Difference Maker Day

- Well, hey, everybody. Welcome to Difference Maker Day 2021. Hey, Difference Maker Day is like my birthday and my anniversary and everything I love throughout the year all rolled into one because today what we're gonna do is we're gonna brag, not on us, all right? We don't ever wanna brag on us, but we're gonna brag on what God has done. And in some cases, we're gonna look back from the beginning of 25 years and see where we are today. So we're just gonna have a good time bragging and praising God on all God is doing in and through our church. Hey, I'll welcome everybody here. I welcome you guys in Bluefield and Marion and Bristol. We're so grateful for you, and we're grateful for all of you that are joining us online today and on TV, YouTube, Facebook, wherever you are, we're gonna give away some things and you get some things, even if you're online and if you're in person. Hey, don't forget, pick up your t-shirt today. It's an incredible t-shirt. It's all about Highlands is home, and we want Highlands to be home for you. Now here's the deal. If you're gonna get one, you gotta promise to wear it, right? I mean, don't put it in your chest of drawers or something like that. We want you to wear these, wear 'em out to family reunions and Christmas gatherings and Thanksgiving dinners because we want you to be proud of the church of whom God has called you to be a part of. Get your t-shirt; it's gonna be a fun day. So I hope that you're thriving today. We just spent seven weeks on how to personally thrive in our Christian life. And today I wanna build on that, and I wanna talk to you today about how we believe God wants our church to thrive. You know, to be a part of Highlands is to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We're a church that not only wants to be embraced within our community, but guys, we wanna change the world. And to do that, it takes all of us to be on the team. So I wanna give you a key scripture. Here's our scripture today that we're gonna look at that we've seen God do. It's out of Ephesians 3. Look with me in verse 20. This is what Paul says: "Now, all glory to God who is able "through his mighty power at work within us." Okay, that's us. And then what will God do? He will accomplish infinitely more and He has than we might ask or think. We're gonna give Him all the glory in the church and Jesus Christ far generations, forever and ever. So for those of you that might be new, I wanted to especially bring you up to date because over the pandemic, we've gotta lot of new folks who watch us on TV and online. We gotta lotta new people in person, and you know, the truth is, you probably don't know a lot about Highlands. Well, lemme give you our mission. So one of the things that doesn't change, it's founded on the great commandment and the great commission where Jesus says, "Love God, love others," and then He says, "Go into all the world and share the gospel," right? So here is the mission that is founded on those two things. It is this, we believe at Highlands we are to embrace all people so that they can experience life with Jesus because at the core of our being, we believe when you experience life with Jesus, life is gonna be so, so much better. That's our mission. Well, what about a vision? Well, God gave us a vision. Now the mission really doesn't change, right? Jesus gives us that, but our vision does change. And about three years ago, after a lotta prayer and some fasting and just going before God day after day, we asked God, "What do you want our church? "What are you on us to go after so we can be clear?" And God gave us a vision that we've been in the process of fulfilling now. Today makes our 3rd year anniversary on this. And let's look at this vision. This is what it says, that we're gonna join God to make a difference in our community and our world. That's our vision. And we felt like, well, that's an awesome vision statement. How are we gonna know if we're doing it or not? So we came up with some initiatives so that we could be all clear on the same page of where we're headed. And late in 2018, when we unveiled this to you, these were our initiatives. Here they are. We're gonna serve 30,000 people in our local communities. All right, around all of our Highland's locations, we're gonna go serve people. And then we're gonna connect 3,000, just ones. These would be new people to our church. We're gonna train 300 global pastors because we believe God has called us to do this around the world. And then we felt like, hey, we're gonna strengthen the church at home, and we're gonna develop 30 ministerial leaders and how we did that was crazy. But we actually opened up a college and formed a partnership with Bluefield College. And it's incredible what God's doing in that partnership, where ministerial leaders could get accredited education at a very low, low value. And it's been awesome to see students come through our college. And I would just say, "Hey, if you wanna do this, it's not too late." You can sign up in January and join HF College and enhance your ministerial skills. And then we believe that God was wanting us to consider opening up new opportunities, new locations, new