Transcript
A (0:00)
Come on, somebody. Our God has no rival. I said our God has no equal. Come on. He's the name above every name, Jesus, we have gathered in that name today. And, man, I sense his presence here today. Y' all sense the presence of God today. He is with us, Emmanuel. God with us in this place. And I'm so grateful you're with us as well, Jill, and I love you with all of our heart. There's just no place like Church of the Highlands on a Sunday morning, gathered together. His presence, his people, and his power is in the room today. I want you to know that today. God's power is here today. The same power that raised him from the grave is in this place today, available to us today. And so I'm just so glad you're here. I want to welcome, of course, all of our locations. It's one thing to show up. It's another thing to experience God. How many all came to experience God today? Come on, make some noise. I did. I came to experience him today.
A (0:53)
So. So before we go any further, I just want to pray for us one last time that we would open our hearts up to him and that we would have an expectation that God, you're going to meet with us here. I don't know what you came in looking for, needing just walking through whatever situation. God's power is available to us today. God, we love you today, and we are so grateful for your presence. God, I sense your peace here today. God, I sense joy here today, hope here today. God, your love is here today. So, God, we make a decision right now not just to show up physically, but to show up in faith. Today we open our hearts. Come on, open your heart up to him. Our hearts are open. You are the potter, we are the clay. So, God, we say, come and mold us, shape us, change us. We want to walk out of here different than we came in. And we just promise to give you all of the glory in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen. Come on, give him praise one more time with all that you have.
A (1:53)
Well, I do. I love you guys so much. It's so great to be in the house of God together. Why don't you high five your neighbor at every location and you can grab your seat.
A (2:05)
Awesome. Awesome. Well, it is, again, great to be with you. And I want to officially take a moment just to welcome all of our locations across the state of Alabama, over into Georgia, all our correctional facilities, and then, as always, anyone joining us, online or on demand. And before I have you clap, I got to spend a Good bit of time over the last couple weeks in the state of Georgia, at our campuses there. And just this past Sunday was at a couple campuses, and then on first Wednesday was at Columbus. And I just gotta say this. Today, God is moving in the state of Georgia, and I'm so grateful that God has called us to the people of Georgia. And we are just getting started. You know, I mentioned the correctional facilities. We are in all 28 of Alabama's correctional facilities. Every single Sunday, Church of the Highlands has an expression of worship, God's word. They watch what you're a part of right now in those correctional facilities and y' all, people are getting saved. God is moving in a powerful way. And about. About four or five months ago, we got a chance to begin in our first correctional facility in the state of Georgia. And in Jesus name, I believe we're gonna be in all those as well. Come on, put your hands together for the entire Highlands family. We love you and Georgia. We don't want you rubbing anything in today. All right, y' all need to just calm down a little bit. We're all good. I'm gonna leave it right there. So, you know, God's moving in a big way right now at Highlands. And today's gonna be a little bit of a different day today. Kind of two parts of what I'm gonna share with you. The first is really an update on all that is happening. I wanna make sure, you know, we've been in an at the movie season. I haven't had the chance to be here in person to say these things to you and just really to give a good. I got a good report today of how God is moving in this revival season that we're seeing in our nation and really in our world. So that's incredible. Then after that, I have a message that I can't wait to share with you today from God's word. It's really in the spirit of encouragement. And so as a church right now, we are in an eight week season we call legacy. Look at your neighbor and say legacy. It's important for us to catch the heart of this. It's not just church programming. Very intentionally placed. The last eight weeks of the year are some of the most important for ministry. It's just where people are, hearts are open. There's just so much opportunity for us to be generous and for us to do things outside the walls of our church. And so before I share some updates, just thank you, thank you for your prayer. Thank you for being all in at Highlands. I'm not surprised by that. That's who we are as a church. But thank you for your generosity. I want to just give a shout out to the entire dream team, over 23,000 of you that serve every single week here at Highlands. And through all of that, to God be the glory. God has been very, very good to us and allowing us just to see his goodness in the world. And I want us to. We're going to celebrate all these things today because, again, every single one of you are a part of what's happening. All for Jesus, but we're a part of it. So the first week of Legacy, Pastor Chris actually preached here. And I got a chance to be down here at our Daphne campus. And y', all, it's such an amazing city. The whole Mobile Bay Area right now, it's growing. There's industry coming there. Great opportunity for us to be on mission for God. And we had the. We had the opportunity earlier this year to purchase property, pay for it with cash. Come on. To God be the glory. We own property now and Daphne, and we wanted to do something we've never done, and that is to host a dedication service actually on the property. So I have a picture of her right here, y'. All. We put up a tent. We had old school tent revival in Daphne. Check this out. A thousand people showed up that day, and we had our first church service on that property. Yeah. To God be the glory paid for. And then. And then we'll break ground on the building later on in 2026. And I got a chance to share that day and of course, always give opportunity for people to respond. Y', all, that used to be a peanut farm, but somebody got saved there that day. The first person on that property. And this is what I told them. This and what. Just the picture of God's sovereignty and providence, that this land. God always knew there would be a church here. We just finally caught up with God's plans, and that's gonna be a beautiful place to reach just thousands of people. Amazing what's happening down there. Right after that, we had our high school retreat. I could highlight, really everything that's happening in student ministry church. Look at me. God's moving right now in students. We're in a moment, and we need to. We will continue to lean in. Just lean in. In prayer. Lean into serving of this next generation. We had a high school retreat where God just moved. It was at Shocko Springs, Alabama, in the major metropolis of Talladega. And so was near where I grew up. So Talladega was the Big city where I grew up. So we had our retreat there. 181 students got baptized the very last night. We have some pictures of that. And just y' all 15, 16, 17 years old. I mean, think about our own story. What a beautiful picture of declaring Christ that young. I'm gonna serve him for the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years to God be the glory. What's happening? Right after that, we had our freedom conference. How many? All love freedom groups at Highlands. Man, what a blessing. And just. Pastor Hamp is in this service, just so grateful for his leadership over all these years, he and Colette. And just an opportunity for all of us to say goodbye to yesterday, to step fully into the freedom that God has for us for our future. We're encounter the power of the Holy Spirit changes everything. And we had over 2,000 people at our freedom conference. Again, made possible by your generosity. And God just moved in a powerful way. I have a picture of just kind of the hands raised right there, just representing that freedom that God does and God moves. And if you've never been to a freedom group, let me just do it this way. If you have been to a freedom group and you want to encourage those who haven't yet been to a freedom group, put your hands together right now just so they know it's a big deal. Got some shouts over here to my right. So.
