(inspirational music)
- Hey Heartland Online, Trevor here. Welcome to the Heartland
online digital experience, wherever you are, this is your day. I don't know why I just said it but it's just, believe it, it's your day. Whatever the day may
be looking like so far this early in the morning, it's your day. So right now in the chat,
we wanna talk with you. Wanna hang with you, wanted
to see what you're doing. See what's going on. See if you're drinking your coffee or tea whatever it may be. And then throw some really
funny emojis in there. Let's just get like
really weird this morning. I don't know, I just had that idea. Is that okay if we just get weird? We can go, okay, cool.
(Trevor claps hands) Put some emojis in the chat, today is gonna be a really cool day 'cause we start a brand new series called, "For Anyone and Everyone." Steve Carter is kicking it off. So Week 1 starts right now but let's get into a
time of worship together. (uplifting music) ♪ See the tomb where He laid ♪ ♪ See the stone rolled away ♪ ♪ He is risen, He is risen ♪ ♪ He's alive ♪ ♪ See His hands, see His feet ♪ ♪ Touch His scars and believe ♪ ♪ He is risen, He is risen ♪ ♪ He's alive ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ He's alive ♪ ♪ He lives ♪ ♪ All honor and power are His ♪ ♪ All glory forever, amen ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus lives ♪ ♪ Hear the shackles breaking free ♪ ♪ Hear the song of the redeemed ♪ ♪ He is moving, He is moving ♪ ♪ He's alive ♪ ♪ Take this freedom, take this love ♪ ♪ Can you feel it rising up? ♪ ♪ He is here, He is here ♪ ♪ He's alive, oh ♪ ♪ He lives ♪ ♪ All honor and power are His ♪ ♪ All glory forever, amen ♪ ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ He lives ♪ ♪ All honor and power are His ♪ ♪ All glory forever, amen ♪ ♪ Jesus lives, ♪ ♪ Oh Jesus lives ♪ ♪ He is risen, ♪
He is risen ♪ He's alive ♪ ♪ Oh You took all our shame ♪ ♪ Left it in the grave ♪ ♪ We're forgiven, ♪ ♪ We're forgiven ♪ ♪ The work forever done ♪ ♪ Only by the blood ♪ ♪ It is finished ♪ ♪ It is finished ♪ ♪ You took all our shame ♪ ♪ Left it in the grave ♪ ♪ We're forgiven, ♪ ♪ Oh, we're forgiven ♪ ♪ The work forever done ♪ ♪ Only by the blood ♪ ♪ It is finished ♪ ♪ It is finished ♪ ♪ He lives ♪ ♪ All honor and power are His ♪ ♪ All glory forever, amen ♪ ♪ Jesus lives ♪
♪ Oh, He lives ♪ ♪ All honor and power are His ♪ ♪ All glory forever, amen ♪ ♪ Jesus lives ♪ ♪ Jesus lives ♪ ♪ He is risen, He is risen ♪ ♪ He's alive ♪ ♪ He is risen, He is risen ♪ ♪ He's alive ♪ ♪ Oh He is risen, He is risen ♪ ♪ He's alive ♪ - Hey Heartland, Steve Carter here. We kick off Week 1 of a brand new series called, "For Anyone and Everyone." And I got her to tell you, five years ago I received a phone call
and I pick up the phone. It's my buddy, JJ. And he says, "Ae you sitting down?" Which is never a great
way to start a phone call. I said, "No." He goes, "Well sit down." And he begins to tell me
about our mentor, Hal, was in a terrible motorcycle
accident and passed. And I was shocked. Hal was the spiritual father for me. He was someone that I talked
to multiple times a week. He meant the world to me. I flew out to Arizona because
he was pastoring there five years ago and I went to his funeral and I got up to speak. And I'll never forget
looking across a room of almost 1,500 people. There were Republicans
there, there were Democrats. There were profoundly conservative people. There were profoundly progressive people. The local Phoenix Imam was there. The diversity in that room, of color, of age, of belief scattered in this church to celebrate the life of
this man, my mentor, Hal. Hal's childhood best friend, Dean, gets up and says these words, "Hal had this ability to welcome anyone." "Really." "Hal defined a #welcome." He literally just welcomed everyone to his life, to his table, to his home. I remember getting on the plane flying back to Chicago-land
and as I'm flying back, I started to think about my
own life and my own funeral. I wonder who'd actually be there. I wondered if they all
be around the same age. If they'd all be around the same beliefs, around the same look, the same voter, kind of push, or drive, or a thought. Like I thought the people
that I, in my life, if I were to be dead, would
