An Inside-Out Life

Oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] well welcome today to church everybody we are so glad that you are with us today it's Church day it's Sunday in my opinion it is the best day of the week and so a big hello to those of you that are joining us wherever you are today online also want to say hi and welcome those in our correctional facilities here in Alabama we are so grateful to have you with us just a reminder your family to us we love you so much and we're grateful that you are with us today it is going to be an amazing day I'm excited to be with you today I'm honored to have this opportunity to share God's Word and just by way of reminder I know pastor lain already said this but Pastor Chris will be back next Sunday speaking to us online and it's going to be an amazing Sunday as well but today I have the privilege of bringing God's Word and just could not be more excited about it and my name is Blake if I haven't had the privilege to meet you and tell you my story quickly of Highlands I have been around Highlands a long long time I've been here for 15 years not as long as pastor Lane has but I've been at Highlands a long time and I was talking to somebody last week just about how long we had been here and what our first serve expression on the dream team was at Highlands and for me it goes all the way back to Mountain Brook High School I served on the setup team so shout out to all of our setup teams all the portable campuses that we have I was on the setup team at Mountain Brook High School 15 years ago was the first place I served at Highlands and then of course had the incredible opportunity 14 years ago to come on full-time staff here at Highlands are currently in the campus pastor at our Grant's mill campus I've also had the privilege of serving a few other of our campuses as well over the years but I'm absolutely just amazed at what God is doing in and through our church and I'm so grateful to be a part of it and so it's an honor for me to get to share God's word with you today I want you to do me a favor I hope you have your Bibles wherever you're watching Church right now I hope you have a Bible that you can turn to I want you to turn to John chapter 13 John chapter 13 that's where we're gonna start and again I am so excited about church today and one of the things I've realized over these last three months in this crazy season that we're in with kovat 19 and all the things that are taking place is that whether we're meeting in person or whether we're doing Church at home whatever it looks like I've realized something that what happens in here so what happens in the context of a Sunday the God encounters that we have in our homes in our cars at the correctional facilities possibly in our buildings I know the last couple of weeks we had the opportunity to be together in our buildings but wherever we are whatever happens in here in this Sunday dynamic where we're hearing messages and we're times of worship together a powerful what happens in here cannot stay in here and I'm not talking about necessarily just a building I'm just saying what God does in us can't just stay in us it has to affect the outside honestly what happens in here has got to be the fuel or the catalyst for what happens out there and so over the course of these last few months my prayer to God has been Lord never again let us be contained by the four walls of a building never again may we be contained by concrete walls and structures but may the church be a lot more alive outside the church than ever before after all this stuff passes that's been my prayer and of course this is serve day it's serve week as pastor lane mentioned as well serve day coming up on Saturday serve week this week is going to be awesome talk to you more about that in just a moment so many opportunities to serve our cities to be the hands and feet of Jesus to love people the way God loves them we're going to talk more about that in just a bit but I want to jump into the message so if you've got your Bibles and you've already turned to John chapter 13 let's look at an interesting verse I love this verse so much John 13 verse 34 it says this this is Jesus speaking Jesus says just as I have loved you so let me pause right there and say how has Jesus loved us well he's loved us unconditionally Jesus has loved us with a forgiveness and a grace and a mercy that knows no limits and knows no bounds he poured it out willingly and in a mighty way into our life just as I have you look at the next line you should love each other and then verse 35 is very interesting it says this it says your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples now that verse infers that the world needs proof that words are not enough that saying I love you is not enough this verse says that the world needs more the world needs proof that we are disciples of Jesus so just as I have loved you the same unconditional love the same things that I've poured out into your life I want you to pour it out into others lives and when you do that that's going to tell the world that what we are walking in as a disciple of Jesus is real say well what does that actually look like though there's another verse in 1st John chapter 3 verse 18 that takes it one step further and I want to share that verse with you it says my children let us not love with words or in talk only I love you is a pretty easy thing to say right it's easy to say I love you it's easy to let those words come out of our mouths but look what the second part of that verse says we must love by what we do and in truth so not only are we gonna say I love you not only we're gonna allow what God has done on the inside of us to affect the outside of us and allow that same love that he's poured into our life to be poured into the lives of others with our words it has to happen with action as