Transcription
[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Come on. Anybody grateful to be together today in church? Yeah. Put your hands together. Such an honor to be with all of you here at Grant Mill and everybody who's joining us, uh, through whatever means that is, online or on demand, at one of our locations. Happy Labor Day weekend to everybody. It is honored again just to be in God's house with you. I sense God's presence with us today. I'm excited that we have this opportunity here on Vision Sunday, uh, to be together as a church family. And of course, I do want to say hello again to all those online, on demand. Labor Day weekend, probably a lot of people traveling. We say hello to you guys. But also, especially today, just, just even on Vision Sunday, so grateful for the Highlands family, for our physical locations, both in cities and our correctional facilities. So I say hello to all of you guys. Come on, let's put our hands together for the entire Highlands church family. Love you with all of my heart. And it is, it is Vision Sunday. So I thought it'd be cool to put a visual up, y'all. There's our church family right there. And so all those dots represent, again, the cities we're in and the, and the correctional facilities we're in. And there's even a new dot up there that I'm going to get to in a moment. Um, but you'll, you'll hear more about that in a second. So, welcome again to Vision Sunday. This is something we do a couple times a year, um, in February on our church anniversary and then in August, heading into the fall. Which, by the way, can y'all believe it is fall? I know you can, 'cause you watch football all weekend long. All right? And I'm not going to comment on anything other than to say this: Go Blazers. We won on Thursday night. Come on. We can all agree. So, every chance I get, I'm going to say that. So, it is, we're heading into fall. We do this strategically as we kind of head into fall. So, if you're with us for the first time, you chose a great Sunday to be here to get, just to really see a little more of who Highlands is, what kind of, what we're all about. And that's, uh, that's my prayer today that we would, you know, the Bible says in Proverbs is that when we have vision, we prosper. That with vision, people can see, we can prosper. Without that, we, we, we don't have that. So, we cast off restraints. Actually, what the Bible says, without vision, um, it, it leads in a negative way. So, my, my prayer today is this: that God would allow us to see, both for our church and for our lives. I'm going to share towards the end of today's talk, really, a message for each of you today to minister to your own heart, and that we would walk out of here in a few minutes filled with fresh hope.
>> Yeah.
That's what vision does. When we, when we encounter vision, we encounter the life of God, abundant John 10:10 life of God. With that, just comes this fresh wind of hope. And I have been praying that all weekend long. So, it's a little different kind of Sunday. We'll talk details and some updates, kind of the road map of where we're heading. But more than anything else, just let your heart be open today to receive hope from our God. If you have your app, go ahead and open it up today to our message notes. And again, we're going to talk about church today. We're going to talk about our own lives today, but I want to frame all of that with a question, uh, that I think is going to help us today. And it's kind of an obvious one on, on, on Vision Sunday, but I want to unpack it a little bit more. Here's the question of the day: What do we see? What do we see? And obviously, again, Vision Sunday, kind of an obvious question, but when you really start thinking about sight, sight, there's a lot of aspects to sight. And one of the main things is focus. Everybody say focus.
>> Focus.
Is what we see ultimately has a lot to do with how we focus on it. The perspective that we have and where our eyes are focused controls what we see. The Bible actually teaches focus is a choice. And my wife, uh, Jill, loves these images. I didn't even know they had a name, but for a long time, she showed me these things and she, she loved these things. She loves, loves them. Here's the one I remember like years ago, she showed me. And I want everybody to look at that picture. And there's actually two images that you can see in that picture. How many of y'all see the older lady? Raise your hand, every location. How many of you see the younger lady? Raise your hand. Okay. How many of y'all didn't see any lady? That's, it's okay. Uh, but okay. So, what you see in that picture has everything to do with where you're focused. Here's the, like, most famous one of these. These are actually called ambiguous images. It's kind of a weird name, but put the next one up. This is an image that you can either see a duck or a rabbit. If you saw the duck, raise your hand. Your, your duck people. Okay. Where are my rabbit people at? Okay. Scientists say again, everything you can't see both images at the same time,
>> right?
