Chris Hodges - Legacy Sunday 2024
Come on, give God the praise, everybody. Oh, come on, you can do a lot better than that. Jesus is letting us be a part of his legacy. Praise God for that. And so, again, so good to have all of those of you that are with us, and of course, we have people that are streaming this service from me, watching this on demand. We’re so glad you’re along for the ride today. I have a very short and simple Word. In fact, I wanna go ahead and apologize for how simple this is, but I’m praying that it’s powerful today. I really have it in my heart to minister to you in a great way today, so I want you to make room in your heart for the Lord to touch you wherever you are today.
Before we do that, give me just a couple of minutes and let you know about the season that we’re coming into. Of course, it begins this coming Saturday with what we call Giving Hope. There, we have enough people to have this event pulled off this past, this coming Sunday, Saturday, where we’re gonna serve 3,881 families. More than 10,000 children are gonna be affected by this. But if you like to come just see it or be a part of it, you can still sign up on the app or in your information center at your campus. But what a great day that’s gonna be. It’d be a great thing, parents, just to bring your kids to and just again remind ourselves that Christmas is not about us, it’s about serving people in Jesus’s name. Let me hear a good «amen» right there, everybody, right?
And then next Sunday, the 15th, will be a regular Sunday service, but then that next week, we start our Christmas Candlelight Services, which are very, very popular in our community. We’ll have well over 110,000 people come celebrate Christmas with us. Because of that, we do a lot of services. Here at Grants Mill, there’s 14 services alone. There’s 145 services if you add up all the campuses combined. Y’all pray for us now, everybody. That’s a lot of church, right? But this is an incredible, incredible service, if you’ve never been to it, where we have really, really great music. We have a message from yours truly, and then, of course, we, we have this candle lighting moment that is really second to none. It’s a great way to celebrate the birth of Jesus, start on Thursday the 19th, two services, Friday, two services, Saturday, I think there’s three services, Sunday four services. We’re gonna take Monday off.
Come on, everybody. Let us have a little bit of break, go introduce ourselves to our families. And then on the 24th, we’ll have, Christmas Eve, we’ll have three services that day as well. I remind you, it is a ticketed process. We don’t charge a thing. It’s just a way to spread everybody out so you all don’t show up at the same service. And of course, here at Grants Mill, those are gone pretty quickly, and it frustrates some people. And I just tell you, don’t be frustrated. If your service is full, just come on. We… unfortunately, it’s about 20% of the people who get tickets never come to those, and we can’t control that. There’s always a seat. We have never not had the ability to seat someone.
So, if you didn’t get the service you wanted, don’t worry about it, we’ll find a seat for you. And so just come on to those services. Let me remind you that during all that, there… it is a Sunday, and those will not be regular Sunday service times on the 22nd. We’re gonna have 9, 11, 3, and 5, and those are our Christmas services. But then after it’s all done, we’re right back into our regular service times on the 29th, the last Sunday of the year. So you don’t wanna miss that. It’s gonna be a very, very, very special service as we get ready for the new year, 2025, everybody. I’m kind of excited about it.
And of course, we start the year off with 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting. I’m telling you, nearly a month or more ahead because I want you to prepare, especially for the fasting part. We put tons of resources about fasting, about how to prepare your heart for prayer, and we have, you know, tens of thousands of people come and pray with us early in the morning at 6 a.m., Monday through Friday, and it’s just a powerful way to start the brand-new year. But I do think it takes some preparation, so I am asking you to go to your app or the website and you’ll see 21 Days of Prayer already, and that just gives you some ways to prepare. I wanna bring you a message today about, about the lack of joy in Christmas.
You know, Christmas is supposed to be this season of joy. I mean, it’s a time where we celebrate all that God has done and the birth of Jesus, and it’s ho… it’s supposed to be «ho, ho, ho,» and for a lot of people, it’s «whoa, whoa, whoa,» you know? And I wanna talk to you about what happens whenever you have that going on. I love to laugh. I love the joy of Christmas. In fact, I’m gonna tell you my favorite Christmas Boudreaux joke. I haven’t told you all a Boudreaux joke in a long time, okay. For those of you guys that are new to the church, I’m from South Louisiana, and I tell you that as a disclaimer, okay, everybody, that you might not learn anything, but we are gonna have a good time today, okay?
We always say, «If you can’t have fun with a person from Louisiana, it’s your fault,» all right? So, but we tell these Boudreaux jokes. Boudreaux is the most famous last name in Louisiana. It’s like Smith and Joneses, Boudreaux and Thibodeaux. And so, anyway, Thibodeaux gave Boudreaux this talking parrot for Christmas. And so, and Boudreaux was glad to get it, and so after Christmas, a couple weeks later, he goes, «Man, how you liking that talking parrot»? And Boudreaux said, «Man, I loved it 'cause he tastes so good, and I put him in a gumbo. It tastes so good». And Thibodeaux says, «You weren’t supposed to eat the parrot. He could speak four languages». And Boudreaux said, «Well, he should have said something».
