Pursuing All That God Has

[Music] [Music] [Music] oh so good to see all of you here today in church who's glad to be here anybody come on give jesus a great praise now give him a better praise come on everybody it's awesome yeah i know that's the way to start a service well hello and welcome to church all of you who are here live in person and those of you who are watching online somewhere we're so glad you're along for the ride all of our campuses i want to say a big hello to the men and women in the alabama department of corrections it is our honor to be a part of a church family together with you and to bring these messages and really all that we are as a church to you and for those of you guys who are having church at home be sure to download the children's content so after you have big church here together you can have children's church as well if you have kids in the home thanks for being with us today we are in week number two of a series that we've called my church and i'll tell you more about that just a second but let me give uh our season that we're in right now a quick little mention and i know that you already know about this but we start every year as a church with 21 days of prayer and fasting and for a lot of people you may not know much about it or maybe you haven't been able to start with this from the beginning we're inviting you to jump on in tomorrow morning we'll be right here at 6 a.m you can join us in person or online and then we archive the prayer service for 24 hours until the next one occurs and so just love for you to join us in prayer and fasting and i know god's going to do some great things i think there's no better way to start a year and i know there's no better response to everything that's taking place in our world than a people who would seek god can you hear a good amen everybody yeah absolutely all right so we are in week number two of this series and it's built off of this verse in fact the series title comes from this verse where jesus said i will build say it out loud i'mma build come on say a little louder i will build my church i love how personal he takes it he didn't say the church he said my church and then he says this bold statement at the end and when i build my church the gates of hades that's hell the gates of hell will not prevail against the can't overcome a church that's well built and of course we know man there's there's a lot of things that are shaking and moving and changing and then we're in the middle of a pandemic we have unsettling in our nation everybody's wondering what to look to where to go i'm going to tell you god's solution i believe is the church that and in the church that's well built the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church listen to me folks god's not nervous and you shouldn't be either he is setting us up to be this place of safety amen i know i know i believe it i've been meditating on this verse all week out of isaiah 28 and there's a verse in the middle of it's kind of a famous verse it gets quoted in the new testament but but in in verse 16 of isaiah 20 28 the whole context is is how unsettled everybody is because all the institutions the governments and the nations were crumbling and god says i lay in zion see i lay in zion zion's always the type of the church i lay in zion a sure foundation a solid rock and those who rely on it will never be panicked never have stress never have worry or fear because they've gone to the place that god has i'm telling you church don't be discouraged god is setting us up and it is i think it's so incredibly important that's why we're talking about as we approach our 20th year as a church we are celebrating our anniversary can't wait for that in four weeks we're gonna have a fun fun fun service where we look back and have some some retro songs and a lot of retro videos from the past and we're gonna have a great time thanking god for what he's done both on our first wednesday and our sunday service but we thought leading up to it why don't we focus on really some of the theological distinctions let me see it this way the reasons why we started and so last week probably the number one thing that we wanted to accomplish in our church we started 20 years ago is that we wanted to be a passionate church a church that was in love with jesus it wasn't one of those things where man you just checked the the church box and kind of looking at your watch can't can't wait for it to be over i mean it's something that we would long to be at something that was as exciting as any other thing that you were participating in and last week we talked about what kind of passion that passion looks like but the zeal of god's house consumes me jesus said today i want to talk about another distinction and this one's a fun one because it even goes to why we named our church what we named it because the distinction i want to talk about today is we're a church that pursues all that god has for us let me say it this way all that we have is not all that god has let me say that again all that we have is not all that god has he's a god of more he has more in store for us and so many people kind of just i just call it they just get enough they get enough to get their fire insurance come on somebody right they just they get enough i just don't want to go to hell that's just that's all i want well god has more and the more is very very important so from the very beginning we had this hunch to come here to birmingham alabama