
not for the select few that are gonna do great
things for God. Here's what we got screaming at you
through His word today. I want to use you for
great things, to the glory of God. I want to
use your gifts and your talents and your abilities, and
where you're weak rely.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
On other people.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
But I have plans for you, declares the Lord, plans
to prosper you and not harm you, plans for hope in.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
A good future. If you've heard me clearly, even if you.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Don't have clarity on it, start taking the little steps
you need.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
I'll give you more as you go.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
God wants to use you for greatness. He doesn't want
you to get hung up on other things. He wants
to use your life and friends of all of us
that call Brave Church our home, we'll just take that
next little baby step for the.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Glory of Christ.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I believe he would blow us away by doing more
than we could ever ask or imagine, according to His
glorious power that is at work within us.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Amen, thanks for listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries. That was
Pastor Jeff with his message the Challenges to Faith from
the series The Greatest, showing you what can keep you
standing strong in your faith no matter what comes your way.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Before you go, be sure to.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Request Pastor Jeff's battle tested wisdom A ten day prayer
journey for real life decisions. When you give a gift
and support of Pastor Jeff Ministries. To request your copy,
go to Pastorjeff dot com and give to help reach
more people through these teachings, and while you're there, remember
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so you never miss new resources designed to equip you
(24:52):
for courageous living. That's Pastorjeff dot com. Thank you for
joining us today.
We're glad you've joined us for today's program. Pastor Jeff
Ministries is the Bible teaching ministry of doctor Jeff Swarzentrap,
Senior Pastor of Brave Church in Denver, Colorado. Today, Pastor
Jeff concludes his message the Challenges to Faith from the
series The Greatest and shows you what can keep you
(00:22):
standing strong in your faith no matter what comes your way.
Pastor Jeff will get started in just a moment, but
first want to let you know there's a wealth of
resources to help you grow in your walk at Pastorjeff
dot com. Visit Pastorjeff dot com today to find out
more and to sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly devotional emails.
Now here's today's program.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
God Heals.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Will we believe the impossible that God delivers from demonic activity?
Will we believe the impossible that God can save anybody?
It's always come to church. We'll talk about a relative
or a friend like, oh, my goodness, you know that
are so far from God.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I don't know if God could ever save.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Them, to which my response is if I know them,
and if I don't know, YO wouldn't say this, but
I would say he saved, you didn't he? I mean, well,
I what's so hard about saving? God can do anything
he wants. I mean, the apostle Paul wrote two thirds
of the New Testament was murdering and dragging off Christians
to be persecuted. And that's who's writing to the glory
(01:23):
of God giving his life for the Gospel. God can
do whatever he wants. Do you believe the impossible part
of faith? The same, Lord, I believe, But help my
unbelief because I've been trained in our culture to not
believe that unless it's really radical.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
God is really radical.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Christ Church wants to be put on display so that
everyone knows that God still heals, and he still delivers,
and he still saves. Does that mean he saves everybody?
It doesn't. Unfortunately, Does that mean he heals everybody? He doesn't.
That mean he delivers everybody? No, he doesn't. And sometimes
the very thing we want God to deliver us of
is the thing that he's using for a.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Trial in our life.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
He gets to choose, but he does more than what
we allow him to do sometimes, doesn't he. I mean,
this is where we get to a place that our
faith can be hindered because we don't believe the impossible.
We can believe that God can heal somebody else's marriage
is not ours. We believe God can heal somebody else's
immorality not ours. We can believe that God can change
somebody else's behavior not ours. We believe that God can
(02:21):
provide a job for somebody else, but not for us.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Believe the impossible. God wants you to.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Believe him for it to look silly enough to believe.
Can you imagine if it never rained during Noah's life?
I mean, what an idiot right? Can you believe God
had brought fire down when Elijah prayed? Can you imagine
what it would be like if David said, I don't
come at you with javen or spirit.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I come at you in the name of the Lord Almighty.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
And he threw a stone and it missed Goliath by
a country mile, and then Goliath stabbed him and he died.
