As you do so, just within this global context,
that we're getting to hear stories from around
the world, from people who have been friends
of Heights for a long time, so much so that the
dream that it would feel like family is there.
This next gentleman. I was asking him and he's
like, I was like, I think you've been here like
connected to Heights as a partner longer than
I've even been on staff. And he goes, yeah, it's
about 20 years now, which is just beautiful,
right? It's just a beautiful thing. And then
just to get you ready, okay? Just so you're ready.
He is also known, the legend I heard of him as,
is he is the Billy Graham of Cambodia. Yeah,
that's pretty good. Would you please welcome
Steve Hyde. It doesn't get much better than that.
I mean, that bar is pretty high now, you know
what I'm saying? Hello, hello, everyone. How
you doing? Ready for lunch? All right. You know,
I just want to thank the worship team. They are
fantastic. They're back there listening, I hope,
or crashing, whatever. They've been doing this
all morning long. And I want to thank them. Sound
crew, media team, everyone, if you don't come
to church, you can see it because of them. And
if you bring kids here, there's people out there.
I bet there's hundreds of people that are making
this happen today. So just thank you to everybody,
you know, for making that happen. So, yeah, my
name is Steve Hyde. I'm a missionary in Cambodia.
I've been there for 32 years. That's kind of
hard to imagine. I've been in Cambodia so long
that they made me a citizen of Cambodia. So I
actually have a Cambodian passport. I have a
Cambodian ID card. I draw Social Security, which
is almost zero in Cambodia. They give you a little
bit of rice every month. And so that's Social
Security. So whatever you were complaining about,
it's way better. Yeah. But God's been good. God
called me 32 years ago to go to Cambodia. I want
to tell you about my wife. So I met my wife there
in Cambodia. We've been married 26 years. We've
got four kids. Yeah, we have four kids. My wife's
name is Noi. She didn't come with me. She's Cambodian.
She didn't come with me on this trip because
for her to travel for two days to get here. And
then be here for four days and then travel two
days back. She's like, you can do that, Steve.
But anyways, I'm happy to be here. I love it.
Cambodia is always hot. So it's always like 100
degrees and about 100 % humidity. And so being
here, it's very, very dry for me. But I haven't
sweat yet. This is amazing. Yeah. I bet I could
walk around the neighborhood for hours and not
sweat also. I love your. Temperature and your
climate. Although it is very cold, but I know
that in four more days, I'll be gone and I'll
be sweating again. So I'm looking forward to
that. When I first went to Cambodia, when I first
went to Cambodia, there were almost no Christians
in the whole country. Most people that I talked
to about Jesus had no idea what I was talking
about. It was 0 .01 % Christian. There were so
few Christians. There were only eight churches,
little underground hidden churches. Eight. in
the entire country of Cambodia. And most of the
people that were Christians in those churches
weren't even Cambodian. They were just like Vietnamese
or immigrants that had come there or missionaries
or that kind of stuff. They weren't even Cambodian.
But God had it in his way that he decided he
was going to change the nation of Cambodia. For
those of you that heard the name Cambodia, it's
not Columbia, just to clarify. Some people are
like, you know, come up to me and like speak
Spanish. And they're like, hola, you know, welcome
to America. It's not the country I'm in. I'm
in Cambodia, which is in Asia, borders Vietnam
and Thailand. And so that's where I am. They
speak a language called Khmer. And their language
is very, very different from Spanish. So Spanish
doesn't work with me, nor anyone in Cambodia.
And so, but God called me 32 years ago. I was
in, I had graduated from college, and I had started
to go to Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth,
Texas. And I was a good Southern Baptist kid.
And I felt like God was calling me into missions
kind of somehow or whatever. So I was in Southwestern
Baptist Seminary. And there was about 4 ,000
students there at the time studying master's
and doctorate degrees to become pastors and that
kind of stuff. And I was in a chapel service.
And there was about 20 people in the entire service
because it wasn't required. So nobody showed
up. Out of 4 ,000 students, only about 20 of
us showed up. And so I went. And there at this
chapel service, I'm not insulting the school,
by the way. I was just saying as a matter of
fact. So in case that came out as an insult,
sorry about that. But in that chapel service,
I literally heard God speak to me. And all God
said was, go to Cambodia. And then, like, the
service was over. But to me, it was audible.
Like, I could hear it. And I knew it was God.
