Made for This Ministry

Hey church, I'm so glad you joined us today. What a powerful start to the year it's been. From Sunday services to 21 days of prayer to saturate with our high school and college students, God is moving. We are seeing prayers answered, lives change, and people saying yes to Jesus. And I want you to know, I am personally so excited about the season we're in as a church. and the season God is leading us into. We are approaching a major milestone here at Highlands. Next Sunday, February 1st, we celebrate 25 years of God's faithfulness, our 25th anniversary as a church, and I can't wait to be in church together. We're gonna honor what God has done, and we're gonna look ahead with faith and expectation for all that he will do in the next 25 years.

And we're celebrating all week and long, starting with our 25th anniversary Dream Team Gala on Friday, January 30th. Highlands would not be who we are today without our dream team. Dream Team, you carry the culture, you serve with joy, you live on mission every single week and you bless all of us. This night is simply our way to honor you and to say thank you. If you've ever served or are currently serving on the dream team, this night is for you, and we can't wait to see you there. Now today, we're hearing a message on purpose from our founding pastor, my pastor, PC. As we were planning and praying for this Sunday, there was no one better to speak on this topic of purpose.

His voice has shaped my life in so many of our lives in more ways than we can count. The PC saw purpose in me, and he called it out long before I could see it in myself. And I know he has a powerful word from God that will speak directly to your life. So come on, Highlands, let's lean in, prepare our hearts to receive. Can you help me welcome to the platform our founding pastor, PC?

All right. Come on, give Jesus all the praise, everybody. Come on, that's pretty good. Now, give him what he really deserves, everybody. That's awesome. So good to see all of you here today. What a joy it is to bring God's Word to you today. And I want to just start off by looking straight in the camera. Say hello to all of our campuses that are joining us right now. I want to give a special shout out to the Auburn campus. Past your marks down there. God bless you guys. And, of course, we are in all 28 of Alabama's Department of Corrections facilities right now, and God bless you, the men and women there. And, of course, today with all the severe weather around, not only here in Alabama, Georgia, but literally around the nation.

There's a boatload of people that are watching online right now. So, Grantsville, come on, show some big-time love. Come on, say a big hello to everybody. God bless you guys. And I want to jump right into the material today that I'm very excited to share with you. We've been in a series that in today called Seek First, and it basically begins with this promise that if you'll put God first in your life, it's going to cause everything else in your life to find its proper place. And so this message is dedicated to anybody where your life feels like it's not in place. So maybe you're miserable. Maybe there's just a lot of heartache going on.

Maybe you're just confused. I don't know what it is, but you're thinking, there's got to be more to life than this. This message could probably change everything if you lean into it today. Our theme verse Of course, not only for this series, but for the whole year, is seek first his kingdom. His kingdom means, by the way, his kingship. Allow him to be the king of your life, which means you're gonna follow his will and his way. Seek first his kingdom or his way and his righteousness. And then I love this little phrase, all these things. I think sometimes we read this part of that verse. We think of all these things or he's gonna give you things, like literal tangible things.

But I want you to hear it this way. He not only gives you those things provision and blessing, but he also gives you things that you cannot see or touch or feel. But I'm talking about maybe your fulfillment, your peace, your joy. Like if you really follow God the right way, it's going to have this tangible evidence of true fulfillment in your life today. And today, Pastor Marks asked me to speak on that and talk about your life's purpose. And I always like to start off with something a little funny. And so I had this little story that I've read a couple of two or three times over 25 years. I think the last time I read it was in 2021, so probably five years ago or more.

God bless you, God bless you, God bless you. Slip those hands down, let me lead you through a prayer, just make it your own. Say, Jesus, forgive me for living my life my way. Today I surrender my life completely to you. I'm following you with all of my heart. So forgive me, change me, and be the Lord of my life because I believe you truly are the Son of God who rose from the dead. And today I'm put my faith in you in your name I pray. Amen and amen. How about a hand clap for everybody who just made that decision?