I mean, we see the outcome of faithful stories and
we're like, love that. But when we're we're in it
and we can't explain it and we're not sure what
the outcome is going to look like, it's hard for
us to stand up and say, yeah, I still believe
no matter what the outcome is, my God is still good,
(03:10):
just like those three Hebrew slaves shad wreck meshack in
a bed and go, oh, King, you can do whatever
you want.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
We know our God is able. If not, we'll be
with him in heaven. But if he so chooses, he'll
deliver us this very day, which he did.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
The only thing that burned on them were the shackles
that they had on their hands and their feet, and
then they came out, not even smoke on them. Our
God is able. Amen, we need to talk and believe
that our God is. Let me give you a fourth
way that faith is challenged. I think this is a
big one for all of us in North America.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
And is this.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
It's God's timing in God's way. God's timing in God's way.
It's holding on to the promises of God with an
open hand, saying, God, you can do what you want,
when you want, in the way that you want. Nosa
says in verse thirteen. All these, that's all the patriarchs.
They died in faith without receiving the promises, but having
(04:07):
seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and
having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth,
so they never even saw the fulfillment of what they
were gonna say.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
God tells Abraham, you're gonna be the father of a great.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Nation, kids like sands on the sea shore, like the
stars in the sky. That was at age seventy five.
Nothing happened. So Abraham and Sarah got together and said,
we better help God out because he forgot us. Sarah says,
why don't you use our mistress, Hagar, that'll help. That
didn't help. Ishmael was born, and guess what. Sarah was
(04:44):
mad because now the mistress has a son and she doesn't.
God's like, that's not the way I do things. You
gotta do it my way. So now it's twenty five
years later, Abraham's one hundred. Now he's gonna have the child,
a promise, you're gonna see it. Seventeen years later, when
Isaac seventeen, he's gonna to take him up to sacrifice him.
At age forty, Isaac's gonna get married. At age sixty,
(05:04):
he's gonna have kids. When Abraham dies at the age
of one hundred and seventy five, this father of a
great nation, guess what he has?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
He has a son and two grandkids.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
I mean, it's laughable if you were living at that
time for him to say for one hundred seventy five years, Really,
for him to say for one hundred years from time
of seventyive to one hundred and seventy five, I mean,
be the father of a great nation like bro, you
have one child and two grandkids. Was God faithful to
his promise even though Abraham never saw it? Absolutely he
was right Noah, one hundred and twenty years. The only
(05:39):
people saved were his own families. We talked about it
means when we're going God's way, we don't turn back,
even though we can't see it. Notice what he goes
on to say, for those who say such things make
it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
And indeed, if they have been thinking of that country
from which they went out, they would have had the
opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a
(05:59):
better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is
not ashamed to be called their god, for he has
prepared a city for them.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So what happened?
Speaker 3 (06:07):
He was saying this, when you step out in faith,
don't ever turn back. When you step out in faith,
burn the bridges from where you're coming from. If Abraham
would have left and said, Okay, i'll go try Israel
for a while, but if it doesn't work, or i'm
living in a tent, I'm going back to Earth. The childies, No,
he went not knowing where he was going, but he's
(06:28):
not coming back.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Men and women, if.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
You choose to get married, burn all the bridges of
everybody you've ever dated before you get married, Because when
you stand at the altar and you say you're gonna
forsake all others till death to you part, it's not well,
I'm getting married, and if it doesn't work out, I'll
go back to what I had.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
You're done right.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Stepping out in faith means I'm going this way, and
if it doesn't work out, you'll have.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
A new path to get me to where I'm going.
When Kim and I.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
Were talking about the notion of moving to Denver to
Planted Church, I remember it was about three or four
weeks before we left and having a discussion, a very
practical one of do we take our furniture with us
and store most of it or do we leave it here?
And we're trying to figure it out, and I remember
Kim said to me very specifically, she said, Okay, so
we'll go out there, we'll try this church, but if
(07:14):
it doesn't work, then we'll have our furniture here so
we can just move back home, right. And I remember thinking, oh, heck, no,
we're never coming back. And I knew the only way
I could get her to feel that was if I
called the mover. So I called the movers and I said, hey,
can you pack our stuff? That like, the only time
we have is two days from now. I'm like, come
pack it all. So they packed it all. We moved out,
and our house was barren. And I told her we're
(07:34):
never ever coming back, no matter what if it doesn't
work out, God's got a different direction for us.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
That's what it means to step out in faith.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
That's what Abraham did, That's what Isaac did, That's what
Jacob did. That's what you're going to see that Moses did.
