The Christian Experience

Two weeks ago today, actually, I was actually in Jerusalem. I actually walked, I walked into the tomb.

I looked around. Well, nobody there. So I guess the Bible is true. He is not dead. He is risen just as he said. He is in this place today and he's coming back.

He's coming back. You know, there are some things in life that were meant to be experienced, not observed. I'm not, look, I'm not trying to get people mad at me, but we got some NASCAR fans in this place. I'm sorry, I don't get NASCAR. I've tried it. I've watched it on TV. I don't understand the strategy. Just turn left at the curve.

I mean, what's the, just go and surf. But I've talked to some NASCAR fans and said, here's your problem. You've watched it on TV. But Chad, if you actually went to a NASCAR race, if you experienced it, I guarantee you, you'd change your tune. While I'm offending some of y'all, you golfers, I don't get golf. I don't understand it. The only time I watch golf is Sunday afternoon.

If I'm having a hard time getting to sleep, I will watch it and it puts me to sleep. But I've had golfers telling the same thing. They said, Chad, here's your problem. You watch it on TV. You got to get out there and experience it. Experiencing golf is different than observing golf. Listen to me.

Revival is about to break out across the symbol because of golf. We've never, I've never had so many amens in all my life. Listen to me, the Christian life, this walk with Jesus, it was not meant to be observed. It was meant to be experienced.

There's a difference between the two. A lot of you have observed the Christian life. You read a book about Jesus. You watch the History Channel special about Jesus. You may have gone to a church where they tell you to kneel and then stand and then read this and gone home. That's observing Christianity.

The Christian experience is an incredible experience. What I'm about to read to you was written by a man who hated, hated Christians. In fact, he tried to kill Christians.

He tried to arrest Christians. And about three to five years after Jesus' followers said that Jesus Christ was executed and raised from the dead, this skeptic met Jesus Christ personally, and it changed his life. And now he's been walking with Jesus for about 30 years, and he's at the end of his life. And what I'm about to read, I think, is the greatest, most succinct statement of what the Christian life is about. I mean, this encapsulates the Christian life. We come here, we complicate.

This is not complicated, okay? This man named Paul said, let me tell you what the Christian life, the Christian experience has been about. Philippians chapter 3, verse 10. He says, I want to know him, and I want to know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

That's it right there. I just read to you the Christian life. Paul says the Christian life, this experience that I've had with Jesus, not observing Jesus, but experiencing Jesus. I've been four things. Number one, this is all about knowing Jesus.

Do you see that in verse 10? He says, that I may know him. Now look, when he says no, this is not like book knowledge. Like I know George Washington because I read about George Washington book.

No, no. He says, I have experienced Jesus. I know the man personally. See, that's where Christianity is different than every other religion. Buddhists don't say, become a Buddhist and the presence of Buddha will be with you everywhere you go. Muslims don't say, become a Muslim and the spirit of Muhammad will be with you everywhere you go. But we believe as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, that a historical figure that lived 2000 years ago, that died on the cross for our sins, came back to life, ascended to the father, sent his spirit to be with us. He is with us everywhere we go 24 seven.

He is with us. And I'm telling you something, there is nothing like experiencing Jesus Christ and knowing him personally. And look, yesterday I experienced the presence of Jesus.

I went on a walk in the woods. I didn't say anything. He didn't say anything to me, but his presence was there. And I sensed his presence and I felt his presence and I had so much joy in his presence.

It was just peaceful and quiet. God saw a snake. And then I had to repent and confesses things I said in the presence of Jesus.

I felt really bad. But he's with him. My point is, he's with us. We are in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the apostle Paul says something in that same chapter, you go up a few verses before the apostle Paul gives us his resume. I was successful in this area, successful in that area. Everybody knew who I was.

I was the man. This is before Jesus Christ. He gives us his resume and actually talks about all these great things he achieved. He says something interesting in verse eight. He says more than that, I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ. For whom I have suffered the loss of all these things and I count them but rubbish that I may gain Christ. And I know it's Sunday morning and y'all dressed up. Let me go and preach for just a second. That word rubbish in the Greek means dog excrement.

