← Church of the Highlands - Sunday Messages - Audio
Church of the Highlands - Sunday Messages - Audio
Heaven Walks In
00:41:07
Part 3 of This Changes Everything
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Hey, Highlands family. Over the last few weeks, we have seen so many people say yes to Jesus and take real steps in their relationship with him. And we believe God is just getting started. There is more that he wants to do in all of our lives. Today, Jill and I are with our Greystone campus. Visiting campuses and getting to meet our church family has become one of our favorite parts of what we get to do. People ask me all the time, what is the best part of pastoring Highlands? And the answer is always a resounding. The people of Highlands, we love you and we love being a part of this church family with you. Next Sunday, I'll be back preaching to kick off a brand new five week series called let's Talk About It. We're going to take the questions and topics you asked for at Easter and lean into what God's word has to say about them. It's going to be powerful and practical with topics like healthy relationships, sharing our faith, family and parenting, and how to read my Bible. It is going to be awesome. So don't miss church. Today we're wrapping up our this Changes Everything series and we have the honor of hearing from our founding pastor, Pastor Chris. I love PC. His leadership and values have not only shaped Highlands, but thousands of other churches and leaders around the world. And I'm so grateful that he's captured some of his most important principles in his new book, Legacy Letters. And what means the most to me is this. He hasn't just written about them, he's lived them out for more than 43 years of ministry. These values have shaped his leadership in life and they deeply impacted Jill and I, our family and how we lead Highlands. And honestly, there's no better way to close out this series than hearing from someone whose life is a picture of what it looks like when Jesus changes everything. So let's open up our hearts and in every location. Please help me welcome Pastor Chris to the platform.
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Come on, give Jesus all the praise, everybody. Oh, you can do a little bit better than that. Come on, give Jesus what he really deserves. Oh, who's glad to be in church today? Anybody? Anybody? I know I am too. What a joy it is to be here at Church of the Highlands. Let me take a moment Grants mill and say hello to all the other locations that are joining us right now. We are one church in 26 locations all across Alabama and Georgia. And now, Everybody, we're in 30 of Alabama and Georgia's correctional facilities. God bless you. Yeah. Come on, put your hands together and say hello to them. What a Joy. And an honor. Thank you to the Dream Team members that serve in those locations every single Sunday. And I wanna say a big hello to those that are watching live online right now all around the world, or maybe later on Demand. We're so glad that you're along for the ride. And a special shout out for the Greystone campus where Pastor Mark is today. We love you guys so, so very much. We're in week number three of a series called this Changes Everything. It's kind of a response to what's going on at Highlands. I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but God's moving in a great way. Can I get a good amen, everybody? In fact, I'm getting ready to tell you how many people have given their lives to Jesus just this year. And before I tell you how many it is, you have to agree, though, to celebrate like heaven celebrates. Cause this is like. You can't just, like, you know, get. You can't get used to this. Everybody. You cannot get used to this. Everybody. All right, Are you ready? Yes or no? Yes. 9,942 people have given their lives to Jesus just this year. Come on, give God all the praise. All right. And all of that is fine and dandy. But one of our responsibilities as a church is not only to celebrate that, but also to lead you into what's next. Because salvation's not the beginning of your spiritual journey. I mean, it's not the end of your spiritual journey. It's the beginning. And so our theme verse for this series, that this changes everything. And that's really, honestly more a question than a statement. Hasn't changed everything. Because the Bible says in Second Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 17, that if we are in Christ, if you have made a decision to follow Jesus, you are brand new, and the old has gone, and the new has come. And basically the question is, has it right? Because when God moves, we're asking this question. This is the question Pastor Mark posed in week number one. And that is, when God moves, what's next for our lives? And so has something changed in my life? What has been made new? And our responsibility as leaders and shepherds to guide you is to help you navigate the change that God wants to do in all of our lives. And so I was digging in on this message. You know, I study every single day and was working on it. I was probably at 80% completion about Wednesday or Thursday. And I had a hunch, I think it was inspired by