When you step out in faith, you're not turning back around.
You're going to trust God's timing and you're gonna.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Trust his ways. Both are very very difficult to trust.
Do you know why? Because he doesn't do what you want,
doesn't do it in your time.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Asia fifty five says, for my ways are higher than
your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
My translation of that versus, Jeff, I.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Know a heck of a lot more than you, and
my ways are way better than you, and you would
never understand it if I explained it anyway, So just
shut up and follow me.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
I mean, that's God's waste. This is the time. Why
does God do what he does when he does? I
don't know, Because he's God and I'm not. I don't
need to figure it all out.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
I mean we got to be open to his timing
and his way in the way in which he's going
to do it. And notice how he did it with
Abraham seventeen years after Isaac was born. You can read
about this in Genesis chapter twenty two, verses one through twelve.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
God spoke to Abraham again.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
He said, get up and take your son and go
sacrifice him.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
So what's he do? Says?
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Very early the next morning, he got up to take
his son. And as they're going up to the hill
on Mount Mariah for the sacrifice, Isaac says, Dad, and
he goes, I see the wood I see stones for
the offer. Where's the offering? And his dad said the
Lord will provide. Next verse or two, we see Isaac
tied down on the altar. Abraham's about ready to cut
(09:10):
his son's throat, and here's the voice of the Lord says,
don't lay a hand on that boy. But now I
know that you were willing to do what I wanted
you to do.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
This is Pastor Jeff Ministries with doctor Jeff swarzentraup Today.
Pastor Jeff is sharing his message. The challenge is to
faith from the series The Greatest, showing you what can
keep you standing strong in your faith no matter what
comes your way. We'll return to Pastor Jeff in just
a moment, but before we do, we want to help
you live differently, to think clearly, to pray powerfully, and
(09:45):
to walk wisely every single day with Pastor Jeff's battle
tested wisdom a ten day prayer journey for real life decisions.
This resource is our thanks for your gift of support
to help reach more people through Pastor Jeff Ministries. To
request your copy, simply go to Pastorjeff dot com and
give a gift to keep teachings like this one today
going strong through Pastor Jeff Ministries. Again, that's Pastorjeff dot Com.
(10:10):
Now let's return to today's teaching.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
It's God's way, It's God's time. Notice what it says
in verse seventeen by faith. Abraham, when he was tested,
offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises,
was offering up his only begotten son. It was he
to whom it was said in Isaac, shall all your
descendants be called. He considered that God is able to
raise people, even from the dead, from which he also
received him back as a type. Abraham had never seen
(10:37):
Jesus raise somebody from the dead. Jesus Christ had not
risen from the dead. He didn't have any experience that
God could raise the dead. He knew the only way.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
He could be the father of a nation was through Isaac.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
And yet God said sacrifice him, And he said, okay,
I'll put him on the altar. If that's what you
want me to do, I'm doing it your way. I
don't care anymore. And if that's what you're doing, then
you probably have some other plan that I'm not even
aware thereof, that you can do, which is why we
have to continually listen to God. Because what if Abraham
would have woke up that morn and said, I heard God.
I'm not listening to him anymore. I'm just gonna go
(11:09):
slay my son. He would have missed the promise of God.
We hear, we listen, we act, then we go back
in here and listen. He was listening to God the
whole time. God, not my will, but your will be
done if you have a different way. And God had
a different way. And Isaac became a type because there
was coming a day in the future where the father
would send his son up a hill and he wouldn't
(11:29):
hold back, and his son would be slaughter, his one
and only begotten son, so that all of us who
are sinners, through the shed blood of Christ could have
life in his name.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
But he says, now, Abraham, I know you're faithful. What
does it mean.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
It means this that at times God's going to ask
us to put some of our things that we think
are so important on the altar to see if he
wants to take him. For some of us it's sports.
