Embracing Courage and Faith in Our Journey

Today, I want to talk to you about that quality of the heart called courage. I want to look at one of my favorite Biblical characters; his name is Joshua. If you have your Bible, I'm going to ask you to open up to the Old Testament. It's the fifth book in the Old Testament, the Book of Joshua.

Joshua is a man in the Old Testament who was the protégé of Moses and who demonstrated great courage. God tapped him on the shoulder one day and said, "Joshua, it's now your time. Moses is dead, and the baton is coming into your hand." I got to tell you something; that was a big ask. Could you imagine following Moses? Could you imagine getting the leadership responsibility to follow Moses?

Joshua wakes up, and all of a sudden, he's got to lead a million people into the Promised Land. Let me tell you what he was filled with: two emotions. Here it is, watch this, every location. Number one, he was filled with anticipation, but he was also filled with anxiety.

Every time we start a new venture, every time we start a new initiative, or anything in our life where we start something new—you're getting married, you're having children, you start a business, you start a church—in other words, any time you go to school, there's something where you step into the unknown. There's always two emotions: one is anticipation, "Ah, this is exciting!" Yeah, but there's also the "Ah, this is a little scary" at the same time.

Always is. How you manage those feelings—anticipation and anxiety—I want to suggest to you today that courage is that internal quality that gives you the strength to step out.

It's interesting; this week, I was thinking about how anxiety and anticipation go hand in hand. My daughter is in town; she's getting married next weekend. It's exciting! And so, of course, you know, big wedding. I've learned there's a wedding committee, and let me tell you, I wasn't invited to any of them, except I'm the chairman of the finance committee. Can I have a big amen? Come on, dads, you know what I'm talking about if you have daughters.

So, I was the chairman, and last week, we were in New Orleans. My daughter wanted to do some shopping because that kind of goes into the wedding theme. So, we were going to go to New Orleans, go shopping, and then she wanted to eat at this really cool new restaurant.

Now, this restaurant is like big time; you have to get a reservation like a month out, and you cannot change it. You won't get in. It's Friday, and I was like, "Man, this is a big deal." So, how's this going to happen? A couple of weeks ago, I got my daughter, her friend, and my wife. We go to the North, we go shopping, and I began to realize we're not going to make the reservation.

I'm like, "You know, listen, we got to switch your reservation." My daughter goes, "No, no, you don't understand. You can't switch your reservation at this place; you can't get in." I said, "We can! We'll get in!" She goes, "Dad, you just think you can do anything." I said, "It's going to work; we're going to just make it happen."

Of course, I'm thinking to myself, "Oh gosh, I hope this works." So, we call them, and they said, "We can't change the reservation." I said, "Let's just show up." She goes, "You just can't show up!" I said, "We're going to just show up. What happens if we don't get a seat? We'll go to McDonald's, come on somebody, we'll save some money!"

But anyway, so we're driving, and I'm thinking, "Where are we going to park?" Because I know there's always an abundance of parking spots around restaurants in New Orleans. Like, where are we going to park? So, we're driving, and she goes, "What's going to happen when we get here?"

So, there was anticipation. Everybody say anticipation. Everybody say anxiety. And there's always two things that run hand in hand.

We get to the restaurant, and we walk in. I'm like, "Listen, we had a reservation, and we're not going to make the reservation, but we'd like to just— we're just here." Hi! I'm looking at my daughter; she's looking at me, and I'm like, "Listen, can we—what do you think?" The lady goes, "Absolutely, right over here!" It's like the best table.

I look at my daughter, and I'm like, "Power!" Of course, we had a wonderful time, and of course, inside, I was thinking the whole time pulling up, "I hope this works."

By the way, that's where some of you guys are right now. There's a big, huge opportunity ahead of you, and there's anticipation, and you're saying to yourself, "I hope this works." Joshua was facing that exact same situation.

In Joshua chapter one, we're going to read a very familiar passage of scripture to some of you; maybe it's new to some. Joshua was facing a huge opportunity filled with anticipation but also filled with anxiety.

