← Church of the Highlands - Sunday Messages - Audio
Church of the Highlands - Sunday Messages - Audio
Generous to Make a Difference
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Part 1 of Different to Make a Difference
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All right, who's glad to be here today? Anybody? Anybody? Oh, you can do a little bit better than that. Come on, put your hands together. Give Jesus some mighty praise. Good to see you guys today. Welcome to church. And let me take a moment, just look straight into the camera and say hello to all of our campuses. We are one church that meets in locations all across Alabama and Georgia. Of course, we are in correctional facilities in Alabama and Georgia. God bless you guys. You're not a project to us. You're our church family. We love you so much. And for all those that are watching online at our lake house campuses and our 30A campuses, wherever you are, we are so glad you're with us as well. Come on, church. Say hello to your church family. God bless you guys and happy July 4th, everyone. God bless America. Can I hear a good amen? And I'm grateful for our country. I'm grateful for what God's doing here at Highlands. Have to give a shout out to our Montgomery campus and Montgomery Dream Center. Hey, family, you have opened up a new location where we can serve people's needs in our community. The Montgomery Dream Center. I think that deserves the some celebration as well. God bless you guys. Yeah. And Pastor Mark and Jill that are there. But thank God for your leadership. And I'm delighted to be here with you guys. It's been a few weeks since I've been in this spot, but you are in my heart every single day. I still pray for you every single day. And I thank God for church of the Highlands. Over the past few weeks, Tammy and I got away and got a little bit of rest. And then we took some time to celebrate 40 years of marriage. Everybody, come on. I know. Thank you. I hung in there, you know, and I hung in there. And that's why, you know, and no, we have a fantastic marriage. We had a great time celebrating it and then also had a chance to do what we call grand camp. So it was a few weeks or five days of having all of our grandkids together. And Tammy and I, it was just us and the kids. Help us, Jesus. Come on, everybody. Right? And it was loads of fun. But I realized why God gives you kids in your 20s and not in your 60s. Cause we was revived to a rag anyway, so it was something. But we love them. We had a great time with that. And now we get to celebrate our church and be involved in serve day that's coming up this week. And I'm excited about that. I hope you're planning on being a part of it. And as we go into that day, I wanted to help all of us just hear God's word and how it relates to the difference we believe we're called to make in our communities. So you know that one of our core values, we want you to have this relationship with God, know God. We want you to deal with the issues of your life. We call it find freedom. We want you to discover your own purpose. Because every one of you have a unique role in God's grand design. So that collectively, together, as a body of believers, we can make a difference in this world. And the thesis of our series in different to make a difference is that you don't make a difference unless you're different. And one of the things that was unique about the early church is they were radically different, radically different from the culture that was in place. Of course, it was a roman led culture 2000 years ago in the first century church. And it was very brutal. I mean, you know, that's where the gladiators and they were just mean and it was brutal. And they were especially bad treated women with great disrespect and they were just hateful and there was no kindness and there was no such thing as like a charity or something compassionate. It was just, you know, just everybody out for their own. It was very hierarchical, very, you know, power driven. And then along came this thing called Christianity. And they thought it would die out, of course, especially after Jesus was gone, they thought he was gone, he was resurrected and he empowered his church through his Holy Spirit. And they actually thought that they would actually die out and phase out after a decade or so. And it didn't happen. In fact, this group of people ended up changing the world. It took about 300 years before actually Christianity was actually Constantine the Great was the one who actually legalized Christianity. And the world was changing. And when you look back at how it happened, it didn't happen because they ended up being in power. I'm not against that, by the way. I'm not advocating against, you know, that that's how we can change the world is by running for office. I'm all for it actually. I think it's a very good thing. But that's not how it happened. They did it by the way they treated people and they did it by the love they showed. And they were just different and it was radically different. And so I'm gonna open this up with this week one of this series and show you how this acts 17. I mean, these people, these Christians turned the world upside down, by the way. They lived, in fact, right after Constantine the Great, his nephew, became in power, even though he was raised in this Christian environment, Christian home, now Christianity is actually very common. He was determined to restore paganism back into