"Above All Else" Chapel Series: Pastor Brian Cromer | Highlands College Chapel

see okay that was good but it's preview day what's up everybody come on and uh just such a such an amazing time of worship we just had caroline i don't know where you went but that was so so powerful you ministered to my heart i was over there weeping i love your pastor too and i love jesus and it was so so we're just so proud of you and how god is using you and i just sent such an authority in your leadership today because you love jesus and i think that's an amazing just testimony honestly the perfect way for us to launch preview day is just highlighting what hc's all about luke 10 2 is our key verse it's all about jesus's prayer that he sees a harvest field in the world and what he's looking for is exactly caroline what you're doing he's looking for laborers for leaders to step into that harvest field who love him and love his world and that's what hc's all about so i know we've done it a couple times but hc students faculty team can you guys welcome our preview day guests tell them how much we love them [Applause] [Music] it's awesome [Music] thank you all for doing that i love we love a culture of honor and that's what that moment right there is all about we do honor all of you guys and it's a really really exciting hey everybody hc fam we have 57 students who are visiting today and so uh alabama i think was represented strong we had georgia represented really strong [Music] texas the lone star state i think there was mississippi in there florida was in there ohio come on ohio and even pennsylvania was in the mix today so that's right that's right pa that's right and so hey welcome everybody and parents we also welcome you and uh here's our heart i'm excited for us here in a moment to jump in god's word one of my best friends here today going to preach um just want to take a couple minutes you've heard this in different ways all day today but our heart for you parents and those who are visiting with us today is just to experience hc of course we know you have questions and we do our best to give you details but this chapel moment is really all about experiencing god's presence because more than any of the details what matters is you being where god wants you to be and so our prayer is always especially in this moment you guys would sense that and feel that just as caroline shared that you would have your moment where you know you're exactly where god wants you to be because we know god has great plans for you come on agency he plans to prosper you hope in a future you have a calling it would be the honor of our life for that to to be developed here but if it's not here we want you where god wants you to be and so my prayer for all of you guys is that you would experience that moment today and believe it can even happen maybe already has happened in this chapel experience today i am excited today to have pastor brian cromer from queen city church come and brian and i uh go way back now i don't know over a decade youth ministry back in uh the i guess 2009 eight nine time frame we did we did not meet in alabama we did not meet at a conference we did not meet you know in in texas which is where he was a youth pastor at the time we met in china well it was like the weirdest like friendship on the side of the road we were both leading youth ministries that were doing mission trips and i think we were both young in leadership so we just needed like a hug because we didn't know what we were doing but more than that from the very first moment i met brian and his wife heather jill and i just love them they are the real deal love jesus love jesus they can lead incredible church but more than anything their love for jesus and and his leadership and his family and the way that they are serving god together it's just incredible uh god is really using queen city he'll share more of that story in a moment it's so powerful brian spent a little over a year here right out a year here at highlands as he was getting ready to plant so we really feel like as hc family especially we kind of adopted queen city as part of our it's just part of our family and we're so excited for everything that happens there we feel like you know just it's just a testimony of god's faithfulness in their life and we just are honored that we get to be any part of it we have students there and he'll share more of that with you guys here in a moment here's here's the deal he's got a great message for you as i heard pastor brian share earlier about what he is going to teach today it is directly from god for every person in this room for such a time as this so open your heart up and stand your feet and welcome pastor brian to the stage [Applause] [Music] oh come on ac come on can we give jesus the highest praise oh come on you can do better than that give jesus your very best come on sit down sit down sit down sit down sit down what's up hd how are we doing we doing good hey i do want to welcome all the parents and all the people that are here for preview day let me just tell you they did not pay me to say this but i would go here i would trust my boys to come here i'm actually praying that you will let my boys come here and pay for it that would be awesome but i love this place so much and i believe so much in what god is doing here and if i've had a chance to meet you hi my name is brian and let me just show you a little quick picture of my family and i think we have that and so that's my family we actually took that last week we were in disney so god is good so the only other adult in the picture is my wife heather and we've been married 17 years i love her so much and i call her my crown because proverbs says that a worthy wife is