Chris Hodges - Building Our Faith
All right, who's glad to be in church today? Anybody? How about we give Jesus a big hand clap of praise, 'cause I don't think we can praise him enough, that's right. It's good to see you. Really good to see you guys. Let me say a big hello to all of our other locations that we are now joining. We are one church that meets in 26 locations in Alabama and Georgia. God bless you guys, and what an incredible honor it is to bring this service and all that we are as a church into 26 of Alabama's Department of Corrections facilities. Love you guys so, so very much. Grateful that you're with us and to everybody watching online or on demand, we're glad you're along for the ride as well.
I heard from a couple this week that's watching from Bozeman, Montana. Come on, everybody, how about we put our hands together and say a big hello to everybody that's joining us? Oh, you can do a little bit better than that. Thank you, thank you. All right, thank you. All right, well, hey, before we jump into the message, let me give you a little preview of things that are happening this month because all of it's very intentional and it has a purpose behind it and I wanna make sure you see that. You've already heard about the fact that today is Day 1 of 21 Days of Prayer, which means starting today is 22 straight days of church. Can I get a good "Amen," everybody, right?
And we love this season. If you don't know much about our church, we were actually founded on prayer. We had 21 Days of Prayer before we had our first church service, and this is very dear to us, because we know that all the great things that have happened here are not by the work of man, it's the work of God. And so we give him all the praise, but we're also desperate for God in our lives in every way. And so starting tomorrow morning, at all of our locations, at 6 a.m., we're gonna be seeking the Lord. We'll have over a thousand other churches joining us as well, streaming with us. And so we're excited about that. I want you guys to join us in person if you can, online if you can't, and then on demand if none of those times work out for you. It's gonna be a great, great time.
And by the way, you were given a Connection Card. Even if you're not a normal Connection Card filler-outer, this is probably a good time to be one. If you fill out the bottom portion, note it's perforated. We keep your prayer requests separate from your personal information. But if you write a prayer request, they'll show up at the front of every auditorium tomorrow, and they'll get prayed over multiples of times, and we know God will do a great work in your life, so work on that. We'll get it from you at the end of the service. I do wanna announce that tomorrow, we're gonna be praying over our students: our children, and our high school students and college students. We're gonna lay hands on them, pray for them, before they go to school.
And by the way, you'll be amazed at the number of young people who set clocks and get up early. It's the most striking thing every year. How many are grateful we have a generation that still loves Jesus? Come on, everybody, right? So I'll see you in the morning. In a couple of days from now, we'll have our First Wednesday service. I don't talk much about it, but let me tell you, if you didn't know this, we really try on Sundays to feed Christians, but also reach people far from God. And so we design services with both of those in mind. Whereas First Wednesday is really just designed for you. It's a believer's service. We know we have visitors but we have really services that are built, they have longer worship, it has more ministry time, things like that, and we always take the Lord's Supper because, of course, the Lord's Supper is not a visitor event, it is a believer event, right?
So once a month we celebrate Communion together and I wanna invite you. It's at 6.30, we have food trucks and we get you home before school the next day too, so very, very important. As you already heard, we have these Revival Nights. This is our second year to do this. We had no idea how popular these would be. They were packed out at every location. The only thing that I wanted to add to what you already know about these Revival Nights is that last year we learned something and that is when our friends came and spoke and we were here, you know, till 8, 9, 10, 11 o'clock, you know, after the service and then getting back up at 4:30, 5 o'clock again, I wore my team's slap out. We weren't revived. We were revived to a rag, you know what I'm saying?
So for the three mornings during Revival Nights, and I'll remind you, because this is next week, but on the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, we're gonna be online only prayer services, so I don't wear my team's slap out, okay? So I'll remind you about that, but it's gonna be awesome. And then on the Wednesday night of that week, we have it for students, and then on the Thursday night of it that week, we have it for the men only. And I love the fact that we end the whole week with revival in the men of God. And I think it's a big deal. And so at this one, because it's men, we also have food. Come on, men, say "Amen" right there, okay? Yeah, I knew you'd like that. And so, but because it is food, it is important for you to register, because I'm frugal, and I don't like wasting money, and I also want to make sure that we have enough food for you.