and we thought that there were a lot of people like us that thought you know that what i have there's there's got to be got to be more to it than this and we really just started talking about this journey and all that god has for us and then when we were in the naming process we decided to call our church church of the highlands somebody some people thought are y'all scottish no it's not about scotland it's about we're going to higher heights we're believed that god has more and that we would be a church that's on this spiritual constant spiritual journey because all that i have is not all that god has come on y'all help me preach just a little bit right there i'm serious and what i want to do today is i want to encourage you to go after all that god has and there's a lot of resistance here and there's a lot of misunderstanding here and there's a lot of things that are like okay wait a minute i'm not sure i want to go there and they're all misguided they're all founded on the wrong things and i hope to do my best today to let you know that we are a church who pursues all that god has let me show you a verse out of first corinthians i love this verse because in the previous verses it talks about how there were generations who just couldn't find it all they they missed they really missed all that god has and then and then paul comes along he's in quotes the old testament he says listen to me god has some things that no eye has seen so in other words i hadn't seen it yet it's but it's there no ear has heard so you haven't even heard about it but but it's there no mind has conceived what god has prepared so in that in that kind of a sad commentary that god has some things prepared for you that you haven't ever had wouldn't that be a tragedy to show up before the lord and then you know there's all these things that he wanted but we never even attempted to go after them and he says but that god has prepared for those who love him and a lot of i've heard preachers preach that this is about heaven but it doesn't refer to heaven in fact in the next line it says but god has revealed so it's present tense he has revealed it to us by his spirit and he introduces this term that again most christians a lot of christians know very little about and that is the holy spirit the word in the greek there is the word numa it's where we get the english word pneumonia because pneumonia of course is a lung or a breathing disorder because the real word there in the greek is breath energy life wind like it's and when is unique because when when is there you can feel it but you like whoa it came up there i don't know where it is oh i just felt it well listen to me that's that's the word there that the bible uses and watch this next line and this i don't know about you but this is like a carrot dangling in front of me that i want to go after that the spirit searches all things and even the deep things of god so it says there's more that you can go after people always say pastor we want you to get it deeper well i'm giving it to you deeper today and i'm inviting you into a place and my goal today is to make this something that doesn't scare you push you off but something that you actually want but listen to me look in my eyes and hear this and that's more than ever this is not a luxury this is a necessity we're living in probably some of the most chaotic times i know of my lifetime both with a pandemic and all this unrest and unsettling and who knows where it's going i don't know but i know this i don't want to be a person that's just operating on everything chris knows how to do i'd like to have the power of god operating in my life and in our church come on in our family if anybody else wants the power of god working in you i do and so paul says i'm desperate for it my messaging my preaching are not going to be what i studied all week in my my bible study he says these aren't just wise and persuasive words and by the way paul could go there he would have graduated from the seminary of the day he was a pharisee of pharisees he was very intellectual he says i just don't want my intellect i want a demonstration of the spirit's power so that our faith doesn't rest on human wisdom but on god's power a couple chapters later it says it this way that that that that that the kingdom of god is not just a lot of talk it is living by god's power and i want to invite you into that i want to i want to give you the power of god today i want to let you know that god has more that what we have is not all that god has so here's how i'm going to do it i'm going to give you a quick little theological teaching you guys like it when i go deep into theology well here you go if you like this and then i'm going to make it a very very personal let me tell you why why many people just never go there and then i'm going to give you a personal invitation but let me give you three things that i'm telling you god wants for you and if i was to use the biblical or theological term the term that the bible used to invite you in are called baptisms so most of you don't know this but baptism doesn't necessarily refer to the moment wherever you're sprinkled or dunked in water in fact it really has nothing to do with water the word itself the word baptizo in the greek literally means to immerse yourself in so wherever you are now whatever level you are in now that's probably not enough you might want to go ahead and dive on in the way we would say it in the 2021 culture is go all in