like a crown for her husband and my girl is worthy okay and so uh we have two little boys as you can tell two little consequences of passion um and uh some of you are getting there um on the right right there is jordan he's he's 10 and then caleb is seven and uh almost four years ago in january 2018 we moved to cincinnati ohio knowing one family that's it we knew one family in that whole city with a dream in our heart to plant a life-giving church in nine months later on september 16 2018 we launched queen city church i think we have a picture from launch sunday right there that was on sunday i remember sitting on the front row and i had one of our one of our best friends jason laird he he told me he said don't turn around until like song two uh just don't turn around and i was so nervous to turn around i didn't know if anybody was gonna be there and uh and man 642 people showed up at launch sunday it was crazy [Applause] but if you like that and you clap for that even better than that 42 people gave their life to jesus on that day yeah it was an amazing day amazing day and last sunday literally sunday we had pastor dino with us and pastor mayo was was with us and we just celebrated three years as a church we just had our three year anniversary as a church we are officially 157 weeks in to this bad boy i still count by weeks and because we are still undefeated 157-0 i'm telling you um really honestly honestly we we feel caroline i think you could attest to this i mean we we feel like we are literally in the middle of a miracle and i know that that people that are a part of this house have experienced that and uh we are so honored for what god is doing inside of our church that we truly believe that we are living out ephesians 3 20 where god can do immeasurably more than what we can ask or imagine and let me just be honest i have asked and imagined really big things and to see god be so faithful and to be right in the middle of that verse even through a pandemic even through six months being completely online as a church a year and a half in even through everything that we've experienced i mean i'm telling you it is miracle after miracle after miracle and i would love to stand up here for two hours and share stories of what god has done but there is nothing that i can brag about more than the fact that 867 people in the first three years of our church have made the decision to follow jesus come on we can give jesus praise for that come on that's 867 people that are going to be in heaven come on that's 867 people that were lost and now they're found they were blind but now they see they were dead but now they are alive oh yeah god is good sit down again [Music] and um but what often goes under the radar what often a lot of times people don't know about our story is people maybe know that well what is often so far under the radar is the fact that we moved here we spent a year of our life before moving there here at this church and around everybody that i see over here that is so much family to me who i love with all my heart who i consider my brothers and my sisters and their spiritual fathers and mothers that are out of this house and for a year we decided to come here and serve this church any way that we could but more importantly to learn everything that we could to just be a sponge and to soak up every single thing that we could in this whole thing and um but what we didn't know is that in that time god would do something miraculous and the fact that we would have over 30 people [Music] and hand on a bible if you would have told me anybody would have moved with this to cincinnati for just being here a short amount of time i would have been like you're crazy mark but the fact that over 30 people have moved to cincinnati ohio from highlands college from church of the highlands to help us not just launch but be a part of our church loving and serving and leading and all over the place i mean you cannot go anywhere in our church without somebody being connected to what god has done here and here's the amazing thing is that almost all of them are still there and if you've been around here enough you know that is a miracle straight from jesus and um and they're people that i love with all my heart and their sons and their daughters and that's a that's a part of our story that a lot of people don't know and i want you to listen very closely to our church would not be our church without church of the highlands our church would not be our church without highlands college and been there every single step of the way and there are no words in the english language to fully articulate how much this church and the leadership of this church means to me to the entire team to pastor chris pastor mark to jill to jordan to the kkk the whole team and jb love you guys so much you are family in every sense of the word and i am so grateful for how you have supported me and been there for me on hard days and had my back in ways that um nobody on planet earth ever has in traveling with me to cincinnati to scout out venues and let me use your expertise and when i look around man i just see people that have our family in every way and if i can just have one time in my whole life to stand in front of group people and honor you i'm so thankful for our relationship your investment your leadership i would not be where i am without you and what god has done in our relationship from a chicken stand in china come on baby and so come on hd can you clap your hands and can you honor every single person on this team come on to pc to pastor mark the entire team yeah [Applause] okay let's jump into god's word today turn in your bibles if you have your bibles which i hope you do because you're in bible school