sites, new partnerships, somewhere in the region and around the world. So as we think about those initiatives, I just wanna pause and say, the reason that I love our church so much, that I'm a fan of our church is because when you heard this vision, you guys, you have a desire to do something, you know? You are so much more than talk and we cast this vision to you, and all of a sudden, you guys, when I challenged you, you know what you did? You stepped up and you started fulfilling the vision. It was amazing, to move out, and you got out of your consumer seats. You didn't just wanna hear about it. You wanted to get involved. That's what we wanted you to do, and you joined the team. And together, we have moved out all over the world on this assignment from God. You guys joined us in prayer, you know? You joined us by believing that this was what God wanted for our church. You gave countless hours and hours of your time. And you know what else you did? You invested resources. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars of resources have gone into fulfilling this vision. So let's give an update, you know? Have we actually made a difference in our communities? Let's hit that one first. Well, data is our friend, right? For all of you visual, folks, data is our friend. Let's look at what God's done. When we thought we were gonna try to serve 30,000 in three years or in five years, look what God's done. We have served already today. This is a fresh number, 82,320 people. I mean, guys, He just blew this one out of the water, right? It was incredible. And we don't count these numbers. These are individual people that one of you here at Highlands that you've served. We didn't go spread mulch at a school and count 400 people. No, if we did that, we counted those who had spread mulch at the school, you know, the environment team, whatever, but these are true, real numbers. It's just crazy to me when we thought about connecting 3,000 and you know, all of us know we've been in a pandemic. So we don't know exactly how many we've connected on TV and online and such, but we know that we have connected 2,377 new people to our church in these last three years. We have now trained well over 300. We're at 384 global pastors. We are developing right now in HF College, 15 regional leaders and we're so excited. Cameron Lee's doing an awesome job leading our college for us, and we're right and the precipice of possibly having a master's degree that we can offer to our students. Gonna be crazy. And then we have launched four new venues, campuses you might say, our partnerships. And what are those? Well, when we had this vision, we didn't dream, I sure didn't, and you probably didn't either, that our first new location would be in Lahore, Pakistan of all places, but Hosea Fellowship has opened. And then they recently, just this past September, opened another campus in Islamabad, and we're gonna hear a little bit about all that God's doing. We have a couple of strategic partnerships with a church that's so much like us over in Lebanon, Virginia called Gracewood Community Church, and also a church in Mountain City, Tennessee, where Daniel Thomas is. Many of you remember Daniel. He left and he's Executive Pastor there, but still in partnership with us called Community Church in Mountain City. And these churches have joined us in our mission effort to change the world. Now, the question, when we initiate vision and we celebrate numbers, the real thing is, has this resulted in any changed lives? I mean, that's the bottom line, right? If it doesn't result in changed lives, we are in the wrong business. So let's just look what God's done over the last three years. We have seen 844 people give their lives to Jesus locally. This is not counting what God's doing in Pakistan and South Africa and all these other places. This is locally, 844 salvations. And then we have been able to baptize 270 of those people and think about this, guys, God did this even in the last 20 months, which was a pandemic of all things. God has still been on the move. We've broadened our reach during COVID, and we decided we're gonna innovate, and we opened up this robust. We already had online, but then it went to a whole new level and our tech team, they were amazing. And we opened up an online engagement ministry. We started producing a weekly TV program that many of you are watching on today. We didn't know how to do that before, but man, God assembled a team and it's been awesome. And thanks so much for all of you online and TV who have helped and contributed to help us be the church God wants us to be. And you know what? A lot of you are saying, "Is online really church? "I don't know, I think you gotta be in person or whatever." Do you know that we've seen more salvations online than anywhere else over the past 20 months that we have seen in any of our in-person locations? Sorta answers a lotta questions for me. Matter of fact, I want you to see the story of a lady named Vanessa who actually calls Highlands home and you know what? Vanessa lives all the way in Williamsburg, Virginia. Watch Vanessa's story. I think it'll help you understand that online truly is church.