the Holy Spirit to read the Verses before and after that, 2 Corinthians 5, 17 verse that says, we're made brand new. And I feel like God gave me a message for you guys today that I've never preached before, that I'm excited to bring. So look at the screens or with your app today. And it says this. It says in the earlier verses, just three verses before our theme verse, that it was Christ's love that compels us. So the whole journey begins with the fact that. That hopefully you've experienced the love of God. And if you have not experienced that love yet, I want you to know that God loves you very, very much. Jesus loves you so much that he sacrificed his life for you. God loves you so much that he let his son do it. I don't know a single person in this room who allowed their children to die so somebody else could live. That's how much God deeply, deeply loves you. And when you experience it, it compels you. It makes you want to move or make a decision like 9942 have, because we are convinced that one died for all. He died for every single one of us, and therefore all died, and he died for all that. Those who live, watch this verse should no longer live for themselves. So if you're asking what the new is, what has literally changed in our life, what should be the answer is, I'm not living for myself anymore. I'm living for Jesus. So whatever he wants in my life, can I get a better amen out there? Yeah. So if you haven't done that, y' all know me, I'm not a confrontational type preacher, but if nothing has changed, and if you're still living for yourself, it makes me question, have you really changed? Did you really make that decision? Because the Word says, we no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on, we don't even look at ourselves or other people from a worldly standpoint anymore. So we're not just here for the world. We actually start to see things spiritually. He even says that we even regarded once Christ from a worldly standpoint. And we don't do that any longer. We see we've gotten a revelation. Therefore, here's our verse. If anyone is in Christ, they're a new creation, and the old is gone and the new is here. But watch the next verse. So basically, it's saying, you were drawn, you made this decision, and then you were changed. And then notice what it says happens next. And I really want to Dig in on this. This is great revelation for me today. And it says, all this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ. Now, the word reconciled means bring your balance to zero. Can we pause for three seconds, put our hands together and thank God we have no balance. I mean, he's paid for our sins. That's good. That's the best news you'll hear all day. And so it uses the word reconciled. Okay? So I know a lot of people, especially young people, don't even know what this word is. A reconciliation statement. Come on, old people, where y' all at? Right? When you balance your checkbook, there's this reconciliation process. And what you do, I do it. I still do our finances. And I use a program called Quicken. And when you do your bank reconciliation statement, and I gotta get it balanced to zero, I will spend hours looking for a single penny. I don't know. I just. It's the way I am, you know? And so. But when you do it right, it says zeros. And then Quicken throws up balloons and celebrates, too. It's a wonderful thing. But that's what God did for us. He reconciled. You watch this, though. Once he reconciles you, this is the revelation of the day. What needs to change in our lives, hopefully. And that is, once we are reconciled, once our balance is zero. He gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Watch this. He gave us this ministry that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them, either. So it's not just for us, it's for everybody. And he has committed to us the ministry or the message of reconciliation. And then watch this last line. I built the entire message on this thought. This is the thing, that if you truly are born again and you love Jesus today, this needs to change in all of our lives, that we are therefore now Christ's. Say the word out loud. We are Christ's ambassadors. So what changes when you give your life to Jesus? Well, you go from trying to find him to now you represent him. I'm an ambassador. An ambassador. Put it on the screen, guys. Is simply someone who represents one place while living in another place. So let me say it this way. When you gave your life to Jesus, your address changed from earth to heaven. In fact, Paul even says in Philippians, chapter three, we are citizens of heaven even while we're here on earth. So that's what an ambassador does. They go from America, right, to represent our country and our president. And they go to another country, and they represent that country on Our home country's standpoint. So what happened is when you give your life to Jesus, your new residence or citizenship is in heaven. And now what I'm encouraging all of us to do is represent Jesus wherever I go. So what it should look like is that now, when I gave my life to Jesus, when you show up at work on Monday morning, you walk in and they go, hi, Bob. Hi. Wow, Bob, what's going on in your life? You're like, man, I gave my life to Jesus. They should see a difference inside of us, everybody. In fact, even Jesus prayed in the Lord's Prayer. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in. So the goal of Christianity, literally, is that we are representing heaven. So that when. Let me say it this way, that when we walk in, heaven walks in with us. Can I get a better amen out there, somebody? I'm serious about this now. I want to talk to us for a few minutes about if we've truly been changed by God. Are we representing heaven? Like, when we walk in, does heaven come in with us? In our homes, in our offices and our schools, wherever you are? Are we representatives or ambassadors? Because according to this verse, you're drawn by the love of God, changed by the power of God to represent God everywhere we go. Now, y' all know my story. A lot of you guys know my story. I was raised in church my entire life. I was raised in a Baptist church. I was in the nursery of a Baptist church the Sunday after I was born. All I remember growing up in church is my pastor talked about hell. Like he was born and raised there. Come on, somebody, right? I mean, it was his favorite subject. And every time he talked about it, it seems like he pointed at me when he said the word hell. We sat six rows on this side with my grandmother. Not my parents. Cause my dad was on the organ. My mom sang in the choir. And so dad made sure that Grandma and us sat on this side. Because if you're a Baptist, you know the organ's on that side. And dad played mad. He'd look at us while he played, making sure, you better behave. I'm gonna whip you when you get home. Right. All right. Okay. And so. And my grandmother was bad. She just. She didn't mind us breaking the rules. So we couldn't chew gum in church. And so she'd pull our head down to her lap and shove gum in her face and say, chew, chew, chew, chew. I spit it out, and we sit back up like, I love my grandmother. She's awesome. And so anyway, this is the church I grew up in, you know, So I always believed in God. I just didn't like God. He was mean, you know, So I wasn't glad when they said it to me. I was glad when it was over, you know what I'm saying? Because it was just rough. And then one day a friend of mine invited me to a church. I always say, like this, where it was life giving. And I'd never seen people in love with God before. I knew people believed in God, but they didn't love God just like me. And so when I got to this church, they were like dancing and hands lifted. And I don't remember the message or the music. I remember the people. The people led me to Jesus, not what happened on the stage. Come on, somebody think about that for a second. You never know how your worship to God on your row is impacting somebody right there around you. And so I was over there with my old Baptist, right over left, going, what in the world going on? You know, just like I thought, these people are nuts. And I think I want what they have, you know, like this is. And so, as you know, you've heard my story. I didn't really respond, but I was responding. I didn't want to lift my hand because I'd been in church. I knew what they were going to do. You know, they were going to bring me to a little room after I came forward. I ain't going no little room. And so it's. And so anyways. But I'm going, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. In my heart, you know the story. I went home and I looked in the Bible, led myself to Jesus in my bedroom, gave my life to the Lord. And I literally woke up on fire for God. When you say, did something change? Let me tell you what changed in my life. I didn't know anything about the Bible, but I was ready to talk about it. And I was ready to share my faith. And I had three best friends when I was a sophomore at Woodlawn High School and in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And it was a guy named Sam, it was a guy named Micah and a guy named Benton. And the three of us were in a little garage band. We thought we were good. We weren't. I was the keyboard player and we were best buddies. And we were going on a choir trip. Yes, I was in choir because I couldn't play sports. Look at me, you know, why now? Like, there was nothing there to offer. Anyway. So I was in choir. Cause I was good at music. And so we had a choir trip four hours north of Baton Rouge in Ruston, Louisiana, right there near where the Duck Dynasty folks are up there in North Louisiana, the Yankee part of Louisiana, right? And so anyway, we'd gone up there to a. It wasn't a motel. It was a hotel. Y' all know the difference between the M and the. Huh? A motel is where you have a lobby in the room. If you open the door, you're still inside a building. A motel, it means motor hotel. That means your car. If you're laying in your bed, your car's closer to you than your bathroom is. All right? You walk out, you open the door, and you're outside. Okay? It was a motel, okay? And we were there on this choir trip, and my friends Sam, Micah and Benton were. As soon as we got in the room, they started unpacking their suitcases. And it was full of cigars and cards and bottles