But it's simply called life explained. And here's how it goes. And by the way, it's not theologically correct. It's just funny, okay everybody? It is. All right, so you'll hear it on the first line. On the first day, God created the dog. Well, that's not how it worked out. But anyway, on the first day, God created the dog. And he said, sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes by or walks past the house. And for this, I'm going to give you a lifespan of 20 years. And the dog said, that's way too long to be barking. I'll take a 10-year lifespan and I'll give you back the other 10 years and God agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey. And he said, look, I want you to entertain people and do monkey tricks. And make people laugh. And for this, I'm going to give you a 20-year lifespan. And the monkey says, that's too long to do a monkey tricks. I'm going to do like the dog. I'll take 10 years, and I'll give you back the other 10 years, and God agreed. On the third day, God created the cow. And he said, you're going to go into the field with the farmer all day long. You're going to suffer under the sun. You're going to have calves. You're going to have milk to support the farmer's family. And for this, I'm going to give you a lifespan of 60 years.

And the cow said, way too long. That's too hard of a life to live for 60 years. Give me 20 years. I'll give you back 40 years. And then on the next day, God created the man. He said, eat, sleep, play, enjoy yourself. And for this, I'm going to give you a lifespan of 20 years. And the man said, well, Only 20 years. How about you give me my 20 years, the 40, the cow gave you back, the 10, the monkey gave you back, the 10, the dog gave you back and let's make it 80 years and God agreed. And that is why for the first 20 years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves.

For the next 40 years we slave under the sun to support our family. For the next 10 years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years you sit on the front porch and bark at everybody who goes by. You have just had life.

Explain to you. All right. Now, you know it's not that. In fact, what I want to do today is I want to help you make life make sense. And what I'm going to ask for is a little bold. I'm asking you to cooperate, if you might. And that is, I want you guys to lean into this. In fact, I'm going to even ask you to give me a blank page and let me just try. Let me give it my best shot to explain something to you that probably more than half of you He have either never heard about or you've decided you're not going to do it, and I want you to give me one more shot, all right?

I just want to say this to you because I want to give you something that I believe is articulated very well in some 16 and I mean it. And I'm talking about every single person in this room. That God, the Bible, Thomas says, he says, you alone are my portion, meaning that every one of you has been given a specific portion, or an assignment, or something in life, watch this, that he's not given to anybody else. One of the things that I pray all the time is, I tell the Lord, I am so grateful for the assignment or the portion you given me. In fact, years ago, I made a decision I would never covet someone else's portion.

I've never coveted somebody else's ministry or their preaching style. Lord, I'm so satisfied with what you gave me. You are my portion, you are my cup. And my lot, you have made my lot, or my assignment, or the piece of life that you gave me, you made it secure. And watch this, the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. And the boundary lines doesn't mean you can't go across it. It's just saying, God's giving you, let me say it this way, like for me, he's given me from 1963 to, hopefully, about another 30 more years. He's given me this section of life But it's not all of life. There's a whole lot of time that happened before me.

Time will that happen after me. But God gave me this boundary line. He's given me an assignment that included Alabama. That's what this is talking about. And for me, that boundary line or that assignment is good. By the way, whenever you find God's true assignment, you're not going to say it's bad. When you find it yourself, you're going to say, wow, this fell in a pleasant place. Surely I have a delightful inheritance. And I want that for you so badly. So he goes on to say, I'm going to praise you. Well, of course you would. I praise you who counsels me. So in other words, even in my assignment, God speaks to me. He spoke to me this week about this message.

He even at night, my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord, and with him at my right hand, when I put God first place in my life, Matthew 6.33, I will not be shaken. Meaning, I'm still going to have problems, but they don't shake me. And for a bunch of you guys, you're out of God's will. You're going to heaven, but you're not doing God's assignment for your life so that when something comes along in life, it shakes you. But there is a life you can have. Now listen to me, that whenever you go through trouble, it doesn't shake you like everybody else, because you know why you're on the planet.

Are you listening to me, everybody? It's good preaching here today. You can say, Amen. All right, I'll amen myself if you won't. All right. Therefore, this is what I want for you. My heart is glad. My tongue rejoices. My body rests secured. In other words, I'm okay. I mean, even though I go through stuff just like anybody else, my body rests secure because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful ones see decay. And now it's getting ready to explain how you get all of that. You have made known to me, key phrase, the path of life. And what I'm trying to do, and I'm gonna try one more time today, I'm gonna let you know the path of life.