I remember when my wife and I were asked to come start Church of the King. Those of you that are new to our church, any of our locations, we have campuses now in different states, but it started right in Mandeville, Louisiana. By the way, Church of the King was not my idea; it wasn't Jennifer's idea. We were asked. There were 19 adults that went to my pastor in Metairie and said, "Can you find us a young pastor to come across the lake?"

I was asked; it wasn't like, "This is my dream." I was asked, "Would you come start a church?" I said, "Okay," and we prayed about it. I remember I worked for a high school ministry that I had started called Next Generation. It was a Bible club ministry to kids in public schools. It was volunteer-led schools that I had quick kids and churches and how to do all this.

By the way, Next Generation is still going today. Thirty years is a celebration! Cynthia Sellers, come on, at the West S18 campus, leading that, doing a great job. There are 5,000 teenagers in 56 clubs. Isn't that powerful? Can we give the Lord a hand clap? A lot of kids hearing about God, all volunteer-led groups, student-led; it's powerful.

I had a job; I had started this organization. I had a job; it wasn't a big paycheck, but I had a job. I had insurance, and here it is: I'm being asked, "Would you go do this?" The pastor had a checkbook: $14,000. I said, "You're going to give me $14,000?"

$14,000? That's rent for a building! That's $14,000 to buy a sound system! That's it! And I'm thinking to myself, I remember my wife; I said, "I really feel this is God." She goes, "It better be God!" Of course, she believed it was, but I remember, oh man, there was so much anticipation, but there was some anxiety too.

And maybe today you are where Joshua was: anticipation but anxiety. How do you deal with those two emotions?

Joshua chapter 1, verses 1 through 9. Here's where the Bible says: "After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses's assistant, saying, 'Moses, my servant, is dead.' There it is; he's dead. Good man, great man, but he's dead. Now therefore, rise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I'm giving to them, the children of Israel.

Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness and the Lebanon, as far as the Great River, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.

No man—here's the assurance—shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you." That's going to become important in just a moment. "As I was with Moses, I'm going to be with you, Joshua. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong." Three times, "Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to give to their fathers.

Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go."

Verse 8: "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that's written in it. For then you'll make your way prosperous, and then you'll have good success." That's a Bible word, by the way: good success.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong." There it is; everybody say, "Be strong." Three times, "Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

The life of Joshua is one of the clearest pictures of what it means to step out in faith. He was called by God; he was commissioned by God to be the leader to follow Moses, to step out, to step righteously into the unknown. It's easy to step into what's known; it's easy to step into what everybody can see, even yourself. But the unknown? He was called by God to do a big thing.

As a matter of fact, I have a map I want to show you. Some of you, this is helpful. I hope. The children of Israel left Egypt, as you see; they crossed a body of water. That's the Red Sea. It's smaller in that picture; actually, it's called the Sea of Reeds. If you look in Exodus, which we translate in English as the Red Sea, it actually extended all the way up to what's called Bitter Lakes right now. That was a much broader body of water.

So, here it is: the children came across the Red Sea. If you look right there, all the way to Israel, it only should have been an 11-day journey by foot. How do you know it took a little bit longer than 11 days? Nearly 40 years! Why? They went around the mountain; they circled and circled, and finally, they come up—watch this—to the right side of the Jordan River, the eastern side of the Jordan River. They're about to cross the Jordan going into what's called Canaan Land, the Promised Land, modern-day Israel.

And it's that moment when Joshua has these twin feelings of anticipation and anxiety that God speaks to him: "Joshua, be of good courage."

I want to talk to you about the power of courage as an inside quality. How do you deal with these feelings? How do I step forward in the face of anxiety?

Number one: Honor the past, but don't remain there. The Book of Joshua opens with a new reality in Joshua 1:1. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun. This is a grim reality for the children of Israel; their fearless leader had died.

I want you to think about the emotions, the power of grief there for a moment. Think about this for a moment: the leader of the church that saw God face to face. By the way, he's the one that had the Ten Commandments. Remember that? Remember Moses came down Mount Sinai? He had the Big Ten. Yeah, yeah, do not do this, honor. I mean, he's the guy that his hands were raised like this, and the Red Sea parted. It was amazing to see this guy, and now the Bible says he's dead.