of whiskey and all. And I'll never forget this. Sam stood on the bed and he slipped a little ceiling tile. It was one of those tiles that can move where the ceiling moves. And he put the whiskey and all this stuff that we weren't supposed to have up in the ceiling and then pulled it and shut it. Cause there was always gonna be a room check. That was back when they were like a room check. There were chaperones. And so, sure enough, about 10:30, 11:00 clock, the room check person came around and looked around, found it all to be clean. They left, said, good night, fellas. And then he slid the tile, and out came the whiskey, and out came the cigars and the cards and the cussing and everything that I was kind of used to being around. But I was changed, y'. All. I was literally changed. And I decided, this is the night I'm gonna share my faith with my friends. And so it's going. It's happening now, y'. All. I don't know the Bible yet. I don't know it at all. And I don't know where to begin. I don't know how to share my faith. So I started at the beginning. I just said, hey, guys, I got something I want to tell you. And they stopped and they said, yeah, what? They said in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I quoted Genesis 1:1. The only problem is I didn't know verse two. So I was stuck, right? You know? And they looked at me like, chris, what are you doing? I said. And I pivoted. I didn't know the next verse. And I said. I said, I've given my life to Jesus, and my life's completely changed. And I don't want you guys to go to hell. Y' all are my best friends, and if you don't follow Jesus, you're gonna go to hell. And I can't live with myself not telling you about Jesus. Well, Sam grabs this fifth Jack Daniels by the neck. And he stands now, Sam, y', all, he was the biggest and the toughest among all of them. He was all muscle bound. He had hair at nine years old. Come on. Everybody right? I mean, covered. He's like Neanderthal. He just walked up with his neck, and I thought, he gonna kill me in his hotel room. And. And I'm gonna smell like whiskey in that coffin. I said, I'm gonna be a martyr for Jesus. True story. He walked over that neck, and I thought, oh, my goodness, I'm gonna die right now. He didn't like what he heard, and he walked over, passed me up, went to the door, and it's a motel. So he was outside now, and he took that whiskey and threw it as far as he could. And he turned around, he said to the other two guys, he goes, we all getting saved tonight. I went, oh, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. And all three of my friends gave their lives to Jesus that night. Are y' all listening to me? Every. And in my weak little way, I was being an ambassador for Jesus. I didn't know what I was doing. Praise God. Pastor Mark's gonna teach us how to share our faith in a few weeks when we get into this next series. But, I mean, I didn't know anything, but I was still representing the one who changed my life. Are y' all following me, everybody? Now, if we're gonna follow the Bible, and we are, according to Second Corinthians 5, the progression of our faith, the thing that changes everything is we respond to that love, change by that love, become a brand new person, and immediately become a representative of Jesus on the earth. That if I walk in, heaven walks in with me, and I wanna talk to you. Like, for those of you who say, this has given me angst just to think about it. Cause I'm nowhere near that. Let me give you three things that are just a bit of a starter for us of how we can become ambassadors for Jesus. And here's the first one. And that is, if you're gonna be an ambassador, think about it from a nation standpoint. You have to know the one you're representing. So your first step, if you're looking for a step saying, I don't look like that. And the Bible's telling me I'm supposed to look like that. How do I look like that? The first thing that we do is we literally say, then I'm gonna have to get to know him better. If I'm supposed to represent him and there's somebody in this room who's supposed to hear this, that you have an opportunity to get really, really close to God. And you need to know that Jesus. Would you look into my eyes and let me tell you this? I want to tell you from him to you. He wants to spend time with you. Like, he really wants to get to know you better. Not you just know him better. He wants to get to know you better. In fact, I love this verse in Mark 3:14 that says this. It says that Jesus appointed His 12 disciples not just to work them and not just to train them and disciple them that they might be with Him. And then watch this. Once they're spending time with Jesus and are with him, then he would send them out to preach. And God wants to do the same for you. He wants to know you. He wants to spend time with you. He wants to get close to you. And what it's gonna do, it's gonna give you a confidence. The reason why I was qualified to share my faith in that motel in Ruston, Louisiana, is I was deeply in love with Jesus, didn't know much about him, and honestly didn't have all the answers. Please hear this church. And you don't have to have all the answers