- [Allen Jessee] Well, everybody, man, I want to welcome you to Highlands today. We're so glad you're here. Those of you that watch us online every week, thank you so much. And we still have so many of you that join us every Sunday or sometime during the week when you're watching on demand, our television program and we just wanna say thanks so much for being a part of that. And every now and then one of our in-person locations we see you that takes your next step and you come to one of our campuses that's around your location and we just say, "Hey, you're welcome, welcome to the family." Some of you have you been asking a little bit about an update on our vision and mission, so let me do that. We just celebrated this past week, what we call Love Week and again, just from the bottom of my heart, you guys, you make me so proud. You know, I think you make God smile because we had hundreds and hundreds of you out loving on our community all week long, loving on your neighborhoods. It was just incredible and stories are still coming in and we want to hear what you did. All you watch on TV and online, I know you participated in Love Week, so let us know what God did through you and how you were a blessing to someone else, maybe in your family or your neighborhood. Those things are awesome, right? And God wants us to do that. We believe as a church that we want to make a difference, not only in our local communities but in our region and literally around the world. So we have strategic partners regionally and then we have global strategic partners in Pakistan which is pretty incredible that we're able to be a part of a church that's just doing awesome things in Pakistan. Hey, here's some good news guys, in just a couple of months we'll open our second location in the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad, where millions and millions of people have never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. So pray for Pastor Joel, as he leads Hosea Fellowship. And then in Tanzania, Africa, right now we have a team, Shelly and Marty and some others that have joined her and they continue to work in Tanzania, just bringing about peace and bringing about God's mercy and the gospel. And God has used Shelly, this is her 14th year consistently going into the mission field and sharing the gospel of Jesus. It's incredible what so many of us are doing for the Kingdom of God. So I just want to say, thank you, man. Let's keep charging forward because we have a lot to do. Well, today's Father's Day, so let me say to all you dads out there, Happy Father's Day. Man, it's been a great day for me. I've got five kids, so, you know, it's pretty neat when the kids remember and most of mine did this year to say, "Dad, I love you" and that's really the greatest gift we can have. Today, I want to talk to you about a principle and this is a little different. I'm gonna try this. I think these are times that we can experiment with a little bit. So I want to talk to you about a principle and maybe you've not really been taught much or heard much about this principle, but it's in the word of God. And this principle, I believe God wants to use and he wants to use it and make it work inside of every one of us, okay? So did you know, honestly, have you ever thought about this, that there are some things that our God, the creator of the universe actually wants to put inside of all of us. And one of the primary ways that God puts the things that he desires for us inside of us is through our relational connections. That's the reason relationships, friendships are so important. In fact, the Bible has a lot to say about generational blessing and generational cursing. And there's a lot in there but we could do a whole series around this. But the idea of this is that God takes his spiritual DNA and he places that into one generation of people and then they are responsible to pass that DNA of God onto the next generation. Now, you know, this is just a way to help you understand. I want to try to help you understand the principle. So our father, who is God, He wants great things for us, right? I mean, God is a good, good Father. He wants good things for our children. So what God does is he places these attributes, these really DNA characteristics of God and he places them into a generation. And then all of a sudden that generation becomes responsible to, you know to store that well and to pass that on to the next generation. Now, obviously when God decided to transfer good things into generations, he also took the risks that we could pass on bad things generationally. And we see a lot of that as well but God's given us freedom, right? We all have the freedom to choose good or bad. It's so crazy in these statistics that we hear today on generational curses that have been passed down from generation to generation. For instance, we see statistics like 97% of people who abuse their children were also abused as children. And even though we see bad things being passed on from one generation to the next, that was never God's plan, right? God's plan was that we would pass the good things that he has put within us and passed into us from one generation to the next. And by the way, everything that the enemy has stolen or that the enemy intended to break you with can be broken today by the name of Jesus Christ. I just want you to know that. Every generational curse that maybe you inherited are you became a victim of, can be broken today just by the power of the name of Jesus Christ. And this is