"Grow Up" | Pastor Chris Hodges

Well, welcome to church everybody. We're so glad you're here. I want to say hello to all of our locations. Everybody joining us online or on demand later in the week. Of course, our prison campuses and gateway gatherings. We're just glad that everybody's here. If you're here for the very first time, we want to say a special welcome to you and honored to have you.

How great was last weekend? How many of you are here for Easter? You made it for Easter. Um, powerful weekend across the entire life of the church. And I got to tell you this, that between adults and children, we had more than a thousand people indicate they gave their lives to Jesus last weekend.

Come on, that's worth celebrating from death to life. And uh I tell you, it's the best Easter since I've been here. And uh okay, some of you get that. If you don't know, I've only been here about nine months. So, it's my only Easter. And uh we're just going to keep going up from there, right, everybody?

It's just going to get better and better, from glory to glory, from victory to victory. Okay. Um and if you're back from Easter, we're just so glad and honored that you are here. We want to say welcome home to you. Make this your your church home. God's doing wonderful things in the life of the church.

And as you saw, men's night's coming up. So, all the men in the house, um, expect to see you. Yes. On men's night in just a few weeks. So, go ahead and get registered. Uh, it's going to be a powerful night. I'm excited to be there. And, uh, I would encourage you, dads, maybe about 13 or up.

If you have a son, bring your son with you. Um, nothing more powerful than to see men of God modeling what it looks like to worship Jesus and go after his heart. Um, and also today, water baptisms, everybody. Um, right after service, water baptisms taking place. two things.

One, if you've never been water baptized and you've accepted Jesus, then this is your next step. Maybe you came last week and you placed your faith in Christ, this is your next step and we have everything taken care of for you. And so do that. And then second thing is stick around and celebrate with those.

It's it's the biggest decision next to following Jesus. It's a big next step. And so be a part of celebrating that with them. Well, today we're kicking off a brand new series called Between Sundays. Going to be talking about it till the next few weeks. And we're talking about how to have a faith that doesn't fade.

How does your work faith work between the Sundays, Monday through Saturday? How do you just not get inspired on Sunday and then by Wednesday you're like, "Dear God, help me. How do you keep it sustaining?" We're going to be talking about that. And today we're kicking it off.

And my pastor is in the house, everybody. How many you know, every pastor needs a pastor? And uh Pastor Chris Hodgeges is with us this weekend from Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. He's also the chancellor of uh Highlands College. He's now the founding pastor. I got to get that right now.

He actually transitioned the church to new leadership, but is the founding pastor of Church of the Highlands and leads Highlands College and uh which is training up ministry leaders uh to answer the prayer of Jesus. The fields are widened to harvest. Pray the Lord of the harvest for laborers.

How many of you know we don't have a harvest problem, we have a labor problem. and uh Highlands College is helping answer the prayer of Jesus in that way. Um but more than all that um to me he's my pastor and uh about 10 years ago my my my dad passed away who was my pastor my whole life and just prayer warrior true intercessor spent two to three hours every morning in prayer and uh when he passed away I was just praying one day I said Lord I I fill the void no one will ever fill my dad's void but I need I need a pastor I need somebody that's going to be praying for me and I know that and how many of you know can also correct you when you need it like I need that in my life And uh and so we were at an event together.

I'd met Pastor Chris one time and went up just to say hello. And uh when I was standing there, he just looked at Tammy and I and he said, "I don't know why." He goes, "But God's just given me a love for you, too. And whatever you need me to be in your life, I'll be that."

And since that day, for over a decade now, he's been pastoring us and loving us and coaching us and walking with us. And so the first guest I've ever brought to Gateway I thought should be my pastor. And so I'm honored to have him this weekend. I'm going to ask that you would stand to your feet and show him some love on my behalf.

Put your hands together and welcome him. Pastor Chris Hodes. All right. COME ON. GIVE JESUS ALL THE PRAISE, EVERYBODY. OH, THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH. COME ON. GIVE HIM WHAT HE REALLY DESERVES. OH, we love you, Lord. That's awesome. All right, give your neighbor a high five. You may be seated, everybody.

Good to see you all. Who's glad to be in church today? Anybody? >> Yeah, me, too. I love church. I I'm almost 63 years old, and I've been in church my entire life. I've literally never missed a Sunday in church in my entire life. And uh don't be too impressed.

