You Were Made for Intimacy with God - Leaders' Talks

And so when I was thinking about how to do this, and you guys can be seated, I'm gonna kind of I'm gonna have Baylor continue to play.

Um Steve was like, you don't want to tell him how what a weird family you grew up in.

It's true.

I uh I grew up in a very strange family.

I was like, why not just show up?

This is kind of like what it was like in my in my house.

I grew up in a family um with uh I had two older brothers, a little brother, a little sister, and um we were the traveling band for my dad.

Um he had an itinerary worship ministries, he traveled the country, did praise and worship for many different conferences.

Um he grew up Southern Baptist, but he also grew up as a missionary in Mexico.

Um he wouldn't be what you would conventionally call a Southern Baptist, um, just by his style, he's very similar, probably, to you know, um how I lead.

So it's not very traditional.

Um but my dad said he didn't want to have a ministry on stage, so he didn't have his own living room.

So every night from I'd say about six to eight o'clock, we would all worship and pray together as a family.

And in fact, we never had lessons on instruments.

Me and my brothers, they're they're the prodigies musically.

They play like nine, ten instruments apiece.

They live in LA, uh Detroit, they go they're all over the place and they do studio work.

Well, we actually learned by ear because my dad would leave worship, so there's a bunch of instruments laying around.

We started to pick them up and we played.

Um, but what was ingrained in my heart at an early age was worship.

And it was never worship was never singing.

To me, worship was encountering God, um, even at a very early age.

And I think that's a lot of the truth kind of what I want to talk about a little bit today.

Is just worship is we can get really um actually, hey Baylor?

I think I'm just gonna go fellow and then we'll kind of come back up.

I thought it was gonna kind of flow different.

But see, I'm gonna switch things up.

It's like a living room to me.

I, you know, I don't care.

I'm only gonna speak one time.

Steve's gonna speak again, so I just do what I want, right?

So if you don't like it, I won't be here next week.

Alright.

Um, so don't worry.

And there will be complaint cards in the back.

Feel free to fill out as many of those as you like.

I will not be here.

Um, I'm just kidding.

Um thank you though, Baylor.

I love Baylor, he's a servant, man.

He uh he's over at uh Axe, which is EHC in Axe, and he's uh his heart is for the nations.

And um, when you're around someone that wants to give up their life to go to the unreached people groups of the world, they're quality people because God has to encounter you to love him and and and cause that desire to come out because that's just not natural.

Um so anyway, uh yeah, going back into in between uh the difference between singing and encountering.

So that's kind of where the the place in my heart for worship, um, it really I guess that was cultivated at a young age.

And so we would pick up instruments and that's how we learned.

We learned how to play all the different instruments that we that we learned and and just learned to play by ear.

And so it was it was there, you know, just a bunch of homeschool kids, right?

Whole family?

Yes, you know, it's funny.

When Steve was asking me, how I even got here is a very bizarre story, but I don't have time for that.

I will say this though, that when Steve and I were meeting at Starbucks, and and like he doesn't he knows nothing about me.

I led worship once, but we totally like connected.

He knew a lot of the same people in the same vein from the vineyard movement, my dad.

Just it was like a total connection, so we're like, we're talking, then all of a sudden, like Steve kind of gets really quiet and goes, Okay, I need to ask you some questions.

I was like, oh no, what like he's like, I don't really know you that well.

He's like, is there any embarrassing things in your past that I need to know?

And I really just sat there and I looked at him, I said, I was homeschooled.

And I really meant that.

And I think that's what was I was like, yeah, that's probably one of the things, you know.

Um okay, guys, thank you for bearing with me.

All right, I we're gonna get into the word.

I'm not just one of those guys.

Um, I my parents, my parents gave me a quarter of verse when I was a kid for every verse to memorize.

So we would memorize whole books of the Bible.

They were we were very strict, very word-rooted family, let's say that.

Um and I will say this that there was a point in my life where the God of the Bible and the still small voice started to not sound the same.

And that was because if you don't have an encounter and know him, you can read this Bible, and trust me, it's a great rule book and way to live your life.

But there always will be lovers and workers, and lovers will always get more work done than workers.

It's the way we're wired.

I don't love my wife because I have to, because one day I was like, I want to throw a huge party and have a bunch of people dressed up and then make these vows.

I was absolutely head over heels and to this day still am more so.

And it's because I cultivate that relationship.

And so her desires become my desires.

