Blessed to Be a Blessing

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] come on how about we give jesus all the praise come on with that awesome give god all the praise for that that's pretty cool i want to just start off by saying thank you for being a part of all of that we had no idea what this year would look like and turns out that we've been able to touch a lot of people's lives and we'll talk more about that in just a moment but let me look into that camera as i always do and say first of all i'm glad to be back we had an amazing uh three weeks of at the movies over 700 people gave their life to jesus in three weeks come on give god praise for that but a big hello to uh all of our campuses we are one church that meets in uh 23 different rooms all across our region i want to say a big hello to the men and women in the alabama department of corrections we miss you so very much can't wait to be back up close and personal but thank god we're able to bring uh our services still to you in those facilities and there's still a lot of people that are on the other side of the camera some have come back uh in this season but others of you are still at home and we're so glad we have the miracle of technology to bring church to you i hope you've turned up the volume hope you're worshiping god i hope you've downloaded the children's content so you can have a sunday school in your own home but for those of you who are having church at home welcome we're so glad you're along for the ride and for everybody who's here for the first time welcome to church one more time grant's bill say it big hello come on to all of our campuses love you so much all right i have a lot i want to share with you today but let me begin with a few dates that i want you to know about you already heard about really one of the most important services that we do all year long it's really turned into one of the things we're known for it started off just as a christmas eve service that has now turned due into 114 services where we will have a candlelight service and of course this year in this coveted reality we've had to make some adjustments but our dates are going to be on saturday and sunday the 19th and 20th we'll give our teams monday off to rest their voices and then we'll start right back up tuesday wednesday and thursday with a lot of services but not only in person services you have the ability to register online it's very important that you do because we're spacing things out we're actually reducing the sizes of our auditoriums to keep everything safe but also this year we're providing in-home kits and you already saw that on the video news segment but if you don't want them you don't have to register but if you'd like to have them uh we're actually offering next weekend and next monday the opportunity for you to drive through uh without contact you only have to get out of your car we'll deliver a kit that'll have just the right number of candles that you need for your family have some communion elements in there come on even some hot chocolate and you'll be able to have uh the candlelight service at home and so our teams are working very very hard there are literally hundreds of people that are packing these kits and get yeah if you want to thank them i appreciate that whoever started that over there thank you and they're doing a lot of services so pray for our team that's a lot 114 is a lot but we wanted to make sure that we could do it safely but be sure to go online and find your spot and i probably shouldn't let the cat out of the bag but i'm going to anyway i just can't wait you know i've already given away three christmas presents everybody i just can't wait i buy them like you gotta have it now you know so but but but uh we we were thinking uh about how a lot of the people who are in the performing arts have not had the ability to play instruments do concerts a lot of times we would employ three or four string people who play orchestra type instruments for our services and we just thought man there's a boatload of them that just haven't been able to play in fact we actually contacted musicians from four different states and we put together a a symphony orchestra of over 50 people we actually rented the downtown convention center so we had this big football field size floor so we could space them out six feet apart and your christmas this year is not only going to have a symphony orchestra but you were able to bless these people who have not had a paycheck in months come on somebody it's gonna be a lot of fun you're gonna love it i can't wait i probably shouldn't have said that so so so whenever we had the service and we we do this reveal act surprised okay everybody i wasn't supposed to tell you okay um so also four weeks from today can't believe it's four weeks from today but four weeks from today will be the first of the year anybody looking forward to a brand new year oh come on somebody else um in fact 2021 does not even have to work very hard right to be better so um but we are going to start it like we always do with 21 days of prayer and i only tell you four weeks in advance because i think prayer and fasting requires preparation so we'll have on our website uh an icon there for 21 days of prayer that you can click on that'll teach you how to fast if you've never fasted before how to pray how to be involved and it's just very important our churches was literally built on prayer and fasting uh the miracle of this church is not because of its pastor it's because of a great god that we've cried out to and depended on all these years and so we really love for you to kind of educate yourself watch some messages read some material and get ready for that season so next sunday though uh of course is a sunday that we have once a year that we simply call legacy sunday a legacy offering and normally i would give you this message on that day and i decided this year to give it to you the week before and next week we'll have a moment in our worship service where we where we uh bless this offering and then we're just we're gonna bring you a great christmas service next week but today i wanted to bring it a week in advance just to prepare us and prepare our hearts and as always you just ask god what you're supposed to do uh we there's literally no