And God is calling you to be the one to follow that. So, all the people no longer looked at Moses as the leader; now they look to you. By the way, a little interesting thing—Bible trivia here—you know God told Moses that he was going to allow him to see the Promised Land, but watch this: not go in.

Deuteronomy 34: he went up on Mount Nebo, which is on the eastern side of that Jordan River. Moses saw—watch this, don't miss this—he saw the Promised Land, but he never brought them in. And the Bible actually says that he died. When he died, watch this, he died, and the Bible actually says that God himself hid the body of Moses.

Why did God hide the body of Moses? Let me tell you why. Here's what I would call a theological conjecture; this is my opinion, but I think it really makes sense. The reason why I believe that God hid the body of Moses is because God's smart—like, real smart—and God knows that if the children of Israel had the body of Moses, here's what they would have done: they would have built a memorial right there.

Here's what they'd have done: they'd have said, "Moses, here's his tomb, and that's where the power is." No, the power is not in his tomb; the power is in the God that he served. In other words, they would have never gone there; they would have stayed here.

Honor the past, but don't stay there. Hey, can I tell you one of the hardest things for Christians to do is to realize that God is bringing us from faith to faith, glory to glory? Again, God did amazing things in the past. We honor the past; we celebrate when God saved us.

By the way, some people get stuck on the music choices that they listened to when they got saved in the '80s. We love "I Exalt Thee" too, but I mean, God's still writing new songs through his psalmists and others. We love, you know, whatever song from the '70s. Well, it's great; it's not the '70s. We appreciate that. Every now and then, we'll sing that, but we're a little bit further along now.

Be careful building a monument in your past. Shape the path. We love the past, but we don't stay in the past. We go from faith to faith, glory to glory, strength to strength.

I love the early days of Church of the King. Of course, we have campuses all over the place now and people online and watching, but our first initial building was in Mandeville, Louisiana, on Harry Lemons Road, and we had 200 maroon chairs.

Why maroon, Pastor? Because that's the color of Heaven, obviously! And it was fun; it was amazing, and God did incredible things. Jennifer and I were 30 years old, and we're preaching, and I've got a full-blown suit every week, spitting on every re-baptizing every single person on the front row every week. By the way, whether they liked it or not, full immersion!

By the way, I never forget—one of the best stories ever—I never forgot. People getting saved, we would go at nighttime, not just be laying there before I go about, I said, "Honey, this is crazy! We knew we weren't that good; this was God!" I'm like, "Oh my gosh, this is a people can say baptized!" It was packed out; there were just people everywhere.

And I must say, you know, I'm screechy and screaming. Somebody said a couple of years ago, "Pastor, I have one of your cassettes from the early days." I'm like, "Give it back! Don't let it out!" Not that it was bad theology; it was bad preaching.

I never forget some of you guys, the early Church of the King folks. There was a lady named Susan; she prayed for a husband. "Oh, I just pray, just Pastor, pray they get saved, get saved, get saved." Finally, I remember seeing him in the service. He's 6'10". His name was Scott. When you're 6'10", you raise your hand, you're 11'6".

In the middle of my message, I'm preaching, he gets up, and he starts coming towards me. Now, just 11'6", doing like this, coming, and I'm thinking to myself, I'm preaching; I've got the Bible like this. I'm going, "I hope he's getting saved!" You know, this is about to be a conflict.

He fell and wept and broke before God, gave his heart to Christ. They live in another state; they're incredible Christians, loving Christ.

We honor the past. Moses represented an era in the nation of Israel where God did amazing things. We appreciate the past, but we don't live in the past. God's got a new thing for you today. God's got a bright future for you today.

If you want to grow in courage, you have to understand you appreciate, but we move on. Joshua chapter 1, verse 2: "It came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua." Joshua was God's choice for leadership in the next season. Joshua represented a new era. God is saying, "Don't die in the old; I want to do something new in your life. I want to do something new in your marriage. I want to do something new in your kids. I want to do something new in your life, in your soul. I want to do something new in your mind, in your heart. I want to put fresh anticipation into your life to expect new things, big things."