It's it's exchange life, it's the way you look at scripture.

From beginning to end, if you just take the Bible, it's holistic.

I mean, you know, let's let's take all the crazy stories and Goliath out of, you know, and and and just uh Noah's Ark and then Jesus and and then you know the book of Acts.

Let's just put it all together.

I never see one time where God doesn't say, In the midst of your sin, I'm not gonna let you go.

I'm still gonna encounter you.

From beginning to end.

It's it's like a story about his intentionality, his intention to capture the heart of every generation and speak in and say, No, no, no, you're valued.

And he and you know, you you you can look through the Old Testament and be like, well, I don't understand this, and and what about Job?

And you know, I'm I'm not a follower of Job.

Job is a hard one to read, but Job is the question and Jesus is the answer.

Jesus is always the perfect picture of a father's heart.

Always.

And from beginning to end, it it shouts the name Jesus.

And if you know that still small voice, then when I went back into the Bible, I mean, trust me, it was like we would go to bed listening to the scriptures over and over again.

I mean, I remember like that I even I used to read this and have the voice of the guy who used to, you know, do the narration of the Bible in my own head.

And at one point I was like, this is probably not healthy, you know.

It's like, does God's voice really sound like in the beginning, there was, you know, it's like this British guy.

Um like you know, you're not British, God.

All right, um let's go to let's go, let's jump into scripture.

Let's go to Matthew 26, 13.

I love this passage.

While you're turning there, I've you know, I will, there's some elephants in the room.

I don't wear shoes.

That's one of them.

I have uh a dangly earring.

I think those are the two most common comments I got when I first came here.

It's like, hey, you don't wear shoes.

I was like, no, I don't.

They're like, okay.

I was like, all right.

But someone asked me recently, he said, Why are you so happy all the time when you're up there?

And is that real?

And it was a genuine question.

Yes.

And this is the best way I can give this analogy while you're turning to Matthew 26 or opening it on your phone.

So the one movie that's overplayed, what what is that one movie overplayed every Christmas time?

What do what do we all watch?

We all watch.

Well, okay, all right, sorry.

I'm thinking elf.

I'll just let's just go straight to the chase.

I'm thinking elf.

I know there's like what you know, uh, it's a wonderful life.

Okay, there's a lot.

I'm sorry.

I'm thinking elf.

It's just like everyone's like, oh, let's watch elf.

It's Christmas, you know?

It's like, okay.

So there is a part in there that is so profound.

It is so profound.

There's this moment where he's like, he's completely out of wherever he, you know, he's like in this, he's out of his mind.

He's in this, he's in this uh department store, and and he's like, okay, and so the guy there's like, hey, Santa's coming, you know, he's gonna be here at Tammy.

He's like, Santa! Oh my gosh, Santa's coming! And he's just like, I know him.

I'm not kidding.

That ministers to my heart because I feel that way.

And you trust me, like you look at me, I don't really fit.

Like, I wasn't the road guy.

I mean, uh, for all the people he probably had lined up, I probably wouldn't be the guy that you would say, yeah, I would be a worship leader at the road.

I mean, this is very sophisticated, and I'm just not that.

I'm the son of a missionary that traveled around and played music.

And so my life, there was a gap of time.

I didn't want anything to do with this, and it wasn't backslidden.

I just I didn't want to just pretend, you know.

Someone asked me a while ago, like, man, Christianity, man, it's like you can do that really well.

And this was probably like seven years ago, and I was and I was like, yeah, the first thing you had to know was it's a game, and you have to know how to play the game.

And that was how I thought, because I could talk to anyone, I could just navigate any world.

But this personal deep relationship, this God of the universe, like, like let's just that created all things that is in everything that is through everything, is passionately pursuing me.

You individually, like that's real.

And if you don't know that to be real, man, it's got to be miserable because I feel like elf.

It's like, no, I know him, and when I'm up here, I feel his presence, and I have this relationship, and it's an overflow.

And if you would look at like my Myers-Briggs or whatever by personality, it's it's the secret introvert, and then people would think, oh, you're such an extrovert, and this.

Realistically, this can be draining, but what fills my cup is that I'm so in love with God because I've met him and I know his voice.

And it's just the best.

It's the best.

It's the best.

It will it will spur your heart or your heart on to be whatever it is that he's called you to be.

If it's like Baylor, it's like, no, I'm gonna give my life to the nations, or like someone that says, No, I'm gonna give my life to my family.