expectation in fact if you do nothing we've already done a lot this year's been an amazing year you already saw that on the opener but we really believe with all of our heart that this is a part of this is really what the church is supposed to be all about and it's my job as a pastor to make sure none of us ever forget that that we're not here just to go to church and have our own little kumbaya moment and just have a place where we can worship our god and let everybody else figure it out on their own no no jesus said you need to let your light shine you need to let your light shine in front of others in fact before that he actually gives the metaphor of salt he says you're to be the salt of the earth you need to go into every place you go and the expectation of christians is to go make things that don't taste so well make it taste a lot better make every situation where things aren't doing very well make it better just go just go make it better just go just be salt but not only be salt be light so not only make things taste better but make every place you go every every place you go brighter be the light of the world be let your light shine in front of others but not just because it's nice to be nice not not just because you know well there's some needs and let's see if we can meet them not just and not even randomly jesus said let your light shine that day and i'm going to give you a lot of that days today i'm in fact i'm going to give you five different reasons why it's important and what's the what's the real motive behind it so that they may see your good deeds and you know what be interested in your god glorify your father in heaven wanna go okay wait a minute no one's ever treated me like this before tell me about your god tell me tell me about your god and so years ago when we started our church in fact in february we'll be celebrating 20 years and we have a celebration y'all y'all pray that this covet thing get settles down so that we can have a celebration in february because we will celebrate 20 years of what the lord has done but 20 years ago we decided to be incredibly intentional about how we were going to do this that we weren't going to just be random and just wherever it goes it goes no no we actually identified our vision our mission's vision or how we would let our light shine in five areas and we call them our legacy lanes legacy is what you're remembered for legacy is what people say about you so these are legacy lanes and and i want to make sure you know this especially for those of you who call this place home this needs to be ingrained not into your mind but to who we all are because literally we believe that jesus left specific instructions about where this pl all this goodness and kindness and all these good deeds go when in the final words that he spoke found in acts chapter one now you say chris are these his final words i mean literally this is the last thing that came out of his mouth while he was on earth so if you know the story of jesus he was born on that christmas day we're celebrating that uh he waited till 30 to start his ministry three years of active ministry at 33 gave his life on a cross then of course he was resurrected praise god for the god that the only the only god who got up from the grave come on somebody it's not easter but you can still celebrate it every day all right and and then but he spent about 40 days just hanging out you know popping through walls surprising people having conversations then he went to the top of the mount of olives if you ever been to israel or if you've ever seen a picture of the old city of jerusalem usually that picture is taken from the top of the mount of olives it looks toward the west this is to the east so on the eastern side or this is this mountain and he was there with his disciples and he was ascended into heaven by the way it's the exact same place that he's going to return and in my opinion that's going to be fairly soon but he returned he left from that place it's called the great ascension and the last words out of his mouth is go be witnesses go be witnesses so you know do you know in a courtroom there are several different players there's a judge don't be that you're not to judge people you're not to be the prosecutor you're not even the defender you're the one that gets behind raise the right hand and just tells their story you're supposed to go say let me tell you the difference he made in my life go be witnesses and then he got real specific go do it in your own city which for them it was jerusalem but that's not for us that's that's birmingham that's that's columbus that's tuscaloosa right go go be witnesses in jerusalem and then after you've done that go to your surrounding area judea and samaria for that that's america and then actually i want you to be intentional about doing good deeds around the world to the ends of the earth so this has framed our missions portfolio we simply call it local missions national missions international missions but then we also say chris i thought there were five we have two that are specific to us that so in other words i think the whole church the capital c church every church every christian has this as a responsibility if it's the last words out of your savior you might want to know what it is right but then but then we have some an assignment that's unique to us and that of course is our own church but then we've been given this beautiful assignment that's really not for every church we've just been uniquely called to raise up a generation of young leaders to go change the world in a place that we call highlands college what i want to do is take a few minutes and just go back through those five and share with you what we are doing why we're doing and give you the so that let me tell you what there's a so that behind all of those and then i've got like a closing message thought that i really think is going to minister to you in a great way but this first one is our local missions efforts and basically what we do is of course we care for people who are hurting paul said it this way he says when i am with those who are weak and you've got to understand this distinction because if you're not careful when you're with those who are weak you may just share in their weaknesses and like give them some money