For some of us, is our job, for some of
us his money, some of us our kids. For some
of us is our marriage, where we say no, this
is my marriage, these are my kids, this is my job,
this is my money, and guy's like, no, everything belongs
(12:05):
to me.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Put it up here because I want to know that
if I took it, you'd still love me.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
And God is constantly growing us in those areas so
that the only thing that's.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Left is our pure love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Would you be willing to trust God and his timing
and his way for what he wants to do, and
I can stand up here and tell your story after
story after story after story of all I thought God
was going to do, only to watch him do it
in a different way than I thought he was going
to do it.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I remember I wanted to get married so bad in
my twenties.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I remember having prayers with God when I was in seminary, like, God,
I'm doing everything you're asking me to do, Please bring
me my wife.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Nothing.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
I remember I was officiating a wedding one time in
Arkansas for a couple kids in our youth group, and
there was a nineteen year old groom and a twenty
three year old bride, and I went through the whole
routine and as I'm officiating it, the only thing I'm
thinking of is Lord, this kid's like nineteen and I'm
like thirty, Like where's my bride?
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Like I'm not enjoying this at all, you know that
kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
And I didn't meet my wife un till I was
thirty two, and I didn't get married till I was
thirty four. Don't cry. I would have cried if God
would have told me that when I was eighteen. But
in hindsight, looking back, I know that if God would
have brought Kim into my life sooner than he did,
number one, I wasn't ready. And number two, there's no
way I would have stayed in school and did all
the things that I did to prepare for ministry.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
I would have got out.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
I would have taken the easy rod because I wanted
to be married and God need to bring me somebody
at the right time. But that's now, that wasn't my timing,
That wasn't what I wanted.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
It was God's timing for my life.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Remember I went to seminary in nineteen ninety eight, Dallas Seminary.
They promised they would teach us every single book of
the Bible. It's four year degree. I'm like, okay, Good
nineteen ninety eight. By two thousand and two, I'll know
everything there is to know about the Bible. I'll never
need to study it again. That clearly didn't happen. The
more I study God's word, the more I realized I
don't know as much as I think I do, and
the more I want to be in the presence of
(13:55):
our eternal Savior. Remember when we started this church in
twenty ten and we moved here, you have to realize
what I did for a living prior to coming here.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The only message I preached, from a.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Variety of passages was the Gospel of Jesus Christ and
his Cross and the need for people to turn from
their sin and repent.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
And trust Christ. That's all I did.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
And then everywhere I went I called people to repentants,
like come forward, now, give your life to Christ.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Now. That was my message.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
And so every weekend we would see like four people
or forty people, or five hundred people or however many
people get saved. That was so normative that when I
preached the gospel, I just expected people to get saved.
So I knew when we planted a church and people
were telling me, it's so hard, it's gonna be really
hard for you. You're gonna have a small venue. Nobody's
gonna show up. I remember thinking, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's
(14:39):
what it's like for other people. We're gonna see hundreds.
I thought personally we'd be about this size after the
first year.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
I really did.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
I thought we'd be seeing thousands of people saved and
all this kind of stuff, and Easter would look like
Bandamere year one.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
And it didn't happen. Folks.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
We started off with two hundred and eight people. We
grew it quickly to one hundred and thirteen, and then
you know, progressed from there. Sure, right, Because God's ways
and his timing are different. I still have vision for
how we're going to reach our city, nation, and world
for the gospel. I still see Brave Church being a
player in our great nation. For what God's going to
do to bring revival to our world. I see it,
(15:16):
but it's not happening to my timmy. It's going to
happen in god God's I remember buying our first building,
the one we bought next door, wondering how in the
world is this going to happen. I remember preaching on
a Sunday and so fired up that God was going
to do this incredible work because we had to raise
one point seven three million dollars in six days, and
we had three hundred and thirteen people that gave to
that the Saturday before, the day before we you know,
(15:39):
the day we raised all the money. The day before
that Sunday kids were coming up bringing Baby City money
and pouring it in all this stuff. Our annual budget
was eight hundred thousand dollars. We're trying to raise one
point seven three million in a week. And I remember
being terrified on that Thursday, like, this is the stupidest.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Thing I've ever led a group of people to do.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Not only are we not going to get the building,
we're gonna miss by a country mile, and all the
people that are trusting me are going to leave, and
we don't have that many people.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
To leave to begin with, so we're not gonna have
a church.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
And I remember I was praying, and I was praying
through Psalm twenty seven, and the Lord spoke to me
through Psalm twenty seven and basically said, you know, do
not fear, You'll see the goodness of the Lord in
the land of the Living. Jeff, you're not taking into
account that I'm coming to the meeting. It's done, and
so on Thursday, I'm like cool. So he walked through
the weekend. I didn't know till Sunday morning what we got,
but we needed one point seven three million. We raised
(16:28):
one point nine three million dollars in six days, and
God did an incredible work, am Im and friends.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
I got all sorts of ideas.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
The guy keeps birthing in my heart as I listened
to him. I never ever dreamed we would have a school.