- You know, I finally had it all. I'd always envisioned that, you know, I had my career. I was married, I had two kids. And so, it was like, well, finally, it's like the things I've always dreamed of having, but I'm not really happy. And I just went through a really difficult time where I was like, "how do I have all the things "that I thought would make me happy, "but I'm not really happy?" And I remembered, you know, I'm not sure if I was already watching a little bit of the online church or not, but I thought, "You know, I'm gonna start, "I need something else in my life. "I need something that's gonna make me happy" because my husband, at the time, we were fighting. Having a second kid, you know, you didn't get a lotta sleep. My mom had said, "Honey, you really need to find "a home church that you can go to." So I tried different here in the Williamsburg location, and I just didn't get that same feeling that I got from Highlands, like to feel like I was home, and I was around family, even though I didn't know the people necessarily. And so, I went online and I've watched the Huns episode where it was love, joy, peace, and hope, and James, the online pastor, he was on there. And he was just talking about, you know, how it was the holiday season, and I think the message was joy. And then I saw pastor Allen preach on it, and I was like, "Wow, I'd never thought those four words meant so much." And I started and then I was like, you know, "I'm gonna dedicate myself to God." You know, I'd done it in the past, but you know, I'm gonna try it again 'cause I need something in my life that's gonna make me happy, happier than I felt at that time 'cause I did not feel very happy at all. When Pastor Allen and some of the other pastors that were on there, when they spoke, it was like they were speaking to me. And so, I just was very devoted to watching the online messages and making sure we did it as a family in my home, and I just enjoyed it so much, watching the messages and learning about God. God has just been so good to me since then and realizing his blessings that He has for us and that He had blessed me in my life. And I started just to feel like that joy, that peace in my life, and I just remember thinking like, "Wow, Highlands is so amazing." You know, so from then, I'd planned to get baptized around the Easter timeframe and then COVID happened in that March. So then I scheduled it for this past summer. Highlands is such an amazing church. And whether you're online or in person, the things that Highlands has offered my family and has blessed my family. You know, when I watch Highlands, I feel whoever it is that's speaking, they're talking to us on a personal level in the things that they've said to do. I've tried them and it's made my life, it's blessed my life and made my life so much better.

- You know, Vanessa is one of the 270 people who came from Williamsburg, Virginia. Think about this. And she was baptized. Pastor Steve baptized her at our Bristol campus. That helps me understand, online is a way to reach people. You know, how else did we serve our communities? I just wanna hit a few high spots. Through our food pantry, we have served thousands and thousands of families, and we've given them the sustenance of food and staples so their family could have food. Here's a neat story, just one from our food pantry. I got an email from a family that comes to Highlands and they said, you know, "We love the food pantry, "and we gave food to the food pantry over the years. "We would bring it, we'd drop it off in the little place "that you put your food pantry food. "And we lost our jobs during the pandemic, "and we became a recipient of the food pantry. "Thank you, Highlands for feeding us." And then I think about CR, Celebrate Recovery. It meets at our Bristol location and during the pandemic, especially all the mental things and emotional things, Pastor Johnny's done a great job in helping folks deal with their hurts, habits, and hangups. And then we realized also that in our communities, one of the things that was really an injustice was all the foster children, you know, and all the kids that were ready to be adopted. And we sorta challenged Highlands, and we partnershipped with Janet Kelly and Virginia Kids Belong. And here's a neat thing. After three years, we almost have 100 families all across Highlands who are either fostering, or have moved to the adoption phase, and kids are finding new life and hope in a Highlands home. It's pretty incredible. You know, one of the things, as you know and I know, during this pandemic season, our health care workers, what an awesome privilege that we've had to serve these who have been on the front line, who've tried to take care of our health. And we've done things like put signs in those providers yards and just said, "Hey, you're one of our heroes." We've tried to feed meals and these kinds of things, but then the team at Ballad asked, "Hey, would you get some of your folks "just to write a handwritten note "to some of our nursing staff and administrative staff "and providers, just to note," and we challenged you guys to do that, sent over 1,200 notes, handwritten notes out to our health care providers. I want you to see Stacey Ely, one of the administrative folks in corporate office to know what that did for our healthcare heroes in our area. Watch this video of Stacey.