I grew up u Baptist and those first 15 years were really hard, everybody, right? And um in fact my dad was an organist in the Baptist church. And um my mom sang in the choir and if you're you know the Baptist tradition, it's usually on this side. So which means that we had to sit over here with my grandmother about six rows back.

And dad played mad. He looked at us making sure we were behaving the whole time. And and then my preacher, bless his heart, he talked about hell like he was born and raised there. Come on everybody. Right. And I'm just telling you. And then when he said hell, you're going to hell.

And he always pointed at me, you know. So anyway, when I was seven, I walked the aisle and u signed the clipboard. Y'all know the drill, right? In in front of the communion table, the choir singing just as I am. And um I I prayed the prayer he told me to pray.

And uh and then they vote you in cuz it's congregational rule. And I'm happy to report it was unanimous. I got in everybody and got baptized that night. And I always say that's the day I met the church, but I didn't meet God. And uh and then later on somebody invited me to a church like this and I saw life-giving Christianity.

I saw people in love with Jesus and it, man, it wrecked me in every way and got gloriously saved and uh in ministry since I was 20 and I just I just love God with all my heart. I love the church and I'm I'm glad to be here with you guys uh today.

I'm I'm with my wife Tammy of We'll be married next month, 40 years, everybody. Come on. Yeah, I know. And uh we have five kids and I do know that's a lot. I always get a reaction. I don't know where the line is, but we cross it. Ain't that right, everybody? and had a guy once say they he walked up to me after the end of the service and said, "Man, five kids, you must really like kids."

I said, "No, sir. I really like my wife." You know, so anyway, got it all wrong there, brother. And so, um, but now we have, uh, we have, uh, 12 grandchildren and one on the way. Any grandparents in the room? Grandparents, grandparents, grand. And they always scream and make noises like that.

And it's cuz they're so much happier with grandkids than they were with the kids. And >> if you have kids and you don't have grandkids, don't kill them. better ones are coming. Hang in there, everybody. Just just let them live just a little longer. Okay. So, but I'm my uh I have of my five children, one of those lives in Dallas, my son David and and my daughter-in-law Isabelle.

And she's the one uh expecting our 13th grandchild. Y'all say hello to my son and and daughter-in-law. God bless you. I love you, sir. Oh, my heart. And then finally, I want to jump into God's word. But, man, can I tell you how much I love Pastor Daniel and Tammy?

I mean, I am crazy about this couple. COME ON, SHOW YOUR LOVE TO YOUR PASTORS, EVERYBODY. I think you're the best ever. I really do mean that. And uh I've known them for a long time. And guys, you are very blessed to have them as your pastors. Can I hear a good amen, everybody? >> Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. I get to kick off your brand new series. We're talking about uh how to have a faith that you know, of course, we can do it in a room like this with worship like this. My goodness, wasn't worship great today, everybody? I mean, if this is this good, you're you guys when you go to heaven, you're going to come back home on Sundays.

But anyway, it's good. Um, it's really good, but but what do you do between the two? And and and and how do we even step out in in our faith and how how do we understand it? And so, one of the things that I love to do, and it's really how I see myself as a as a minister, I really don't I've never had a desire to preach like I don't want to just preach and just, you know, give somebody a sermon on a Sunday.

I really like the shephering side of the role. I like the fact that I always tell our church, I'm kind of your tour guide, your spiritual tour guide. And my job isn't really just to impress you with sermons. It's to set a pattern or a course for you.

You know, I lead on hillsides and where you can feed and so that's the role I really enjoy. And to do that, then my job is just to make things extremely clear. In fact, I have a theory and that is is that people don't step forward in their faith because they don't want to.

I don't think they do it because they don't know what they're supposed to do next. And so, one of the things I like to do is just make all that extremely clear. What what what are the steps? What's the spiritual journey uh look like? And I'll be your tour guide here today to help you along the way.

And that's extreme especially important if you're going to understand uh you know what what our faith looks like between Sundays as well. So, I hope to do that today. And and before we get started, I have something a little funny because I just I love humor. Uh you guys can tell, right?

I'm I'm I'm a cinjun from South Louisiana, everybody. Okay, I say that as a disclaimer so you'll lower your expectations. Okay, everybody. You might not learn anything, but we are going to have a good time. Come on, everybody. Right? And so it it's not theologically correct. It's just funny.

Okay? And it goes like this. On the first day, God created the dog and he said, "Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. And for this, I'm going to give you a lifespan of 20 years." And the dog said, "20 years?