so, so important because often we see generational curse and go from one generation to the next generation, to the next generation until all of a sudden somebody decides, "We're not going to pass that on to the next generation." You can change. You can be different. But I want to encourage you to take the power of Christ in you and through the power of Christ we can be free. Theresa and Eric Church, here at Highlands, one of the deepest things we believe is that we want every one of you to be able to live in God's freedom. And I just want to tell you today on Father's Day, it is available to you. Every one of you right now, it truly is, you can be free. And we believe to the core of our being that when you experienced life with Jesus your life will be better. It just will be better. So today, to help you sort of understand this generational blessing, I want to go back. And for those of you that are visual learners I've included some pictures today and I want to honor some men that God has actually used to pass those good things on to me in my life. Now, when I look at my life, I've been so blessed by some incredible men and women who have just invested in me and they have passed on to me this generational blessing that God has placed in them. I went over several of the women on Mother's Day and today I want to follow that up. And I want to give you some pictures of some guys that have just made an incredible investment of God's blessing in my life. They taught me this generational principle of blessing. So let's get into it. Here's a verse that I want us to see right out of the gate in Psalm 145:4. And this is what the Scripture says, "Generation after generation stands in awe of your work. Each one tells stories of your mighty acts." Here's the principle God passes into us, his spiritual DNA, if you will. And he wants us to steward it well and to pass it on to the next generation. And he's given us the responsibility of doing that. So here's some guys that have made a tremendous investment in me. I want to start with my dad. Here's a picture of my dad. Now I took these pictures. So honestly, you know, I found these so don't attribute what you see today on pictures to our guys who do amazing graphics. I mean, this was just me, okay? So I want to be authentic there with you. This is a picture of my dad. When I started working on the message. I realized, "My goodness, We don't have a lot of pictures of my dad." And my mom and I went through all of our picture blocks and he hated to have his picture taken. And this is a picture of him when he served in the Army, he served his duty. He was called and he was served in the Army for a number of years. And then when he got out of the Army he served and worked in a government job in an agriculture for the Department of Agriculture, until he almost retired. He passed away right before he retired. He passed away very young. So when I think about my own dad, and I think about some things that he taught me, there's a couple of things that stand out that my dad taught me. First of all, my dad taught me the value of hard work. My mom and dad were both menial type folks. They've worked in, you know jobs that didn't pay a lot of money. And when we did our school and when they did their jobs and we came home from school and they came home from work my mom always had a hot dinner. And then we headed out to the fields. We had a farm. And in those days often just to make ends meet and make our house payment. We've raised tobacco, which we didn't realize, you know what that was doing, but that was sort of a cash crop in those days growing up. So we had acres of tobacco and then my dad raised a huge garden and he just had a green thumb. He loved gardening. I do not like gardening. I knew when I had the chance to escape the farm life I escaped the farm life because it was hard work and it was just downright hard work. But my father taught me that if you work well with your hands, that God will honor that. And so often what he would do in his garden is he would raise this huge garden more than we would ever need. And we sort of lived self-sustained. I mean, we didn't go out and eat those days. We went out to eat as a family, once a month, we'd go to Bristol. And we go to this place called Trayers. They had a Friday night fish fry and that, folks, was like hitting the lottery for us. I mean, my goodness, you know I would leave the Friday night fish fry. It was all you could eat, stuffed and miserable because we knew it was going to be a month before we had an opportunity like that again. Everything else we raised and we gardened and we canned and we sort of was a family that was self-sustained. And my dad taught me just work hard. I mean, it wasn't really an option at our house. I mean, you were going to go and you're going to work the fields and you're going to work the garden. And then when the harvest came the garden, my dad he loved to give the garden away. And every person in our community that actually had needs like widowed ladies, or families that were struggling, my dad got great joy in giving the harvest that he had worked his hands on to these people who could help them. And so it was pretty amazing to see this hard work principle that was instilled within me. My mom and dad worked the job they had. And then they came home and started job number two. We worked till dark. We go to bed, kept me out of trouble, you know but it was a good thing. The other thing, my Dad taught me was stewardship. He was a believer in Jesus, both