Knowing God Through Experience

Love your pastor, love, of course, this church and have for many, many years a lot of your regular guests and people that pour into you are friends of mine from around the country. And so I have been looking forward to this time. He took me to the smoke pit last night.

Now you're clapping. You didn't clap for lsu, but you sure do like the smoke pit. And I said, where are we going? He goes, I'm going to take you somewhere really nice. And it was first, I think it was called the Chop House over there by the baseball field.

It was packed. I said, I don't want something fancy like that. I want some real food. He goes, I got the perfect place for you. So being from Texas now For the last 25 years, he took me to the smoke pit and we both had the chopped pork sandwich, little fried okra, little smoked baked beans.

I have it memorized in my brain, the menu. And then I had an extra side of cornbread. Somebody, you know what I'm saying? All that was great. He had Mac and cheese, he had a baked potato.

I mean he had like 42 other items. But then the banana pudding, I am a little charged up from the banana pudding even right now. I've been eating it all morning long. So if I go till about 3 o', clock, it's not my fault it's the banana pudding. It's certainly not the anointing.

I'll show you my family here for a moment. I have three boys and three daughter in laws. And if you can see on the screen, that's my big head over there to the far left, that's my wife Lori of 35 years. And then our three daughter in laws, Reagan, Caroline and Kendall. The middle one is the most important baby of them all.

That is May Claire, that's our grandbaby. And then our top boy in the very far left, that's Connor. He is on our staff. He runs our university. The middle one there, the small, the runt one is the oldest one.

He's the grandfather of May Claire and Caroline. He lives in Washington D.C. he's the deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury with Scott Besant. And there's about three guys that meet with your treasurer every day and Mason's one of them. He is Director of Legislative affairs for Scott and pray for him. How many know if you're in D.C. you need to be praying for Mason?

Got just an incredible story seven years ago, moved to dc, Always felt called to that world and went from working for a couple of congressmen from Texas to then Wyoming Senator. And then from the Wyoming senator, then Scott Besant met him. And so, pretty incredible story. And then that's Jackson on the far right. He's our baby.

And he. How many know the baby's always the baby. I'm a baby. I'm always a baby. And Daxton is 25 years old and he runs our youth.

And then Laurie and I, we've been in Austin now for 25 years. We planted Celebration Church 25 years ago. And I kind of want to tie a little bit into where I'm going to go with you this morning. And even our story maybe a little bit more in particular than the first service. The first service was a nice group of people, y'.

All. I can already tell how many stuck around from the last service. Let me see your hand. Anybody wait for one more point? No.

Everybody went to the smoke pit. And I'm going to be talking out of a reality of God that you and I must have. We sang about it this morning. And that is you can't have a walk with Christ for very long, theoretically, that if it does not move from theory, which honestly, you do learn by reading, you do learn by hearing, you do learn by gathering. But also the truth is this, you don't stay in theory.

You have to move experientially. And it's got to move into the revelation. There was a man by the name of Nick. Nick. At night, Nicodemus came to Jesus and he said, jesus, we want to talk to you about you, because you obviously are a great teacher.

You're obviously someone who knows theories and principles that we get. We love it because these are not normal. And of course we're seeing signs and wonders. But Jesus stops him in the middle of his conversation. He doesn't even allow him to talk any further.

He goes, you must be born again. If you're going to see the kingdom of God, you cannot see it. Yes, we hear. Yes, we see. Yes, we experience.

Yes, we go to the Bible. I'm going to try to keep adjusting this. This is why Paul the Apostle did not come, or Jesus come during the days of communication. But the Bible says that when they came to Jesus, they were so used to hearing, and rightfully so. We hear, but Jesus said, but unless your eye, unless your heart has a revelation, unless this thing explodes inside of you and turns you upside down, all of the reading and all of the studying and all of the philosophizing and all the gatherings, all of that is fantastic and there's nothing wrong with it.

But at some point, it's got to become a reality to you in your heart. I wasn't raised in church. My father was an NFL football coach. NFL stands for not for long. We were moving every two to three years of our life.

It was awesome. It was wonderful. But my dad really was not a good coach. If he was, we'd be longer in one location. But it was cool.