and never see them again but that's not our assignment in fact let me be clear that not all compassion and charity is the same if you just give and help somebody with their physical needs in that moment and do nothing more you didn't do what your real assignment was so paul says when i'm with those who are weak i share in their weaknesses for i want to bring the weak to christ and that's the key i tried to find common ground with everyone so that i can save them in other words we make sure that our acts of kindness are connected to the love of god can i hear a better amen everybody in other words don't just be nice to somebody oh here's 20 bucks no no give them 20 bucks in jesus name don't just leave a large tip at a restaurant just because you feel compassion toward the server no no hey connect connect that compassion to the fact that hey god loves you and that's why we pre we print these little cards that i'd love for you to have fistfuls of and have them everywhere in your pockets in your car and your wallet your purse and you don't have to use it everywhere just listen to the holy spirit but there are going to be places where you'll want to do something nice and the card simply says something extra to show god loves you so when you when you go out to eat today if you're at a restaurant and you'll see that server who's probably not gotten nearly what they're used to getting this year because of coveted but if you leave them what i call a honking tip come on every alabamian knows what a honking tip is right that's a it's for you a people that are more sophisticated that's an extremely generous gratuity all right so that's what that means so just go be nice but leave this with it see what we do is i told you i was giving you this so that in local missions we serve the practical needs of people so that they would open their hearts to god jesus said it this way we give a cup of cold water in jesus name and that's why this year man this year has been an amazing year to be able to show the love of god so like when we administered 11 000 covid tests before they drove up to get their that thing stuck up their nose there was somebody uh that that saw them first who who said hey we're praying for you and and through the through the car could say just just stretching our hands out toward them and praying for are you hearing me we we do kindness in jesus name that's why we're doing this saturday this giving hope i love giving hope i wish i could take credit for it but um our team is amazing years ago we came up with this idea to create a shopping mall experience so used to we would just go give toys and presents to kids and honestly that made us the hero but what we decided is we wanted the parents to be the hero and so we created a shopping mall experience where the parents can come and then they can pick out specific toys based on their children's ages so it wasn't even random like i can't even use that because i have a four-year-old not a 14 year old or they can come pick out these toys and then our team helps rap them and then every person who who helps rap them prays with that person but then the parent takes them home wrapped and is able to be the hero in the story how many all think that's a good idea i mean we need we need the families to come back together yeah so the kids don't even know the parent gets to be the hero and i love that but two years ago there was a lady who came to our river chase location and um and she had just uh had a restraining order put on her husband for severely beating her and her 10 children aged 17 to 6 and she didn't know the lord she just came somebody invited her to this experience and she was able to get toys for all of her children and at the end when they prayed for her this dear precious lady gave her heart to jesus right there tears streaming down her face and she says it's not the toys that i will remember from this day it's the fact that my sins have been forgiven can we one more time just thank god that lives are changed in that kind of way i'll tell you more about that story in just a moment but that's why next week when we give we're going to give to outreachers like those into our dream centers into the correctional ministry and of course we will surprise a bunch of local ministry partners uh with a christmas gift we'd like to do that they don't know what's coming but we just will surprise our team vets through all these great ministries that that aren't a part of highlands that we just want to bless and keep help keep help keep them going but that's what our local missions efforts are all about but here we have a second area as well and that is our national missions area and in our national missions area it comes from really from this verse out of acts chapter 16 where the apostles and the leaders of the church they didn't just build their own churches but they instead they went to other churches and strengthened them and helped those other churches grow in fact this verse frames a vision that happened to us 20 years ago when we started highlands we had no idea literally no idea i mean honestly if i'm honest with you i was just trying to we were just trying to make this thing work we didn't we didn't know if anybody was going to come but we had 400 people in our in our first launch service here at highlands nearly 20 years ago and it continued to grow and so the the phones started ringing off the hook like how did you do that can you send me a copy of the mailer that you mailed out to everybody tell them about your church and so we just started giving our resources away but i mean like we were still paddling pretty hard trying to stay above water we didn't know if it was going to work ourselves we didn't have any buildings and the office of the church was in the basement of my house i mean this that's for four years i mean it's like this we we were just trying to we were just trying to make it work but god laid in our heart to help other churches get started it turned into an organization that now gives 9 million dollars away every year to new church plants and today to date even during covet we planted 34 brand new churches just this fall and now we're at the total of 912 churches around the yeah we have a national missions effort to launch new churches and strengthen existing churches