okay uh so turn your bibles to matthew 22 and today we are continuing this series above all else and here's the theme verse in case you've been sleeping through chapel the last few weeks um colossians chapter one starting in verse 15 that's what the bible says is that christ jesus is the invisible image is the visible image of the invisible god he existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation for through him god created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth he made the things we can see and the things we can't see such as thrones and kingdoms rulers and authorities in the unseen world everything was created through him and for him and these verses actually remind me of what paul also said in philippians chapter 2 some of my favorite verses in all the bible starting in verse 6 where he writes that though he jesus was god he did not think of equality with god as something to cling to instead he gave up his divine privileges and he took the humble position i love this of a slave and was born as a human being and when he appeared in human form he humbled himself in obedience to god and died a criminal's death on a cross therefore god elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him jesus the name above all other names that literally the name of jesus is above all else that at the name of jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth in every tongue declare that jesus christ is lord to the glory of god the father now when i read these two verses these two sections of scripture i don't know about you but i am so thankful for jesus and as i was preparing and thinking about our time today and thinking about this above all else theme i was reminded of a conversation that jesus had in matthew chapter 22 and i think that we probably have read this before we're familiar with this but matthew chapter 22 and verse 34 it says but when the pharisees heard that he had silenced the sadducees with his reply they met together to question him being jesus again and one of them an expert in religious law tried to trap him with this question teacher what is the most important commandment in the law of moses see here's what we have to understand at this very moment there were 613 documented commandments in the law of moses so when this man approached jesus and said what is the most important commandment he's literally saying out of the 613 commandments what is the most important one if we only get one thing right jesus what's the one thing that we need to get right and jesus answers so beautifully in verse 37 where he replies you must love the lord your god with all your heart all your soul and all your mind this is the first and greatest commandment so today on preview day chapel if you're taking notes which i hope you are because i think there's a final at the end of this whole thing i want to talk to you for a few minutes about the most important thing that's what i want to talk about over the next few minutes the most important thing out of all the things what's the most important thing what is above all else and just so you know hc this is hot bread this is something that is brand new i didn't reheat an old message and bring it to you this is something that is some hot bread um in fact i believe that god spoke something to me i was thinking back and preparing and i i god brought me back to a moment in august 2018 a month before our church launched and we had seven people do an official hc externship and they came and i met with them every month and it was that month that i met with them and i shared a version of what i'm gonna share today and i got done and i felt like the holy spirit of god spoke to me if you ever get invited to come back and do chapel you got to share this message and i didn't want to can i be honest i didn't want to i'd much rather do something that may inspire or maybe this but i i do have a burden on my heart to help you and um and by the way let me just give you a little pro tip for anybody that wants to preach preaching all it is is saying in public what god told you in private that's it that's it that's all it is it's it's as simple as that and it's also hard [Music] but that's what preaching is and that's what i'm doing today i'm telling you something in public what he already told me in private and we're going to talk about the most important thing let's pray god we invite you over the next few minutes to speak to us now we don't want to go through the motions we don't want to play church we don't want to play hc chapel like we've been here a billion times but god we want to hear from you so we open up our entire lives to you we give you permission to speak into any area of our life we love you and we thank you for jesus my bold prayer is that every single one of us walk out of this place different than how we walked in in jesus name we pray and everybody said a loud amen okay well the first time i ever preached i was 16 years old a junior in high school first time i ever preached it was sunday night church come on a lot of you don't even know about sunday night church that's where you go to sunday school it's old school i mean you go to sunday school which is the worst name ever by the way um and then the second to vacation bible school that's the worst and then and then you go to church then you have like a 37-minute gap then you come back and it's a brand new service i mean this new music it's a brand new message i don't know how the pastor prepared that many times but it was sunday night church and i said yes to this preaching opportunity at 16 years old junior in high school because my youth pastor asked me and when i mean ask me i mean he forced me to actually do this and i have i you need to hear