either. In fact, let me say it this way. They're gonna get more out of your love for him than. Than the things you know about Him. And I just want you to get close. Some of you guys have forsaken your time with God. Every day I'm gonna tell you, he's sitting there, wherever that place is for you. He's sitting there waiting on you. He's not mad at you. He just wants to get close to you. And I wanna say this to y' all again. I'm not a confrontational type of preacher, but this might be a little bit confrontational. Just forgive me. But anything really less than that. If you are religious but not relational, you might not even be religious. Like, you might not really be what God is looking for. Y' all know this is the verse I read in my bedroom when I was 15 years old. It's in Matthew, chapter seven. I can quote it because it's my life verse where Jesus said, not everyone who Calls me Lord is gonna go to heaven. So just saying the words or following the religion of this, it's not gonna be enough. He says, I'll tell them plainly, away from me, because I never knew you. And the word know there is not the. It's not the word where you know something. It's where you know something. It's in your heart. It's actually an intimate term. It's actually a very relational term. It's a closeness. And so how do we become ambassadors? It has to begin with the fact that we're gonna spend time and know the one that we're called to represent. There's no way someone in any presidential administration could go out there to a press conference or anything had they not first spent time with the administration, the people in the administration, so that they have the answers to represent the person. And Jesus is the same way. Come on, everybody. He wants to get to know you. I'm calling some of you back to your quiet time. Tomorrow morning when you wake up, would you just go spend even 5 minutes, 15 minutes. Last week, Pastor Chad talked about how we can do that. How. How do we literally get to this place of knowing him? Two quick little things. And first is it's important for us to surrender our whole lives to his will and his way. And what I mean by that, remember the verse said that I no longer live for myself. So Christianity is not you just saying, hey, Jesus, I wanna go to heaven, but I wanna still live my life. And I just need you to bless what I wanna do with my life. It's the very opposite of that, my friends. It's the moment that you say, I belong to you. Your will, your way, whatever it is you want, God, I'm serving you. And then I'm gonna spend time with you every single day. And it doesn't have to be drudgery. It doesn't have to be long. It just honestly needs to be more consistent than anything. Pastor Mark was gracious to mention the book that I wrote, and I never really. I don't like to promote books on stage, and I'm not promoting it now. I did release a book a couple weeks ago that I'm very passionate about. It's almost 63 years of life in one book. Of the things that I've learned the hard way and some of the things I've learned from great mentors in my faith. And I decided, you know, I got in my 60s, I started thinking about dying. I'm not dying, by the way. I mean, like, we all really are. But, like, nobody. A doctor hadn't told me that. All right, Anyway, so we're all getting a little closer to that day. But, man, I got in my 60s and started having grandkids. And by the way, announcement. Y' all ready for announcement? Number 13 is on the way, everybody. The Hodges house is growing, okay? And so, man, it's got me thinking all, like, man, I gotta. I'm not into, like, building a family. I'm like. I'm in the passing on moments of my life, even with my role at Highlands College, everything. I'm just thinking about, what can I give away? Cause my assignment. My years are coming to a close, right? I get to do this, and somebody else has gotta pick up the baton. Even in the transition of the roles here at Highlands. I'm gonna pass it on. And so I wrote this book of principles. They're little essays. There's 31 of them. They all stand on their own. You can actually read them in any order. And on a whim, I think I was halfway through the book, and I ended up summarizing the chapter. And I just. I saw myself when I was in my little study writing. I went, dear grandkids. And I wrote, why? That was so important. That principle was so important. But I wrote it in a letter to my grandkids. And I knew I hit on something. And anyway, so I shared it with Tammy. She starts bawling. I was like, yeah, it's gonna work good. Anyway. And so I put a letter at the end of every chapter, just a letter to whoever reads the chapter. And the very first principle in the entire book is called the Big Rocks principle. And that is that all's well that begins well. You want something that'll change everything. You want to be somebody who can walk into your office, into your home, and they go, oh, my goodness. Chris was there. And it was just, oh, my goodness. Thank heaven walked in. Spend time with Jesus every day. It's all's well that begins well. It's just that first few minutes of your life. And of course, I share about that in the book, and I'm encouraging you back