well and so I'm calling today's message living and inside out life what God has done on the inside must affect it has to affect we have no choice but to let what's happened in here will affect what happens out here right because as Christians those verses we just read as Christians we see that we are supposed to be defined by love love is not just an attribute or something that we carry it is the literal definition of our life as believers we have to be defined by love that's what God's Word says if we want to prove to the world that we are his disciples we must be defined by love and as I thought about that and I looked inward Lee in my own life I begin to ask myself some questions because here's the deal if we were all honest isn't it easy isn't it easy to let other things define us God said I want you to be defined by my love I want you to love others the way I have loved you this is the definition of your life but isn't it true that sometimes we allow other things to define us so I ask you the question today on this Sunday morning or whenever you're watching what is it that right now in this moment in this season what defines you what defines you right now for some of you the answer to that question could be your success like you have accolades you have accomplishments and right now in this moment you are defined by the successes of your life not a bad thing but it's not what God has called us to be defined by or maybe some of you are at the other end of the spectrum and sitting now in this moment you've allowed your life to be defined by your failures by your past mistakes and maybe even during worship today or maybe even right now in this moment you're sitting there thinking I'm not worthy of anything that God has for me because of my past and because of my failure and you're allowing that to be what defines you instead of letting love define you the way that God has in mind or how about this maybe you're in a season right now of pain and this season of pain is defining you in a great way and you can't really see the love that God wants to use the love that God wants to define your life because of the pain or maybe it's loss you know I had a season like that four years ago my dad went to be with Jesus and in that season if I'm being very honest with you if you asked me if I was defined by God's love I would have to tell you no because there was a season in my life where what I allowed to define me was my pain I allowed that that is the the greatest sense of loss I have ever experienced was when my dad went to be with Jesus and in that season I was not defined by God's love for other people I was defined by the pain and the loss that I was feeling my dad died of cancer just last week my wife's mom so my mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer so as you can imagine like right now in this moment we're full of faith and we're believing God for a miracle but we've walked down this road before and in this moment we're having to fight against letting other things define us we're having to fight against letting fear define us we're having to fight against letting worry define us we're having to fight against letting anxious thoughts define us because other things are always going to try to define us but God has made it really clear what defines us as believers is love for others maybe you're sitting there today and you're defined by an addiction you can't shake and you've been struggling with it for years or maybe it's isolation you feel all alone your circumstances your problems I want you to know today that if you've allowed something else to define you God has a better way God has a better way that's a fact many of you might know that I have four kids and so here's the deal it is always super quiet super chill at our house with four kids nothing is ever crazy now y'all know that's a lot right it is all there's always something going on and our our fourth child precious little eight-year-old girl she is just she is a fireball all the time ball of energy loves live zeal for life always just goes after everything with a hundred percent and if you're a parent you kind of know that in the nighttime at nighttime we have routines right because it's time for the kids to go to bed we have these routines as parents where we go up and for us at our house we go up and we kind of make our rounds to each kids bedroom and we go in there we spend a little time with them and cannot be sometimes we spend more time than others because if I'm being honest and if you're a parent out there how many of you parents come on if you have ever hidden a certain food from your kids just come on identify with this moment right now because after bedtime is the prime time to get the snacks to get the food to get what you want for me it's a bowl of cereal for me it's cookies for me it may be ice cream I just love to eat but we like to do it after the kids are in bed and so we go through the routine of putting our kids to bed but this one particular night we wanted to spend a little bit of extra sweet time with our kids and so we did and I got to my my eighth year this time she was about three years old I got to my eight-year-old daughter's room three at the time and I was laying on her bed with her and it was just a sweet moment I wasn't rushing I wasn't trying to get to anything else it was a sweet moment between a daddy and a daughter and I looked her in her eyes in that moment just the two of us looked her in her eyes and I said Hollan I want you to know daddy loves you very very much and I am so glad that I get to be your daddy and it was the sweetest thing she grabbed my face with her hands she put her hands on my face and she pulled me in a little bit close and I'm thinking oh this is such a beautiful moment and then she opened her mouth and she said daddy I am so glad I know how to swim without my floaties and in