That's a long time to be barking. How about I just live 10 years and I'll give you back the other 10. And and God agreed. On the second day, God created the monkey. He said, 'I want you to sit around, do monkey tricks, entertain the grandchild, you know, entertain the people, make people laugh, and for this, I'm going to give you a lifespan of 20 years.

And the monkey said, "That's too long to be doing monkey tricks. Uh, I'll do like the dog did, live 10 years. I'll give you back the other 10." And God agreed. On the third day, God created the cow. And he said, "You're going to go out in the field with the farmer all day long.

You're going to suffer under the sun. you're going to have calves. You're going to produce milk for the farmer's family and for this I'm going to give you a lifespan of 60 years. And the cow said, "That's way too long to live a hard life like that." Um, let's just make it 20 years and I'll give you back 40.

And God agreed. And then finally on the next day, God created man and he said, "Eat, sleep, play, enjoy yourself. And for this, I'm going to give you a lifespan of 20 years." And the man said, "What? Only 20 years? How about you give me my 20?" Uh, give me the 40 the cow gave you back.

Give me the 10 the monkey gave you back. Give me the 10 the dog gave you back. And let's make it 80 years. And God agreed. And so that is why for the first 20 years, we eat, sleep, play, and enjoy ourselves. For the next 40 years, we slave under the sun to support our family.

For the next 10 years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last 10 years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everybody who goes by. You have just had everything explained to you, all you need to know. All right. All right. So, let's pray together.

No, I'm just kidding. That's not There's more. I want you to open your Bibles or your or whatever you have your devices or look on the screen to Ephesians chapter 4. I think this gives us a perfect little foundation uh for what our faith between Sundays looks like.

And it gives us a goal that I want to put in your heart today. And I'll help you uh hopefully give you some steps to see it clearly. And it says this in verse 11. So Christ himself gave what we call today the five-fold ministry. The apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.

So these are people who do vocational ministry so to speak and to they have a purpose not to be ministers. Notice with me, but to equip the people, that's you, the congregants, the the church for works of service. So that notice the goal that the body of Christ is built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the son of God.

And notice this this kind of this marker this touchdown line so to speak and that is to become mature uh which is I what I think is our goal today in this growth series in this series where we're looking at our faith between studies so that we can attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ which suggests then that you haven't received all that God has to offer.

Just want you to have that in in in your heart. And if you'll do this, notice the next line, if you'll grow, if you'll start attaining all that God has for you, then you will no longer be a baby Christian. You're no longer an infant and tossed around back and forth by the waves.

Now, the waves are never going to stop, but you don't have to be tossed. And if you're kind of tired of being tossed, um the the secret is is just to grow up a little bit. It's to become more mature. It's to keep growing in your faith. And if you don't grow in your faith, then when trials come, it does kick you around pretty good.

And by the way, you can tell uh if you need this message, if life does that to you a lot, it does it a little bit for all of us. But there's a point where our faith should be so strong in God that when trials and tribulations come, it's not just throwing us around blown here and there by every wind of teaching, it goes on to say, and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. instead speaking the truth in love.

Say the next three words out loud. We will grow. >> And that's what I think we ought to be doing between Sundays. I think we need a growth plan. I think we need something that says, "Here's where I am in my faith, and I can't get to here yet, but I'm going to get to here.

I'm going to continually be transformed." One verse in second Corinthians says that we are transformed into his likeness with an everinccreasing glory. The King James says, "From glory to glory." In other words, it's in incremental. And the happiest people are the people that are actually growing in that kind of a way.

So we we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head that is Christ. From him the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament. What does it do? It grows. That's what's our plan. We're going to grow and build itself in love as each part does uh its work.

And so what I want to do today is I want to show you kind of a basic growth plan. Now I want to apologize right off the bat. This is incredibly simple. It's intentionally simple. I'm a simple guy. I take complicated things and I make them easy for everybody to understand.

I got one of the greatest compliments of my life one Sunday. I was shaking hands at the door and this lady says, "I just love this church." And I said, "Well, please tell me why." And she goes, "Pastor, you put the cookies on the bottom shelf so everybody can have one."

And I just love that. So, I want to make this real simple because I would want to submit to you today that what we should be doing between Sundays is growing. We should just be making sure we're taking steps and we're not staying stagnant. And I promise you this, the word promises you this that if you'll do that, life's not going to throw you around so much.