- So I'm Stacey Ely, and I serve as the Senior Director for Community and Government Relations for Ballad Health and involved in our communities across Southwest Virginia, Northeast Tennessee. You know, in 2020, when the pandemic started, the reaction of the church was, what can we do to help? And you know, everything from a bag of chips and a bottle of water to full meals at our facilities across Southwest Virginia. And that is such an encouragement to the team. And, you know ,we got through a lot and we saw our numbers drop, and everybody sorta breathed a sigh of relief. And then the second wave hit, and it hit harder and it hit worse, and the people are sicker, and the team is even more tired and even more exhausted. And the church came again and said, "What can we do? "We wanna support your team. "What do they need?" And quite honestly, they work so hard and they work so fast that they don't have time to stop and eat a full meal. And what they really needed was encouragement. At Ballad, we're really concerned about the mental health of our frontline caregivers now. The things that they see and the things that they go through every day, it's more than any one person should have to bear. They've become the family to some of these COVID patients. You know, nurses and doctors, they see death, but they've never seen it like this before, and it's heartbreaking. And so, the notes of encouragement that the folks here at Highlands took the time to write by hand, just to say thank you, just to say, "Hang in there, we're praying for you," that may have been the only thing that that caregiver saw in a given day that was positive. And you know, Pastor Allen has been so good to pray for our team and to meet with our leaders. And he said, this team is here for such a time as this, and they need to be reminded of that. A principal at an elementary school in Bristol, Van Pelt Elementary, he attended the service that we took the time and wrote the notes, took it back to his school. And those kids wrote and drew the most amazing cards for our team, to love on your neighbor. I mean, Jesus cared for the sick, right? You know, He stepped in when no one else would. He encouraged when nobody else thought he should. And that's what this church has done. You know, you've stepped into love on and and care for our frontline team in a way that truly shows Jesus' love to them.

- You know, a few years ago, when we launched this vision, we made a strategic change on how we were gonna serve our community. Up until that time, Highlands would invest lots of resources into these billboard campaigns, and we would buy these expensive billboards, and we'd do these massive productions at Christmas and Easter, and we'd try to get unreached people to come. And maybe they would hear something and their life would be changed. That worked for a season, but we really felt God directing us to shift and calls and invite you to become our new marketing tool. And we cast the vision, where would you go out and serve your community? And guys, you did. 82,000 people now have been served. That's so much better than a billboard. It's so much better than a production because we're seeing lives changed, and we're seeing our church find favor, and know that our communities, man, we love our communities, and we want our communities to be awesome places to raise families. It's what we've been doing in our community. Just a few highlights. We could talk all day about it, but the question then comes, well, what about the piece of the vision about the world? Have we made a difference in the world? And I just wanna give a little history for many of you who might be new to Highlands, and you've come over this season. Let me tell you a little bit about how we have arrived at where we are today. All the way back in 2003, God actually changed the course of missions at Highlands. And what he did was we agreed to join God to make a difference at that time in our world. And we had a partner, a dentist in Egypt by the name of Wahid Wahba, and Wahid was actually on mission, and he was translating a book that was a bestseller at the time. It was written by Pastor Rick Warren called "Purpose Driven Church." And this book became a staple in every seminary across the land. It's basically a book that teaches a great commandment and the great commission, which is how our church is founded. And we found a like-minded partner in Wahid, and he actually asked a group of Highlanders to come to Egypt on a mission trip as part of the first Purpose Driven Church Conference. So Wahid, his wife Laila, who's a pediatrician, they led the trip. About 20 folks from Highlands went to Egypt, and God burst a vision from that conference that little Highlands could actually be a church to reach the entire world with the good news of the Gospel. This vision that Pastor Jimmy had in those early days was to bring people of influence from every country to our church here in Abingdon, Virginia, and to train them and send them back out into their homelands, prepared to engage their culture and their country in the great commandment and the great commission, this Purpose Driven Church formula. And this is what we now call G3, the Global Glory of God Conference. And through this effort, if you've been at Highlands for a while, you know that we've been blessed to have trained, here on site, over 400 global pastors from 112 countries around the world. Hey, guys, you have friends as Highlanders all over the world. And today a lot of our international partners are watching us and celebrating with us. So we welcome all of you today, and we are cheering you on from here. You know, when you think about a church making a difference and difference-making pastors all around the world, taking the good news and fathering the gospel message, that all from a dream that God burst 18 years ago. Wahid currently leads an organization that he's actually sorta named in honor of this Global Glory of God vision, his mission is called 4G3, and the vision of 4G3 is that displaced and persecuted Christians all around the Middle East will become emboldened and stand firm in their faith. And, you know, you know, because you watch the news, this is where Christians are being persecuted like none other. These guys, these partners of ours, they have trained leaders in Syria and Iraq and Northern Sudan, South Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt, just to name a few. They've established discipleship institutions in these places and the ripple effect of what Wahid and Laila had been doing through 4G3 has now trained over 35,000 leaders, and they individually have discipled almost a million displaced Christians in the Gospel of Jesus. 