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We are now all together as a church family. We all got to worship together in that song, and I am just so honored to be with you in this moment. God's presence is good. Hey. We have gathered today in the presence of a good God. Can I get an amen at Church of the Highlands today? He is rich in mercy. He is full of love and power and strength. We are here together in his presence. I'm so excited for these next nine weeks. I believe God has so much in store for us, and I just want to kick us off with. With an incredible verse. Psalm 34. 8 says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is he who takes refuge in him. So I grew up in a church, maybe you did as well, where the pastor, almost every week would do this deal. He would say, God is good. And we would all say, all the time. And then he would say, all the time. God is good. I'm bringing it back today. Are y' all ready? Are you ready? All right. God is good. And all the time. Oh, come on. One more time. God is good. And all the time. Put your hands together. If you believe it today, He's a good God. Praise God. And the last part of that verse is perfect to tee us off into this series. It says, blessed are those who take refuge in him. So it's one thing to know that, and as you already heard your campus pastor share, we want to experience his goodness. And I think there's a moment of decision even at the beginning of the message today and the beginning of this series, where we just say, God, if you are good, we. We want to taste and see it. We want to take refuge in you. And so I want to pray for us in this moment. I think this is actually a significant moment, whether you're here for the first time, whether you know God personally or not, you've been following him for years. Wherever you are in your faith journey, this is a moment for all of us to say, God, if you have something for me, I want to taste and see. I'm choosing to take refuge in you. It's a moment for us, really, a faith moment for us to put our lives in his hands. I would love to pray for us, as I do. Would you just do that in your own heart, God, right now, we choose to take refuge in you. We just declared it. You are a good God, and we want to experience that, to taste and see it in our own lives. And we know the only way to do that is really to give you permission, an act of faith. To say, God, come, have your way, speak to us, mold us, shape us, change us. Wherever we're out of alignment, bring us into alignment. We want to experience your mercy, your grace, your truth, Everything you have for us, we want it today, God. We have come to church to meet with you today, God, and we just say one more time, you're a good God. In Jesus name, everybody said amen. Put your hands together one more time just to celebrate a good God. Awesome. All right, well, I'm excited to get into the word of God. Before that, high five your neighbor. You can have a seat at every location. It is a great day to be in church and you've heard all about it to this point. We are starting a brand new series. If you have your app out, I would love you to open it. There's a chance for you to take message notes there. If you don't have it and you want to take notes, it's a great day, really, just to lean in this whole series. Even that field guide has room for you to jot down some notes today. But I want to start out the entire series with a question. And this is the question we're going to answer today. That's really going to open a doorway up to the next eight weeks. And here's the question again, it's in your app if you want to start there is how do we know God is good? So we're gonna teach this series. We've just said, you know, God is good all the time. The question that I think is appropriate and I want to answer today from the word of God is, okay, I hear you, preacher, but how do we know that? How do we know it in our hearts? How do we know it in our minds? How do we know God is good? And so where we're gonna start today is where we always start at Church of the Highlands. The Bible proclaims the goodness of God. Can I get an amen for the word of God? Okay, so we're always gonna start in the Bible. And that's where we're going to start for this whole series is that the Bible over and over, from Genesis to Revelation, verse after verse proclaims his goodness. And many of those verses are found in the book of Psalms. There's so many examples in Psalms where it just talks about David and others talk about the goodness of God. We just read this one. I want to come back to it. Psalm 34, 8. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. And again, blessed are those who take refuge in him. What I love about this. And it really frames our theology of God. God doesn't just do goodness. So when we think about God, it's not like this kind of Santa Claus figure that does good or gives out these gifts or it's all random. God doesn't just do goodness. He is goodness. The scripture says, the Lord is. He is good. He is good. And what I love about that is he can't be ungood. In fact, Psalm 92 says that the Lord is upright. He is my rock. There is no wickedness in him. So the Lord is good. And he. I don't think that's even actually a word, but in Alabama and Georgia, it's a word. He can't be ungood. Okay? There is no wickedness in him. Hey, church, that's really good news. The Lord is good and there is no wickedness in him. He doesn't have bitterness or envy or he doesn't lie or cheat. He cannot be unjust. And when you use that word, can't next to God, the only time we have permission to do that is when God does it himself. And he's the one that says, there is no wickedness in me. I am a good God. Psalm 23:6. You know, Psalm 23, what a beautiful, maybe the most beautiful of all the psalms, where David's just reflecting on God as Our Shepherd. Psalm 23, verse 6 says, Surely we just sang about this. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life. Let's say that word. Surely that's a good faith word. Surely. I know it. It's in my heart. I know that your goodness is following after me. And I'm going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I just love the thought that God's goodness is generous. He's generous with his goodness. He doesn't withhold it. He's not stingy with it. He is a generous, good God. Come on. God is good. And all the time, God is good. He's a good God. And so the Bible proclaims it. And here's the next thing I want to reflect on. And this is huge. In fact, there's a big theology kind of big idea about God in this statement. And that is this. All of humanity has experienced the goodness of God. So, you know, the idea here is actually, again, theologically called common grace, that our God is such a good God. It's not just that he's good to a certain group of people, that he is good to all people. Everyone who has ever lived has experienced the goodness of God. Jesus actually teaches us during the Sermon on the Mount, the most important, longest recorded sermon and most important sermon while Jesus was ministering on earth in Matthew 5:45, says, he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good. He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. That's common grace, that our God is a good God and all of humanity have experienced his goodness. Which means, of course, everyone in the sound of my voice right now has experienced the goodness of God. So I want us to think about it for a moment. In fact, even in the middle of the service, I've been thinking about this, reflecting on it, but I want you to. When you think about the goodness of God, what comes to mind? Like right now, in this moment, what comes to mind when you think about his goodness, when you think about his grace, when you think about his love, what is it that comes to mind? For me immediately? I think about my family. I got a picture of my crew here. Jill, who's on the front row, my four boys. This is a picture that for us, is an environment we love. We're out in the great outdoors. We're at a national park in Montana called Glacier. We've just hiked this trail. We're in this beautiful place, y'. All. That water was freezing cold right after this. We all took a cold plunge. It was. It was all the things we love kind of wrapped into one. And here's what I know. I don't. Our family is not perfect. We got a long way to go. We are in the trenches with all of you, but I don't deserve my family, my amazing wife, my boys, our health. I mean, just. I am so grateful to God. Can anybody love your family out there today? I'm blessed. I'm just. We gotta think about what comes to mind when you think about God's goodness. I gotta say this next one, and not just because I'm here on stage. When I think about the goodness of God, I think about Church of the Highlands. And I showed a graphic last week at Vision Sunday that I want to come back to. This just shows the footprint, the geographical footprint of our church. Those darker dots are physical locations, and the lighter ones are the correctional facilities. Y', all, that is a miracle that represents thousands of people. God is a good God that he has brought all of us together in one church. I got, like, one person clapping over here. Put your hand. You gonna clap a lot. Today. We're talking about the goodness of God and the fact that God would be moving in our church is such a Miracle. And especially in the area of our young people, y' all do know that Highlands Kids is not just childcare. I am grateful that we got to drop our kids off on the way to church today. Anybody? Okay. Okay, that's great. But, y', all, we have dream teamers in there. Our dream team. Our amazing dream team are in there. They're ministering to our kids right now. Kids falling in love with Jesus at a young age. I'm grateful for. That's the goodness of God. I mean, Highlands kids, environments. Walking in those environments and just hearing young kids, you know, second grade, third grade, and even younger, worshiping our God. God's a good God. And God's moving in our high school students, our middle school students, and even in our college students. This past summer at Motion Conference, it was just such a powerful. It was different. It's always good, but it was just. There was a spirit of God there that I've never felt before. 