The Eternal Perspective

i do too what a fantastic time of worship we've had i know all of our campuses have and uh we have just joined uh every location we are one church it's all across our region and we love every single one of you grandson once you put your hands together come on say a big hello to all of our campuses god bless you and i do have a word on my heart tonight that i really think is going to minister to you in a great way i really honestly i'm very very excited about this it's a message that i feel like i've been carrying for about three weeks now just looking for the right moment to give it to you and i'm very excited about that let me tell you about a couple things happening in the church first of all before we do that um i want to remind you that this sunday uh two things are going to happen well a lot's going to happen this sunday but two things for sure and that is we are going to launch a brand new semester of small groups everybody yeah and we're very excited about thank god for small groups and uh they're so important especially in the culture and just the season we live in right now and if you're still wanting to register your group there's of course there's time to do that and then uh this sunday we'll launch thousands and thousands of groups all across our state and i want to encourage you to start shopping and if you're considering leading go ahead and kind of make those final decisions uh and get those ready this sunday also historically for us the the labor day weekend is the weekend where i share vision and i've got some some exciting announcements to make this sunday uh there are actually three campuses i won't tell you you have to come sunday and hear it all right but there are three campuses uh that our trustees have secured property for for future construction and so to because of your incredible generosity come on somebody everybody we uh we we've um we paid cash for some properties and uh we can't wait to tell you about that and then i've got some other surprises for you as well and then just a message that i really think is going to speak uh to your life before i bring the word of god tonight i want us to have like a little family moment just for a minute and uh and we don't do this a whole lot this way but if we ever did we always did it on wednesday nights wednesday nights historically was always kind of our our family time in fact wednesday night actually started as as the night that i was just going to meet with the dream team and so i so i needed a place to train leaders when the church first got started and we met uh in in homes and uh we spent about a year at a golf uh eagle point golf club in their big kind of a banquet room i say big it sat about 120 people and i was training leaders and people started coming that weren't on the dream team and i kept explaining to them this is for the dream teamers and they said yeah but we want this worship and we want the word and so anyway wednesday night was born and it became one of the most popular services that we did and we did every wednesday for 11 years and uh and i just taught the bible and there was just many times i just sit on a chair just teach the bible i'm gonna do that tonight just teach the bible i want you we're gonna dig a little deeper into god's word but we always have more worship we just had you know 45 minutes of worship and communion and one communion powerful tonight everybody did you enjoy that kind of reflective moment but again it also gives us an opportunity just having family moments and just to share with you some some family news this and this mostly those who call church the highlands home and and and tonight we're going to pray over a couple that is on our staff that we are actually sending out to go plant a church in another city and and to tell you the story they came to me at the end of the 2020 21 days of prayer in january and um and i have never said no to any of our team who said i feel like i'm called to go do something outside of here i don't ever think that everybody is supposed to stay here you know that would be that's just i didn't do it right so how could i expect it to them right i was i was on staff at a church and had and god gave me a vision and so we've released a lot of our staff to go do that but i heard the spirit of god say not now just not now and i've never had that i was a little afraid to say it because i last thing i want to do is ever think you know i'm god and can control somebody you know i'm just i'm just chris trying to do my part right and but i heard i heard not now and uh and i told him i said i i think that i think it's a good thing but the timing's off and um and and then the next month the pandemic broke out right and it had been a terrible year to go play in a church trust me because nobody was going to church are y'all with me everybody okay and uh it turns out the holy spirit you know just i think gave us a warning and and honestly i thought i always think that if if someone can hold on to a vision for a long time and they still want to do it especially after a year like like last year because everything's harder i mean finding buildings is harder getting supports harder just everything's trust me everything's harder right now and so this is really not the time to go think you can you know go start something and i honestly i thought you know what after 2020 this is just going to kind of blow over and they're not going to be interested in that anymore and sure enough right after the 2021 this year the end of the 21 days of prayer came back to me said can't shake it know for a fact that we're called to go bring what we everything we've learned at church of the highlands and go bring a life-giving local church uh to to the city god's put on our hearts and tonight you're gonna get a chance to join me in laying hands on them and praying for them and