Like if any of that sounds appealing to you, and if any of that is not something you currently have, I'm getting ready to show you the pathway to it. the path of life, and you will fill me with joy in your presence, and that's how you know when you've gotten there, with eternal pleasures at your right hand, meaning that when I do it right I'm not only full of joy, but it also has an eternal impact in the lives of other people. So for 25 years, I have basically said, and we have basically said that God has this pathway. I'm not going to preach on it. I'm just going to put it in front of you because we have this on mugs, t-shirts, walls.

When you come in here before worship starts, we call it the pre-roll. It's the video you're watching before worship begins. It says it on there. We have said it, said it, said it, said it, said it, and it's almost no other way to say it. It's just now for you to take the steps to do it, that you have to get close to God, not religion, relationship. You've got to let them deal with your issues. We call it find freedom. And if you don't think you have any issues, well guess what, that's your issue. Anyway, you have it, all right. Then you can discover your purpose. So once you settle yesterday, you can see tomorrow so that you can get doing what your life is all about, and that is your portion.

You're assignment, you're a lot. You're boundary lines that make a difference in the lives of others that also brings joy to you. And to say it in one single sentence, my assignment from Pastor Mark today is that God has a very unique and specific purpose for your life. And it's unlike the person you're sitting next to right now. Like God has an assignment for you, a portion. There's something for you to have. And some of you haven't discovered it. You just haven't discovered. They say studies say that more than 87% of Christians in America live and die and never discovered. In others of you, you have discovered it, you're not doing it. All right, so once again.

I'm going to make a case. I'm going to do the very best I can. I have a goal today for every adult teenager that is not a part of doing something with your life collectively in a family of people called the Body of Christ that if you're not a part of a dream team, I'm going to try to paint such a compelling picture today that you would say at the end of this message, I cannot believe I've waited this long to do this. Now, some of you are going to say, nice try, I'm not buying it. That's fine. If that's where you are, just give me a shot. It's all I'm asking for. But if you do buy into this, I am guaranteeing something.

And that is not only personal fulfillment. I'm talking about real joy. I'm not talking about your circumstances. I'm talking about real fulfillment in life and not only that personal fulfillment, but a collective fulfillment that we together did something that moved the needle and made a difference in the world around us. And everybody said, are good? All right. And if you're a visitor here today or you're here for the first time, you could not have picked a better Sunday. Now, Pastor Mark said, tell them the dream team story. So it was over 25 years ago now that my wife and I decided to move to Birmingham. We didn't know a single soul. Our church sent us out in October of 2000.

Now, our house wouldn't sell in Baton Rouge. So I would make trips between October and February 4, 2001 was the launch of our church. That's why next Sunday is our 25th anniversary. So I would make trips. I would be with my family as much as I could. And then on Wednesdays, I would drive to Birmingham. It's been a few days. Meet people. My office was the Starbucks. I was living a highly caffeinated life. Anyway, so I would just meet people, meet people and tell the story. I was trying to put together a band for worship. It was just grass roots trying to start a church. I put together a group of people that I called the launch team.

It was 34 people and we met on Thursday nights before the church began at KT and Deborah Bulls home in North Shelby County. We had these Thursday night meetings and the meetings basically were lots of fun because We were just 34 people with a blank page, getting the privilege of putting the other church like we wanted to. We could do it exactly what we wanted. So we talked about children's ministry, talked about nurseries. Like, where in mountain book high school are we going to put the nurseries? What are the hallways going to look like? How do we pass that information? What's worship going on? I mean, we had so much fun. The only problem was, every time I said, hey, let's talk about it and I brought up a topic.

Hey, let's work on this. They wouldn't give me any of their ideas, even though they had some, because they'd all been in churches where, you know, just basically listen to the men of God. You know, you're just following, we're just servants to your vision. And I said, no, no, no, I don't want to do it that way. I believe the best ideas of the church aren't going to come from me. They're going to come from all of us. And I still believe that, by the way, that the best ideas are in the people of the church, not just the pastor of the church. And they wouldn't do it. Now, it's getting pretty frustrated. So my little home base where I spent the night was at the Hampton Inn, where the colon aide here in Birmingham.