cultured society. And instead of doing it through brutal tactics like, you know, gladiators and all of that, again, he decided just to infiltrate the school systems and the thinking environments and, and politics and government with paganism. And that was his goal. And he thought, sure, we'll be able to do that. I actually think the enemy, the devil, is trying to put paganism back into those institutions, but it won't be successful like it wasn't successful then, if the church will continue to be different. And I mean this with all my heart. In fact, even Julian had to agree, had to admit that he couldn't. There was one part of the way that they were so different that he just. It almost made him mad. But he couldn't deny it either. In fact, put the little quote up there from him. He says, these impious Galileans Christians support not only their poor, but they're taking care of ours too. They're taking care of the people who hate them. They were serving food to those who disagree with Christianity. They were clothing the ones who cursed at them. And he couldn't make sense of it. Imagine your enemies having to admit that I don't agree with them, but my goodness, they sure are amazing people. And today we're going to study that. In fact, all four weeks of this series, there's going to be a different value that the early church embraced that was so radically different that it made a difference. And then, of course, the goal is for us to do the same. That we cannot forget that we're not different because just because we open up walls or doors and we had, you know, these buildings and did all those things we have to. It comes in our values, in the way we treat people. Can I hear a good amen, everybody? Right. And today Pastor Mark actually assigned me the topic of generosity. And this is not a money talk. This is a just what generosity literally is. In fact, if you're taking notes with me, you can look at your app or you can look on the screens, this definition that I want to use today for generosity. And watch this. It's someone who freely gives three things that gives their time, their money, or their kindness, often providing it in a more than usual way and a way that's more than what people actually expected. In other words, you went over the top in it, then it got their attention. And that's what the early church did. They were so good at just being different that it changed the world. And I wanna make sure we're that kind of church too. And immediately when Pastor Mark says, and why don't you talk to them about generous living, I immediately thought of the story of the Good Samaritan. And I want to kind of slow teach it for a little bit. I want to read the whole story. I'll make a few comments in it, give you a little teaching out of it, and then we'll have some takeaways, and then we can go get some roast beef together. Amen, everybody. You got it? All right, Luke chapter 10 is where we're going to start. This is the story. And in verse 25 it says, on one occasion, an expert in the law. So somebody who was very versed in Christianity stood up to test Jesus. And he said, teacher, how do I get to heaven? What would it take for a person to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, okay, well, let me ask you a question. What's written in the law? What do you think the answer is and how do you read it? And he answered, and he actually answered correctly, love the Lord your God. I'm so glad this guy realized that you don't get to heaven by works or by actually showing up in church or even going to serve days, that it actually is what's going on in your heart and your relationship with Jesus. He said, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and in all your mind. And. And by the way, you cannot separate these two and love your neighbor as yourself. In other words, you have to realize that we have this deep love for God that reflects in how we treat people. Which, by the way, I don't even think you can love God without loving people. I don't think you can love people without loving God. I mean, I think it comes from that they are actually inseparable relationships. And Jesus said, you answered correctly, do this and you will live. And he says, but he wanted to justify himself. So he asked Jesus, all right, that's fine, but who's my neighbor? In other words, Jesus. Who should I treat this way? And in reply, Jesus told this story. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. And a priest happened to be going down the same road. When he saw the man, he actually just kind of saw it and just tried to ignore was a bad time for him. And he passed by on the other side, he avoided it. So too, a Levite, another Christ follower, another person, a God follower, when he came to the place and saw him pass by on the other side. But a Samaritan. And by the way, that's an important detail, because Jewish people and Samaritans had racial tensions. They had nothing to do with each other. Yet this Samaritan, because he had Jesus in his heart and in his life, was able to smash through those racial tensions and barriers and do the right thing. I love that. And he says the Samaritan, as he traveled, came to where the man was. And I want you to notice this little phrase here. And when he saw him, he took pity on him. In other words, it was in the seeing that started the process in his heart of doing something. And I've always maintained that you never feel responsible for that which you do not