Lord Give Us an Eternal Focus

We are in the One Prayer series.

There are 1,356 churches globally doing the exact same thing right now.

1,356 churches that are all participating in one prayer.

And I just think, you know, as a God who has a bunch of kids on the planet, you know it blesses him to see his kids kind of getting along and doing the same thing.

And so I believe it fulfills the one prayer that Jesus had, and that is that they might be one.

And today, in some small way, uh, there are about 1,300 churches fulfilling Jesus' prayer today, and I know it honors him.

Today I've been asked to share my one prayer.

It's very simple for me to come up with what that would be.

Um, and today I want to share with you a prayer that actually is a spiritual discipline that you need during tough times.

Now I'm personally going through a very difficult time right now.

In fact, I wasn't even sure if I was gonna be able to be here because we've been told, I was told two weeks ago that my dad had two weeks to live.

Uh he's he's standing strong and we're still trusting the Lord.

And and I even called uh Pastor Robert and I said, Man, I don't even know if I'm gonna be able to be there, and and I'll still try to come if you know if if if things are going well at the house and my dad's doing well, and and uh but we're just standing through that.

And any of you have ever walked through something like that, it's pretty difficult.

It's um, you know, you have to you deal with a lot of things.

You deal with your emotions, and you're dealing with your family, and you're dealing with, you know, watching him, he's been battling cancer for about two and a half years now, and just to watch that process, and then you're trusting the Lord, and then you know what you believe about the scriptures, and you man, you you can start even questioning your theology and your faith, and what am I doing, and what's going on here, and it just honestly, very honestly, it can get a bit confusing from time to time.

And I think all of us are gonna face difficult times from time to time.

In fact, the Bible says that there will be terrible times in the last days.

You're gonna have it's gonna be a rough ride.

Jesus even gave it to you as a promise that in this world you're gonna have trouble.

Nobody writes that out and puts it on the refrigerator.

That's my verse right there.

I just love that verse.

That's my verse.

No, you know, we hate that verse, right?

And we think, we even think that that really God obligated himself to make sure we never have trouble.

It's not true.

In fact, he promised you will.

His promise was that in the middle of trouble, take heart, I've overcome the world.

He never said you were gonna have trouble, you were you I'd keep you from trouble.

He always promised that in the middle of it, you rise above it.

And there are some secrets to rising above your trouble.

And today that's gonna be my prayer because I'm in the middle of some trouble.

I have a, as we cajun say, I have a sick heart, the malakur.

I have a little, you know, just my heart hurts a little bit for my dad, and just watching what he's going through.

And and uh so today I want to share with you my um my one prayer.

To do that, I'm gonna we're gonna examine the scriptures and in and in gateway fashion, we're gonna look at two passages of scripture, all right?

So turn your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 2, Ecclesiastes chapter 2, and then I want you to put that marker that Pastor Robert always talks about in uh I want you to turn there to um to where are we going next?

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians 4.

Ecclesiastes 2 and 2 Corinthians 4.

All right?

And Father, I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that you would touch someone today, especially those who are hurting and who have a sick heart.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

And in Ecclesiastes chapter 2, we're gonna start in verse 10.

Ecclesiastes 2 · chapter mention

Uh, we're gonna look at a guy that you know real well.

He wrote most of the Proverbs, a guy named Solomon, King David's son.

The reason why I want to point his life out today is Solomon had it all.

If Solomon would have been alive today, he'd be living in South Lake, Texas.

Can I tell you, all right?

He had it all.

He's living in a great place.

He's wise, smart, had everything he could possibly want.

He had lots of money.

Just a great guy, great guy.

But life wasn't working out so well.

And the reason why I want to point out his life is because a lot of times we think that if we get a lot of stuff or if we get things to work out here on earth, then everything's gonna go well.

And can I tell you, everything can be great on earth, and you can still be sick on the inside.

You can still have things not going so well.

And he said in verse 10, he said, I denied myself nothing my eyes desired.

In other words, he had money and knew how to spend it.

I refused my heart no pleasure.

My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor, that when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was key word here, meaningless.

I have it, but it doesn't have any real meaning.

It's meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Nothing was gained.