So, everything has to do with where your focus. Okay, again, where are the rabbit people at? Okay, I got some good news and bad news. Good news, you saw the rabbit. Bad news is you're more likely to own a cat at some point in your life. I don't even know why that's what I'm feeling. So, these are fun. There's a bunch of these images out there, ambiguous images. But again, the research behind this is there's two images you can see, and you can't see them both at the same time. You have to mentally shift from the rabbit to the duck. Some of y'all are still trying to see the rabbit. I can see it on your eyes right now. It's okay. We'll go, we'll come back. We'll put it on the app later on. You can go check it out. So, it has everything to do with focus. What do we see? Has everything to do with what we focus on. Again, the Bible teaches this is not chance. This is a choice. Our key scripture for today is 2 Corinthians chapter 4, uh, verse 18. So we fix. Everybody say fix.
>> Fix.
That word in the original language here is again the word focus. So we fix. We're going to, we're going to make a choice to fix our eyes. And this is not talking about in this case our physical eyes. This is the eyes of our heart on what is so we don't fix our eyes on what is seen, but instead on what is unseen. This is the choice. Am I going to fix the eyes of my heart on what I can see or the unseen? And what is that unseen all about? Because the seen is temporary, but the unseen is eternal. And this, with all my heart, I know, is what God wants for each of us today. Both for our church and for our individual lives is to make the choice to see things from his perspective.
Oh God, would you give us your, honestly, your eyes today? God, can we have your eyes to see today, to focus on the right things, not on what is seen, not on the temporary, not just on what's going on around us, but on the unseen, the eternal. God, we want to see how you see. And that's really my prayer today is for hope. And that hope would be connected to sight. And that sight would be all about God's sight. Because really, you know, in this world we're living in, there's a lot of seen things we can focus on. I mean, we can f, we can focus, you know, every single day on people, relationships, and we can see them as they are. And oftentimes people can be connected to problems in our life or tensions in our life. Or come on church, we can see people, every person that we encounter today and Monday through Friday at work or at school as an eternal being that God created, who's either going to spend eternity in heaven or in hell. They're not just people. They're eternal beings. They're people who God loves with all of their heart. We can choose to focus, you know, just, just on on the situations in our life, the circumstances in our life, just from a, from a physical standpoint, or we can focus on them from an eternal standpoint. Even our church itself, we can just see buildings and locations or watching online through a screen, or we can see this is what it really is, a move of God in our generation. Or even in our own life. We can focus just on the seen, temporary, and which oftentimes would be the problems that we're facing. Or today, with faith, we can believe God, you have a different perspective. You have something that you want to show us today. God, we want to see as you see. We don't want to focus on the temporary. We want to focus on the eternal, not on the, not on, not just on the seen, where we're going to see the scene, the scene is our everyday life, but on the unseen. Today, I want to lean into our church, as I mentioned, I'm going to give us kind of a road map for this fall. But first, even in the spirit of this question, Oh God, give us eyes to see what you see when you see the move of God happening here at Highlands. 'Cause I'm telling you guys, this year to date, I mean, here we are heading into the fall already, God has done more this year than ever before. We are living in a miracle, and I want to have God's eyes to see it. You know, I can't get over Motion Conference just a few weeks back. You know, we can, we can look at Motion Conference just as a youth conference. We can look at it just as a field arena. Or we can look at it, come on somebody, as a moment that changed thousands of lives forever. A moment that impacted a generation. I mean, at Motion Conference this year, we had 17,257 students. To God be the glory. That is a move of God. Let it never just be the seen, temporary. God, that is, that is a God. Can we see that as you see it, y'all? 1,232 salvations at Motion Conference, over 200, over $250,000 given to missions. And we could even look at that as just a report, or every one of those numbers, seeing them as God sees them, individual people. And I, I could go on and on. I mean, literally 17,000 stories. But here's just a couple of them. This is from Luke, a student who came to Motion Conference. This is what it's all about. This is what God sees. "I accepted Jesus. I know the truth. And I now have purpose." Come on, somebody. That is what God. It's not just an arena. It's not just a calendar event. This is what God sees. Here's another story from Braden. "I'm called to reach my classmates and teammates, and I'm ready to follow wherever he leads." It's not just a scene. Yeah. And here's what I know, church. Is that Braden's life? I know I wasn't thinking that at Braden's age.