17,000 students in one arena. I mean, the stage was in the center. And at the very last session, we do this kind of moment. It's really the decision moment for the whole conference and where we ask students to write down just a decision they're making as they walk out of that place. We call it me plus motion. And this year, we were teaching on Isaiah 6, and it was the idea of, here I am. Send me God. I'm yours. Use me. I'm your hands and feet. And we were having students write that down and put the picture up on the screen. This one young man in the middle of all that. It was completely quiet. No keys, no music. This one young man stands up in the middle of the arena and goes, I will go. He shouts it out, and it reverbed around the entire arena. And when I think about the goodness of God, I think about that moment this year. And just seeing right after that, all 17,000 students standing up saying, I'm gonna live for Jesus. Come on, somebody. Our God is a good God. And I also think about. And I know that this is on your list as well. I think about all the things that should have taken me out over the years. I mean, the mistakes I've made, the dumb things. Anybody out there ever done some dumb stuff. You should not be living, breathing right now. Your boy on stage right now. I'm one of those. I mean, so many times that I just messed up. And it was only by the grace and goodness of God that I made it through that situation. The immediate one, I thought about. I haven't thought about this in years. I was 17 years old. I was about this time of year. I left football practice, went to church that evening. We had church on Thursday night. And then after that, I went to my girlfriend's house at the time. And we did what Everybody in the 90s did. We watched Dawson's Creek. Okay? That's what we did that night. And if you're a little bit older than me, you watch 90210. Come on. I know what I'm talking about. If you're younger than me. It was One Tree Hill. And then all of us watched Family Matters. Urkel forever. Urkel forever. So we watched that show and we walked out to the car and I'm not proud of this. It's such so dumb. And this story changed my life forever. But I was inconsistent back then. Wearing my seatbelt. It's the dumbest thing ever. But that's just the truth of what it was. And my girlfriend that night looked at me and she said, put on your seatbelt. And I put my seatbelt on. I drove halfway home. It was about a 45 minute drive. I stopped at a Shell station. Come on. In the small town, you just call it the Shell station. It's not a Shell station. It is the Shell station. Next to the Piggly Wiggly, right next to the Dollar General. That's my life. So I stopped there. And every night, because you're 17, your metabolism's in a different situation. All you 17 year olds just wait. But I would grab a Dr. Pepper and a bag of Doritos, y'. All. 11 o' clock at night, crushing a Dr. Pepper is not. That is not 64 grams of sugar. I did research. That's the same as five Krispy Kreme doughnuts. That is just. That's a whole nother level. All right. And a bag of Doritos. That was just my flow. For whatever reason. I mean, 11 o' clock at night, drink a Dr. Pepper, then go to sleep. That's 17 years old in a nutshell right there. But 10 minutes after that, I haven't even finished my Dr. Pepper yet. I'm coming over a hill. I'm in a little Dodge Neon compact, my mom's car, a Crown Victoria. Y' all know that A huge. But it was a station wagon comes over the hill going 70. They estimate 70 to 75 miles an hour. Hits me head on. Hydroplanes, hits me head on. Car starts spinning. I'm down in the ravine, Dr. Pepper everywhere. When I smell Dr. Pepper, that's what I remember. Airbags Out. I'm just, I'm in a complete state of shock. I'm in the side window. I couldn't open the door because of the damage. The side window had busted out. I climb out the side window for whatever reason, I remember my dad telling me if I was in an accident, make sure they don't leave. So I start chasing the guy down after that accident. He's not going anywhere. And I woke up the next morning, I drove by where it happened and I saw the car. I should not have walked out of there alive. Anybody got a story about the goodness of God? I mean, I just, I shouldn't be standing here. So what do you think of when you think about his goodness? We've all experienced the goodness of God, but at the same time I do know that some of us, maybe many of us still have questions. And I want to hit this head on here in week number one is that there are often questions about the goodness of God. You know, if God is good. And here's the big question, why, if God is good, why? And I just wrote down these are just a few. Maybe you're here today and you're in relationship with Jesus and you're asking these questions, or if you're here today and you're not in that personal relationship, likely you have some of these or other questions. You know, why does God allow pain? Why doesn't he stop wickedness? You know, why? Eternal judgment, why hell? Why can't his people do bad things? You know, why disasters like earthquakes, flood or cancer or war. And ultimately why do bad things happen to good people? And if you have questions, kind of almost the time out here, you just need to know God can handle your questions. Nowhere in the Bible does the Bible teach us not to ask questions. Jesus is the perfect example of this. He was a rabbi, which is really another way to say teacher. The key is that we bring those questions to him. Can I get an amen? So bring those questions to him. And I have a story of just a family here in our church that just exemplifies really everything I'm teaching today about walking through tough things but still knowing the goodness of God in the middle of it. And it's the Wood family, Tony and Debbie Wood, who I got connected to in a moment of tragedy. This is about 11 years ago, got a phone call from Pastor Keith, actually Pastor Blake's dad, to join him on a pastoral care visit. Because this family, this couple had just lost their, tragically lost their 15 year old daughter. When they have three daughters, their daughter Hannah had just tragically died. We walk into that home and y', all, can y'. All. I mean, just imagine some of you have been through something like