You're not going to be tossed around. You're actually going to become mature. And I would even say you're going to enjoy your faith a lot because there's nothing like growing. Growing, if you're not growing, you're actually already kind of dying a little bit, right? And so everything that in God's universe constantly grows.

And I want to I want to help you with that. I'm going to give you three things. It's very very simple of what we do. And the first is the first step in your growth is just to get to know Jesus. Just get to know him. And what I mean by that is that if you don't know him already, we're going to introduce you to him today.

You say, "Well, Chris, I've been in church my whole life. I know all about Jesus." I didn't say that. I didn't say know about him. I said get to know him. In fact, the prayer that the apostle prayed for the churches that he planted, basically what an apostle is is a church planter.

And so Paul just planted churches. He'd raise up leadership. Uh he would he would, you know, go and do it again in another city, but then he would write letters to these churches to give them doctrine and instruction, right? And uh and so a lot of our New Testament are simply these letters that were written uh to the churches.

And he started a church in Ephesus. I've actually been to Ephesus. And he started a church there. And if you read Ephesians, actually twice in this sixth chapter book, Paul prays. He gives us the prayer. He was praying for the church. And I want you to see that.

And he said in Ephesians chapter 1:1 17, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation. And it's basically a fancy Bible way to say, "I just wish the lights would come on for you in this area so that you'd realize, listen to me, gateway, that you would realize how important it is that you may know him better."

And if you don't know him, know him. And if you know him, know him better. And he used a word that didn't shock you because you don't know the word. But in the Greek language, the original language of the New Testament, he uses the word ganosco. And that would have been a word that would have never been mentioned in the Old Testament because you couldn't have this kind of relationship with God.

Ganosco literally means be intimately close with God. In fact, one place the word ganosco is used says a man knew his wife and they had children. And it's not a sexual term. It's an intimate term. And the point being is Paul says it's not enough for you just to be a religious person.

It's not enough for you to even be a believer. You can gosco him. you can know him, you can be close to him. And so what I would tell you is that if you want a faith that doesn't fade, if you want to stop the kicking around, let life just throw in your around a lot, the first step in your your spiritual journey is your closeness with God.

Now, this is the part of my testimony that literally wrecked me. I kind of told you a little bit of it at the beginning of the message, but I grew up in church and it was all formalities. There was no, it was so it was all religion. I knew how to do everything the right way.

I knew all the old people with candy in their pockets. Come on, everybody. Right. I I knew the whole drill. And uh but I did not know God at all. And I showed up at a church like this. In fact, I got invited by a friend to a church like this.

And I'm highly encouraging you to try that. Like you really need to invite people to church because people have never been hungrier for God in the past 55 years in America as they are right now. Can we put our hands together and thank God? There is the first drops of revival falling in America.

I'm telling you, it is. So, he invites me and check it out. I don't even remember the sermon. I don't remember the songs. I remember the people. I couldn't I saw these people just in love with God. And I had no idea that you could actually have a relationship with God that kind of a way.

And so, I I was under conviction and they gave the altar call, you know, to come forward and and I was responding in my heart, but I didn't want to go forward because I'd been in church my whole life. I knew what they were going to do next.

They were going to bring me to a little room and I ain't going no little room. That ain't happening. that's just not happening. And so I went home and I'm still under conviction and I'm trying to figure out how a person gets to heaven. And so I decided I'm not listening my my, you know, my church or this new church I attended.

I was going to find out for myself. Thank God the Baptist did teach me the Bible. And I open up my Bible. I had a red letter edition of the Bible. That's where the words of Jesus are in red. And I just read the red. I skipped all the black.

I just went straight to the red. and you only get three pages in where Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord," is going to enter the kingdom of heaven. >> I thought, "Well, that's a problem." You know, because that's what they told me to say.

And now he's saying, "No, you're not necessarily in." And it goes on to say, "But only those who do the will of my father who is in heaven and many on that day." So, we're going to show up at judgment day one day, my friends. And there's tons of people walking up with confidence based on a religious action that they had toward God. but not a closeness with God.

Many on that day, Jesus said, will say, "Lord, Lord," he says, he says, and they'll say, "I prophesied in your name. I casted devils in your name. I did miracles in your name." And Jesus says, "I will tell them plainly, I never knew." And he uses that word ganosco, that God was never looking for your religion.

He was always looking for relationship. You want my first step for you if you if you want a faith that doesn't fade, if you want to know what to do between Sundays, is that you need that closeness with God. It's important for you to have that closeness with God.