This is very unusual for Southern Baptists to
hear audible voice of God. You know, if you're
from another kind of tradition, it's not so unusual.
For Southern Baptists, it's quite unusual, especially
in a Southern Baptist seminary. It's quite unusual
to hear. So we always say in the Baptist circles,
we're like, well, we've got to confirm it with
the word. And so I was like, well, okay. So I
felt like that was God. That was, there's no
way to describe that. I like knew in my soul
that that was God that was speaking to me. But
I was like, well, I better confirm it in the
word. So I went back to my dorm room and I was
like, I'm going to open up my Bible and I'm just
going to, you know, crack it open and look down
and read it. And then whether, whether what I
read is going to be whether I go to Cambodia
or not. And so I was like, well, if I go New
Testament, if I go New Testament. I'm pretty
much going to hit the Apostle Paul. You know,
I'm going to hit the Apostle Paul. And so that's
going to be go to Cambodia. If I go Old Testament,
there's not, you know, it's going to be some
battle or something like that. It's not going
to be the go to Cambodia kind of thing. And so
I was like, you know, what do I do? Do I go Old
Testament? Do I go New Testament? That kind of
stuff. And then I felt like the Holy Spirit was
like, come on, dude. What are you doing? You
know, just to paraphrase the Holy Spirit. You
know, he's like, if you don't trust me, go to
the Old Testament. And so I was like, okay. So
I cracked it open to the Old Testament and popped
the Bible open. And it all opened to Jeremiah
chapter 1. And I looked down and I read this
in verse 4. The word of the Lord came to me saying,
before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.
Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed
you as a prophet to the nations. Who knew it?
There's missions in the Old Testament. Oh, my
goodness. And I kept reading. Alas, sovereign
Lord, I said, I do not know how to speak. I'm
too young. I'm just a seminary. I'm not even
graduated from seminary. How can you use me,
Lord? But the Lord said to me, do not say I'm
too young. You must go to every. You must go
to everyone I tell you to. You must, and say
whatever I tell you to say. I lost my place,
but I've read the verse so many times. So then
the Lord reached out his hand and touched my
mouth and said to me, I put my words in your
mouth. And I was just like, I knew that God had
called me to Cambodia. And so then I went and
I was like, well, I know God's called me. So
I was like, this is unbelievable. I got to leave
right now. I know how this works out for people
in the Bible. I read the Bible and I know if
you say no to God, a bad thing's about to happen.
And so I said, I got to leave right now. So I
left my dorm room. So I went from my chapel service
to my dorm room. God used his word again to speak
to me. The audible wasn't good enough. I'm sure
Moses was a Baptist, you know. You know, God
talked to Moses, and he's like, I want you to
follow me. And he's like, well, can you confirm
that? And God's like, whatever, dude, burning
bush, you know? And it's like, okay, then we're
going to do all these miracles. He got to have
been a Baptist, you know? Hard -headed, stubborn,
yeah, yeah. Sorry for you Baptists out there,
not trying to insult you, just having fun. With
you too. So then I went to a travel agent. This
is before like internet and all these websites
where you can just like book a ticket. I can
book a ticket while I'm driving. I know that's
illegal in Arizona, but in Cambodia it's not
illegal. So I do all kinds of stuff, driving
and that kind of stuff. We don't have Frank down
there in Cambodia. Fridays with Frank. He gives
everybody a ticket. I would never want to meet
him. Everybody gets two or three tickets. And
if you don't know who I'm talking about, look
at Facebook every once in a while. So I went
down to a travel agent and booked a ticket. I
didn't even know what the capital of Cambodia
was. But we figured it out. You know, there was
no internet or whatever. But we figured it out,
and it was Phnom Penh, Cambodia. And so we booked
a ticket. And you book a ticket, and then you
pay for it later. So I booked a ticket. And a
one -way ticket was going to be $1 ,088. I was
a seminary student. I didn't have $88, much less
$1 ,088. So I went back to my dorm room, and
I was going to pray and ask God, what do I do
next? Because I feel like I should go. In the
middle of the semester, before I finished, I
just feel like I need to go. And I knew this
was God. And so I went. We have a little post
office down below and little boxes and that kind
of stuff. Open up my post office box. There's
a letter. I'm from Iowa. So I'm from a town that
even Iowans have never heard of. Any Iowans here
today? So I'm from Barnum, Iowa. So you've probably
never heard of Barnum. It's about 20 miles outside
of Fort Dodge, Iowa. And so 96 people. I was
number 96. And if you look at the census, it's
now down to about 91 people. So it hasn't changed
much in the last 54 years. And I don't know where
I was going. Barnum, Iowa kind of messed me up.