>> Anybody else out there?
And I know that now Braden has decades to live where his life will impact others' lives. That's what God sees. What do we see? Do we see as God sees? I mean, Serve Day, I know many of us were part of Serve Day. Is that just a day to put on the red shirts? You know, just a day to do some good, or a chance to show the world how Jesus lived, to go out and to seek and to save and to serve? And on Serve Day, a miracle happened. We had 140 projects together as a church. Uh, 143, this is conservative, 143,000 people were reached, which equaled 73,494 man-hours, which would take one person 35.3 years to do that if it was just them. That's what we were part of. To God be the glory. All glory to God. We were part of it that day. But again, it wasn't just the function of the day. I, I think God is so pleased that we all went out and put the red shirt on. But God loves it because he loves his people. And all day long, we got to encounter found people that God loves. Here's just a couple of stories. This is Marissa. This is like amazing. "I found my family." I mean, she found a church. We served her, and she found a family. It's what it's all about. Here's another story from Marita. "I've never seen so much joy and care on people's faces. I can't wait to come to church and feel that again." Again, church, this is what it's all, this is what God sees. God sees Braden. God sees Rita. God sees you. And we could talk about events all day long, but I, I don't even get me started on church. Again, what God is doing right now in our church, even in this year of transition, is truly a miracle. It's a, it's a move of God. Again, to God be all the glory. But we can look at church as just another event. You know, we're here, many of us are from the South. We're obviously here in the South. You know, is it just a check it off the list kind of situation? Is it just routine, or is it a miracle? Is church, come on. Church of the Highlands is a place of power, of God's presence, a community, a place of hope and vision. And again, to God be the glory. I'm going to keep saying that to this, this year to date, as of last Sunday, we have seen 28,748 salvations here at Church of the Highlands. Say miracle. It's a miracle. And over 9,000 people have filled out a connection card here for the very first time. And if that's you, whether that's today or you've been here, you know, for your first Sunday this year, we welcome you. Even as Marissa said earlier in that, in that screen, I pray that you have found a family. And God's moving in our church. You know, this is Douglas. "In the hardest season of my life, God's presence and the love of my church family have carried me every step of the way." Here's one final story from Joe. "Through Highlands, Jesus brought me back to my faith, gave me peace and joy, and today I'm proud to be nine months sober." Put your hands together for Joe. Okay, I'm obviously leaning, I could go on and on. I'm leaning in here because this, what do we see? Do we just kind of go through the motions, or do we see what God sees? And I, we sang a song earlier. I've witnessed it. You know, we have witnessed a move of God up, up, really for 25 years, especially this year to date. And I'm here full of confidence as I give you this road map for the fall, that we're going to continue in Jesus' name to see God move like never before. And I'm just telling you, for my part, and the entire team here, the dream team here, we are committed like never before to build on the legacy of Highlands, but come on, to fearlessly advance with courage and faith into the future. Our world needs the light of Jesus more than ever before. Now is a time for such a time as this. These past 25 years have put us to this point, not just to sit back and enjoy, you know, what it has been, but to know God has more in our future. Philippians 1:6, be, let's be confident of this, that he who began a good work will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. And so I'm praying that God would give us his eyes to see this fall amazing opportunities, that the best truly is, um, yet to come. Next Sunday, we're kicking off with, here's the road map. Next Sunday, we're kicking off a brand new series, uh, we're calling the goodness of God. Come on, look at your neighbor and say, "Our God is a good God."
>> Come on, look at your neighbor and say, "He is good."
Your other neighbor, say, "He is good."
>> We could talk about the goodness of God for the next 80 years. Anybody agree with that?
>> I mean, there's an endless list to the goodness of God. We're going to take the next nine weeks as a church and we are going to lean into the goodness of God. And three things that I'm praying for, and I'm asking you between now and next Sunday to join me, please. I'm asking you daily in prayer that these three things would happen over the next nine weeks in all of our lives, first, but also in others' lives. And the first thing is that we would see his goodness.