It all comes out of that desire in that place, and so that's why I wanted us to turn to Matthew 26, 13, because this is probably one of the most beautiful pictures of something that is not culturally appropriate, something that is not right to do.

But in this moment, you have Mary of Bethany who couldn't help herself, who literally lavished her life savings on God, a year's wages just on Jesus, because she saw something that moved her heart so much.

And that's worship.

That's worship, that's not singing songs.

So let's start here at verse um, let's start in at verse uh three.

Then the chief priest, this is after he came in now, um the time of the pastors and Jews again.

Then the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people assembled at the place of the high priest who was called uh Keophas and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill him.

But they said, Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people.

And when Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him, having an alabascar flask of very costly fragrant oil, and she poured it on his head, and he sat at the table.

But when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, Why this waste?

Oh man.

Disciples didn't get it, did they?

It's so funny.

The ones that walk with Jesus.

I mean, I look at Peter's stuff, and he got one one time he got it right, right?

Jesus, you the Christ and living God.

It's like, why this waste?

Are you kidding me?

It's about Jesus.

Why this waste?

For this freaking oil might have been sold so much for so much more and been given to the poor.

Don't we like just take a second?

How many times do we try to make a practical solution to something that has that just doesn't make sense?

And in so many times in my life I did that.

And trust me, I know that in worship it's kind of really ethereal, can kind of go over the place.

I've talked with Steve about tambourines and flags and stuff, you know, and how he doesn't like those things.

I mean, I'm like, oh like, okay.

I grew up with people doing flags and tambourines and all that kind of stuff.

I never got it, but they love to do it, and it's just irrational and stuff, you know.

But what what you're what's the worst is that one person um sitting on the front row that can't keep the rhythm and you can hear them the whole time, and you're like, God, give me grace.

Give me grace in this moment.

But it's crazy.

I mean, I'll tell this story.

One time we're in uh we're in the living room, um, worshiping as a family.

My little brother's seven years old.

I'm 10, we're all three years apart.

And um my dad's like leading worship, and I mean, it's just, you know, there wasn't like these holy moments.

So let's not, you know, this was just we just did it.

And then my dad all of a sudden just like his eyes get huge.

He starts looking around, he starts like saying, I hear angels, I hear angels.

And I'm like, I don't hear angels, like, you know, I don't know what he's talking about, but he's like, this is this moment that's happening.

So I look over it, and my little brother is we had so you know what it, you guys know what a didgeridoo is?

It's like one of that, you know, so basically it's long, imagine like a long megahorn.

My little brother's like on this recliner, laying back, singing, like as high as he could off the ceiling, and my dad thinks it's angels.

So my dad is having this like heavenly encounters, like, God, you're coming to meet my family.

This is the most no, it wasn't that.

It was Paul sitting there just trumpeting, singing off the roof.

But my dad's had an experience.

It's all okay because he still loves us.

Like, let's not like, you know, oh, let's not, let's just, well, we have to have, you know, this order.

I mean, if you want order, my dad would always say this.

He said, You want order, you can go to cemetery.

If you want life, go to a nursery.

But a nursery is chaotic at times.

But I want the life, I want, I want the life and the life abundantly.

So, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm the bunny trail guy, if you haven't found that out already.

Just so this is, I love Jesus' answers here.

Why do you trouble this woman?

For she has done good work for me.

For the poor you will always have, but me, you you do not always uh for the for you have the poor with you always, but me you do not always have.

For in pouring this fragrant oil my on my body, she did it for my burial.

Assuredly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.

I I don't know if how many of you were here, like probably maybe it was a month ago, and I read this scripture while we were leading worship.

But that's so amazing to me.

Here are the disciples that remember they go out and they heal the sick and then come back and like Jesus, even the demons.

The demons obey.

Like it's amazing.

He didn't say wherever the gospels preach, what you guys did.

No, I said this.

Because what Jesus is doing is he's placing value back on the value that was placed on him.

And in a place of worship, why do we do this?

Why do we come together?

Why do we sing songs?

Well, for me, it's to encounter God because I know that when I see him, I will be like him, for I shall see him as he is.

Second Corinthians 3, 17 through 18.

Going from glory to glory, we see him as in a mirror.

It's a reflection of who we were made to be.

And if we live a life separate from encounter, then we walk through this life and we're powerless, church.