And this is one of the things I love sharing with people. In fact, I share my faith all the time because I think it I think it's actually fun to do this because people are actually incredibly hungry if you'll go about it the right way. Tammy and I were recently speaking at a conference at our home church in Baton Rouge.

Uh Bethany uh with Pastor Larry Stock still and and the crew. And so I did this conference and we just drove down 45 minutes to the New Orleans airport to take the Southwest direct flight to Birmingham. Otherwise, you'd have to go through Atlanta or or Dallas or something like that.

And so, it was very very quick. And when we got on, you know, Southwest, which I'm not a huge fan because of the randomness. I'm a control freak and I can't stand like pick a seat, any seat. No, like I want a boarding pass, you know, like and and I want I want to control who get who sits next to me.

So, anyway, so I was sizing up the waiting area, noticing that it wasn't really full. I thought, "All right, this is not going to be a packed flight." So, I told Tammy, "You get the window. I'm going to get the aisle and we're going to put our bag in the middle seat, our knee in the middle seat, everything we can, you know, so that when people are boarding, they'll they'll just go on behind us.

And all of a sudden, you could hear this giggling, screaming, laughing in the in the jetway. And I thought, oh, and my prayer life starts to improve. Father God, if you love me, God, please, heavenly father, you know. and she rounds the corner and high-fives the flight attendant and then looks down the the fuselage of the plane and says, "Hey everybody, I'm here."

And I thought, "Oh, God, please." And so she comes down and she greets all the aisle seat people. First row, first row, second row, second row, third row, third row. And she's getting closer and closer and closer. And she gets where we are. She goes, "I'm going to sit right there in the middle."

I said, "No." And I picked up and I moved over to the middle and she popped down, turns to me and says, "So what do you do for a living? And when you get asked that as a pastor, you have to decide if you're going to lie or not.

You really do, right? You know. And so, and I said, 'Well, I'm a pastor. And she says, "Duh, we're all passengers." I said, "No, that's truly happened." I said, I said, "No, like no, like the pastor of a church." And she said, "Oh, well, I don't like Christians."

Well, I knew the kind she had been raised around. Remember I told you that? So, I decided to play along. And I said, "Yeah, girl. Me, too. That's why I started my own church. And she goes, "What do you mean?" And I said, and listen to this. I said, 'Christianity has a branding problem.

There are several versions out there. And one of them, even according to Jesus, won't get you in. That God wants to listen. He's not looking for your religion. He's not looking for your Sunday best and you're putting on. He wants to know you relationally. Everybody, if you want to know what your first step, Yeah.

Come on, everybody. Right. By the way, when we got off the plane, um she she was going on to Nashville and I said, um she goes, "Chris, I have to have more." And I said I said, "Well, Tanya," her name was Tanya, said, "If you'll watch this Sunday when my when we say hello to our campuses, we have 26 campuses at Highlands."

I said, "I'll give you a shout out." She says, "You won't." I said, "Well, yes, I will." And so and so Sunday came around and I shouted her out and I changed my whole message to to to talk to Tanya. Really? I knowing she was hopefully knowing she was watching.

And sure enough, I got an email on Monday from my assistant said, "This lady named Tanya, did you meet somebody on a Southwest flight?" I said, "Yeah." And it said, "Dear Passenger Chris." So, and um and she said, "I let watch this. I let Christians in church keep me from God." >> She goes, "And I realized for the first time it's not about religion, it's about relationship." and her salutation was, "I'm ready to surrender."

And she left her cell phone number and Tanya gave her life to Jesus over the phone. Everybody, come on. Ain't that fun? All right. All right. And that's your first step, too. Surrender. If you're still in control of your life, then you're not getting the best version of what God has to offer you.

We surrender my whole life to his will and his way. That's what that you want to step. That's your step. That's why if you've not been waterbaptized since you became a believer, I'm not talking about your christristening or your dedication as a child. Those are beautiful and it doesn't undo that.

But if you've never been waterbaptized, it's the first thing Jesus asks us to do. That's what surrender means. Yeah, but my hair is going to get wet. I got to go to lunch today. Jesus died on a cross for heaven's sakes. Your hair can be a little wet.

Amen. Amen. >> Are y'all out there? >> Surrender. Surrender. That's why I call it his will, his way. Even if you don't agree with it, it's his will, his way. That's what surrender means. And then spending time with God every day. I'm going to spend time with God.