Here's what's really cool. The Bible teaches us if you want to know how to see the goodness of God. The Bible actually teaches us in John 14, says Jesus says, "Whoever seen me has seen the Father." So, we, church, we look to Jesus to see the goodness of our God. And so, every week in this series, we're going to start the message with a, a Bible story from the Gospels about a moment in the life of Jesus here on earth and how he ministered and how he, he revealed the goodness of our God, so that we can then, number two, experience his goodness. And I'm praying for this. Been praying this all summer long. I am so excited about this series. We're going to hit some very relevant, real topics, how, you know, we're, how, how Jesus restores. We see the goodness of God and the restoration of God. And many of our prayer requests, even in 21 days, were around relational restoration. And I'm believing for that in every area, from marriages to friendships, to co-workers, to family members, for the restoration of God. Seeing the goodness of how our God is a restoring God. We're going to talk about how Jesus heals. Come on. Anybody believe Jesus is a healer? He's a healer. We believe that emotionally, physically. We're going to show you from God's word and then pray that we all experience that. Have powerful moments. Even going to talk about in this series how Jesus wept. Y'all do know we can see the goodness of God even in our suffering. That suffering is a part of this life. We're not, we're going to hit that head-on, but how we can look for the goodness of God, um, in that. And then we're also going to share his goodness. So, we're going to see it, experience it, and share it. We're going to give everybody next Sunday. So, don't miss this. You got to be in person to receive this, um, this, this copy. You'll, everybody in church will get this next week. It's a similar to journals we've done in the past. This is more of a field guide where we're going to take the message every single week. There's ways to react, interact with it through devotion, uh, devotionals, also through activities, then also this becomes a great tool for us just to pray for the series, inviting friends, and being a part of, of the goodness of God through showing his goodness, sharing his goodness to the world around us. And so, it's going to be an amazing, an amazing nine-week series. And then that'll lead us into at the movies. And then y'all, after that is Christmas. That's crazy. All right. I know Pastor Blake is super excited about that. He celebrates Christmas in May, so he'll be really excited that December is. All right, here's, here's the next thing this fall. And that is, you know, we had a great summer of, of First Wednesdays. I want to bring this back to the surface. Maybe you were traveling a lot and missed those. First Wednesdays is an important part of church life. Uh, this year, we have really, and even moving forward, we have focused on Galatians chapter 4, that says, uh, this is the Apostle Paul saying this. He says, "My, my dear children, for whom I'm again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you." He's expressing his passion for the fullness of God to be formed on the inside of us. Not just a little taste of God, but all of God. Not just living on milk, but living on solid food spiritually. And that's what, uh, First Wednesdays are all about. And so, it's really all about faith formation. And we actually have First Wednesday this week, and we've targeted a specific area that is so important, and that's the area of finances. And we have Dave Ramsey, who was with us earlier this year. He's back with us. Yeah. Come on, Uncle Dave. I love Uncle Dave. And so he is locked and loaded to help us in a very spiritual area, the area of finances, to bring order to that area. And, and I'm, I'm super excited about that. And all of our, um, all of our, um, fall First Wednesdays. And here's the last kind of road map. And you've already heard this one. I won't stay here long, but we are officially launching our fall small groups today. And as a church, we are called to community, to commune with God and with each other. And I am so excited that we're launching those groups. They'll last for the, the next 13 weeks. What a great chance to go online today. All those groups are listed, you know, where they, where they meet, the day, the time, the topic, and you may even have to try out a few,
>> right?