4G3 is currently looking to expand discipleship institutes in Syria, Morocco, and Turkey in the coming season, and Highlands counts it such a privilege to partner with Wahid and 4G3 in the days ahead. They've been a long partner with us. Well, fast forward. In 2016, Dr. Joel Rehmat and his brother, Jonathan, they came from Pakistan and they attended here one of our G3 conferences in Abingdon, the very conference that was birthed from the vision that Wahid gave us on that trip to Egypt first time. And during the G3 Conference in 2016, God led Joel and Jonathan to start a PD, you know, a great commandment, great commission church in partnership with Highlands in Lahore, Pakistan. And then again, this past September, just opened their second location in the capital of Pakistan. Millions and millions of people, right in the heart of Pakistan in Islamabad. And God's done some amazing things. I want you to hear personally from these two strategic world partners, from Pastor Wahid and from Pastor Joel, just so you know that what you're doing, Highlands, is making a difference around the world.

- My name is Joel Rehmat, and I came to Highlands in 2016, and I was part of the G3. And we got all the training on the Purpose Driven Church model, and I went back to Pakistan, and we planted Hosea Fellowship Pakistan. God has really blessed our effort. And currently we have close to 600 people who come to Hosea Fellowship every Sunday. And we have a great children ministry. We have 150 children that are part of Hosea Fellowship, Lahore campus.

- Because of the vision and the ministry of Hosea, Lahore, the Lord increased our boundaries. And a few months ago, we were invited in a community in a very crucial situation to plant a new church and launch a new ministry in Islamabad, which is a capital of Pakistan. And we shared that vision with the Highland leadership and we prayed together, and we were able to launch the new campus on September 11, 9/11 in Islamabad, Pakistan.

- I arrived in the midst of the COVID. We did a full distribution in that community and especially we target several Muslim families and we invited them to our church, and we not only gave them the food packages, but we also shared the Gospel with them before we handed them the food packages. And we are so thankful for Highlands Fellowship and all the investments that you have done into our lives and then into our ministries, and the seed that was sown in 2016 has grown and bringing forth a lot of food.

- Ever since we got ourself engaged in the community in the city of Lahore where we launched our church in 2019. We have seen a breakthrough in that community, a breakthrough in a way that many people came to the Lord and accepted Him as their savior for the first time in their life. They were never associated with any ministry, and church, never committed themselves to Lord Jesus Christ, never were baptized. And so far, we have baptized, I believe, well over 400 people in that community and in the surrounding areas because of our existence in that city, Lahore.

- First and foremost, thing that we would want you to do is just every time and every day, when you pray, just pray for us that God give us strength, give us His wisdom, and he leads us and he guides us. And then we would like to request that just be a partner with us as you have always been in the past, so we can work together and target this Word, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

- Good morning, Highlands Fellowship. This is Wahid Wahba talking to you from Cairo, Egypt, where we are having a training conference for Christian leaders. And whenever we do something like this, we remember 18 years ago when Highlands heard the calling of God to come to Egypt and to launch the Purpose Driven. And since then, we've been doing this again and again, with the pastors and leaders from all churches, from all the denominations. Yesterday, one of our leaders had a meeting with the Pope of the Coptic Church, and he presented to him all our courses, and we have a collaboration with the Coptic Church. The majority of Christians in the Middle East are from the Coptic Church. So thank you for all what you have done. Since you came back after your visit to Egypt, you purchased the Global Glory of God building, and you invited more than 400 pastors from more than 100 countries all over the globe and trained them in the Purpose Driven paradigm. Thank you, Highlands. Thank you for what you are doing, and thank you because the ripple effect of what you're doing is still working until today. And more and more Christian leaders are being trained and sent all over the Middle East in the most difficult places. But this is because of your faithfulness, so continue to pray for Christians in the Middle East. Our aim is to encourage these Christians to stand firm in their faith and to be witnesses wherever God has planted them and to flourish for God's glory for the Global Glory of God. Now we chose a name for our ministry. It's for the Global Glory of God. And we were inspired by what you have done for the Global Glory of God, and we copied it and we are working on it. And we ask God that He use us, and our partnership together is just great. And we are celebrating. And I wanna tell you, thank you.