like so you don't just put your toe in it jump on on in and the bible refers to again theology here three different baptisms that i'm going to invite you into this first baptism and some of you have never heard salvation put this way but the bible calls salvation baptism into the body of christ i'll show it to you and that is where it says in first corinthians 12 that we were baptized watch this by one spirit into a body or into one body in other words when you give your life to jesus you don't just join jesus you also join his family and by the way you need jesus jesus is the best part of salvation by far but you need more than just jesus too he offers to you also his family that's why we gather on a sunday if this were not true then there's really no no need for us to even gather we just get information to individual christians but we're not just individual christians we're the family of god we're the flock of god we're the body of christ all these group terminologies that the bible uses now for some of you you've never been baptized or immersed into salvation so you're saved you're going to heaven you've made jesus your lord and you confess his name but you just need to know that god has more and that's why you're here i'm actually speaking to the wrong people even if you're watching online you decided to jump in because you realize that there's more you are children of god through faith in jesus christ for all of you who were baptized into christ that's a different baptism just into salvation have clothed yourselves with christ so this is salvation it's the first baptism the second experience and by the way be very clear they're separate they're separate on purpose they're separate so that you don't try to put them together and i'll show you why just a moment the second baptism the bible calls water baptism water baptism and it's where you now go public or have a public declaration of your faith and they are not together in other words you don't have to be water baptized to be a christian now you should i'm going to make that case here in just a second i think you should be water baptized but it's separate you say chris why do they need to be separate because if you put them together it actually violates one of the scriptures that says you are saved by grace through faith not of any kind of work so if you ever include anything that you had to do to earn or to get your salvation it removes what jesus did fully on the cross listen to me you can't pray more read your bible more give more serve more or be baptized to get saved jesus paid it all it's all him he did it all you understand that you got to see that and so it says but that those who did accept the message first baptism were baptized second baptism in other words they now decided that i'm gonna let others know and you need to know that this is part of the more for you that it's not enough just to be a private christian well i have jesus in my heart some people say and it's just in my heart no no no now it's time to publicly acknowledge god but the baptism itself does not save you and some denominations actually teach that that until you're baptized you're really just not saved and that's not true you're saved by grace no works there's nothing you can do you just receive what jesus did can i hear a good amen right there it's very important in fact there are even some that says not only do you have to be baptized be saved but what the person says while they're baptizing you is important too and if they botch it you actually it didn't take you know and i i'm like are you serious i mean i'm in the tank and they're baptized to me now i'm underwater and i can't even hear what they're saying and i come back up and they said something while i was down there right it just came right back up and now i'm before jesus oh jesus so glad to be here i can't wait to come into your heaven no i'm so sorry that guy who baptized you he just said it wrong he just that is not how it happens y'all i mean there are literal fights in the body of christ it's ridiculous there are fights over what has to be said when you're baptized some there's a whole no no what you say is father son and holy spirit you baptize them father son holy spirit and there's a whole other group that says no no no don't do it that way that's wrong you got to do it in jesus name not me are you kidding me like like how you say that is such a work and that is not how salvation works by the way when people ask me what do we say at highlands we baptize we decided we're going to baptize in the name of the father son the holy spirit and in jesus name we got them both covered just letting y'all know okay that's not the point of it the point is now listen to me it's an important step that some of you have omitted that it's important that once you have accepted the message you become a disciple and you're a christian that you say you know what i'm not going to keep this private i'm going to go public with my faith it's why you have a wedding when you get married it's why you wear a wedding ring when you get married this ring does not make me married to tammy this is my public declaration of a commitment i made to someone that i love for the rest of my life and so can you imagine darling i love you i want to spend the rest of my life with you but let's let's don't let's don't do a wedding and let others know and i'm not going to wear a wedding ring either because i just really don't want everybody to know how many of y'all