He'd get another job. He was head coach in the Canadian League. I was actually born in Vancouver. My mom and dad met after the war in 1946, 1947 at Mississippi State, where my dad was playing football, and then would go from Mississippi State into a professional football playing career, and then he'd go back to Mississippi State as a longtime coach and then into the NFL and the Canadian League. And I was born in Vancouver, and I was also born in a family that really had no spiritual life at all.

I'd never heard the gospel, I would say accurately. I never heard a presentation of what it meant to be saved, to be in a relationship, a personal relationship to Christ. My mom and dad were wonderful people, but the last thing that you would have ever seen in our home, not because they didn't believe it. It's just something that they didn't find important in their life, nor had they seen an accurate version of Christianity. I never saw a Bible and never heard a prayer prayed.

In fact, I said to my mom and dad, why don't we go to church after or like the rest of the world, at Christmas and Easter, at least those two times of the year? And my mom and my dad both said, well, because we expect if you're going to go at Christmas, you should go the week after Christmas and the week after that and the week after that. In other words, you don't play with God. You go all the way with God or you go nowhere with God. They did not know.

What they were really teaching me was the fear of the Lord. And what they were really teaching me was integrity and character and honesty. So I had no comprehension of Christ. And so I am now at Furman University. Any Furman University people.

They were in the first service. And I'm at Furman University because the Falcons would do training camp there. And. And maybe that's a Tito bottle. If you're in Austin.

That was a vodka bottle that just spilled. And if you've ever been to Furman, you know, it's not much out there. And this is 1978. I'm 14 years old, and I had never heard the gospel. And I have two players that my dad coaches at that time.

Ralph Ortega and Greg Verzin are linebackers. They said, hey, tonight, what are you doing after you're finished with your responsibilities as a ball boy? And I said, I have nothing going on. And they said, well, why don't you come to our dorm room? And I did not know exactly what they were going to talk to me about.

And I would hear the gospel for about two hours by these two NFL players who cared more about the call of God upon my life than their football career. And they would lead me to Christ. In fact, they said, when you're finished, in fact, if you want, go back to your room and you can get on your knees and ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life. At 14, I did that summer of 1978. But not having a family that understood fellowship, not having a family that understood the body and the importance of church and forsaking not ourselves together.

But my parents were never discouraging. But I would go to church at times and go with friends or never with anybody in youth or anything all the way through high school. And then I'm at college and I would attend chapel services. I'm at LSU now, playing football 120 pounds ago. How many know at 300 pounds, as a pastor, it just doesn't work anymore.

I want to look like your pastor just ripped banana pudding. And.

I'm in and out of church every now and then. And then I am on a deer stand. January 10, 1987, where my deer hunters at? You're gonna like this part. I'm 8ft 9ft up in the air on the side of this tree and looking at the Mississippi river and the Mississippi river tugboats coming back and forth as I was living and where my family moved back to after my dad's career, we moved back to Faraday, Louisiana, Natchez, Mississippi, right on the Mississippi River.

And we had some land to hunt, and so we would hunt on the river. And I was sitting there on January 10, 1987. It's my junior year. We just finished playing the Sugar bowl against Nebraska, and I'm sitting on the deer stand, planning on another night out with my friends. Saturday night, the night before, dad and I had gone out for a few beers and had our day and time and very close, great relationship.

And all of a sudden, coming to me on the top of this deer stand are these two words, these phrases. Today will be the greatest day of your life, and you'll never be the same after today. And I thought, maybe I'm going to kill the World's largest deer and start a television series called Deer Dynasty or something to that effect. Not very far from where Duck Dynasty is from. From Monroe, Louisiana, just a few miles down.

But I said, what is going to happen today? Today will be the greatest day of my life. I'll never be the same after today. What is it? And what is going to alter and literally change my life forever?

I thought, well, I'll kill a big deer. That's what I'm gonna do. But that's not what would happen. A couple of hours, three and a half hours later, my uncle and I'd go back to his house to get my car and I get the news. As I'm pulling out of the driveway of my uncle's house, I see my aunt running down the driveway to grab my attention.

And she said, get to the hospital across the river in Faraday. Your dad's had a heart attack and they're bringing him in right now. Your mom's with him. And as I would simultaneously pull into the parking lot of that small country hospital, so would the ambulance bringing my hero father, World War II, veteran NFL player, NFL coach, and a stud of a stud, out of the back of that ambulance. And of course, he's having cardiac arrest.

