A House That Looks Like Heaven - Part 2 | Pastor Johnny Hill

[Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] what's going on good morning everyone how you guys doing today we're so glad that you guys could join us this morning for another sunday in church yeah we're going to spend a couple of moments here with you guys in pre-service and i'm andreas and my name is jerica and in honor of valentine's day i actually get to host with my husband this morning so shout out to him we're so excited that like you said we're so excited that all of you are joining us on this very snowy valentine's day we're here in memphis tennessee we want to hear where you're watching from in the chat below let us know is this snowing is it sunny it's 75 because if it is i'm very jealous of you i personally hate the cold but it's always cool to see where everyone is watching from whether it's locally and nationally or even internationally you know our life church online family is big it's vast and so we want to get to know each other and connect with one another because we like to think of our chat as a virtual lobby it's a way for everyone to connect to chat chatting to say good morning you know our online family we just want to make sure that we're digitally connected as much as we can be here yeah and what we also want to do is we want to share this service so whether you're watching on facebook or youtube take a moment and share this with somebody in your world if you're watching on facebook it's as simple as hitting a share button and if you're watching on youtube man copy and paste that link and send it to somebody who you know you never know how your serve could impact somebody else's life today so let's make sure we serve and share yeah that's right you know it's a great service for you to share especially you know if the weather might be a little funny where you are it's a great opportunity for you to send some to your friend be like hey i know you're at home i know you might not have anything going on so why don't you join me for service this morning so be sure you go ahead jump in and do that uh you know we're gonna be doing worship here in a little bit uh it's gonna be an amazing time in worship there's actually a special worship element that's going to be happening a little bit later on that i can't wait for you guys to hear because it's going to be so so awesome and then pastor johnny's actually bringing the word for a house that looks like heaven part two of that amazing series that's all about diversity uh you know diversity is one of our values here at the life church and you know we really lean into this message because it's so good we heard it last night trust me you don't want to miss it so make sure you stick around for the entire service and then afterwards we'll be back and we'll be doing some shout outs and making some announcements so and you mentioned shout outs we're going to take a second and we're going to do some shout outs so no matter where you're watching from if it's snowing if it's not sewing and you're in california or if you're in new york put it in the chat let us know where you're watching from and we're going to shout some of you guys out yeah that's right all right we have brad he's saying good morning to people we have pj she said good morning from a snowy memphis that's so true all right who else you got shout out to megan watching from arlington yeah jesse who else we got we got ladonna from oakland all right we got t baker watching from marion arkansas shout out to arkansas shout out to arkansas her hometown her home state i should say [Laughter] all right we got brad watching deborah watching we got angela watching judy watching from the white haven area sherry watching so many other people watching have anyone else on facebook we've got jamie watching we have uh who else do we have we have lady g watching we have sam braswell and rush woods and many many more yeah all right well guys we're so excited that you decided to spend your sunday morning here with us and maybe you're wondering well hey i have some kids how can i get them involved in the kids life online well it's super easy all that you have to all you have to do is click the link that's coming up in the chat if you have kids that are five years through the fifth grade we have a special opportunity for them that happens every single sunday morning 9 30 and 11 15. there's some zoom small groups once you click that link you can register for them they'll be able to get in those small groups be around some more kids moving around some kids life leaders and so many other cool opportunities in that but of course safety is our number one priority and since this does happen via zoom we want to make sure that everyone registers first so unfortunately your kid cannot be a part of that kid's life online experience unless they register so be sure you click that link but maybe you're like hey i can't make it on sundays all the time what else can i do how else can i get connected in kid's life well you can follow kidslife on facebook and on instagram kidslife at the life church they're always posting some fun content there and there's even a youtube channel specifically just for kids life they're always dropping content every single week uh so you can get the most out of your kids get the most out of god's house and learn about god's house because of course it's a great time for them to do that so be sure that you guys click that link get plugged in and follow kidslife online yeah shout out to all the amazing kids of kids life they are incredibly awesome and shout out to the little kid that we have bacon in the oven right there she will be here soon next month in fact yeah yeah so aside from us we want to make sure all you guys who are part of our online campus get connected with our online facebook group yes join the campus and you have not joined the online facebook group yet we want you to do that there should be a prompt that's showing up now showing you exactly how to do that and what it does is it allows you to get exclusive content throughout the week and on the weekends before service about things that are going on in church so make sure you guys join that group yeah that's right it's super simple we're always posting some announcements in there asking how we can be praying for for one another it's just a great way for us to establish some community well hey you know it is valentine's day as you can see yeah you can see it from a headband here and we are married so it's an honor to be hosting with my husband this weekend but we're also going to play a game it's called game or lame we're going to be using some pickup lines on each other and we're going to determine whether or not the line has game or if it's lame and we want to hear from you we want to let you we want to hear your opinion let us know if you think the pickup line has a game or if you think it was everything gets lame now last night we played this game and most of them were lame if you asked me i don't know i think i think a couple of them have worked in the past though so hey all right well we'll see would you say i had game i mean at first probably not but i mean we're here so you did something right wow the shade she shaded me this morning okay but we are here i did get her in the end that's what counts okay all right you ready to play yeah let's go you can go first i'm usually not very prophetic but i can see us together lame okay that's like that was that was a little lame yeah i said that that was a little lame i think they could have came harder than that yeah be sure you let us know in the chat all right so this one says you can call me pharaoh cause i will never let you go i don't know i think that's a little lame too no what is this the prince no i don't know they came harder last night we're gonna see yes judy said lame t baker said lame brandy patterson said lame in all caps too so i didn't believe in predestination