this no exaggeration this is not preacher story no exaggeration it was hands down the worst sermon of all time the worst like if you look up worst sermon of all time there is a there's an old tape of this i mean like it is hands down the worst i preach guys on water baptism water i have yet three years into being a lead pastor ever preached on water baptism but my first time 16 years old in front of our church you know what you guys need to hear water baptism let me just go ahead and just lay you on some theology at 16 years old and so i i literally preached about water baptism and i had 30 minutes i used seven true i wrote out my sermon word for word word for word and literally read it 11 pages of notes in seven minutes just just hand-written notes i i just had paper everywhere i never looked up not one time i went up there i never looked up and i just sat there and i just read all my my literally my encyclopedia of notes on water baptism and i never looked up one and guys i don't know if you've ever experienced this but my mouth got so dry i had never experienced that before in my life until that moment and it was like literally somebody took a vacuum cleaner stuck it in my mouth and turned it on and sucked up everything so imagine 16 year old me papers everywhere preaching about water baptism and just i just i just like i i cannot i cannot i can't and i'm like what is happening to my body right now like i just i had no clue what was happening and um i never experienced that before and and so and i didn't even end right i just sat down like i just i didn't know nobody told me what to do nobody told me at the end of this thing like like how do i wrap this up and so i just read all my notes and then i again never looked up went and sat down front row and just sat down it was so awkward and my youth pastor just kind of patted me he didn't say anything he didn't say good job he didn't say you know we'll just keep working on this he just just patted me just like good job and um so that was the first time and if you would have told me that night like if you go to my 16 year old self and say hey guess what you're going to be doing the rest of your life so you're going to be doing this you are absolutely insane like there is no way on planet earth that this is what i'm going to do you are crazy but that night like something sparked on the inside of me as awkward and as bad as it was it sparked something on the inside of me and i just kept saying yes to different opportunities and over time i knew i knew that i knew that i knew i didn't think i didn't feel i knew that god was calling me into full-time ministry so i went to ministry school i went to bible college i actually went to lipscomb university which is in nashville tennessee and i went to classes and i took tests and i read books and i wrote the most papers and i sat through chapels they were boring chapels they weren't like this they were very boring chapels but went to chapel and i played intramurals and i joined a social club which is like christian school for fraternity they just can't call it that and uh and in the summer i would do internships at churches and so i got some ministry experience and come on i found my wife at college too come on ring by spring anybody you know like hey force four semesters third semesters get on it you only got about a few more months okay um don't even act like that doesn't happen here y'all radars are on right now i've been here i know i know so and after four years of school i graduated with a bible degree with some latin words beside my name and when i graduated i knew what i wanted to do but i had no clue where i was going to do it and nobody would hire me nobody and i looked everywhere i mean literally my wife and i we started looking everywhere and finally a church in sulphur springs texas it's as big as it sounds people uh they gave me a shot and they hired me to be their youth pastor so my wife and and i moved halfway across the country and that's where we cut our teeth in full-time ministry and for the last 17 plus years we've been serving in full-time ministry and building his church and in a few different roles and if you were to ask me now on the other side of 17 plus years of full-time ministry like if you and i could just go to coffee and just sit across the table and just have a conversation and you say after 17 plus years of doing this whole thing what's the most important thing now my answer would be simple the most important thing is to genuinely love god it is above all else to genuinely love god i know that sounds so cliche i know that that's sounds like that's what you should hear when you come to something like this the most important thing yeah yeah i love god we hear about those things and so it can bounce off our heart so easily it can sound so cliche and overdone but it's true that the most important thing hc for you is to have a real dynamic growing close consistent relationship with god to love god more than ministry to love god more than your church and by the way that's the most important thing that you can do for every single area of your life regardless of where you go regardless of what you do the most important thing if you ever become a parent is to genuinely love god you'll be a better parent if it is if you get married come on in jesus name one day the best thing you can do for your marriage is to be close to god if you're in the marketplace the best thing you can do for your job and if you're an entrepreneur the best thing that you can do is to be close to god the most important thing is to genuinely love god just like jesus says in matthew 22 37 when jesus says out of the most like the most important thing is that you must love the lord your god