Another key phrase here, under the sun.

Now I want to submit to you that the reason why Solomon could have it all and still be incredibly miserable was all he had was the stuff under the sun.

He was focused on the things under the sun.

Just follow that for a moment.

Go to verse 12.

So he says, Well, money and possessions didn't work, so let me turn my thoughts to consider wisdom.

Maybe if I'll go get smart, maybe if I get another degree, maybe if I go up the food chain here in the professional world, if I can just get smarter, wiser, more powerful, maybe that'll be it.

He says, and I found out that's just a bunch of madness and folly, too.

He says, What more can the king's successor do than what's already been done?

In other words, I tried to go there and figured out, guess what?

Somebody had already done it before I got there.

He said, I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness.

But the wise man has eyes in his head while the fool walks around in darkness, but I came to realize that they actually end up in the same place.

The same fate overtakes them.

In other words, the dummy and the smart guy still can go to heaven or hell.

It didn't really get me that meaning that I was looking for.

And he said in verse 15, I thought in my heart, well, the fate of the fool will overtake me also.

And what then do I gain by being wise?

I guess that didn't work.

I said in my heart, this too is key word, meaningless.

Verse 16, for the wise man, like the fool, will not be long remembered.

And in days to come, both will be forgotten.

And that's true.

That's very true.

Like the fool, the wise man too must die.

And here's the key phrase I want to focus on, and I'm actually dedicating this message to anyone who would say this next phrase in verse 17 So I hated life.

I just don't like life.

You know what I've learned?

I've been doing ministry about 27 years now.

You know what I've learned about people who don't like life?

They're good at faking it.

There could be someone on your row who's smiling, looking like they got it going on, and could be hating life.

In fact, you can even hate life and have everything right on paper.

That would have been Solomon, and I think it's a bunch of us here in America.

We've got the stuff we want, we've got the brains we want, we've got the influence we want, we're doing all these things, but I'm still miserable on the inside.

There's no meaning attached to it, and I'm starting to hate life.

Chapter 1 of Ecclesiastes, he actually outlines some of the symptoms, and I just want to read them to you very quickly.

You guys that like to take extra notes, jot some of these little phrases down because there's a couple of symptoms that'll help you point out whether you're there or not.

And the first thing he said, look at it with me in uh verse two of chapter one, he said, this is out of the good news.

I love it the way it says it.

It says, Life is useless, all useless.

You spend your life working, but what do you have to show for it?

The world just stays the same.

That would be the first symptom, if you like taking notes, is life will seem useless.

In other words, you're doing things with the hope that it matters, and then you get there and it doesn't.

Or check it out, you have an expectation of the way things ought to be.

When you got there, it was disappointing.

It was there was a missed appointment, a disappointment.

It's useless.

Come on, parents, you know what I'm talking about.

You feel that way sometimes.

You do some things for your kids and you think, useless.

That's useless.

I feel that way the most about two hours after all the Christmas presents are open.

Y'all know what I'm talking about right there?

Because in that worse, you're spending hundreds of dollars and lay upstairs playing in the box or something, you know, and yeah, yeah, I can get you a box a lot cheaper, you know, and you just look at them and or when they open a gift, or they you know, they open up a gift and then they go and they just kind of put it down and what's next?

How many know there's that there's that that emotion?

Come on, parents, be honest.

This is church.

There's there's that emotion like thinking, I'm gonna kill you.

I'm gonna kill you right now.

Look, I've made five of you.

I can make another one, I can do that very easily.

I take you out.

I mean, you're there's you it feels it feels this past Christmas true story.

My son Joseph, my youngest son Joseph, he always asked, he every year for we want something remote control.

Something remote control.

That one remote control.

I said, all right, we'll get your remote control.

And so this year, I kind of got into the gift.

And I'm telling you, you're setting yourself up whenever you get into a gift like that.

You really are.

Because I went to the store and kind of several places, and I found this double blade helicoptered.

The salesman, I said, dude, if that thing is so bad, land it on my hand.

I just stuck my hand out there like this, and that guy, mmm, and he just landed it real softly right in my hand.

I said, How much I want it.

You know, I was playing with it.

I was, I was, I couldn't wait for him to open it so I could play with it.

