Lift Up Your Heads

[Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's so good to see people oh so good to see you today thank you for joining us and those that are joining online we will for some time continue to offer both of these experiences and let you decide what is best for you during this season so no pressure at all for those of you who still think it's best to worship at home we will again continue to provide not only these uh weekend experiences for you but also great children's content be sure to check that out i know my grandkids are using it throughout the week as well and it's so good but it is good to be with you today just to worship god uh together we are lord willing next week we are going to be adding children's ministry and nursery back to this experience as well and so we uh ask you to continue to pray for us as we lead and as we make decisions throughout this very challenging and unique season that we are in and i want to let you know that this week also we are having our first wednesday experience uh we believe that in september we'll be uh joining back but we wanted to take a month just to learn how many are going to come back you know with multiple services on a sunday it makes it easy to navigate the distancing but uh for this month in august uh tammy and i are gonna offer first wednesday uh out of our home and so we want you to join us uh get some communion elements ready we're gonna have a communion experience i've already got a message on my heart that i can't wait to share with you we're gonna worship right there uh around my piano and it's gonna be a great time so join us wednesday night at seven o'clock central time and then also uh we're starting today 21 days of prayer and fasting praise god for that yeah put your hands together come on this is the new amen come on everybody there you go and uh and so yeah we're excited about this i think it comes at just the right time for us personally for us as a church and of course for us as a nation and a world we need to seek god can i can i hear a good amen everybody we really do we need to go after god with all of our heart and of course fasting gives you a chance not only to just just engage god in prayer but also to humble ourselves before our god it fulfills second chronicles 7 14 that it will humble ourselves and pray and so we put a lot of resources for those of you who don't know much about fasting they're on our website check it out and i would encourage everybody to do something right so a food item maybe cut out sweets for 21 days maybe cut out a certain meal throughout 21 days if you can't figure out what to do here's a great idea cut out all media and screen time for 21 days that'd be good yeah help you for a lot of you will experience revival in a great way if you just did that and so but just whatever i know we could all use it spiritually and few of us can use it physically as well i've told you i have my corn 15 on everybody it has turned into my covid19 anyway so i really it's so good to hear laughter again too i have been funny for five months everybody all right so it's just good to hear some laughter uh but uh we'll we will have prayer services live at 6 00 a.m monday through friday we'll be right here at most of our locations be sure to listen to your campus pastor whether we're able to host a prayer service at your location but we will have live prayer services i'll be right here at 6 00 a.m tomorrow morning i'm going to leave the first day or the second day of the of the of the time together and then it'll also be of course online and then on demand for 24 hours so if the 6 a.m isn't the best time for you you'll have an opportunity to stream it for 24 hours and then we put the next one on so be sure to check that out all right today and for this month actually we're at five sundays in the month of august uh we are going to go through a series of what i call standalone messages and then on the first sunday of september we're going to give you a vision sunday i have a lot of great news to share with you about what we're doing as a church and then how it impacts your life so you can have some vision for your life and then on the second sunday of september we're going to start a nine week bible study through the book of james it's going to be a lot of fun we got it all planned and then after that at the movies and then it's christmas and all right so yeah here we are right okay so that's i'm just letting you know we have some plans for you we have some exciting sundays planned for you and we have all five of these in august planned as well but they're just kind of stand-alone messages with the exception of the first two so like this is another little two-week mini-series that i'm beginning today on the end times and i've been studying and reading a lot on the end times i i'm consuming the biblical material uh listening to prophetic words uh reading studying history because the bible says in first chronicles chapter 12 that there was a group of israelites who understood the times they lived in and then knew what to do and i don't know how you know what to do if you don't understand the times you live in and i think you've got to understand the times you live in with a biblical perspective can i hear an amen everybody right yeah just got to see it through the lens of scripture and so if you study the end times and the apostle paul has writings on it jesus has writings on it of course the book of revelation and the old testament there are just loads of prophecies basically it keeps coming back