with all your heart all your soul your mind that's the first and it's the great it's the most important thing above all else you've got to love god it turns out he knows exactly what he's talking about but if i can be really honest if i could be as vulnerable as maybe i've ever been in front of a group of people when i was sitting in your seat as a college student in ministry school pursuing full-time ministry getting a bible degree in chapels i would have amended that but i wouldn't have known how to live that and even more honest when i was sitting in my office on the first day of full-time ministry as a youth pastor took all my books that i got in bible college and put them on the shelves i had a frame of my girl had a like 1978 laptop crank that bad boy open when i sat there on my first day i would have agreed with that yes the most important thing is to genuinely love god to have a relationship with him that's real and growing but even on that day i still wouldn't have known how to live that two years into full-time ministry two full calendar years goes by of leading loving students putting on services doing all those things after growing up in church save 10 plus years bible degree in my pocket pastor at a church doing ministry preaching leading mission trips and i still didn't know how to live that i wanted to have it i knew i needed it i just didn't know how i was literally telling other people that they needed to have a relationship with god and i myself didn't even know how to do it and let me tell you if you get to that point let me tell you what it feels on the other side of it you feel like a complete fraud you feel extremely insecure and worst of all is i felt like i was already so far down the road that i couldn't even tell anybody because after all i was the pastor i was the one that people were coming to with questions like that like how could i raise a hand and go to my pastor and say hey i don't know how to have a real relationship with god can you help me with that and i remember in that moment feeling so insecure and feeling so much like a fraud like i wanted that so bad i just didn't know how here's a good way for me to put it it's like god was a celebrity maybe he was somebody that was famous or maybe he was like an artist or he was a professional athlete like he was or a celebrity you know that you follow and it's like somebody that was so far off it's like he was a celebrity that i admired that i learned a lot about like i knew a lot of facts about this person i even talked about them from afar but i had no real relationship with them and look me in the eyes h.c i've come to tell you i desperately don't want that for you desperately i may never see you again in my life but let me tell you i believe god sent me here because i don't ever want you to experience what i experience on that day two years in but what do you do when you finish this experience when you finish highlands college when there's no more twice a week bomb chapel services when there's no more motion nights and no more one services and no more monday night small groups and no more five highlands services per sunday when there's no more 21 days of prayer and there's no more bible classes when you're not surrounded by this amazing group of people that are all on mission and passionate about the same thing and let's be honest i think it's so easy to substitute intimacy with god with activity for god that when we think like the busier that we are the more that we can do the more that we can serve the more we can keep things on our schedule and calendar that that's the same thing as being relationally close to god but let me tell you news flash is not it's not and maybe that's where you are today right here right now or maybe you're in the same exact spot that i was like you want a relationship with god but when all this goes away and you're not having my girl caroline lead us in worship when all that is gone and you get placed as bobo church in anchorage alaska and they're not a grow church and they don't do all these things what do you do then deep down maybe even right now you feel like a fraud you feel like i did so insecure and you feel like you're already so far down the road to raise a hand and ask somebody for help good news today smile on my face you don't have to stay in that place you can have a you can you can have a real dynamic growing close consistent relationship with god that isn't dependent on ministry that isn't dependent upon church services or highlands college and with the rest of my time i want to practically show you how i spend time with god and by the way this is a way not the way so that's i just never had anybody do this ever i was like people are like hey you know what you you spend time with god okay what do i do during that time come on am i the only one that's ever felt that can i just fumble my way down like what like what what does that look like what do i do like do i read something do i pray do i you know like like what do i do like people tell me have a relationship with god i'm telling other people how relationship god but how in the world do i do that so i'm going to show you what i do after years of fumbling my way through it when i didn't have to when i could have just asked hey help me help me and so this is a way not the way but like pastor chris says if it my bullet fits your gun shoot it okay see everything changed when i started thinking about my relationship with god the same way as my other close relationships so if you want to filter to think through think through that everything changed when i started thinking about my relationship with god just like because i couldn't wrap my mind around a close relationship with god but i could wrap