know there'd be hair teeth and eyeballs right that that would not go over very well right because really it's important that once you make a lifelong commitment to the one who saved your soul that you acknowledge it jesus said it this way if you acknowledge me before men so not just in your heart privately i will also acknowledge you before my father in heaven but whoever disowns me before men i'll disown before my father in heaven and you really don't want that so let me encourage you guys that have never been baptized water baptized second baptism since you've received the baptism into jesus and into his body i want to encourage you to do that and now during this kind of pandemic season we normally do these on the first sunday of every month but now you can actually go online or on our app and you can schedule it with your campus pastor to publicly declare your faith through water baptism but there's another baptism that the bible talks about this and get ready for this it talks about this one by multiples of more than the first two and that is the baptism in the holy spirit and it's a separate experience has nothing to do with salvation in fact salvation is about your eternal existence the baptism in the holy spirit is about your natural earth existence so that you can live a spirit empowered life again chris why are they separate why do they have to be two separate experiences because god never wanted to complicate salvation and never wanted to put a work connected to the experience that he wanted you to have but he has more everybody god has more but there are some denominations who say no no if you don't pentecostal denominations say if you don't speak in tongues you can't go to heaven and that's not true jesus pay it all end of story it's all about the work of the cross for salvation but there is more god has more than what we are currently experiencing and i'll show you now all three baptisms in one story and in one theological point and then i'm going to get real personal with you to help you get this all right so here's a story in the bible so this is the book of acts if you're new to church or new to the bible the book of acts is the history of the first church the early church so jesus just got resurrected and now the church is being born and it says philip went down to a city in samaria and proclaimed christ there so now they're out there just preaching telling about jesus okay and when they believed philip so that's the first baptism that's salvation as he preached the good news of the kingdom of god in the name of jesus christ they were second baptism they said okay well let's do this too both men and women and when the apostles in jerusalem so denominational headquarters in jerusalem heard hey a bunch of people got saved over in samaria accepted the word of god they sent peter and john to go check it out and when they arrived they prayed for them that they might receive the holy spirit watch this because the holy spirit third baptism had not yet come upon them and then it gives even more clarity they had simply been baptized into the name of the lord jesus then peter and john place their hands on them and they receive the holy spirit it's a separate experience it's one that god takes you to a deeper place not necessary for salvation totally necessary for you to live a spirit-empowered life now before we got to birmingham most people were like i don't know man there was a lot of actually i call it prejudice or bias against this teaching and the reason is they've seen so many abuses and things that they saw that just was too weird or too how many of y'all know we can be spirit filled without being spooky we don't have to be that way and i i honestly it'd be terrible for anything that because that is our experience to dictate what our experience could be that god teaches in his word and i'll show you the theology of that right here in 1st john chapter 5. i love these two verses because this first one talks about the trinity watch how it talks about it for there are three that bear witness in notice where in heaven so there are three that are alive and at work right now in heaven three the father the word and the holy spirit now the word is jesus the bible calls jesus the word john 1 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with god the word was god and the word became flesh and dwelt among us talking about jesus that's how john introduces jesus's ministry earthly ministry so this is jesus so the father the son and the holy spirit we sang that today when we sing about the trinity these and these three are one watch the next verse it's so interesting to me and there are also three that bear witness not in heaven there's three there at work here on earth the spirit the water and the blood and the blood is salvation that's the cross that's jesus the water is your public declaration but the spirit is that pneuma that wind that breath that energy that power that all the the spiritual gifts all that god has for you and these three agree as one as well but the question is do they agree with you do they agree with you and there's so many like okay i like i want the blood i need i need my sins forgiven and i may or may not express it publicly through water baptism but god is asking you to all three of these need to agree as well i grew up in a very denominational church and by the way before you hear anything else i loved my church i had great experiences in my church but my church did not have this theology