We honor the past, but we don't stay there.

Number two: If you want to build courage, you've got to learn to do things afraid. In verses 3, 7, and 9 of the passage, God challenges Joshua to be strong and of good courage. In Hebrew, the word strong is "Kazakh," and it means to lay hold of, to seize, to get a grip on something. The word for courageous is "Amats," and it means to keep a firm grip, to not let go of.

In other words, God's saying is that once you lay hold of something, you've got to hold on. By the way, it means you've got to step out and hold on to something even if you're scared.

So many times in our lives, we're waiting for everything to line up, and then we step out. It never lines up. You've got to learn to do it afraid.

The question I often get from people is, "Pastor, do I have what it takes?" Let me answer it a different way. The issue is not do you have what it takes; the issue is, are you available? Because nobody really has what it takes. God has what it takes, and if God asks you to do it, he'll equip you to make it happen.

Are you with me? Does anybody really have what it takes? God's got it, and if he asks you to do it, it means he's going to equip you and empower you to make it happen.

God, by the way, I want everybody to hear me, every location: God's not looking for your ability; he's looking for your availability. Are you open? Do you have hands like this? "God, use me, send me, speak through me."

I'm not talking about a preacher just to preach; I'm talking about whatever vocational, whatever God's asking you to do. Pastor, do you ever feel fear? Of course I do! Joshua faced fear. Imagine the pressure of stepping into that leadership role. Huge!

Ah, he's not Moses, was he? He seen God today. Where are the tablets from him? Those of you that maybe have taken over a business or you've whatever it is, you know, you're stepping into a venture, an initiative, and you're trying to do something. People compare you with somebody, and you're scared and you're nervous.

Yeah, you need this courage thing. Courage is a quality of mind or spirit that enables you to meet danger, opposition, or challenges of life with calmness and firmness. Having courage is not the absence of fear; it's not. But it's the willingness to step out in the face of fear.

I'm going to say that again: having courage is not the absence of fear. That's a courageous person. Why? They have no fear? No! A courageous person has learned to step out even when they feel fear.

Let me help everybody. Pastor, are you ever fearful? At times, yes, of course! But I've learned to subjugate fear where I'm not going to be dominated. I feel it, but I'm not going to be manipulated by it.

I'm going to get real transparent here. There are times I come up to speak, and there are all these thousands of people and who knows watching online, and I'm thinking to myself, I literally think, "This is a lot! These people are coming to hear what I'm about to say!"

And if I think about that too long, it just starts freaking me out. So, you know what? I just forget about that. I think, "Domino's Pizza delivery person." I literally think, "God made the pizza; I'm just knocking on the door." Here it is; I'm out of here! That's it!

Because here's the thing: by the way, every one of you, that's all you are is a Domino's pizza delivery person. That's good preaching; I don't care if you like it or not. That's good preaching!

Every place that the sole of your foot would tread upon, Joshua 1:3, "I've given you, as I said to Moses." You've got to step out; you've got to do it afraid. I do it all the time. I just—I got to step out. I feel I got to obey God; we got to obey God.

The great Christian author and speaker Elizabeth Elliott, her husband was killed along with a number of other missionaries in Ecuador. He was preaching in 1956, went down there to evangelize his tribe of Indians in Ecuador, and he was killed. They were all killed. Some of you know the story.

Elizabeth Elliott, she wrote a great book, "Through Gates of Splendor." She's an amazing author and speaker herself, and she was so stricken by fear after that situation, just constricted by fear that she was immobilized even in her house at the time. She's like, "I was so immobilized by fear."

A wise woman told her, "Elizabeth, you need to learn to do it afraid." She was so inspired by that. Her and another lady, Rachel Saint, the sister of one of the other murdered missionaries, they went back actually to the very same tribe in Ecuador, and they showed up.

Through interpreters, they explained to the natives, "This is the wife of a missionary you killed." I want you to think about this for a moment. The natives were so overwhelmed by that; the conviction of God came into that place, and every single one of them gave their heart to Christ.