Oh, yeah. So there was a letter. From a church
secretary from a Baptist church in Iowa. It doesn't
get any crazier than that. And a secretary from
a Baptist church in Iowa never wrote me before,
never wrote me after. She's in heaven now enjoying.
what God used her. And I've told this story again
and again. I opened up the letter and there was
just a short note there. And she said, God spoke
to me, a Baptist seminary, a Baptist secretary
in a church in Iowa. God spoke to me and told
me to give you my one month salary. And it was
a check for $1 ,088. Having read the book of
Jonah, I left immediately that week. Oh, God
is good. God is good. All my professors said,
nobody encouraged me to go. They all said, finish
your degree. There's always going to be lost
people out there. Get your master's degree first.
Get a PhD. Then you'll be able to contemplate
people better. I don't know. But just keep going.
Keep going. And don't leave school because your
calling is still going to be there. But I just
knew it. The way that God had spoken to me in
that 12 -hour period, I knew that I needed to
go and go immediately. So I did. When I got to
Cambodia, I didn't know where I was going to
stay. I didn't know who I was going to meet with.
I didn't know who I was going to connect with.
I ended up sleeping on the balcony of an orphanage
in Phnom Penh for several months so I could learn
the language and get to know people and make
connections and that kind of stuff. And even
house -sitted for Baptist missionaries that were
there. That was nice. So I was still being kind
of provided for by the Baptist church. When God
got me to Cambodia, it was a difficult place.
When I landed on the plane into Cambodia, the
airport was kind of like a steel building. And
when we landed on the plane, we're kind of bouncing
on the runway. It's like, I'm looking out the
window. And it's full of like bomb scars all
over the runway. Because during the wars, they
had... You know, artillery and that kind of stuff
had hit it. And it's a very distinct, anyways,
if you've ever been in war, you know what it
looks like. You know, it's all the shrapnel and
everything rips the concrete apart and that kind
of stuff. But there were so many bomb scars and
that kind of stuff were bouncing down there.
We get off, and there's military police. There's
military police that are kind of the security
at the airport. And we go in this steel building,
and people are trying to get. get to me and like,
oh, take my taxi, take my taxi. Let me take your
bags and all this kind of stuff. It's chaotic.
And the military police had these shock batons.
They were these batons with like electric shocks
on like kind of like a cattle prod kind of thing.
And they're shocking people. And like, it's like,
people are like, you know, like, get back. And
they're literally shocking them. And I was like,
God, really? Here? You know? All the roads were
dirt roads, potholes everywhere, you know. You
needed to be four -wheel drive in the capital
city. It was horrible. There was electricity
only a few hours a day, no stoplights, no, you
know, there would be traffic police that would
sit at the intersection. This is traffic police,
okay? So those are the guys with, like, a whistle
and that kind of stuff with a rocket launcher
next to them. Traffic police with rocket launchers
and AK -47 strapped to them. And it's just like,
Lord, really? Really? You know, couldn't we have
done the PhD or something, you know, and then
things clear up. But God had a plan. God had
a plan. So I want to give you some examples from
the Bible because I've read it and I think you
should too. Today I want to talk about living
by faith and what that's about. And a friend
of mine talked about living by faith is kind
of like having a chicken line in front of you.
And you need to decide whether you're going to
cross that chicken line or not. And when you
live by faith, you cross that chicken line, you
know. And so I want to tell you about Abraham.
You know about the story of Abraham. Abraham
did incredible things. He's talked about the
father of faith and that kind of stuff. And so
you know all the stories. I'm not going to go
through those stories because my timer is going
down quickly. But as one of the stories really
impacted me. You remember Abraham was promised
to be the father of a multitude. You know, the
father of his descendants would number. Greater
than the stars in the sky and the sand in the
seas, you know. And it's incredible. And he had
no children. And then God gave him one son. God
gave him one son. He tried to do his own way
for a while, got Ishmael. And then he got his
son, Isaac. And he got his son, Isaac. And then
in Genesis chapter 22, God said this in verse
1 to 3. Sometime later, God tested Abraham, and
he said to Abraham, he said to him, Abraham,
and he replied, here I am. Then God said, take
your son, your only son, who you love, Isaac,
and go to the region of Moriah, sacrifice him
there as a burnt offering on the mountain that
I will show you. What, God? What? How am I going
to be the multitude of a great nation? Abraham
is confronted with a chicken line. Is he going
to do it? Is he going to put his faith in God?