- I love those guys. Man, they have made our church so much of a world church. I've often wondered, "Why does God have his hand of favor on our church?" I know he wants us to serve our local communities. God's a God of the world. And I think one of the reasons God's anointed Highlands in such a powerful way is because we have a relationship with people all over the world. We also have a relationship, a strategic partner with Pastor Georges in the Ivory Coast, Pastor Tony in South Africa. You heard from the Wiederholts last week and all the things they've been doing in Thailand. And one other partnership that's near to my heart is Tanzania. We are working in PD conferences in Tanzania and have for a number of years. And we also have a lady by the name of Shelly Altizer, who's sort of a hometown hero here at Highlands. And Shelly has gone on partnership mission trips to Tanzania for the last 13 years. Couple of pictures of Shelly's work. And if you'd like to join her, that would be awesome and amazing. We're going into a brand new community called Mwanza to redo what Shelly's been doing for these past 13 years. And she has been used of God in a powerful, powerful way. So those are some highlights, just a few stories of what we've been doing in our community, what we've been doing in our world. Here's the question: You might be asking, "How can I make a difference?" How can I be a part of the team? Because honestly, guys, we need all of us to be team players, right? We want all of you. Well, I think there's three things. When you came in today, you were given a card, and I would love for you to get that card. and on that card, here's a way that you can make a difference. You can pray, especially if you know Jesus, we need you to pray, right? It's where you just dwell and you abide in Christ. And we understand that He's our source of power and our foundation for everything. I love what Paul says here in Ephesians 3. Look at verse 16. Paul says, "I pray that out of his glorious riches, "that He may strengthen you with power through His spirit, "in your inner being so that Christ may dwell "in your hearts through faith." The church stands tallest on his knees and the first and foremost formidable thing, our best weapon against the enemy of the world is to pray. All of us can pray that we can be a church that changes the world. Here's the second thing. We ask you to invest. And really I'm talking about investing yourself, where you decide you are gonna be a part of the team, that you're gonna dig a little bit. You're gonna get your hands dirty, and you're gonna work. You're gonna prepare the field as if a farmer. You're gonna go out and help us plow. It's just sorta the hard work part of getting some roots down deep in your Christian life. If you're a new believer, your next step would be to be baptized and show the world publicly. And then we want you to get on our path. It's a discipleship process where you can grow in your Christian life. And man, that is how we want you to be strong. Notice what Paul says here in Ephesians 3. Look at verse 17. He says, "And I pray that you," catch this, "being rooted and established in love, "may have power and together with all God's holy people "to grasp how wide, how long, "how high and deep is the love of Christ. "And to know that this love surpasses knowledge, "that you may be filled to the measure "of all the fullness of God." You know, I see our church as being a hope dispenser, that we are people of peace that go out into our local communities and that we are people of peace that go all around the world. Now, why would we do this? We're dispensing the Gospel of Jesus, which is the hope of the world. James 3:18 says, "And those who are peacemakers," that's us, "will plant seeds of peace "and will reap a harvest of righteousness." And guys, we have the opportunity to watch what God does as he takes our investment and changes lives all over the world. And finally, I would say that you can make a difference. I wanna challenge you today to make a difference. Last week, we talked about dreaming, if you were here. Have you ever thought, what could God do through you? Have you ever asked that question? You know, sometimes we think, "Hey, I'm part of Highlands, I'm so grateful. "God's doing great things in our church." Well, let's bring it personally. What can God do through you? Have you ever thought about that? What is that infinitely more that Paul talks about that He wants to do in your life? Now, I haven't talked about it a lot, but you know, these kinds of visions that we've embraced that are bold takes tons of resources. I mean, tons of financial resources to change the world. It just does. Planting churches isn't free. Building buildings isn't free. Investing in the community isn't free, it's resources. And we have a phrase around Highlands that has sort of become a coin phrase for us that we really enjoy. It's called "above and beyond." And hey, I know some of you are unable to do this, but many of us are able because we're some of the blessed people in the entire world, right? And so, I think as we think about this vision