So register just so we know how much to order, please, men, if you plan on coming. You can do that on the app. Today, I'm beginning a brand new series that'll go throughout the month of August, 4 weeks, simply called, "I've Witnessed It". We've already sang about that. I'll tell you more about why that title in just a second, but we always knew that in August, we were gonna have a month of studying miracles, because I believe God showed us, the leadership of the church, that 2024 would be, there would be an emphasis on miracles. He's always the God of miracles, but we felt like 2024 would be a miracle year in a number of ways exceptionally.
And so I always knew that during this season I wanted to teach about it because we have a God, the Bible says, who is great. "What God is as great as our God"? And the answer is there isn't one. "You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among people". In fact, not only in our God, but even in the person of Jesus Christ, his life was marked by three things. I like to think that perfect ministry or even churches today, which I think are supposed to mirror the ministry of Jesus, he did three things. The Bible says he went throughout the towns and villages and he taught in their synagogues, he preached, and then there was healing that took place. And so to me, that's what I'm always thinking about. Am I giving you a balanced diet of those things? And they're very different. Teaching is more discipleship. I think it's more about the believer.
And so we take a number of Sundays and just feed you and take care of you and talk about things that'll help grow your faith. We have seasons that are purely preaching the good news. We'll tell you, this is a Sunday that if you're gonna invite someone far from God, perfect Sunday, and we have seasons of that. Those will come up later in the year, which is one of the best times to reach people far from God. But also, we want to make sure that there's seasons of healing. This service, this month, this series, the whole month is gonna be about healing. And we're gonna talk about God doing a deep work on the inside of us. But when you think about healing, most people only think about, like, physical healing. But I wanna show you that Jesus's ministry was actually marked by all kind of different miracles.
Seventeen of the recorded miracles in the Gospels were physical in nature. They were with people's bodies, fever, leprosy, et cetera. Six of them, and I want you to notice this, were deliverances from demoniacs, things that were going on on the inside of them that you might not even be able to notice on the outside. And the truth is, this still happens. Now we may not say it that way, because that kind of freaks a lot of people out to say it that way. But the truth is, some of you need a miracle in your soul. You're not okay on the inside. You have depression, anxiety, fear, worry. Like, you don't sleep well at night. And there could be something going on the inside that God wants to heal. Can I hear a good "Amen," everybody?
And one of the installments of this series is gonna be emotional healing. You'll wanna be here for that. Three, raised from the dead, and then nine miracles over nature. These were miracles like where he turned, you know, he fed 5000 people, where there was this miraculous catch of fish, right? And I like to think of those as... those were miracles of provision. And we're gonna talk about that because one of the miracles that God wants to do in our lives is for our sustenance, for our daily bread, for our finances, for our jobs. And we're gonna talk about the miracles. We do our part, but God wants to do miracles in those areas as well. But these are what are recorded, but the truth is there are many more than that, an innumerable amount of miracles that Jesus did, and John talks about it: "Jesus did many other things," than what's just written in scripture. "And if every one of them were written down, I suppose that not even the whole world would have enough room for the books that would have been written".
Miracle after miracle, and we want to lean into that during this season. But people say, "Okay, Chris, but that was Jesus". No, you need to understand that he always intended his followers to have miracles flowing through them as well. God does the miracle, but he uses us. In fact, Matthew says it this way: "He called his twelve and he gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. 'As you go,' he said, 'proclaim this message: "The kingdom of heaven has come near".'" In other words, tell people, God is not as far away as you think he is. "'Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.'" Why? Because you've received it, why don't you give it away? "'Freely you have received, freely give.'" To which somebody says, "Okay, but that was just disciples in the scripture, not today".