to that, because whether you like it or not, you are representing Jesus. Even if it's a bad representation. Y' all out there, church, where y' all at? Okay, so I'm a good ambassador. I'm going to represent him. Why? Because I know him. Second is an ambassador reflects the character of the country or the king. So when you go to. When you're an ambassador, you don't adopt to the culture you're in or sent to. You bring the culture from where you're from to that place. In the same way, our job is that as Christians, I'm not belligerent, and I'm not, you know, something that people just are disgusted by. But I also cannot be like the world. I'm not going to adapt to the world. In fact, Romans 12 says that we should no longer conform ourselves to the image of our world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind. I walk in and I bring a different kind of a culture because I'm reflecting the character of my country or my king. Are you with me, Everybody? In fact, 2 Corinthians, I think Pastor Mark quoted this verse in the first installment of chapter three, verse 18. It says this. It says that we who have this unveiled face, which means we have direct access to God, beholding, as in a mirror, the glory of God. So we look in this mirror and we don't see ourselves, we see Jesus. How do we get there? We are being transformed into his likeness with this ever increasing glory, which means it happens incrementally, which I'm trying to set this as a goal for somebody. Some of you, please don't receive this the wrong way, but you're not getting more and more like Jesus. And that's the fun part of Christianity, that I'm not where I want to be. But thank God, I'm not where I used to be either. Little by little, year after year, small group after small group, God is changing me, and I'm starting to reflect the person that I represent. Are y' all following that? And if you're bored with your faith and think, oh, man, you know, it's whatever, it's probably because you're just not changing enough. Because it's the most incredible part of Christianity is that little by little, I'm getting a little bit more like him. You know, years ago, I had. About two years ago, I was right here in the front, and it was between services. And this girl, she looked like mid-20s. She's kind of bouncy, hair was flippy. And she come back, she goes, oh. She goes, you're the pastor, right? I said, yeah. She goes, this was my first Sunday here, and I absolutely love it. I was like, well, great. And she goes, I just have one question for you. And I said, what's that? She goes, if I keep coming here, are y' all gonna try to change me? I said, oh, yes, absolutely. In fact, that's the best part of being here, is that I don't stay who I am. I become more like Jesus. I want it to change Me too. Come on, somebody. Oh, you can clap a little bit better than that. And I have every bit of moral authority to say that while God's still got a lot to do inside of me, man, you look at a guy. Some of y' all know this story. I just think it's hilarious that four years into my faith journey, I'm still beat up, shy, bullied. I'm healing, but it's happening just incrementally. I get to my sophomore year at lsu. I'm accounting major. I have to take this speech class. And after that semester, I failed my speech class at lsu, y'. All. They don't even speak English. Are y' all listening to me out there? So shy, so intimidated by to speak in front of 30 people and look what the Lord has done. Let me say it this way. When I was a sophomore at what would be some of our sophomores at Highlands College, you wouldn't even have let me in that college. That's how much I had not had the work of God working inside of me. And thank God, little by little, mentor by mentor, verse by verse, quiet time by quiet time. Come on, everybody. Right? And I'm just encouraging you in that. Why? Because you're an ambassador and we need to reflect the character of our king. Can Church of the Highlands say an amen to that beautiful student? Yeah. How do we do that? Get in the community with godly friends. You know this. That's what our small groups do. It's the places where we're shaped, where we grow, where the reality of James 5:16 happens. Where we confess our sins not just to God, but also to each other, pray for each other so that we can be healed. This is the hope is that we're actually changing. And then once we kind of start settling the yesterdays through this healing, healing moment, we can step into the next where we start to discover our God given purpose and gifts that God has for our lives. That reflecting Jesus means settling yesterday and stepping into your purpose. Which, by the way, Pastor Mark told me the number one most asked question at Easter was, I still don't know my purpose. And I felt led of God to read these verses to you. Somebody please receive this today, whoever you are. Jeremiah, chapter 1, verse 5. This is not just true for Jeremiah, I'm telling you from God Almighty, this is for you today, that before you were informed in your mama's womb that God knew you already and before you were even born, which by the way is why we are pro life. Can I get a good amen everybody? You were