that moment I'm like wow like why we're talking oh this was a moment that we had I'm trying to pour out the depths of my love for you I'm telling you how grateful I am to be your daddy and you just want to talk about the fact that you could swim without your floaties which I'm really proud of but that's not what this moment is for and I walked away from that moment in time thinking is it that a lot like us in our life God has given us something in our life to be defined by he wants us to live an inside-out life hey what I've done in you I wanted to effect those on the outside what I've done in you I want it to be poured out into the lives of those around you and so many times we get distracted by us all she could think about was herself and her accomplishment and how proud she was of herself in that moment and for me I was just I was with the realization that so many times that's how I am with God he's got something for me but I get distracted by my life by my problems by my plans and I'm not minimizing what you're going through it's real the pain that I felt was real the pain that we walk through is real the things that you're going through a real but it's true that we get distracted by us and so today starts one of the best weeks in our church every year I love this week every year because we're leading up to serve day coming up this Saturday no pastor lanes already talked about that and serve week this year what a great idea instead of it just being on Saturday we thought wouldn't it be cool if we just had opportunities popping up throughout the week where you could get connected and where you could make a difference in somebody's life and honestly with the covin reality and all this going on it is going to look a little bit different but I want to say this word to you know serve is too small so whatever's on your heart however you feel like you can make a difference man go for it this week and let's make a difference together because what is really gonna happen this week as we look to serve others listen to me as we look to love others the way God has called us to what's really going to happen is we have an opportunity to adjust what we are defined by so if our life right now is defined by success or failure or pain or loss or those things we have an opportunity to allow God to redefine us to put us back to the original intent and put our focus back on love for others that's what this week has the power to do if we'll open up our hearts there's a miracle story in Scripture that I believe can help us I'm going to give you a few practical things that we can take out of this story and then we're gonna finish up all right but grab your Bibles again turn to mark chapter 6 miracle story I love it we're gonna start reading in verse 30 mark chapter 6 verse 30 and and this story is absolutely amazing okay and so many of you have heard this story before if you haven't heard this story before just enjoy it I'm gonna read quite a few verses to you but it's it truly is a miracle story so let's start reading in verse 30 of mark chapter 6 it says this it says the Apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all that they had done and all that they had taught now the picture I get in my mind when I think about this is all the disciples running up to Jesus and saying oh Jesus this is they've been on a ministry tour basically they'd been doing things for God they'd been you know going around and making a difference lots of great things that happen but in this moment they're running back to Jesus they're saying listen to what all we've done listen Jesus listen Jesus how about this Jesus I can swim without my floaties like it's a moment for them where where there's this opportunity but all they can think about is what they've done themselves interesting and then the next verse says then because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat jesus said to them come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest so here's the deal Jesus was either really concerned about the disciples and wanted to give them some rest or also parents how many have you ever been in a situation where your kids have just talked so much it's like okay it's bedtime it's time to go put you to bed I think maybe Jesus was wanting to get these guys to bed because they've just been talking and talking and talking about themselves so it goes on to say come with me by yourselves to a quiet place get some rest so they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place but many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and guide their ahead of them verse 34 when Jesus landed and saw a large crowd he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd so he began to teach them many things by this time it was late in the day so his disciples came to him this is a very remote place they said and it's already very late send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat look at verse 37 but jesus answered you give them something to eat could that be another way of Jesus saying hey disciples guys what are you gonna allow to define you in this moment are you gonna allow my love for people to define you are you gonna allow something else something external to define you very interesting what defines you you give them something to eat then listen to the disciples reply that would take eight months of a man's wages are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat and Jesus says this I love his response that was their rebuttal Jesus says how many loaves do you have go and see when they found out they said five loaves and two fish verse 39 then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass so they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven he gave thanks and he broke the loaves then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people he also divided the two fish among