my mind around a close relationship with my wife or a close relationship with my with one of my really good friends and up until that point everything about my relationship with god was about these two things discipline and attendance so everything was about like i gotta do all the right things and i gotta check off the boxes and i gotta do it every day and if i miss a day i feel guilty and i feel shame and it's all about disciplines and attendance i just always gotta show up and i've always gotta do these things that people tell me to do it's about spiritual disciplines and it's about attendance and showing up but that's not how i would ever describe like my relationship with my wife ever hey you close with heather yes why because i i show up and i show up and i do this and i'm at the right place at the right time and then i remember that conversation i had that conversation and i did it that way i never think of it that way and so when it when it got to that like when you think about all your close relationships they all have the same characteristics all of them every close relationship that we have has three main characteristics one is time you spend quality time and quantity time you spend time show me one person you're close with that you don't spend time with it's impossible so it's always time communication is that you like you consistently talk and not only do you consistently talk communication is both ways it's never one way every close relationship you have it's you share and they share you ever have somebody that just dumps on you all the time you don't say anything to that is that person close to you absolutely not so time communication lashes intimacy every close relationship there's intimacy that you talk about things that you don't talk about with anybody else you do things with that person that you don't do with anybody else time communication into me and something clicked when i that that why can't my relationship with god be like that and i've learned this and you can write this down it's kind of like the one thought that i have that i put on the screen is that a relationship with god is not disciplines to check off but a person to pursue that is the biggest thing that i learned and when i that clicked everything changed for me so here's how i spend time with god after a ton of trial and error this is how i spend time with god first off i schedule my time with god you know why because tell me like if you and i were to go hang out guess what i would do i'll get out my phone i'll put in my calendar hey so next thursday from four to five we're hanging out cool where are we gonna hang out we're gonna hang out right here and there so i put up my phone and i would not miss it for the world why because i respect you and i would be there i would honor you by showing up to that time so if i would do that for you why wouldn't i do that for god so if you go to my calendar right now you can see every time that i'm planning on spending with god this week why because if i do it for you i'm going to do it for him and i guard it and nobody else gets that time just like nobody would get your time and so i schedule my time with god and here's all the things that i have with me i brought it all so that you could see it i love it i get excited i'm kind of a nerd with stuff like this and i think it's because for so many years i've fumbled my way through this and of course i have my bible this is actually my my qb2 this is my backup quarterback so uh my qb1 just had to get rebound and this year i'm going through this this this guy this is the niv i have the nlt the middle tennessee version uh that's where i grew up and so um i can say that so i have my bible of course and then i have a journal this is a journal that um that my friend noah nicholl gave me and so i i have a journal and by the way before i'm never a big journal guy because i never knew what to write i i think guys maybe relate to this a little bit it's like what do i do do i just write my feelings is this a diary because if it is there's not going to be much in here there's just not i mean i just it's not there it's not that i don't care it's just write my feelings i'm good that's it you know like journal for the day done and so i i really i really struggled with journaling but i figured out what really worked for me i i in what i'm reading i'll write verses or write part of verses or i'll write like something that i feel like god is speaking to me from there or that i process what i'm reading or you know if there's if i've rev get some good rev in there i'll write it down if there's questions i have i don't understand that what does that mean i'll write down questions i'll write down thoughts that i have and where i write down prayers that are triggered by what i'm reading and i kind of incorporate my prayer time with with my time here but i always limit it to one page i don't ever feel pressured to like oh i've got to do seven pages today no just one page and i'll wrap it up put it on that's one thing that's just for me so i always have my bible my journal sent my air pods and i always listen to instrumental music because if i listen to music with words in it like that's all i think about [Music] you like me that's right by the way if you want to go listen to the playlist i've been working at this for a while i got a good playlist if you go to queencitypeople.com bible you can see all types of resources you can hear messages that we've that we've talked about our church about the bible you can even find the playlist that i listen to spotify and apple music we got you [Music] and but i got my man laying down the keys so nice right now so i don't i don't have that right now but i have my air pods and i have