Is he going to trust God? Or is he going to say,
ah, me and Isaac, we're going fishing. You know,
he had a choice to make. But Abraham, in verse
3, here's one of my favorite verses in the Bible,
actually. In verse 3, early the next morning.
Early the next morning, Abraham got up, loaded
his donkey. He took with him two of his servants
and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood
for the burnt offering, he set out to the place
where God had told him about. Early the next
morning, he left. And we know the end of the
story. Abraham didn't know the end of the story.
He had to make a decision. Was he going to cross
that chicken line and live by faith? Or was he
going to stay back and say, nah? That's too awkward.
I'm not going to kill my own son. I'm not going
to do that. He didn't have the next chapter.
We have the next chapter. We know the end of
the story. He didn't. Do you know the end of
your story? I don't think so. But God does. So
he's an example to us of somebody who lived by
faith. Joshua is another great example. You know,
he was selected to be of 12 spies to go through
the land of Canaan to spy it out. Remember, 10
of the spies said, oh, these people are going
to kill us here. You know, and Joshua, what did
he say? Joshua said, God said we can take it,
so we can take it. He said, I'm taking it. You
know, he stepped across the chicken line. He's
like, we're going to do it. And it says about
Joshua, so we know the end of the story, he did
take it. And God used him to lead the people
of Israel. And it says when he was 80, so in
the end of the book of Joshua, when he was 85
years old, he was as strong. And as vibrant as
when he was young, when God called him as a spy,
he could still battle like all the young people
because he was still doing what God wanted him
to do. He lived by faith his whole life. He lived
by faith his whole life. Gideon is another great
example. Gideon wasn't even a soldier, and God
said, I want you to take the army and go defeat
the Midianites. And Gideon's, you know, remember
the testing thing, throw the fleece out, that
kind of stuff. He's like, I don't know, I don't
know, I don't know. He must have been Baptist
too. But prove it this way, God. Or how about
this way? Or how about this way? Oh, God has
a lot of patience with us. So eventually he had
10 ,000 soldiers. And they're going against the
Midianites, which are over 100 ,000 soldiers.
They were going to lose. But God kept saying,
okay, whoever's afraid. So God gave him a chicken
line. Who's ever afraid, go home. So what did
they do? Most of them went home. And so then
they're left with a few thousand. And then God
told them, whoever drinks like a dog, you take
them. So he's down to 300 people. 300 people.
And what did God do with those 300 people? They're
like, chicken line, whatever. We're going with
God. Wherever God tells us to go, we're going
to go. They crossed every chicken line there
was. And God used 300 people to defeat the entire
Midianite army. Wow. Mary, to me, is a great
example also. The angel Gabriel came to talk
to Mary and said, Mary, you're going to have
a baby. All right. Teenage girl, pregnant. Has
that ever happened before? Oh, no, it wasn't
my fault. Oh, yeah, what are the neighbors going
to say? Yeah, they're going to say, yeah, whoops,
oh, awkward, yeah. Why don't you quickly get
married and, you know, wear a loose dress, you
know, right? If Mary was around here today, what
would be her options? I bet all her friends would
say, get an abortion. Hide it. Get an abortion.
Nobody will know. I want to tell you, 2 ,000
years ago, they had abortions too. They've had
abortions since the beginning of time. There's
a carving on it. So in Cambodia, there's an ancient
temple there about 1 ,000 years old. And there's
a carving on the back wall of the temple, which
is a depiction of an abortion being done by demons.
It was carved 900 years ago. It was carved 900
years ago in Cambodia. Is it any wonder that
death reigns over the nation of Cambodia? Is
there any wonder that there's been genocide and
millions of people have killed in Cambodia? They
follow Satan, who not purposely follows Satan,
but Satan wants to destroy everyone. He wants
to destroy God's creation, and abortion is one
of those ways. Mary had a choice. She kept her
baby. She stepped across the chicken line. And
she kept her baby. She probably endured shame
and insults. And she's the mother of Jesus. The
mother of Jesus. She carried the Savior of the
entire world with her. The Bible says that Mary
is highly favored among God. The only one that
the Bible says that, Mary's highly favored. Because
she stepped across that chicken line. And then
you got people like Jonah. If you've ever read
the book of Jonah, you'll probably get to the
end of the book of Jonah. And it's like, what
on earth is that there for? It ends badly. Like
God calls Jonah to go save the people, the Assyrian
nation, you know. And what does Jonah do? He's
like, well, I hate those people. I'm going fishing.