that. The pain, the tears, the shock, all of that. And we're just gathering around, trying to do anything we can to be there, to pray, to be present, and just watching them even in that moment, the questions that obviously automatically come out of a moment like that, it's the realness of that moment. But that wasn't the end of what they walked through that year. Literally within a year. A few months later, Tony's mother in law, Debbie's mom, passed away. And it was only about six months later, Tony himself, the father of Hannah, who had lost her life, was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. All within a year. And over, I mean, weeks, Tony and I would gather together, we would talk. We used to go, y' all remember the Tavern if you're here from Birmingham, the tavern up on the top of the summit. Not the village tavern, not the bougie one. The one up on top of the summit. Okay? It was right next to crepes, et cetera. Anybody? Jason, thank you. Anyway, we would gather there, and they had the best chicken fingers ever. We'd sit around and talk, and I would just be like face to face with Tony as he was going through a conversation, asking very real questions, walking through the pain of the moment, the uncertainty of the moment, but coming back to the goodness of God. And God chose to heal Tony in heaven. One of the last things he sent me 11 years ago was a document where he just reflected on his journey. And this is the end of that document, the last paragraph of that document. He says, today, I love my God more than ever. He is good. I know him more than ever. My prayer life has changed. My perspective is eternal. My will is more of his and less of my own. My goal is to complete the work he has for me on earth with gladness. My desire is to live with joy, to be content, to stay in his presence here on earth until his appointed days for me, not that of the doctors are complete. And then spend eternity with the one who first loved me. Can we celebrate? An amazing man, honestly, an incredible life. And Debbie, who is still part of our Grandview campus. I love you so much. And I love your family. And I just. I love that story. And this is really the heart of the whole series, but especially today. We know the Bible proclaims his goodness. We've all experienced his goodness, but how do we know his goodness like that? Not just here, but deeply in our heart. Come on, Church. No matter what we walk through, that we would know the goodness of God and the way we know his goodness is actually going to be found in a theme verse for the entire series. Again, if you have your app, I'd love to point us to it right now. And that is in Titus, chapter three, verses four and seven. I'm gonna walk through, underline a few things, and then this is what we're gonna preach for the rest of our time together. Today it says, but when the goodness and kindness of God our Savior, appeared, so God is good, and that goodness was not withheld. His goodness and his kindness appeared. And what did he do? He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing and regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. How do we know the goodness of God? We know it because the goodness of God appeared, and his name is Jesus. How do we know, no matter what circumstance we are walking through, no matter what suffering or the evil things that are around us? How do we know, Church, that God is good? We know that he is good because that goodness appeared. Jesus Christ our Savior. That goodness appeared. Second Corinthians 5:21 says this. God made him who had no sin be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We may still have questions, but here's what we can know. Walking out of church today, and that is this. The goodness of God was eternally settled in the blood. Calvary. I'm going to say it one more time. The goodness of God was eternally settled in the blood of Calvary. Can we put our hands together and thank God that he who had no sin became sin for us? Here's what Isaiah 53 says about that moment on the cross. Surely he took up our pain. He bore our suffering. Yet we considered him punished by God. Stricken by him and afflicted, he was pierced, not for his transgressions, for ours. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. He took punishment, and he gave us peace. And by his wounds we are healed. He took up our pain. He bore our suffering. He paid for our sin. How do we know God is good? God is good. All the time. All the time. God is good. How do we know that no matter what? Church, look at me right now, no matter what you're walking through, even right now, in this moment, how can you know it's Jesus Christ, our savior, who, Isaiah 53 says, he went before us and he took the punishment and the wounds and the crushing and the piercing for us. And this is not something we talk about every single week. And if you're new here, but it's something that's, I mean, maybe hard for us to hear, but I think it's healthy for us to hear, just to remember, you know, Isaiah spoke those words 700 years before Jesus, before crucifixion was even invented. Which, by the way, crucifixion is the most. The most cruel and unusual punishment ever invented by mankind. In fact, there was. Check this out. There was no word to describe the amount of pain someone would experience on the cross. So the Romans made one. You've heard it. It's the word excruciating. It means in Latin, out of the cross, there was no word for the amount of pain. And that is the moment in time, prophetically, that