Full Throttle Part 9 - No Limits Part 1

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We've reached Fifth Gear—and today we're talking about living with NO LIMITS!

We serve an unlimited God. He has no boundaries, no limitations. He is the God of more than enough, the God of plenty, the God of abundance. But too often, we limit Him. We put lids on what He can do in us and through us.

The way to live a No Limits lifestyle is to tap into a No Limits God through faith. Faith is the title deed—the proof of what we cannot yet see (Hebrews 11:1). Without faith, it's impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). The same faith that got you saved—believing in your heart and confessing with your mouth—is the same faith that unlocks every promise God has for you (Romans 10:8-10). Mark 11:23 says, "If anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done."

So how do we live a No Limits, Full Throttle life? Let's look at Jonathan in 1 Samuel 14.

1. We must play offense.

Saul was sitting under a pomegranate tree, playing defense, just waiting. But Jonathan said to his armor‑bearer, "Come, let's go over to the Philistine outpost. Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few" (1 Samuel 14:6).

Jonathan didn't wait until everything was perfect. He stepped out, climbed the cliff, and trusted God for the victory. Two men took on twenty—and God sent panic through the entire Philistine army. One decision, one step, one "why not give God a chance?" changed everything.

Saul was playing not to lose. Jonathan was playing to win. Which one are you?

If you wait until you're ready, you'll be waiting the rest of your life. Faith believes and therefore acts. Don't play defense. Get off your hindends and go possess the land!

2. We remove the lids.

What lids have you put on God? "God can do this, but I don't think He can do that." "I don't know if God can work that out."

When you come to an intersection that says "Easy Route" or "Impossible Ahead," the impossible path is exactly where God lives. Because now it's not about your ability—it's about His. When you tap into God's ability and let go of your own, you live on a whole other plateau!

David took the lid off. Moses took the lid off. But when the Israelites faced giants in the Promised Land, they screwed the lid back on. Don't make that mistake! You are a son or daughter of the Most High. Your Daddy has no lack, no shortage. Don't be intimidated by sickness, disease, lack, or any problem. Your Daddy is on your side!

At our church, we've been seeing God do incredible things—planting churches, paying off debt, planning new buildings. We serve a God who is more than enough. Whatever report you hear, God's report is greater!

It's time to play offense. Remove the lids. And live with no limits!

Key Scriptures: Hebrews 11:1, 6; Romans 10:8-10; Mark 11:22-23; 2 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Samuel 14:1-15, 23; James 2:17