I'd like to tell you that three hours later or an hour later, that my dad survived and we're doing good today. No, my dad died that day. But in that day and in that time and in that hospital, I made this prayer. God, I heard you today. I heard your voice.

Today will be the greatest day of my life. I'll never be the same. And sometimes we don't know what that means.

Some days we don't know what that may require of you when it comes to trusting God. And you would think in the natural, if God says, today is going to be the greatest day of your life, you'll never be the same. You. You're going to win the lottery. You're going to come into something massive or something good looking or something that your flesh wants.

And little would I know that it's nothing that I would want. But I would discover on that day the revelation of a heavenly father that cannot die. On that day, my earthly father passed, but on that day, a heavenly father became my life. See, you're not transformed by what you hear. You're transformed by what you experience.

And I want to talk to you today because I think that some of you are in a season and in a place where you're wondering, God, what are you doing? And maybe what God is doing and what often is allowed are. We don't understand how all of this works. But there are those seasons, there are moments where God is more interested in your maturity than he is in your happiness. And I'm not against praying against the spirit of death.

I'm not. In fact, we believe for healing and deliverance. How many know what I'm talking about? If anyone is in the hospital, I am not praying you to go to heaven or certainly not hell. I was going to say some people do, but the reality is we pray for life.

But when it comes, when things come your way, when all of a sudden you find yourself in a storm or you find yourself standing in a season in which you're not exactly sure what's going to happen, what does God do in those moments? And what I want to give you today before we go and have another round of banana pudding at the smoke pit. In fact, I'm going to leave soon after this service. Get on airplane. I got to be back.

But pastor said, I'll stop by the smoke pit if you want. I said, no. I want to focus on Jesus as my Lord and Savior right now. But I want to give you what you and I need to see from the scriptures, our discoveries. You've got to make this discovery.

And the discovery is all connected to courage. Because when you discover who God is in your storm or you're standing in a season in which there's a lot of options and in fact, there's a lot of opportunities, you're gonna have to know this. Because without courage, the opposite of courage is discourage. Or courage just simply means heart. And when you have heart, when your heart is filled, this is why God is the God who says, love me with all of your heart.

Because what changed me on that day was not enough Bible scripture reading, though I read a lot of Bible and memorize a lot of Scripture. It's revelation. It's a revelation of God. And of course, God gives us revelation through His Word. And that's how we know His Word is His act.

But if that word doesn't become in itself an experience, an encounter with God, I want to go now. Let's go quickly to the Book of Acts, chapter 27. And the Bible talks about Paul the Apostle, who we know, who wrote 2/3 of the New Testament, Paul the Apostle, who had an encounter, a revelation of Christ on that road to Damascus, as we know, on that highway, that road in Acts, chapter nine. Paul, now later on, is being arrested for his preaching of the Gospel and turning the world upside down. If you will.

He's on a boat. He's on a boat with 275 other people. Paul is a prisoner. He's under arrest. So you could say Paul's all alone.

Paul's by himself. Paul is not around his body friends. He's not around the church. He's around and under arrest. He's around a bunch of heathen people.

The Bible tells us as they're on this boat being travel towards Rome. Of course Paul's going to stand before Caesar on this boat. The Bible says they encounter what it starts with in verse 20. There has not been the sun or the stars for many days. In fact, just the opposite, it's a storm.

And there was in that moment and in that vessel a spirit of discouragement for all hope had been lost, of being saved, of this trip being salvaged. And after a long time without food, Paul stood up. And Paul said what he did say to him, and we're all guilty of this same thought. Paul says, guys, I tried to tell you before that we took off. This is not going to end well.

But I'm not going to bring that up. I'm not going to give you what you should have done when I told you, don't leave now because we are going to hit a storm. But that's another subject. Paul stood up and he said, guys, let's not base or even dwell on the past. I urge you to keep up your courage.

Now that word there, keep up, it means to put on a good spirit. There's not a question if you can have something to be negative about today. If you're married, you know what I'm talking about. If you came with your husband, you may just kind of say, I love you anyway. It's not if.

It's not if. It's not if your life is going to all of a sudden have a twist and a turn. It's not if you're going to have to make a decision, am I going to make up my mind? Am I going to put on a good spirit? Am I going to have a good attitude?