He says all these great things I achieved, my successes, my popularity, my notoriety, my money, all that is like dog excrement compared to knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Hey, there's a phenomenon I've been reading about this. It's kind of interesting because I used to be in celebrity stuff. I'm not in the celebrity stuff now but I used to be. There's this phenomenon where you can pay money to have an encounter with a celebrity. You ever heard of this thing called Cameo?

Have you ever heard of that? It's like you pay this company and the celebrity will do a little one-minute video and send it to you. And like for $2,500, you pay them and Bruce Jenner will send you a Cameo of himself. You have an encounter with Bruce Jenner for $2,500. Snoop Dogg, $1,500. You pay them $1,500, Snoop Dogg will send you a video.

You'll have an encounter with Snoop Dogg. I was reading about an auction a man in Singapore. They auctioned off at lunch with Warren Buffett. You ever heard of him, the investor? He paid $2.2 million to have lunch with Warren Buffett. $2,500 for a minute with Bruce Jenner, $1,500 for a minute with Snoop Dogg, $2.2 million for a lunch with Warren Buffett. You can have FaceTime with the Lord Jesus Christ, the most important man who's ever lived, the celebrity of celebrities.

And it doesn't cost you anything. And if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, that comes with the ticket. Paul says, what's the Christian life about? It's about this friendship with Jesus.

You know him personally. Secondly, he said the Christian life is about experiencing, I want you to see this, the very same power that raised Jesus from the dead. That's yours as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what he says in verse 10, that I may know the power of his resurrection. Y'all just staring at me. You know how audacious that is? To save his followers, the same power that raised a dead body back to life, that's yours.

You can have it 24-7. Now to understand the power that raised Jesus from the dead, I think we need to read about Jesus being raised from the dead. So look if you would at Matthew chapter 27.

And as you turn to Matthew 27, again, we were there last week. Here's the empty tomb today. Now in the first century, you have to understand this was a quarry, and there's a little garden there.

It's really rough outside of town. And now they built this structure around the tomb of Jesus. But you're looking at the entrance of the tomb. And then my wife and I went inside the tomb. And I don't know if you saw this on National Geographic, they actually uncovered the slab that they put the body of Jesus on. And you walk into that tomb, and there's the slab.

It's amazing. And so what I'm about to read to you happened there, but it looked a lot different 2000 years ago. Verse 57, Jesus has been crucified, he is dead. Look at right here, the man's dead, okay?

He wasn't pretending to be, he wasn't playing possum. These are trained executioners, the man is dead. Now when it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock.

And he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. And Mary Magdalene was there and the other Mary sitting opposite the grave. Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, this is the Roman governor, okay? And they said to him, sir, we remembered that when he was still alive, that deceiver said, after three days, I am to rise again. Therefore, order for the grave to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples come and steal him away and say to the people, he's risen from the dead.

And then the last deception will be worse than the first. So Pilate said to them, you have a guard. Now that's not a singular guard, that is a guard detachment. That's either four, it's somewhere between four and 16 Roman soldiers.

Go and make it as secure as you know how. And they went and made the grave secure. And along with the guard, they set a seal on the stone. Now, I want you to look at the things that tried to keep Jesus down. Number one, the laws of nature tried to keep him down.

What do I mean by laws of nature? Well, the guy's dead. He has as much life in him as that piece of lint right there on the floor. He's dead.

Laws of nature, there's a giant boulder in front of the tomb. Laws of nature trying to keep him down. The mightiest military in the world is trying to keep him down. These Roman soldiers are elite.

Again, there's four to 16 of them. This would be like Delta Force, Navy Seal, Green Beret, they're trying to keep him down. Hey, the most mighty government in the world is trying to keep him down. It says that Pilate put his seal, that's a wax seal that basically says, you mess with this tomb, all the force of the superpower of the Roman government is going to come against you.

Now, let me ask you something. With the laws of nature, military, government, were they able to keep Jesus down? Because here's what it says in the next chapter, Matthew 28, verse two, and behold, there's a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow, and the guards quaked from fear of him and became like dead men.