them all they all ate and we're satisfied listen to this and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish the number of men who had eaten was five thousand men what a miracle story in Scripture what is so interesting about this story is that there are two contrasting perspectives one of them was we have the perspective of the disciples the disciples in this story were distracted right they they're talking about themselves everything is too hard everything is too difficult they were allowing themselves to be defined by the wrong thing but what Jesus did and what he so often did in Scripture he wanted to live out the example to show them what an inside-out life looks like what a life defined by love and nothing else can look like Jesus actually shows us in this story that love is a verb that love actually moves that love is active and because Jesus was defined by love and because he was trying to help the disciples as well as hey listen to me everybody he wasn't just helping the disciples he's teaching us through these verses to live an inside-out life that is defined by love Jesus shows us that love does five things very practical you can apply them this week and I want to show them to you because I think it's going to help us loved us five things and Jesus models it so well the first thing loved us is love sees need love sees need in verse 34 it says that Jesus saw the crowd and when he saw the crowd he looked beyond just the number of people and he saw sheep without a shepherd he didn't just see a number he saw a need the disciples saw a whole bunch of people but Jesus saw a family that had been walking that needed a touch that were hungry Jesus saw through the numbers and saw a need the disciple is actually through what we just read the disciples saw an inconvenience but Jesus defined by love saw an opportunity I think Jesus saw it because he was always willing to look you see the tendency for our eyes Mike can I just say it this way the tendency for my eyes is to see myself but the tendency of Jesus's eyes is always to see others he saw need so I ask you this question today what do you see when you look at the world around you what do you see when you answer that question for yourself as I have done in preparation for this message it helps us understand what we're allowing to define us in this moment for Jesus when needs stepped on the scene everything else faded away he didn't care that the disciples were tired and had not eaten anymore he didn't care about any of the previous things when needs stepped on the scene that's what got the focus of Jesus I got to tell you we've got to be willing to look around and see the need in our community we've got to be willing to look around and see the need in our city in our neighborhoods within our own families we've got to be willing to look the need is all around love sees need I'm going to give you a prayer that you pray every day I want to encourage you to pray it every day this week as we lead through serve week and into serve day the prayer for this first point is this Lord give me eyes to see and that a powerful prayer to pray don't let me see with my own eyes I want to see with your eyes Lord give me eyes to see love sees need second thing loved us Jesus teaches it so beautifully love feels need so he didn't go straight from seeing it to doing something about it he felt it verse 34 said Jesus had compassion when he saw them the word compassion right there literally means it was the seat of love it was the place of empathy and concern in Jesus's heart so he literally immediately when he saw sheep without a shepherd he was moved as what one verse says Jesus was moved with love and compassion for these people Jesus felt the need there was a weight to what Jesus felt there was a responsibility let me say it this way when Jesus felt that he felt a responsibility to do something about it and I want to say to you as we lead into serve week and serve day it's healthy for us to feel need as well hey our cities are our responsibility let's take responsibility for our cities our communities the hurting the broken the misfortune or all of those every person that is in need they're our responsibility as the church so let's feel it we got to feel it I got a guy on my staff who woke up in the middle of the night during this Cove in reality and he text him the next morning he said man God gave me a supernatural idea that I want to do something about he said you know all the nursing homes and in all of those places where loved ones have not been able to come in because of the because of kovat 19 he said I want to create and build a Plexiglas doorway that we can push up next to the door at some of these nursing home facilities and allow people who are inside to visit with people on the outside and I told him I was like Doug I believe that is a God idea he woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't quit thinking about it not just because he saw a need but because he felt the need he felt it when he told me about it I begin to feel it last week was my grandmother's birthday and she's recently been moved into an assisted living home and I have personal experience looking up to a window and watching my grandmom weep tears because we can't be close can you imagine in a season of life being moved out of your house you can't see your loved ones those that you would like to hug the most you can't that's what we have with my grandmom and there are thousands upon thousands of people it was a need that we saw but it was also a need that we felt it's not just giving money or time or resources and then saying okay I'm gonna go on about my way we need to take time to sit in in a minute and feel the need and so the prayer for this point is Lord give me a heart to feel or give me a heart to feel I think if we pray that every day this week we're gonna take some