to two big ideas and this is what i do for you i do all the heavy lifting and i break it down for you and say look basically it comes down to a couple things and it's found here in these verses where jesus in matthew 24 is talking about the end times if you want to read the parallel passage uh that would be luke chapter 21 same same dissertation few more details in each one of them but basically every place no matter who the writer is every place you still you end up with two issues that i want to address one today and the other one next week and that is that because of the increase of wickedness so one of the marks of the end time is there's a lot of disruption there's a lot of chaos there's a lot there's an increase of wickedness as those days approach unfortunately the love of most people talking about christians is gonna grow cold and that's concerning to me as a pastor in fact i can't tell you how many times over the past five months that i've asked miss tammy here just like are they okay you think they're okay you think they're reading their bibles still are they are they are they still praying are they are they okay and i i can't i probably have thought about you more in the last five months than your mother can i tell you something right i really have i we pray for you i'm concerned because i know this is a reality but the one who stands firm to the end i'm gonna give you the tools today by the way to stand firm to the end those are the people that are safe so that's one dynamic and then you can't miss it every place no matter where you look this other dynamic is in play as well and that is this gospel of the kingdom will be preached so there's a lot of bad goes on but there's a whole lot of good going on as well like god does his best work in crisis god does his best work in fact we're going to see an increase of the move of god to the closer of his return and by the way that's already happening but if you need no other indication that we perhaps are living in the end of the end times or the beginning of the end times it's just the move of god because there there are loads of people coming to christ in fact of the 196 nations of the world the gospel is growing three times faster than population in all but 20. so in 176 nations the gospel is expanding by the way america is one of the 20. so we got to get to work a little bit all right we'll talk about that next week a little bit more but this gospel will be preached in fact more people have come to christ in the last 40 years than the previous 1980 years before that so there's a move of god going on everybody be encouraged this what will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come so two dynamics basically there's the danger of christians falling away that i want to address today and then there is the opportunity of non-christians getting saved i want to talk about that next week and i and i want to deal with this first one because again the dynamic that i know is happening because i think it's important i'm grateful to god for the online experience we will always put our absolute best efforts and continue to produce quality content for the online experience but there's something about the gathering of the church there's something about the reset that happens on the inside of us that needs to begin our week because the bible again says jesus said because of the increase of wickedness it's not even a few it's most the love of most is going to grow cold and i don't need to rehearse that with you you know that a lot of us are experiencing more distraction than we ever have in a long time that i think a lot for a lot of us being locked down or in quarantine or in places where we can't have a lot of our normal activity we're beginning to consume a lot of content that we really don't need to have our eyes on right now that there is a distraction going on i think there's a depletion that is happening and a lot of people you just feel empty and again there is the need there is the absolute need it's why you're here there is the absolute need for us to be refueled and refilled at least on a weekly basis and then flat out some of people are just oh just discouraged when you look at the news you look at what's going on in our world you look at the the prognostication of what's going to happen with this virus you see all these things just people are like wow when can we get back to some type of normal again and if i'm honest with you and i probably should be uh i i have had some moments of discouragement myself they're just there's things like wow is this what it's going to look like now and and and i have spent not many not many weeks but i have a few weeks where i just wow and i had a turning point that i want to tell you about at turning point where i read a a book as a secular book um about the cyclical nature of history and how things just happen almost predictably they just happen every there's actually two cycles that america has experienced since the beginning of our country a a geopolitical type uh cycle and then a more of an institutional cycle uh and this author was talking about how you just can't really do anything about it they just they they're they're just gonna happen and they converge they're converging on each other he began writing this book in 2015. he says and both these cycles are converging the renewing of these cycles is converging on the decade that is 2020. so long before coronavirus long before any of the the the unsettling that's happening in our nation he said look this is going to happen there's going to