Like literally, at some point, you have to realize if you're powerless and the gospel is powerless and you render it powerless because you don't realize that we were made to manifest the nature of God, then you wonder why, like, well, you know, why would anyone come to this?

This isn't it good as if you would go see a band play, like at a big show.

You go to Red Rocks and watch a band play.

I mean, it doesn't, it sounds pretty good.

We're getting it there.

But why come here?

Why come together as a body?

Because God moves when the disciples are one accord.

He pours out his spirit, and there's this fresh outpouring, and there are these times, but it's always unto encounter because God is revealing his nature.

I want to meet with you.

You know, I we had a worship night the other night.

I hope you guys come Friday night.

Not no problem, but we had a worship night um uh about a month ago, and someone had an interesting comment.

And they were talking, uh I I heard it kind of through another person, but they came up to someone, they said, I I think I felt it for the first time.

Like I that that spirit thing you're talking about.

You know what that is?

That's the Holy Spirit saying, Hi, I'm the Holy Spirit.

It's good to meet you.

He's introducing himself to us because he desires a relationship.

And I know we've I've had conversations with many people and we talk about, you know, the experiential, you know, being a very emotional generation, you know, these young people, extremely emotional, not holding true to like the strong roots, you know, and the and the way that we sing things.

And no, trust me, when it comes to the old hymns, no, I like when you think of where uh It Is Well with My Soul was written, the man that had lost his family standing there looking over the bow of the boat, where his family had died and singing It Is Well My Soul.

I mean, those it makes the hair stand up on your neck because it it carries anointing from where that place was written.

But if it always is unto encounter, and for those of us that we're not made to experience of God, yes, we are.

It's a religious spirit that says, No, you weren't made to encounter God.

You were just you you you can kind of experience him and stuff, but you're made to follow this.

No, because if you look throughout scripture, it is a story of God encountering us.

Look at the book of Acts and tell me it's not encountering God.

I mean, like, where can you look in scripture and see that you know this angel appears to them?

I mean, does he does a guy like, hey Zeb, look, it's an a it's an angel.

Pretty big, pretty big angel.

Yeah, it's crazy.

I didn't think I'd see one today.

No, they fall down on their faces as dead men because that realm is such it's gonna blow your mind.

But it's what we were made for.

And so when we come together, and when I would come in and we'd have these places of worship as a as a young man, uh even growing up through my teenage years, that element, if there is, if it's not unto an encounter with God, then what what's the point?

Is it just good stuff?

You see, there's a tree of knowledge of good and evil, and there's good fruit on that tree, and it's our wisdom and our intellect and the idea that I can judge good for myself, versus the tree of life, Jesus saying, I come to give you life and life more abundantly.

And in the place of worship, what is our desire?

What are we going into?

What are we after?

Is it really to encounter this God of the ages and say, I want to be so much like you because I see your nature, and when I hear you and I know you, that I look like you, I feel like you, and when I speak, I speak your word, you want to capture a generation there's power in that.

There's power in that, and there's a generation that will go to everything else seeking that high.

We talk about the high, right?

But what they're saying is, Who am I?

Where is my identity?

It's hidden in Christ.

That's where it is.

And you can only take someone where you have gone.

You can say, Can I live through this life and step by step, but you can take people where you've gone and what you know of God, what you know to be true.

And that's why this is this story book from beginning to end is a story of God encountering us, a quarry of God wanting to reach out to us.

And this all goes into the place of worship.

In Zephaniah 3.17.

I love this scripture.

Zephaniah is coming up in the in the reign of Joshua the king, and there's more actually uh talking when in in the book of Zephaniah, there's actually more references to the day of the Lord.

Um, it's a very interesting book, um, kind of you know, speaking of to the day to come, but his view of God is very interesting.

When we all know the thing, the the scripture is Zephaniah uh 3 17 where it says rejoices over us with singing, you know.

You know, and it's interesting to like take that, but to actually look at the real translation.

The word rejoice that he uses there is to twirl around violently.

That's what God does over your life.

He is over the top, the most amazing father you'll ever have.

But he can't, it's like he can't contain it.

You were made for his good pleasure.

You were made for the good pleasure of God.

And when you see Jesus, like Mary did, you say, Oh, he's oh, I can't help it.

I'm not supposed to go into this room.

I'm not I'm not supposed to break open this alabaster jar and put a year's worth of my life at his feet.

I'm not supposed to, this is this is culturally unacceptable, but I can't help myself.