These Delta Force guys, they're turning into little sissies and they all panic and they all faint from fear. And the angel answered and said to the women, do not be afraid for I know that you're looking for Jesus who's been crucified. He is not here for he is risen, just as he said, come see where he is lying. Jesus Christ, listen to me, the laws of nature couldn't keep him down. The military couldn't keep him down.

The government couldn't keep him down. And what Paul is saying in verse 10 is, that same resurrection power that overcame military and government and the laws of nature, that is yours as a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that resurrection power, it manifests itself in some incredible ways. We had a lady in our church recently, who came in for prayer, because she had lymphoma cancer. We prayed over her in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead came upon her.

The next week, she went to a doctor, had the PET scan, doctor scratched his head. He said the lymphoma had reversed so much, there's no need for any more treatment. That's the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. We have a man in our church, who is an alcoholic and a drug addict for 40 years. He was in and out of rehab center after rehab center, rehab, rehab, rehab.

He has 28 pages of criminal records. Five years ago, he met Jesus Christ received the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ. It broke the addiction and he's been walking clean for the last five years closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the resurrection power. Charles Craft, who was a brilliant man, professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, would interview people who had left the occult and became Christians. I've shared this with the church before. And he interviewed one lady who had left the occult and became a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And she said, while serving Satan, she had the ability to see the amount of spiritual power that people carry with them. According to her, every person carries a certain amount of spiritual power, but the difference in power between Christians and non-Christians, she said, is absolutely amazing. Indeed, she said she could immediately spot a Christian when she was serving Satan in any group at even a great distance by noting the amount of spiritual power that person carried.

Now that she's saved, she knows that the reason for this difference is the presence of the Holy Spirit in a believer. She remarked, though, that she and her occult group that served Satan felt no threat for most Christians because the Christians had no idea how much power they had. She said the occult group discovered, however, that some Christians, some Christians did know how to use their power. And these servants of Satan learned to steer clear of those Christians because they could be a threat. Fortune tellers, occultic healers, and other people working under the power of Satan discovered that their power did not work when they were around those kind of Christians.

I want to be that kind of Christian. I want to understand that I know him, he walks with me, he's my best friend, and the same power that raised him from the dead is mine and it's yours if you follow the Lord Jesus Christ. So what is this Christian experience about? Now you observe Christianity, you'll never experience any of this. You experience Jesus, you'll begin to understand his presence with you. He says, I am with you always. We know him. We experience the power that raised him from the dead.

And then Paul gets brutally honest. He says the Christian experience is also about suffering for Jesus Christ. Verse 10, that I may know the fellowship of his sufferings.

I'm going to be very honest and upfront with you. You follow Jesus Christ, you're going to suffer for him. And part of the reason is once you get saved, you change citizenships.

You're no longer a citizen of this world, you're now a citizen of the kingdom of God and there are now kingdoms in conflict right here. In fact, you know, we talked about the great precious promises of the Bible. There's a lot of precious promises in the Bible. Some of y'all got calendars every day.

You kind of tear off your calendar. Here's the precious promise from the Bible for today. I guarantee you this precious promise is not on your calendar.

You ready? Matthew 10 22, Jesus said this, they hated me. They're going to hate you.

They're going to hate you because you followed me. That's a precious promise. Yeah, the apostle Paul says, I know Jesus, and I know the power of his resurrection. And I know, look at the word he used, the fellowship of his sufferings. And we're fellowship is coined in it.

Here's what he says. When you suffer, you come to know Jesus in a special way. His presence reveals himself to you in a unique way.

There's a guy named Nick Ripken, that's a pseudonym because he's it does a danger thing. He's gone around the world. And he is interviewed hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, maybe thousands of persecuted Christians from places like Iran, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, he's interviewed these Christians. And he's asked them about persecution. Some of them have been brutally beaten.

Some of them have lost everything. And he asked him, explain to me what you sense when you went through this suffering. He says, they all said the same thing. We experienced the beautiful, precious presence of Jesus, like we had never experienced it before. And some of them said we would not trade our persecution if we had to give up that presence of Jesus that we experienced.