Y'all know what I'm talking about.

All right.

So I've given it to Joseph, and I had this whole buildup of, oh, he's gonna love this, you know, kind of deal.

And and he did, by the way, so that that there was not a missed appointment there.

He really actually enjoyed the gift a whole lot.

So now we've got the whole deal of how to use it properly.

So I said, son, here's what you need to do.

Now we live in a cul-de-sac in our neighborhood, which means you know a big circle deal, you know.

So I said, go out, go out there, go out there in the middle of the cul-de-sac, middle of the uh right here, buddy, right here, cul-de-sac, middle of the cul-de-sac, and fly it there.

So if the wind catches it or if you steer it wrong, it doesn't end up in a tree or on the roof.

Yeah, third, daddy, yeah, third.

So he said, you know, so I said, say it back to me, say it back.

I'm gonna I'm not gonna fly it until I get out in the middle of the cul-de-sac.

That's what I'm gonna do.

I won't even touch it till I get yes, yes, that.

Do that.

And so, true story.

One leg in the house, one leg out on the front uh front door open, step out, I'm not like I mean, like his half his body's still in the house, and he's he's it's he's ready for it to fly, you know.

And sure enough, on the roof, I mean, seconds.

I heard.

I just told him to open the door, Daddy.

And you're smiling, it's Christmas, but you want to kill him.

You just do, you just want, and so I said, okay.

So I went down the garage, got a got a fishing pole with a lure.

I thought we could just barely pull it off, broke every blade on that bad boy, completely ruined, lasted three seconds.

Joseph is no longer with us, and uh so anyway, you just you just have that.

Yeah, come on, anybody, are you out there?

You just sometimes life feels that way.

It's just useless.

I'm working, I'm doing stuff, and nope.

All right, that's that's the first Solomon was there.

All right, here's here's the second thing.

Check it out.

It's in the next um, go to verse 4, chapter 1, verse 2.

He says, the sun rises, goes down, the wind blows round and round and back again, every river flows into the sea, the water returns right back where the river began, and then it all starts over again, and everything leads to second symptom, weariness.

First thing is useless.

Now we're at weariness.

In other words, I'm just tired.

Because it's just the same old, same old every single week of my life.

It's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, go to work, get up Saturday, Mother Grass, go to church Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Mother Grass, go to church, Monday, Tuesday, you know, just right, right.

Just it's this, this, this, it's this grind, it's this routine.

He says, Amen.

It's just everything just keeps going back around and round again, and just just I can't stand it.

I can't stand it.

And I and I'm getting tired.

There are some of you out there that are tired beyond what rest can give you.

And that's true.

Because check it out, real weariness does not come from working too hard.

Real burnout doesn't come from doing too much.

If you try to solve burnout by just stopping a little bit, it doesn't it doesn't fix it.

Because burnout doesn't come from doing too much, it comes from doing too much that doesn't matter.

And that's true.

When you're just in a grind or a routine that has no purpose or no meaning, it's gonna mess you up regardless of how many hours you do it.

Because all of us know that there are activities that actually will add life to you.

So it's not activity that wears you out because there's activities that can refresh you and refuel you.

We've got to get back to the meaning.

We're learning some things here about that.

Business week says we're living in the decade of weariness.

They came to that conclusion when they did a survey where they asked people what is the most common response to the question, hey man, how's it going?

Most common response, used to it'd be fine and you.

Now, today the response to, hey man, how are you doing is I'm just tired.

I'm just I'm I don't know, how you doing?

I'm just tired.

It's almost like it's cool to be tired or something.

I'm just tired, how about you?

I'm tired.

And they'd have declared that we are in the decade of weariness.

And I think again, it comes from we focus too much on the things under the sun.

I think earth has become our reality, and earth will mess you up if this is your hope.

Because I don't know if you noticed yet or not, but that's that that there's some troubles here.

There's oil slicks, terrorists, stock market crashes.

How many of y'all encouraged?

Aren't you glad I came today?

Praise God.

All right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right, we're we're gonna go somewhere with this, all right?

So that's where Solomon was.

I mean, I I'm just I'm miserable.

I'm I'm miserable.