A people that can't help themselves to encounter God is a people that walk in authority and power that some others don't.

And that is the desire.

If he is the desire of the nations, we were made to manifest his presence.

Every response that we have in life is gonna be out of two things, gonna be out of love or fear.

I'm gonna kind of try to, there's no way I can get through all these notes.

But um at least I came prepared.

Thank you, Steve.

I know this is my first time really speaking.

Steve is like, you know, tell me how to do these notes thing.

But I already knew the bunny trail guy I was, and it wasn't gonna work.

So alright.

You know what's an interesting passage?

I'm just gonna wing it and go with this because this is all over.

Interesting passage.

You know, this is when Solomon's dedicating the temple.

Um you know, when you look at David as the you know, the worship and warrior, right?

Got the patches.

Who was at the golf game, by the way?

I know I'm all over the place.

Who played golf yesterday?

Did we walk away with the trophy, Ryan?

Yes, we did.

There was a golf tournament yesterday called Worship and Warrior.

Last place! Alright.

Yes, sir.

It was fun.

That was a fun game.

Um, I don't wear shorts a whole lot, um, and I did that day, and I don't wear sunscreen either.

So my daughter last night was like, Dad, she's three years old.

She's like, Dad, your legs are red.

They're really red.

And I was like, Yes, they are, dear.

Anyway, so we look at David, all that wow, see how just went bunny trail.

So Dave is this worshipper warrior, right?

You know, you see two facets of his life, but what did he live out of?

What did God define his life as?

He's a man after my own heart, right?

There's this, here's David in the midst of like these crazy warriors that are constantly surrounding.

If you look, I mean they should Hollywood should really get into some of these stories.

There'd be some pretty great action movies coming out of what his mighty men did.

They're insane.

Um but if you look at the heart of David through it all, it's interesting that after he dies and Solomon's dedicating the temple, it's in I think it's 2 Chronicles 6, 6, somewhere around there, he's dedicating the temple, and he says, he says this interesting line.

Oh actually, I'm gonna bring it up because it's very fascinating to see how God places value on David.

Second Chronicles chapter 6, verse 6.

2 Chronicles 6:6

Yet I have chosen Jerusalem that my name might be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people.

Now it was in the heart of my father David to build the temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel.

But the Lord said to my father David, Whereas it was in your heart to build a temple for my name, you did it well in that it was in your heart.

Nevertheless, you shall not build the temple, but your son will come from your body and shall build the temple for my name.

It's really interesting there.

You know, we think like, okay, God's gonna construct his temple, the place where he dwells.

No, he says, David was my idea.

David was my idea, the man I wanted to dwell with, and it was in his heart to build this temple.

And you see that again when Peter says, you know, you know, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and he says, You know, Peter, flesh and blood is not revealed to you, but my father is heaven.

And I say that you are Peter, and on this rock I'll build my church.

Well, he's talking about there, it's called ecclesia, the word church, and it was never a gathering place that was used in scripture.

In fact, only three times was the word church ever in the New Testament used as a gathering place.

Every other time it's this word called ecclesia, and it's the governing body of God.

It's actually a Greek word, and it was the way that the Greeks would then govern, and basically it's a chain of command, and it could be as easily uh translated as this God in Christ, in man governing the earth.

And he's like, You're my idea for the church.

You, but are you manifesting my life?

Do you know me?

Do you host the presence of God?

Do you have the times before the Lord where you are in his word?

But you're saying, God, I need to experience you and I need to know you someplace else other than here.

I need to go from here to here, and I need to know this, and I need to have my feet grounded in this revelation and in this truth.

You see, because the difference between singing and worship is that place of encounter.

And and I would say this to young people too a wasted life on Jesus is not a wasted life.

I mean, my story, even to be here, it's not what I wanted in my head.

I was working as a maintenance man.

Um I even see some of you kind of in the room that actually knew me way back then.

I think one of them is Tyler Andrews, used to play soccer with him all the time.

Um, back in Kansas City, and I had a really bad leg injury.

And my wife pregnant with our daughter, I'm having to go through three surgeries.

I can't work, she's got to work full-time.

I have to move back in with my parents.

I'm working full-time maintenance, had moved up the way to run this huge property.

I was so content and happy not to do this.

Just to live a normal life, go to church, do my thing.

I love God, but whatever.