And then God used him as bait. And so then in
the stomach of the whale, he repented. Fortunately,
if he didn't repent. He'd just become fish food,
I guess. But he repented in the stomach of the
whale. And then the whale or the big fish, whatever
it is, spit him out. And then he goes to Nineveh.
And he shares with them the gospel. The people
repent. And then God doesn't destroy the city.
And then it ends with Jonah sitting on the edge
of the city. And it's like, well, that's no fun.
God didn't destroy the city. And that's how the
book of Jonah ends. I think the point of Jonah
is he had a chicken line. And he's like, no,
no, I'm not going there. I'm not going there.
He went fishing. But he repented. And then God
said, I'll give you another chance. And he repented
and he crossed back over. And God used him. But
he still didn't learn his lesson. When God called
me to Cambodia. For two years, I shared the gospel
and nobody came to faith in Christ. Nobody. Nowadays,
I see people come to faith in Christ almost every
single day. But for the first two years, yeah,
thank God. Thank God. The first two years, nobody
came to faith in Christ. They didn't know what
I was talking about when I was talking about
Jesus. Nobody knew what I was talking about.
But then one day I said, you know, I think we've
been doing this all wrong. I've been doing it
the Baptist way. where you study the demographics,
you look for the right people, you have a certain
plan that you go through and you share with them.
And it just didn't work. Not that it was bad,
it just didn't work. And so we said, why don't
we ask the Holy Spirit, what do you want us to
do? Who do you want us to talk to? Because it's
the Holy Spirit that points people to Jesus.
It's the Holy Spirit that brings salvation to
people. It's not us. We're just his hands and
his feet, that's it. I'm nobody special. I can't
even play guitar. Or keyboards. Yeah. Yeah. Even
though I had eight years of piano lessons. Yeah.
My mom is still disappointed. Yeah. But we prayed
and we prayed and we worshiped for three days.
And after three days, so three days we just sat
there and we're like. I don't feel anything.
I haven't heard anything. I haven't seen anything.
I don't know what to do. And finally, one of
my friends who was with me, there were three
of us there, he said, I feel like God's telling
us to go to this village called Rosai Sro. And
we go to this village, Rosai Sro, and there you're
going to meet a girl, and the Holy Spirit's working
in her heart. And so we went to this little village,
and we're walking on these planks. There's raw
sewage everywhere. It's just a slum village.
And we see down these planks, we see this little
girl sitting in front of a house, just like my
friend said. He saw a vision of a little girl
sitting in front of this house. So we went and
we talked to her, and we sat, and she offered
me her chair. She'd never seen a foreigner, huge
foreigner like me, come into her village. Most
Cambodians are about this tall and this small,
and I'm not that way. And I went and sat in her
chair, her only chair, her only ass. sit in her
whole house, which looks like it's made of garbage.
And what happened to the chair? It broke. How
is she going to come to faith in Jesus Christ?
It just broke her only chair. But we shared with
her about Jesus. And you know what? The Holy
Spirit was already working. She came to faith
in Jesus Christ. Her name is Mom. And then her
mom, her mom came to faith in Jesus Christ. And
today, she's the head of Operation Mobilization
for Cambodia. She has led thousands upon thousands
upon thousands of people to faith in Jesus Christ.
Because we listened and we were obedient, we
crossed the chicken line to go into this little
slum village and we shared with them about Jesus.
And he's done that day after day after day after
day. I went into an area that was controlled
by the Khmer Rouge who committed genocide, killed
millions of people. And I met a female commander.
And the same thing. The Lord was working on her
heart, so I shared with her about Jesus. And
she came to faith in Christ. And then God said,
well, help educate her children. Her entire family,
nobody ever went to school. Nobody ever got educated.
She was educated. She could tear apart an AK
-47, blindfold it, and then shoot you with it.
before you could count to 10 backwards. She was,
and that's all her education was. And God told
us, why don't you, I want you to educate kids
like her and give them a chance and give them
a future. I've now sent, I've raised over 300
kids like that. I've sent 86 have gone into university
and graduated from college. Never, their families
had never even been to elementary school before.