and i'll never i'll never forget at 12 years old i watched my church actually have a church split my church i grew up in had a church split over this issue i was in the business meeting as a 12 year old because my parents were very very involved in the church so i'm sitting there on a wednesday night some of you guys grew up in this some of y'all don't even know what a business meeting is and you are blessed and highly favored of god amen and so we were there and they were having this they had this short wednesday night service and now they're going to get after it and brother there was two aisles and they were fighting over the holy ghost and i never forget this one guy got up there he got the microphone he said we just need to stay away from all them holy ghost people all them holy ghosts and i thought my god i don't want a ghost either i'm with you my brother i got who likes ghosts you know and he had my he had my full attention and this whole other group were talking about this experience that they had outside of salvation and i watched the church split right in front of me well i didn't know where to land i didn't know i was only 12 years old i went home and got some cheez-its amen everybody that's what i did but as my life progressed i'm telling you my life became more and more out of order i literally i cannot express it any other way other than to say i have never felt more powerless more lifeless church to me was the most boring it just was nothing about it that attracted me and a friend invited me to a church that did believe all of this and believed that god had more and it was so balanced and so refreshing but i had already been trained so when they said god asked more for you i said oh i know what that means i know what that means i'm gonna have to dress different my hair is gonna be different i'm gonna act different y'all gonna make me run around the church i'm gonna bark like a dog i am not doing all that and but i was desperate so so i actually prayed this prayer i'm embarrassed to tell you the prayer i prayed i said holy spirit i want you i'm gonna let most of you in but you're gonna have to behave yourself you all know what happened goose egg nothing happened because god does not play ball like that and some of you guys are man your your life and your spiritual life is lifeless because you have prayed conditional prayers that god cannot answer to you say if you have it for me i'll take it i don't care what it is god if it comes from you it must be good come on say amen right there i'm serious and finally i gave i went all in with the lord and y'all here i am 40 something years later you know spirit-filled but not spooky i just love god full of god and i still go after all that god has because what i have is not all that god has that's why i'm praying and fasting right now god i want more anointing i need more of your spirit i want more power and i'm fairly good at what i do but it's not good enough i need god's power working through this church man i would love signs and wonders i pray for miracles i'm asking god to heal people i belie i believe in the power and the presence of god and if that's what you're looking for and you want to go on that journey with me you have found the right place because that's who we are as a church we pursue all that god has for us so let's ask this question so then why don't we let me make it personal now why don't we i came up with three reasons why we don't some are just uninformed it's not a matter of you rejecting it you just didn't even know about it now by the way if you are that person you're in good company this happened now we're at the end of the book of acts and there are still people who don't know about it you read the book of acts they get filled filled again fill it again fill it again fill it again and then you get to chapter 19 and apollos and paul are headed to ephesus and they found some christians some disciples notice with me they're christians and he asked them watch that watch the question and i'm asking this of you today did you receive the holy spirit when you became a believer and they said we hadn't even heard that there was one now they're still going to heaven they just hadn't pursued all of god and of course paul then and they just lead them through this and this is what we do as a church our primary focus y'all is getting people into heaven say amen right there that's right but i mean that is not it doesn't end there it begins there to take us on a journey of all that god has for us i never forget i'm reminiscing on the old stories and literally 20 years ago this month so we're a month from launching the church and we had just got in town we arrived in town on december 26 2000 and so we're just a few weeks later i'm opening up a new bank account here in birmingham because i needed a local bank and when i went into the little y'all been there before in the lobby with the little desk and the lady and they helped you fill all that out right when they sat me down she was on the phone so i'm just sitting there just kind of waiting she's finishing her phone call i notice while she's on the phone she has a desk pad in front of her and it's got christian doodles on it so while she is on the phone she must she was a doodler she's a drawer and it had the cross there was cross there and there was jesus says and there was a there was a there was a fish you know the fish was there everybody like it was all there okay so i knew she was a christian