It is so on my heart because I look at
our next generation. I'm like, if we don't do something,
who is like how are we gonna start Brave Academy?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
And where are we going to do it?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
And as we put campuses all over our city, we're
putting schools all over our city.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
And what's it going to look like? And where's it
gonna be?
Speaker 3 (16:58):
And if you ask me how, I tell you one
step at a time.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
But it's gonna happen because we have to.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
We have to educate our kids, not just on Sunday mornings,
but holistically all throughout the week. M N have ideas
for campuses and sports and all sorts of things. I
remember we started this campus idea and people like, that's
never gonna work. You have like thirty five people meeting
in a small building. That's never gonna happen.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Do you know?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Our Westminster campus has over a thousand people. They call
Brave Church their home and they love Brave Church. We
love Westminster. God's doing an incredible thing. And that's just
one campus. I want to put them all over the city.
I want people Brave to be known in our city
where people are like, well, how do I get there?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Oh, there's one ten minutes from my house. There's one
ten minutes from my house. Oh, there's one ten minutes
from my house. I know what they're about. They're about
the Lord, Jesus.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Christ and his glory and growing us up so we
can impact the world with the.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Kingdom of God. I believe that's gonna happen. Imn.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
But it's God's timing and it's God's way. And if
you ask me, how's that all going to happen? If
I was able to tell you, then I wouldn't be
depending upon the Lord.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Here's how it's gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
It's gonna happen through us when we're faithful to seek
his face and trust what he wants to do in
his timing and in his way.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
And let me give you a final challenge, because this
one's super important.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
If we'll trust God's timing in God's way, one of
the final challenges is this.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
It's living for a legacy. One of the challenges of
faith is living for a legacy.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
We just read that all these men died in faith
without receiving the promises. If your vision is of the Lord,
you will not see all of it realized in your lifetime.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
You can't. It's bigger than you.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
And the more you walk in your vision, the more
you realize it's way bigger than you. Notice what he says,
by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob, and he saw even regarding
things to come.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
By faith.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each one of the
sons of Joseph and worship leaning on the.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Top of his staff. By faith.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus
of the sons of Israel and gave orders concerning his bones.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
What do you see?
Speaker 3 (18:59):
And Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, they were facing all the
way through the finish line.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
They didn't give up.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
What I find is so tragic of most men my
age is they start thinking about retirement, which is fine.
If it's a transition to serve the Lord greater, it's
not a problem. But for some that are my age,
their biggest goal in life is to get a cool
retirement home or a lake home, or to play more
golf or more pickleball or whatever it is that they're
(19:29):
going to get to a place in their faith where
it's like I've done everything.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Now it's for the younger people. You don't see that
in the Bible.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Joshua and Caleb got their call at eighty and eighty five,
Moses went in an eighty, Abraham's one hundred. I mean,
if you're younger than one hundred and twenty, got so
us great things for you to do in your life.