probably all look like me, think like me, vote like me. And it just wrecked me because when I look at the life of Jesus, He lived a life for anyone and everyone. You go to Luke 15 and it says, verse one, "Now the tax collectors and sinners "were all gathering around to hear Jesus "but the Pharisees and
the teachers of the law "muttered, 'This man welcomes
sinners and eats with them." It's like, wherever Jesus went,
he looked for the outcast. He looked for the person who's
like neglected, or forgotten. He looked for the people
who were written off. And he said, "I'll sit with you. "I'll eat with you." And what's amazing is that
all the religious people were like, "Look at that guy." "Look at that Rabbi." "Man, that guy eats with people? "That guy, he like eats
with tax collectors?" And tax collectors, they woke up every day just trying to extort and take
and provide for the Empire. That's all they did. They were hated. And Jesus is like, "Yeah, but they were "created by my father. "They matter. "And if they matter to my father,
they should matter to me." And I remember being around
religious people who would say, "Why's Hal meeting with a Muslim Imam?" And I was like, "'Cause
I think that's what "Jesus would have done." It's amazing what religious
people sometimes can think. It's like, "You can't
be around those people." "You can't go gather with them." "You can't be seen with them." And Jesus kept, in broad daylight, around the religious leaders of the day, He was like, "Yeah, I'm gonna go sit "with that person and that
person and that person "and that person and that person." And if he is our true
Lord, Savior and Rabbi, I think the invitation is
for us to go and do likewise. Jesus, in Luke 15 tells
a couple of stories. And what's amazing about
these stories is they happen outside a house and they
happen within a house. And I think we have to think about that. What happens in our life for anyone and everyone outside the house. And how is our life
for anyone and everyone inside our house. Let's start on the outside. Look what it says, verse 3, "Then Jesus told this
parable, 'Suppose one of you 'has a hundred sheep
and loses one of them. 'Doesn't he leave the
99 in the open country 'and go after the lost
sheep until he finds it? 'And when he finds it he joyfully puts it 'on his shoulders and goes home. 'Then he calls his friends and
neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me. 'I have found my lost sheep. 'I tell you that in the same way 'there will be more rejoicing
in heaven over one sinner 'who repents, than over
99 righteous persons 'who do not need to repent.'" There's a story of just
how someone loses a sheep and it's outside the pen. And this person leaves
the 99 and goes after it. We've probably all heard
that song, "Reckless Love." We've heard about this. We know this and we can sing it, but often how much do we live it? I remember one time I was preaching and it was a baptism weekend. And for many, many months
I have been kind of just praying, praying, praying, praying
for my friend, MZ. MZ grew up Jewish. And he didn't really know
Jesus, but he was curious. And he started coming to service and he'd stand in the back
and just kind of listen. And then he started sitting
down in one section. I could always see him
when I was teaching. But we happened to be
during this baptism service, and we sing that song, "Reckless Love," and we're doing spontaneous baptism. So I teach, we start
worshiping then anybody who wants to be baptized they can come up. And we get to this moment
where we're singing about how he leaves the
99 to go after the one. And I lock eyes with MZ. And I just feel like the Spirit just go, "Get off stage and go tell him. "Go off stage and go tell him." And in this moment, the
worship team is still singing. I just get off stage. And I walked towards him and I'm like... I just put my hands on his
shoulders and I'm like, "I don't know, man. "I don't know what I'm doing right now "but I just want you
to know, God loves you. "You matter to me. "I don't wanna go to heaven without you. "I think, I think you
have so much to offer. "Like, you're beautiful, beautiful person. "And I think if grace and peace "were at the core of your heart, "who knows what God might
do in you, with you, "through you and for you." And then I just walked away. Walked back to the stage,
closing out the service, the baptismal still there. And as I'm thinking I'm
gonna walk off stage, MZ is like, "Hey, I wanna get baptized." And there was just this
moment where my buddy, Lance and Clarity and Jared