That's completely okay. Your leaders are ready for rejection. The leaders that are there, if you go from their group to the next one, we have prepared their hearts. It's not about that. It's about you finding the right group. That's what it's all about. And so, please know that that's, that's our passion and kind of the rally cry. You're going to hear it a lot from me all fall long, is together we win. And that's, that's the truth. We need each other more. We need God and we need each other, uh, more than ever before. And so that's kind of fall programming. And I'm really excited that along with that, um, kind of built up to this moment, that we're, we're putting a fresh vision focus on an area of our church and of our, in the state of Alabama, that is so important. We launched down in Montgomery around 15 years ago in our capital city of Montgomery, and we have an amazing campus there that's been led by Pastor Chris Irwin, his wife Rachel. God has used that campus for 15 years for people to know God and find freedom, discover purpose, and to make a difference. And God really just led us as a church to bring back focus to that area in a, in a huge way. Uh, the first way we're going to do that is we are actually beginning construction on the Montgomery Dream Center this fall, which I'm so, Yeah. Put your hands together. It's exciting. Which is a, a hub of outreach, obviously for us, where we're able just to show, as I said earlier with Serve Day, show the city of Montgomery the love of Jesus and, and it's an important city with the military base there and with colleges there, and just the families that live in that community. Also, just being our capital city here in Alabama for us, just to show the love of Jesus in, in moments and services, but also practically with those red shirts on. And it's such an incredible opportunity. It is fully funded. I want to just celebrate that by the generous people of Church of the Highlands. And so we're able just to build that debt-free. And that, that facility is going to start in the next month or so. And then along with that, again, a focus to that area. I'm officially announcing, I kind of teased it at team night. The dot was actually up there earlier. I mentioned that earlier, you know, when we showed you the whole state or the, or the whole campus, uh, church map, but we are, uh, announcing today the launch of the Prattville campus in February 26. Church of the Highlands is coming to Prattville. Pratt Vegas. It's going to be awesome. Which just now gives us two locations in that region. To God be the glory. It's going to be an incredible opportunity to reach that entire region with a Dream Center, two campuses. And honestly, guys, this was so easy because we really already have a campus in Prattville, 'cause for like, for the last 5 years, they have been meeting for 21 days. I mean, small groups, outreach, that's kind of like a black market small group. They basically forced us to turn that into a, or black market campus. They forced us to turn that into a campus. And I am so exc, I even have family members in Prattville. I know they're so excited. And I believe with all of my heart for decades to come, God is going to use that campus to make a difference. And I know we're not physically in that space, but one more time, all across church life, can we welcome the people of Prattville? We love you. We're so excited. And before I share a little bit on just vision for our own lives, we put together a video just to give you a little more of God's picture of what's happening in the city of Montgomery. Check it out.
I can remember 15, 16 years ago when we were praying about this area. I remember meeting with Pastor Chris and and saying, "I'd love to bring Highlands to Montgomery." And Pastor Chris said, "Well, we'd love to be in Montgomery." We knew then that God wanted to do something really, really special in this area.
[Music]
We have seen so many people healed and set free. They have found their purpose. They're part of a team. And now the local church right here in the central part of our state has not only grown, but it's thrived. We're so thankful that God has given us so many opportunities to do lots of outreach in this area. And we've always loved this vision of Dream Centers. We have one in Birmingham, one in Auburn. We love that. That was Pastor Chris's vision and heart. Now Pastor Marks, and now Montgomery is now getting their own. We're excited because there's so much opportunity to meet needs and minister to people and to mobilize more team. How do we share the love of Jesus? How do we become the church between Sundays? And that is the mission of the Dream Center. One of the greatest things that we love is being in the community so much. We've been doing outreach here for 20 years. And to watch life change happen not just in the building, but in the community, uh, has been incredible. When you think about this area, this area does include a few cities, and one of those being Prattville, Alabama. We've heard for years, "Can we get our own campus?" It's a community that we've actively been serving. It's a community that is full of Highlands families. You just see the growth of families, the amount of schools in our area,
>> people are, you know, flocking to this area between military, uh, you know, going to both the bases and whatnot.
When you look at where is the natural next place for us to go? It's where we already have so many great church family, and we've seen them drive in, you know, 40 minutes to be with us on a Sunday. And that's why we've done so many small groups and outreach there. The groups introduced us to people who were trying to live life just like we were. That really helped us to surrender our issues and problems to God and just let him just work it out.
We realize now, okay, it's time to do more. That we need a Sunday experience. We need a campus life. We need a campus family in Prattville, Alabama. We wanted really to dive our family a lot deeper into ministry, into just loving on people and community, and have our children grow up seeing that and living that and having a campus that's in our city. The impact that that's going to make on their lives and the, the community is going to be great.