releasing from our church pastor mayo and kai sowell everybody come on up my brother come on come on y'all stand to give him a good hand to everybody oh you got one good come on yeah come on give him a good hand everybody now you know kyle's got to stay you know that right just letting you know y'all can be seated everybody and and uh i told me i said yeah you can go ky's got to stay she's the face of highlands news you know and so anyway um so yeah and and honestly we don't normally we haven't we really haven't laid hands on everybody who has gone but mayo's on our lead team he's very very close i consider honestly both of them like like a spiritual son and daughter you guys really have no idea how close we've become over these years and and and mayo actually i always call him the poster child of church of the highlands because he got saved here went to highlands college uh god delivering from a from a past where the enemy was trying to destroy his life and um in fact he spent a few years in prison uh after he played in the nfl and he had they gave him an ankle bracelet and he said you can only go like a mile within the place that you're uh you're in probation and the only church within that mile come on everybody was church of the highlands and uh of course that was a long time ago and since he's been on our team and while he while you know he was before i i got my hands on him you know he he really discipled himself he actually probably has some of the some of the deepest bible knowledge of any pastor on our team and i just want in front of everybody just to honor both of you thank you for not only serving uh at our yeah not only serving um not only serving uh at our west end campus and now at uptown but leading our student ministry and you know of course kyle you are you are the face of highlands news and you y'all ever heard the grow track everybody and so anyway yeah and uh so but uh we just wanted to honor you i wanted to i wanted to bring you up here and just honor you and thank you for being such a faithful incredible son when he came to me said my pc if you say no it's no i'll never think about it again because i don't have to do it i just i just but i feel like it's in my heart and i've watched it i know what the call of god looks like and he he this is a man who's he's got a fire shut up in his bones and he feels called to go back to some some of the same places where uh he calls some trouble and go back and give him the gospel now and and uh so he's they're headed to to the north atlanta area sandy springs area because they're going to move at the end of the year and hopefully by this time next year there's going to be a vibrant local church come on one more time let's get in my hand everybody he's still training yeah well pastor chris you know i want to say thank you so much and uh highlands i want to say thank you and um the lord spoke to me said i'm not leaving but we're expanding yeah you know the dna the nature of church of the islands and you pastor chris we're expanding to atlanta georgia and ever since we walked in this door and we sit right there where my parents are right now my dad my mom they're sitting right there you know you you've poured everything into us you've discipled me as your son and the spirit of disciple is duplicate if you duplicated everything you have in me and now we're ready to go back to atlanta georgia and duplicate everything that we have of highlands so people are no god find freedom come on discover purpose and make a difference and love jesus and the local church so thank you hollins we're not leaving but we are what expanding i love you so much peace i love you don't you love this guy tammy come join me would you do that i love you too come on dina why don't you come join too dino you've kind of been a part of uh this this story as well and since you were helping tammy get up the stairs why don't you come on and join us my brother so y'all extend your hand toward them i'm going to pray over y'all step forward a little bit so everybody can see you come on come on father in the mighty name of jesus god what a joy it is to be a church that not has just has great leaders but we're able to send them all across the the the nation and the world and god we just commission mayo and kyle right now father in the mighty name of jesus god is the church body we recognize the call of god and the anointing of god that's on their lives and lord while we'd love to have them here god we just would joy send them into that harvest field workers into the harvest field lord i'm asking as they go lord let a double portion of any anointing that's on me or on this church god lit a double portion of it be on them and god dearly the spirit of elisha on both of them god let the work they do be accompanied with signs and wonders miracles in power and the presence of the holy spirit god we love them we pray we pray for that you protect them in every way let your hand be upon them in jesus mighty name amen and amen to god be the glory come on hello tammy crying our eyeballs out over there all right god bless you guys what a joy that is and thanks for letting us just have a little family moment once you get your bibles out if you have them or get your your iphones out or if you want to look at the scriptures or get something to write with or get your phone out to take some notes and would really love it for you to take some notes i do want to just teach you the bible this will be a little bit different kind of a message that i want to share with you but it's an important theological truth that honestly let me say it this way i don't think you want me teaching you this most people would not that they're not they're not going to naturally gravitate to the message you're about to hear but the message you're about to hear is is critical for your own personal success and it all began