Embracing Maybe Faith: Trusting God in Uncertainty

"Everyone has a way that they try to figure out, where is this going? Can I trust this person? I like this method a lot, because all the priests had to do was take out the stones, the thummim. It stands for perfection or decision. Then he would take Urim, which represents light, which always represents revelation, which always represents knowledge. When God would speak through these stones, you would inquire of him. If the answer was affirmative, Urim would light up, and you would know God wants us to do it." [00:00:08]

"But if he says yes, no power in hell can stand against me. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few. So David said, Bring me the ephod, because if God gives me light on this situation, I can fight this battle. If God gives me light on this situation, I can stand the trial. I can stand the test. I can pass it. I can do it if God says yes. But sometimes God would say no, and then sometimes the stone would do nothing. What that meant was God doesn't want to answer this right now." [00:01:00]

"You know, the truth is that even sometimes when you know what to do, even sometimes when you know this is God, and they had these stones. It was behind the breastplate, and the breastplate was under the pomegranate tree, and the priest was doing nothing with it. They had the means of making decisions to know the will of God, but their fear had put them in a place, and their complacency had put them in a place, because when you have the instruments but you don't use them, how can God speak to you when you can't find this between Sundays? How can God give you his wisdom?" [00:03:38]

"The right people will give you the go-ahead. The right people will say, I'm going to help you as you do this. I know the addiction has got you about three different cycles now, and it looks like this one won't be any different, but whether or not you make it, I'm going to be here with you on it, so let's go ahead and do this dumb thing, this impossible thing, this crazy thing." [00:04:55]

"If you hear me saying on this message, you know, God's calling you to go… You know how many people I've seen go start coffee shops because they like coffee, and they hear a message like this and abuse it, and they think the whole point of the message is just go do the dumbest thing you can think of that you have a halfway interest in and then blame the devil when it doesn't work out because it was spiritual warfare and attack and nobody believed in my dream and I'm nothing but Jesus on the cross and God and Gethsemane squeezed like the olives and the oil is coming out." [00:07:16]

"And now I get to return the favor. I mean, the other day she turned to me and was like, hey, I'm about to tell you something that I think God is speaking to me because it's always a 50-50 thing. Always. Always. So I'm confident, but I'm not certain. She was like, Don't laugh at me. I'm like, Why would I laugh at you? Tell me." [00:07:48]

"and I got people. Now, this is so key. It's a 50-50 faith. It's a 50-50. That means it is a divine partnership where Jonathan says, you know, there is something that God can do, and then there is something that God will not do that only we can do. Faith is 50-50. 50-50. James proves it clearly. Not only does Jonathan exemplify it, James explains it when he says, faith without works is? It takes two. This is a 50-50 proposition. Why would God do for you what he gave you the strength to do for you?" [00:08:59]

"Come on, because if it was, I would be in hell before Monday at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, but because he is my great high priest… Y'all, I'm about to get happy on this sermon. And because he took the breastplate of his own righteousness into the most holy place and shed his blood on the mercy seat, I don't ever have to doubt if he wants to see me or hear me or love me or throw his arms around me. He is my righteousness, and I am his child, and he is my great high priest." [00:09:53]

"Experience is the friend of wisdom, but it can be the enemy of faith. You need me to run that back? Experience is the friend of wisdom, but if you get like Saul in a hijack and keep… ephod under the pomegranate tree. Jonathan said, We're going to have to be our own ephod. We're going to have to put ourselves out there and see if God will. When Eugene Peterson had this idea… He's in heaven now, but he was trying to preach the Bible to his church. He realized they weren't really getting it, so he sat down to write a translation of the Bible in a way they could understand." [00:11:18]

"Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, Come on now. Let's do it now. Not when the priest gets his act together, not when the government gets his act together, but now. We have to do this now. Come on now. Let's go across to these uncircumcised pagans. Then he said the title of my series, Maybe God Will Work for Us. Maybe. Maybe. Faith is being able to move on a maybe." [00:13:12]

"in the first. It takes the kind of faith, church, to say, maybe if I do this… Maybe it won't. Maybe God will use this thing I think I'm supposed to do to lead to something I was really supposed to do so that even if the first thing fails, at least I'm not sitting still in fear, but it takes faith to move on a maybe. When your ream has gone dark and Saul is under a tree and you don't know what to do but to move toward it, God says, move toward it. It may work, and even if it doesn't, I will. It is the power to move on a maybe, to know that God is mystery." [00:14:11]

"but he has revealed his character is trustworthy. I can move on a maybe. Father, I don't want to do this, but nevertheless, not my will but yours be done, so I'm going to go see about this. Maybe. Somebody shout, maybe. Maybe. I have a maybe faith, enough faith to do it and not know the conclusion, but trust God in the process. It's a maybe faith. Maybe. I'm confident. I'm not certain, but I'm confident." [00:15:04]