Can we give the Lord a hand clap? Isn't that powerful?

Hey, by the way, by the way, Valerie, her daughter Jim and Elizabeth Elliott, she comes to our church sometimes. She lives in a nearby community. She actually spoke, I think she's in her mid-70s, she spoke to our league college kids this year.

Everybody say, "Do it afraid."

Question: what's on the other side of your fear? What wonderful world? What wonderful thing is on the other side of your "do it afraid"? Joshua, do it! Step out! Do it afraid! I'm not going to allow crippling emotions to restrict obedience to God's word.

Number three, Pastor, how do I grow in courage? Draw inspiration from others. Joshua chapter 1, verse 5: "No man," he told him this, "no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you."

God's saying, "Joshua, I'm going to be with you just like I was with Moses. In other words, I'm the same God. The same God—listen, hey Joshua, I've not changed! I'm the same yesterday, today, and forever. Oh, by the way, I was with Moses; I helped him, and guess what? I'm going to help you."

You know, I love testimonies. You know what a testimony is? It's when somebody testifies; they speak about what God's done in their life. By the way, that's why we do video testimonies in our church a lot.

And I just like to share this with you: we do not hire actors at the local acting guild to come to our—those are like real, you know, they have the little qualification. This is a real person. This is, you know, I'm sorry, these are like real people. Those were like real people that actually went up, went to—they were on our video that went to high school with Pastor Ben, who leads College.

He goes, "I went to high school with that guy." And you know what's so powerful? Here's what's up: they stepped out. What's the point of seeing that? They did it! I can do it!

In other words, you know what gets me inspired? You're a testimony in somebody's life who was radically healed or radically saved. It's almost like, "Hey, if God did it for them, God will do it for me!" It's an inspiration; it inspires you.

There's a faith in your heart that, "Hey, I'm not perfect, and I know that they're not now, but God did it in their lives." It's like small group. Why do we promote small groups so much? You know what the enemy does? He's a master manipulator, the devil, and he lies to you: "You're the only one, one, one, one, one. You're the only one with that struggle."

"Struggle, struggle, struggle! I got to go to a small group! Don't go! Don't go! You're weird! You're weird! You're weird! Don't go! Go! You're weird! They'll find out! Don't go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Keep your weakness to yourself! Stay! Stay! Don't—you're weird! You're weird! No! I got to go! Pastor said I got to go!"

I go, "Okay, hey, y'all have a small group here? I'm just going. I looked it online; I found you guys, and kind of y'all are my age, and okay, you're weird! Don't talk! Don't talk! Don't talk! Don't talk! Don't talk! Don't find out you're weird! Keep it to yourself! Weirdness! Bottle up! Bottle up the weirdness!"

And you start listening, and you're like, "And that guy, that—hey, that guy's going through something that I'm going through!" But anyway, that person—oh, wait a minute! Wait a minute! I thought I was the only one! Wait a minute! I feel better!

We're all weird in here! This is amazing! This is awesome! We all have a challenge in our marriage; we all have a challenge with a child; we all have a challenge at work. We all get—are y'all with me or not?

And here's the good news! Hey, here's the good news! Here's the good news! If God helped them, God will help me! God helped them through loss; God's going to help me!

I love reading the Christian biographies of Catherine and William Booth, great preachers in England in the 1800s. Oh, by the way, they started a little organization which is small called The Salvation Army.

Don't keep your testimony to yourself; you inspire! Somebody needs to be inspired by you, and you need to be inspired by someone.

I so love—I'm so proud of our church. I'm so proud to be a part of Church of the King and how we serve. That's thousands of people at our serve day serving! How you guys serve the community! By the way, I've had other pastors say, "You know what I love? I see those red shirts everywhere! Y'all are out there serving! We want to do that too!"

That's the point; that's the goal! The goal is that through us serving, it inspires everybody else to want to do the same thing. By the way, we're inspired, and we inspire!

How do you build courage? Look at others; draw strength. "God helped them through that tough time; God helped them through that pain; God helped them through that; God's going to help me!"