Am I going to make this a good day? There's something that you and I have a choice to do. And he goes, you can make up your mind to be courageous or not. And that's what he is saying, keep up your courage. And.

But it's not based on something that's just positive. It's based on the power of God, he says, because last night I had a visitation, I had a revelation, God came to me. In fact, he Said an angel of the Lord, to whom I belong. That's a powerful phrase. To whom I belong and whom I serve came and stood beside me.

And he said, do not be afraid, Paul. You're not going to sink. You're going to stand before Caesar and you're going to preach the gospel. God has not only given you life, he's also graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you. How many know your faith is not just about you.

Your faith is not just about you. Your pastor is about to do a series on immaturity, maturity. Let me tell you the difference between an immature Christian and a mature Christian. A mature Christian understands that I'm not just living for myself, but my life makes an impact in the lives of other people. And so he says, I'm not just going to do this for you, Paul.

By your courage and by your faith, I'm going to save the 275 knuckleheads that are sailing with you. How many have knuckleheads in your life? Let me see your hand. You all act like you're not even in this real world.

And so he goes, I'm going to save you and I'm going to save those that are with you. So keep up your courage. For I have faith in God that it's going to happen just as God's word came to me. That really comes down to this. Do you believe what God says or not?

Now watch the last phrase, guys. Every word is by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, in other words, we're all going to be saved. All 276 were eventually saved. The boat fell apart.

He goes, but nevertheless, we must hit an island. Now, what's interesting, he goes, we're going to hit or we're going to come upon something that we're not going to like, but it still has to hit us. This is what I want to talk about today. That the discovery or your fulfillment or the call of God upon your life, that is way more than you just going to heaven. In other words, there's a life of faith that says, I want to go to heaven.

How many believe that you're going to heaven because of the grace of God displayed to us in the cross. But there's another kind of faith that is not just about you going to heaven. It's about bringing other people with you to heaven. And so he goes on to say, but this has to happen. This has to take place.

This hitting, this falling, that literally is what it means. We're going to have to fall. Or something's going to have to fall on us for this to come to pass. Now, let's just connect the dots to the book of Joshua. You know the story of Joshua.

He was the messenger, of course. He was the. He was the aide and he assisted Moses. Moses is now dead. Now Joshua has command.

It's going to be the night before the big battle. So you have Paul on a boat. Now you got Joshua about to go to a battle and Jericho, very similar. Watch this. As Joshua is near Jericho, it's the night before.

He's walking outside, overlooking how is he going to take the city that God told him to take. And as Joshua looks, he's looking up. And of course, he's looking at probably the challenge and the various obstacles and issues that he has to face. He sees a man standing there. Now, you could say in both cases, of course, angelic beings.

But I do believe it was this God in flesh. And all of a sudden, this man, I believe it's Christ standing in front of him, has a sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him. He goes, I gotta ask you, before you take that sword and cut something, are you gonna cut me or are you gonna cut them? Who are you for?

What side are you on? Are you an LSU fan or an Alabama fan?

I have my theological position on that. But he says, neither.

Joshua, it's not about you. It's not about you. It's not about you. It's not about me. It's not about you.

There's more to it. My family, my three boys and their wives, and now May Claire. How many know the grandbaby gets named? The rest of the family just gets general titles. It's not about us.

It's about the kingdom. He goes, I am a commander. In fact, I have been sent as a commander of the army of the Lord to you. I have now come on the eve of the greatest battle to this point for Israel. And then he falls.

It says that Joshua falls to his face, reverence. And he goes, what is the message? What's the word? And the commander of the Lord's army replies, take off your flip flops, take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy. Joshua did what he was told to do.

Look at the next verse. Joshua 6. Now, the gates of Jericho were securely barred, tightly shut. One translation would say, no one went in, no one went out because of the Israelites. Then the Lord said to Joshua, I want you to see.

Come on, say the word. See, I want you to notice. I want you to see. Watch this. That I have already given Jericho.

It's already been delivered into your hand along with the king and it's fighting men. What do we learn from Joshua? What do you learn from Paul? And what do you learn, probably from every, in some cases, in every scripture of the Bible. Number one, you've got to realize this.