I'm sitting there and my legs up on a chair, and dusted off my guitar, pulled it over, just began to sing, and just like one of these things that just came out, and I just began to sing, God, you're good.

I know you're good.

And when I can't see ahead, I know you go before me.

And it was in that moment that my reality didn't change.

My leg, it wasn't miraculously healed in this wonderful story.

No, I went through the surgeries, it was hard work, I lived with family.

It was like I didn't know what I was doing next, but something changed inside me, and I said, I am not going to sacrifice the things that I know to be true of God on the altar of man's wisdom.

Because regardless if I experience or see it on this side of eternity, it is true of you, and so let it be true.

I want to step into that encounter.

And I did, and in that moment, it was transforming my heart, transforming my life, and the way I loved people was different, the way I felt about life was different, because I met a God that was way far more real than my circumstance, and his peace was more real, and that's the place I wanted to live.

And so when I come into a place of worship and you come into a place of encounter, set aside times.

I had a bunch of notes.

I'm just, you know, this is just kind of where it's going.

We need to set aside time because if you look at like what the difference is between Moses and the children of Israel, it's it's interesting.

Uh I think it's Psalms 130, yeah, Psalms 132, where David is talking uh about the resting place for God.

When he's talking about the way the children of Israel and Moses were, there was one defining thing.

It says Moses was acquainted with the ways of God, Israel was acquainted with the acts of God.

I think it's Psalm 135.

Yeah.

Israel was acquainted with the acts of God, Moses acquainted with his ways.

See, Moses was able to see this God and see the acts of God, revealed the nature of that God.

And then he made a covenant with God, and Israel missed out on their opportunity to pre-priestly ministers before the Lord.

What'd they tell Moses?

No, you go up and minister before the Lord.

God wanted to bring his people into a place and reveal himself to them.

But the children of Israel were like, no, you we just we're okay just knowing your laws.

Moses, you you go up there lest we die.

If you I mean, read through it.

Uh it's it's a very interesting, it's a very interesting passage because here's an invitation to meet with God.

He said, No, Moses, unless we die, you go up and meet with God.

But what God was saying is, no, I want to meet with you.

I want to reveal my nature to you.

So Moses made a covenant with that God.

And see, in that place of meeting the face of God, and it's the fiery eyes of who he is and his love and his desire that all of a sudden reveals his nature, and you say, Yes, okay, God, you are good.

In this moment, I don't accept I I don't I don't feel different.

I feel like this big of a man because my wife has now got to work full-time just to support the surgeries.

And but you know what?

You're bigger than this, and you're good because I see you, and I'm gonna make a covenant with you.

And in that moment, I say, God, any door that you open, I'll walk through.

And realistically, long story short, that's why I would be here.

This just was a concession of doors that he opened up.

But one thing that will never change in the place of our hearts, and should never change in the place of our hearts, is to meet with that God.

If you're not finding the time, I mean, Steve talks about all the time, it's that time of devotion, you're not finding the time to set aside and encounter this God, you just you're gonna miss out.

This this book is living and active, but you have to know the word.

The word became flesh and appeared among us.

It's Jesus.

It's living and active.

And so my journey and my and my place into worship is unto encounter.

And it's a place where it's just like, what happens, you become an open heaven for the activity of the Holy Spirit.

You do.

In your life.

I mean, if you just change, I I when I drive, I love getting on the getting in the car driving.

I love just I'll I won't close my eyes.

Don't worry, I'm not I'm not, this is not what I'm doing in the car.

Um but I'm just in this place.

I'm like, God, speak to me, encounter me.

I want to know more about you.

And then all of a sudden a scripture will pop up into my head.

And he always does that.

He always always bringing the word.

I'm so I'm so thankful to my parents for how much they put me in this word.

And because these scriptures will pop up and they're living and active, and it's like, oh, oh, yeah, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him I'm the righteousness of who.

God, you you've chosen me to reveal your righteousness in the earth.

God, I want to agree with that.

I want to be a part of it.

It's a place of worship.

And so when we come together with one another, it's in that place, and we ask God, just fill us, pour out your spirit.

And we'll have great times.

Sometimes you'll hear angels singing or someone singing off the roof.

Who knows what you know what it's gonna be.

Sometimes it'll be awesome.

Sometimes, like, well, you know, I didn't really encounter him.

You're just digging this life, you're saying, I'm digging this rut of just, I want to fall back into this God, this life of when hard times come, of place of worship.