until i met you no lame let me tell you they're getting better they're getting better no if you came at me with that i would have laughed in your face wow okay all right so let's do this one i like my girls the way i like my microsoft word documents saved hey that's game that is game okay i will say that they even made our director will laugh i can hear him laughing okay i'm gonna say the house game only because that really made me happy that's funny like i'm saved yeah yeah reminders to everyone out there make sure you save your word doc your google docs all of that okay see the people are saying that one has games okay like that i still got a lot of lanes but now i'm getting some games in there shout out to kimberly and america prophet come on unfortunately i can't perform miracles and i've only got enough bread and fish for two people listen here hey y'all gotta stop i'm fed the bible is the key come on you got to have jesus i'm not here for it uh people said that one had game but i disagree that one was lame all right so here we go the next one is is your name faith because you're the substance of things i've hoped for what come again that was okay you know hey you're the substance of things that i've heard before i know that okay come on you're trying to get points in the chat i don't like that you try to get but it's working for the people because they said that game so come on let's go i guess that's all that matters all right what you got all right last one how would you like to join my purpose-driven life nah that's lame don't even have this lane that's that's lame over there yeah that's right all right next one last one if you're looking for a man with good credit jesus paid my debt hey come on jesus paid the debt all right we're about to hop into service so what should they do if they're getting ready for service what we want to do before we hop into services we want to get the atmosphere ready so yeah knock everything else aside create that atmosphere for christ and let's get ready to worship yep see you guys later [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] good morning good morning welcome out to the life church come on i know we got a little cold and snow out there but we're gonna heat it up in here this morning with a little praise to our god are you ready come on [Music] i am singing [Music] you call [Music] it me [Applause] [Music] me and this is what you did for me [Music] so my praise will never come down my praise will never come down [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is what you did for me [Music] [Applause] [Music] will never come [Music] you have restored me [Music] you have restored me [Music] you [Music] we're broken [Music] this is what you did for me down my praise will never come down my praise will never come down come on church our god's not done working this morning so come on let's lift our praise let's give our best worship to him today come on [Music] you see beginning and god of the rescue god of the breakthrough how great is your faithfulness [Music] [Applause] no one could ever comprehend we will trust [Music] you put a [Music] this morning [Music] is [Music] things are still ahead [Music] [Music] don't [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] don't hold back [Music] [Music] [Music] you're not done yet [Applause] [Music] is [Music] now sometimes it seems like we've been walking in circles and walking around this wall a long time but one thing we know that you're faithful and you never fail walking around these walls i thought by now they fall but you have never failed me waiting for change to come [Music] all together [Music] great is your faith [Music] yes [Music] i know [Music] [Music] jesus and my heart will sing your praise again come on your heart will sing as praises again yes they will yes it will come on your promises your promise is [Music] our confidence is in your lord yes it is this is [Music] come on he's a strong power come on if god is for you who can be against you our god is faithful to a thousand generations [Music] is [Music] [Music] god [Music] [Music] me [Music] oh [Music] your promise still stands great is your faithfulness your faith i'm still in your hands i'm still in your hands [Music] is [Music] where there was no nowhere and i believe i'll still do it again [Music] i'll see you do it [Music] i know you can do it again [Music] i believe [Music] wow we're having church on this beautiful sunday morning welcome everybody who's glad to be in church today come on this is the day the lord has made we will rejoice we're all connected together all of our campuses connected together this morning as well as a bunch of people watching online or online family come on houston levy can we welcome everybody and thank god for everybody joining in with us today [Applause] and we're going to take some time to have what we call our ministry time and we do this most weekends uh we sing another worship song and and then we open the front of the stages at every location we call it the altar just a place for you to come and pray and to seek god if you're carrying something heavy you know the bible talks about casting your burdens on the lord right casting your cares on him and so you have the opportunity to come and pray here at the altar and we're also going to have communion available we're not going to take it all together as a church family but you are welcome to approach the table of the lord on either side of the stage at every location and just remember the price that jesus paid for you we're going to have prayer partners as well on either side of the stage if you want somebody to pray with you they're going to have masks on and they're going to be all sanitized but they're going to be full of faith and they're going to be ready to pray for you and i was thinking about this song that we just sang and just that one little word that's so important for all of us and such a part of our faith uh that word again everybody say it again again and just to stop and think about how faithful god has been to us in every season of our life i mean really you got to stop and think sometimes again and again and again and again god has been good to us he's forgiven us he's provided for us right he's healed us he's opened doors in our life and it's just like again and again even today we woke up this morning and the sun had come up and his mercies were were brand new for us the bible says even today again god is faithful and so what that does is that gives us tremendous strength on the inside because we know if he's done it then he can do it again and he'll do it even again tomorrow and so i just want to encourage you a little bit i know there's some challenges that we're facing and maybe you're walking through something real challenging at home or at work or or maybe even your physical body i just want you to know god is good and he's faithful and he can heal you he can save the person that you're discouraged about you know he can reach right down into any situation in any circumstance and turn things around come on somebody god is good right and he can do it again i'm going to pray and then we're going to go into this ministry time team's going to lead us again can we can we just lift our hands just build an altar with our worship come on even at home if you're watching at home just crank it up a little bit crank up the sound a little bit just fill that that apartment with the presence of god and with your worship father god we love you today we worship you and we honor you we thank you that you are the god of thee again and lord you do it again and here we are in your presence again and here we are sensing your love again and here we are seeing you lord move in our lives again lord with our worship with our hands lifted with our voices lifted we build an altar of worship because you inhabit the praises of your people and lord come and move move at the altars today moving prayer in a communion and