and I gotta baptize MZ. And every time I read this
passage I think of that song, "Reckless Love," and I
think of this moment of just one person who was just standing there. And when I asked MZ
later, "Why'd you do it?" He just said, "'Cause you asked me. "I had been waiting to be asked." And it made me wonder how
many people in our life do we come across that we
have this relationship with, where they look at our life and they go, "Man, I was just waiting
to be invited to church. "I was just being... "I was just waiting to be
invited into the story of God. "I was just waiting to be
invited into some moment "where I could enter
into the baptism waters." But oftentimes we just
hold that to ourselves. The scripture's are
really, really clear that when one person, one MZ
says, "Yes," to Jesus and there is profound levels
of rejoicing in heaven. God wants to use you. God wants to use me, but our
lives have to be like Hal's and like Jesus's where we welcome people. And we're able and willing
to speak and invite. The second story happens inside the house. It's just this. "Or suppose a woman has 10
silver coins and she loses one. "Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house "and search carefully until she finds it? "And when she finds it,
she calls her friends "and neighbors together
and says, 'Rejoice with me. 'I have found my lost coin.' "In the same way, I tell
you, there is rejoicing "in the presence of the angels of God "over one sinner who repents." Something that happens
outside, that's lost. But now this one's lost inside. Inside the house, one coin is lost. And what's amazing is,
Jesus, after this story, we'll tell the story of two
brothers, two lost sons. One who goes off on his own and then one who basically can't
welcome his younger brother when he comes to his senses. Both have no understanding of grace. Both can't actually celebrate
what God and Jesus are up to. But this story of someone
losing something within. And then when we find it, it's like all heaven celebrates. One of the biggest tragedies
for me, when it comes to COVID has been how many people just disappeared. Many people who would
have called Heartland home for many many years disappeared. Some people moved away. Some people have felt isolated. Some people have just felt disconnected. I guarantee, some of you
are watching this right now, you know what it's like, when you're like, "I remember when I'd
be sitting in service, or "I remember when I would be
in this small group together "and just things have changed." And I think for some of
you that are watching you might've had people
in your life who have just kind of drifted away from
Heartland, or from faith. They're like one of the lost coins. And one of the most healthy
and beautiful things that we can do is to
simply reach out and go, "Hey, how are you doing? "How are you doing?" God has prompted different
people in my life. And literally it's just been a text, or on Instagram reaching out,
or on Twitter reaching out, or on Facebook reaching
out, or picking up the phone and calling 'cause I don't
want anybody to drift. And I don't wanna go through my life where I'm okay with lost coins, lost people, that I actually know them. And I think we all have to go,
"Man if I'm gonna live a life "for anyone and everyone,
man, I gotta be willing "to go after people outside and
people who are lost inside," who in your life has just drifted away. Maybe it's the name. Maybe it's a family. Maybe it's a friend. Maybe we just need to check in and say, "Hey have you watched this message?" or, "Are you joining me next weekend "in person at service?" Little by little, when
we actually do that, the scriptures are clear,
there is so much rejoicing when this takes place, in heaven. My friends, I think sometimes we almost lose sight of
the power of our words. I mean, Genesis chapter
one, the earth is chaos. It's dark, it's void and God speaks. And he says, these words,
"Let there be light." And what He begins to do
is He begins to bring light into the darkness, order into the chaos. He begins to fill this earth
with purpose and meaning. There's power in the spoken word. There's power in the invitation. There is a power when we
declare our faith in Christ. Paul says it like this to the Romans. He says, "Everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord "will be saved." Everyone. Everyone who calls on the name