weight and some responsibility and God's gonna do some amazing things the third thing after Jesus felt the need then he responded so the third thing love does is love meets need verse 37 again one of my favorite verses in the whole story Jesus said I want you to give them something to eat and then he give makes this profound statement go and see what you have so you're gonna do this but I want you to go and see what he basically he was saying I want you to take inventory can I tell you guys Church of the highlands this week is a powerful time for you to ask yourself the question what do I have that God can use take personal inventory this is super practical what do I have that God can use you've already heard ways that you can get involved I would love if you do nothing else and this doesn't cost a thing will you join us in prayer for this week will you join us in prayer for served a believing that lives are going to be changed that hearts are going to be touched that God is going to do something amazing you can join with us by praying you can participate no service too small find a way to get plugged in we already talked about the serve a panned the serve kits and all the things that you're going to need right so that you can get plugged in that way you can prioritize your giving it's the first Sunday of the month as we honor God with what we give and your generosity Hyland's is second to none with tithes and offerings we've been making a difference and in Jesus name we're going to continue to make a difference but as we look to meet need what do I have that God can use take inventory pastor Elaine mentioned how important it is to use creativity as well during this kovat season I had the privilege of being a part of an outreach to UAB the doctors and the nurses at UAB we took them a meal and it was awesome but while we were there this family pulls up in their van and they begin unloading boxes and boxes and boxes of snacks for another another department within the hospital so I met the mom and dad and I just kind of got in a little conversation here's what happened their eight-year-old daughter said hey mom and dad what if I made a video and just told people that for my birthday for my eighth birthday I would like to raise money and then go buy snacks for nurses and doctors at UAB what if I did that this little girl made a video posted it online super creative and in four days raised a thousand dollars and with a thousand dollars for her own birthday she shows up at UAB and begins unloading snacks upon snacks upon snacks there was creativity so what do I have well I've got a cute little face that can make a great little video people will give and make a difference we got to be creative in this moment where Jesus said go and see what you have the disciples were focused on the wrong thing their response to him were well it's a remote place there's nowhere to get food here it's too late it's getting dark they're not gonna have time it's expensive for food we don't have hey listen to me they were focused on what they didn't have and Jesus redirected and said look I want you to look at what you do have don't look at what you don't have look at what you do have and when we discover what we do have listened to me church it doesn't all have to cost money you can serve and make a difference in any kind of way that God gives you creative ideas I'm just saying this week let's meet needs and let's let God stir some things in our heart no surf is too small there's a prayer that I want you to pray every day this week lord give me hands that will act when you show me when I feel it when the need is there give me hands that will act I hope you're getting something out of this Jesus is teaching us a beautiful lesson what does it look like to live an inside-out life defined by love before thing we find out that loves love does is love builds community verse 39 and I've always thought this was an interesting part of the story verse 39 Jesus says okay we've got a plan but I want you to go seat everybody in groups of 50 s and hundreds why would he say that I believe it's because Jesus wanted all the people there to experience something together could he have done it a different way yeah he could do anything he wants but I think he wanted them to experience something together now it's interesting the disciples are already kind of in this small group they're already in community and I think Jesus was pushing them outside of their normal sphere of influence saying I want you to go and include others in what you're doing even though I'm in community even though you're in community we still have to build community because that's what love does that's the importance of being defined by love is including other people the disciples just wanted to go somewhere and rest and eat with their own little group but Jesus said no we got a lot more people here that need to be taken in and be a part and so here's the deal love doesn't settle for me myself and I am meeting my own needs love says I want you to join me love says I want you to belong love says come be a part of what's going on in your life and my life and what God wants to do love includes others and so the prayer for this one every day is Lord give me the opportunity as I serve this week give me the opportunity to tell somebody about online church give me the opportunity to tell somebody about getting connected in our small group help us to include others lord help me include others this week love sees need love feels it feels need there's a moment where we just the weight and the responsibility would take it on ourselves love meets it we've got hands that act we're creative we're looking for ways to do it love builds community this is not just about me my family me myself and I it's about saying I want all here to be a part of it too and inviting others in fifth and final