in worship lord move in our midst we pray we thank you for it in jesus name come on everybody said amen let's respond to the lord everybody creation knows the breath that brought the dice to life the darkness fears that drove it back before and though the night is [Music] things change on your [Music] authority it's true on your authority yes we believe it's true [Music] i worship you because i know all things [Music] you're [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] so [Music] changes is is [Music] [Applause] [Music] i [Music] my let's go let's go pastor mundo calls that the heavenly language good job syria welcome to church everybody so glad you're here this morning and it's great to be in the house of god today and david said i was glad when they said to me let's go to the house of the lord come on how many of you know that well you can grab your seats i want to just welcome everybody who's here for the very first time if you're a guest today so glad you're here we uh have often referred to our guests as vips very important people we're glad you're in service at any one of our locations if you're a guest today or if this is your first time watching online we say welcome we're so glad that you are watching us and you can scroll around uh on the the website and get more information about who we are as a church but we're glad you are joining in with us we're going to get into the message in just a few moments but first we're going to be generous so we're going to take time to give right now to bring our tithe and to bring our offering and we've been talking about this a little bit as we finished up our open heaven series a few weeks ago come on how many of you know one of the most tangible keys to an open heaven in our life is the principle of the tithe when we take that first ten percent everybody say ten that's what the word tithe means and we bring that first ten percent the bible says that god throws open the floodgates of heaven brings an open heaven over our life and i've been praying that for you for 2021. come on anybody believing for an open heaven for 2021 over your finances over your future and so it's valentine's day payday is tomorrow and so get ready to bring uh the first part and honor god some of you have already done that and i'm gonna pray over our finances and pray over those of you that have already given uh online and it's very easy by the way and simple to do if you've never done it just get right on the website at thelifechurch.com and you can set up recurring giving and it's very safe obviously and very secure and thank you for being so generous and so consistent in your giving i'm going to tell you it makes a difference and enables us as a church to do everything that god has called us to do so thank you thank you thank you father god we love you today thank you for being so faithful to us and i pray a blessing over every person that has brought their tithe and given online and lord i just speak a blessing over every gift and over every offering and i thank you father god that it is blessed and multiplied and coming back to us thank you that you are using our giving to open the windows of heaven over our life and i pray an open heaven over every single one of us thank you for this offering this weekend lord i thank you that you're using it lord to move your kingdom forward and i thank you in jesus name come on and all the people of god said amen and amen god bless you as you give now as you give later thank you again for being so generous let's get our bibles out everybody we are very um excited about the series that we are in two-part series started last weekend and i was all set to kick the series off and i myself got the coronavirus but i came through in jesus name and feel much better thank you for praying for me so uh anyway a series that is very very special to us as we talk about a very important value diversity we uh we like to say this way we are building a house that looks like heaven and so pastor muno did a beautiful job last weekend launching the series this weekend we have pastor johnny hill who's going to speak and always brings a great great word an encouraging word and so before he comes we're going to check out this video some things that are coming up in church life so check it out everybody to the life church welcome to the life church we are so glad you are joining us today each weekend we have online services available where you can be a part of worship hear an encouraging message and connect with an online community that is welcoming and friendly we're all about helping people get connected and move forward in life and one of the best ways to get started is by taking your next step stay connected and build life-giving relationships by joining an online life group we have lots of different options to fit a variety of interests and we would love to help you find a life group just visit thelifechurch.com to find one that's right for you if you would like to know more about the life church or how to get involved our online discovery experience is the place for you through discovery you will learn how you can make a difference and get planted in church you can register for discovery online at thelifechurch.org god has an incredible plan for your life and we would love for you to be a part of all that's taking place here at the life church [Music] well hey good morning everybody good morning come on isn't it good to be in church this morning come on let's thank god as we get ready to jump into the word it's a beautiful snowy day if you're here in the memphis region but come on it's good to be in god's house this morning and it's my honor to get to bring the word this morning and and share with you i hope that you're encouraged this morning uh as i uh bring god's word but before i got started uh we've been celebrating diversity and uh this month is also black history month and uh black history month actually started uh in the early 1900s around 1915 and it actually started as a week carter g woodson he was one of the the leaders of the movement to remember the contributions the significant the significant contributions of black americans to our nation and it actually they selected this they selected february because it was the week that was close to frederick douglass's birthday as well as abraham lincoln's birthday and it later grew into a month and uh and now we get to celebrate it and celebrate all that people have brought to our nation and this morning i just wanted to highlight a couple of people uh that we want to recognize and you'll see on our social media different figures and different uh significant people that have made contributions so enjoy those uh throughout the rest of this month but i just want to highlight a couple of the people that will be uh will be celebrating this month the first one is this extraordinary woman dr may jemison who's made an incredible impact in the world of science in fact she became the first black woman astronaut in 1987 when she was chosen out of 2000 applicants to be one of only 15 people in the nasa astronaut group 2 which was the first group selected following the challenger tragedy and she ultimately became the first black female to travel into space in 1992 and today she's a doctor a former peace corps officer an engineer and she also leads the defense advanced research projects agency's 100 year starship program which aims to send humans outside our solar system in the next century come on magnificent woman there and this next person is has deep roots here in memphis it's tied to our memphis history come on i love memphis history and it's bishop charles harrison mason and he's one of the most famous ministers in memphis history he was born to former slaves in 1866 but he went on to become the founder of the church of god in christ or kojic as many people affectionately call it and it's now the largest pentecostal denomination and the fifth largest christian denomination