20x Bigger: Your Future Is Bigger than Your Past

By Pastor Ricky Spindle

If you’ve ever wondered what real, gritty, everyday faith looks like, Hebrews 11—the “Hall of

Fame of Faith”—is a great place to start. We kicked off a series simply called 11 because at the end of the day, it’s really about one word: faith.

But not the vague, cross-your-fingers-and-hope-for-the-best kind. Not the churchy, polished kind either. I’m talking about the kind of faith that grows roots in hard places. The kind that believes God is good even when the circumstances don’t look good. The kind that acts like God is telling the truth—even if nothing around you has caught up to it yet.

Or as I often say: it’s not “fake it till you make it.”

It’s faith it till you make it.

One of the big ideas we looked at was this:

Faith makes your future bigger than your past.

I used a simple analogy: sit in your car and you’ll notice the windshield is about 20 times bigger than the rearview mirror. Why? Because where you’re going matters more than where you’ve been.

But the enemy loves to get us staring backward—our failures, our regrets, our labels. Yet

Scripture says God has thrown our sins as far as the east is from the west. His grace is bigger than anything behind you. And nowhere is that clearer than in the story of Rahab.

Rahab: The Woman With the Rope and the Reputation

Rahab’s story in Joshua 2 reads like something out of a movie. She lived in Jericho—a city so fortified historians basically call it impenetrable. And Rahab herself carried a label she never could seem to shake: “Rahab the prostitute.”

Old Testament, New Testament—same label attached to her name.

But here’s where the plot twists: Joshua sends two spies into Jericho, and of all the homes they end up in, they choose hers. Not by accident. God’s fingerprints were all over it. Her home was used to late-night knocks and unexpected visitors. What looked “random” was actually providence. And Rahab?

She had heard the stories—how God split the Red Sea, how Israel kept winning battles—so she does something wild: She believes.

“I know the Lord has given you this land,” she tells the spies. A Canaanite woman, in a pagan city, with a past she couldn’t outrun—believed before she ever saw a miracle herself.

Then she makes one simple request:

“Show kindness to my family.” I love that. Her faith wasn’t just about her. It overflowed. The spies give Rahab a sign: hang a scarlet cord in her window so she and her family will be spared from judgment. That word for cord—tikvah—is also the Hebrew word for hope. It wasn’t just a rope.

It was a rope of hope. And like so many Old Testament moments, this one points forward—to a greater scarlet thread, to the blood of Jesus, to salvation that covers shame and breaks labels. That scarlet rope turned a “lady of the night” into a “lady of the light.” Here’s where it gets breathtaking: Rahab’s name means “to make room.”

Her faith made room not just for her—but for her whole family.

And when you flip to Matthew 1, the genealogy of Jesus, Rahab shows up again.

But this time she isn’t called a prostitute. She’s called:

“Rahab, the mother of Boaz.”

No label.

No shame.

Just belonging.

Boaz, whose name means “in him is strength,” would later become a kinsman redeemer for Ruth. From him and through him, the redeeming strength of God literally flowed to generations. This is what faith does.

This is what God does.

He rewrites stories.

I said it like this:

• Nature forms you.

• Sin deforms you.

• The world will come for you.

• Education can inform you.

• But only Jesus can transform you.

Faith in Jesus takes what was deformed and makes it new. It takes the past you hate and builds a future you never imagined. If Rahab could believe God from inside a dark past and a fortified city…

If she could trust Him with nothing but a rope and a promise…

Then you and I can ask God to grow our faith too. God wants to make your future bigger than your past.

He wants to break labels.

He wants to redeem your story.

He wants His strength to flow into every area of your life—your relationships, your home, your struggles, your tight places. So whatever you’re facing, hang your rope of hope.

Remember that faith is your response to who God is—and who He is doesn’t change.