so that they in turn can reach their world and that's what we do not only with new churches but we also you do this i need you to know you do this like pastor chris man you're doing a lot no no no you're doing a lot because everything we create for ourselves we give away to other churches now 14 000 churches download our materials every month all around the world this is what it's all about it it's our so when we have this offering we will give to ark we'll give to grow to strengthen churches and here's my favorite uh i just personally like this last one and there's a story behind it um and i i'm always careful to share stories like this because i don't want to play on on your emotions i hate that i hate it i hate it when i hate it when pastors do that i'm not playing on your emotions tammy and i always have done very well god has blessed us the first year was rough i'm just letting you know okay we're fine we were very blessed but the first year was rough it was rough we didn't we didn't know whether we i'm just letting you know okay and and regularly about three times we we would receive a surprise envelope from another church or pastor and it would be like 500 check or a thousand dollar check and and they would write little notes like hey don't spend this on the church this is for you and tammy and tears would stream down our face and it's just like in fact even the first year somebody called us who's the new in our church said hey if y'all don't have a place to go vacation we have a house down at the beach and you can use it it was little things like that and when that happened i told god god if you'll ever bless this i mean i i promise you i will do this for others i promise you and now we have the privilege we have a hundred and sixty families pastor families that this year has rocked their worlds some of them are new church planners some but y'all they don't know it they don't know it and i've written a letter and i've i've said on behalf of the church the the amazing people at church the highlands this is a christmas blessing that you're forbidden to use in your church this is for you and your families and y'all we're going to bless the fire at about 160 families about what we give i just i'm it's just personal to me all right so the uh of course the international international is interesting but we do have a responsibility to go into all the world jesus said that this is one of his final this is one of his final words but but there's a there's a twist to this one that i just want to teach you on i think they're all important let me just say that i think every dollar that goes to any place anywhere in the world is important any place the gospel goes is fine but we made a unique decision and this is important for you to know if you're a member of our church that we decided not just to give everywhere that we would focus on what we call strategic missions and i'll explain that in a second so that every person in the world here's the key has the opportunity to hear the name of jesus at least once and unfortunately it's hard to believe in 2020 with all this technology that there are still there's still just a few people that have not even heard that name once it's hard to believe that there are still people it's hard to believe with all the resources we have all the technology we have that there are still about 2 000 people groups without the bible in their translation it's hard to believe that there are places on earth without one single church and we just decided all of it's good but we're not going to all of it we decided years ago that we would focus on an area of the world that's called the 10 40 window so it's called 1040 because the equator comes about right here so this is the 10 degree line the bottom and the 40 degree line and if you put a window from africa to the pacific rim 97 of the people who don't know jesus live right there but only three percent of the mission's dollar goes there and only one percent of the missionary goes there well that's not even smart that's the worst business plan i've ever heard in my life 97 of the needs getting 3 of the money and 1 of the people we just decided we're giving 100 there our admissions dollar goes there to reach what we call the unreached people groups to you're right now translating three translations three for three bibles for three people groups who don't have a bible to do church planning and to train the leaders in those areas and next week when we give a portion of it's going to go to that because we think it's so important y'all believe that everybody i mean they should get the chance at least once to hear and then of course we have highlands college and i talk about it so much i won't talk about it now a lot now but it honestly doesn't matter what your vision is or what you desire to do to help people if you don't have the people to pull it off i mean at the end of the day we don't have a harvest problem there were people who would eat meals today get saved today receive prayer today that's not the problem the problem is there's no one to do it the harvest is plentiful the workers are a few jesus said so work on this he said in fact he made it a prayer ask the lord of the harvest to send forth workers into that harvest field and that's why we train students who are called to ministry and here's the so that so they can be placed around the world and fulfill the great commission and i had no idea how god would bless this i mean honestly i thought it was going to be an internship if you know the truth about it i thought it was going to be 80 kids who would just come and serve here as interns and today god has blessed us with the most amazing building in the city i still it blows my mind this week we we did the dedication service for the groundbreaking of the renovations we're doing on the grandview facility if you want to see that you ought to see that follow highlands college on the social media platforms but a portion of what we give next week will go to scholarship students who don't have the ability to come but who have the call of god on their life man we want no graduate to graduate with debt so they'd go straight into the harvest field and of course to continue to see that dream become a reality and then you had this last one by the way can we just clap and