And I was making another trip on the Thursday night to go to this launch team meeting. And I had, I'll never forget it. I remember it vividly in my car. I was listening to Ognew's Day. That's all I knew. And I was worshiping, and I'm at Lord. You got to help me get these people to dream. And when I said that in my prayer, my mom thought about the 1992 Olympic basketball team where, for the first time in Olympic history, they let professionals, not amateurs, but professionals, play in the Olympics. And that's when Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing and Charles Barkley all got on the same team, and we slaughtered every other team.

And they ended up calling that team duh. the dream team. And I thought, that's, I'm going to change the name tonight from launch team to dream team. And so I shared that and it clicked. Everybody started dreaming, giving me their ideas. And sure enough, a few weeks later we started a brand new church. 400 people showed up in the very first service and it was fantastic. So, after the first four Sundays, I wanted to reward their hard work because they're all volunteers. I'm going to take you to eat a steak dinner. I'm going to pay for it. One of the people on our team had a membership at the club. They called it here in Birmingham.

I've never figured that out. It's not the club. It's the club. It should be called the club, but it's called the club. Anyway, we were at the club, and it's just a bunch of blue hairs, and they had a good steak. All right, so we were at the club, and so anyway, we're having the steak dinner is fantastic, we celebrated, and the next day, the phone rang. on the church phone, which was the cell phone on my hip. I wore it on my hip right there. Church of the Highlands cannot help you. And this lady said, hey, I've been coming for a month since the church began, and I heard there was a dinner last night, and not everybody was invited.

It was officially the first complaint of Church of the Highlands. And I said, yes, ma'am. I said, that was for the dream team who helped me start the church. She goes, well, how do you get on the dream team? That's not fair. And I stupidly said, you can't. We already started the church. And she goes, well, you've got to figure out a way to let other people on this team. And she hung up on me. And I thought, she's right. This doesn't have to be just for the launch team, and that's when I decided that every person who would serve at Church of the Highlands would be called the Dream Team. Today, there are more than 22,000

People in our church that serve every single Sunday on the Dream Team, and there are thousands of other churches using that phrase as well. But the problem is, it wasn't intended for 22,000. It was intended for every single person who's a member of Church of the Highlands. And obviously, not every single member of Church of the Highlands is on the dream team. And so I'm going to give it a shot today for that to change. And so here's the question. They actually sat in my office and I prayed and prepared this mission. I thought, why wouldn't they? And I have a few answers. They might not even be right. This is what I think. And that is that some of you just didn't know we had any needs because we make all this look pretty easy.

Like there's already people on stage playing guitars. I play guitar, but there's already a guitarist. And there's already somebody on the camera. And there's already somebody out there in the parking lot. There's already somebody holding a baby or a ministering to a child in children's church. It looks like you have everything already covered. And what you would not know is that we have 26 campuses, and it's growing. And we have 75 plus services every Sunday. And there's a lot of different needs here. We just try not to make it look like we have some, but we actually do. There's some of you, maybe, that you tried it before and either you'd never liked it or you stopped liking it.

And that happens a lot as you grow in your face. So what you start with is not how you finish with it. And you're like, ah, that's just not my thing. And maybe it just didn't click with you the first time. In fact, I'll never forget this one story. In the beginning of the church, there was this lady. I mean, we're only a few months old. And we had this new couple. And I wanted to get to know everybody. So I worked the hallways a lot. And there was this couple. And the lady's name was Sherry. And I knew her husband, but every time I tried to approach her, she just went the other direction.

And I thought it was coincidental. Until one day, we locked eyes about 20 yards apart in the hallway. And I went like this, and she turned around and ran the other direction, and I chased her down. And I said, you're avoiding me. What in the world is going on? And she goes, OK, you got me. You got me. It's my turn to serve in the nursery, isn't it? You're just what you're wanting from me. And I'm like, what? She goes, no, no, we've been in church our whole lives. And I just know that that's what comes next. And this is because we have kids. I need to take my turn there. She goes, but I don't want to.