To just be able to see the light of Jesus spread to so many other places. We're excited for all God's about to do.
The opportunity has never been greater. We have the resources we need. We have the amazing Dream Team to reach a city that is hurting, that is broken. We're not leaning back. We are doubling down on the capital city. And as one church, this is exciting for all of us, not just Montgomery and not just Prattville. Now, new family members will come into our church that will become us. We will become the family of God, and we'll do great things together. Maybe in a different zip code, but in the same family, the body of Christ.
Yeah. Come on, somebody. What an incredible opportunity. And again, Prattville, we officially welcome you as we begin to launch that campus all fall. And the first day in February is going to be a day to celebrate. And Psalm 115, uh, one is on my heart today. I just want to finish kind of the vision for our church section with this: "Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory because of your love and faithfulness." And the church said, "Amen." Amen. And so I want to take these last few moments and, um, and minister to you. If you would even open your heart. You know, as we talk about vision for the church, I want to talk about vision for our own lives. We want to have God's perspective for the future of our church. But I've been praying for God's perspective, what he sees over all of our own lives. And I have had so many conversations recently. I know it's not an accident. In fact, I think this will be a series in 2026 because there's been just conversation, you know, with young people, Highlands College, and other places about, you know, how do I find vision for my life? Or, you know, what does that look like? My next step after college. I've talked to a lot of people my own age, which I have to admit now, I'm like in those middle-age years. I'm middle-aged, in those mid-40s. Like, what does my second half look like? And the next decade and a half, what, you know, what does God have for me? And then just even people who are older in our church, full of wisdom, and like, how do I take all that God's done in my life? You know, what is the vision for these, these next years as I invest that into other people? And time after time, when I've had those discussions, and I don't know if this is everybody, but I know because of those and other discussions, it's a lot of us that there's a temptation or a tendency at least for that to come along with some weight. I think vision has, is exciting, can be very exciting, but al, often times we, when we talk about vision for our own lives, we can feel like we've somehow missed it, or the pressure of figuring it out can be so overwhelming, it can just feel literally like a weight sitting on our shoulders. I talked to a lot of people, that's even how they describe it. There's almost paralyzed with like the what next, or the how I get from here to what God wants for my life. It can come with fear, confusion, you know, guilt, and just a lot of anxiety. And again, it's person after person. I know it's no accident. And so I'm even going to pray for us right now. I even have the keys out, just for this to be more of a heart moment. And I want to just share for the next eight or nine minutes, a message I know is from heaven for all of us. And again, there's more even in the practical sense for this calling or vision idea, but I know God wants to lift the weight today if you'll allow him.
Jesus, thank you for your presence. It's so faithful. You are here right now. God, thank you for the vision of this house. We are so confident. There's things in front of us, but God, just as that's true for our church, it is true for every life in the sound of my voice. So, enemy, get your hands off of them, their minds, their hearts. God, I'm praying for the weight to be lifted, and we to have your eyes, your perspective, your, your ability, God, to focus on what really matters as it relates to vision. God, do what only you can in this moment. In Jesus name. And everybody said, "Amen." Everybody said, "Amen." First, or Philippians 1:6. I, I preached it earlier about the church. I want to come back to it. It's being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to what? Completion. I want to lean in on those three, three ideas: He began it, he carries it, and he will complete it. He began the work, he carries the work, and he will complete it. Here's the big idea of, he began it. Here's, here's really the big idea of vision is that God is the initiator of vision. At the end of the day, it is not my vision. That's honestly where we often go wrong. That's where the weight comes in. It's not our vision, it's His vision. That God is the author of our story. Our story didn't begin with us. It began with Him. Jeremiah 29:11, let this minister to you today: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." God has plans, and they are good plans, and they are His plans. So, how do I find those? That's kind of the, the, the place we find ourselves. How do I find those plans? How do I find that vision? Here's, here's something that's going to encourage you. In the Bible, calling is used as both a noun and a verb. You know, how do I find my calling? Well, as a noun, it's used four times. I'll talk about the verb usage in a moment, but as a noun, it's used four