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hi everyone, Hassel Don Smith here. Welcome to the Talk About It Podcast, where we take relevant topics with a biblical point of view and we talk about it. You know you want to, so do I. Let's talk about it. Well, once again, welcome back everyone to the Talk About It Podcast. I'm Don Smith. This is season 10, episode 9, and we are well on our way in this conversation. Thank you so much, guys, for being here. It's exciting each and every week that we get to get together that we get to get together. How about that? Uh anyway, I just love being with you so much. It's uh it's incredible and humbling that you join us each and every week. And I I really do appreciate your feedback. I appreciate all your support. Uh, all of you who send text messages and emails uh just saying, hey, we we really love the episode. Thank you for this point, this particular issue. And this week I can report that a lot of you have been uh doing what we asked. You rated the podcast on your platform. That, my friends, is so helpful. Whatever platform you um you listen to, okay? Uh if you use Spotify, if you use Apple, it doesn't matter. You can give the podcast a rating. As a matter of fact, if you if you listen to multiple podcasts, I would, if you love the podcasters, rate their podcast. Go on the form, and usually it's in three, one, two, three, four, or five stars, give them a rating. It's it's super helpful for the algorithms. And what that means is when you rate it, it lets the tech or the AI, whatever it is, know that people are listening and therefore they push it and it gets it out in front of it. And if you believe that the Talk About It podcast, uh, where we take a relevant topic with a biblical perspective, is worth people listening to, just rate it. Share it on your podcast, do those things. I appreciate that so, so much. Pray about being a sponsor. Uh, here's what I'll do: if you become a monthly sponsor for a little less $3 a month or as much as $10 a month, uh, when I record an episode, if I record them early, I will send them out to you in an email. Some of you monthly supporters, you know this. And uh that is meaning that you're gonna get early access. You get early access right now. Uh, if you become a monthly supporter, you can do that. Go to the show notes, all the links are there. It's an exciting time here in season 10. Listen, everybody, listen. We have this episode and two more, and we're gonna start a brand new season with a brand new topic, and I promise you're gonna love that. It's gonna build right off of that. But today, everybody say today. Today, what we are doing is we are moving into fifth gear. Today we're going to talk about what it means to live with no limits. Now, you remember when I started this conversation, I really compared what it meant to live full throttle, uh wide open for Jesus, to NASCAR racers. And here in the United States, if you're listening, you you know what I'm talking about. The all the cars are built uh pretty much the same, and uh all the engines have restrictor plates on them. Uh and that makes the machine even and really puts the the skill back on the driver. So uh what that means is every one of those engines are limited, okay? And so what I want to do today is I want to move into fifth gear, but I want to talk about removing those restrictors, those limits, okay? Because when we look at full throttle life, when we look at living wide open for Jesus, you know what I want to do is I want to learn, I want to learn what it looks like to serve an unlimited God. He see, he doesn't have any boundaries, he doesn't have any limitations, he's the God that's more than enough. Somebody say amen. He's the God of plenty, he's the God that is in excess and has abundance of anything and everything. The problem is, talk about it, too many times we limit God. Right? And so as we turn our hearts towards God, as we come to God, we need to, we need to learn what it means to tap into the way that we're gonna live with a no-limit lifestyle. And that means that we've got to tap into a no-limit God. The way we do that is to have faith in God. Now, I've given you the simple definition of faith, okay? It's simply confidence in God. Now, if we don't have faith in God, if we don't have confidence in God, then we're not gonna see Him move and work in our lives. Listen to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1. This side of the amplified version. It says, now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see, and the conviction of their reality. Faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses. Now, listen, I I'm not a big amplified version of the uh Bible reader. I don't, I don't really read the Amplified. Matter of fact, I don't even think I have a copy of it. Um, but I absolutely love that. I love the way the Amplified puts that. Now, faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality, faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses. I absolutely love it. I I don't know about you, but I I love the way that the Amplified puts that particular verse. So fact is, let me do this. All right, maybe you're sitting in a chair right now, maybe you're driving down the road, whatever. Okay, and it takes no faith to say, okay, now I'm I see the chair and I sit down in the chair. But if I put uh a chair, okay, behind you, and then I blindfold you and I say, All right, now I want you to count to three, and I want you to jump up, and then I want you to sit down in the chair. Hello, somebody. Okay, and I tell you, I tell you, I'm gonna put the chair right behind you. You can't see it, and I'm not gonna let you feel for it. You totally have to trust me, and while you're blindfolded, you're gonna say, Look, do I trust Don? Do I have confidence in Don to put the chair where it's supposed to be? See, like you jump up and you sit down, and there you go. The chair is there. Now, so you trusted me, and there you go. Now, let's just say you don't trust me. You're not gonna jump up and sit down unless you believe that when I tell you the chair is there, it'll be there. If you don't believe it, what you're gonna say is, well, I can't do that because I can't see the chair. But I told you the chair was there. No, I can't do it because I can't see the chair. And then you you lift up the blindfold, you turn around, you see the chair, and you're like, okay, now I'll sit down because that's fact. See, faith is believing, okay, that it's there. It's having the title D. That's what you can't see. You that's what you can't touch, that's what you can't taste, uh, that's what you can't feel with your natural senses. So you're gonna have to trust, okay, God. You're gonna have to trust that God's word is true, even though you can't see it or validate it. And so faith gives you the title deed, the proof. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6. This time, let's read it out of the NIV. And without faith, it's impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek him. Faith is the way we connect with God. If we want to have a no-limit life, we have to be connected to a no-limit God. Somebody say amen or o me. Come on, someone. That's so good. I don't know if that blessed you this morning or not, but man or what this afternoon, whenever it is you're listening to this, I feel like I need to say that again. If we want a no-limit life, we have to connect to a no-limit God. We have to tap into an unlimited God, then our lives become unlimited versus our lives being limited. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7, for we live by faith and not by sight. It's the way we function, talk about it. It's the way we live. It's the same faith that got you born again. It's the same faith that works in every day receiving the promise of God that He has for you in His Word. All right, let me just ask a question right now. Okay, everybody who's listening, maybe most people here who listen to my podcast are probably Christians. If you're not, I'm so glad that you're here. Because we're just trying to answer some relative questions with biblical perspective. That's all we're trying to do. But how how many of you have given your heart and life to the to the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, here's how you got saved. Okay? Romans chapter 10, verse 8. But what does it say? The word is near you, it's in your mouth and your heart. That is the message concerning faith that we proclaim. If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. If for it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. Now, if you're here and you're not a Christian, this is how you get saved. You declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you'll be saved. For it's with your heart that you believe and are justified, it's with your mouth that you profess your faith and you're saved. How did you get saved? You believed with your heart, confessed with your mouth, you declared that Jesus is Lord and you're saved. How did you receive an unlimited resource? How do how do we receive an unlimited resource from God? You believe in your heart, you declare it with your mouth. Watch Mark chapter 11, starting with verse 22. Have faith in God. What is faith? Have confidence in God. Jesus answered, Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what they say will happen, it'll be done for them. So I'm gonna give you five things, talk about it, to live a no-limit, full-throttle lifestyle. Okay, now the first, I'm gonna give you two this episode and three the next episode. Okay. So in your Bible, uh in 1 Samuel chapter 14, let me give you some background. Okay, Saul's king over Israel, his son Jonathan serves in his army. All right, 1 Samuel chapter 14. Let's start with verse 1. One day Jonathan, son of Saul, said to his young armor bearer, Come let us go over to the Philistines' outpost on the other side. But he didn't tell his father. Saul was staying on the outskirts to the Philistines' outpost, okay? He's on the outskirts of Gibeah under the pomegranate tree in Migron. So what was Paul doing? He's just chilling. He's not out fighting, he's just chilling, he's just basking on the pomegranates underneath the pomegranate tree. You know, I just picture someone with a big feathered fan just kind of making sure that King Saul stays cool and someone's bringing him a cold drink, you know, and and and peeling the pomegranates. And that's what I got to picture. And his son is like, I hey, I'm just tired of sitting. I'm I want to go do something. I'm tired of just waiting for the Philistines to come and attack us. I want to go and do something big for God. Verse 7. 1 Samuel 14. Let's matter of fact, let's do verse 4. On each side of the pass, Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistines' outpost was a cliff. One was called Bozaz, and the other Sin. One cliff stood to the north toward Mi'kmash, and the other south towards Gebah. Now Jonathan said to his young armor bearer, Come let us go over to the outpost, that uncircumcised men over there. Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few. Do all that you have in mind, the armor bearer said to Jonathan. Go ahead. I'm with your heart and soul. He's like, Let's go to the Philistine. Let's go pick a fight. Come on, somebody. I love this guy. Let's go see what the Lord might do. Now he's like, let's go see what the Lord might do. And then in verse 8, Jonathan said, Come on, let us cross over towards them and let them see us. If they say to us, wait there till we come to you, we'll stay where we are and not go up to them. But if they say, Come up to us, we're gonna climb up that wall, because that's gonna be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands. So here's basically what Jonathan did. He said, He said, Hey, hey, you bunch of boneheads, hey you bunch of doofuses, you want a piece of me? And the Philistines were like, Yeah, yeah, we do. Why don't you come up to us? And Jonathan went. There's