Anyway, there you go. That’s funny, I don’t care what y’all say. That’s hilarious, all right? So, I love the joy of Christmas. We’ve already had our moment as the Hodges clan to decorate our tree, and we… every year we have this cookie decorating kinda contest. All that’s been had. And it’s supposed to be a season of joy! In fact, the first message to the disc… to the shepherds on Christmas, the angels said to them, «Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of,» say the next two words out loud, «good tidings of great joy,» supposed to be a great joy season. And again, unfortunately, for so many, it’s nothing but great joy. In fact, for some of you, this is what your Christmas looks like right here. You’re just, ain’t no joy. That is hilarious.
I love this picture so much, 'cause it kinda says a lot, doesn’t it? A picture’s worth a thousand words, you know. It’s true. It just, you know, we’re trying to be joyful. We’re dressed up to be joyful. We… we’re… It’s just funny to me. And that’s what it look… take it down, everybody… guys, all right? But I wanna talk to you about that because I’m a pastor and I deeply care about you and what you’re going through. And I know, for a lot of you, it’s not even funny. I’m trying to be funny. It’s just not funny to you. Because you have a broken marriage, or something’s going on with one of your kids, or maybe there’s a disruption in your extended family that all these gatherings are painful for you.
There’s some of you, you just recently got a terrible health diagnosis. There’s others of you, you haven’t slept good in a long time. You’re going… you have so much stress, and worry, and pressure on your life. And at the end of this short little message, we’re gonna pray. You know why we’re gonna pray? 'Cause I serve a God of miracles. I didn’t get much of an «amen». I’m gonna try one more time. I said, I serve a God of miracles, everybody. I do, I do. I do. In fact, the word of the year for us as a church has been «the year of miracles,» and we have seen extraordinary restorations of families, marriages, healings in people’s bodies. And I just, I believe it with all of my heart. And I wanna show you how to navigate whenever you’re going through something difficult, and I wanna just serve you. I wanna just give this to you.
This message I’ve been carrying in my heart for a number of months. I think three months ago I started the outline of this message, and it has some of my own personal beliefs about God that I really wanna give you. I wanna teach it to you out of a story about a storm of Jesus, where he calmed the storm. Some of you know that story, and you may not know this though, that the Bible, the story of Jesus is in four different books. It’s four accounts of the exact same story. And so, sometimes in order to read a story, you’ll need to pull out facts in each of the different gospels. Three of the four gospels cover the story of the calming of the storm. I’m gonna use two of the gospels to get all the details that I wanna share with you.
And I want you to see this first of all in Mark chapter 4: «That day when evening came, Jesus said to his disciples,» and I want you to notice what I’ve highlighted, because I’m gonna come back to it. Just file it in your mind right now: «We going to the other side,» just notice that he said that, «And leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with them. And a furious squall,» they weren’t planning on it. They thought they were gonna have a nice little boat ride out into the sea, but an unexpected, unexplainable, «furious squall came up,» and it was so bad that «the waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped,» ready to sink.
It felt like they were sinking, and what’s so interesting is Jesus wasn’t too upset about it. He was actually «sleeping on a cushion» in the stern of the boat, and the disciples went over there to the one who they thought could do something about it, and woke him up, and said some really bad theology. And this is what happens whenever you’re in a storm. You start thinking things even if you’re a disciple of Jesus. These guys had been personally trained by the Son of God, and they said, «You obviously don’t care. You don’t care if we drown».
And you know God cares about your life in that way, but their minds went there. And I’m gonna come back to that in just a second. We’re gonna pick up the rest of the story in the book of Matthew, same story: And Jesus replied, «Nah, you got a faith issue, brothers. Y’all have something going on inside of you that you don’t have the confidence,» look at me everybody, «that you need whenever you face furious squalls with storms that face your life». He says, «'Why are you so afraid? ' And then he got up and he rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm».
And then I want you to notice this detail. It’s very interesting. And then the disciples were freaking out a little bit, 'cause it, like, it settled down immediately, and they looked at each other and said, «We don’t know this guy like we thought we did. We thought we were real close to him». They said, «Who are you? What kind of man can do that? That even the winds and the waves obey him»! I want to show you the evolution of a storm, and what I’m attempting to do is give you enough information where you can put your own story into it, so just work with me, okay, on whatever you’re facing in your life or things that you might face one day. So you’re either in a storm, coming out of a storm, or one’s coming in the future.
And somebody said, «My God, why don’t you be more positive»? I’m positive one’s coming in the future, all right? It’s gonna happen. And there is an evolution to them. The first one, you can’t do nothing about it. It’s just a physical storm. It just, storms happen that you can’t stop that. And I’m here to tell you, God… look at me everybody. God never promised that they wouldn’t come, and some of us get really disappointed in God when they happen. And he told us, «No, no, no, I told you, I gave you a promise that they would happen».