in the united states and yeah we can clap for him and its presence is felt strongly right here in memphis because the headquarters is right here in our beautiful city in fact many people in our church family grew up cogic with a rich spiritual heritage and bishop mason he was also an activist he would often host civil rights rallies in his lifetime at the famous mason temple and in fact a few years after his death dr martin luther king shared his famous mountaintop speech there at mason temple and to this day bishop mason's spiritual legacy lives on in the lives of many people around the world come on why don't we thank god for these people and the significant contributions that they made to our history well like pastor john said we're in this series a house that looks like heaven and pastor mundo did an awesome job last week if you haven't gotten a chance to hear his message i encourage you man go back do yourself a favor go back and watch that message and but this series and really this thought we are building a house that looks like heaven it was it starts even from in our church uh from the heart of our pastors pastor john and leslie even before our church started and now it's one of our value statements you know and this year for me uh it's it'll be 16 years that i've had the honor of being a part of being a part of our church and so i've got to be a part of our journey and seeing how much we've grown in diversity and and how we've taken continue to take steps and build something amazing you know and we say we're building a house that looks like heaven we haven't arrived right we're continuing to grow continuing to move forward but i believe that we have built and are building something amazing together come on we're on this journey of diversity together it hasn't always been easy come on we've walked through some things as a church even as a as a society as a nation over the last year and and you know our hope is in all of it to reflect god's heart for all people and to continue to build a church that's made up of people from all different races different backgrounds different socio-economic statuses come on we want to build truly build a church that reflects the heart of heaven but beyond that our hope is that our church family would live a life of diversity would take a value like this home because yes it's so powerful i love here uh in in at houston levien at all of our locations and even those watching online i love the power that speaks from the diversity of our church but how much more powerful is it when we take it home and we live a life that values and pursues diversity you know together we're building something beautiful and i believe that it positions us as a church to be a leading voice right now god has called us to lead the way right now if you're here today if you're watching online if you're watching me at another location god has called you to lead the way in this area right now everybody say right now you see because we can't leave things to what the media is saying y'all know what i'm talking about we can't leave things to to what hollywood is saying in movies and on tv shows we can't leave things to what people are saying on social media we can't leave things so what some of our crazy family members are saying can i get an amen in the house of god this morning come on we we can't leave it up to them but god's called us to be a leading voice and whenever we tackle a subject like this we always ask the question what does the bible say what does the bible say you see the reality is from the day that the church was born we see god's heart for diversity present we see god's heart to break down the dividing walls not only between himself and us because that's what he did right when jesus went to the cross when jesus died on the cross the bible says that the veil was torn from the top to the bottom and now we had that free access to god we were able to enter into his presence freely and see jesus did that work all by himself but once he rose from the grave he told his disciples now you go to all the world what is he saying the same way i've taken this dividing wall and i've taken that away between you and god your father i now want you to go into the world and to tear down those dividing walls all those walls that humanity has put up against each other all those things that will try to keep us apart we get to partner with jesus to indiscriminately reach people for the kingdom of god and so i even think about abraham and the promise that was made to abraham you know we're called the sons and the daughters of abraham in genesis chapter 22 verse 18 god promised abraham he said and through your offspring all nations come on everybody say all nations all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me who was he talking about his offspring was first jesus and but then also that includes us because of jesus we can be called the sons and daughters and so we walk in that same promise come on through us god's desire is that all people all ethnicities all backgrounds all cultures would be impacted would experience god's blessing through our lives you see we are called to live a life that is all-inclusive because the gospel is all-inclusive it's all-inclusive y'all remember cruises y'all remember cruises isn't it funny to talk about stuff we did before covet like it was back in the day back in my day we used to pile on these big boats and sail to tropical islands that was way back in the day that's how it feels some feel sometimes i was thinking about going to the movies i was like man i miss things like that you know but my wife and i uh for our honeymoon we actually went on a cruise in fact we'll celebrate seven years of marriage at the end of this month come on seven years for seven years the lord has been blessing her life and [Laughter] but it was my first cruise and i quickly began to appreciate that all of our food and all of our entertainment was all inclusive it was all-inclusive in fact for breakfast we had to all we had to do was show up because it was included for lunch we just had to show up because that was included too for dinner we just had to show up because that was included or maybe we're in the room and we wanted to order a pizza we just had to make the phone call because it was all-inclusive our job was just to show up because our crews had already been paid for the price had already been paid but we still had a responsibility to show up and y'all guess what when it comes to the kingdom of god the price was paid a long time ago jesus paid the price on the cross and his kingdom is an all-inclusive kingdom he's called us to be all-inclusive people so we've got to be willing to show up in the lives of people that don't look like us show up in the lives of people that don't come from the same neighborhood that we came from show up in the lives of people that don't talk like us and don't eat food the way we eat our food we've got to be willing to show up and we've got to be all-inclusive we don't look for reasons to keep people out of our lives and out of god's kingdom but we look for reasons to bring people in tell somebody show up show up come on i almost went td checks touch 17 people tell them show up sure anyway that actually wasn't a really good anyway sorry come on jesus paid the price but we've got to show up and be all-inclusive come on even the church even the day that the church began we see god immediately reveal his plan for diversity right from the beginning in the book of acts chapter 2 the followers of jesus they were gathered in one place and jesus had ascended to heaven and he had given him the great commission and told them to go into all the world but he said before you go i need you to wait i need you to wait for the holy spirit that was promised you and so that's what they were doing they were waiting and and then we see the scene they're all together and the bible says that they there's a sound like a mighty rushing wind