my hd mug with coffee in it because oh you know that you can't hear god without coughing come on can i get a good amen come on from highlands college no but here's the why here's the why mark here's why i always like to have coffee when i'm doing my devos [Music] i had about 150 coffees leading up to our church starting and almost every time every meeting that i have it's over a cup of coffee with another person i've had cups of coffee with people over here starbucks 280 let's go [Music] and every time it's over that so i do this to remind me like i said everything goes back through the filter of my relationship with other people so if i would do that meeting with kk [Music] i'm gonna have coffee because it's because i'm sitting out with a person i'm not checking off spiritual disciplines i'm hanging out with a person that's why i have coffee so i have coffee i have pens i have a lot of pens all the pins mean something different let me tell you what pins me so the black pen was the first time i went through this bible and now it's what i use for my journal i'm telling him nerd okay blue second time i went through it greens now it's the third time red i love red red's every time i see jesus [Music] every time i see grace every time i see what god has done in my life [Music] i underline it read so if you go through my bible you'll see red you'll see grace you'll see jesus the whole bible points to him tim keller calls it the road to london is that there's a there's a an idea that all the cities in england have a road that goes directly to london whether it's the main road or a very small minuscule don't even never seen it road but there's always one road that goes directly to london just like genesis to revelation there's always a road that leads directly to jesus so i look every day it's like jesus where are you at today come on that'll change how you read the ot i'm just telling you then the highlighter is for those bomb verses i don't want to rem i don't want to forget where that is so we do that then last this is something that i have that is this little pocket commentary by there's a pastor a theologian named warren weirsby it's awkward shape but it's amazing and i call him pastor warren and you can see a picture of it if you want to go find it super cheap you can find it online but this has been a game changer in my personal time with god because instead of like doing this massive like okay i got to do this study and this commentary forever and just i just don't got time for that and so this has a few paragraphs over each chapter in the bible that really helps me just understand there's been times where i get nothing i read pastor warren i'm like oh that's so good and it's just like light bulb and so i highly encourage this and then i have one agenda the whole time i have one agenda just spend time with god that's it it's not for revelation it's not for messages for sure it's not for messages it's not for ministry this is just time for me to spend with god and every time i start the same way i take my bible and i put my hand on this and i pray and i pray something like god good morning i'm so excited to spend time with you today i give you permission to speak you set the agenda whatever you want to talk about speak to me whatever you want to talk about and then when i get done i'll go through what i wrote in my journal and i always ask three questions first is what's for me what is like one thing that's just for me today that's for me i'll kind of underline that make sure that i second is what's for an individual and so mark if you've ever gotten a text from me that's encouraging something like that hey i read this today i thought about you what's that because i asked every time is there something that i read that's for one person then third it's what's for everybody if you ever see me post a story on instagram that's what it is just for everybody just chew on that a little bit today [Music] and so a lot of times i get asked when i share some stuff like that like is there every days where you get nothing like what about those days of course i do [Music] like nothing's wrong with you if that happens and i had one of the i in fact with the bible reading plan that i do i have it every single may 14th i just know it's coming may 14th like those days here's what i wrote on that day do you have a picture of that journal yeah that's may 14th every year for me nothing that's what i read that's what it is it's a bible reading plan i can get any commentary pastor warren don't got nothing nothing blank page but this is what i've written about that day have you ever had time with god like this where you wake up open your bible reading plan read it and get nothing that was me this morning i didn't underline anything i didn't write anything in my journal i didn't get any deep revelation just a letter to a guy named felix and a long genealogy that said caleb my youngest son nine times on days like this i'm reminded of the importance and the necessity of having a real relationship with god not having a legalistic checklist of spiritual disciplines [Applause] you and i both have had relationships so close where you can have the occasional day where you literally do nothing or say nothing while hanging out and still be close those relationships with no relational pressure to always be quote on those relationships where every conversation doesn't have to be deep on days like this i'm reminded that i can have that type of relationship with god where we are so close that we can have the occasional day where we do nothing and say nothing while hanging out and still be close and if you like me ever have times with god like this don't be discouraged don't give up and don't get frustrated the