see. And so what we oftentimes do is just don't know. It's just better not to know how bad people have it or maybe how people live. And. And one of the goals actually for Serve day this Saturday, more than just doing the project. It's good for all of us to go to where need is and just see it. I'm telling you the truth. I try to once a year go to a third world country or some kind of impoverished country just to remind myself, bro, you got it Good. And this is how a lot of the world lives. And it just reminds me. And every time I come back, just wanting to do something or do even more than we already do. In fact, the first time I ever went to an impoverished place, I was a student pastor and had a van load of teenagers. And we went drove from Baton Rouge all the way to El Paso, Texas, which is a long way. And then we crossed into the border of Juarez, Mexico. And even in that place, which was already quite impoverished, the missionaries who were hosting us wanted us to see what he called the Lost City. There's actually a place in the place of war that's called the Lost City. And the Lost City is in the middle of a dump. These people had actually created their own town, if you will, in the middle of a dump. When I say dump, it was heaps of trash, 10 times the height of our van with these piles of trash. And this road zigzagged between the mounds of trash. I'll never forget as long as I live, I'm back there with all these teenagers sitting and looking out the window with people as near to me as the people in the front row. And here at Grant Smill, and you're driving by, just things I had never seen in my life. In fact, I'll never forget this one family living in a refrigerator box. So an empty refrigerator box. They had found it out of the dump, used it as their home. And I'll never forget this little dad, little mom. These, you know, two or three kids just, you know, just scrooged down in this box. And just. And when we went by, the dad and I made eye contact, and y' all know what I mean by eye contact? Like, we actually saw. We saw, like you looked into each other's soul for a moment, and he looked at me as if he were saying, are you gonna do any. Like, can you help us? And I remember it, guys, how it is. Like, it seared something in my soul. It changed me just to see it. And I remember being, like, messed up the rest of the trip and coming back and talking about this family and talking to our pastor, like. And we have to do something. It's right here, a mile away from America, that we need to do something for the people of the lost city. That's why I want this serve day for all of you. I want all of you to go to a home that perhaps in the middle of July in Alabama doesn't have air conditioning. You need to see that. You need to see maybe perhaps the walls. I remember going to a home right here in Birmingham that, you know, you could see the outside from the inside, that the walls were so cracked, and we had teams there serving these people. You gotta see it. You'll never take pity on the condition of humanity unless you see it. Can I hear a good amen out there, everybody? It's really true. In fact, I'll tell you in a bit more of a humorous way to illustrate this. You never see what you're. You know, you never feel responsible for that. What you do not see. I was driving home recently from our office at Grandview at Highlands College, and on 280, I was heading south to Shelby county, and I had to get off, you know, in the middle of rush hour, which I don't know why they call it rush hour, because nobody was moving. Come on, everybody, right? But we were. I got off to get some gas, but now I gotta get back on this. Six lanes of heavy traffic, and nobody would let me back on the highway. I mean, minutes are going by, and everybody's just bumper to bumper. And I'm trying to edge out and I'm trying to just get somebody's attention like, you know, like. Cause you know, if they can see you and you can just like, hey, can I. You know, can I get out? But, like, people are intentionally looking the other way, just driving along and, you know, just don't. Cause you don't feel responsible for that, but you do not see. And so this car came up and this mom, I saw her kind of be kind of for a second. So she just turned her head, but she had her, what looked like maybe a daughter in the passenger seat, 15ish looking, you know, And I just. I got her eye contact and I went, you know, she starts laughing. I'm like, damn. I go, can I please do it? Can I go? You know? And I'm just mouthing it because, you know, they can't hear you. So I'm like, you know, I'm making every gesture, she's laughing. I got her laughing. And so you can see her talking to her mom now. And I know I can't hear it, but I know they're saying. She's saying, hey, mom, we need to. Let's let this guy out. And her mom finally just looked at me, went. And I got out because I wasn't a person until they saw me. I was just a car, okay? I'm telling you, church, there's some people out there that all of us need to see. And that's what happened to this Samaritan. When he saw the man, the Bible says he took pity on him, went to him, bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine, and then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, took care of him. Look at this. He stayed overnight. The next day he took out two denarii, which is a denarii is a day's wage. So kind of do the math in your own head of what that would have cost you. And gave