that God's laid hold of our church for, I wonder if many of you actually truly might seriously consider giving above what you've normally given so that we as a church can go beyond where we normally go, 'cause I wanna tell ya, we're gonna be great stewards of everything that is given on our account, knowing that one day we'll stand before God on how we've used every cent that comes our way. In a little bit, you're gonna get some instructions on how to fill out this card. I hope all of you will remain with me. I know I've talked a little bit longer than normal, but hey, what we're talking about today is the future of our church. I want you to be a difference maker. You know, you may be like me. And when you think back over these past 20 months now, think about this guys, we've been in this pandemic for 20 months. The most challenging thing for me has been the number of decisions that we've had to make, right? And it seems like every one of those decisions has been a divisive decision. You know, think about this with me, mask, no mask, vaccine, no vaccination, have church online, in-person, start the children's ministry back up or wait. Still not safe to do that. And I've noticed in all these decisions, every one of you, you've got an opinion. You have sent me hundreds and hundreds of emails, and you have requested me, "Pastor, take a stand, take a stand." And I realized that you want me to take your stand, right? I mean, that's really what you want me to do. I would just say, we have tried to lead through this pandemic as best we can. And in some cases, you may be like me. I'm wore out today with certain words that have come through this season, right? Certain phrases, like the word pivot. I don't ever wanna hear pivot again, right? I've eliminate it from my language. Or like the phrase, "Well, we're in this together." And yet all of us know we're not together about anything in our culture, are we? The new normal. I sure hope I'm not wearing a mask the rest of my life. Although Brenda thinks it really is good on me. It covers up my big mouth, you know? She probably is a fan of it. Wait, we heard this phrase: "Wash your hands, wash your hands," over and over and over, wash your hands like we're kids again, right? And I wonder, why they have to keep telling us this? And then, guys, this is what we now know. We only wash our hands 19% of the time. Next time you go to the bathroom, know there's probably somebody on a research team seeing if you wash your hands or not. Just wash your hands, okay? Wash your hands. And then this one, unprecedented. It's unprecedented how many times I've heard the word unprecedented, right? I mean, it's over and over and over. I don't know about you. I'm tired of all the phrases, and man, I'm really tired of all the division. Listen, a divided world needs more than anything else a United church, a church that has a bold vision and that can usher in a powerful movement of God. And I don't know in these days what keeps me going, but it's really the things that I truly know are true that have been with me for my entire 60 years. I would be the first one to say, "I don't know a lot. "I'm sure not the smartest guy in the room," but what gives me hope is what I know. And what I know is that Jesus Christ is still on throne. Jesus Christ is still King of Kings. Jesus Christ is still all powerful. Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. Jesus Christ is still building His church. And one day Jesus Christ is still coming again. So Highlands, we are gonna press on in these what? Unprecedented times because we know our God is still working. And I want you to be a difference maker with us. Pray with me. Lord, thank you so much. God, it is humbling. It is truly humbling to be a part of not only serving over 80,000 people in our community. God, just see that You're working in some of the poorest countries, in displaced refugee camps in the Middle East, in Pakistan. Lord, You're building Your church in South Africa and the Ivory Coast and Nigeria and Thailand. Lord, You are at work around the world, and God just help us not to do something stupid. God, you've given us such an opportunity. Lord, may we pray, may we dig down and develop roots of maturity in who we are in You. And God, may we give out of our abundance so that our communities can be changed and that our world can be changed. Lord, if there's one here today that has never trusted in Jesus, pray this prayer with me. Just say, dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. I have made terrible mistakes in my life. Today, would you forgive me of my sin, Jesus? Would you come into my life and save me? Hey, if you prayed that prayer, let us know online. Just click that little raised hand button at one of our in-person locations. Man, grab somebody on TV. Hey, drop me a note. You see the address there. Just let me know that you gave your life to Jesus. Or maybe today, you wanna commit to pray. You wanna commit to invest. You might wanna commit to give above what you normally give. So our church can go beyond where we've ever gone before. Do it today. In Jesus' name, we pray, Amen.