And now they have a completely different life.
They have a completely different career path
and everything. God has blessed them. God called
me to help mothers that want to abort their babies.
Abortion is completely legal in Cambodia. It's
a communist country. The more you abort, it seems
like the more happy they are. They have over
4 ,000 abortion centers in the tiny nation of
Cambodia, which is actually smaller than the
state of Arizona. So we have more than 4 ,000
abortion centers. And women are having abortions
constantly. And so I said, well, let's go and
share Christ. Let's go and share Christ and share
the love of Jesus with these mothers. And in
the last 10 years, we've had over 3 ,000 babies
saved from abortion. It's been incredible. Thousands,
thousands of mothers have come to faith in Christ.
And with all these babies being born, we have
whole communities now that didn't exist before.
And it's been incredible what God has done. We're
doing a nutrition program now. We're doing livelihood
training with them, giving them jobs and careers
and that kind of stuff. God is good. We started
63 churches just from our crisis pregnancy center.
63 churches out of that. God is doing incredible
things. Every day, every day. There's chicken
lines in front of me. And I think you've got
those kind of things in your mind. You know what
your chicken line is. You know what it is. Your
chicken line is not my chicken line. Don't sit
there and think, oh, I want to do like Steve.
I wouldn't do that. You don't want the difficulties.
I was on the front lines of a battle zone a week
ago with Thai Army and tanks, F -16s flying around.
And I was on the front lines with Cambodian forces
here, Thai forces here, and I'm right here. Because
God said, I want you to go there and I want you
to help the civilians. And I had zero fear. Because
I've walked with Jesus so much that when Jesus
says go to the front lines of a battle zone,
the ground is full of landmines also. I know
when I walked there, I was completely safe in
Jesus Christ. Because I was exactly where he
wanted me to be. I'm not bragging about myself.
I'm just, I want you to know that to live by
faith, I've learned from the Bible what they
learned. That you've got to cross that chicken
line. So some of you here today, I want to challenge
you on two things. Number one is. Some of you
can't live by faith because you haven't even
fully given your life to Jesus. We have a word
in Cambodia that we say for giving your life
to Jesus. It means twi klun. And twi klun means
to give your entire life and body over to Jesus.
And I think some of us, when we say we want to
believe in Jesus, we're like, okay, Jesus, I'll
give you my mind. I'll give you my heart, but
not my hands. Not my feet. Not my career. Not
my education. Not my boat. Don't touch my boat.
Okay, Jonah. You should name your boat Jonah,
just to remind you. Remind you of people on boats,
what happens. I love fishing, by the way. But
some of you need to make a decision that today,
I'm going to walk with Jesus from today. I'm
fully going to give my life to faith in Jesus
Christ from today on. And then others of you
said, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but I don't want
to cross that chicken line. What will people
say? And your chicken line may not be going to
a war zone in Cambodia or Ukraine or wherever,
Gaza. But your chicken line might be talking
to your neighbor that's lived next to you for
12 years and you haven't ever said a word to
him. Your chicken line might be talking to a
cashier that there's something in your heart
that jumps when you see that person. But you
know, it's like, wow, it's kind of weird to say
something to him. So he's just not going to do
it. That's your chicken. That could be your chicken
line. It could be helping a mother who's. who's
full of anxiety, she's pregnant, she doesn't
want to do, and you want to, you're just going
to come around and love her. And hey, how can
I help you? Whatever your chicken line is, you'll
know. Just listen. Just listen. And whatever
God tells you to do, do that. Your faith will
grow. Let me just end with a word of prayer for
you now. Lord Jesus, I pray that you will be
with everyone here, that you'll speak to them.
Speak to them in an incredible way in their heart.
Let them know it's you. Show them that chicken
line in front of them. And Lord, give them the
courage to step across it and say, okay, God,
I don't know what's going to happen, but I'm
with you. Let's do this. Lord, I thank you for
allowing me to experience incredible things.
To see thousands of people come to faith in you.