And that's not true either. We all know, by the way, for those who say miracles have stopped, if there's been one miracle in the last 2000 years, that hasn't stopped. And how many of you know there's been a whole lot more than just one over the past 2000 years? In fact, Jesus prophesied it this way: "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I have been doing". Notice he's talking about in the future. "And they will do even greater things than these, when I go to heaven," because I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit and it's not gonna stop, it's gonna increase. "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it".
Now amen to that verse and wow, that's kind of frustrating too. Because we all believe that, he said it, it's true, but at the same time, boy, doesn't the Bible make it sound a whole lot easier than sometimes it feels like it really is? So I wanna talk about today to set this whole month up, what's the key to miracles? So for those of us saying, "Okay, that makes sense, but that's not what I really see". And that's why I wanna lean into one single thought, I need you to hear this. There's not a place in scripture that doesn't talk about miracles, that doesn't include the fact that we believe and have faith. Faith is key. So we don't know much about it, I don't know everything about it. I don't know why sometimes and why not other times. All I know is every place in scripture, you see this thing called faith.
So what I thought I would need to do, as a leader, as your pastor, because that's my job, is to take you to hillsides. I'm leading you and I'm feeding you. I wanted to feed you a month of faith. Just faith. And the only way I know really how to build your faith, watch this now, because your faith can be built. So you have some, and I don't know what condition it's in right now. But I know this, it can be built. And I've watched, because I've been doing this as a leader for 41 years, and I've known the Lord for 46 years, that every time I saturate myself in the things of God, my faith grows. So what would it look like if you actually came to all 21 days of prayer? What if you came to all four installments of this series? What if you've not been water baptized?
You say, "Hey, I'm canceling my plans after service and I'm getting baptized". What if you actually jumped in today at step one and joined the church? What if you came to every night of Revival Night? What if you leaned into the whole thing that we're kind of putting before you? I'm gonna tell you what's gonna happen. Your faith is gonna grow. Now can I guarantee you a miracle? I don't know, but I know this. You will have more faith than, you know I say this all the time: "Give us a year of your life". Well, I'm gonna change it. Give us a month of your life. Give us a month of your life where you lean into all of this, and I promise you, your faith is gonna grow. On top of that, here's an ad. And that is, there's another thing that builds people's faith. And we have actually, I would say, underutilized this here at Highlands. And you've probably noticed how we're utilizing it more and more, and that is the telling of stories. Hence, I've witnessed it.
So I'm gonna give you the scripture, I'm gonna give you services, we're gonna pray a lot, we're gonna have a lot of church, and we're gonna tell you some stories that people said, "Let me tell you what happened to me," and watch that build your faith as well. Are you with me, church? Yeah, this is gonna... you can feel it, don't you? It's gonna be great. So the disciple John wrote an Epistle, it's toward the end of your Bible. Watch how he says it. "That which was from the beginning," he's talking about Jesus, "which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes". So notice, instead of just giving theology and an argument, he said, "Look, I was there". He says, "Which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this is what we're proclaiming".
In other words, believe me or not believe me, but listen to this, I have a story to tell, I was there. Watch this. "We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard," and we're gonna do that in this series, "I've Witnessed It". "So that you may have," notice it says, "fellowship". Now this is not the word "fellowship" like we're gonna go out in the hallway and hang out in the foyer and high five people. It's not that kind of fellowship. It means you're gonna get in the boat with us. You're gonna be a bunch of fellows in the ship. There's some of you who are in the room, but you're not in the boat with us.
So you believe it kinda, or you're not sure. And he says what gets you into fellowship, into believing this, is you... we're gonna tell you the stories that we have seen and heard. Are you seeing that, everybody? "And our fellowship is not just with each other, but it's with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ". So every week we're gonna do something. I told my team about, gosh, probably about a year ago, I said, "Start collecting stories. I wanna tell more stories". And so every week we're gonna just tell you stories, we're gonna show them to you on video like we did in worship today. Like, we're gonna have some fun with this. Let me read you this story, okay?