be a re-shaking and basically the gist of the book was hang in there hang in there if you can get through it on the other side cyclically and historically it's always good on the other side if you can hang in there and just reading this i was kind of in i don't know if you i was kind of like in a week-to-week mode what's going to happen this week is this the week we get to is this the week they figure out is this the week and i was kind of in this i was i think i was experiencing so much discouragement because i was so hopeful in the immediate return of something just fix it right now as soon as i kind of got my brain around that this could be eight years ten years this could be a decade aren't you glad you came to church today everybody right no this could be a while i don't know something rose up on the inside of me and i had a i literally had a like an attitude breakthrough i had a i just had a breakthrough of even how i'm going to lead how i'm going to think and i'm going to pass some of that on to you today a few weeks ago i told you the illustration about flying in a commercial airliner like so if you've ever been to birmingham airport here on a rainy day you get on the plane you kind of you're kind of discouraged already because you see your little luggage coming up that that conveyor belt getting soaking wet you're already in a i'm already in a bad mood like all my stuff's wet now you know just for that few seconds that it traveled up the belt there and and it's and you know it's not going to be a fun ride you just know it's not in fact they tell you it's going to be a little bumpy and and so you're you're taxiing out and it's raining and it's dark even though it's in the middle of the day it looks terrible and then the captain comes on and says you're like make sure it's good and snug because probably we're going to experience some bumps they call them bumps where you're going to as you're going to be going climbing into altitude but then all of a sudden you break through the cloud layer and all of a sudden it's just this smooth and you hear this you are now free to move about the cabin i almost called this message boom you are now free to move about the cabin i need to let you know that there yes there is a lot of disruption and it is very real and it does affect you and you really are wet like it really it is dark but if you can break through the cloud layer and see things from god's perspective i'm just telling you and i'm going to help you do it today you're going to be so encouraged by this message because jesus said in luke 21 same place as matthew 24 that when these end time things begin all this bad stuff begins freak out no no he didn't say that he said stand up lift up your heads because your redemption draws near the title of today's message is lift up your heads i know you see we're all seeing the same things but i need you to see not this and not this i need you to not go through life looking around i need you to go through life looking up i need you to see it from god's perspective and so i began this biblical study that i it took me all week and i found about 13 reasons why you ought to be very optimistic right now like from a biblical perspective why you ought to really be encouraged and not discouraged i don't have time for 13 let me give you my favorite three and here's the first one i mean just why you should be okay even though things are not okay and that is we're going to heaven so i did a memorial service this week and every time i do one it fires me up all over again about heaven because every time i do a memorial service for someone i just i always talk about heaven because i think the most important thing the family needs to hear is the heavenly perspective because one of the most beautiful things that i can say to someone who's grieving the loss of a loved one is you're going to see them really soon this is going to feel like a miss compared to the length of eternity hey be encouraged it's going to be fine in fact i know this sounds terrible but i love preaching i love funerals i can't stand weddings for the record everybody all right too much pressure especially from the mother anyway there's too much going on there okay but but funerals because you know everybody you know everybody just needs to hear some good old truth well here you want some good old truth you ready for it when we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be like we're going to heaven like i think too many of us have have kind of put up our lives on this earth and everybody we are aliens on this earth we are passing through our citizenship is in heaven see not everybody's clapping because for a lot of people we have put put way too much stock on thinking earth is all of that in a bag of chips in fact a lot of us are discouraged because we'd love for things to just go back to normal when can we have i just like i liked my life the way it was and the bible comes along and says nah nah now you got the wrong perspective we do not want you to be uninformed brothers and sisters about those who sleep in deaths so that you do not grieve don't you don't we do not grieve like the rest of mankind around us why because they have say the last two words although they have but we have hope why because we believe that jesus died and rose again we believe that god will bring with jesus those who have fallen asleep in him according to the lord's word we tell you that we who are still alive now this is describing the rapture of the church okay this is so cool that we're we who are left until the