is this love impacts eternity verse 34 it says that Jesus taught the people many things I have to believe in this moment that he was telling them about heaven and the importance and the value of taking that step and not just living for this world but giving their life to Him because he always did we don't get to see the text but I have to believe that he included that in there because here's the thing if we do all of the other four things if we serve our hearts out if we go out into our communities and make a big huge difference but we don't give people Jesus we lose we must give them Jesus because an inside-out life is defined by love the love that I have for you remember where we started in this message the love that I have for you give that to other people that's going to prove it's going to prove to people you can say it all you want but it's going to prove to people when you show them that you love them love impacts eternity the disciples have been with Jesus they'd experienced miracles they'd seen him move they'd seen him do so many things and in this moment Jesus was opening up the door and saying hey disciples I want to allow you to include other people in what you've experienced this story gave them that opportunity hey Hyland's hey wherever you are if you're participating in serve day or serve week this is one of those moments where Jesus says what I have given to you I want you to give to others Jesus had to help the disciples he's helping us to in this moment so this week every day pray this prayer Lord give me the opportunity to share Jesus oh what a powerful prayer give me the opportunity to tell somebody what you've done in my life an inside-out life give me the opportunity to share Jesus I'm telling you if you'll pray those five prayers every day this week and we'll see need will feel need will meet need will build community and we will impact eternity when we go to bed on Saturday night this will be one of the greatest weeks of our life because love does some things and it's what we're defined by as believers as Christians maybe you're watching this today wherever you are you say you know what I can't share something that I don't have maybe you've never experienced the unconditional love that we started out the describing and defining maybe you've never been there and today you need to experience a real relationship with Jesus you need to simply give your life to Him I'm not talking about joining a church I'm not talking about taking any of those kind of steps I'm just saying you and Jesus you got to get right with him you got to let him do a great work in your heart because here's what I want to say to you God is love he is love is what His Word says God as love impacted eternity for you when he sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross in your place say how can a love like that exist well I don't understand it with my mind but Jesus loves us with everything he has he paid the ultimate price listen this statement let it fall on your heart I believe that as God gave me this statement it is gonna this is gonna settle on somebody's heart and it's gonna change your life you are not an inconvenience listen you are a priority you're not an inconvenience your past doesn't matter your failures don't matter where you've been to this point don't matter God wants to do something in your life and it is a love that goes beyond comprehension he defined his love for you with the cross everything you've ever done can be paid for everything you've ever done can be washed away never to be thought of again you can be may brand new in this moment if you'll just open your heart to him it's beautiful defined by love today's your day I'd love for you to bow your heads and let's pray together and I want to pray for those of you who that stirred your heart a little bit you're like you know what I've never met Jesus like that I've never allowed him to take full control I've never received forgiveness no one has ever told me that I'm a priority I've always felt like an inconvenience or like my past define me today if you want to let love define you have your past wiped away made brand new let love define you if that's you I want to lead you in a simple prayer maybe you did it a long time ago just right now in this moment you're defined by something else and you just need to come back to God you need to take a step you need to make a move and let God do a fresh work in your life I'm telling you you are a priority today you're a priority in God's heart so if that's you right there wherever you are wherever you're watching I'm just gonna lead you in a simple prayer it's a prayer of commitment a prayer of surrender giving your life to Him right there where you are if you want to be defined by love today never to look back but to me babe brand-new step into a relationship with Jesus just say these words say Jesus today I come to you with all that I have I give you my life I give you my heart I ask you to forgive me of all of my sin of my past of everything in my life that doesn't line up with your word in your heart for me make me brand new right now I pray come on make these declarations Jesus I believe that you gave your life on the cross that you were buried and you rose again three days later and now you want to live inside of me thank you for a fresh start I am defined by love I have a purpose that is given from you thank you for changing my life in this moment come on say this wherever you are say this and I believe with all of my heart that I'll never be the same again in Jesus name I pray amen and amen

Channel: Church of the Highlands

Views: 3,684

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Keywords: Chris Hodges, Church of the Highlands, COTH, Alabama, Religion, Christianity

Id: YkxPx0dJsSU

Length: 37min 53sec (2273 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 05 2020