Jesus chose to walk on this earth. The moment where the capital punishment he would experience would be the worst. And we know from the gospels that once he was arrested, of course, unjustly arrested, he was taken before a Jewish court. He was blindfolded. He was punched, he was taunted, he was bloodied. He spent that night in a prison cell. A cold, lonely. He's bleeding, no sleep. Prison cell. Not for anything he had done, but for us. Church. How do we know God is good? We know it because of Jesus Christ, our Savior. The next morning, he's taken in front of Pilate. Pilate sends him to a Roman scourging, which there's, you know, so many accounts of how horrible this would have been. He was tied to a post. He was stripped naked. He was locked down. And they took this whip that had these different, you know, strands on it, these leather strands. And so cruel. In those strands, they had tied bone and glass and even lead, and they would weight it in water so that it would be heavy. And it wasn't like they just slapped around somebody with it. They would take it, embed it in the person's back, and then rip down. That is what Jesus took. 39 of those for us, 13 on each shoulder, 13 down the center of his back, exposing. And I'm sorry to say this, this is what happened. Blood would have poured out and would have exposed, likely his spine, cut his trapezius muscles, put him into shock. They put him from there to the praetorium and in that moment, above and beyond what would have ever normally happened, the Roman soldiers begin to mock Jesus, wrapping him in a purple robe, mocking that he is the king of the Jews. Can you imagine the pain of that robe on top of those injuries? And what do they do next? You know it. We make it artistic. But it wasn't. It was unheard of. This is not normally part of a crucifixion. They take thorns, 2 inch long thorns, and they put them into a crown and they crush him. He was crushed for our iniquities. They put that crown on his head. It would have gone into his, into his bone. Blood would have flowed, his eyes would have swollen shut, but they weren't finished yet. They kneeled before him and again they begin to mock him as a king. They take him from there back to Pilate. The crowd shouts, crucify. He loads. You know, they put his own, the cross beam on his shoulder, probably 100 pounds on top of those injuries. Down the Via Dolorosa, Simon comes along and is allowed to help carry the cross. They get to Golgotha and then we know what happens next. They take those Roman nails. We call them nails Church. Those were spikes 7 to 9 inches long. Not in his palms, in his wrists. They say the pain from that was like being hit in your funny bone a thousand times a second. The fire that would go up your arms, both wrists, both feet, and then raised on a cross. His shoulders now dislocated. The way you typically died on a cross was through suffocation. He hung there for six hours. Check your clock. Six hours from right now, that's how long. Every single breath, fighting against suffocation, not for anything he had done, but for you and I, because of the love that he had in his heart for us. He would have to lift himself up against those wounds with his back on that cross, over and over for six hours. And once he breathed his last, they took a spear and they dragged it through his ribcage into his heart and blood and water. Meaning that he likely did not die from suffocation, but from a ruptured heart. His heart ruptured so ours could be whole. And through it all, praise God. Thank you. Through it all, through it all, he never spoke in anger, in hate, or even in pain. Why? Hebrews 12. For the joy set before him. He endured the cross, scorning his shame. Why did he do it? He did it for all of us. God is good all the time. And all the time our God is good by his wounds. Come on, somebody we are healed. How do we know God is good? Jesus Christ our Savior. Jesus Christ our savior. Corinthians, or Colossians 2. He forgave us on that cross. This is good news, everybody. Having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us, he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed Satan, the demonic powers and authorities. He made a public spectacle. They thought they were mocking him. He was mocking sin and death on the cross. And then what happened after that? Philippians gives us the good news for today, everybody. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, at the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of our Father. Here on week one of the Goodness of God series. I'm here to proclaim Jesus reigns. He reigns over evil. He reigns over suffering. He reigns over death. What is the gospel we preach? We preach Jesus crucified for us, for the joy set before him. Come on, church. What Satan thought was an execution turned into a coronation. And he became king on that cross. And Jesus, 2,000 years later, what is he doing? He reigns. Now, what does that look like? I just wrote an acrostic. I had so much fun riding this acrostic, waiting for this moment. Gonna put it on the screen. He what? He rose from the dead. He's no. He came off of that cross. He went in that tomb, and three days later, he came out of that grave. How did he do that? He was the king. He became king on the cross. King even over death. What does he now? He's exalted to the highest place. I Love this. Revelation 19 says it on his robe and on his thigh. It says, king of Kings and Lord of Lords. Come on, somebody. Jesus has a tattoo, and it's a good one. King of kings