the sign. He says to his armor bearer, Come on, let's go. And he climbs up the cliff, straight up the face of the cliff. Now, have any of you ever tried to climb one of those rock climbing walls? Now, listen, I'm not a rock climber, okay? But 20 feet in the air, like I'd get to the top, my hands would be like, you know, cramped up, clutching and white knuckling and all stressed out. Jonathan and his armor bearer, they climb to the top of the cliff, pull out their swords, and they're outnumbered one to ten. Hello, somebody. There are twenty guys on top of that cliff, and there's two of them on about the half acre size. So about your backyard or your neighbor's yard. And they take people out, they slaughter the 20, and look what happens. It's in verse 15. Then panic struck the whole army. Those in the camp in the field, those in the outposts and the raiding parties, and the ground shook, and it was a panic sent by God. Oh my. And they all start fighting and killing each other. And Saul hears this commotion. Remember, he's under the pomegranate tree. He's just chilling, drinking some sweet tea, right? And he's like, something's happening. The shaking is happening. Who went out on a raid party? We got to go help them. So Saul, he's over there playing defense. Listen to me talk about the first thing we have to do to have no limit life for God is we got to play offense. Somebody say amen. We got to play offense. We need to get off our hind ends and we need to go in and possess the land that God has promised us. We need to go in and start doing because here's what faith is: faith believes and therefore acts. James says faith without works is dead. You can say, I believe all day long. But if you don't act on it, it's not going to do you any good. You can believe all day that the Lord Jesus, okay. You can you, but unless you confess him, you're gonna die. Believing in Jesus and never acting on that faith, the Bible says the devils believe and tremble. So in our story here in 1 Samuel chapter 14, the Philistines are routed. Verse 23. So on that day the Lord saved Israel, and the battle moved on beyond Beth Aven. So one decision, one step, one, why not give God a chance? Oh, let me say it again. One decision, one step, one, why not give God a chance? Why not start playing offense instead of defense? Why not go for it? You see, Saul was playing not to lose, Jonathan was playing to win. Saul's holding out on God. Jonathan's going all out for God. See, we serve an unlimited God. And how are we going to follow him? How are we going to step out? See, here's playing it safe. Here's playing defense. Whoa. I hear in my heart that this is what I should do. This is where I should go. This is what I should accomplish. Okay. Well, I'm going to do that when everything comes together. When all the resources come in, then I'll do it. Lord, you want me to start? Okay, I'll I'll start when I have all the money. I'll start when I have all the equipment. You Lord, you want me to you want me to do this work for you? Well, I'll I'll do it when I have all the volunteers, when I have all the staff, when I have all the stars aligned. Then I'm gonna step out. Then I'm gonna step out. Then I'm gonna step out. The fact is we're playing not to lose when we live that way. We need to learn to play to win versus playing not to lose. If we wait until we're ready, we'll be waiting the rest of our lives. Talk about it. I don't, I don't know where you're at right now. And I really hope that this episode is really encouraging and inspiring you to be obedient to what God has spoken in your heart. Because I believe that there's some people who are listening right now. You it's not a question in your heart about what God has spoken to you to do, okay, or about what God has spoken to you to be, okay? You've just been playing it safe. You've been playing not to lose. And I hope that right now you're learning and figuring out that, man, if I'm ever gonna accomplish this that God has asked me to do, if I'm ever gonna walk in what God has anointed me and gifted me to walk in, I gotta learn to play the win. I gotta step out. Why not give God a chance? Wow. Okay, so that's that's number one. I said I was gonna give you five, two today, three next week. So number one is we gotta play offense. Number two, are you ready? Come on, talk about it. Are you ready? We gotta remove the lid. What are the lids that you've put on God? Well, I mean, God can do this, but I'm not real sure God can do that. Well, I I don't know if God can really work that out. You see, we tend to put limitations on God, what God can do in us and through us. We tend to put lids on God, and we need to take the lids off and say, you know what? God is a God of all possibility. He can do immeasurably and above and beyond anything I could ever ask. That's the scripture. But here's what most people do talk about it. When they get into an intersection and it says easy route or impossible route ahead, we always take the easy route. But God lives in the impossible. When you see a road sign spiritually that says you can't, when you see a spiritual road sign that says you're not qualified, when you see a spiritual road sign that says you're not good enough, let me tell you something, talk about it. That's the path you should take. Because now you're going to take the path because it's not based on your abilities, it's based on the abilities of God, an unlimited God. Listen to me talk about it. You should always involve your life in things that are bigger than who you are. So you'll always need God to accomplish it. Wow. See, when we tap into God's ability and let go of our ability, we're gonna live on a whole new plateau of living this life for the Lord. You know what I love about David, King David? He took the lid off the entire army of Israel. How'd he do that, Pastor Don? Well, I'm glad you asked. He saw the giant, Goliath, and he said, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? Let me let me tell you basically what