them to the innkeeper. And he said, look after him. And he says, and when I return, I'll reimburse you for whatever expenses you might incur. He gave him a blank check to a complete stranger, by the way. And Jesus says, which of these three do you think was the neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? And then the expert in the law said, well, duh, it's the man who had mercy on him. And then Jesus said some words that I'm on assignment today to say to you, the church. Okay, so we don't just read scripture, we live scripture. Can I hear a good amen? Everybody go and do likewise. It's time to go doing likewise. Go and do likewise. Now, again, the key is in the seeing, which, again, is one of the values of Saturday and Serve Day and really all of our lives. The key is in the seeing. Let's look at what the three groups of people here saw. The thieves saw a victim to exploit. They basically said, what's yours is mine, and I'm gonna take it. Now, I'm almost certain there's nobody in this room who can identify with that group of people. You're just a taker, you're a thief, you're a robber. You take from people. But that's what the thieves were. So I'll move on. But there are groups of people in society right now that are happy to take from you. And Jesus tells that part of that story. What's yours is mine. I'm gonna take it. But then you have these God followers, a priest and a Levite, and the priest saw a problem to avoid. They saw an inconvenience. They saw, well, I would, but I'm busy. And they basically said, or saying, what's mine is mine and I'm gonna keep it. I mean, I have something I could give you, but I'm not gonna give it to you. And I wanna park here just for a second. Because one of the differences that we need to make, the ways we need to be different, is Christians don't even believe what's mine is mine. In fact, Christians don't even believe I have anything. I own anything. The Bible says in First Corinthians, chapter six, that I've been bought with a price and I belong to God. So that means not just my tithe. Like, oh, the tithe is the Lord's and the rest is mine. No, no, no. Truth be known, it's all his. Your time's his, your kids are his. Some of y' all say, well, he can have him. Hey, can have them right now. Okay? Your job is his, your car is his, your house is. It all belongs to God. And then if that's the truth, one of the greatest revelations of your life is when you really realize that and you say, well, then I'm not an owner, I'm a steward. I am being greatly impacted right now by the life of David Green and the Hobby Lobby Corporation and the family, the Green family. Because talk about different. They don't even see, like, well, we made all this money and we're going to give a bunch of our money. They don't even see it that way. In fact, I was recently with Mr. Green, and by the way, I Think you guys already know. He's been very generous to our church and to our college and they've given. We actually have a seven story dorm going up right now on the campus of Highlands College that'll be open in December. It's gonna get us to 800, eight beds on campus. Come on, give God praise for that. It's awesome. And a large portion of that is possible because of them. And so we've actually gotten very, very close. And I've had been in some different environments and I've had a bunch of business leaders in our church say, would you please introduce me to Mr. Green? I said, sure, happy to do it. And I recently had a handful, about 40 business leaders with Mr. Green. And one of the guys asked, how do you guys give 50% of your profits of this company away for Christian ministries to change the world? And his answer shocked everybody. And again, without hesitation, this 84 year old man, David Green said, because it's not ours. None of it was ever ours. And you could see the guy like, yeah, I understand that, but help me understand it better. I mean, yeah, I get it, but like, what do you really mean? And Mr. Green said, how would you handle resources if it actually wasn't yours? Like if somebody walked up to you and said, I have some money here that I just want you to put it in places to make a difference, how much easier would it be to spend somebody else's money than your own? And the answer is it would be incredibly easy. It'd be incredibly easy, just like give it to me and I'll put it in some places to change the world. He said, that's how it is. It's not ours. And that's radical. That's really different. And the early church was that way. So Acts chapter four, I'm gonna read you two places where it says that. But Acts chapter four, it says this. All the believers actually agreed on this value. They were in one heart, one mind, and no one claimed that any of their possessions was their own. But they shared everything they had. They weren't forced to. By the way, governments want to force you to do it. Create Christians, do it out of our own free will. And they shared everything they had. And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them that there were no needy persons among them. In other words, God put his hand on it. Now that's different. They realized that what they had wasn't theirs. It all belonged to God. So it's the ownership truth. Ownership says it's mine. Stewardship says it's his. Ownership says it's mine. Stewardship says it's his. Are y' all with me today? Church, I'm just trying to show you. Pastor Mark said, show it how it's different. Well, that's