my parents were believers. They weren't as committed as what I would have liked to have seen. Although in those days I wasn't a believer at all. And they, but my dad always realized that everything we had had been given to us by God. So he taught me this value of stewardship at an early age. I mean, I understood that all the things we had and when we were out in the garden, of course I'm fussing. I don't want to be there. And often, you know, I'm hoeing corn and I would just chop a corn kernel down or whatever because I didn't care. And he would get so upset with me because he said, "You're taken out harvest that we can give to someone else." And it's so interesting how my dad did this to his garden. He always gave the best, you know, the best tomatoes, the best corn, we would keep what was left over. But he always gave the best to other people. He did that in his resources as well. His principal, and we've heard this many many times was you give away 10% and then you save at least 10%. My mom and dad normally save 20% of everything they make. And then you enjoy life on the rest. And sure enough, you know, they enjoy life. And we had a lot of fun as a family. It was a great home growing up and they taught me the principle of hard work. And my dad taught me the principle of stewardship. God owns it all. I'm simply a manager. We see this in Matthew chapter six, right? Look with me in verse 19. I think this is why Jesus said, "Don't store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven." And this is a principle. You know, what I've learned is these guys who invested in me so much these are principles that our church has today. So much of the investment of other people in my life have caused our church to react this way, right? This past year we gave over 15% of everything we took into mission causes all around the world because we as a church want to give back, we want to honor God with the first and best that he's given us. So I could say so much about my dad. He taught me so many things but those were two things that helped me later on be successful in life, hard work and steward God's resources. Here's a second picture of a guy that was a high school friend of mine. This guy's real name is Wyatt Carter but everybody calls him scooter. All right. Schooner was one of my high school buddies and God used him to lead me to Jesus. And that's the reason I want to honor him today is because without his continual invite, really I thought it was harassment at the time of going to his church and going to his youth activities. I don't know that I would have ever trusted Jesus Christ but I am so thankful for that. He invited me to a youth camp at his church and it was over in Beckley, West Virginia. And I remember going and I remember I had heard the gospel before cause my mom and dad made me go to church. But for some reason it never resonated my life. But during this youth camp, I'm away from everybody and I'm trying to learn and trying to grow and I'm there and I'm serious actually, right? You know, I'm really wanting to know if this God things real. And I'll never forget, on Thursday night, the last night of camp the evangelist that was speaking at the camp shared these two verses in Romans 3:23, the Scripture says, Everyone sinned. We've all fallen short of God's glorious standard." And I knew I was a sinner. And then in Romans 10:9, he said during his invitation, "If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved." And I remember he was trying to get young people to come up but I went over and got Scooter and I said, "Hey, I want to talk to you about this." I knew Scooter was a tremendous believer and we go out beside the little pond. You've heard me share this story before and there Scooter led me to Jesus. And I know that, I know that I know that's where God changed my life. I was never the same again, 16, almost 17 years of age when I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. It's the reason today I'm still very loyal to youth camp. Our church forever has had a camp called Amplify and last couple of years we haven't been able to do it because of COVID and such. But every year we do Amplify, kids make decisions to receive Christ. Did you know that 80% of believers that become Christians do that before they are 20 years old? So obviously youth ministry camp, those things are huge. They are important so that folks can have the opportunity to make a commitment to Jesus Christ in their childhood or teenage age years. And we believe that here so much in our church. Here's the third picture, these guys, this is my wedding day. This is a fun day. This was back in 1991, my father had already deceased. He died in his early fifties and it was so interesting that God's sort of brought these two guys into my life. Now, the gentleman on my left is the guy that I've talked to talked to you about before he owned a furniture company down in Gate City, his name's Scott Hackney. And I had so many firsts with him, while. My sister and my parents were struggling when she was dying with cancer. He and his wife, Reba, took me in and they fed me and they allowed me to stay with them. They gave me some spending money. They allow me to do a few things around the furniture store but in those early teen years and in my college days that's where I would hit every college break, every summer break, I would go and I would work for him. And they were truly dynamic Christian people. He took me on my first plane ride. He took me out of the country. First. God just used