goal is not to check off your bible reading plan or fill your journal the goal is to spend time with god and the more you spend time with him the closer you will get and the closer you will get you can have the occasional day where you do nothing and say nothing while hanging out and still be close listen highlands [Music] god loves that you are pursuing ministry but he loves you more [Music] hear that today from the words of the father he loves you more he loves who you are more than what you do and god wants you to make a difference and he's called you to something big to serve the church to be in ministry but he wants a relationship with you more so if you want to make it in ministry for the long haul don't forget the most important thing is to genuinely love god above all else i want you to bow your head and close your eyes this is something that we do at our church a lot and right now before we do anything else can you just right where you're at can you just pray this prayer to god can you just say god what are you speaking to me right now like just to me what are you speaking to me today regardless of whether you're an hc student whatever semester you are if you're on staff if you're a parent if you're one of the students that are here ask god like what are you speaking to me what are you speaking to me [Music] maybe ask him this what does my response need to be to what you're saying to me today ask him for a tangible step [Music] before i finish i want to pray for you because maybe god is speaking to you about your personal relationship with him and i simply just want to ask regardless of where you are today in your relationship with god do you want do you desire a real dynamic growing close consistent relationship with god if you're here and you know i want that i may not have that right now or maybe i do have it right now and i never want to lose it i never want to lose it when i get into full-time ministry i never want to lose it when i leave hc i never want to lose it i want to have a relationship with god that just keeps getting better and better or maybe you're here and deep down you know you love ministry but right now you don't feel close to god and maybe you're like me when i was sitting in your chair and i don't even know how but you know that you want it today if you're here and that's you i want you to have the courage with nobody looking around just to slip your hand up in the air and say that's me i want a relationship with god more than anything i want it more than ministry i want it more than be placed at an awesome church i want it more than a salary i want it more than any i want a relationship with god come on hands in the air say that's me that's me that's me that's me i want that maybe even right there in your own words just tell them that just say i want a relationship with you just god we love you we love you we love you more than ministry ministries awesome but we love you and we want to be close to you hear our heart today god we want to be close we want to be close enough to hear your voice over all the distracting voices in this world so god would you tune our ears to hear you and tune our eyes to see you we want to be close we want a real consistent dynamic close relationship with you and god right now if we've put anything ahead of you if there's been anything above you we repent right now from that and we just simply we we change our mind we change our direction we say god you are first in our life say god we need you we want you we want you above anything else and just if you would if you feel comfortable just seated right there will you just hold out your hands to receive this i just want to pray something i pray over my boys each and every day just let me let me be a pastor to you right now let me be a father to you and god i just pray blessings over all every single person that's here today god i pray blessings over their relationship with you god i pray in jesus name that they'll be closer to you than ever before that'll be more real than ever before that they'll love you more than anything else and god i pray in jesus name will you give every single person a spiritual hunger and a spiritual thirst that is different than a physical hunger and a physical thirst because of physical hunger and a physical thirst we eat we drink and we get satisfied and we get full but god i pray in jesus name that you will give every single person here every single person watching later every single person under the sound of my voice right now a spiritual hunger and thirst that when they eat of things of you god when they drink of things of you they just get more hungry and they get more thirsty god i pray blessings over every single individual times with god for each and every person that's here gotta ask that words from your bible will jump out and god i just pray that the rhythm of that would be you talk a little bit they talk a little bit that'll be so conversational it'll be so close so real not manufactured not fake something that is when they get up to minister it is an overflow of that time and so god i pray blessings over that area of their lives and we are so thankful for jesus now because of jesus we get to have that type of relationship with you because of jesus we have that type of access to you and so right now as we go back into worship we lift up the precious and the mighty and the amazing and the powerful name of jesus because that name that name is what allows us to have that type of relationship with you we love you and assume jesus we pray amen

Channel: Highlands College

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Id: 0Cuh7NwFlcY

Length: 55min 49sec (3349 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 16 2021