born. I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nation. Chapter 29, verse 11. For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. And Pastor Mark was sharing with me how we're gonna step into a season this year and just help everybody step into their purpose. That you can walk out with this life reflecting not only the character of your king, but also the purpose of your king. And next Sunday you have this awesome opportunity to get on the growth track and start that process, which, by the way, is a new and improved version of the grow tract. It's incredible. Honestly, I'm sharing it with churches wherever I go. Because in fact, if you haven't been to the grow track in a while, you ought to go through it again. It's amazing where you can actually find your God given purpose and potential, your spiritual gifts. I get to. How do I be an ambassador for Jesus? I'm gonna get to know him. I'm gonna know him so well so I can represent him. Then I'm gonna start to let him change me to look like the king that I represent. So that number three, an ambassador carries the mission. And you want something that changes everything. You want something that cover to cover is what the Bible says about you. If you're a person of faith, if you're a Christian and a believer. Cover to cover. I could literally bring you 500 verses where it says you are now someone who goes out there and carries out the mission of Jesus on the earth. You're the salt of the earth. You're the light of the world. Cover to cover. This is now. If you want to know what your life is really all about. And honestly, whatever your purpose is, it all fits under this banner of go impact the world for Jesus. We carry out a mission. We're on assignment, if you will. And by the way, I'm 63 years old. In a couple months, everybody. And I am as fired up about my assignment as I ever have been. Thank God. I loved what I got to do here for 25 years. I'm proud of what Pastor Mark and Jill are doing. But really the reason why you see all this passion on the inside of me, I'm giddy like the day I moved to Birmingham. Cause I'm out there building that university, raising up a generation of leaders who are gonna change the world. And if you're clapping your hands, going well, good for you, Pastor Chris. Way to go, PC. Way to go, PC. It ain't just for me. You should be able to be this passion. You can be this passionate. I'm telling you. Jesus looked at his disciples in John chapter 20 and said, as the Father sent me, so I am sending you. And that wasn't reserved for 12 people. It was reserved for every person who would ever call on his name. We don't just go to church. We go from church. To do what? Three things to give. And I'm not talking about your money. I'm talking about give whatever you have. Y' all can tell I have more joy than one human should have. Should. I don't. I have way more than I personally need. So it is my responsibility to get on this stage for every discouraged Christian who came in the room and life's been beating you up to come bring some passion and joy in front of you today and tell you, go out there and take on the world in Jesus name. Come on. It's my responsibility. You're supposed to take whatever you have and make a difference with it. Second Corinthians says, God has every intention of making you rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. You don't know what your assignment is. Go out there and live one of my principles. Go out there and live an open handed life. What I have, I give. What I have, I give. I'm the good Samaritan. Whatever's mine is yours and I'm going to give it. I'm going to bless people. We do that with our giving. Thank you, by the way, for your faithful tithing. Thank you for the way you do it financially, but you should be doing it in every way. Go in the restaurant you go to after church. Go out there and make some server, some single mom working five jobs server, make their day to day and tell them, I did this for you in Jesus name. Why? Because we're. I'm an ambassador and I'm responsible to take. Are y' all following me? Everybody. I'm gonna. I'm gonna give, I'm gonna serve. I mean, I'm just, I'm gonna, I'm gonna. As Mother Teresa said, I'm gonna be the hands and feet of Jesus. Why? Because I'm an ambassador. You need something, I'm gonna serve you with that. By the way, I'm so grateful for the more than 23,000 active volunteers. We don't use that word, dream teamers. Who don't, they don't work at Highlands, but They serve at Highlands who got here long before you did to take care of your kids, make coffee, blow sidewalks off tune guitars, jump on cameras. Can we give it up for the Dream Team today? Everybody just say a big thank you. Thank you. Come on every campus. And I'll tell you Dream Teamers. Jesus said, it is to my Father's glory. In other words, the Father goes, thank you. It's to my Father's glory that you're a fruit bearing Christian. It proves you really are a disciple. When you're out there on mission, you're an ambassador. He said in verse 11, I told you this so that my joy may be in you. By the way, go ask a Dream Teamer I how much joy they have serving in some capacity in the