of the Lord will be rescued and redeemed saved. The question is, is how
wide is your everyone? How wide? I look at Hal's life, it
was a wide view of everyone 'cause he really believed that, man, if I could live this
life of represent Jesus and represent what he stood
for and speak about him, well, man, who knows what God might do? And the question, I bet
the Roman church was asking when Paul says these
words, "Everyone who calls "on the name of the Lord will be saved," I wonder if they were
just going, "Well, how?" And Paul just so beautifully
in the next verse says, "Well, how then can they call on the one "they have not believed in?" He takes it even farther,
"And how can they believe "in the one of whom
they have not yet heard? "And how can they hear without
someone speaking to them? "And how can anyone speak
unless they are sent?" And then he says these
words, "As it is written "how beautiful are the feet
of those who bring good news?" For there's a whole world. There's a whole world of people. A whole city of people
in Rockford and Belvidere and Boone County and beyond who don't know what grace and
peace and freedom and love and transformation looks
like in the name of Jesus. And they're waiting. They're waiting to be seen. They're waiting to be known. They're waiting to be invited. They're waiting to be found. And I think every one of us, every one of us who has been
rescued and redeemed by grace, we've been given this opportunity to go and share what we've discovered with anyone and everyone. And Jesus sat with tax collectors. These people were just... Committed treason to the Jewish people. They hated tax collectors. He sat with sinners,
people who wanted no part in the Jewish system. He sat, he ate with them and the religious people
muttered and mocked. It didn't matter because Jesus said, I don't care what you say. I just care that these people understand that they matter to God. I mean, how great would it
be if people started to say, "You know who Heartland hangs out with? "You know who they actually go after? "You know who they actually hang out with? "You know what they actually do?" Let anybody say what they wanna
say, but let's be relentless and living a life like Jesus did, who'd go after anyone and everyone. Could we time out? Who's your one? Who's the one outside the house? Outside Heartland, the house of God. Outside the house, who's the one that you're praying for? Who's the one that you're praying for? And inside the house, maybe
inside the house of Heartland, house of God, inside this house, that's kind of drifted
away, who's the one? And what if, just in this week,
we could commit to praying, praying for them. Those that have drifted
can be brought back. Those who are just going their own way might be invited in. That God would give us the words. 'Cause who knows? I choose to believe that
there's a lot more MZ stories. There's a lot more Hal's of Heartland. There's a lot more Jesus
stories that he wants to do because the truth is everyone who calls on the name of the Lord can be saved. Which means, every single
person you come across is just one prayer away. One prayer away. Question is, will you speak up? Will you invite? Will you check in? Will you sit with them? Will you live the life
that Jesus invites us to? Will you go after the one? Anyone and everyone. Can you imagine if every one
of us who called Heartland home lived this kind of life? I mean, we'd have these faith stories. These only God stories. We'd have these stories
where God was doing things in our midst and lives were being changed and family stories were
being transformed, why? 'Cause a couple people said, "We're gonna go. "We're gonna go." And when we do this (Steve exhales sharply) we get the thrill of God using us. Friends, please hear me. Every one of us needs to have a one. One that's outside, that's drifted. One that's inside, that's drifted. And we need to be relentless
'cause that's what Jesus was. He was relentless for you
and he was relentless for me. So let's follow his example and let's live for anyone and everyone. Let's pray. God, thank you for what you're doing. Thank you that you've entrusted us. It still blows my mind. You've entrusted us with your story. God, I grateful for people like Hal. Grateful for the life of
Christ who just modeled a life that invited anyone
and everyone to the table. God, I want that kind of
courage in my own life. God, if there's people