because i really felt like the lord wanted me and i only hear god say things like this from time to time but one of me to break the spirit of fear off your life that that there's a i think there's a spirit i think there's a demonic principality in operation has been since the pandemic start that's not all about the pandemic i think there's a demonic principality of death and darkness that creates a deep spirit of fear on people's lives and we're going to break it tonight in jesus name can i hear a good amen everybody we really are and you do that you we know that the bible says that we overcome the enemy uh by taking captive every thought and making obedient to christ that's second corinthians chapter 10. the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world but they're mighty to the pulling down of strongholds a stronghold is is a is an untrue thought that keeps us in bondage and tonight it's going to give you a simple truth and just the truth that you probably know but may not be living out to the degree that you need to live out in order for you to be successful and to see the the spirit of fear and darkness and death broken off of our lives second timothy says it this way for god has not given us a spirit of fear there is a spirit of fear there's not just fear but there's a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a say the last two words and of a a sound mind a sound mind means you have the right thought you have now you have the correct thought that takes that we're gonna that we're gonna take captive make it obedient to god and it's gonna it's gonna defeat the enemy in jesus name and that that that thought is this and that is if you get wrapped up and enamored with and too focused on earth earth kind of kicks your tail i don't know how another better way to say it it'll destroy you but you've got to keep what the bible calls an eternal perspective that we're just passing through that our life is just a mist and it's a vapor and if you get too focused on even the happenings on planet earth this earth will it'll actually put you in that spirit of fear but to every person who knows where their home is has the their hope really on things working out here they do sometimes but not your theology doesn't have to make it work out where everything always works out here that your theology is some glad morning when this life is over i'm gonna fly away y'all know that song everybody like this is not where i reside and i pray like you for things to work out here i really do i ask god to move in ways that that are just you know that things i don't like but i see them happening in my life but the real theology that makes you really someone who the spirit of death and fear can never can never control your life in any way is the person who has this eternal perspective i want to show you a lot of scriptures give you three thoughts and i'm gonna give you a challenge at the end that i think is gonna fire you up and then we're gonna pray and we're gonna worship and i'm going to speak to the spirit of death darkness and fear and we're going to break it off our lives in jesus name come on somebody say amen right there okay so near the end of jesus's life if you study the book of john the book of john half of the book of john is the last week of jesus's life so he just decides most of his gospel is going to be about that final week and so we're even though we're kind of in the middle of the book we're in the final week of jesus's life so jesus is wrapping things up he's talking about going to the cross the disciples don't really like that too much because they really thought he was going to build some kind of earthly kingdom and jesus comes along seeing them all discouraged and he says this in john 14 he says do not let your hearts be troubled so he saw fear death and darkness on their lives he says do not let your hearts be troubled trust in god trust also in me now some of you know what the next verse is i intentionally did not let them put it on the screen so you could see it now so if you don't know what it is imagine what the next verse might say so he said okay look i know you're in trouble and i know your heart's troubled i know you're discouraged and you might think the next line would be so come over here let me pray for you you know come over here let me let's work it out i've got a miracle for you like we're gonna do something right now but you know we're gonna see god move right no no if you're troubled watch the next line in my father's house or many rooms so they're in trouble on earth and he's redirecting them to heaven is everybody seeing that this is very important that you learn the art of this that while we're believing god and trusting for him to move on planet earth we still have the perspective that if he doesn't there are many rooms in heaven that he's prepared for us and he's going to go there and he says i'm going there to prepare a place for you in other words i've got an escape plan i'm going to get you out of here and i think this the the the truth that every believer needs is the eternal perspective the eternal perspective so i want to read you uh an uh part of an essay from a danish theologian from the 19th century uh his name best i can pronounce it is uh is a soren kierken guard and this is what he said watch this he says when the sailor is out on the sea and everything is changing around him so maybe that's your life you have things you're out there sailing through life and everything is changing and the waves are continually watch this being born and dying being born and dying so i have a problem kind of goes away then i have this and then it goes away watch this he does not stare into the depths of these since they vary i maintain that too many people had their eyes fixed on variables instead of the only thing that is sure and that is eternity so he says this he says