coming lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep in other words when the when the lord returns when the rapture of the church returns the dead in christ or those whose bodies have been buried are going to meet their spirits in the air first before we go i don't know why it's happening that way jesus has thought you know they've been there a while let's let them go first i don't know i don't know i don't know like their spirits aren't but their bodies right so and against for the lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command with the voice of the archangel with the trumpet call of god by the way if you see or hear any of those things repent no get ready all right just get ready and the dead in christ will rise first that's the methodist no i'm just kidding i didn't mean to say that all right so anyway all right i just love hearing laughter again i don't know i just about will say anything right okay after that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together by the way the word caught up in the latin is wrapped here where we get the word rapture caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the lord in the air and so you get to see all of your loved ones again you get reunited with them and with the lord forever and then it says so hey tell the church that in the middle of the end times encourage them with these words so again some people's like ah i had a young person tell me i don't want to go to heaven i'm i want god to fix it all here i want to do it here and it's because you have a bad idea what heaven is see a lot of you have followed the religious understanding of heaven so you think you're going to turn into this fat naked baby with a harp you're going to sit on a cloud or sing in a choir for the rest of your life no no that's hell that's hell all right okay in fact i don't know if you know this but you won't spend eternity in heaven you spend eternity in the new earth so he comes back down here and fixes everything no pollution no cancer no traffic on highway 280 no bills can i get an amen at the first of the month right none of that like there's no sickness like it's better and a lot of people don't think it's better but i promise you heaven's better than birmingham it really is you need to know that and if you don't know that you won't get excited for it and if you're not excited for it you won't have one of the tools you'll need in your arsenal during the last days that will get you discouraged if you don't have the hope of having everybody like it's better like the hot light at krispy kreme is always on like nick saban retires from coaching heaven it's better and he will wipe every tear from their eyes no never have us you'll never see another person cry again there'll be no more death no more funerals no more mourning no crying no pain for the older order of things has passed away he who was seated on the throne that's jesus he stands up and says it's because i am making everything new write this down put it in the books because this is a trustworthy saying and your pastor got on the stage today to tell you i know it's raining on the outside but i'm trying to get you to climb up to that other perspective and let you know heaven is better than birmingham get excited get excited like that's like you're okay everybody yeah kids stop right there and that's why when jesus encouraged his disciples he never encouraged them about a better now he always encouraged them about a better place so in john 14 let me show you i'll get to the next point he looks at his disciples and they were all discouraged you know what was me and he says don't let your hearts be troubled you believe in god believe also in me and if you didn't know the text what would you think the next line would be like so we're going to win bro it's going to be fine i'm going to do a miracle right here somebody says watch what he says next line in my father's house there's a bunch of rooms and i'm going there to prepare a place for you so his plan for encouraging them was heaven he says then if i go and prepare a place for you i'm going to come back we just read that and take you to be with me that you also may be where i am to which thomas said we don't know where you're going how are we going to get there how do we how do we know the way if we don't know how and so jesus gave us one of the most beautiful passages of scripture that you need to know because i'm the way if you're in relationship with me i got heaven taken care of for you i'm the way the truth of life in fact no one can come to the father except through me hey everybody we're going to heaven be encouraged we're going to heaven i know it's i know it's tough it's dark it's hard i know it hey but we're going to heaven we need to recapture some of the energy our grandparents had we sing so many songs now that that almost demand god to fix it all right here and right now in this reality but our grandparents they sang those old heaven songs some glad morning when this life is old i'll fly away and they were saying sing all these beautiful songs about we're going to heaven when we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be they just why because they knew that was the ultimate in fact the bible calls it the blessed hope say amen everybody this is good here's the second one second thing the reason why you should be excited and optimistic is there is going to be the wrath of god nearing the end of times so there really is a tribulation and they're really like you can go read it don't read it before you go