times. Many different, you know, instances of a verb, but as a noun, it's used four very intentional times. One of those is in Ephesians 4, says, "As a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received." Every single time that calling is used as a noun like this, it is used to talk about our salvation. That our ultimate calling, God's ultimate vision for our life is a relationship with Him. I'll say it this way: Our ultimate calling is to know Him and make Him known. That is the hope and future Jeremiah 29 is talking about in that instance to the people of Israel. And there in that scripture, it is talking about us that we are called to know Him and to make Him known. This is why the Bible never tells us to find our calling. Come on, somebody. Because our calling was never lost. It's not lost. It's to know and make Him known. And we can know God and make Him known exactly where we are. Even if it's not the circumstances that we wish or that we hope for. We'll talk more about that in a moment. But hey church, you are called. Where are you called? Right where you are. To know God and to make Him known. Today, tomorrow, every person you encounter, the opportunities that are in front of us, they're all a part of our calling to know Him and make Him known. Let that weight, let that just begin to lift some weight off. And it, of course, the verse continues to say that he will also carry those good works on. He will carry them. God is the initiator of vision. The Holy Spirit is the sustainer of vision. This is good news, everybody. That God doesn't just like throw plans at us and say, "Good luck." God is not like IKEA. Okay? I don't know if you're IKEA people out there. You go to IKEA, you buy the furniture, it's in a box, you bring it home, and you pull the plans out and it's like, "Good luck," 'cause they don't, there's no words. It's just pictures. I have never put together a piece of IKEA furniture the right way the first time, right? I'm so grateful that God's not like that. He's not like, "All right, I made you plans. Good luck figuring it out." That God gives us His Spirit. When we know Jesus, when we experience salvation, we are filled with the Spirit of God, which, praise God for a GPS and all the different, you know, maps we have here on earth. There is no better director for our life than the power of the Holy Spirit. Philippians 2:13, it is God. Holy Spirit is God who works in you to will and act in order to fulfill His good purpose. With, when we know God, there's never going to be a day we don't have the, the sustaining, directing power of the Holy Spirit. He will lead us into those plans. He will lead us step by step. Calling is a noun. Calling in the Bible is also a verb. And every time calling, Old and New Testament, is used in the verb tense, check this out. It, it just means this: He invites you to His next assignment for you. That our entire life, it's not a singular calling. That's what puts a lot of weight on young people is like, "I got to figure it out." And some of those older people can tell you, you ain't going to figure it out at 17 years old, because our life is a journey, and the Holy Spirit is faithful to lead us from place to place to place. Look at the Apostle Paul and others in the Bible. They were continually being called. And how do we stay in tune with that? We stay intimate with God. We live, live a Spirit-led life, which is not some mystical life. It just means I am, I'm going to, I'm going to always stay close to Him. It's all about Spirit-led life is all about intimacy with God. How do we receive that next invitation? We stay close to Him. How do we receive that next invitation? We stay in His word. How do we receive that next invitation, that next assignment? We stay around the people of God. Come on. This is what Galatians says. Galatians 5, "We live by the Spirit. Let us keep in step with the Spirit." We just stay close to God. And sometimes it is big things, by the way. And maybe you're even in a valley of decision right now. Stay close to God. He will be faithful through His word, through His people, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit. But often times our next assignment is just the small thing He has for us today. It's the smile, the encouragement, the acts of service, being the hands and feet of Jesus. If we over, I think we overwhelm ourselves because we make it so big. It's just, I'm going to be faithful where I am. God's got a plan for me today, and I'm just going to take that next step in obedience and stay close to Him daily in His presence. Daily receiving His power, daily receiving His strength. When Matthew 6 says, I'm just going to live off His daily bread. The power of God working in us. And then ultimately, that carries us to completion. And this is, this is so powerful. And this is where we're going in the next series. I'm teeing it up today. Jesus is the finisher of vision. God initiates it. The Holy Spirit sustains it. But you're in, let me say it this way. Look at me. The vision for your life is in good hands. It's in the hands of a loving God, the hands of the power of the Holy Spirit, in the hands of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And the authority He has to finish was earned on the cross. He didn't go to that cross and say, "I am finished." Come on. With His last breath, He says, "It is finished." And that