he looks up at the stars so the waves are crashing and he makes a choice not to look at the in and the out he says but he looks up at the stars and why because they are faithful as they stand now they stood for the patriarchs and will stand for coming generations watch this by what means then does he conquer your problems your changing conditions watch this through the eternal by means of the eternal one can conquer the future because the eternal is the foundation for the future can i hear a better amen somebody and i want to show you an art that i really believe is for the mature and that is if you're going to be a solid christian and and really be able to live in a generation where i think i think problems are compounding on our lives i was recently talking to a a guy who counsels i i've gotten to know this guy through another pastor friend who does a lot of counseling and he counsels a lot of the top one percent people so like he's he's counseling joint chiefs of staff he's counseling the top uh olympic athletes i mean if i if i said their names you would know these people that he's he actually does counseling he he counsels a lot of the the guys that are new in the nba i mean so we're i was i found this guy very fascinating and and i think he's been trying to look under the hood of my head a little bit too you know and and i've but i've just actually i've actually tried to learn learn from him uh a little bit and and i'll never forget something he said to me he goes he goes you know when i counsel people they all think that you get counseling to make things better he says but i don't counsel people to make things better i counseled them to give them perspective that the fact is that things might not get better and the truth is god never made a promise that all things would work out for us here on earth are you all okay with this message everybody this could save your life if you can grab hold of it we still pray we still believe god we still want god to move in our lives but god has never made a guarantee that everything is going to always work out here instead we get a perspective that it does work out sometimes and honestly for most of us if we're really honest we're getting the best version of earth that there is on your worst day there are still 99 percent of the world's population that would trade places with you come on say amen or oh me one of them right because it's true and if you're not careful you get may i dare say it spoiled you get you get focused on the wrong things and it begins to destroy your life i want to gift you today with a principle that's in god's word i'm going to show it as many times as i can that if you can learn how to have this eternal perspective this is a message that i only preach normally at funerals when they're gone and i remind them hey this is going to be over soon you're going to see them again soon and i teach this but i'm telling you we're going we're going to need it for our lives now because i believe the coronavirus and terrorists and financial situations and relational situations have discouraged a lot of people i walk around and i see people afraid full of fear and it gets broken tonight in jesus name amen everybody so i'm gonna give you three little principles these are very simple i'll show you a few verses and i'm going to give you a challenge and we're going to spend the most of the time of this message really not hearing me speak but we're going we're going to pray and i feel like i have faith tonight for that spirit of fear anxiety death and destruction to be broken off your life in jesus name so if you're a note taker jot down these three things here's the first one and that is i'm going to learn the art if i'm going to be an eternal perspective person i've got to learn the art maybe i even should have said refocusing my eyes on heaven and not on earth now when jesus was teaching about the end times he talked about some pretty terrible things happening there will be nations will be rising up against nations there'll be earthquakes and famines there's going to be pestilences i mean it gets really bad toward the end of times and then jesus said this he said then when you see these things begin to take place here's what i need the church to do and that is i need you to stand up and i need you to lift up your heads because your redemption draws near notice he didn't say i want you to pray because i'm going to do a miracle and all of it's going to change he goes no no when you're in the middle of the waves coming in the waves going out waves coming in waves going out i need you to learn the art of lifting up your head for your redemption draws knives if some of you might remember last year i told the story or gave the illustration of if you've ever been traveling uh uh you know like a jet travel and you've been at the airport on a rainy day of course there's nothing to me worse than that because i'm i'm kind of a control freak a little bit and so when i'm sitting on the plane and then it's raining outside and then they have that conveyor belt that loads all your luggage but there's no cover over it for rainy days so you're watching them you're looking out the window and there's your bag and then you see it and it just kind of and it goes real slow up that while you're getting drenched on of course they'll stop it like go do something else like dude get my back on there quick you know and it's a bad day it's really a bad day and it's pouring and then you also know on a rainy day that that takeoff come on everybody your prayer life's going to improve isn't that right everybody because it's going to be a little bumpy in fact they'll even tell you hey hey buckle up uh we might have a little light chop they call it a little light chop and i don't know i didn't like chop so i said one time i said they said it's your time it's your time i said yeah but