So this is Jeremy and Pamela from our Southwest campus. Their son and daughter-in-law, the daughter-in-law was pregnant, and the daughter-in-law said that their grandbaby, the baby's brain was not forming properly, and the doctor on several occasions said, "Trust me, you probably just want to get an abortion, you want to end this. It's not gonna turn out good". "During this, Jeremy and Pamela hit their knees and started praying hard. It seemed hopeless, but they believed God could heal their granddaughter. Through many ups and downs on the journey, they put their hope in God. And when it was announced in 2024 that this is the year of miracles, they dared to believe it. They prayed all throughout the 21 Days of Prayer in January and God was faithful. He performed a miracle. The baby was born this year, fully formed brain and perfect. To God be the glory".
Come on, everybody. Let me tell you the story about Landria from our Woodlawn Campus. She was "attending the marriage conference at the Woodlawn Campus until she suddenly began to experience extreme back pain that prevented her from being able to walk. She was brought to an area", our first responders brought her to an area, "at the conference where she laid down on her back in hopes that the pain would subside. The campus team was thinking of calling an ambulance because she couldn't move at all and she couldn't get up to get in her car. As some of the Dream Team were going to get Landria a wheelchair, a few people thought to just lay hands on her and pray for her". "A few people," where y'all at, folks?
Come on, now. I wrote a book called "Pray First". Okay, anyway, so all right. "Immediately after the prayer, she felt a release of tension in her back, and she felt like she had been healed. So she said she wanted to try to get up and walk, and to the amazement of the people standing there, she was able to walk again, pain free, and it was a miracle indeed". It gets better than that, hold on. Oh yeah, that's just good by itself, but watch this. "What's so special about this story is that Landria was there at the marriage conference because her marriage was in shambles. She and her husband were in the process of getting divorced. After seeing his wife miraculously healed, her husband Andre said that if God was able to heal her, then he believes that he could heal their marriage as well. They both finished the conference and their marriage is healed and they've been coming to church together from our Woodlawn campus as a family ever since".
Now give God some serious praise, yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Let me read you the story of Betty from our Opelika campus. "Miss Betty was diagnosed with stage 3 liver cancer in February of 2023. She asked the doctor if it was serious and he says, 'Miss Betty, you have 9 months to live.' So Miss Betty decided to begin treatment in May, but she was believing for her real treatment when the August 21 Days of Prayer would come around if she could make it to August". She did, and she says, "My church prayed for me, laid hands on me, believed with me, and we asked God together for the tumor to shrink, and it shrank. Every time we prayed, the tumor shrank a little bit more. We prayed and the tumor shrank some more".
Then June 5th of this year, 4 days after her birthday, she got a call from the doctor, so that's just a few weeks ago, and not only did the tumor completely shrink, but it's now completely gone, and she's healed in Jesus's name. Come on, give God some praise, everybody. So this is what your month is gonna look like. We're gonna have services, stories, prayer, and we're gonna lean into God. In fact, even today, at the end of the service, if you want prayer, I'm gonna pray over people today. I'm gonna close the services today and ask God to do a miracle. But I wanna take the last few minutes that we have of our time together and I wanna talk to you what I do know about miracles. I wanna just be quick to say I don't know a whole lot. God, there's a reason why they call them signs and wonders. Because I wonder how in the world that happened. I don't know.
And God's not some kind of celestial Santa Claus. He's not a slot machine that you pull, you put in the right thing and he just automatically does it. God's ways are just simply not our ways. But I wanna lay a foundation of what I do know about miracles and what the Bible says about miracles and it's very, very important. And again, the key is our faith. And I want you to hear this again, our faith can be built. It can be built. I'm gonna show you in this story how this one person got a miracle and I pulled out five things that I want you to get because this is what I do know about how to lean into something like this. "As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind beggar was sitting beside the road. And when he heard the noise of the crowd gathering around Jesus, he asked, 'What's going on, what's happening?' They told him, 'Jesus is here,' and he was going by. So he began shouting..."