and i did something that's really i should probably repent of like but i just enjoy doing it so much and that is acting like i'm not a christian and acting like a prospect i just love doing that to people when they don't know i'm a pastor right so so she hungs up the phone and and she says okay how can i help you i said hey let me ask you first what is all this on your desk pad what is what is all that and her eyes lit up like she saw oh my god i got a prospect i got a hot one okay she saw me that way and and and she goes oh you're look you're new in town you're looking for a church i go to a great church i'm on now we call it the worship team it's a worship team and she was explaining to me like i've never seen a worship thing before right you know so anyway so and we and we have drums on the stage okay this is okay but it's okay it's fun really it's fun and my preacher oh man he gets so excited when he preached she's just so excited about her church because she really should come she goes now listen we're not charismatic or anything and i said what does that mean i don't know what does that mean she goes you know people who handle snakes and stuff well that's not what it means first of all the word charismatic the word charisma means gifted it means that you're receiving god's spiritual gift which i fully believe here's this person saying i don't want that because of what something i think it is that the bible describes completely differently and i wonder how many people said i don't think so because that's snakes and stuff no no no no this is way better than you think it is and there ain't no snakes and stuff can i get a better amen there but some people are just flat out uninformed some people they are informed and this is dangerous i'm just going to say it straight up some are informed they just are the type of person that i just need enough i just they're they become spiritually apathetic the word apathetic comes from two latin words a pathos without passion so i have the version of it that gives me my fire insurance i'm going to heaven but i just i'm not an all-in kind of a person it's without passion look in my eyes there was only one moment in my study time this week that while i was studying this happens from time to time when i study the spirit of god will deal with me while i'm there in my office by myself and god will say say this now i don't hear his audible voice i hear it on the inside just like i can i'm telling you it's undeniable though when it happens and god told me to warn some people who are spiritually apathetic because in when times are normal and everything's fine and everything's good on the outside honestly you can get by with very little passion in the middle of the season like we're living in right now heaven help you if you're a lukewarm mediocre just enough just one maybe a few sundays a year easter christmas got you toe in the things of god you're gonna need more than that and some people said i just don't go there because i just don't go there well there's a word there's a word in chemistry it's a scientific term called entropy entropy entropy is how energy is measured and dispersed and entropy's thesis says that if you leave anything alone it doesn't stay there it gets worse it declines it it gets less than and some of you that's what your life looks like and then 2020 and now 2021 comes along heaven help you and i'm here to say and plead with you with all my heart don't this is not the time to be apathetic this is the time to go all in with the things of god not for fun but for function the holy spirit is not here for fun he's here for function to help you survive days like this come on give god praise if you really believe this is true it's true i'm telling you i had a little preach in me today there was you just had it and that's why we studied this last week i won't rehearse it again but don't lack zeal but in your spiritual fervor serving the lord and the last one the last reason why we don't first is just i just didn't know some are like i know but i'm fine where i am no but some actually have fear this would have been this was my story because i was convinced if i go all in with god he's going to put me on some assignment that's a mud hut in some nation of the world right i'm he's gonna ruin my life some of y'all actually have thought that you're actually scared of god you're scared of what it looks like to do the things that god asks you to do you're thinking this won't make my life better i'll make it worse no the devil has lied to you every good and perfect gift if it's good it's god if it's bad it's of the devil that god cannot produce anything bad for you all his good and perfect gifts are from above and that's why i give you this personal invitation i have done this for 20 years and i'm gonna do it again i'm gonna look at you and some of you have taken me up on this offer and some of you are hearing this for the first time and that is give us a year of your life you can put this message to the test you can test it like when i say give us here i mean like go and all give me one all in here get this many if you're physically able to be at a sunday be there if you can get in a group beginner group if you can fast and break fast and pray let's go fast let's do it and i've had pastors tell me why you can't take people that they they won't fast i beg to differ well they're not gonna get up at six o'clock in the morning come come to prayer there are more people at six o'clock in