what if it's the pilot's time you know what i'm saying you don't know these things but then so you're getting ready for it and i don't like all that honestly i i mean i i i pray every time lord let your angels surround this plane in jesus name you know i don't like the light chop and so but you go in and there sure enough there's pouring you know little lightning going on and they take off and sure enough and you get there you feel that wind you get that light chop and all sudden you break through the cloud layer and that very place that had a storm going on just above the clouds there's sunshine again in the exact same spot and the question is what part of the cloud layer are you living in they're both real i'm not even denying that it's raining somewhere but if you have your eyes focused on that it destroys you you've got to learn the art of all this happening around us and we learn there are come on join me everybody uh just lifting up your head living above the clouds where the sun is shining and god is in control of our lives and remind ourselves of this tonight at our location i don't know what verse your campus pastor shared with you but here at grant's mill he didn't know i was going to do this but we're actually sharing the same verse in revelation chapter 12 verse 11 it talks about how we overcome the devil in our lives but watch this it says they triumphed over the devil two ways by the blood of lamp blood of the lamb and that's what jesus did on the cross that was the final defeat of the devil but you also have to have a word of your testimony that agrees with it but i want to show you the next verse a lot of times we forget there's actually a third element those two are true these are the two ways that you overcome the devil but the verse doesn't end there if you'll notice with me there's a semicolon there are more thoughts there and again this is the part that nobody likes to hear that can save your life if you believe it they not only trapped him over him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony watch this but they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death in other words they weren't afraid to death because they know that their life wasn't all about living here it was all about eternity you can't kill a person who would even rather to be in heaven than be on earth are you all listening to everybody and that's why jesus came along and said strange things again you never hear sermons about this he'd say things like don't be afraid of the one who can kill your body but be afraid of the one who can throw both body and soul into hellfire you've got the wrong focus and we'll lock our doors and we'll buy insurance and we'll be as careful as we can because we're trying to protect something that's important to protect i have insurance and i lock the doors but i don't drive slow come on somebody where y'all at right okay [Applause] i've got it mostly right but you can get so enamored with that now now just the thought of not enduring your life on earth puts you but that spirit of death destruction and fear of your life so what do we do we've got to learn the art of going through life looking up and not just looking around that's number one here's the second one and that is we're also going to focus our life on the unseen and not the scene and what i mean by that you've got to have to have a life plan look at my eyes and hear this you've got to have a life plan a purpose plan that isn't all about what you see the truth is most even most christians give a lot of their lives to things that they see when the bible comes along and says you want to be successful you want to rise above terrorism and coronavirus fear relational issues all the darkness of the land you want to live above that you have to have a life plan that's focused on populating heaven you have to have a life plan that is focused on seeing god's kingdom come and god's will be done are y'all listening to me everybody and that's why the apostle paul said this i love this verse if you've been around here very long i quote this verse all the time it literally is one of my favorite passages in the bible because he said i am hard-pressed on every side and by the way paul had reason to complain i mean the brother i think he listed in another chapter in chapter 11 he lists he lists all the things that happened to him five times he got the 39 lashes that jesus got once got once i mean just five times the ones that nearly killed jesus 39 lester's five he was shipwrecked snake bit he just he had he had he was beaten with rods he talked about how they would take rods and beat him with rods he was stoned i said that at one church he goes well at least he got a little relief like no it wasn't that kind of stone it was with rocks if you teach that in california that's what they think but anyway right but the point is he says i i i have trouble with bandits i i have and i have the constant concern of the churches on my heart you go read the text i'm hard-pressed on every side but not crushed i am perplexed not in despair i am persecuted not abandoned i'm struck down not destroyed the question is how do we get our lives that even all these other things happen to us we're into all the knots and honestly if i'm honest with you i don't see many people that can go through hard-pressed perplexed persecuted and struck down and have that kind of a victory and this is what i want for you better yet this is what god wants for your life watch what he says next he says because we know that the one who raised the lord jesus from the dead will also raise us and that's what people don't want to hear no he's like no no i don't want him to raise me i want him to fix it all now and here he goes no no the reason why i have the victory even though all these bad things are happening i know that the one who raised the lord jesus from the dead