You gotta. In fact, for your courage, you got to discover this. That, number one, you are not alone.

You know, Paul felt that way. And we know from Joshua's experience he felt that way. Moses is dead. Joshua. Look at the very first verse in the book of Joshua.

God starts off with, hey, your guy is dead.

Wow, thank you, God. I love you. Now you're wondering, what do I do? Where do I go? Today will be the greatest day of your life.

You'll never be the same. Three hours later, I get the news my dad is dead. But what I discovered on January 10, 1987, not by theory, but by experience and by the word of God, I am not alone. If you're gonna do a study, you need to do a study on the fear nots of God. Start with Isaiah 43, fear not.

I'm with you. I'm with you in the fires. I'm with you in the floods. Hebrews 13 tells us, I will never leave you nor forsake you. The very first revelation that you and I have to have is that God is with us.

If you look at the Book of Acts, chapter 10, about Jesus going about doing good and healing all, and the Lord was with him.

Look at 1st Samuel, chapter 16, David. When they were looking for someone to appease or to come into the life of a wicked man by the name of Saul, to bring some comfort and to bring some relief and to relieve him of demonic spirits, they go, we have seen a young man, he's the son of Jesse. And they go through features and characteristics of the life of David in 1st Samuel 16. And the last verse says, and the Lord is with them. Let me ask you a question.

Do you have the courage that God is with you? Like, in other words, do you know that he's with you? But when we're on a boat in the middle of a storm, or when we're about to go into battle, or when we're about to face whether it's negative or positive, but the reality is, it's still. It's still without concrete, it's still in a life of faith. Let me ask you a question.

Do you know that you're not by yourself? That's the first discovery Joshua had to make. That's the discovery that David, every man of God know, every woman of God began to realize, we're not by ourselves. Here's a second discovery. You can be courageous because you are not in charge.

Do I have some control freaks in this service? And I can tell by the amount of people who do not raise their hand, there's the control freak right there. I'm not and I will never lift my hand. Ah, here we go. The reality is, is that we like to control Joshua.

What makes him great makes him weak. Your great strength of getting things done is also a weakness because you're used to getting things done and you're used to taking control. You're used to having to take a situation. And you've got Paul, you've got Joshua, but you can go throughout the scriptures. Let's go to the little house by the name in a little village called Bethany and the house of Martha and Mary.

And there's a woman by the name of Martha who it says made all of these various dishes, created this incredible buffet for Jesus. She's in the kitchen. And where is her sister Mary sitting? Where? At the feet of Jesus.

And she lets everyone know, including God, you don't care about me. Because God, if you cared about me, Jesus, if you cared about me and Mary, you sitting at the feet of Jesus, you little spiritual bonehead. I'm in here doing all of this work and no one cares about me. Martha, she wasn't just a complainer, because Jesus said, martha, Martha, you are distracted by so many dishes he says, Mary has chosen. I love what the Moffatt translation says, she has chosen the best dish.

In other words, what Mary knew was I've got to give all the control to God. Let me ask you a question. How's your control factor? Not your fear factor? Because your fear factor is going to be based on your control factor and the greater the amount of control you have to have concerning your future and your life is going to determine how much courage you have.

And when I walked into that hospital, I had to come to a place. God, I trust you. My dad was 60 years old. He was a young man. I trust you.

My brother died last week of Alzheimer's. I have to trust him. I have another brother. Another, in fact my brother that just passed, passed away in Virginia beach. Retired Colonel, F18 fighter pilot, F4 fighter pilot, naval academy grad.

My other brother is a two star general, most decorated National Guardsman. As a commanding officer in the history of our nation, might have commanded some of you he was Southcom commander, Green Beret commander, and also commanded Afghanistan, all Special Forces. He's got Alzheimer's. Both my parents carry the Alzheimer gene. Both of them are dead, but my parents each carried the Alzheimer gene, which meant my brothers got both genes.

To this moment and to this day and all the testing that I've had, I have not. In fact, I tell my brothers, thank you for sucking all the bad genes.

How many have a military family? You know what I'm talking about? The reality is, I said, I have to trust God. I have to trust God. And I'm not gonna be fearful.

And I'm not going to live in uncertainty. Cause I know who my future is in. And his name is Jesus. I will tell you a funny story. Pastor First Service didn't get this story.