say thank you jesus for giving us that assignment i'm still blown away come on it's 1100 students now and if god made me stop doing everything i'm doing i said pc you can only do one thing of course you wouldn't call me pc um chris if you could only do one thing this is what i'd spend the rest of my life doing i'm just letting you know i think this is one of the most important things we have ever done we'll ever do but the last one is our church and i love the way jesus says it jesus says i will build say the next two words i will build i like he didn't say the church it's personal to him okay i want to say this i love my church i mean praise god for all that other stuff but i like i like church of the highlands i'm in i love my church in fact i'm starting a series in january called my church i want to talk about the distinctions week one my church prays we started this church believing that the power of the holy spirit is still alive and well that you can be filled with the spirit you can have you can have miracles and signs and wonders and the anointing of god like this is not religion oh yeah we're going there that's that's january but i can't hardly wait but i love you said my church my church and my church the gates of hell cannot prevail against my church church the highlands we build life-giving local churches all across our region had no idea there'd be 23 so that people can know god find freedom discover purpose make a difference and who knew i mean it wasn't me i promise you that i'd stand here today to be able to tell you that we have all these locations and built every one of them start them perm portably and then build permanent locations with cash and this year's assignment and this year's offering is going to go to the next two that praise god we own property in woodlawn to god be the glory for that we're building my building and property in mccalla and who knew you said chris why are you doing all this hasn't 2020 been hard enough like shouldn't we just have a lot of prayer right now because do you have any idea what we're going through and honestly i do i really do i understand there was a moment i'm just going to tell you there was a moment where i built this message it was two weeks ago when i began building this message for you today and this rarely happens where i'm watching one of the services where i'm the speaker and then and i minister to myself usually i'm going why'd you say that that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard in my life like but i watch i always watch and i think lord chris you got to get better but i um but two weeks ago i'm going bro dude that's good man preach say that i was getting blessed it's and we we we were in the middle of the at the movies and we were watching that movie the impossible about the tsunami and it was that moment when the when the waves subsided and this family of five there was only the mom and this little boy left they didn't even know if the dad and the other two brothers were even alive she had a giant gash in her leg their clothes are ripped off of them they they're trying to find a place just a tree to climb just to get some rest not even knowing if they're going to survive and they heard the cry of that other little boy and there became a tension between the mom and the boy of what they were supposed to do and as she hobbled in in in unimaginable pain and as they were just wondering if they would even live another hour she says we have to go help them and in some weird way that's what 2020 feels like to me everything kind of in my natural self says let's just find a place of safety let's just kind of figure it out if we can survive another sunday who knows what's even going to happen next week and let's just kind of get in huddle up mode take but there's the cry of a little boy in a heap of rubble that i can't like we cannot ignore and when i saw that tension yeah i mean i'm serious and that's the heart behind next sunday have we done enough yeah it's way it's more than enough but i still hear there's still the voices of people who've never heard the name there's still voices of people who are starving right now there's still people who and so we make some decisions that have to honestly this has nothing to do with next week and that has nothing to do with your giving this is just a principle that if you're a follower of christ is who we are it's just who we are that we embrace three principles the first is that god blesses us with more than we need like he never intended for you just to have what you need you have more than you need and by the way please don't take this as any kind of insult or chris you have no idea what i'm going through look you're in america you're in a covered building there's heat and air condition you have clothes on your body you have been blessed come on everybody we are blessed we are i don't care what your circumstance is you may be hobbling you maybe wounded yourself but we're alive that's what that mom did like i know i'm hurt but i'm alive we have to know what the more is for and as we look around at this miracle called our church we have to know what it's for what is it for it's clear i'll bless you so you can be a blessing i'll bless you that's what we that's what we try to do this year with the if i'm honest with you we had a meeting in march right after we got shut down our executive team met for six hours and and i and um i will tell you the first few hours was okay this is probably not gonna this is gonna go down and this is gonna go down and and we better we better like start cutting back here and pulling back here and we got to dial this back we got to stop doing that we can't we were we were wondering and i remember that the conversation had had a change i'll never forget it we had this moment where the conversation flipped literally flipped we thought you know what we had zero 20 years ago and look where we are we'll build it again let's take everything god has given us and let's give it away let's let's go for broke listen if there's nothing left you know what let's go out with a bang let's just do everything or you'll hear me why because we weren't blessed to like okay wait a minute no we were blessed to be a blessing that's the here's the second principle and that is when when we bless others here's