will also raise us with jesus and present us with you to himself so therefore we don't lose heart and there's nothing i could want for you more than to go through all that and it never gets to you and you never lose heart how even though outwardly we are being wasted away yet inwardly i'm being renewed day by day how do you do that paul he'll tell you for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us and he had us he had a focus he was living his life for things for treasures in heaven that far outweighs them all so i fix my eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen since what is seen is temporary and what is unseen is eternal i mean this is a guy who's honestly outside of jesus is my biblical hero i like him for a lot of reasons because he's a church planter and i love planting churches and but he just he was always kind of type a personality he's always you know winning the race and you know beating his chess and making himself a slave to to just you know sin making sin a slave to his life like i'm not i'm not going to let this overcome me he's just kind of a he's kind of a collar personality but i mean he they would come along to the apostle paul and say hey look if you don't stop t if you don't stop preaching we're going to throw you in prison he goes that would be great because i was almost this close to getting the the book of ephesians done i could get that writing done i nearly had the philippian jailer saved so hey if you do lock me up put me in that prison because he's this close to getting saved like what do you do with a person like that they'll say well then we'll kill you would you that would be so great because i've had this dilemma to live as christ and to die is gain and oh you know just can't figure out which one is better and so yeah go ahead cut it off that'd be great you know what i'm saying he said this he says if i live i get to do the work of the gospel but if i die it's actually better and i just wonder how many of us really believe this that god if you have me on this earth i'm going to fix my eyes on unseen things and i'm gonna do everything i can to populate heaven but you can't scare me with death because if i die i actually gain something and to people who have that perspective you can't hurt them and that's why i challenge you just try it to not only learn the art in the middle of your situation to look up and not around but also to fix your life on some unseen things i probably if you're the wednesday night crowd most of you are involved in some type of work of the ministry you're on the dream team somewhere if you've been around here we have constantly challenged you to that point but listen to me we don't ask you to do it just because we need more volunteers now look truthfully our church works better when more people are involved no doubt but that is not our motivation our motivation is because we know that if you have your life focused on something that has some eternal weight to it it's going to help you be a more successful christian and you're not going to lose heart and that's why jesus came along he says do not store up treasures here on earth we're moth and eat them and rust destroys them and where thieves break in and steal but give your life to storing up treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy and thieves do not break in and steal live come on everybody live for treasures in heaven and watch your attitude about earth change completely so i've had some situations going on lately that i can't really talk about but they've been it's just been challenging and don't don't don't don't don't get uh concerned about me but it's just been some challenging things going on and you know tammy and i are facing them and working through them uh for you know for some friends of ours and different things that are happening it just it kind of feels like more than most honestly lately and and and i if i'm honest with you the last couple of days you know i kind of lost my voice on sunday and i got a little discouraged by that and i don't know i kind of kind of got just a small teaspoon of the blues and today i had someone come in a group of friends come in today to talk about a project to finish um the final translations that there's about there's about 3 000 people groups language groups that still don't have a translation of the of the bible they don't have any portion of scripture in their language which is just hard to believe in a generation with all the technology and the money and the know-how that we have and we sat for three hours today with the top leaders of bible translation pastor dino is with us and we sat there for three hours strategizing how to finish those final three thousand translations of the bible and i remember i just leaving that meeting today i mean ready to go bear hunting with a switch are you all listening to me because in that moment i knew that i was not only representing you and and doing something that we know we could do together but we have a plan to involve 15 000 churches across america and get this thing done in our generation come on if you think that's a good thing give god some real praise yeah but at that moment i'm gonna be honest with you problems what problems problems what problems and i'm telling you the same will happen to you and that was the secret of paul i have my eyes fixed and that's why even though it's happening all around me doesn't bother me because i have my eyes fixed on treasures in heaven and here's the last one and that is we have to focus our heart on faith not fear faith not fear the question is how do you get your heart focused on faith not fear are you fearful i have been but what do you do in that moment well here's what the bible says i prayed everybody say i prayed come on say it out loud this time i prayed i prayed to the lord and he answered me and he freed me from