he was saying. Who is this enemy who is living outside of the covenant of God? What that's basically what he was saying. This guy he lives outside the covenant of God. We are God's people, we are living in Inside the covenant of God. Who is this guy? And so David takes the lid off. He says, I'm going for it. I'm going, why not give God a chance? I'm going for it. I'm taking the lid off. How about Moses? Moses took the lid off. I know there's some wrestling. I've read this story just like you have. But God said, Moses, I want you to lead my people out of Egypt. And you know what? Moses gets to the place where he says, Okay, God, I'll do that. It took a minute. Let's let's just let's be okay because it would take a minute with us. And so he goes to Pharaoh, lid off, and he says, Hey Pharaoh, God's on my side. He gathers the people and he leads them out, goes to the Red Sea, and he asks God, What are you gonna do? And God says, I'm gonna take the lid off. Hello, somebody. And they walk through on dry ground. They were like, God, we're hungry. We need some food in the desert. And what does God do? He takes the lid off. There's manna. And they're like, God, we're walking through a desert. It's hot out here. What does God do? He takes the lid off and he brings a cloud to cool them from the sun so they didn't get burned. At night, it gets cold out in the desert. I don't know if you've ever been out in the desert. I have. At night, it's incredible how cold it gets. And so what does God do? He creates a pillar of fire to keep them warm by night. He takes the lid off. He's, see, Moses has seen God move, move, move, move, and move. But when it came, when it came to like, okay, I've got to go, he he paused for a minute, but then he was like, no, I'm gonna give, why not give God a chance? So David, he's seen God move, move, move, and move. He's like, well, there's giants in the promised land, and uh, you know, there's giants everywhere. And Moses is like, there's giants in the land, and and and so why we gotta take the lid off. I don't think God wants to live under our lid. I love somebody, but we always say, I don't think God can do it. I don't think God's big enough. Talk about it. We are sons and daughters of the Most High. We are his offspring. Let's act and live like we are his offspring. Let's act like we have a daddy that has no lack, we have a daddy that has no shortage. Let's live like our daddy is in charge and our daddy controls the universe, and he can move when he says. And let's just say, God, I come to you by faith and I ask that you move this in this situation. Don't be intimidated by sickness or disease or by lack or by whatever you're facing right now, talk about it. A problem or a situation in your life. Listen, your heavenly father is on your side. Talk about it. The coolest thing has been happening in the world that we live in. And it's been God. Right here in my own church, Firm Foundation Ministries in Centerville, Michigan. God has been doing some cool things. People are getting saved in every church service, right? We're looking at, we're looking at buying empty church buildings to plant more churches. We're looking at trying to pay off debt. We're looking at at serving God more than ever. And we serve a God that says whatever you want, wherever you put the sole of your feet, that I have given you. Wow. We've got to take the lid off. That's that's the second thing we've got to do if we're gonna live unlimited for God. Because we serve a God that's more than enough. Talk about it. We serve a God that says, whatever the report says, God says, my report is greater than that report. You know the 12 spies when they came back? Ten said, Oh, we can't go in. We can't do it, it's too much. And two said, Why not give God a chance? We can do this. God said that we can do this. And so we believe it. Why not give God a chance? Let's take the lid off. Let's play offense. And you know what? In that moment, Moses says, I believe the tin. So what happened? Joshua had to come back and take the lid off. You know what? Joshua comes back 40 years later, takes the lid off, and watch what God does. I don't have time for that today in this podcast. It's so great. You know what? Talk about it. Too many times. We live in doubt and insecurity. And you know what we do? We look at the problem versus looking at the answer. Oh, you listened all the way to the end for that. Come on, somebody, talk about it. Talk about it. There's no need. There's no need to live in doubt and insecurity. When that's happening in your life, talk about it. You're not living wide open, full throttle for Jesus. You're not. You're living, okay, and playing defense. When that's happening in your life, you're living under a lid. And we serve a God of no limits. Somebody say amen or old me. But that doesn't mean we have to always do that. No, I want to encourage us in today's episode. Fifth gear. Here we go. We're wide open, right? We're at top speed now. We're running wide open for Jesus, and we're learning that we don't have restrictor plates on, not in the spirit. God is calling us to greater things in Him. He said, These things shall you do and greater. Come on, somebody. How many of you believe that? I want to live wide open for Jesus. I don't know about you. I'm so excited about this season and what it's doing for us. We got two more episodes left, okay? And I need you to press in. Let's finish strong here with season 10, Full Throttle, Wide Open for Jesus. I cannot wait to get back next week and share with you the next three things and then the final episode. We're gonna wrap this thing in a bow. We're gonna take the governors off, and we are gonna learn to live out loud, wide open for Jesus. Listen to me talk about it. I love you. Do me a favor, copy the link, share it on your social media, go to the show notes, think about becoming a supporter. I love all of you guys, but I need you to know this as much as I love you. Jesus loves you more. I'll see you next week.