and Lord of Lords. Right now. What is he doing? What is Jesus doing right now in this moment? He is interceding. You have the best prayer partner on planet earth. Jesus right now is interceding over your situation, your circumstance. And he doesn't just intercede for us. He gives us. He is generous with his abundant and eternal life. We give our heart to him. We're saved now, and we're saved for eternity. Can I have a better amen in church today? In this world, we'll have trouble, but he has overcome the world. He reigns. And there is no rival and there is no equal. And listen, let's do it this way. Let's play the opposite game. What is the opposite of hot? What is the opposite of left? Don't answer this one. What is the opposite of God? The answer is nothing. He has no rival. He has no equal. There is no one, even in the same league as our God. Satan is a created being who has been defeated. He's not the opposite of God. We don't believe in the yin and the yang, the balance of good and evil. We have a God that is far above. He is mighty in power and no one compares to him. Our God is high and exalted. And here's the best news you'll hear all day. He is the soon returning king. He is gonna come back to make all things new. Come on. God is good. And all the time. That's what that preacher was talking about 30 years ago when you heard him say that he is good all the time. No matter what, he is good. Here's how I want us to finish. It's an opportunity to apply this to our lives for the next few moments. A simple thought here again on week one opens the door to the rest of the series. And that is because Jesus reigns. That's why we had to start here. We can receive the authority we have to preach. The rest of these messages comes off of this one. The Word of God, because he reigns. Because Philippians 2 is true, that there is no name that compares to his name. Now we can receive. Well, what can we receive? That's a great question. Again. In the book of Psalms, we get this prophetic vision of what Jesus would do on the cross. Psalm 103. You probably have heard this in church before. Praise the Lord my soul and forget not all his benefits. This is what he won for us on the cross. He forgives our sins. He heals our diseases. He redeems our life from the pit. He crowns us with love and compassion. He satisfies our desires with good things so that our youth is renewed like the eagles. We could spend the next nine weeks talking about just these five things. I want to give them to you in the next five minutes. But they're important for us because these are benefits that are on the table for all of us. They've already been won. These are not ifs. These are certainties on the cross. Jesus won for all of us. These five benefits. We now, because of his authority, get to receive. Let's not leave what Jesus paid for on the table. Amen. Church. Let's receive. Here's the first One, Jesus reigns over sin so we can receive salvation. Romans 10, 9 says that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. And that word saved there is not like. I mean, it is. It is. Jesus Christ went to the cross to save me from my sins. But he didn't just save us like, from the sins we committed and say, hey, good luck, have a good life. He saved. Here's how he ultimately saved us. His victory was not just over death in that moment. It was over the sin nature inside of all of us. He saved us from ourselves in every possible way here on earth and for eternity in heaven. This is where salvation is, where it goes from common grace to amazing grace. And I know I've had you shouting a lot, but we just gotta testify today. Has anyone out there experienced the amazing grace of God our Savior? He's a good God. Jesus reigns over disease, so we can receive healing by his stripes. We are healed. We are healed because he went to that post. That's why I had to tell the story today. We are healed because he went to that cross. We are healed. And we are a church that believes in the healing power of God. In our bodies, yes. In our minds, yes. Every part of who we are, the answer is yes. And again, running out of time here today, but making an opportunity available to all of us at the end of every service at Highlands, we always have a prayer team that comes out. You may have seen it and never really understood what they were doing up there. I don't know. But I want to re announce the vision of that is for you to have every single week an opportunity to agree with someone in prayer for healing or victory or for faith or for whatever it might be in some area of your life. And if you're walking through any dis ease today, any part of your life that's out of alignment right now, we would love to pray for you and agree in Jesus name for healing in that area. Here's the third one that is. Jesus reigns over condemnation so we can receive redemption. And the devil is a liar. Now, the only thing y' all do realize, he has no power. He just has lies. So he obviously is going to use what he has. And a lot of the lies of the enemy are around condemnation, shame, because of our past, because of our sin, because you know, you've missed out. And that word redemption that we saw in Psalm 103, it is so huge because God made you with a plan and a purpose. And the devil's lies are his only ability to try to keep you from being all God made you to be. Why did we show you the Growth Track video today? That moment earlier in the service, it was actually to come back to this moment, to know this. There is a redemptive plan that God made you