him in an incredible way. And his wife to really help me get formed in my early years of Christian growing because my parents, after my sister passed away, they were they were struggling, you know to say the least they just struggled. And God's sort of brought this guy into my life. He became like a second father to me. I just did his funeral this year. He passed away back in February and I was able to go and do his funeral. And we just celebrated the 95th birthday of his wife, Reba a couple of weeks ago. So she's still going strong for the Lord. Now the other gentlemen on the right of the picture here is a guy named Owen Taylor. Many of you know that I went to Richlands and my first opportunity in church planting was a church there in Richlands and it wasn't going very well at all. And so I was making hardly any money and I needed to get some jobs of mowing yards and he had a business. And so I went, I saw his yard, wasn't in great shape. And I asked could I mow his yard and he said, yes. And he paid me $50 a week to mow his yard. Well, we became great friends and he sorta took me in. He and his wife always had a great dinner every night at six o'clock and so when I got hungry, often I would just show up to check on them because I knew it was dinnertime. And they became like a second family to me and just loved on me and cared for me. And the thing that Owen taught me, his name's Owen Taylor. And the thing that he taught me was you got to go out and you got to network and build relationships with people. He took me to play golf for the first time and he paid my way for a few for a couple of years in those early days at Richland so I could meet different people on the golf course, build relationships with them. And many of those guys became some of our leaders at the church. And through him, I was able to learn this principle this idea of building in and investing in a network of relationships. So incredible how God brought these guys. And they both sort of became father presence in my life. They became the best men. These, this is my best man picture at my wedding. I asked both of them to be by my best man. And they helped me so much. One of the things that Owen taught me that really shaped my life during those days because my attitude could go south, was the value of a positive attitude. And he came up with this saying, and he said this. He said life. And he got it from somewhere. I don't know where, but he said, life is 10%. what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so he says, "You know, Allen, you really do have a choice, much more than you think you have on reactions to maybe difficult situations you find yourself in." And when I thought about that I thought, "That's really a Biblical principle." Because notice, here in 2 Corinthians chapter six, notice what Paul says. Paul says, "I'm sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." Paul said, you know, I can be poor yet making many rich, having nothing, yet possessing everything. And this was the Apostle Paul. I thought, man, that's exactly the attitude I want. And if you study Paul's life during his missionary journeys I mean, he was the guy who took every lemon and turned into lemonade, right? I mean, he was that guy, it's a choice you can have. And you can enjoy the days that God has blessed you with you. I think so much about Paul because you know, what do you do with him, right? I mean, here's Paul and he's out preaching. This is what he loved to do. And they said, "Hey, dude, you got to quit preaching or we're going to throw you in jail. And Paul's like, "Really, that'll be awesome. I sort of been wanting to share the gospel with those jailers and those guys, man, they're so hard to get up with. You can't ever get on their schedule. So if you put me in jail, then cool, I'll get to share the gospel with the jailers, which I never get to see. And you know what else I need a little time. I'm almost finished with that book called Ephesians. You put me in jail, give me a little downtime. I'll probably get to finish that book. So Hey, you know, I'm going to keep sharing the good news. So you're going to have to decide you're going to put me in jail or not." But Hey, with that attitude, I mean what do you do with a person like that, right? I mean, you can't harm them. Nothing affects them. They take whatever comes their way and they decide I'm going to be positive in this situation. I hope that attitude is growing in you in our church. Can you imagine if we all looked at life that way and we didn't get down and we didn't give the pity party and feel sorry for ourselves but we just said, "Hey, God, you're in control. I'm going to serve you. I'm going to share your Word whenever you give me opportunity. And I'm going to have a positive attitude about life." Man, that's the kind of folks I love being around. I want that in my own life. And I want that for you and those two guys in that picture, man they helped me to see the joy of living a positive life. Here's another picture of a guy that looks like a real preacher. And I know that he is but this guy's name's Bill Keele and Bill was a missionary, he and his wife, Bev, to Thailand, to the So tribe through New Tribes Missions for most of their life and how God works, you know, is, we at our church, we were trying to get sort of a heart for the world and to understand that God's a God of the world and God used Bill to help me grasp that principle, that God is not only a God for America but God is a God for the world. And by