church. Why? Because that's what you were created to do. I give, I serve, and I share Christ. I'm going to share Christ. I'm going to do it the best way I know how. If all you know is Genesis 1:1, I'm going to share Christ. We're going to teach you how to do it better. But the last words of the one you swore your life to, the last thing Jesus said, I'm the one. You said, I'll give you my life. The last thing he said before his feet lifted off the Mount of Olives in the Great ascension, which by the way, is the same place his feet will come down in his second coming. The last thing he said is, I'm going to give you power of the Holy Spirit so that you can go out there and be a witness everywhere you go. I want you to be an ambassador. The last words. Notice he uses the word witness. You're not to be the judge, you're not to be the jury, you're not to be the prosecutor, you're not to be the defender. I just go out there and tell you my story how Jesus changed my life. Come on, somebody, right? I'm a challenge you to it. And if you do that, this will change everything. So I was finished with the book 31 Principles, and my mentor John Maxwell called. He goes, I got an idea for your book. I said, what's that? He goes, everywhere I go, in secular places, I share principles that are all out of the Bible, but they don't know it's out of the Bible. So I do a bonus session at these companies and I say, look, I'm gonna do a bonus session. Of course he has to get permission from the company to do this, but I'm going to do a bonus session and share My faith, where all these principles came from. And 90% of the company will voluntarily come back. And about half of them will get saved. He's leading. I mean, John, I'm so proud of him. He's leading literally tens of thousands of people to Jesus in corporate settings right now. He says, chris, you need to do the same. And so I did. After the 31st principle, the book says, don't turn this page unless you want to hear more about my faith. And I give a bonus principle. It's a 32nd principle, and I call it the eternity principle. And here's what the eternity principle is. You only live twice. You only live once, you live twice. And everything I do, I do through the lens. I'm gonna stand before God one day, and you're gonna stand before him too. And in the final little letter, I lead people to Jesus, everybody. And I'm hoping that this book that really is kind of a crossover book for me, a book that can be read by the secular audience, is going to be like, would y' all agree with me that literally thousands of people give their life to Jesus reading that last chapter? Okay, why? Why? Because I'm an ambassador. I'm supposed to bring heaven with me, even in a book. And so are you. That every place you go, your job, your home, your school, every place you go, we represent Jesus. And when you walk in, heaven will walk in with you. Let's bow for prayer. Father, I just commission now this congregation to go out there and do things that change the world. Let us not just live our lives just kind of getting by. We're an ambassador. We're an ambassador. We're going to go out there and make a difference every place we go. God, would you help us as we get to know you, we get as we reflect who you are and God as we carry your mission. God, would you come with us in Jesus name? We pray, heads bowed, eyes closed. Don't worry about the distractions in the room. Don't worry about that. Just ignore it. They'll handle that. Because there are some of you right now, you're trying to make a decision about your own faith. In fact, you're not even sure about whether you spend eternity in heaven. You're not ready for that moment. And if you're not ready for that moment, I want to lead you to it right now in Jesus name. In fact, some of you guys were like me. You thought you were a Christian. Then you showed up in a church where you actually saw some real Christians. And maybe you're moved today. Saying, you know what? I don't know that I've been fully devoted to Jesus, really surrendered my life to him. I'm not going to have you stand up or come to the front, but I'd love to pray for you right there where you are. If that's you, you say, chris, I'm ready. I'm ready to surrender my life to Jesus today. Make your mind up. You got it. You made your mind up. If you want to be included in this closing prayer, slip your hand up as high as you can. Put it right back down. Say, count me in. Count me in. Yep. Anybody else? Just slip. Yep. Thank you. Yep. Anybody else? Yep. Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you. Right here. Here. God bless you guys. Wherever you are, you're making the decision to follow Jesus, fully surrender to him. If that's you, pray this prayer. Say, Jesus. Jesus, I love you. Thank you for saving me today. I make you the Lord of my life. Forgive me of my sins. Come live inside of me now. Make this statement because I believe you are who you said you are. You're the Son of God. You rose from the dead. And today I put my faith and my trust in you. And today I'm going on mission to represent you. In your name I pray. Amen. Come on. Put your hands together and congratulate everybody who prayed that prayer.