Pastor, how do I grow in courage? Number one: Honor the past, but don't live there. There's a bright future for your life.

Number two: Learn to do it afraid. Don't give in to those emotions. You feel them; we all feel them, but do it afraid anyway. There's a whole world on the other side for you.

Number three: Draw strength; be a strength and draw strength.

Let me give this last one, and we're done. Pastor, how do I build this characteristic of courage in my heart?

Number four: Encourage yourself with a word. As we come to the end of this passage, we see some very clear instructions on how to practically encourage yourself with the word of God.

I love this! I love this! Joshua chapter 1, verse 8. Before I read it, let me just tell you something. You ever hear this thought? Watch this, watch this: "I'm so discouraged." You know what the word—you know what that means? When you're discouraged, it means—watch this, real practical—courage has gone out of you.

What does encourage mean? It means courage is coming into you. In other words, how could I live my life where there's more courage coming into me than going out of me? I have to have a negative gain, a positive gain. In other words, I've got to have more coming in than going out because life discourages me.

So, it's my responsibility to build courage in me because I know there's going to be moments when courage wants to go out of me. How do I do that? Joshua chapter 1, verse 8. Here it is!

How many want to learn about this? Say yes! That was pretty good! How many want to learn about it? Say yes! All right, here it is! This is going to help some people right here.

Joshua chapter 1, verse 8: "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, Joshua. Your mouth! I know you're scared, but don't let the book depart from your mouth. The word! But you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that's written in it. For then you'll make your way prosperous."

When? When there's more courage in your heart coming in than courage going out. When there's more encouragement versus discouragement, we've got to get it on the positive side.

"This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, that you may observe and do according to all that's written in it. For then you'll make your way prosperous, and then you'll have good success."

So, Pastor, what do you say? And here's what I'm saying: the Bible word for meditation—this is important—the biblical concept to meditate is not an Eastern mindset. When you think of Eastern meditation, you think of just thinking.

Biblical meditation includes thinking, but it couples with another aspect called speaking. So, it's not just Eastern meditation, thinking, "Um, what are you doing?" "I'm thinking." Biblical meditation is thinking coupled with speaking.

In other words, there's a participation with the mouth. Biblical meditation is to speak and to think coupled together.

All right, let me give you an example, and I'll close. A cow has four stomachs, and what a cow does is they eat grass or whatever they're eating. They bring it into their digestive system—watch this—it goes into one stomach, and in that first stomach, it extracts nutrients.

Then it—it's close to lunch; I got to be careful—then it, you know what I'm talking about, regurgitates. It goes into another stomach. Why? To extract more nutrients.

Oh wait, then it goes up, and it goes into another stomach to extract more, and a four. And at the end, everything that that cow needs is now injected into their system.

Watch this: do you know when you speak the word of God over your life, what you're doing? You're speaking it; it actually goes into your system, your spiritual life. Your spirit extracts faith. It extracts—oh wait, but wait, wait!

Then you speak it again. Then it goes—watch this—you hear it auditorily, but it goes past the auditorial dimension into your spiritual life. You extract more nutrients.

Man, I've been having a hard day; I feel discouraged. Oh, oh, I need an in the courage because I'm feeling discouraged. It's leaving me! I gotta get it in me!

So, I'm going to speak it, and then I'm going to believe it and extract it. Speak it! And what am I doing? Encouraging myself in God!

Having a tough day? "I will abide under the shadow of the Almighty." I will say of the Lord, "The Lord is my strength." You start declaring the word of God!

"I shall not fear the arrow that flies by day nor by night, for the Lord is my defender." You start speaking the word! "I can do all things!"

You've got no weapon formed against me shall prosper, and every tongue that rises against me in judgment, I shall condemn. The heritage of the servants of the Lord!

He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow! I'm under the protection, under the shadow of the Almighty!

What is happening right now? What's happening? Here it is! Here it is! I'm speaking it; I'm digesting it; I'm extracting it, and I'm getting courage into my heart because I get discouraged.