the morning that are currently in this room right now oh yes they will all they needed was to be invited to that place well i don't know if they'll worship that way well the bible says it and lo and behold look what the lord has done you're hearing me everybody i am i am saying hey what you have is not all that he has give us a year you're married go to the marriage conference we're busy that weekend cancel it because your life will change dramatically for the good if this becomes the best year of your life spiritually it can be the best year of your life if it's the best year spiritually and i'm afraid honestly that in the kind of season we're living in right now it's critical so a closing story and then i pray for you it's a prophecy it's a cool story but i want to tell in story form because the prophet ezekiel saw a man in his in his vision the man got a tape measure and he measured out a thousand cubits and he said you're here but god wants you there and i'm doing that today are you going to heaven yeah you gave jesus you proclaimed jesus yeah there's more though so i got the tape measure out today and stand here and he invited them into water that was ankle deep i wouldn't even submit to you this is this is a picture of salvation because you're in you're not fully wet but you're but you're in and is that all you want is that enough so he and some of you that's your first step and that's fine it's a good first step that's unimportant it's the best first down but then he got it out again and he measured off another thousand and he invited this person to knee-deep water and i'm doing that today you need to get baptized you haven't been water baptized well i don't like my hair wet what like he can bleed and die and ask that one thing of you and you've got it you've got to condition what and watch how it'll change your life if it's good it's god this guy's got then he measured off another and he invited you to up to the waist water comes to your waist like okay i'm in a group i'm maybe even leading a group like i got on the grow track i'm just giving you like today examples of you know what you don't you can never go to a small group or get on the growth track and go to heaven but there's more there's god has more for you and then he measured off another thousand and now i'm up in the middle of the river watch this with my feet off the ground [Music] and i'm going wherever that river goes and it was a river that i could not cross in other words i lost control and for some of you that's been your condition i'll do it but i'm not giving up everything and you'll never get the best of god as long as you're the one in control [Music] because the water this water had risen and was deep enough to swim in a river that no one can cross and look how it ends and it was there there that there were large numbers of fish one translation says it was teeming fish in other words everything there works wouldn't you be able to say that there's so much favor blessing power like the holy spirit operating your life where it's teeming with life and where the river flows everything i don't no matter what's going on everything lives i came here 20 years ago to bring this message to give me a chance to take you on a journey to higher heights because all you have is not all that god has and how about we be a church that pursues all that god has amen let's pray let's pray close your eyes and by the way i'm going to teach a whole lot more on the holy spirit this year another way that you can find out about the holy spirit is getting in one of our freedom groups it's where we really pour it out spell it out and actually lead you through the experience of receiving the baptism in the holy spirit today some of you need to step into that first baptism i want to close in prayer and just pray for every person who says you know what chris i haven't even put my toe in the water yet i've just been on the bank watching all of y'all enjoy the swim and the holy spirit is pulling you right now to get on in say chris what would it take for me to get on in confessing jesus as your lord giving me your life turning your life over to him and that's it there's no works you're saved by grace through faith in jesus christ and i'm going to lead you in a prayer right now where you can make that decision then i'm going to turn it over to the campus pastors so campus pastors come to the stage pastor blake i'll let you close your service here the head's bowed eyes closed if you need jesus he said chris i don't even know if i'm going to go to heaven when i die i don't know where i stand with god and i'm ready to get in i'm ready to get into the family i want to be baptized into jesus and into his family pray this prayer say jesus i need you and i thank you for dying on the cross to pay for my sins i receive what you did by surrendering my life completely to you make it personal whisper these words say be my lord be my lord and i ask you to live inside of me change me make me brand new i believe you're the son of god and that you rose again and today i put my faith in you in your name i pray amen and amen campuses you can take it pastor blake i'll hand it off to you here sir come on how about a handclap for all those who just made that decision

Channel: Church of the Highlands

Views: 4,555

Rating: 4.8153844 out of 5

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

Id: qeCrGb2n9Fw

Length: 39min 50sec (2390 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 10 2021