I'm I'm tired, life seems useless.

The third thing he said was in verse 8, and it says, and no matter how much we see, we're never satisfied.

No matter how much we hear, we're not content.

History merely repeats itself.

The last thing is it will be unfulfilling.

You're gonna get feel useless, it's gonna feel weary, and then it's gonna feel unfulfilling.

I'm unfulfilled.

There's something missing.

I actually faced that about ten years ago.

Uh I was serving at a great church, and I had a great job, and everything on paper again would have been absolutely perfect, but on the inside, just something really missing.

And here's the conclusion I want to draw for you so you can see this.

Because the mistake that Solomon made was he was only focused on the things under the sun.

He says, Life became grievous, oppressive, I'm depressed because I'm just stuck on this stuff under the sun.

You gotta listen to this closely.

Here's the here's the here's the whole one prayer, and that is if earth is your only reality, and your only hope, God help you.

If you're really hoping that this all works out, and by the way, from time to time, God does work out things here on earth, He will give you life abundant, but this can't be your only hope and your only reality.

The people who live successfully pray this prayer.

Lord, keep my eyes focused on the eternal.

Give me eyes that see beyond this into something above this, more than just under the sun.

Give me this stuff over the sun.

Give me this stuff that that is beyond this life, this mist, this vapor.

And so, my one prayer, and boy, do I ever need it really right now.

When you watch someone who, again, I'm trusting the Lord for God to touch my dad and heal him, and but if he goes on to be with Jesus, you better have that hope.

And I wonder what people do that don't have the hope.

That's why Paul says, we we grieve when people die, isn't that right?

But we don't grieve like the rest of men who have no hope.

And what's that hope?

I'm gonna tell you that hope is the eternal.

The hope is what we're focused on.

Now, I want to contrast Solomon with a guy who did not have it going on.

I mean, this is a guy who had trouble left and right.

The apostle Paul, but he lived a rough life.

If you're not familiar with his rough life, he summarizes it in one little short portion of scripture in 2 Corinthians 11.

If you love guys that love to study more, go check out that list.

Five times he received the 39 lashes that Jesus received once, that nearly killed Jesus, let me point out.

Five times he was beaten with rods, he was shipwrecked, he was stoned.

And I'm talking about not like I'm talking about with rocks, you know, that, you know, I saw somebody out there going, at least he got a little relief.

No, man, no.

No, I'm talking like with the rocks.

I mean, like they almost nearly killed him dead, and and and he was snake-bit and spent a night and a day in the open sea, bobbing around the Mediterranean like a cork, you know, just 36 hours a whoa, man, where, you know, what's gonna get can you imagine?

And yet he has the ability to say, look in your Bible there, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, he has the ability to say this, and again, this is my one prayer for you today.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

It's got to become our goal that regardless of what goes on on this planet, therefore, verse 16, we do not lose heart.

Now, wouldn't you like to be able to say that regardless of what's happening in the stock market, regardless of what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico, regardless of what's going on in Afghanistan, regardless of what's going on with your daddy, you don't lose heart.

Well, I do, and that's my prayer.

I want to be in the middle of trouble and still have an attitude and a focus on something bigger and better.

He said, even though he says we lose, we don't lose heart because even though outwardly we are wasting away.

Boy, isn't that the truth?

He says, yet inwardly we're being renewed day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles.

Now time out just a second.

That's not true.

His troubles were neither light nor more momentary.

They were they were hard and lasting a long time.

But yet he said that because that's the way it felt when you have this prayer.

They feel light and momentary.

These light and momentary troubles are achieving for us in eternal glory.

Check it out.

This is key that outweighs them.

Can I give you a great little theory of life here?

And that is, people have problems.

You got problems?

I got problems.

Oh, God's children got problems.

If you don't have a problem, if you don't think you have a problem, guess what?

That's your problem.

You got problems.

We got we all have problems, right?

Here's the deal.

If you try to go through life just trying to solve your problems, you're gonna be a miserable person.

Because guess what?

You might solve them, you might not, and if you do, another one's gonna pop up.

But Paul gives us a secret here.

He says, the secret to problems isn't to solve your problem, the secret is to have something in your life bigger than your problems.