different. Okay, so you have. The thieves saw him as a victim of exploit. The priests and Levites saw him a problem to avoid. But the good Samaritan saw this person as a person to be loved. He saw it as an opportunity. And he was basically saying, which mine is yours, and I'm gonna give it. And that's the attitude I'm asking all of us to have. Because the good Samaritan gave time, money, and kindness. And Jesus comes along and says, all right, church, go do the same thing. Go and do likewise. He didn't say celebrate it. He didn't say teach it. He didn't say preach it. He didn't say agree with it. He said, go and do it. And that's what we're going to do. Three things. Write them down, please. The first is we're going to be generous with our time. So for some of us, our time is actually more valuable to us than our money. And I love the fact that this Good Samaritan, you ever wonder, like, where he was going? Do you ever wonder what got canceled? Because he didn't show up, because he was doing this other thing. This is before cell phone days. Like, the people are like, hey, where does Samaritan go? You know, like, whatever they called him, like, where's he at? You know? And he wasn't there because he decided to let his life get interrupted by a need. Now, I'll just flat out tell you Saturday is an interruption of my time. I like Saturdays. I need some golf tournament time. I need some hangout time. It's gonna be a busy week at Highlands College. I got meetings literally every single day. I'm preaching at a pastor's conference in the middle of the week. I'm kind of looking forward to Saturday. And so it's an interruption. Are y' all listening to me out there? Everybody, right? So what we do, we say, you know what? We're gonna set aside this one, and we're gonna go out there and we're serve the socks off of other each people and put on red shirts and make our city go, what are these crazy Highlands people doing again out there? I tell you what we're doing. We're painting, we're loving, we're serving, we're giving. We're doing things for people who are in need today. Because Jesus told us to go and do likewise. And I love this quote I found. I didn't come up with it, but it sure is pretty cool. That generosity isn't just measured by what leaves our wallet. It's measured by what leaves our calendar. True generosity says, I'm going to take some of my precious time and I'm going to give this away. And that's different. In fact, that's incredibly different. And this coming Saturday, we get a chance to kind of live out first century Christianity. So I want to brag on some people who give their time, not their money, their time. Like this morning, I got here really early. Like before most people, really early. Because I like to prep and pray and just kind of get my game face on, you know, and just really get my head on straight by what my assignments are today. So I was here real early, but I wasn't the first one here. In fact, I wasn't by a long shot, the first one here. When I pulled up, I saw Dream Teamers volunteers. They don't get paid a cent. They're just here out of the goodness of their heart because they love Jesus and love people. And they were setting up cones. One had a blower blowing sidewalks. Others were making coffee. Others were cleaning children's church rooms and sterilizing toys. All across this building, there were Dream Teamers who were serving, making sure they were ready for you to show up. How about we put our hands together and give a big thanks to the Dream Teamers? Oh, but on top of that, there is a group of people who today drove two to three hours to go serve in our correctional facilities. And every Dream Teamer is very, very special. But these really give their time because it's not just the ministry. They don't live 10 or 15 minutes away. Most of these institutions are in rural places, way outside. So they'll have two or three hours to commute. Two or three hours there, two or three hours back home. I mean, it's a big commitment of their time. Big thank you to the correctional ministry Dream Teamers as well. Yeah, man. And to tell you just one simple story from last year's Serve Day that combines both the Dream Team Serve Day and correctional ministry. There was. I called Pastor Dino yesterday. We've talked every day since his son went to heaven. We talked every single day. And by the way, Pastor Dino and Delyn and the family are doing extremely well. They're grieving, but they believe what they preach and they have the hope of God inside of their hearts. And by the way, they're watching right now if you want to say hello to Pastor Dino and Delyn. Love you guys. Love you guys. But I called him yesterday, I said, dino, I need a good serve day story about correctional ministry, and just give me a good one. And he took all. Chris, there's this dream teamer named Suzanne who. Who went to the correctional facilities, obviously a female correctional facility, and has been ministering to this lady who was there for 21 years. Her name is Leola. And Leola was not interested in the love and the gospel and all of that. In fact, she said on one occasion when she was there to minister, she just acted like she was asleep so this dream teamer would leave her alone. Well, she finally got out, but they never stopped loving her and inviting her and serving her. In fact, when she got out, they furnished her home and made sure she knew of everything, which began to open her up to the