“Grow Up” by Pastor Chris Hodges

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

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 uh honored to have you.

How great was last weekend.

How many of you are here for Easter?

You made it for Easter.

Powerful weekend across the entire life of the church.

And I gotta 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'd say 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 gonna keep going up from there, right?

Everybody's just gonna 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 gonna 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 uh, we have everything taken care of for you.

Um, 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.

We're gonna be talking about it until 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 gonna be talking about that.

And today we're kicking it off, and my pastor is in the house, everybody.

How many of you know every pastor needs a pastor?

And uh Pastor Chris Hodges 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 gotta 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 harvest for labors.

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, uh my my my dad passed away, who was my pastor my whole life, and just prayer voice, 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 gonna 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 two, 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 uh so I'm honored to have him this weekend.

I'm blessed that you would stand to your feet and show him some love on my behalf.

Put your hands together and welcome Pastor Chris Hodges.

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?

Anyone?

Yeah, me too.

I love church.

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 um Baptist in those first 15 years 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'd look 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, man, you're going to hell.

And he boys pointed at me, you know.

So anyway, when I was seven, I walked the aisle and uh signed the clipboard.

Y'all know the drill, right?

And in front of the communion table, the choir singing just as I am.

And um, I prayed the prayer he told me to pray, and uh, and then they vote you in because 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.

Isn't that right, everybody?

And had a guy once say, 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, man, 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, grandparents, and they always scream and make noises like that.

And it's because 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 let them live just a little longer, okay?

So, but I'm at my uh I have of my five children, one of those lives in Dallas.

My son David and his and my daughter-in-law Isabel, 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, love you, sir.

All 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 didn't 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.

And I mean, if it's 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 uh step out in our faith?

And how do 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 shepherding 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 I 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 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 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 especially important if you're gonna 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 I'm a Cajun 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 gonna have a good time.

Come on, everybody, right?

And so 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 gonna 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 God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey.

He said, I want you to sit around, do monkey tricks, entertain the grandchildren, you know, entertain the people, make people laugh.

And for this, I'm gonna 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 ten, and God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow, and he said, You're gonna go out in the field with the farmer all day long.

You're gonna suffer under the sun, you're gonna have calves, you're gonna produce milk for the farmer's family, and for this, I'm gonna 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 gonna 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 this makes 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.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

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 the 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 what I think is our goal today in this growth series, in this series where we're looking at our faith between Sundays, 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.

I just want you to have that in your 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 gonna stop, but you don't have to be tossed.

And if you're kind of tired of being tossed, um, the the secret is it's 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 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 gonna get to here.

I'm gonna continually be transformed.

One verse in 2 Corinthians says that we are transformed into his likeness with an ever-increasing glory.

The King James says, from glory to glory.

In other words, it's it's 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 gonna 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'm gonna 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'm gonna 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 gonna throw you around so much.

You're not gonna be tossed around, you're actually gonna become mature.

And I would even say you're gonna 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 help you with that.

I'm gonna give you three things, just 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 gonna 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 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, verse 17, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation.

Ephesians 1:17

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 gonosco.

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.

Genosco literally means be intimately close with God.

In fact, one place the word gonosco 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 genosco 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 you around a lot, the first step in 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 nothing, 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 knew 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 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 gonna do next.

They were gonna bring me to a little room, and I ain't going to a 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 gonna find out for myself.

Thank God the Baptist did teach me the Bible.

And I opened 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 gonna enter the kingdom of heaven.

I thought, well, that's a problem.

You know, like 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 gonna 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 then they'll say that 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 you, and he uses that word, gonosco, that God was never looking for your religion, he was always looking for a 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, he says, 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 Stockstill 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 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 uh, and I wanna I want to control who gets who sits next to me.

So anyway, so I was sizing up the waiting area and noticing that it wasn't really full.

I thought, all right, this is not gonna be a packed flight.

So I told Tammy, you get the window, I'm gonna get the aisle, and we're gonna 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 jet way.

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 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 gonna sit right there in the middle.

I could no.

And I picked up and I moved over to the middle, and she plopped 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 gonna 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'd 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 wasn't, 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's your first step, yeah, come on, everybody, right?

By the way, when we got off the plane, um she's 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.

I said, if you'll watch this Sunday, 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, Oh yes, I will.

And so and so Sunday came around and I shouted her out, and I changed my whole message to to talk to Tanya, really.

Uh uh knowing she was hopefully knowing she was watching.

And sure enough, I got an email on Monday from my assistant that said, This lady named Tanya, did you meet somebody on a southwest flight?

I said, Yeah.

And it said, Dear passenger Chris.

And she said, I let watch this, I let Christians in church keep me from God.

She goes, then 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.