I mean, Steve tackled the beauty of God, and when Steve told me he was gonna do that as a sermon, I was like, Oh, buddy, I don't, I mean, like, we're gonna be fascinated.

Worship is an eternal occupation.

How do you teach that?

How do you talk about worship?

We're gonna do it forever and ever and ever.

So, here, let me tell you the five, the good, the good five steps into worship, or let's talk about the beauty of God.

No, it is about encountering him because we see him, we become like him, we see him, we behold him as in a mirror.

Really had no idea kind of how the flow.

Um, I'm just gonna go this Sunday, um, obviously.

But I I genuinely I genuin cool.

Thank you for starting that one.

All right, you got me.

Okay, cool.

But I'm telling you, man, that place of worship, that's when you start feeling the transfiguration, the transformation is that time before the Lord, saying, God, would you encounter?

That's where that's where it's at.

It's it's that place of where you're lavishing your life on him.

And he puts that worth back on you.

He says, This is the gospel.

It's where, I mean, it's going back to the garden.

You know, uh my dad's a good man, uh, very good man.

I've learned a lot from him, but I think I know more about the heart of God by my father-in-law.

Um, just his life in God.

Um, he just lives this life, and he's very, he's like my wife, very quiet, very introspective.

Well, no, he's a bit introvert.

No one he's an enigma.

No one knows, you know, who he is, what kind of guy.

You know, he's just he's Swedish, and so.

But there's something about his hidden life in God that is just it's a deep knowing, and it's a cultivation that he's cultivated over years of years of just knowing God.

I remember talking to him a little bit yesterday, even about this message, and he was telling me about in the garden.

He, you know, it's interesting, God, what he says to Adam and Eve, it's like, Who told you you were naked?

Like, at what point did your perspective go from me to you?

I never thought about that.

Whoa, you were fascinated with me.

You were fascinated with my goodness, you were fascinated with my love, you were fascinated.

It was the most beautiful place.

We lived in life, we with joy unspeakable, and all of a sudden you decided, no, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna decide good and evil for myself.

And then all of a sudden, what happened?

Their eyes moved, and they're like, Oh no, oh no, there's not it's just that's what happens.

That's what happens when you take worship outside of where it was made to be.

It's not about us.

I don't come in here and do this because it's about me.

I do this because I love him.

When you come into this place and you're like, Oh God, let this be an open heaven so that anyone coming off the streets can encounter you, and you see them and you're like, Do you know God?

Well, let me tell you about him.

He's the best thing that'll ever happen to you.

That reality will happen when you encounter him because you were made for it.

Why do you think you can sit there and watch a movie for two and a half hours and not move?

Two and a half hours, you don't move a muscle.

It's because you were made to be fascinated by God, you were made to see him and gaze into the eyes that love you so much that you just and you were made to know him.

It is emotional, it is, it is all these things.

Guys, let's bring people into that because that that that's the anchor of the heart.

I mean, seriously, I was driving back with with Ryan from playing golf, and I was just telling him, you know, he's talking about you know, different people.

It's like I know people in my life that have fallen away from the Lord, and I'm like, that's to me.

I mean, it's not laughable to me to think of me falling away from the Lord.

I know great men and women that have, but like, I know him.

There's nothing better.

There's literally nothing, there couldn't be anything better because I can look at my wife and know that I love her with the greater love that I ever had of my own.

I love my children.

He speaks to me, he's my friend, he's my king, he's holy, he's he's everything.

But that's because I chose to put myself in a place to where those eyes that are flaming fire that burn and pierce your heart and make you feel like this big with all the mounds of the just disgusting stuff that comes in your life the anger, the hatred, the bitterness, but you but you allow your heart to be there in that place, and you don't stray from it, and you look into those eyes, you say, God, wow, you love me.

I want to know it more.

I'm not okay, just I'm not okay just just knowing you in my head when I read this.

I want this to be in here.

I want the God of the Bible, the God whose voice is like a sound of of many waters rushing, who sees the beginning from the end, to encounter me and tell me how how how I make you feel.

What does that even mean that you twirl around violently over my life?

I mean, I don't know what that means, it's just it's good, but I want to know, I have to know, and you have to have this thing inside of us that made it.

I I must know you, God, I must know you because the guys in scripture, the mighty men of the faith, the mighty women of the faith, had something that drove them into a place that was not practical, but in that place they encountered God and they changed the world.

They changed the world because God's love it is.