And I'm here to remind somebody who you already love Jesus, but that closeness has been waning and you started to neglect your time with God every day. and he's not mad at you, but he is waiting for you. And he would love to have even 15 minutes tomorrow morning for you just to spend time with him and read his word and have a little worship and have some prayer and have some closeness with you.

You want to know what to do between Sundays? Get back to that. I I I've I've written a book that's coming out on Tuesday. I'm not I'm not promoting the book. Um in fact, over this past summer, I I got off for some time to write my principles that I wanted to leave my grandkids.

And I started writing this into my family. I just I don't know. I got my 60s and all that stuff kind of came to my mind. I want to just leave some things. I'm not dying, but I but but but I wrote it like as if I was I was writing it all down.

And um and I realized, man, I I think I ought to I ought to give these to everybody, you know, and I I got to about chapter 17. There's 31 little little essays, little principles in it. And I got to chapter 17. And I don't even know why I did this.

I was summarizing the chapter in the final paragraph. And I I saw myself writing out, "Dear grandkids," and I wrote this endearing letter to explain that principle, but in letter form. And I knew I hit on something. So I ran downstairs and I said, "Tammy, read this chapter and then read this letter."

And I came back three months later and she was crying. I was like, "Yes, that'll work." And so I went back and put a letter at the end of every every one of the principles. And it's called legacy letters, timeless principles I've I've learned, lived, and leave behind.

And the very first one is is the big rocks principle that all is well that begins well. If you start your day with God every day, if you'll start your I'm not telling you it's going to be perfect. I'm just going to tell you it's going to be anchored.

It's going to be stronger. You're going to have a closess with God that he so desires in all of Gateway. You said a good >> amen. >> Amen. So, we want to get to know him. Second thing is is we need to become like him. We're becoming like Jesus.

If you want to step between Sundays, it's time for all of us to say, "I'm not going to settle." And for a lot of us, you've settled with your sin, your addictions, your habits. You're going to heaven. It's just it's just not the best version of you while you're here on planet Earth.

And God wants us to be transformed into his likeness. The whole essence of the gospel is that we constantly change. We call it theologically regeneration. It's the process of I'm not where I need to be, but I'm not where I used to be either. God's working in me.

He's working some things out of me. It's our issues. And everybody's got issues. And if you don't think you have an issue, well, guess what? That's your issue. Okay? Like we because we have we have stuff going on inside of all of us, myself included. Now, we know that if you have an issue, and you do that if we confess, First John 1:9 says, "If we confess that sin to God, he's faithful and just and will forgive us of that sin." and purify us from all unrighteousness.

We know that. But notice with me, it only takes care of what happened. It doesn't ensure that it'll never happen again. James 5:16 says it a different way, though. Therefore, confess your sins not to God, but to each other. And pray for each other. You don't get forgiven here.

Here, you get healed. >> Notice with that, you go to God for forgiveness, but you've got to go to God's people for healing. Like, if you really want things to change on the inside of you, I'm encouraging you. Here's a couple steps. Get into a community of godly friends.

Thank God for the big room. I love it. I love it because Dallas needs Jesus. We need to We need to keep making seats available because people are hungry for God. But we're also a church that gets really, really small and intimate. Why? Because you matter. We somebody we got to get close enough to somebody where we have the confidence in our relationship with that person where you say, "Guess what?"

And you take the mask off and you say, "Can I tell you something I'm going through?" And some of you are just the thought of that is making you nervous right now because you think they're going to go, "Oh my goodness." Watch this. And they're not. CS Lewis said the that friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another, "What?

You two? I thought I was the only one." And I'm encouraging you. I'm encouraging you. Don't just show up in these seats. You have found a great church, my friends. But it's not enough for you to show up on a Sunday. We need to be at men's night, and we need to show up in the small groups, and we need to get close to a few people, not a lot, and take the mask off and get some healing taking place in our lives. everybody is going to change you forever.

There's a better version of you out there that God wants to work on. And then once you start settling those yesterdays, what's going to happen is you're going to start seeing more of tomorrow of what God wants to do in you. I call it discovering and developing your spiritual gifts.

Like there's a there's a role or a piece that you play in God's design, grand design, and you can disco discover it and then develop it. And this is where you really really really are living now. Discover and develop God's design. If you want to have faith that works that never fades, you want to know between Sundays, get close to God.