that comes into the room and what seemed like tongues of fire begin to rest on everyone and that's what we pick up in acts chapter 2 verse 4 it says and everyone present was filled with the holy spirit and began speaking in other languages as the holy spirit gave them this ability at that time there were devout jews from every nation living in jerusalem when they heard the loud noise everyone came running and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers they were completely amazed how can this be they exclaimed these people are all from galilee and yet we hear them speaking in our own native tongues here we are parthians means elamites people from mesopotamia judea cappadocia pontus the province of asia phrygia pamphylia egypt and the areas of libya and cyrene visitors from rome both jews and converse to judaism cretans and arabs and we all hear these people speaking in our own language about the wonderful things god has done they stood amazed and were perplexed they said what can this mean they asked each other what can this mean and i love peter peter got up and he preached but one of the things that he said this he said he said in the last days god says i will pour out my spirit upon all people come on somebody say all people come on say it like you mean it all people you see the church was destined to be diverse from the very onset see these are just the people groups that were mentioned but i could imagine if me or you were standing in a crowd we would have heard them talking and said aren't these people from galilee man they sound like americans or some of us would have been like man they got a country twain just like me they we would have heard them talking in our own language in our own dialect in our own voices why because god's heart to reach all people was present when the church was born at the very beginning and guess what y'all even when we get to the very end of this age we still see god's heart for all people look at what it says in revelation it was prophesied it said in revelation chapter 5 verse 9 and they sang a new song saying you are worthy to take the scroll and open his seals because you were slain talking about jesus and with your blood you purchased for god persons from every tribe and language and people and nation revelation 7 9 after this i looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one can count no one could count from every nation tried people and language standing before the throne and before the lamb you see a big god a big part of god's will being done on earth as it is in heaven is us as believers having an all-people mindset having an all-people perspective when it comes to the way we live our lives we live with all people in mind you see god's heart has never been the problem heaven has never been the problem but it's the brokenness of humanity it's our brokenness that causes us to come up with stereotypes causes us to come up with prejudices causes us to come up with bias it's our brokenness that has birth racism in our society and those things the res those things that all of us if we're honest there's still things in our heart that god continues to have to work out maybe things that we learn from our childhood maybe things we heard our grandparents say about people of a different race and god's continuing to work out those things in our heart because the reality is if we're going to build a house that looks like heaven we first got to open up our own hearts and allow god to do the work on the inside of us because he's using us to build his house you see unfortunately we see even today that fear and ignorance and misunderstanding has caused even christians even people that say they follow jesus to not embrace people that don't look like them the way the lord would have us to but see in order to build a house we've got to have some building blocks and when i think about building blocks i think about the abcs and how the abcs are considered the building blocks of words and language and so i know i've been preaching for a while but if you need a title for this message you can call this message the abcs of diversity so i'm going to walk through the abcs of diversity now don't get nervous i'm not going through all 26 alphabet don't worry about that but i just want to talk about three a b and c everybody say abc come on sing it with me a b no i'm just playing i'm playing hey the first one is this diversity is an adventure diversity is an adventure everybody say adventure diversity is an adventure it's an adventure you know i love getting to talk about diversity because it's a big part of my life and it's been a big part of my story it's been a big part of my journey in fact i can remember all the way back to when i was a really little a little child and my mom and i we were actually talking about this the other day and when i was in head start preschool and uh my mom had a friend named miss charlene she was a white lady that had a child her daughter april was in my class in preschool and we actually spent a lot of time with their family in fact we would even go over to their house one of my earliest memories in life is playing hungry hungry hippos at their house and so i think about how at the very beginning of my story there was this diversity present and then even in my childhood growing up you know after my father passed my mom was able to move us out of the housing projects and we moved into a neighborhood that was a diverse neighborhood we had i had diverse friends so my neighborhood friends were one kid named damon another one named skylar you know that's two black dudes right there and then my other friend his name was steven yuper i don't even have to say it y'all know that's a white brother i had my other friend carlos you know he was like hola what's up you know and then i had my friend brad martinez he was a white guy but with like a spanish last name but that was funny but i had diversity present even in my childhood growing up around the neighborhood we would ride our bikes together and go on the levee together and get into all kinds of trouble that boys like to get in together and even when i got to high school i see how diversity was present in high school i think i got they got a picture they're going to put up from high school that's my in my senior year of high school and that's a group of friends we were part of something called leadership and i think about how those relationships we were all friends and some of those people i still keep in touch to keep in touch with to this day that's your boy right there in the blue striped shirt if you haven't figured it out right there that's johnny that's pre-dreads johnny right there that you're seeing that's before i had the dreads and so i think about how diversity was always a part of my life i was looking at that picture one day and i was like wow this looks like a picture from life church or something like that and i see the diversity present in my life then i think about my own family present day my family ashley and our kids and and i think about how diversity is just weaved into every part of my life and so i love getting to talk about it i love getting to celebrate celebrated because i love the adventure that i've been on because of diversity i love the richness that is brought into my life i love the broad perspective that it's brought into my life all because of diversity and so i had this advantage of being exposed to diversity all along the way little by little end and i can say i'm thankful for the adventure you know the word adventure i looked it up and it actually means an unusual and exciting typically hazardous experience or activity and i'm gonna talk a little bit later on about the challenges of diversity you know it can be hard sometimes but but it's it can be it can lead to you having an unusual and exciting experience come on everybody say exciting come on because of the relationships that i've had it's brought an unusual excitement to