happenstance, Bill was from Southwest Virginia. He was born here and God brought him back to Southwest Virginia. All of his family had moved and we were able to employ him and hire him as a Missions Director at our church for a number of years and our pastoral care person. And I want to tell you something, guys. They went into a tribe years and years ago called the So tribe in Thailand and it was an unreached people group. And really they sacrificed in so many ways and Bev began to translate the Scripture into the So tribe so the So tribe people could understand the gospel. And today in Thailand, thousands and thousands well over a hundred thousand So people are believers in Jesus Christ because he and his wife took the initial investment and went to an unreached people group and gave their life. You know, it is so interesting, Scripture says here in Matthew 5:5, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Bill taught me the principle of humility. Now, honestly, when I think of Bill, he's a hero of mine. He's a hero of the faith. I mean, I needed to, you know he needed to be preaching and I needed to be listening to him. I mean, he's forgotten more than I'll ever know, but I'll never forget, Bill would always sit in the front row. He would always take his notepad out and every time I preached, he would write notes. He always encouraged. He never criticized. He was an amazing, amazing guy. And he taught me the principle of humility. We had this sort of God story that I'll quickly share with you. We had been saving money at our church for a number of years to buy a piece of property because we needed to expand. And so I had gone cast this vision and asked people to give. And so people had given, we needed $50,000 to buy a couple acres of property. And they had given $50,000. We were ready to purchase the property and I have breakfast one morning with Bill and Bev before they were on our staff and it was as clear as you know God's never really audibly spoken to me but it was as clear the voice of God as I've ever heard. And God said, "Take the money you've been raising for the land and build a house for these servants of mine." And I'm like, "Golly, Lord. I don't know how people will react to that because they've been giving money for the land. We need to expand." Bill and Bev were living in a little apartment in Florida that the mission agency had and Bill said when he reclined in his recliner, that his feet from the living room would go up in his kitchen. It was about 300 square feet, bathroom, kitchen one bedroom and that was it. And it was God saying, "Hey, I want you to do more for them." And so I cast this vision that we need, you know, I knew we needed the land, but we were going to change focus and we were going to build this house for Bill and Bev. Well, you could imagine, you know, some of the church, "Well, we'd given money for the land and we thought you were a person of integrity and character." I said, "I'm just saying what I believe God has said." And so anyway, we finally decided we're going to build them a house. We're going to give them a house and we did. We'd built Bill and Bev a house. We gave them the house. And the day, listen, the day they moved in, the people who own the land called and said, "We want to give the church that property. We have no use for it and we want to give the church the property so you can expand." And it helped our folks to trust me more. It helped our folks to have a heartbeat for the world and God used Bill and Bev incredible ways in our church. And I think that, man, I look back on that and I'm so thankful for his investment in my life. Here's the last guy I want to talk to you about. This is a guy by the name of John Maxwell. You may know John. I have read almost all of John's books. He's the guru of leadership and most business people probably know John. Now let me be quick to tell you that I'm at a conference with John here in Florida. John doesn't know me, all right. Even though I took a picture with him, I've been with him several times. I've heard him speak multiple times. If you were to ask John Maxwell if he knows Allen Jessee, the answer would be no, but this guy has mentored me. And I have learned so much about my leadership through reading his books, attending his conferences, and man, he's just incredible, incredible leader. You know, the thing that John taught me as I've watched him, you know, I've been able to be fairly close to him over the years. And you know, when you're in a room with John you feel like you're the most important person in the world and it's authentic. I mean, it's real. He has this unbelievable gift to walk through a crowd of people and to look them in their eyes and touch people in an authentic way. And one time I'm with them down at a conference in Tennessee. And I said, "John, how in the world you do this?" And he said, "Well, Alan, regardless of what kind of person it is, I just have decided I'm going to believe the best in that person. I don't see the person as they are. I see those people as they could be. I put a 10 on every forehead and I believe the best in every person." And that's why every time guys you attend one of our services here at Highlands. You're not going to hear me put you down. You're not going to hear me be critical of you. We're here to build you up. We're here to help you be all that you could be in God's grace. We've always told you that God's in the second chance business that we just we decided we're going to believe the best about you. Why? Because