Everybody get to know him better and then start letting him work in you so that you're becoming more like him so that number three, you can do what Jesus did. And this is the ultimate touchdown line. If you want to know what faith really looks like, it's not just being a believer.

And it's not even just letting God work in our lives and change us. It's so that we can go on mission and do what Jesus did and let our lives impact the lives of this city and the people around us and and and the world. See, well, that's Pastor Daniel's job.

He's the he's the minister around here. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says in First Peter, you are a chosen people. You are the priesthood. I'm a priest. Yes, you're a priest. You're God's special possession called to declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into this marvelous light.

You can actually go on mission. Ephesians 2:10 says it this way. You are God's workmanship. One translation says you're his masterpiece created in Christ Jesus not just to exist to do good works which God already prepared in advance for you to do. Like you have there's an assignment on you.

I'm 63 years old and just handed our church to the next generation after 25 years of leading Highlands so I could step into this calling of being this chancellor of this ministry leadership school and I'm having the time of my life and I'm giddy about it everybody. Why?

Because I have an assignment. I wake up every day living my faith out doing what Jesus did. Are y'all listening to me everybody? And you can do the exact same thing. Let me put it into three simple words of how do you do that. First is give. And I'm not talking about your money.

I'm not even talking about the money you go to the church. I'm talking about give whatever you have. This is whatever you have. If you could just be living what I call an open-handed life. One of my principles in the book is I call it the open-handed principle.

The generosity principle that I'm going to live my life. If I have it and you need it, here it is. That I'mma go I'm going to go on assignment. When you go out to eat today, you're on assignment to to bless those that serve you. I mean, I don't do this as enough as much as I actually I need to, but I was with the family once at our favorite restaurant in Birmingham, PF Chens.

They call it Chanks, everybody. All right. And and y'all know it's family style and they're ordering like crazy. I'm I'm I'm a math person and I'm doing the math and I'm thinking, "Dear Jesus, here it goes." All right. So, they're ordering, they're eating like crazy. And our server was not doing a good job.

Um, she was I think she she had too many tables. They looked understaffed. She was kind of frantic and usually I'm that impatient, bad customer, honestly. And for whatever reason, I don't even know why I said this. She walked up and I I've never said this in my life.

I can't believe I said it. I said, "We're not in a hurry. You don't, you know, think of us last. Just go ahead and take every other table." So, and she walked away. I thought, "Who are you? What did you like?" So, she came back around and she was more attentive and, you know, kind of casually filling up all the glasses and checking on us.

And, um, I don't even know why I said this. I've probably done this three times in my whole life. I should I actually should do it more. I said, "Is there anything I could pray with you about?" And she looked at me like, "You're not supposed to ask me that."

And I said, "I'm a pastor." And a tear popped out. And she says, "Just pray. You have no idea." Well, I actually do have an idea. I can imagine what she might be going through. And well, I'm in now, y'all. I'm all in. And so when we left, we were She got brought the final bill.

And please don't think too much of me. I I usually get it wrong. Um I felt like I was supposed to leave her what we call in Alabama a honken tip. For you more sophisticated Dallas people, that's a very generous catility. Okay. So that's what that is, right?

But I I I left her the amount of the bill. So much so that'll look like a mistake. So she came back. She goes, "Oh, Mr. Hajes, I think you made a mistake." I said, "No, that's for you." And she goes, "I don't understand. Why would you do that?"

And I said this, I said, "Cuz I'm on assignment today by the heavenly father to let you know you're loved and appre and appreciated. This is for you." And she said again for the second time, "You have no idea." And I really did have an idea how much more that meant to her.

It meant a lot. It was a lot of money for but it but it wasn't on on a scale. It probably meant a whole lot more for her. And I remember walking out the restaurant that day and I hope to think it was a it was like a godly pride.

I was thinking, Lord, that's all I had to do today was just be on assignment to do what you do, to listen to your voice and to bless people by being generous with them. And I was just I was thinking there are four billion females on the planet and and you care for that one right there. and you just needed one of your young strong sons of the most high to tell you like to be to be generous to her.

And I was like, who else, Lord, shall I touch for your glory today? You know what I'm saying? And it probably was too carnal, but I like I remember just feeling the sense of this is what my life's supposed to be about. Are y'all with me, church? >> Go.

You can do You want to KNOW WHAT TO DO BETWEEN SUNDAYS? Do what Jesus did. That's it. and serve. Don't sit. Serve. Serve. Put me in, coach. I want to play. I want to I don't I don't live for myself. I don't go to church for myself. Going to worship one.