with. And through the cross, he made able for us to live that out what we couldn't live out without Him. Now we can. Don't leave it on the table. The redemptive plan for your life, it is real. And as a church, it'd be our greatest joy. Step one tonight, to help you get connected to a church, to a people, to a purpose, and then activating that and living it out is huge. This next one's massive for our culture. Right now we gotta lean into this church. Jesus reigns over confusion so we can receive identity. We are children of God. He created us. He defines us. And everywhere we see confusion, which. Have y' all noticed any confusion out there around identity? It means there's a disconnect between the our God, the Creator, and the person who's living in that confusion. And Jesus is the bridge builder who can take us back to the original intent that God had for us when he made us. We have a Shepherd, Psalm 23, who leads us to green pastures. So there's a lot of noise. But church through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, we have one voice. We get to follow out of confusion into identity. And it's a beautiful, beautiful promise. And then here's the last one. Jesus reigns over anything we lack, so we can receive blessing. Psalm 103 ends with, he satisfies us with good things. Our God is a good God. I mean, this is. It's the gospel. It is the good news. We hear it maybe so often it becomes normal, but this is unbelievably beautiful that he would want to bless us. And too often in our lives, this is how we're going to actually finish in prayer. We live just like this. We might miss out on God's goodness simply because of this reason. In any area of our life, we're trying to achieve it with our own strength. And all God is saying in this series and beyond is just, can you just open your hands and let me bless you? I have so much knowledge and wisdom and strength and direction. I got everything God has. Yo God has everything we need. But we'll miss out if we're trying to live our own life leaning on our own understanding. But if we'll just acknowledge him, allow him, he will lead us into blessing. There is no wickedness in him. Everything that comes from our Father is a good thing and he wants to bless us with it today. In Jesus name. Come on, put your hands together if you love the word of God. All right, let's pray together. Together. If you would bow your heads and close your eyes. We always have a moment to respond. The word of God has been spoken. We don't want to miss out and let. We want it to take root in our lives right now. That's what this moment is all about. So kind of make sure no distractions, no one even moving around all locations. We're going to stay together in this moment. And even right now with your heart, can you, you know, I was just showing you with my hands, but can we all just, myself included, kind of open, release, control in our own heart right now, just our own way, our own strength, and just give this moment to God to take refuge in him in this moment. I want to pray through a couple things. The first one is that first benefit of the cross. It's the one that matters most. And that is that now our sin has been paid for and we can receive salvation in every way possible. To be saved, to be saved from ourselves, to be saved here on earth, to be saved in eternity. God wants that for us so much. This moment, in every single Sunday or every moment we're together, it's the most important moment. Because God loves you. You're one of his children. And if you don't know him personally, this is a moment for to do what Romans 10:9 said, to confess and believe. I'm not gonna embarrass you, not gonna call you front today, not even gonna have you lift your hands. We're gonna stay together as a church family, but I'm gonna lead you through a prayer. And if you today wanna make this decision, all you gotta do is bring. I'll help you with the words. It's mean it in your heart, confessing and believing, and you will be saved. This moment is for you. Don't miss it. If that's you, just pray these words with me in your heart. Say, Jesus, today I give you my life. Forgive me of my sins and mistakes. I repent. Today I receive what you did for me on that cross. Today I make you my Lord and Savior. And I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit so I can live for you. God, I thank you. For those who just made the best decision of their life. Bless them. Thank you for their life and all that you have planned for them. We as a church family, bless them today and praise God for what you've done in their lives. Now, for the rest of us, I don't know what area right now that you could release control. Maybe it's you've been feeling condemnation, or maybe you're facing some area of dis. Ease in your body or in your mind. Or maybe it's that just lack. You've just been. You've been struggling right now and you just need a blessing today in whatever area of your life. I don't know what it is. I don't even need to. God does. Just with your heart, maybe even with your hands in your lap. God, today we choose to receive your goodness. Your word says in Psalm 34, to taste and see that you are good today. God, we let you into every part of our lives. Our minds, our hearts, our bodies, our choices, our decisions, every single area. We lean not on our own understanding, but in this moment we choose to trust you and we proclaim you are good. All the time. In Jesus name, everybody said amen. Let's put our hands together and thank God for what he's done today.