Isn't that powerful? Listen to me. The difference between those of us who follow Jesus Christ and those of you who do not is not that we don't have problems. Y'all got all the problems.

Listen, we have as many problems as you do, probably more because we're not part of this system. Here's the difference between followers of Jesus Christ and those who don't know Jesus. You ready for it? We have somebody to walk with us in the midst of our problems. You're going through it alone. Jesus Christ says, I will never leave you and I will never forsake you. We have the koinonia, the fellowship of Jesus Christ in the midst of suffering. So what's this Christian experience all about?

Again, other religions can't offer this. You give your life to Jesus, you begin to know him. He lives with you and in you. You experience the power of his resurrection. How many of y'all believe that power?

This is not metaphorical. How many of y'all believe that power is real? You believe that? Hey, you believe that resurrection power has the ability to break depression and anxiety and all that mess?

You believe that? That's the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. We experience the presence of Jesus. We know him, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his soul. Of his suffering.

And then watch this. The Christian experience is all about life after death. We have that hope. No, again, if you're a visitor here to cross assembly, one thing you need to know about me, my spiritual gift is encouragement. I love to encourage people. I'm going to encourage you right now. You're ready for my word of encouragement for today? Pastor Chad's encouragement for today. You ready for it? You're going to die.

There's my encouragement right there. The question is what happens to those of us who follow Jesus Christ after we die? Paul says right there in verse 11, in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Hey, the human race has always all kinds of theories about what happens when you die.

Five centuries before Jesus, the Greek philosopher Socrates and Plato, they said, well, here's what it is. The human body, the flesh is like a prison and your spirit is in this prison. And when your body dies, it's like the prison opens up and your spirit is released. Okay.

That's one theory. Hinduism says, no, your body is like a spirit. And when it dies, the spirit migrates to another body. And when that body wears out, the spirit migrates to another body and another and another that's Hinduism.

Okay. Some ancient culture said, no, when you die, if you're a good person, you become one of the stars in the sky. And so when you're outside at night, you look in the sky and you see all those stars, they may be your ancestors because the stars are just the spirits of people who've died. Nihilists say, what happens when you die? Nothing, because there's nothing after death.

It's not real. Some of y'all with, I don't understand why this is connected to Catholicism, but I've heard a lot of you Catholics who know when you die, you become an angel. The Bible never teaches you become an angel. And even during Jesus's time, there's a big debate between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, what happens after you die. And Jesus Christ cuts through all of this. And he says, let me talk to my disciples, my followers for just a second. You want to know what happens when you die? John 11, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that believeth in me will never die. That's what happens when you die. Your body wears out, your spirit goes to be with Jesus, and the day is going to come when Jesus is going to resurrect your body and your body and your spirit are going to come together and you're gonna be the presence of Jesus Christ forever and ever and ever. That's what happens. But I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to talk down to you.

I'm not trying, whatever. But why would you not want to follow Jesus Christ? You get the best of both worlds. You get Jesus right here, his power right here, his presence right here. And when you die, you get to go with him.

It's the best of both worlds. And this thing is real. It's life after death thing for those of us who follow Jesus.

It's real. You say, how do you know? Well, the Bible tells me so. I mean, incidentally, the man who just said I'm the resurrection of life, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Five minutes after he said that, he raised a man from the dead that had been dead for four days. Two weeks after he said that, he himself walked out of the tomb.

I think he knows what he's talking about, don't you? I believe this because the Bible tells me so. But I've also experienced this. I've been in those hospital rooms when that barrier between the earth and the heavens and the heavens gets more and more narrow. And saints of God begin to transition from this realm to the next realm. I've been there. I've heard the followers of Jesus Christ have their faces light up and they say, I see him.

I see Jesus. I was reading about a Yale professor at the University School of Medicine at Yale. She has, this had to be one of the hardest jobs on the planet. She was a pediatric oncologist.

You know what that means? She had to walk with children through cancer. Could you imagine having to walk with these little kids as some of them are healed, some of them are not, some of them die? She's a pediatric oncologist. And she was a skeptic. She didn't believe in this Jesus stuff. She's a skeptic.