Man, I feel discouraged sometimes. I'm like, "Oh!" But if I'll take that word and I'll extract it, faith comes! Everybody say, "Faith comes!"

And courage comes! And not for—let me tell you—not for the next day, but for today! "Give us this day!" Just give us today daily bread!

If I can have bread today, then I'll wake up tomorrow and get bread tomorrow, and then I'll get—and I'll have—and I'll be—I’ll be a man of courage! Not a perfect man, but a faithful man, a man of faith that can do what God's called him to do, and so can you!

Come on, y'all receive that word? Y'all receive that?

Let's pray. I'm going to ask everybody to bow their heads, all of our locations. Let's just bow our heads. Those that are online, in just a moment, you're going to have an opportunity to put in the chat what Christ is doing in your heart.

But if you do not know Jesus, if you're not sure about your relationship with God, I want to pray for you. I'm not going to embarrass you, but right where you are, the very first step to being a man or a woman of God is surrendering your heart to Jesus.

And I want to be clear: I can't save you. Don't let any human being say that they can save you. There is a person, a divine man called Jesus; he is the one who saves.

The Bible says, "Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Do you know Christ? Do you know that you know if you die today that you can stand before God forgiven of your sins, that you've trusted Christ as your savior?

Just a moment, at the count of three, I'm just going to ask for a show of hands at all of our locations, and those that are watching online, I'm going to ask you to put it in the chat that you've received Christ.

Say, "Pastor, pray for me; I need Christ." At the count of three, I'm just going to ask for a show of hands. You need Jesus to wash you, to cleanse you. You want to surrender your heart to Christ.

That's you. One, two, three—quickly hold your hand up. Pause. I see your hand up top right there, sir. Anybody else? I see your hand; I see yours as well. I see your hand, man. I see you, you, and you, you, sir. God bless you! God bless you! God bless you! God bless you!

All the way, I talk. God bless you, guys! I see your hands, sir. God brought you here today; he loves you, and he cares about you.

Anybody else? God bless you, ma'am. God bless you, sir. God bless you, man.

Anybody else? "Pastor, pray for me; I need Christ." God bless you, buddy! God loves you, man! I saw you when I was preaching. God cares about you; he's got a great plan for your life. It begins when you surrender to Christ.

Today is a new day for you; it's a new day for you.

Anybody else? Church, let's pray. Can we do that? God bless you, every one of you.

Let's pray. Come on, with those that are trusting Christ, say, "Dear Jesus, I come to you today a sinner in need of a savior."

Say, "Jesus, I repent of my sin. I let go of my past, and I turn to you. I turn to the cross."

Say, "Jesus, wash with your blood. Give me a new heart, a new life, a new reason to live."

I want you to say, "Jesus, I take my life and I put it in your hands."

Let me pray right now. Father, I thank you for the sealing work of the Holy Spirit and the word of the living God taking root deep in the hearts of your people. In Jesus' name, nobody said, "Amen!"

What a powerful message, and what a great time it's been growing and learning God's word together.

I want to encourage you that if anything Pastor Steve shared today in his message, or if there are parts of Joshua's life that you can relate to, I want to encourage you. We have a host that would love to connect with you and pray with you about anything—anything at all. Our host would love to chat with you.

Yes, and if you're making a decision to give your life to Jesus today, I just want to say congratulations! You are set free! You were made new; you were forgiven and loved, and we're so excited to walk alongside you as you start this new journey.

And if you're watching this live, there's going to be some instructions on the screen or in the chat room right now where you can give us a little bit more information about yourself. We would love to hear your story and then also point you towards some awesome resources that will help you as you start this new journey.

Yes, absolutely! In fact, if maybe you've been walking with Jesus for a while and you've been attending church online, I just want to encourage you and remind you about next steps.

We'd love to see you there. The host can put information and resources down right now. It's all about who we are as a church, what we believe, and it's also—we're going to talk about getting involved and getting in the game and being a part of what God is doing here at Church of the King.

We'd love to see you there! Come join us at next steps!

Yeah, so we can't wait to see what God does through you as you take this next step. We can't wait to see you next week, same time, same place. Bye, guys!