to bed okay it's in the book of revelations and it's crazy it's a lot of stuff and i had one of my sons call me and said dude i saw a youtube video and it was it was a some prophecy and breakdown of the book of revelation all this stuff's gonna happen and man he was a little freaked out he was just in fact can i give you this little word don't watch youtube videos anyway there you go okay but but but i'm going to tell him what i told you because it encouraged him and there is going to be the wrath of god displayed but we're not going to suffer that wrath i'll show you why now roman says there is going to be wrath the wrath of god is going to be revealed from heaven against the godlessness of wickedness of people who suppress the truth so not a good group to be in the suppressors of truth but romans 5 says since we christians have now been justified by jesus's blood how much more shall we be saved from god's wrath through jesus so in other words when jesus went to the cross one of the things that he did is he basically created a contract with god the father and said okay i'll take on all their sin past present and future we'll put it in the contract that your wrath will be completely satisfied forever that everyone who comes into a relationship with me would be included into this contract contractually you can't suffer contractually you can't go through it it would break god's own word for you to suffer the wrath that is coming you can't go through it and that's why the bible says now brothers and sisters about the times and dates which everybody wants to know that's what my son wanted to know dude is this it i said i don't know i don't know we don't need to write you for we know very well that the day of the lord is going to come like a thief you don't know but while people are saying peace and safety destruction is going to come suddenly as labor pains on a pregnant woman and they will not escape now we do not know the day or hour just like i did not know on the five days that my children my five children were born i didn't know when it was going to happen all of a sudden she goes it's time right that that's how it worked out but brother i knew about a month before a baby's coming out of there eventually right okay i do not know the day or hour but can i tell you the world is i'm telling you which is why he was concerned and rightfully so because no one can deny the pregnancy of the hour we're in there it's coming i don't know if it's today or next week or next month or next year but it's close but you brothers and sisters are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you so don't freak out like a thief you are called all call children of the delight and children of the day we do not belong to the night or to the darkness so then let us not be like the others who are asleep but let us be awake and sober which is why we're praying and fasting for those who sleep sleep at night those who get drunk get drunk at night but since we belong to the day let us be sober vigilant faith and love is a breastplate hope is salvation as a helmet for god did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our lord jesus christ he died jesus died so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him and here's the phrase again which is why i'm preaching it to you therefore encourage one another build each other up just in fact as you are doing which i'm bringing to you listen to me yes it's going to get bad but you're not gonna experience this in fact i'll even go so far to say this that this is as bad as it'll get if you're a christian this is as bad as it gets it only gets better if you're not a christian the opposite is true this is as good as it gets it only gets worse and i say that to say are you saying you try to talk me into salvation yes give your life to jesus escape the wrath that is to come and be encouraged today all right here's the last one and this one fires me up and it'll lead into next week's message a little bit and that is the third reason why i think you should be so optimistic right now first is you're going to heaven there's nothing earth can do to you when you have the hope of heaven nothing it's just you can't you can't stop that person when they told the apostle paul we're going to kill you he'd go away that'd be great because to live is christ but to die is gain that settles the debate go ahead cut it off i think what do you do to the person who knows they're going to heaven nothing and what do you do the person who has the right theology of the end times eschatology to be able to to know that look we're not going to suffer the wrath that is to come i'm i'm i'm going up in that first elevator amen everybody right but you also need to know this and that is that we are at the doorstep of a great revival now i don't say that as a point of view just just being positive no that that is the truth and i can prove it biblically and historically that every time there has been the increase of wickedness there has been the increase of the move of god historically even in those cycles those 50-year cycles that this author was talking about that has happened in american history knew nothing about really biblical history didn't even cite it but even noted in the 60s 50 years ago when we had unsettling and riots and all kind of things going on in america that we're just trying to figure out who we are what we we believe time magazine on april 8 1966 i would have been three years old put up this on the cover of their magazine is god dead there was so much negative going on in