Don't try to solve the problem, outweigh the problem.

Have something bigger and better that makes that problem seem smaller.

Yeah, it's a true secret to life.

He says, He says, I found some that outweighs them, and then here's the prayer, here's my prayer for you.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, that's earth stuff, but what is unseen, that's eternal stuff, heavenly stuff.

Because what is seen is temporary, and what is unseen is, say the word out loud, what is unseen is eternal.

And that's my prayer for you, Lord.

Give us an eternal focus that we walk through the troubles of life and we go through whatever you're going through.

Maybe it's your marriage, your kids, your finances, your your emotions.

Maybe you have sickness and problems and whatever it might be today.

You've got pressures and stuff.

And can I tell you the prayer that we need to pray is, Lord, give us an eternal focus.

Give us a focus on the things that actually matter, the bigger, better, greater things of life.

So here's what I want to do.

I want to give you, because I love practical Christianity.

I don't like just getting motivated and saying, okay, now what?

Let me give you four action steps you can walk out of these doors today and actually begin to do that,'ll keep you more eternally minded than earthly minded.

Four little action steps.

They're very simple, they're very powerful, and I'll give you some illustrations of how you can actually use them.

Here's the first way.

If you want to become more eternally focused so that the stuff on earth seems smaller than it really actually feels right now, here's the first thing to do.

That is pray.

Pray.

Well, of course.

So Chris, I didn't need you to write down that one.

Well, let me let me help maybe redefine prayer for you just a bit, because I think most people think prayer is that time where you dump stuff on God or you tell him how he needs to be doing things here on his earth.

Like God was thinking, well, I never thought of that.

That's good stuff.

Let me write that down.

No, he's not doing that.

He's not doing that.

Let me give you a great definition for prayer.

Prayer is the process where heaven becomes your reality.

Prayer is a process.

I don't know about you, but I go in the place of prayer, I'm loaded down, I'm mad, I'm confused, I'm hurting, I'm whatever.

And through the process of spending time with God, it all flip flops.

The problems of life that seem so big and the God that seems so small, they just reverse places, which by the The way the easiest way to pray is to worship.

Really, worship is the process where you come in and it's like the load is lifted because you get a different reality.

Again, I would say to you, if earth is your only reality, God help you.

But when eternal things become your reality, when you realign your mind and your heart to the things of God, which is what the process of prayer is really all about.

It's why, by the way.

Check it out now.

All of us love to read the Psalms, right?

And if you ever read the Psalms, notice with me how different the first few verses are from the last verses.

He starts them off.

David starts off, where are you?

God, I'm mad, I'm upset, and my enemies are everywhere.

And get them, God.

And he doesn't even say things like, Annihilate my enemies.

May the flies of a thousand camels find their armpits.

You know, he's just mad.

He's mad.

He just wants, but you read the last few verses, they're strikingly different than the first few verses.

Check it out with me.

I just not many people have really noticed that.

There's some it's it's but God, I put my hope in you.

But God, I he just changes his attitude.

What happened?

Process.

It was the process of worship, the process of prayer, and that's why you and I need it.

Here's how Colossians says it.

Colossians says in chapter 3, verse 1, it says, Since you've been raised with Christ.

See, we always want God to come down.

God wants us to come up.

I don't care what y'all say.

That was good.

That deserved at least one amen.

I don't.

I just thought it was.

Anyway, so since you've been raised with Christ, is what we need to be.

He says, set your heart on things above.

Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.

That's prayer.

When we got the news about my dad, I'm gonna be very honest with you, it felt like a punch.

I physically felt this punch in my gut.

I actually felt pain in my stomach.

It was awful.

He's my hero.

He's genuinely my hero.

I love him with all my heart, and we've been so close for so many years, and we've done ministry together.

He's a phenomenal man of God.

It was like a kick in the gut.

And I had appointments that day.

I was actually at the office, and um, I told my assistant, I said, back everything up 30 minutes.

I need some I need some alone time.

And I went to my office and I just turned on some worship.

I didn't even pray that much, to be honest with you.

I didn't even sing that much, I even listened to it more than I even sang it.

But I just paced and worshiped and thought about God.