Isn't that fun?

Sorry.

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's you want to step?

That's your step.

That's why if you've not been water baptized since you became a believer, I'm not talking about your christening or your dedication as a child.

Those are beautiful and it doesn't undo that.

But if you've never been water baptized, it's the first thing Jesus asks us to do.

That's what surrender means.

Yeah, but my hair's gonna get wet.

I gotta go to lunch today.

Jesus died on a cross for heaven's sakes.

Your hair can be a little wet.

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 gonna 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've I've written a book that's coming out on Tuesday.

I'm not I'm not promoting the book.

Um this past summer 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 wanted to just leave some things.

I'm not dying, but I but 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 give these to everybody, you know.

And I I got to about chapter 17.

There's 31 little little essays, little principles, and 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.

Time of the principles I've I've learned, lived, and leave behind.

And the very first one is the big rocks principle.

That all's 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 gonna be perfect, I'm just gonna tell you it's gonna be anchored, it's gonna be stronger, and you're gonna have a closest with God that He so desires in all of Gateway.

He said a good amen.

So we want to get to know him.

Second thing 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 gonna 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 and just like this.

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 us, all of us, myself included.

Now we know that if you have an issue, and you do, that if we confess, 1 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 it, 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 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, it's making you nervous right now.

Because you think they're gonna go, oh my god, no.

Watch this, and they're not.

C.S.

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.

It's gonna 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 gonna happen is you're gonna start seeing more of tomorrow 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 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 the world.

You say, well, that's Pastor Daniel's job.

He's the minister around here.

That's not what the Bible says.

The Bible says in 1 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 in 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 give 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 gonna live my life.

If I have it and you need it, here it is.

That I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go on assignment.

When you go out to eat today, you're on an assignment to bless those that serve you.

I mean, I don't do this as much as I actually need to, but I was with the family once at our favorite restaurant in Birmingham, P.

F.

Chanks.

They call it Chanks, everybody, right?

And and y'all know it's family style, and they're ordering like crazy.

I'm doing 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 they had she had too many tables.

They looked understaffed, and 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 have, you know, think of us last.

Just go ahead and take every other table.

And she walked away.

I thought, who are you?

What did you like?

So she came back around and she was more attentive and just, 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 up.

And I 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 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 honking tip.

For you more sophisticated Dallas people, that's a very generous cotility.

Okay, so that's what that is, right?

But I I left her the amount of the bill, so much so because that'll look like a mistake.

So she came back, she goes, Oh, Mr.

Hodges, 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, because I'm on assignment today by the Heavenly Father to let you know you're loved and appreciated 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 hoped to think it was uh it was like a godly pride.

So 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 touch, you know, 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'm 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 live.

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 wanna, I don't, I don't live for myself.

I don't go to church for myself.

I'm gonna worship one, I'm gonna serve one.

And finally, I'm gonna 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 gonna close this way.

All right, my job was to make sure you understood that.

That your your 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 I'm gonna tell you this quick story.

Every day when I leave my the office, I go down the busy 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 because I met 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 you gotta 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 rear view mirror and the side mirror, this looked like a young girl saw long hair and I saw the thumbs just go.

And she took the occasion that was a red light to it look do stuff, you know.

But I was like, she's gonna, it's gonna turn green, she's not gonna see it.

Well, I'm a honker.

Okay?

I'm I'm a proud.

My wife Tammy hates that.

Even when she drives, I reach over, huh?

Like, she slaps my hand.

She slaps my hand and says, Stop! They probably go to our church.

Like, good.

I'm their pastor and they learned something.

You know, that's what 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 gonna turn green, she's not gonna see it.

And then Tammy's voice, don't honk, don't honk.

So when it turned green, I just went, beep beep.

That's because 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 beep beep, beep beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.

And and and she went, uh, and we miss the light.

Okay.

We missed the light.

When I just share this message with you, you you got the beep beep 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 was hearing this in my head while I was talking.

Oh, come on, go, go, but that's too rude.

And so I'm not gonna 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 gonna 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 loves he wants to know you that badly, but that's way too strong, and so I won't say that.

Um really, you're gonna stay another year addicted, wounded, broken, not the best version of your seriously?

You're just gonna here I am, I'm just gonna settle.

Why would you do that?

But that's too strong.

So I won't say that either.

Okay.

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 gonna be the hands and feet of Jesus everywhere I go, and I'm gonna make a difference in this world.

Really?

But 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 a good amen.

Let's pray.

Let's pray.

Let's bow for prayer.

Thank you.

You're very kind, thank you.

Bow your 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 gonna pray for you right there where you're seated.

I'm not gonna have you stand up, not gonna 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 and 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.

Anyone else?

We 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?

How about you, church?

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.