my life and our church has been a mega catalyst to to deepening my experiences when it comes to diverse relationships i mean i met my wife at church hello single people you don't know what the law i got for you i was praying with one eye open if y'all know what i'm talking about but here's the thing god doesn't want us to miss out on the adventure that diversity can bring into all our lives i love what the apostle paul said in first corinthians chapter nine i love how it reads in the message it says this even though i'm free starting at verse 19 he says even though i am free of the demands and expect and expectations of everyone i have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people religious non-religious meticulous moralists loose living immoralists the defeated the demoralized whoever come on i love that whoever i would imagine if he was making this list today he would say black white latino asian democrat republican all kinds of people whoever and he says i didn't take on their way of life i kept my bearings in christ come on he kept christ at the center of it all right that's what it's all about jesus is the focus of it all he says but i entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view i love that he didn't say i entered their world and judged them i entered their world and started to criticize how they lived i entered their world and i didn't like it no he said i entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view he says i've become just about every sort of servant look at that word he's willing to serve there is in my attempts to lead those i meet to a into a god-saved life i did all this because of the message i love this this is what we want right here this last line he says i didn't just want to talk about it i wanted to be in on it come on i didn't just want it to be a pretty statement i didn't just want it to be a pretty value but i wanted to be in on it i wanted my life to reflect on it i didn't want to miss out on all that god had he says i was willing to go to all people whoever he said i become all things to all men he wasn't talking about like code switching or or cultural appropriation but he said i entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view in other words he was saying i listened and tried to understand i listened and tried to understand if this is an area that's been a challenge for you and you're like man it's a little awkward a little uncomfortable here's a place to start listen and try to understand ask questions be willing to listen and try to understand come on diversity is an adventure everybody say adventure the second one is this b diversity has its benefits you ever heard membership has its benefits diversity has its benefits it expands our horizons it has its benefits proverbs 27 17 says as iron sharpens iron so a friend sharpens a friend i love pastor mildo last week pulled out that crayon sharpening talking about how people sharpen our lives well when we have a diversity of friends it sharpens our lives in different ways it brings benefits into our lives it brings exposure into our lives it helps us to try new things to try new music to learn about new traditions to to learn about new movies to learn new things to broaden our view of the world to broaden our mindset you know i've got friends of all different races and experiences and they've helped me so much they've helped me to expand my mind some of the things that that i've pursued in life has become because of the influence of people the wide range of friends and maybe maybe that's not been your life maybe you're in a place where this is the first diverse environment that you've been a part of well i just want to say welcome to the party come on jump on in welcome but see i can't tell you how many places i've gone and how many things i've learned because of diversity in my life you know it's brought blessing it's brought benefits you know even simple experiences like new food you know i remember when some of my friends were introducing me to sushi years ago and i was like y'all there's some white people stuff like pharrell this i grew up in southeast louisiana if you're gonna eat fish you're gonna deep fry that fish you better put that in some grease and but now i love it you know but something as simple as that it expanded my life how about this one expanded opportunities that's another benefit it brings it brings exposure but it brings expanded opportunities it brings a diversity of opportunity access to a whole new place and you know i wrote this down i feel like this is for some of us your opportunities will only be as diverse as your relationships or how about this the access you need might be in a relationship that you've been afraid to pursue because you think you're going to be rejected we've got to be willing to pursue diversity you know how about this benefit this is one that i love that it challenges our misconceptions what i found is that diversity helps all of us to realize that we are more alike than we think we are you know i've had the opportunity to have white roommates and living with some white guys i realized oh y'all just like me we're more alike than we think we are and you know i've gone over to friend's house my friend joshi you know growing up he's latino and we would go to his house all the time and and i realized that his house wasn't that different than my house i realized that when i walked up to his house i could smell his mama cooking just like i could smell my mama cooking and it smelled real good y'all know what i'm talking about i realized that his uncle would get bad when we hit his truck with the basketball just like my uncle would get mad when we hit his truck with the basketball we diversity has taught me that we're more alike than we think we are you see when we're friends with people of a different race it helps us to not lump people into one category it helps us to understand and realize that some of the things we think about people are just flat out wrong anybody ever learned that you were wrong you don't have to be shy we can raise our hands me too you figure out that i'm wrong that i'm wrong about people you know some of my best experiences in life have been when i found out that some of my prejudices and stereotypes were completely wrong completely wrong see the reality is not everybody will even fit into the boxes that we try to put people in and see this is a subject that we can't allow popular opinion to form our thoughts because there's a lot of voices out there y'all but we've got to push through all the garbage and hear what god's saying and what god's speaking in our own hearts and see what i love about our church is that being a part of a church like our church not only challenges our personal misconceptions but then we also get to challenge other people's misconceptions i remember a few years ago i was sitting at lunch with a good friend of mine his name was mike who was a part of our church and he's in his mid-50s he's a white guy in his mid-50s and and he's you know had salt and pepper hair military guy looks like military guy and we're sitting down at lunch and he looked across at me and he said you know what pastor johnny you know what i love about our church i love the fact that we're sitting here at lunch and there's probably nobody in this restaurant that would ever guess that you're my pastor and i love that because y'all we just get to confuse the whole world and so diversity has benefits it brings benefits everybody say benefits but this last thought see diversity is worth the challenge everybody say it's worth it come on diversity it's worth the challenge it's not easy it can be awkward it can be uncomfortable we might have times where we feel a little bit out of place but it's worth it it's worth pushing through that hey if you don't get nothing else out of this message i just want to encourage you to push through that push through it in your own life push through it in