gospel. And then last year on Serve Day 2025, they actually went to her house and fixed everything that was broken, built ramps for her, did all kind of things to serve her. So much so that she opened up her heart to the gospel of Jesus. Not while she was in, but when she got out and got baptized, immediately declaring that she's a follower of Jesus. Now put your hands together and give God a great praise. Yeah. See, that's the heart of this series. That's our theme verse in action. That we are a chosen people. We're a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. Why? To declare to the world around us how good our God is. And we do that not with power. And we don't do that just with buildings. We do that with how we treat people. And so all day long, that's gonna happen Saturday. It happens every day, but it'll happen all day long. And one of the things I love so much about serve Day, it's not even. Might be a pure motivation, but I love it because the whole city has to drive by you. And I've driven around serve day all day on a Saturday, and you can't go a mile without seeing another pile of red shirts. And I know not everybody's a big fan of our church. Most are, but they gotta drive by every mile. They gotta see another pile of red shirts sweeping, blowing, sweating, just serving people, painting, just. And it's just. And it says something, does it not? It says something. So we're generous with our time. We're generous, number two, with our money. And then we all. I hope you're a faithful tither. I am, but this is above and beyond that. I mean, he gave two days wage to a complete stranger, wrote a blank check to the innkeeper, and again, the early church lived like this. I told you I'd read you another verse. Here it is. All the believers were together, had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to take care of those who had needs. And every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes. That means they went to church and they went to small group. That means literally what that means. They worshiped in the temple and they had. They had fellowship in homes, ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God, enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily. Well, of course he did, because it was so radical, the way they loved those that were in need, that the church grew. And that's our opportunity. And I'd like to tell you I get it right all the time. I actually don't. I am a faithful tither. I've always lived that way. I believe, believe. I believe in that. But I have opportunity to be nicer to people and generous to people in times that I don't. And I wish, actually, I'm preaching to myself today. I will tell you one day where I happen to get it right. And it's too rare, honestly, so don't think too much of me, but my family were recently at P F Chang's, our favorite restaurant as a family. We call it Chang's. And we were there eating, and I had, you know, kids and spouses and grandkids. Is 20 something of. It's a lot. It's a lot. Like, when they eat, it's a lot. I was doing the math how much it was gonna cost, and it's a lot. It's a lot. And they were eating and I was doing the math. And so I was in that mode, like, this is gonna cost me a lot. And they didn't even ask me, like, papa, will you pay? Like, they just assume it. Come on, dads, where y' all at? You know, just like, I know they. I know they, you know, anyway, and so. And our server actually wasn't doing a good job that day. I think they were understaffed. And so our glasses were empty. And I'm usually like, hey, the glass. You know, I'm using that guy. And I don't even know what came over. I mean, when she came around, finally came around, she was kind of, you know, filling up glasses and stuff. And I said I couldn't even believe I said this. I said, hey, we're not in a hurry. So you thank. Think. Don't think of us first. Take every other tables first. We're not in a hurry. And I was thinking inside, who are you? And she goes, oh, that's so nice of you. Nobody's ever said that to me. And then I thought, okay, well, that was the connection point there. And so next time she came around, she's filling up the glasses again. And I heard myself say this. None of this was planned. I said, hey, is there anything I could pray with you about? And she just looked at me like, you're not. Not supposed to say that. And I said, I'm a pastor. And a big old tear popped out. Poof. And she goes, just pray. You have no idea. And I was thinking, yeah, I probably do have an idea. So now I'm really in, right? You're in. At this point, I'm in. I'm connected to this person's life. And I knew it. I could feel it. So that when we finished the meal. And again, don't think too much of me. I get it wrong a lot. But I left a large tip. So much so that she came back and said, oh, Mr. Hodges, I think you made a mistake. And I said, no, it's not a mistake. That's for you. And she said, why would you do that? And I heard myself. None of this rehearsed. I heard myself say, because I'm on assignment by God to let you know how much he loves you. He asked me to do this on his behalf for you. And she said again, she goes, you have. You have no idea how much this means. And I said, yeah, I think I do. And I remember leaving thinking, that's what it's about. I felt for a moment I was actually connected with God in a way where that my life. And I'm nothing like the Good Samaritan, but, like, on that day, I kind of got it right