To see broken lives mended. To see people that
the world had no hope in or interest in when
you got a hold of their life. Oh, you just did
incredible things. Lord, help me to cross my
chicken line today and tomorrow. that I grow
in faith and I lead others to do the same. Thank
you, Jesus, for being my savior and my master
and my leader in what I do. Thank you, in Jesus'
name I pray, amen. Amazing, right? And yet, I
don't want you to miss something. The way we
started, we started by this being about you and
God. We started that this is, you're here because
you need to hear from God. And while we've got
to enjoy hearing stories from Jamel and Steve
about them hearing from God and them stepping
out by faith. I just want to encourage you that
we're going to slow down and have a moment as
a family. And that moment looks like you having
a conversation with God and going, God, what
is my chicken line today? And then collectively,
together as a family, we're going to have a moment.
Because sometimes these moments get caught up
in the personal, right? Like you sit and you
have a really... in -depth conversation with
God and then you feel really moved but you don't
really act on it and then you get up and leave
and you get into the parking lot or out on the
road and something happens and then you completely
lose what you were thinking about because now
you're worked up about that and then you're on
into football and whatever else, right? But today
we're going to slow down and go, God, what's
my chicken line? Where are you calling me to
live by faith? And then we're gonna have a declaration
of faith, a declaration of faith in action. That
as you go, God, you are calling me to that. And
today I choose to say yes. I'm gonna, I'm going
to step across that chicken line, whatever it
happens to be. And I wanna be really clear. There's
some of you in the room that your yes is you
have not said yes to Jesus yet as your savior.
And so your chicken line is, is today for the
first time, I am declaring, Jesus, I need you
to save me and I'm gonna cross that chicken line.
But there's a lot of you because I know some
of you, I see you, I hear about you, what you're
doing, how you walk with God. Some of you just
need a fresh call to faith today. Some of you
need a fresh call to your families and the things
that Steve mentioned. And for some of you, it's
a fresh hearing from the Lord to go, God is calling
me forward. And can I help you? It doesn't have
to be going to Cambodia. It could just be to
be faithful to what he told you in this moment
about today. But the declaration is that we're
going to stand and we're going to gather at the
front. The people that go today, I am crossing
that line and I am. visibly in a community of
faith, gonna say, I am crossing that line. It's
just a visible representation of crossing the
line. It's a step of faith. Why? Because it matters
that much that your faith is in action. So here's
what we're gonna do. I'm gonna give you a minute
for you to just talk to God and go, God, what
is my, what is my, Step of faith today. And then
after that, we're going to have a moment where
you're invited to go, I will say yes today to
what God is asking me. And I will walk with others
to go, we're going to stand together as a declaration
of what God's doing. So the next moments are
yours to ask God, what are you calling me to
do? of taking our faith from private to going,
today I stand by faith and I will put my faith
in action. If that's you today going, I am stepping
in, I am saying, yes, I see the chicken line
and I am crossing it by faith. Now I'm gonna
count to three and then we're just gonna move
to the front and we're just gonna gather with,
each other and encourage each other. And so one,
don't be a chicken. Two, it's by faith that you
say yes to what God is calling you. Three, if
you are here and you go, I am stepping forward
by faith into what God is calling me, come on
down. Right where you are, get up and come on
down. Don't let the enemy keep you in your seat.
Come on down. We're going to pack the front.
Come on down. Don't stop clapping. They're still
coming. Don't stop clapping. God is working.
I would ask this, that if you're a leader in
the room, you come on down and put a hand on
somebody. If you're a pastor or you're one of
our life group leaders, come down, put a hand
on somebody and just pray for them. You guys,
this right here, I just need you to know from
the inside. The enemy has not wanted this weekend,
okay? So your step of faith, don't let the enemy
try and slow it down. The enemy has been active.
I could give you eight things that the enemy
has not wanted you to be here and go, by faith,
I will stand. Keep coming down. We can pack this,
come down. Because we're gonna worship together.
The courage to say yes. To go, I will walk by
faith. It's amazing. It's amazing. Don't let
the enemy, don't let the enemy take this moment.
This moment is your plan. You plant your flag.
So what we're going to do is we're going to sing
gathered like this because it's uncomfortable
and it's awesome, right? But by faith, we're
just going to go, God, I am available. And then
we'll pray, you know, whatever God does, he does,
okay? So let me pray over you and then we're
gonna worship together. God, I thank you for
the faith of the people that you have stirred
that are willing to cross that line of faith,
of the chicken line today by faith to go, God,
what you've called us to do, we will do. And
so God, in one voice as a family declarative,
we lift to you. that we are available. God, would
you use us for your kingdom mission, we pray.
We ask, hear our voices as we sing.