I'm gonna tell you, it didn't even take 30 minutes before my reality changed.

And there are some of you here today that need to do that.

Here's the second thing.

This one will surprise you.

And that is if you want more of an eternal focus, serve.

Serve.

I am convinced that there are a bunch of us who are earthly minded because we keep focusing on earthly stuff.

But if you like to even get involved in something, can I tell you, my wife and I have led small groups at our church since the church began.

And inevitably, you know, if you've ever done ministry, you'll find out the devil will come and attack you and get your wife.

And you know, people are coming over in an hour, and you start, something comes up between Tammy and I, you know, and there's just nothing worse than, you know.

But if we didn't have the small group coming over, we'd probably still be fighting right now.

You know what I'm saying?

But the fact that people are coming over, we had to work it out.

Can I tell you how many problems we've solved on Saturday night?

Because I got to preach the next day.

Like, honey, we've got to be friends because I just can't get up there like this, you know, and check it out.

Some of you don't have that.

You don't have a reason to work out your stuff.

And that's why I'm challenging the church.

I'm calling all of you who call Gateway Home, serve.

Lead a small group for heaven's sakes.

Get on a camera, play some drums, sing, pass out a bullet, then park a car.

Do something.

Just do something.

Do something.

And what here's what you're gonna realize is that you're gonna be doing something that's a collective part of making a difference.

When a person runs a camera or when they do whatever they do, or hold a baby, or whatever you do around here, you know, when you spend time with the kids and children's church, whatever you do, you're a collective part of lives being changed.

And watch how different your church experience will be when you have that kind of focus.

It's true.

And that's why Jesus said in John chapter 6, do not work for food that spoils.

John 6 · chapter mention

I want to tell you, that's our Monday through Friday.

He says, but work for things that endure to eternal life.

Find something that you're doing that matters.

I'm telling you.

I'm telling you, it's a true key, it's a true secret.

Here's the third one.

I really don't even need to teach this one much here at Gateway because you are the model for it, and that is give.

Give.

And I'm not talking about tithing, tithe is the Lord's.

That's that's you're not even giving when you tithe.

That belongs to Him.

I'm talking about just living this life of generosity.

And I'm not even talking about necessarily money.

I'm just talking about living a life that thinks, what could I do with the stuff I have to make a difference in that person for eternal life?

What could I do?

We have these little cards at our church that we we call them random acts of kindness cards.

They're looking business-sized cards, and we give them out by the tens of thousands to our people.

They take stacks of them.

They simply say, a little something extra to show you God loves you.

And we just say, do nice stuff for people.

Pay for their coffee in a Starbucks line, hand it to the cashier, tell them it's paid for, and give them the little card.

And just do stuff.

Just be nice, serve, give, do stuff for people, and watch how different your day will be.

And the other day we had a lady who actually gave a card.

She had gone to um Schlotsky's to get a little deli sandwich.

She's in the drive-thru line.

She decided to pay for the lady behind her, gave the card, said, Would you mind giving this to her and tell her it's paid for?

Well, that lady called our church.

She says, I was going home to commit suicide.

That was good.

For whatever reason, Schlotsky's was going to be her final meal.

I don't know why.

But anyway, I know.

I think I can think of a better one.

I mean, game baby.

True luxe.

Let's eat.

You know.

Anyway, so.

But but she said, she says, but that card reminded me, she goes, I'm telling you, it saved my life.

Now, how many of you know that lady's life was worth 10 bucks?

That's right.

And I'm just talking about living your life in such a way.

Now, I announced that in the church, and I still don't know which person in our church gave it, but I hope they heard it.

And I promise you, that person's thinking, that's how you spend 10 bucks.

You save somebody's life.

I'm telling you, church, we've got to live with this eternal perspective, and it changes everything.

I'm gonna tell you that day, that lady's who gave the card and the money, that day, that lady's problems became very small.

Here's the last one.

And that is share Christ.

Share Christ.

I'm finding there's people, Christians all over that have kind of stopped doing this.

And we need to look for opportunities, remind people of the hope of heaven.

I was on a Southwest Airlines flight about four weeks ago, flying from New Orleans back to Birmingham, and I wasn't gonna talk.