that have just drifted bring their names to our minds and give us the courage to go after them. There are people in our stories that have no faith background,
but are just struggling and hurting and drowning
with despair, or addiction, pain, doubt, worry, fear, whatever. I pray that you would bring them to mind. And may we have the
courage to go after them. God, let us be the kind of people who take your scripture seriously. I truly believe that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. I pray that you would use
each and every one of us to go after anyone and everyone because each of those people
matters deeply to you. We love you, God. Amen. (uplifting music) ♪ You call me out upon the waters ♪ ♪ The great unknown ♪ ♪ Where feet may fail ♪ ♪ And there I find You in the mystery ♪ ♪ In oceans deep ♪ ♪ My faith will stand ♪ ♪ And I will call upon Your name ♪ ♪ And keep my eyes above the waves ♪ ♪ When oceans rise ♪ ♪ My soul will rest in Your embrace ♪ ♪ For I am Yours ♪ ♪ And You are mine ♪ ♪ Whoa oh ♪ ♪ Your grace abounds in deepest waters ♪ ♪ Your sovereign hand ♪ ♪ Will be my guide ♪ ♪ Where feet may fail
and fear surrounds me ♪ ♪ You've never failed
and You won't start now ♪ ♪ And I will call upon Your name ♪ ♪ And keep my eyes above the waves ♪ ♪ When oceans rise ♪ ♪ My soul will rest in Your embrace ♪ ♪ For I am Yours ♪ ♪ And You are mine ♪ ♪ Whoa oh, ♪ ♪ You are mine ♪ ♪ Spirit lead me where my
trust is without borders ♪ ♪ Let me walk upon the waters ♪ ♪ Wherever You would call me ♪ ♪ Take me deeper than my
feet could ever wander ♪ ♪ And my faith will be made stronger ♪ ♪ In the presence of my Savior ♪ ♪ Spirit lead me where my
trust is without borders ♪ ♪ Let me walk upon the waters ♪ ♪ Wherever You would call me ♪ ♪ Take me deeper than my
feet could ever wander ♪ ♪ And my faith will be made stronger ♪ ♪ In the presence of my Savior ♪ ♪ Spirit lead me where my
trust is without borders ♪ ♪ Let me walk upon the waters ♪ ♪ Wherever You would call me ♪ ♪ Take me deeper than my
feet could ever wander ♪ ♪ And my faith will be made stronger ♪ ♪ In the presence of my savior ♪ ♪ And I will call upon Your Name ♪ ♪ And keep my eyes above the waves ♪ ♪ When oceans rise ♪ ♪ My soul will rest in Your embrace ♪ ♪ For I am Yours ♪ ♪ And You are mine ♪ ♪ I will call upon Your Name, Jesus ♪ ♪ Keep my eyes above the waves ♪ ♪ When oceans rise ♪ ♪ My soul will rest in Your embrace ♪ ♪ For I am Yours ♪ ♪ And You are mine ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Saw the grace ♪ ♪ Your embrace ♪ - Hey, thank you so much
for joining with us today. If you enjoyed this service and enjoyed this message by Steve Carter, you can always go over to our YouTube-page and while you're there, subscribe
and re-watch this message. Or if you'd like to share it with a friend you can always do that as well. (inspirational music)
Hey, a few weeks ago, I talked about partnering with Lifescape here in the Rockford area yet again. And we get to serve a church
in the downtown Rockford area called Providence Baptist
Church with Pastor Bill Martin. And this is how you can partner when it comes to this amazing event. Go to our website, heartland.cc/lifescape. You can always give to this event, so we can serve the
elderly in that community. It's gonna be an absolutely
amazing opportunity for us to serve our city. Also, hey, mark your calendars right now. Like, literally right in this moment. If you've got a pen and
a paper, that's cool. If you wanna just put it
right there on your phone. April 18th and 19th, we have
a Heartland family meeting. Now, we have two, for a reason. One is gonna be in person. The other one is gonna be digital, but we need you to go to our website to register for either one. If you wanna come in
person, that's awesome. If you wanna do digital,
that's gonna be on the 19th. If you enjoy what's taking
place here at Heartland, wherever you're watching from, whether that's your living room couch, or your kitchen table, we love doing this. We absolutely love putting
these digital experiences on. So if you wanna partner,
you can always give. Text, "Heartland CC," to 77977. Give that way so we
can continue to put out this amazing story of what
God is doing in your life and the life of this great
city and your life as well. So, love you. Thanks again for joining us. Week 2, next week, Eric Parks with "For Anyone and Everyone." Have a great week, bye.