My brother has had. Both brothers have had all of these tests over these years by a very top neurological center in Dallas, Texas, connected to military relationships and other people. And I went and they gave me a test, a mind test, about five hours of just trying to find out where your coherency is and your ability to remember. How many of you have ever been through those? I mean, it's like crazy.

Five hours. I went to lsu, which means we don't read. I don't do tests.

My act. If I told you my act, you would just go, God is real.

And so I went through five hours of these tests. And they give you images, and you got to draw them. And then five hours later, they'll ask you to draw that same image that they gave you five hours ago. All of these various tests and math tests. And I go through these tests after test after test.

And I walked out and I said, laurie, this is not good. I said, I have no question in my mind. This is not hopeful. So a couple weeks later, I get a phone call from the neurologist, goes, we need to talk. Because by then, as we found out and as he went through my test, he goes, I'm also going to ask you to do the PET scan because we do need to look at your brain.

Based on what we have heard from you and the response of your test, we're going to bring you through the whole PET scan. And you know how that goes. And they're doing the brain test. So I get the phone call December 14th, and I'm fully persuaded. This is not good.

And he goes, I got good news and I got bad news.

I said, what's the good news? He goes, you don't have the plaque that causes Alzheimer's. It's not in you. You're clean. So that's the good news.

I said, what's the bad news? He says, you're the dumbest patient that we have ever met. How many will take dumbing God all day long? I'm just like, I'm showing you the difference between what you may read and the revelation of God.

How many are thankful that God picks people who the world says is not very smart. In fact, that's what the Bible says. He confines or he confuses the smart, the wise. It's foolishness. Cross this lamb, this man who calls himself the lamb.

That's foolishness. This is stupid. This whole thing that you guys are doing this morning. The world says the world. The spirit of the world says it's foolishness.

Paul says, oh, I have encounter with the living God. Joshua said, oh, I've met the living God. Number one, I'm not alone. Number two, I'm not in charge. Here's a third one.

You can be courageous because you're on holy ground. He says, take off your sandals, Joshua. Paul was saying the same thing. This boat belongs to God. And when you're on holy ground, you gotta understand something.

It's appointed ground.

You may work in a workplace that you don't like. Can I just tell you, you declared this is going to be holy ground. This is my anointed place. I don't live in Austin, Texas. We moved 25 years ago to plant Austin or to plant celebration in Austin.

My church knows this. I don't stand up and say, I love Austin. It's a weird place. It's weird. Who's ever been to Austin?

3 million people, traffic is terrible. Keep Austin weird is the mindset. Our idea is to get Austin saved. But I'm not there. I'm not there because watch this.

I love Austin. I love Jesus, therefore I love where he tells me to go. You don't have to like where he tells you to go, but you do have to like him, which will then in turn give you the courage to stay where you're called to stay.

And the truth is, is that all of us have to go to places we don't like. But it's Holy Grail. And I understand he's talking about righteousness. I understand he's talking about purity. I understand he's talking about blamelessness.

I understand that. I think that's no question. But you gotta ask yourself, is there anything between you and God? See, those sandals needed to come off his feet because there was something between God and Joshua that needed to Come off. And at some point you're going to have to say, lord, where I am, it's going to be holy.

Have you ever flown lately? Have you guys been on an airplane lately? How many? Know it's a little stressful.

It's stressful. You've been on Spirit Airlines. It's a whole nother level of stress.

Guys, listen. It's holy. How many times have we all gone through and we've all had bad experiences with tsa, And I want to say something, and all of a sudden, the TSA agent, Pastor Joe, so good to see. I've been watching you, and I'm like, oh, my God, Jesus, help me to be aware that people are watching me. I was on an airplane flying out of Phoenix, and I was late.

It was one delay after another, and I was supposed to be in an event, and we were stuck in Phoenix and I put my knees. No one was sitting in the front seat in front of me. And so Laurie and I are sitting on this tarmac because there's not enough gate agents to let us off the airplane. We're on this plane for two hours, Pastor J. And as I'm on this plane, I got my knees.

I don't have my feet. I just have my. I'm just leaning back. I'm six five. I'm putting my knees on the chair in front of me.