And we need to see more people, men and women,
but especially men, not believe the lie that says you
(19:58):
already faithed enough.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Now just relax.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
You should be accelerating in your face when you die.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Right, Jacob is on his cane, leaning forward.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
He can't even the brother can't even stand up, and
he's worshiping God, blessing all of his sons and grandsons.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
That's what it looks like. And when you I'm not
talking about leaving the legacy, like.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Well, I left the house, I left the car, I
left money for my I'm not talking about leaving the legacy.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I'm talking about living the legacy.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Because when you live all the way through the finish
line and people see that you're life to your very
last breath was for Jesus Christ, you live, and you
leave a legacy of people that want to follow after that,
and your life still speaks long after you're gone. John Wesley,
the great evangelist, started the Methodist movement the very wee
(20:47):
hours of his life, set up in the morning that day,
sick all morning, and here's his last words. The greatest
news of all is God is with us. And he
laid down and died cool way to go.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
All the way to his end.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
What was he doing preaching the gospel, helping people live,
saving souls, living for the glory of God.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
It's why we still talk about him.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
It's true of every man and woman that accelerated all
the way to the finish line. Joseph understood he would
never be back in Israel, but he said, of this
I know God's gonna deliver us, so make sure, even
though I'm gonna be dead, take my bones back with you.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
I want to go into the Promised Land. I won't
be here. Here's what it means.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Your legacy they got put you on the earth for
that you're called to live goes far beyond presently what
you can see with your own eyes. It goes through
your kids, it goes through those you invested in friends
Brave Church. My prayer is, if Jesus doesn't return during
my lifetime, Brave Church far exceeds my life, that we're
(21:49):
turning it over to other young men who are living
the legacy of Jesus with new and great ideas that
are taking it further than I ever could. I'm wanna
be up in heaven receiving reward like to ying Chiching
chi ching from other people that are doing the work
that I'm currently doing now, because I want the vision
to be big enough for anybody anywhere, at any time
(22:10):
to get involved.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Want to outlive me.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
I don't want to get to be like sixty or
seventy and tell my kids we did it. We planted
a church, We have more campuses now, we planted some churches.
We're going to Florida. Baby, We're gonna dip our toes
in the water and something else in the sand, and
we're just gonna have fun.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Not doing that.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
I want to live for the glory of Jesus Christ
until He returns and I see him face to face.
Let me tell you something about your life. Not every
single person is called to do the same thing. The
question is, how's God asking you to live faithfully?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Now? What's the next step in your life? Now? How
do you take the next step of faith? Now?
Speaker 3 (22:54):
How do you keep taking the steps of faith? And
keep taking and keep taking and keep taking so that
the glory of God is working in and through your life?
To others, Because I'll tell you this, there's no more
exhilarating life than knowing that Christ is using you. There's
no more exhilarating life than being part of a community
where Christ is using us. And friends, we're gonna see
God do eat amazing things. I'm telling you you need
(23:17):
to believe this with your who art. This message is
not for the select few that are gonna do great
things for God. Here's what we got screaming at you
through His word today. I want to use you for
great things, to the glory of God. I want to
use your gifts and your talents and your abilities, and
where you're weak rely.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
On other people.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
But I have plans for you, declares the Lord, plans
to prosper you and not harm you, plans for hope in.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
A good future. If you've heard me clearly, even if you.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Don't have clarity on it, start taking the little steps
you need.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
I'll give you more as you go.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
God wants to use you for greatness. He doesn't want
you to get hung up on other things. He wants
to use your life and friends of all of us
that call Brave Church our home, we'll just take that
next little baby step for the.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Glory of Christ.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I believe he would blow us away by doing more
than we could ever ask or imagine, according to His
glorious power that is at work within us.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Amen, thanks for listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries. That was
Pastor Jeff with his message the Challenges to Faith from
the series The Greatest, showing you what can keep you
standing strong in your faith no matter what comes your way.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Before you go, be sure to.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Request Pastor Jeff's battle tested wisdom A ten day prayer
journey for real life decisions. When you give a gift
and support of Pastor Jeff Ministries. To request your copy,
go to Pastorjeff dot com and give to help reach
more people through these teachings, and while you're there, remember
to sign up for email updates from Pastor Jeff Ministries
so you never miss new resources designed to equip you
(24:52):
for courageous living. That's Pastorjeff dot com. Thank you for
joining us today.
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