We just got to this church. We need a break. We were kind of tired. And she says, peace out even like kids. Like, listen to me, Sherry. I don't want you serving in our nursery, you know, ever, by the way, if you don't like kids. And she goes, I don't understand. I said, we don't have that philosophy here. We don't have a serve just because you're here. We want you to find the thing that you actually get excited about doing. I'll never ask you to do something that you don't have a passion about. She goes, I've never heard that before. And I'm telling you some of you that any place We would want you to be a part of something where you have a passion and a gifting and a desire to be a part of that.

Can I hear a really good amen? Everybody, right? It's true. But those are good reasons. This is probably the biggest reason. This is where I want to lean in just for a little bit. And that is, for a lot of you, just don't see yourself the way God does. And now I want to take a moment to try to correct some of people's bad theology and bad church history. Church history has not been nice to us in this area. Because in the Old Testament, not everybody served, not everybody was the minister, not everybody had a role in the body of Christ. There was a special group in the Old Testament called The Priest. And the priest had a special connection with God and a special thing to do with God, and everybody else was just the consumer of those people's ministry.

But when Jesus came along in the New Testament, he changed all of that. He looked at ordinary people. His disciples were not seminary grads. His disciples were tax collectors, fishermen, regular everyday folks, and he looked at the entire crowd that followed him and said, all of you are supposed to be the salt of the earth. All of you are supposed to be the light of the world. In fact, he said to every one of them, let your light shine. before others that they may see your good works, how you live your life, and now people glorify God in heaven. Meaning there is a lot of darkness on the earth. Would you agree with that everybody?

And at the role the church isn't for a few people to shine their light. What would it look like if everybody gave our specific piece of light to the darkness? I'm gonna tell you this world would be a brighter place if we all did it. And so Jesus tried to encourage this. In fact, after he ascended into heaven after his resurrection, the church was born. You can read about it in Acts 1 and chapter 2. It's called the day of Pentecost. And the very first sermon ever preached in the Christian church, the very first one, But the apostle Peter quotes out of the Bible and says, there's something new on the scene. And that is that in the last days, I'm going to pour out my spirit, not on seminary grads, not on people with pastor in front of their name, on all people.

In fact, even the young, the sons and daughters, your young men will see visions, your old men are going to dream dreams. And even on my servants, and this was like, of both all men and women, I'm gonna pour out my spirit and they're gonna prophesy and they're gonna minister and they're gonna make a difference and the rest of the New Testament mainly talks about every one of us discovering our spiritual gift and using it to make a difference on this world. And then right after the Bible. The whole church organized itself with two groups of people and they even gave them a name, clergy, laymen, two terms that are not in the Bible, old or new testament.

And there was a whole group of people who sat out of the Bible by just only a few, let their light shine before people. In the 1500s, the guy named Martin Luther was part of what was called the Protestant Reformation. And one of the revelations that Martin Luther received was what was called the priesthood of all believers. In other words, the priesthood wasn't for a few who went to college to study the Bible or has pastor in front of their name, but that every single Christian was a priest. And I'm here to tell you if you're a follower of Jesus, you're a priest with a call of God on your life to do something special.

And right after that revelation, guess what? It all went right back to two classes of Christian, the clergy. the laymen. And it's just messed up. And so from the beginning of this church, 25 years ago, I mean, literally from the first Sunday, I kept preaching this message that God wants to use every single one of us, that the best ideas of this church wouldn't come from me. They're inside of you. And that collectively, if every one of us played the part, found our gift, found the thing that God has his hand on our life. And if all of us did it, we could make a difference in this world. And we're close. But we're not still there and today I'm trying to get every single one of us a part of this.

And so what do we have to believe to understand that? Let me tell you three things we've been saying since the beginning of that is every Christian is a minister. If you're a Christian, you were called by God to be a minister. And I'm not talking about minister as in preacher or minister as in vocational minister. I'm talking about you could minister on a camera. I'm going to make sure the world sees this message. Some of you minister about holding a baby and praying for that baby while parents can hear the gospel in church. Others of you going to minister to children. Others going to work with our students. Some of you have organizational ministry gifts to get cars in faster and easier.