that I was supposed to notice this person. And I remember the feeling, honestly, that I got, like, that's what this is all about. In fact. Don't, don't, don't. This sounds so prideful, but I actually remember walking off thinking, who else, Lord, shall I touch for your glory? You know, Like, I'm like, you have another princess that has needs. My father. You know, like, I was ready to, like, it felt. Because it felt great. It felt like, this is what it's about, church. And I'm gonna tell you something. We'll never regret what we give. We'll only regret what we keep. And that's a fact. So be generous. I'm asking you to be generous. Go out there and be generous with your time, generous with your money, and then finally, generous with our kindness. And what I mean by that. Look at me. We're gonna study this later, so I won't get into detail. We've got to treat people differently than the world treats people. Look at me. Even the mean people, we've got to treat them. We treat people with kindness even when they're not kind to us. That's what makes us different. And that's what, through history, I've done. I did a lot of history study. In fact, I have more in my notes that I'm able to share with you. Because, you know when the piano plays, that means, hey, dude, you're done. And so. So I know I have to wrap it up, but you study history. And the Christians stepped into places like when there were plagues, when everybody was fleeing cities, Christians ran toward it, would take care of the sick, bury the dead, and often died themselves. And it freaked every. Like, the world went, who are these people? Why would they do that? Like the girl said, why would you do that? It's because God's to touched our lives. We forgive. We're kind. Ephesians says we're kind and compassionate because that's how God treated us. We just. We just can't help it. So what do we do, man? I'm encouraging you guys. Go live your lives generously with your time, your money, and your kindness. I mean, let's. Let's get. Today's the first Sunday. Let's be faithful in our tithing. But I'm saying, even to the restaurant you go to after service, let's go live generous lies in this Saturday. Go get a red shirt. Everybody cancel what you had planned and come be a part of a day that'll not only change our city, but also change you. And so I'll close with this little story. So I was recently at a place, a public place, and there was a guy, and they were talking about our church who didn't go to our church. And he wasn't necessarily pro Highlands, but he wasn't against it either. Like, you know, in fact, he was saying stuff like, he's talking to his friends about us, but he doesn't belong here. In fact, he's like, yeah, I don't go there. But, man, these people are like. They're like in every prison, he's like, defend. He doesn't even go here. And he's def. Like, defending it to his buddy. He goes, yeah, I don't know if I agree with him all, you know, theologically, or the worship style or whatever, you know, I don't know. But, man, man, they're everywhere. You know, they bro. They, man. And he said this. He said, I can't imagine what our city would be like without. That was a proud moment, you know, in fact, I almost like, hey, I'm right here. Like, I didn't do that, though. I was just eavesdropping the whole time. And it made me think this. And I tried to craft a sentence. I don't even know how good it is, but I'll close with it. I want to be a church that is impossible to deny because we're so hard to replace. That's what the early church did. What they did is even people that didn't agree with them, they could. They couldn't do anything about that because they were so different. And that actually turned into the whole Roman world becoming Christian and being followers of Jesus. Hey, everybody, let's be different so we can make a difference. And all God's people said are good. Amen. So, Father. Yeah, Father, let me pray for you. Stay still for just a moment. Father, thank you for these amazing people. And I'm commissioning them to the words you told to the expert in the law. Go and do likewise. Hey, church. Go and do likewise. Go live your life in such a way that it makes a difference in the lives of others. And so, Father, I commission them this week, really every week, to live that kind of a way. I never like to close without giving somebody a chance to be a follower of Jesus or for a Christian in this room to come back to Jesus. And if that's you, if I just described you, you're not a follower of Jesus, but you want to be. You want to respond to his compassion and his love and his immense forgiveness. For you. You're gonna get that moment right now. Or if you're a Christian and you've wandered away, you can come back today. This can be your day to come. Come back home. You say, well, Chris, how do I do that? Tell him that's it. Say it in a prayer, and I'll help you with the words. If I just described you, pray this prayer, Say, jesus, I need you, and I want to respond to your incredible kindness toward me, your forgiveness, and I want to receive it today even though I don't deserve it. And I'm going to do what you did for me. You. You gave me your life. I'm giving you mine. Everything. Be the Lord of my life. Because I truly believe you're the son of God who rose from the dead. And today I'm putting my faith and my life in you. In your name I pray. Amen. How about a hand clap for everybody who just prayed that prayer? God bless you, Church.