No one is being disturbed, so that's okay. And the flight attendant says, sir, I need you to get your knees off the chair in front of you. I said, well, there's nobody there. We've been on this plane for two hours. She goes, I know, but I still need your knees off the seat.

She comes by, I got my knees back up.

Somebody like, that's good. Show them. And so she goes, sir, I need you to get your knees off the chair in front you of. I said, we're going nowhere. We're stuck.

The third time she did drop the bomb, she says, pastor Joe, you have taught us to be obedient to the authorities and to rulers. I'm the ruler of this airplane, and I need you to get your knee off the chair in front of you. It's fantastic. I see the young people up here worshiping God like you do. Amazing.

But when your mom tells you to take out the trash about 3 o' clock this afternoon, that's holy ground. When you go to school this coming school season and the teacher asks you to do your homework, that's holy ground. Where are my parents at? How many want me to go A little Bit deep. I mean, I can just keep going.

See, that's holy. I can be holy in church. That's easy. Can I be holy where I don't want to be when it comes to a boat or a battle? Let me give you another one.

Number four. You can be courageous because the battle has already been won. Joshua, all you got to do is look how many know God has told us that the inheritance of the promises of God have already been secured for us. We're more than what? A conqueror.

You know what that means? I'm more than a conqueror. Here's a boxing term. In fact, in Austin we have all of these world class Mme. Fighters and the Jiu Jitsu number one Jiu Jitsu and the number two Jiu Jitsu competitor in the world.

They're all in our church. All these guys are in our church, which I'm believing God to get into Joe Rogan's life one day as a result of it, because he's in their world. And so more than a conqueror is someone who doesn't just go to battle. In other words, the conqueror goes in, he fights, he wars, he's bloody, he goes through, if you're a boxer, 15 rounds. He takes the beating, he takes the bruise and he wins.

He's declared the winner. That's a conqueror. But about a minute after the victory has been declared to the conqueror, the wife of that warrior walks in and takes the check. How many know she's more than a conqueror?

The more than a conqueror is the one who all I have to do is stay in relationship to the one who took the battle and took the beating for us. How many are thankful for Christ who took the beating for us?

You just gotta stay close to him. The battle's already won, Joshua. That city has already fallen. It's in my hands, therefore it's in your hand. And then lastly, the worship team can come and I'm going to eat some banana pudding.

The last one. I'm just going to give you 0.5. I had a six point, but maybe I'll come back next week and we'll prolong the maturity message for more immatures. The Bible says you and I discover in the process of time that you can be courageous because you have supernatural power.

Both Paul and Joshua discovered something. It's not just holy and they're not just with God, and God's not just with them and they're not in charge. Only God's in charge. Watch this. But they discovered something.

We have a power, a supernatural power that takes this world and brings us into a heavenly world.

It's not on your screen because I just thought about it and I just came across the scripture. In Hebrews, chapter seven, in verse 26, it talks about our great high priest who went into the heavens.

He was holy, he was pure, he was undefiled. Our great high priest meets our needs. Watch this. But he went into the heavenly realm.

The manna that God gives us for our provision doesn't come from the earth. It came from heaven.

A lot of us think that when Israel, and we all have this idea in Franklin, frankly, it's not wrong. It's just. When they went out and they collected the manna, what kind of food was it called? Scripture says angel food.

And every morning they would go out. During that time, in that season before they crossed into the promised land, God would reign from heaven. Supernatural provision.

And they were commanded to go every day. But not to do what, to not store it. Don't take two days, one day at a time. And every day that they would trust God, they would have courage, because God would supply by the spirit of God his power. Jesus said, I'm not just giving you the truth of my word, I'm giving you my spirit.

You can't just read. And rightfully so. I believe I am a. I'm a voracious reader. God's word is his power. When the church started, it started at the word of God, the pulpit, Peter preaching.

All that's true. But guys, unless the spirit of God makes it readable, understandable. Jesus said, you seek the Scriptures and for them. You're right, they do contain the words of eternal life. But you don't come to me.

You like your Bible, but you don't like me. It's very possible. Reading the word the Bible talks about, the letter of the law kills. You can be in that law, which is the word of God. You can be in that law, but without the spirit of God.

I'm telling you, you can be as stiff as a board.

How many want to flow with God? How many want to be wherever God wants you to be? And you know by faith, he's with you.