your own world push through it in your own circles push through it when you show up at a life group push through it push through it you know and it's been a challenge even from the beginning because here's what's interesting we see when the church is born on the day of pentecost all these people that speak all these different languages hear about the goodness of god in their own language god's heart for diversity is shown but yet just a little while later we have believers that have trouble getting along with each other they have they start to have division and look at this in first corinthians chapter 1 verse 10 the apostle paul he's telling them he says i appeal to you dear brothers and sisters by the authority of our lord jesus christ to live in harmony with each other let there be no divisions in the church let there be no divisions in the church let there be no divisions in the church rather be of one mind everybody say one mind united in thought and purpose look at what he says for some members of chloe's household have told me about your quarrels my dear brothers and sisters some of you are saying i'm a follower of paul others are saying i follow apollos or i follow peter or i follow only christ has christ been divided into factions was i paul crucified for you were any of you baptized in the name of paul of course not you see i read you this verse because here's what happened even in the early church the people found a way to be divided and here's what happened they were picking sides based on the original group that they were all part of it's like oh i heard the gospel from paul so i'm gonna go back to my group oh i heard from apollo so i'm going over here to my group oh yeah well i'm only jesus so i'm real spiritual you know it's like they broke up into these groups and it was more theological but it really showed evidence of how we have this tendency to pull away into our own group and especially in a time when the climate can be challenging and when the climate can be difficult we feel like maybe it's a little safer for me to go back into my own group because even the church back then they were facing resistance and see we can't take on that mindset in today's climate even when all these voices all this tension you know we don't want to retreat now is not the time to retreat come on we are not those that shrink back and are destroyed but we are those that move forward in faith and the only way that we're going to move forward is together as we unite as we lead the way for the world around us we help people to tear down the walls that they put up for so long and we keep moving forward come on somebody and you see just like the abc's we are the building blocks of the church the bible calls us living stones and god is building us together this beautiful picture this beautiful picture that reflects the heart of heaven but the wonderful thing is we don't lose our uniqueness along the way you see you can be unique but we can still be unified we still all bring our different flavors to the table but we can still have unity i brought out my little blocks my little alphabet blocks pastor mundo did crayons last week and i'm bringing out the blocks we going to our childhood because really what i've learned when it comes to diversity you can learn best from children because children don't care what color you are they don't care they don't know nothing about all that they learn that from us can we be real jesus said if you're going to inherit the kingdom you got to be like children and so even this subject we've got to approach it just like little children little children see me in the store and they're like hey they don't know any different why because their hearts are wide open and that's how we've got to be but little by little god's building us together he's building us into a beautiful house his house that reflects the heart of heaven we get to partner with him to build the greatest thing on the face of the planet the house of god the ecclesia the expression of jesus here on the earth and all along the way we all come in with our different stories our different backgrounds our different journeys and each one of us not without significance of our own like this letter l it could stand on its own each one of us has significance but as we build together we start to see that the picture that god intended gets more and more complete all along the way as we each are added to the to the puzzle as we're each adding to his house we're each at it sharing our story and sharing our experience and we can step back and we see that all together it makes sense and that god's built something incredible but here's what happens sometimes the pressure comes and we find ourselves removing ourselves from the equation and maybe we have friends peer pressure family members that say you go to that that church and oh you're dating you're dating a a black dude oh you're i remember in my own life there was a time when i said i i don't think i could ever marry a white girl but it was because i heard what my family members and maybe some church members and people had said about interracial couples in and we can give in to that pressure or maybe for us it's misunderstanding and we can be offended and we remove ourselves and or or maybe maybe there's something else that happens in and we get a little uncomfortable because we're around people that that we're not used to being around and they don't come from the neighborhood so we decide to remove ourselves from the equation and and and maybe somebody says something on facebook and we don't quite understand why they say that and we make the choice to remove ourselves from the equation but y'all now is not the time to remove ourselves now is the time to keep building now is the time to keep going now is the time for us to stay together now is the time for us to fight for unity because see the picture god has it's not going to be complete without you each one of us have a part don't throw it away come on let's keep moving forward together let's keep building together we are building a house that looks like heaven we've got the common ground his name is jesus we've got the common cost building god's house building his house but we've got to be willing to stand together oh i wish i had some people in here that would stand with me that would believe that would trust that would move forward together we're committed to this thing we are building a beautiful picture with our god we're partnering with him to reflect the heart of heaven we are partnering with our god to reflect his heart his will be done on earth as it is in heaven and god's will is that we would live a life that welcomes all people [Music] all people come on do you receive that today come on let's thank god for his word let's really thank him for his word [Applause] well you can take your seats here and if you're standing at every location and i just want to take a moment to talk to you about the spiritual condition of your life you see the reality is the first relationship we've got to get right is our relationship with jesus because that's the foundation of every other part of our lives our relationship with him and the reality is jesus came to earth to save all people and you know what my friend that includes you maybe you're watching online that includes you jesus walked the earth he was tempted in every way just like we're tempted but he never gave into that temptation in fact that's what allowed him to be that perfect sacrifice to die in our place and no one took his life jesus said no one takes my life but i lay it down and if i lay it down i can pick it back up again and that's exactly what he did he picked his life up again he overcame death he overcame the grave you see death really had had no rights to him because he had never sinned the penalty for sin is death but jesus overcame that and that same life that he was raised to can come alive on the inside of us and bring us to new life as