I want you to notice this. Everything that I have in yellow, I want you to notice. So the guy says, "'Oh, Jesus is coming by?' And he began shouting, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!'" And the people said, "Stop, you're out of order. That's not... no, you need to have a little bit more decorum than that. We don't work that way". And he just said, "You ain't the one that's blind, though". "And he shouted even louder, 'Son of David, have mercy on me!' And when Jesus heard him, he stopped and ordered that the man be brought to him. And as the man came near Jesus..." And you can imagine somebody's leading him because he's blind.
So Jesus knows he's blind, but it's very obvious if you have somebody leading you there too. And then Jesus says, "What do you want me to do for you"? As if that's not obvious. But it's an important detail in a miracle story. "And Jesus said, 'What do you want?' And he says, 'I wanna see!' And Jesus said, 'All right, receive your sight!' And he says, 'Your faith has healed you.'" And I want you to notice that. I'm gonna teach you what that word literally means because it can be one of these words that you can't put your fingers around. I'm gonna show you how you can. "And instantly the man could see, and he followed Jesus, praising God. And everybody else praised God too".
So there are five things in this story I wanna give you and then we're gonna pray for miracles today. And they all start with the letter P. It's a preacher disease, y'all, I just have to do it, okay, all right? So if you're taking notes, you can get your app out and you can actually fill these in and keep your notes for a long time. The first one, remember, the Bible says, "He cried out to God". He passionately cried out to God. And I wanna make sure you understand that one of the things that gets God's attention is passion. Passion. And I'm gonna quote you some verses, I'm not gonna be able to put them all on the screen, but listen to me, God responds to those who give him their whole heart. And this is very important for you to understand because we have a tendency, especially in the South, to kind of like put our toe into religion or faith or into our relationship with God. And God's just kind of an all-in God, y'all. You need to know that.
In fact, in Jeremiah, the Bible says, "You will seek me and find me," and find me is what we all want. Like, we want the prayer answered. But "You seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart". There's another verse, if you're a note-taker, 2 Chronicles 16, I think it's verse 9, it says: "The eyes of the Lord are going to and fro, searching for hearts that are fully devoted to him". That's what he's looking for. In the New Testament, in John chapter 4, Jesus himself said, "The Father seeks worshipers, and those who worship him in spirit and in truth," and that's the word "proskuneo" in the Greek, which is not just like worship, like this worship. The word literally translates to kiss, but it doesn't mean like the kiss of lovers. It means like when a dog licks its master's hand.
So for those of you who have dogs, you know this, cats don't, but dogs express, right? Dogs, like they can hear the garage door go up. And we used to have a little miniature Dachshund. When we raised the garage while we're still in our car, we could hear her yelling and just running around the house, "We're home, we're home, we're home". That's in dog, what she was saying. "We're home, we're home, they're home, they're home". And then we open the door, she'd jump up her little short Dachshund, miniature Dachshund legs, and jump up and lick our hands. That's the word. Like, the father is looking for somebody who's gonna respond to him in that kind of way. Are y'all listening to me, everybody? In fact, in Matthew chapter 15, he says, "There is a generation who worship me traditionally, but their hearts are far from me".
In Revelation chapter 2, the church at Ephesus said, "You do great works, but you've lost your first love". This is something that's very important to God, and you just need to know that. Here's a second one. Remember when they said, "Be quiet," and he just shouted all the more? The second P is you need to be persistent. So when he doesn't answer the first time, you keep on praying until the miracle comes. And frankly, I think a lot of us just give up too soon. You say, "Well, Chris, why does he wait so long"? Because he loves doing a work on the inside of us on the journey to the miracle itself. And it's the part of God that none of us really like. I don't like it. Just answer it. He goes, "No, if I can teach you a few things and get you leaning in a little bit more, I'm gonna do that first. I'm gonna get to it".