all my fears and then we also know this verse that my soul faints with longing for your salvation because i put my hope in your word if you don't have a mechanism that in the middle of your most fearful days that you say you know what i'm just going to back away from this for a second because i'm not thinking right right now the father in the mighty name of jesus every fear every worry every care every situation that feels so much bigger than me i release it to you and i know you're freeing me from my fears then you step over to your bible and you begin to read how you can triumph over your enemy and how he's made you more than a conqueror i'm just talking about practical christianity to call us out of the spirit of fear into faith this whole idea started in my heart about um four weeks ago three weeks ago and uh john maxwell was here speaking to the grow conference and um and it was one of the best messages to pastors that i've ever heard [Music] and at the very end of it uh he he gave some quotes from a c.s lewis essay i thought i had read everything honestly i thought i'd read everything c.s lewis ever wrote i consider myself quite a student of c.s lewis and i never heard this before and it was an essay that he wrote in 1948 three years after america dropped the bomb on nagasaki and hiroshima for anybody who was ever alive during that time if you ever want to talk to any older people that were alive during that time or just go back and read history there was all out panic in the late 40s over the atomic bomb when they saw the destruction of just one piece of metal falling from a plane and destroying so much so fast and they had all these videos out of these you know testing the bombs and just watched watching these bombs obliterate things in a matter of i mean vaporizing people and there was so much fear the word the word of the that generation wasn't coronavirus and it wasn't the taliban it was the atomic bomb and there was so much fear that it began to paralyze an entire generation including the church [Music] and so john read it he says but when you read it i want you to replace the word atomic bomb with whatever fear's got you for some of it's the coronavirus so when you see atomic bomb just replace it with the crone of ours for some of you it's a situation in a marriage or with a child or something that just you like it's got you and i want you to replace it for some of you that anxiety and that fear is over what's going on the news with afghanistan or the taliban or terrorism i don't know but as i read this i think it's going to minister to you the way it did me and the pastors that night here's how it goes c.s lewis says in one way we think a great deal too much about the atomic bomb quote how are we going to live in an atomic age and i'm tempted to reply why as you would have lived in the 16th century when the plague visited london almost every year or as you would have lived in the viking age when raiders from scandinavia might come and cut your throat any night or as indeed as you already living in the age of cancer the age of syphilis the age of paralysis an age of air raids an age of railway accidents in an age of motor accidents in other words do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation i want to stop there read that again do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation my least favorite word in 2020 was unprecedented now there was plenty of precedent it's all happened before and when you think it's unprecedented you think you're facing something that no one's ever faced before and that fear doubles in your life and that's why he said don't let us don't let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation believe me dear sir or madam you and all whom you love you were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was even invented and quite a high percentage of you were going to die in unpleasant ways it's perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of a painful and premature death to a world which was already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all it's a certainty the first point to be made and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together if we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things praying working teaching reading listening to music bathing the children playing tennis chatting to our friends over a pint yes c.s lewis said you could have a pint don't you dare all right in a game of darts but not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs they may break our bodies but they need not dominate our minds come on church stand with me at every location i don't know what's been dominating your mind look in my face i don't know what's been dominating your mind but it ends tonight every demonic principality it ends tonight how you can't hurt me because i'm going to heaven everybody come on the lord will rescue me from every little attack and he will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom come on lift up those hands together father i pray for every person in this room and at every campus and i speak to the spirit of death darkness destruction and fear every spirit of anxiety and worry i break your power right now off of people's minds god i'm praying lord god for the life of god the truth of god's word and the eternal perspective to live inside of every believer thank you god we are set free by just focusing on what really matters god we give you our hearts and our lives tonight as your hands are lifted now begin to worship your god thank you that he saved you he's healed you he's delivered you he's set you free in jesus name

Channel: Church of the Highlands

Views: 4,614

Rating: 4.9574466 out of 5

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

Id: oMRDwx4Na2I

Length: 41min 47sec (2507 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 02 2021