Others of you have hosting gifts. Some of you Let make some really, really good coffee and you want to serve people. There's all kinds of ministry gifts. Some of you are good on the guitar. Some of you guys are good in leading groups. Every one of us. In fact, the Bible says it this way. You, every single one of you, I want you to hear this on the inside. Think you're like me. I am a chosen person. I am a royal priesthood. That's every single one of you. A holy nation, God's special possession that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. It's all throughout the New Testament.

I could spend two hours showing you all the verses like Ephesians. Chapter two where it says, you are God's masterpiece. You're specially crafted. You're His handy word. created to do some good works which God prepared in advance for you to do. That there's not a special gifting on a guy like me. You can have the same anointing, same gifting, same impact as anybody else. In fact, I love telling this story. I love to play golf. I enjoy golf a lot and I play with people all the time that who know I'm a pastor. And so when the weather starts getting a little bad, inevitably they all look at me like, Aren't you going to talk to the man up there?

Aren't to do something? And always tell them, I'm in sales, not management. But anyway, I'm not responsible for that part. But they, erroneously think, man, you have a special connection with God that I don't have. Look at me, it's not true. It's not true. That every one of you can be just as anointed, just as called, just as used, and make just as much difference in the world. Do you believe that church? I said, do you believe that church? It's true. It's just true. In fact, not only are you called, not only are you a minister, but every single gift is important and it's unique. And this is to dispel the thought that, well, no, no, there are special people.

who have special gifts and then you're calling, it's just bigger than mine because look what you do, you're on a stage. I am just a priest, I'm just a Christian doing what God's called me to do. It's not better than you. And the devil will tell you, oh, you're just one and a million people. And you're not one in a million. You're one of a kind. There's not this A -list, B -list kind of, you know, type of Christian. No, no, no. God's called all of us to make a difference in this world. In fact, Romans chapter 12 says, The body of Christ each have different gifts according to The body of Christ each The body of Christ each have different gifts according to

grace or a special ability that God has given us, that every single one of them are important. Go read the entire 1 Corinthians 12. It's just fantastic. It'll take you three minutes. read the whole thing where it talks about how God gives out his gifts, and he likens it to the body of Christ, that the human body has many parts, and the many parts that make up one whole body.

And I would actually like to say to you, we function pretty well, but we don't have all the parts of the body functioning if you're the one that's missing. We need the whole thing, we need every part, and can you live without a toe? Yes, but it's not any fun.

And it goes on to say this, it says, now all of you together are Christ's body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it, which means if you sit it out, we all suffer. And we're asking this to sit it in. Come be a part of this with us, and watch what it does collectively. but also watch what it does individually just inside of you, which is my last point. And that is that every one of you has a place where you'll say, I

Was made for this. It's my favorite moment of a dream teamer. When they finally figured out they've taken the path of life, they've gone through a process basically to discover it and develop it. And now they're doing it. Look at me, and I can't wish for anything more for you. Oh, you're just saying, because your job's good, a bunch of people doing stuff like, no, we're fine. We're actually fine.

I'm saying this for you, because there's nothing like it when you found it, stepped into it. And now, right now, the devil will tell you, yeah, but he's not talking about you, because we know what you're, we know you got a long way to go.

You're not ready for all that. And God, look at me. And God is notorious for using completely imperfect people. In fact, watch this. Some of your actual development that gets you further along won't ever even happen until you step into this. That's why He even chose these young disciples who had no seminary training.

In fact, we're still working through some of their issues. And God worked through them as they were doing this. And then what the result is, and I want this for you so badly, you have no idea how much I want this for you. Where you can say like David said, this is a great place to get to, this becomes your bulls eye right here. Where you say, God, you created me. You created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. By the way, a great verse of why we're pro-life. Can I hear a good amen, everybody? Then it goes on to say, I praise you, God. And that sounds almost arrogant unless you understand the context.

I praise you, because when you made me, you knew what you was doing, man. It's awesome. I'm fearfully, I'm wonderfully made. Your works, or he's looking at himself, talking about himself and saying, you did a good job when you created me. And I know it full well. And he wasn't being arrogant here.