word, telly, means mature. It literally means I did everything I was here on earth to do. Complete, accomplished, paid in full. And it's out of that power that we can do the very same thing. And I want there to be fresh breath and again, weight lifted off, and for you to leave here in hope. It is never too late. No matter what your past has looked like, God never stops calling us. And from this day forward, we just put our aim on the, on our finish line, whatever that is. Hopefully, it's 50 years in the future. But I want to be able to say just what Jesus did: "It is finished." God, I just did everything You called me to do. I'm just going to follow the power of the Holy Spirit, saying yes to God. And if we have breath in our lungs, it is God's vision for you. It is not too late. It is not finished. And our next series is going to have, just all about Jesus. All about the power of God. Even next week, we're going to kick off with the, the power, how God is a king. Jesus reigns. And it's in His name, the name above every name, that we have all hope for our life, all hope for our future. So if you have breath in your lungs, it's not finished. And today, I'm going to pray for us in a moment. It's an opportunity just to realign ourselves with that truth and say, "You know what, God? I'm going to lock in. I want to see what You see for my life." And I want to finish with a "Well done, good and faithful servant." That's what it's all about. If you would bow your heads and close your eyes, all across every location, online. Just want to let the power of the Holy Spirit move in this moment. God's presence is here today. We've been talking about vision. More than anything else, I pray that God would give us all eyes to see His love in this moment. Before I even go any further, this is for everyone here in this moment. Can we just, even in your own heart now? God, show me what you see when you see my life. And what you're going to see when you see what He sees is how much He loves you, just as you are. You're here and you're already in relationship with Him. He loves you and He has more for you. If you're here today and you don't know Him yet, He loves you and you're like, "Oh yeah, you don't know what I did, what I, what I, what I'm thinking, or what my life has looked like." You need to know God loves you. And this is an amazing moment here on Vision Sunday to allow the power and presence of God to meet you right where you are. And if you don't know Him, today can be the day of salvation for you. The amazing thing is, again, we're going there in the next series. We already talked about it today. What Jesus did for us on the cross now allows us to have the relationship that God's always wanted to have with us. He paid for our sins. He made a way because of His resurrection. We can be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's not about religion. It's not about getting it all right. It's about a real, authentic relationship. And I don't want to finish today without offering everyone a chance to experience that. If you don't know Him, this is your moment. I was 17 years old when I met Jesus. It changed everything. This can be that day for you. Every head bowed and every eye closed. On the count of three, I'm just going to ask you to lift your hands. Campus pastors will join me on stage at every location. They're going to pray with you. But I want to give us a chance to respond here today on Vision Sunday to the most important decision we can make. And if that's you, you already know it. Even if you're online, I would, on the count of three, would have you raise your hand. Just do it as an act of faith. And we're going to pray together. One, two, three. Come on. If that is you and you want to know Jesus, there, amen. I see that hand right there. Awesome. I see your hand. Praise God. Praise God. Amazing. All around the room, online, on demand, just letting the presence and the power of God move in your life in this moment. If that's you, just pray this prayer with me: Jesus, today I give you my life. I ask you to forgive me of my sins, my mistakes. I repent. I turn from that and I'm running to you. Be my Lord and my Savior and fill me with your Holy Spirit. God, thank you for those who just prayed that prayer. Thank you that your power is working in them in this moment. The old is gone and the new has come. Now I pray for all of us in this area of vision, that the weight will be lifted. God, I'm praying right now for your people, God. May, may we be refreshed with the truth today that God, you have great plans for our life, plans to know You and make You known. God, that You have assignments for us and You're going to be faithful to lead us from, from one to the next to the next. God, thank you that You allow us to be close with You. God, I'm praying for that, even in this moment, a moment of, even of a decision in all of our lives to take one step closer to You so that we can hear Your voice and be obedient to that call. And finally, we are so thankful for Jesus today that He went to that cross and because of what He did, we can stand in authority with Your power working on the inside of us with hope and a future. God, thank you for who You are, for what You've done today. In Jesus name. And everybody said, "Amen." And would you help me and just praise God for those who, especially those who just made that salvation decision.