But then Professor Combs said, I started to experience things I could not explain with these little kids who follow Jesus Christ. She said, there's one little girl that sticks out. Her name was Mary Beth.

She was a six-year-old who believed in Jesus. We knew she was drawing to the end of her life. We knew she did not have much time left.

But we were very intentional. Mom and dad and I would talk about this outside the room. We never shared it with her. We felt it was too much to tell her you're going to die and this is the end.

So we never shared that with her. So one morning, while we're examining Mary Beth, she matter of factly said that the night before, one of her grandfathers who had died before she was born, and Jesus had walked into her room. And they sat down and they talked to her. Jesus talked to her. And Jesus said that she would be dying soon but not to be afraid.

He was going to be with her. The professor said she did indeed die a short time later on Christmas Eve. And the professor said, cognitively, death for a child is a thoroughly frightening prospect.

Children often react with horror when they're briefly separated from parents with a babysitter or a daycare worker. And yet this girl had absolute peace, absolute calmness. After experience, this time after time, this professor finally said there has to be something to this Jesus thing and life after death thing and eternity thing.

And that professor became a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Chad, why are you telling me such a depressing story on Easter? Because that ain't a depressing story. It's not depressing to say we live here for a couple decades at best and when we close our eyes in this world, we open our eyes staring at the face of the Lord Jesus Christ if we belong to him.

That ain't depressing. R.G. Lee, one of the greatest preachers of all time, incredible preacher. His sermons were absolutely amazing.

R.G. Lee, they had a stroke or something, went into a coma. And for days and weeks, he was in a coma. And the family gathered around the bedside because the vital signs made it very clear he was going to die.

So they just assumed that he'd been in a coma for a long time, he's just going to slip off into eternity. And then all of a sudden he opens his eyes and his look came on his face and he reached up toward the heavens and he said, I see heaven. It's beautiful. I see Jesus. He's beautiful.

My sermons never did him justice. And he fell back and went into eternity. Beloved, I'm telling you, this is the best life there is. I wouldn't trade this thing for the world. You get saved, you have a lover of your soul who's wonderful.

I make it very clear to my wife every now and then, sweetheart, I love you, but I'm in love with someone else. And it's a man. You get Jesus, you get to know Jesus. You get to experience the power of his resurrection. Don't tell me that stopped in the first century. His resurrection power doesn't say the resurrection power of Jesus Christ was only good for the first century.

It's still moving and healing and doing miracles today. We get to know Jesus, the power of his resurrection. And I'm going to be honest with you, you will suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ. And even in your suffering, he becomes real to you. And when you draw your last breath in this world, you'll open your eyes, staring at the beautiful face of Jesus Christ.

So this Easter, this Easter, I want to invite you to begin a different way of living. If you don't know Jesus Christ, if you've observed Jesus, but you've never repented him, if you've observed Jesus, but you've never repented of your sins and turned your life over to Jesus. Today is that day. Today is the day where you say I'm a sinner. Here's the good news of Jesus Christ.

Good news is this. You're a sinner. I'm a sinner. And somebody's got to pay for that sin.

You know, God will just let us up. No, somebody got to pay for the sin. Either you're going to have to pay for your sin, or somebody else will have to pay for it and praise God 2000 years ago, somebody else came and paid for your sin. Jesus died on the cross for your sins.

He was buried and he came back to life. And now if you'll simply turn from your sins and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, he will come in, take control of your life. And when you die, he'll take you to heaven. If you're not sure that you have eternal life, if you're not sure that you're going to heaven when you die, I want wherever you're at here in this auditorium, next door, Benson campus, North Raleigh campus, or online or on TV, if you're not certain that you have eternal life, and you're going to heaven when you die, I want you to bow with me right now, everybody. And I want you to imagine it's just two people in the room, you and Jesus. And magical words don't save you. Jesus saves you. But if this articulates what's going on in your heart, I want you to say this to Jesus. And I want you to mean it with all your heart.