we put our trust in him in fact we're promised the bible says that if we confess with our mouth that jesus is lord and we believe in our hearts that god raised him from the dead then we will be saying that word save literally means to be rescued we'll be rescued from our sin we no longer have to pay that penalty of eternal separation from god our father will rescue from living a life outside of god's purpose now we can begin to walk in the purpose and the plan that he has for us but it starts when we believe it starts when we confess and so we're going to pray a prayer in just a moment to give you the chance to do just that to confess with your mouth as maybe you're believing in your heart for the very first time you might feel a stirring on the inside that's jesus he says if today you hear my voice don't harden your hearts he's speaking he's knocking on the door of your heart and in fact maybe you're hearing you would say you know what johnny i prayed a prayer like that long time ago i prayed that prayer and i was walking with god and but i walked away man i walked away and i haven't been living for him well my friend you can pray this prayer as an act of renewing your commitment to jesus once and for all and so right now with every head bowed and every eye closed no one moving around i'm gonna ask you to do one simple thing i'm not gonna embarrass you in any way i'm not gonna call you down front not that there's anything wrong with that but for our purposes right now right here at houston levy at all of our locations and even if you're watching online if you would say i need to be included in this prayer i need to pray for the very first time or as an act of renewal i would ask you to lift your hand right now come on lift them up high don't be afraid don't be ashamed i see hands going up right here houston let me maybe there's hands going up at another auditorium anyone else would join those that would say include me in this prayer johnny awesome well come on church let's do this why don't we pray this prayer out loud in support of those that are praying for the very first time and as an act of renewal say this with me father god thank you for sending jesus to die on the cross for me and to rise again so i could have a new life i ask you to forgive me of all my sins cleanse me make me brand new come live inside of me fill me with your holy spirit and give me the strength to live for you for the rest of my life in jesus mighty name amen amen come on church oh come on let's really thank god all of heaven is rejoicing and we can rejoice too all right what an amazing message on the abcs of diversity from pastor johnny hill congratulations if you made that fresh start we're so proud of you and really we want to come alongside you as your online life church family and give you a resource that would help move your relationship with god forward you got a fresh start with god you'll see it right here behind us um if you'd like a physical copy we can get you one but even better we can get you a virtual copy all you've got to do is just click the link that's popping up in the chat and it's really short and simple and sweet but it's got some practical steps that will help move your relationship with god forward and really strengthen your walk with him come on we're so proud of you congratulations for making that decision today yeah and if you're joining us for the very first time well first we want to say welcome welcome yeah we're so excited that you decided to spend your sunday morning here with us and on behalf of our pastors pastors john and leslie sibling we're so excited that you are here and we love it if you would let us know that this was your first time by clicking the link that you see coming up in the chat on both youtube and facebook it's just a way for us to get to know you a little bit better and it gives you access to a free gift we'll actually send you a gift that everyone loves gifts especially you know around the holiday time so be sure you go ahead click that link so we'll so we know that you're here we can get that gift in your hand yeah i want to tell you something about something pretty cool it's a podcast we have here at church if you hadn't heard of it called leadership and black and white hosted by pastor john and pastor wayne and it's always funny it's always encouraging it's always inspiring it's not just like i guess i'll listen to this thing it's actually really good and really insightful that will help you really strengthen your walk with god and strengthen your relationship with other people grow closer to the church this month i want to highlight in particular in honor of black history month they actually got to go film it at the national civil rights museum and kind of talked about dr dr martin luther king's legacy yeah really got to talk about the things that we're celebrating this month and i was really encouraged by it i think you should go listen and you can subscribe to it on spotify on apple or if you want to go watch it just because it was filmed actually at the museum that got to do a walk through you can go watch it on youtube it's really encouraging you should check it out yeah it is and i actually think we have a sneak peek of the podcast from this month so let's go ahead and check this out together [Music] [Music] what's up well like we said it is an amazing podcast especially this month so make sure you log on to youtube there's a link that's coming up in the chat so you can go ahead and watch that episode but hey maybe you're looking what is my next step you're already a part of the online campus and you're trying to figure out how you can get more people to get a part of this yes how do i get more plugged in at church well discovery online might be for you it's going to be an easy way for you to learn more about yourself learn more about our church our vision our values and so many other amazing things and hey it's all online it's all completely virtual just for you no matter where you are in the world all you have to do is click that link that you see in the chat so that you can get plugged in and learn more about discovery online a great way to be part of the family here at the live church whether you're online or in person and speaking of being online or in person i want to invite you if you haven't made it to church yet this weekend or you know someone who hasn't made it yeah go ahead and invite them to this next service maybe you want to brave the snow here in the mid-south and come to one of our locations in person or maybe you just want to share this service and get someone else invited double dip a little bit that message was so encouraging i know we all know people who would really benefit from hearing from it come on the last message of this series let's lean in it's going to be a great service but before we go we just want to pray a prayer of blessing over you over your family over anyone who's listening right now so join me in prayer dear jesus thank you for everyone god that's that watch this service online this weekend thank you for everyone who's part of the online family god i pray that you would use us to continue to build a house that looks like heaven god not only building the house of god but building our own families lives to reflect the diversity of heaven of your family god we pray a prayer of blessing right now god i pray that the blessing of number six god that you would bless us and keep us god that your face would shine upon us as we go thank you for all that you're gonna do god we know that you will continue to bless us keep us safe god return us back next week in jesus name amen and amen come on thank you so much for joining us online this weekend happy valentine's day happy valentine's day see you guys [Music]

Channel: The Life Church

Views: 2,884

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Id: 6KysDvLd900

Length: 93min 50sec (5630 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 14 2021