I'm going to serve one. And finally, I'm going to share Christ. I'm telling you, the world's hungry. You can share your faith with other people. They're so hungry for him. And I'm going to close this way. All right. My job was to make sure you understood that that you're you're you're between Sundays should get just get to know Jesus, become more like Jesus so that you can do what Jesus did.

And when you're saying it and from a standpoint like this, I was saying it as nicely as I can just as because I want you to take the steps. But that's not how I was feeling on the inside. So let me tell you this quick story. Go. Every day when I leave my the office, I go down the busiest street in Alabama, which is a six-lane busy, busy, busy highway called Highway 280.

And at some point after about four miles, I get in this double lane, left turn lane to get off that highway and to go into where my neighborhood is. And I know this light cuz I'm at this light every single day of my life. And I know how many people can get through one light cycle if everybody will go.

You know what I'm saying? Like got to go for heaven's sakes. So, I pull up to it and I'm right on the edge of it. I know it. I know it. If everybody cooperates, I'm gonna make it through one. And I noticed I could tell with the rearview mirror and the side mirror this it looked like a young girl.

I saw long hair and I saw the thumbs just go and she took the occasion that was a red light to it looked do stuff, you know? I like she's going to it's going to turn green. She's not going to see it. Well, I'm a honker. Okay. I'm I'm a proud T.

My wife Tammy hates that. Even when she drives, I reach over like she slaps my hand. She slaps my hand, says, "Stop." They probably go to our church. Like, good. I'm their pastor. They learn something. You know, she hates it. And she's always telling me, "Stop. Stop. That's not That's not the way you're supposed to do it."

Well, she's not in the car with me, but she's in the car with me. Come on, man. Where y'all at? Right. And so I and I'm thinking, "It's it's going to turn green. She's not going to see it." And then Tammy's voice, "Don't hung. Don't honk. So when it turned green, I just went beep.

That's cuz that's the Christian approved version of honking. You can do that. It's in the Bible somewhere. I know it is. It's like and and and she went and we missed the light. Okay. We we missed the light. When I just share this message with you, you you got the version because that's what guest speakers have to do.

I can't be I can't be too direct with you. How rude is that? I wanted in my heart I I I was hearing this in my head while I was talking. Come on, go. But that's too rude. And so I'm not going to tell you what I was thinking.

But but I'll tell you what it was in case you were wondering what it was, but I'm not going to tell you. Like seriously, he went to the lengths of dying, slaughtered, literally, and and loves you so much. He so loves you that he did that and we don't have 15 minutes every morning. >> He lo He wants to know you that badly, but that's way too strong.

And so I won't say that. Um and really you're going to stay another year addicted, wounded, broken, not the best version of your seriously, you just going to Here I am. I'm just going to settle. Why would you do that? But that's too strong. So, I won't say that either.

Um, and really, you don't want to live on mission. You don't want to have that sense of I know what my life's all about. I'm going to be the hands and feet of Jesus everywhere I go, and I'm going to make a difference in this world. Really, I will tell you this, the light's green.

And if you want to go, you can. And it'll change your life forever. And all of Gateway said are good. >> Amen. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's bow for prayer. Thank you. You're very kind. Thank you. Bow. Let's bow our heads for prayer just for a moment. If you're here today and and you're not close to Jesus, maybe you're a Christian and you've walked away.

Maybe you just know you're not fully surrendered to him. Before I leave the stage, I'm just going to pray for you right there where you're seated. I'm not going to have you stand up. Not going to call you to the front. But if you say, "I I need Jesus.

I'm ready to surrender like Tanya did. I'm ready to surrender. I'm ready to give him my all. He gave his all. I want to give him my all. No one's looking around. It's just you and me. And heaven is watching right now. You say, "I'm I'm ready to make that decision today."

For the first time or again, put your hand up as high as you can. Put it right back down. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. All over this room. Thank you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Anybody else? Way at the top. Very, very top. God bless you.

Very, very top. This way. God bless you. Thank you. So awesome. If you just lifted your hand or if you didn't, you want to pray this prayer. Here it is. Say, "Jesus, forgive me for living my life my way today. I surrender everything. You gave your all. I give my all.

Be the Lord of my life." Now say this. I believe you really are the son of God. You rose from the dead and today I commit my life to you. In your name I pray. Amen. How about a hand clap for everybody who just prayed that prayer. God bless you, church.