And that's why Jesus taught this parable to his disciples to show them that they should always pray and not give up. And he told this story, this is a wild story. He said, "There was a certain town where a judge who neither feared God or loved people very much, and there was a widow in town who kept coming to this judge, this mean judge, and he said, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' And so he, for some time, just constantly said, 'No, I'm not gonna do that.' But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, she's wearing me out, I will see that she gets justice so that she won't eventually come and attack me!' And the Lord says, 'Hey, learn something from that little story. Because will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones,'" watch this, "'who cry out to him day and night?'"
Why 21 days? Because the Bible teaches us to. We're gonna pray and never give up. So I got a prayer list I'm bringing to God tomorrow and guess what? Unless he answers it, he gonna hear it again on Day 3. That's what he's saying here. Will he keep putting them off? No, "I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, is he gonna find that kind of person"? He's gonna find people who follow me in that kind of a way. You need to know this. Y'all do know there are two types of people on the earth. There are destination people and there are journey people.
When I travel with my family, I'm a destination. I have one goal: Get there. I don't need to see the cows on the fields along the way. Buc-ee's don't mean nothing to me. I already passed up these people and I'm not letting them pass me up again. Where y'all at, all right? I've worked too hard to get around them to let them go by while I'm looking at 18,000 varieties of beef jerky. I ain't doing that, all right? I gotta get there. But then there are people who are journey people. And they just wanna stop long, "Oh, there's the world's largest ball of string. Let's pull over". No. And they just love the whole process. They ain't trying to get there. They just, okay, for you destination people, got bad news for you. God's a journey person. And he's gonna get you there, but he loves all that he teaches and all that you can experience along the way. And that's why it requires incredible persistence.
I'll tell you another story. We have a lady, a couple that's part of our Oxford campus. And for years they've been trying to get pregnant. She couldn't get pregnant. She finally goes to the doctor in 2019. The doctor, quote, says, "This is the worst case of endometriosis I've ever seen in my practice". Pretty much told her it's gonna be virtually impossible. And so she said, "I'm just gonna trust God then". They prayed over her, went to 21 Days of Prayer in August of 2019, and on Day 13, according to her story, on Day 13 she knew God had done something while she was praying. And so she went and did a pregnancy test and she is pregnant. And this little baby, this little miracle baby girl named Nora, was born Easter of 2020, y'all. And since then, she's also had twin boys, redhead, good looking. I got a picture of them. Put your hands together and celebrate a miracle-working God. I'm just telling you.
Third, remember that Jesus asked the guy, "What do you want"? Even though he knew what he needed. And that's why the third P is I need you to be precise. So we don't just like, "Well, Lord, you know. I'm just gonna sit here and whatever thou's wishes, that is with whatever I shallest haveth". No. I grew up in a church that had this thing called the unspoken prayer request. Y'all remember that? Anybody? Come on, Baptists, where y'all at? Y'all, anybody? "Anybody got a prayer request"? "Yep, I do". "What's it"? "Unspoken". Well, y'all, that's the problem. Spoken. It needs to be spoke. Because the Bible says: "You do not have, because you do not ask".
Did you know over 20 times in the New Testament alone, the Bible says: "Ask me," ask me, ask me. One of the books that inspires me, and I recommend it to you if you wanna read something like this, was the great George Mueller who, a century ago, built orphanages in England. And really, every need he had from food, he just prayed and God supernaturally provided. It's a remarkable faith story to read his life. And he had a journal, and every time he had a prayer request he actually wrote it down. Talk about being precise. He wrote it down, dated it, and he would always date it when it was answered, and now you can buy his journal that has over 10,000 answers to prayer. I'm gonna lead you through that during these 21 days.
We're gonna get our little prayer guides and we're gonna write some prayer requests down and we're gonna witness it, everybody. We're gonna see this happening as we just bring our specific prayers to God. Say "Amen" right there, everybody. So I'm gonna be passionate, persistent, precise, and then notice Jesus said, "Your faith has healed you". Now I wanna teach you what faith is. I'm gonna give you a different definition for it, 'cause I think that's what, faith is one of those things that's hard to get your fingers around. Faith is your attitude toward God. And attitudes, you know, aren't something you feel. Attitudes are something you choose.