Say this to him. Jesus, I am a sinner. Jesus, I deserve to be punished for my sins. Say this to him, but I believe you died on the cross for my sins. Say this to him, you paid the price for my sin. Now this is so important. Say to him, Jesus, I believe you were buried and three days later, God raised you from the dead. In other words, I'm not talking to a dead Jesus, you're alive right now. Say that to him.

This is so important. Say to him, Lord, I turn away from my sin. I turn my life over to you. Please forgive me of all my sins. Come and take control of my life. And when I die, Lord take me to heaven.

You said that's it? The Bible says all who simply call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Now I want you to look at me right now. The most important first step, once you turn your life over to Jesus, is not to keep it to yourself. And so we're going to help you with a little baby step.

Because Jesus said this, if you're ashamed to confess me before people, I'll be ashamed to confess you before my Father in heaven. So the first baby step we need to take is to be known. I'm now following Jesus. So if you are watching online, there's a little thing that you can click that said you said yes. If that's you, I want you to click that. We're going to get some information from you. We're not going to ask you for money.

We're going to do the opposite. We're going to send you some information on how to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ. What's your next steps are in Jesus Christ. So it's very important that you click that. And if you click that, you're going to get some information. If you're not going to get that, that's your first act of faith that says I now belong to Jesus, you said yes. If you're in this room, or one of our other campuses, I want you to do something a little different. I want you to text the word cross to that number right there.

And the same thing is going to happen. This is so vital. You're now a baby in Jesus, you're a newborn in Jesus, we got to help you grow in Jesus, we're going to send you some information on how to grow in Jesus Christ. You can't keep this to yourself. You've got to you got to take a baby step and let the Lord know I now belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved stand with me right now. I think I've shared this with you before.

I don't know, maybe I haven't. There was a young lady. I can't keep all these generations.

She's either gen x, millennial, but she's a young lady. And they asked her, it's true story. They said, hey, define church. What is church?

Here's what she said. Church is a bunch of boring people led by boring man that on Sunday morning teaches them how to be more boring. I don't know what church he's experienced. But there's nothing boring about the Son of God walking with you. There's nothing boring about the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. There's nothing boring about the fact that this world is not your home. One day we're going to go home to be with Jesus forever. And today may be the day that he comes back.

What's boring about that church? So can you lift your hands and let your voices and let's praise the name of the resurrected key. He walked out of the tomb, crushed the head of serpent. He is coming back again.

He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let's praise the name of Jesus. I am free. I am free. I am free. I am free. I am free. I am free. I am free. I am free.

I am free. You lift me up. You turn me around. You place my feet on solid ground. I think I'm faster.

I think the Savior because He healed my heart. He changed my name forever free. I'm not the same. I think I'm faster. I think I'm Savior because He lift me up. He turned me around.

He placed my feet on solid ground. I think I'm faster. I think I'm Savior because He healed my heart. He changed my name forever free. I'm not the same.

I think I'm faster. I think I'm Savior. I thank God.

Hey, we said this all the time in this church. It's a messed up world out there. Satan is real. You believe that? Demons are real.

It's messed up out there. But beloved, I'm telling you, we're going to be bold and strong and confident because greater is He who's in us than the old devil who's out there in our world. And we got now 24, 25 new brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ who just said, I'm now going to follow Jesus forever.

Isn't that great? I'm not, listen, I'm not Mr. Tough Guy. But I found this, when you're no longer afraid of dying, there's nothing else that really rattles your cage. I'm only afraid of two things in this world, needles and snakes. But I ain't afraid of death because I'm ready to go home to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus.

And I found this. When you understand, listen to me, Jesus is with you. And one day you're going to home to be with Him forever. You will never be afraid again.

Never. That's why several hundred years before Jesus, God spoke a Hebrew blessing over a man that was about to face giants and demons and devils and armies. And that same prayer that was spoken over Joshua, I now speak over you right now.

I love that old Hebrew blessing that says, Which is Hebrew for cross assembly. Be bold, be strong. Y'all be afraid and you don't be terrified of anything.

Why? Because the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be with you everywhere you go this week. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen and Amen. God bless you, beloved. Let's go change this world for Jesus Christ.