the world in 1966 the church had begun to be impacted the love of most grew cold and they wondered and they actually opined to the fact is god dead and almost hopefully hoping that it were true and even the the soviets got involved if you're old enough you remember that back in the 60s we were in the cold war and we were also in a space war and and not only we were odds each other and they were battling the nuclear possibilities but also you had you had america and the soviet union fighting to be who could be the first to the moon and i'll never forget in the 60s this article about this russian cosmonaut that said i'm going to go to space and orbit the earth and i'm going to do a space walk tether out into space and look around to see in the heavens if god is actually there and it became all this big news and the soviets were all interested to see look if we send somebody to the heavens and they look around and god's not there that proves there is no god and so he went up in space and started orbiting the earth tethered out looked around headline of the paper bougain yet no god how many all know if he had just unhooked that tether he'd have found god isn't that right everybody right but that's not the point and everybody thought it's over we're done five years later the church began to pray in 1971 this was the cover of time magazine the jesus revolution people started praying the church started asking god god would you move in our land again would you bring another great awakening they started crying out for revival like we're going to do tomorrow and here's what time magazine actually said jesus is alive and well and living in the radiant spiritual fervor of a growing number of young americans stadiums in the 1970s were being packed full of young people going to crusades to hear about jesus by the way i'm a product of the jesus revolution i got saved in 1978 during this revolution how about you and i lead the next one anybody with me how about we leave how about we leave the next why not and if anyone mark clearly identifies them it is their their total belief in an awesome supernatural jesus christ not just a marvelous man who lived 2 thousand years ago but he's a living god time magazine so what am i saying i'm saying you have a choice to make about how you're going to look at the circumstances that are going around us and your pastor showed up today to tell you there's reasons for you to be encouraged it's just your choice about how you're going to see it you're going to see it below the clouds or above the clouds like it's our choice one last verse so jesus was basically asked this question that i'm asking you because he said my soul that's the emotional side of you it's not the spiritual my soul is troubled by the way it's okay to be troubled there's nothing wrong with that we just can't let our souls take over he says my soul is trouble now here's the key watch this don't please don't miss this so what shall i say about that okay i'm living in the same reality you're living in but what are you going to say about it shall i say father save me i can tell you that's the prayer i've been praying for months jesus no don't don't pray that prayer pray this one it was for this very reason i was born into this hour like i was made for 2020. i was made to be a pastor in the middle of a pandemic i was we were highlands was created to be a leader in a generation of people who would be discouraged and confused and looking around we were made for this hour and that my friends is the view above the clouds bow your heads in prayer right there for me it was about four weeks ago i just flipped a switch literally in a moment i just decided i'm going to see things from above the clouds and i'm going to see things from god's perspective and i pray god for your church today my goal today was just to encourage them with the truth of your word that we're going to heaven god we're not suffering any wrath and god we get to live in one of the great moments of history for your church and for the world lord let them leave here with a spring in their step god replace the discouragement of their soul with the hope of the truth of your word in jesus name heads bowed eyes closed if you're here today and you don't know the lord like you're not in a relationship with him and you're far from god i want even those of you that are watching online just to close your eyes and just ask you know do i need to know god do i need to be in a relationship with him let me tell you how easy it is it comes in declaring that he is the lord he is god and you surrender the control of your life to him you don't have to be perfect you don't have to join this church just giving him the control of your life making him lord of your life it would be my honor to lead you in a prayer right now to pray for you with heads bowed eyes closed at all of our campuses the correctional facilities to everyone watching online wherever you are whisper these words say jesus thank you so much for dying on the cross and paying for my sins thank you for the contract you made with the heavenly father thank you god for including me today i ask you to forgive me save me i declare that you are god jesus you are the lord i believe you died you were buried and you rose again and today i put my faith in you thank you for setting me free

Channel: Church of the Highlands

Views: 5,410

Rating: 4.9466667 out of 5

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

Id: O3zsoDHYbDo

Length: 35min 17sec (2117 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 02 2020