And that's why the fourth "P" is you need to be positive. "Positive about what, Chris"? Positive that God is at work even if it doesn't happen the way you think it's happening. Positive that God is still good even when it doesn't answer it the way you think it should. So there's a lot of negativity in prayer. Like, one of my pet peeves is when you hear Christians say, "Well, Lord, if it be thy will". That's Christianese for, "I don't think you're gonna do this". And that's not how the Bible describes our faith. In fact, let me give you the biblical definition of faith and you'll know why I put the word "attitude" or "positivity" on it. Faith is, so here's a definition. "Faith is confidence in what we're hoping for". Like, I don't even have it yet, I'm just hoping for it, but I know you're at work, I have confidence. "And assurance about the things we haven't even seen yet". And I've just made up my mind that I'm gonna have that kind of attitude.
Now, I know there's this big elephant in the room right now of I don't know why God doesn't answer his prayer. He almost seems mean or he's withholding. You say, "P.C., why doesn't he answer the prayer"? And I'm gonna get, if you have your notes out, get ready to write it down, okay? I don't know. I don't know. All I know that he always does the right thing. And I swear my faith is and I'm inviting you to share that kind of positivity. Because the Bible says, I don't know, but I know he's at work. I do know that. And I have this, I know this is gonna happen. I know there's gonna be moments where we see God move in ways we go, "Wow, that is so amazing. Only God".
And there's gonna be moments where we're disappointed with God, "Why didn't you"? But I've made up my mind, I am not changing my attitude. I'm just not, because I am completely convinced there's gonna be this moment in heaven when, according to the Bible, our eyes will be open and we'll understand and see everything, that the first sound in heaven's not gonna be, "Hallelujah". It's not gonna be that. It's gonna be, "Oh, you were right. That was the right way to do that". And that's why the Bible even tries to tell us, it's so hard to tell us because we don't see it. We don't see eternity yet. But all I can do is encourage us toward that.
So there's chapters like the one I just read, Hebrews 11, the definition of faith. Well, the next lines are one sentence is a miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle, Red Seas, et cetera, okay. But at the end, it says, "Now let me tell you about some other faith people. Didn't happen, didn't happen, didn't happen. In fact, they were sawn in two, they were stoned". And watch what it says about the people who didn't get the earthly thing they were praying. Watch what it says. "These people earned a good reputation because they were faith people too, yet none of them received," and I would add, this is my commentary, "on earth," "all that God had promised". Why? "Because God planned something better".
And you'll never know what that better is until you see him one day. Because God's ways are not our ways. And because of that, because we don't know what he knows, you have to learn to trust him. And that's faith. And I've just decided that's where I'm going. Because faith is not belief in something. Faith is trust. Faith has to go, and I'm inviting you with me, from I believe he exists to I'm just gonna trust him with my life, even when it doesn't work out the way we want it to work out. Some of you know this story in, like, 2007 or '08, somewhere in there, my dad had this growth all happening on his head. Find out it's a tumor, but it's on the outside of his skull. It was as big as a softball.
And so they wanted to operate, and when they operated, I'll never forget, my brother and sister and I were sitting in the little room, and the surgeon was a member of our church. And when he walked in, he goes, I got good news and bad news. He says, "The good news is, we got all the cancer out. But the bad news is we didn't know that it was actually deeper into his face. It was actually taking the blood in his face and using it as a blood supply to feed this cancer. And so we had to take out all the nerves and muscles out of your dad's face. And we took fat from his side and packed it in there just so he'd look normal". He said, "So he'll live, but he won't be able to eat. Or if he does, not normally. Talk. He has no nerves, so he can't smile". And I was like, "Praise God"? You're like, you don't know if that's... so, okay. Well, so that was late at night.