God does, right? Notice what Jesus says here in Matthew 7. He says, "So in everything, do to others, what you would have them do to you for this sums up the law and the prophets." Now, today, I've taken some time to share about some guys that have made incredible investment in my life. And maybe today you have a father wound. I mean, honestly, Father's Day for you, your dad was not a good dad. Maybe you felt like that you never had a great relationship with your dad or maybe your mom and dad were divorced early on and in your childhood and your dad was absent. You know, I think we have so many men today who didn't have the relationship that God intended. Well, if that's you, I want to tell you, I got some good news for him because look at verse in Psalm 68, this is what the Bible says. That God, our God, is a Father to the fatherless. He's a defender of widows. He is God in his Holy dwelling God sets the lonely in families. He leads forth the prisoners with singing. Now I want you to listen to me real quick. You need a family. I don't know so much that you need a church. I mean, obviously I want you to be a part of the church but you need a spiritual family, which is the church. And that's the reason we call Highlands home because we're not a building you walk into, we got we're a family that you belong to. And sometimes, you know, I hear people say, "Yeah, you know, I wanna, I want to be a part of a family like that, but Highlands is so big." Listen, it has to be big, right? It has to, because heaven and hell are real. And we got to keep getting bigger not because we want to get bigger but just because the stakes are high and we want folks to go to heaven and not hell. I understand Highlands is a big church for many of you, but listen, it shouldn't feel big. It's big because we're going to reach people. We've been commanded by Jesus to do it. We have to, we've been mandated to reach people with the gospel but we believe also our church can be small because you matter. And the place that it can be small is in a small group, a circle of friends, that's so important to us here. I mean, sure, it's a big church, but man, you know what? When you're part of something big, you got an opportunity to be something, you know part of something much bigger than you. You're doing something all over the world but you can also be a part of something small in a small group of friends that can really help you in your discipleship and your spiritual development. Every one of you, you're leaders and your life is influencing other people right now, good or bad. You're valuable. You're loved. And I would just ask do you have a relationship with our eternal father? If not, I definitely want to give you an opportunity to do that because this is what the Scripture says, not only the psalm, but our God is a good, good Father. He's an awesome Father. And maybe yours wasn't much, but man, you can have a relationship with the good good Father of God who created you, has a purpose, and has a plan for your life. We want you to have that opportunity today. So if you would, would you pray with me right now? I want to give you an opportunity to allow those of you who feel fatherless to allow God to be your father. Lord, I thank you for these men that I've talked about today that had incredible investment in me, that taught me the work ethic and stewardship and humility and that you're a God of the world. That Lord when I didn't have a dad, when my dad had died and gone, you put two other guys in my life that became father figures to me. You're so kind to me. And God, you have placed this generational goodness in my life that I'm now a steward of. And I want to pass this generational blessing onto our church, onto my kids, because I want to do that well for you. Thank you for guys like John Maxwell that not only have mentored me and other church leaders, but God, he has mentored thousands around the world. And I wonder today, there are some here that will say, "Man, I got a bum deal on a dad. He walked out of my life. There's so much hurt." Or maybe "I lost my dad during COVID and I've just not been able to rebound from that." I want you to know this, to the fatherless, ultimately God wants to be your Father. He wants to be your dad and maybe you don't have a relationship with him today, then you get that relationship through Jesus Christ. And let me just simply say, just like me when Scooter, my buddy, shared with me that I was a sinner, that I'd fallen short of God's glory, but if I could just believe in my heart and confess my belief in Jesus and what he did for me on the cross, I could be saved. And I did that. I did that when I was 17. And I just ask that if you've never made that decision, would you make that decision today? Would you allow your Father to become your eternal Father and just simply call out to him and say, "God, forgive me, cleanse me today. I ask you to save me. I surrender my life to you, Jesus." And Hey right now, those of you that are watching on TV, there's an email. I would love to know that you made that decision. If you're watching online, just check that little button that you raise your hand today, that you give your life to Jesus Christ. Let us send you a Bible, somehow get in contact with us and we'll help you in this new journey. We want to help you overcome the wounds and the hurts that you have in your life because our God is a good, good Father. Give us a great day with our families in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. All right, guys.