He was being fulfilled. He realized that not only has God created me, but all the days ordained for me are written in your book before one of them ever came to be. You have a purpose for my life. Look at me. And he has one for you. And it's just as big as the one he has on my life. In fact, Jesus echoed that. If you want a new testament verse, Jesus said, it is to my father's glory. In other words, this makes God really, really happy. when you're a Christian who's a bearing fruit kind of a Christian. And by the way, if you're not, he still loves you, but there's more.

And that is bearing fruit. And it actually proves you're a real disciple when you're a Christian who bears fruit. And then watch what he says in verse 11, he said, I've told you this, I've told you this, so that. And you would think the next line would be so a bunch of cars get parked and some coffee gets made and some babies get held and outreach happens and widows lawns get mowed. And that's not what in his motivation and it's not ours. I've told you this, so that, like I want you to go bare fruit, I want you to be a Christian who does this, so that...

This is what's missing from out of you. You don't have any joy, and it certainly isn't complete, and could it be that when we put God first, even in the area of our purpose, everything else finds its proper place? And that's my next week. I'm encouraging you to get on the road track and start it. What do you have to lose?

I'll tell you which you have to lose. Joy, fulfillment, knowing my life's not perfect. But I'm using my life with the gift God's giving me to make a difference in this world. I'm inviting everyone of you to be on the dream team. So I want to close with an invitation and I'm running out of time so I won't read the whole thing. But basically the gist of this scripture Jesus always took the crowd and said, hey, get deeper. Let's go to the disciple level. And when he did this, you can read the rest of it. He goes on and says, and if you'll do, it's going to feel like you're losing your life. Like I don't have time to be a dream teamer.

But you're actually going to save your life. You're going to find life. So you need to see that. And so basically take him on a journey. And I want to give you the four phrases of this journey. I actually picked this up from Rick Warren, kind of shaped it as my own. And it's like this. And that is, some of you are at the crowd level. And the crowd level, our message to you is just come see. I'm not asking to serve, give, some of you are like, Sherry, you're tired. You don't want to do anything. Fine. Don't. Kick the tires, rest. But you can't stay there.

And if you are there, maybe you're not even sure. You're very welcomed here. But you can't stay there. We're inviting you to the congregation level, and by the way, that's two levels. We're inviting you to a family, the family of God, which means you need to get saved. You need to truly give your life to Jesus. And then join the church family, the congregation. And that's what you can do next Sunday on

The first step of our road track. The first step is the membership class, where you can come into the family of God through salvation and through membership. But then there's another level. And some of you are there, but that's where you stopped. And I'm asking you to just keep the path of life. And that is the committed, and our message to you is, hey, come and grow. And we're inviting you to be in a small group. We're inviting you to those start next Sunday as well. And this is where you grow here. People say, where's the deep stuff? Where's the discipleship? It's in groups. You want to get out of debt? You want to get a better marriage?

You want to get free from addiction? You want to learn the Bible? Groups. You get to pick the topic. But come and grow, come and grow. And it takes a commitment because it's not easy, but it'll change your life. And then finally, don't stop there either, but there's the core we call the dream team. And here's our message to you, come and be who you are created to be, because God has a purpose for your life. And all God's people said are good. This is powerful prayer. So Father, I'm asking you to speak to people, show them where they are, and help them take a step towards you. Give them the courage to do it.

So they can find the path of life. With heads bowed and eyes closed, the first and most important step is committing your life to Jesus. I'm not talking about being a cultural Christian. I'm not talking about just being a person of religion. I'm talking about a fully devoted follower of Jesus. Some of you have never made that decision. Others of you have and you've walked away. And you just know you're not fully committed to Him and today is going to be your day. For a bunch of you, you're going to join hundreds of others out of the first few services who have made the decision. I'm taking this part of this year to say I'm going all in with God.

Make up your mind. I'm not going to have you stand up. I'm not going to call you down to the front. But I do want you to actively move your faith and say, God, that's me. and I want you to see it. And if that's you on the count of three, I want you to put your hand up as high as you can, say, count me in. And I'm going to pray that prayer with you. If that's you, you're ready to give your life to Jesus. You're going all in with God today, or you're coming back to your faith and giving God your best. One, two, three, put your hand up as high as you can, all over this room, all of our locations and campuses.