I'm not much of a talker on the plane.

I usually sleep, you know, but this lady next to me just did the oh, hey, what do you do for a living?

I said, Well, I'm a pastor.

She goes, Well, duh.

We're all passengers.

I said, No.

I said, a pastor.

You know, she had she'd been having a few.

Anyway, so uh, and so she goes, eh, I know, you know, so anyway, we so we talked, and she goes, Well, I don't like Christians.

And I said, Well, me neither.

Because I knew what she was talking about.

I knew the Christian she'd been hanging out with probably to make a statement like that.

I said, Boy, girl, you and me both.

She goes, What do you mean?

You know, I thought you were a pastor.

I said, Well, I said, I know what you're talking about.

And I began to explain to her how Jesus didn't really want her to go to church a bunch.

And she even asked me, is drinking wrong?

I said, Well, you know what?

That's not the most important thing right now, actually.

God just wants a relationship with you.

He'll get all that stuff after you figure that out first.

He just wants He just loves you.

She goes, Well, I've never heard that before.

I said, Well, it's in the Bible.

And from New Orleans to Birmingham, I shared Christ with her and didn't lead her to the Lord that day, but I said, Hey, Tanya, if you'll watch our service, because it was on a Saturday, I said, tomorrow our services are live online.

Just watch and I'll give you a shout-out if you will.

She goes, Okay.

So I did.

I got there, I said, hello everybody, welcome to Church of the Highlands Day.

I want to say hello to our campuses, and I'm gonna give a special shout out to Tanya, who I met on the Southwest Airlines flight yesterday.

Girl, I told you I'd do it.

God bless you.

This message is for you today.

Well, I got an email three days later.

It said, Dear passenger Chris.

She said it was nice meeting you on flight 35 this week.

I'm currently watching your webcast.

Thanks for the shout-out.

Been thinking about a lot of what you said on the plane specifically about making my relationship with God personal.

It touched me.

And I realize that what I've been thinking about Christians is actually ridiculous.

No one's explained it to me that way.

Thank you so much.

And thanks for the personal message today and explaining to me what a relationship with God is all about.

I can see why your church has grown and you have such a irrelevant teaching style.

I think you've got a new online watcher for some time in me.

Thanks again, and I'm ready to surrender to Christ.

Tanya.

Yeah.

And that day my problems were small.

Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray for the church gateway, that you would give them eyes, a focus on the eternal.

There are those here today who are struggling, hurting, tired, weary.

Life seems useless, unfulfilled.

God, I pray today that like the Apostle Paul, that we would see the stuff that we go through, Lord.

And God, you'd help us.

Give us an eternal focus, I pray, God.

Give us eyes that see the eternal, something that outweighs it.

Now, with every head bowed, every eye closed, those of you that hearkens, just give me 60 seconds.

If you're here today, you say, Chris, like Tanya, I do not have a personal relationship with Jesus, or I have had one, but I have walked away from God, and I can tell you right now, I'm not sure where my relationship with God is.

He seems a million miles away, and I want to know him today.

I'm not gonna have you stand up, I'm not gonna have you come to the front.

I simply want to pray for you.

But you're ready to make a decision to follow Christ today.

I want you to put your hand up real high till I see it, put it right back down, Chris.

Pray for me.

Pray for me.

Yes.

Anybody else, just pray for me?

Yes, yes.

Anyone else, pray for me?

I just I want that.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

Just no one looking around.

You want that prayer?

Way over here on the side.

God bless you.

Back here, back here.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

It's a decision I'm making today.

I want to know God.

Thank you back there in the back, sir.

Over here.

God bless you.

Anybody else?

It's a decision I'm making.

Thank you, right here.

God bless you.

Thank you.

God seize your hand, your heart.

I want you to pray this prayer with me.

Any person in this room can join us.

Say, God, I love you.

I need you.

Today I give you my life.

Forgive me for going my own way, doing my own thing.

Come live inside of me and change me.

Today, I make you the Lord of my life.

Forgive me.

Today, I give you my life, my all.

In your name I pray.

God, I thank you for this great church.

Bless them today with an eternal focus.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Would you give the Lord a hand clap of praise?