what i know god takes care of our needs so i've not announced this yet but what's it been six from march to december like is that like eight months or something like that we're not down we're not down one single percentage point from this same time last year not one single percentage point of your giving your generosity your participation not not one not one and there's almost nothing god won't do for the person who decides to help other people in fact he guarantees it anyone who gives up anything for the kingdom of god will certainly receive many times more oh chris that's heaven no no no in this life and in the life to come [Music] so you you did it like we did it here we are we've got work but this has been a the worst year and honestly that's been the best year ever we couldn't we couldn't have services so we invited other churches to come use our cameramen and our technologies think church after church came and recorded their services here because they didn't have the cameras to do it so they could have online church in some way it's just like here's here's the last one and that is that the more god blesses us the more he expects us to bless so so he blesses us to be a blessing and then he takes care of us and now we have more again but now it's not going to go take that 20 20. no it's not for that it's like more is required in fact jesus said much is required from those to whom much has been given their responsibility is actually greater so there's there's a there's a tradition in the jewish tradition that i'm going to tell you about as i close it's the coolest thing ever so in the jewish tradition i always thought honestly this was the most unfair thing one of the most unfair things i've ever read in the bible but you don't question god you know surely there's a reason i did not know until two years ago what i'm getting ready to tell you that when a jewish dad gives his inheritance to his kids no matter how many there are the oldest gets fifty percent the others divide the next fifty percent so i have five kids so that means my oldest would get fifty percent and then the other four split the next fifty percent he gets what was called a double portion in fact it says it in deuteronomy that you're to acknowledge the son as the firstborn by giving them a double share of all that the dad has and why in the world is he just like him more watch this i did not know this until two years ago that son is the first sign of his father's strength that means that means that son it was given double so that if the dad ever dies he could be like the dad and take care of the rest he had to have more because he's he was supposed to represent the fathers strength when the father is not there anymore to provide the right of the firstborn belongs to him in fact that word in the hebrew letter means the responsibility okay chris that's jewish stuff watch this this is new testament talking about the church you have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly to the church of the firstborn you know the god considers the church the firstborn so he's good to everybody but he's better at us but not so we can be better he intentionally wanted you to have more joy more peace more money more ideas more love so you could have all of that no no no so that when the father went here you could be a representative of the father's strength so the lady who got saved two years ago earlier this year got got leukemia and then two months ago got covered and four weeks ago passed away ten kids are now i can't tell the family name for but the ten kids are with the grandma the grandma's doing an amazing job she's a hero our teams have worked very very closely and you've already been helping them but just just yesterday our team that does all this outreach stuff and and and i were talking and talking about the legacy offering and normally we would wait but we decided this year for the lead gift to help that grandma and these 10 kids 17 to 6. and and they don't know it but i'm announcing it now and they're going to hear it right now because this is river chase you guys that you as the lead gift of legacy 2020 were they're getting a brand new van and groceries for a year on your behalf because we're the firstborn we were supposed and and i just couldn't be more proud prouder of you guys it's honestly these dream teamers who told me this story yesterday it took forever because they're just sobbing and the people that are involved it's what it's all about y'all this is it this is it even so just do what god shows you to do and and forget the offering just do it anyway to your neighbor and to the server at the restaurant you go to it to everywhere you go let's be the light of the world and so father help us this is an amazing opportunity 2020 has been the worst and god you turned it into the best and god now on this christmas season here's our opportunity again to show the love of god to all of our legacy lanes and to people who aren't expecting it to pastors into ministries and so god a week in advance i just pray for blessing over our people god i pray that you just speak to them lord let them just hear from you and do whatever you show them i pray with your heads bowed your eyes closed if you're here today and you say chris i'm far from god i i'm hurting so badly i don't know that i could hurt help someone else and if today you feel like you're distant from god and you're lost and you don't know jesus or you're a christian and you backslidden and you feel shame and you feel guilt and you can walk out of this room or leave this service at home free saved forgiven your one heartfelt prayer away from that being a reality that's you campus pastors come join me on stage i'm going to pray a prayer and then they can they'll take it from the amen of this prayer if that's you pray this say jesus i need you please forgive me i confess my sins i've turned away from you today i'm turning back to you be the lord of my life i believe you're the son of god i believe you rose from the dead and today i give you my life in your name i pray amen

Channel: Church of the Highlands

Views: 6,159

Rating: 4.9333334 out of 5

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

Id: KWCikcbPBwA

Length: 41min 43sec (2503 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 06 2020