So I went early the next morning, even though office hours or visiting hours were like 9 or 10 o'clock. But I didn't go as his son, I went as his pastor, because I can go in there any time, come on, somebody, right? So, one of the perks, okay? So I went in very early. I'm his pastor, yeah. So I went in, and my dad was sitting up, this is just hours later, 6 hours later. He's sitting up in bed eating scrambled eggs. I said, "Dad, you're eating". Now he hadn't been told, he wasn't supposed to. He goes, "Of course I'm eating". I said, "Dad, you're talking". He goes, "Of course I'm talking". I said, "Well, the doctor said you weren't gonna be able to talk or eat or smile". He goes, "Oh, I can smile". And he went... And I took a picture. I got the picture. This is the actual picture.
So I sent it to the surgeon who's a member of our church. I said, "Dad's eating and smiling". He goes, "Ain't no way. I know what I took out". And he raced to the hospital, and the hospital declared him a medical miracle. It's like, "We don't understand, but all the muscle and nerves are back in his face supernaturally. We have no explanation for it". But wait, 3 years later, cancer came back and Dad went to heaven. And did I like it? No, but I know my God always does the right thing. I've witnessed it. I've witnessed where all of us are on both sides of this. And I can't find a better expression of it. This was actually the theme verse at my dad's memorial service that I led that God will rescue me from every evil attack and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.
You say, "Well then, which one's he gonna do? Is he gonna rescue me or am I going to heaven"? Yes. And either way you're in a win-win situation and our God always does the right thing, and that's what you call faith. That's what you call faith. Finally, remember he praised God, and everybody else around him praised God, and the last one is be praiseful. Be full of praise, right? Watch this. Don't miss this. Not just after it happens, the miracle. Even while you're expecting the miracle. Because write this in your notes, you note-takers, "Gratitude is the ultimate expression of your faith". Because it knows God's doing something.
You know what, you haven't done it yet, but I know you are, so I'm gonna go ahead and thank you now. And that's this simple little verse: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, thank him in advance, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God". I'll quote you the rest of the verse: "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus".
So Lord, I'm just gonna thank you. I'm a passionate follower of Jesus who's also persistent, who precisely shares everything that I need. I'm gonna let my faith be positive, and God, I praise you in advance because you're worthy of that praise. So this past fall, I was in a bad place. I can't even tell you why it hit me this hard. But my pastor of 40-something years was dying, Pastor Larry Stockstill. He had a blood disorder and it was horrible. He was going down so fast that I flew out to Baton Rouge just to tell him goodbye. And he looked terrible. His face was all gone. His belly was distended and it was just terrible. And in November of last year, he went to the doctor and they just basically said, "We ain't got nothing else for you. Go call hospice".
He was on a walker, he could barely get out of bed. But he didn't call hospice. He listened to 600 hours of healing sermons. He said, "I'm gonna build my faith". Y'all, he came and spoke to all staff in May. And I talked to him yesterday on the phone. He said, "Chris, I'm completely healed and the doctors have no explanation and my blood is perfect," and they don't have any idea why he's healed. He's healed. And I've witnessed it. And if you'll let me take you on this journey, I believe your faith is gonna grow.
Father, thank you for these precious people. Only you know the heartache, the pain, the things they're going through. And God, I'm asking for their faith to be built in Jesus's name.
Heads bowed, eyes closed, I'm gonna ask you to stay to the very end because we're gonna pray for miracles. I'm gonna pray for every campus in just a minute. But the greatest miracle of all is the miracle of salvation. Jesus said that. Don't rejoice that demons bow. Rejoice that your names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And if you're here today and you need a spiritual healing, a miracle, all your sin washed, cleansed, you're made brand-new. You can have that if you surrender your life completely to Jesus. Doesn't happen when you join this church. It happens when you join Jesus. So I'm gonna lead you in a prayer. If you're at any one of our locations, if you're watching online, if you mean it, believe it, it'll happen. Join me if it's you, say this:
Jesus, I need you. And I receive what you did for me when you paid for my sins on the cross. Forgive me, cleanse me. Be the Lord of my life, take your rightful place as Lord in my heart. Because I believe you're the Son of God who rose from the dead and I put my faith in you. Thank you for saving me. I give you my life.