In the Book of John, Jesus said, «In this world, you will have a lot of trouble. But take heart! I’ve overcome the world». He didn’t say he wouldn’t let you go through things. He just said, «I’ll be there in the middle of those things». And there’s a real danger whenever you’re in a physical storm, listen to me, that it’s indiscriminate. It will, it will happen to anybody, everybody all the time. I mean, just yesterday, I was just on the way to prayer, Saturday prayer, coming over here, and I started my car, and it just went… And then everything was red, everything. And I don’t know nothing about mechanical anything. If I try to fix anything, I will spend way more, it’ll cost way more money if I touch it.
And so, I turned it off quickly, and turned it back on, and quickly went and dropped it off at the dealership and just said, «I don’t know». They said, «What’s going on»? I said, «Look at me. I don’t know what’s going on. It’s just, fix it. Just fix it». Like, «All right, we’ll let you know». And then they couldn’t even fix it that day. They said, «We only do oil changes on Saturday, and we’re closed on Sunday. We’ll let you know something on Monday maybe». I was like, «Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord».
You know, I’m just trying to, right? It just, that stuff happens to all of us, right? It happens to all of us. Listen to me. The real danger is not the storm. The real danger is how that storm evolves from there. And for some of ya, the physical storm that you cannot stop has moved into your emotions, and now it’s starting to pollute. You’re depressed, you’re sad, you can’t sleep, you’re worried, you’re fearful. I mean, your emotions are involved now. The disciples, remember, «We’re gonna drown»! No, you’re not, guys. You’re not gonna drown. And some of you have that. You get a headache and you think it’s cancer. You laugh and but you know what I’m talking about, right? I mean just think, I remember during the… thank God. Can y’all believe we lived through COVID? Lord Jesus, can we just stop and thank God we’re not in that year anymore, right? But I remember. I mean, if I asked him, he once asked her a million times, «Come feel my head, come feel my head, I think I have fever, right»? And she goes, «Dude, you’re cool as a cucumber. Just stop worrying so much,» right?
And just, 'cause it easily goes from something that is happening to something that’s happening on the inside. And here’s the even greater danger: that it evolves even to this third level where your emotional storm that, so now the storm’s not only outside, it’s on the inside of you, turns into something that starts to compromise your theology and, not only that, your relationship with God to a point where they said, «You don’t care, do you»? And that’s a lie from the pit of hell, that of course he cares about you. And so, what my job is to do with you today is to kinda make sure you never end up in a spiritual storm by giving you the right theology. And I wanna start with this one. I want you to notice with me that before Jesus calmed the storm, before he spoke to the storm, he spoke to the disciples.
So he wasn’t as worried about the thunder and lightning on the outside and the waves crashing over the boat, he was worried about them. And this is a year of miracles. What if the miracle wasn’t the calming of the storm? What if we’ve labeled it incorrectly? What if the real miracle was the storm Jesus calmed inside of the disciples? And so, look at me, I maybe can’t stop what’s happening to you. That marriage might not get restored. Those kids might not come back. That family member might not apologize. That boss might not give you a raise. That might, I don’t know. I’ll pray with you. I’ll trust for miracles like that. But I am way more concerned not about the circumstantial storm on the outside. I am about the one on the inside.
And I’m gonna give you three things that you have to know, and you ain’t gonna like the first one. You’re gonna like the next two, but I went ahead, I’m gonna pull the Band-Aid off real fast on this one, okay? Let you make sure you hear this one, and that is that when God is calming storms on the inside of us, you need to realize God’s process. So, God loves taking bad things, and he does let them prolong a little bit in order to teach you something, because God, look at me everybody, he’s more interested in your character than he is your comfort. And we’re over here saying, «Make it go away, make it go away». He goes, «I, I will, but I think I’m gonna teach you a few things in the middle of all this».
Now, I don’t like that part of God. I’m gonna just go ahead and tell ya. I’m happy to go to heaven dumb. I am happy. I don’t need to learn things, right? But he’s the Lord, and it’s his agenda first, and he’s in a process. Look at me, everybody. God is, God is trying to do things on the inside of you. And every time you fail to ask, «Lord, what are you doing? What should I learn»? instead and going, «God, take it away, take it away, take it away,» you’re praying the wrong prayer. «Lord, what do you want… what are you doing inside of me? What do I need to learn»? And then you’ll move from that. It’s like cooking a steak. Now I don’t cook the steaks. People laugh at me for this. Tammy’s the best griller in the world, okay? She really is.
So people think it’s funny, 'cause I tell people, «Yeah, Tammy cooked us a great steak». Like, «Dude, you’re the man. Get out there and cook a steak». I can’t do it as good as Tammy. She makes a phenomenal, phenomenal steak. And the secret, you steak people know this, the secret to a great steak is extremely high heat, sear the outside, and I even like it that Pittsburgh-style, they call it, where it’s charred, where it’s almost just, just so dark on the outside, you know, and it leaves it nice and juicy on the inside. But every once in a while, we bring it into the ki… it looks perfect. I mean, my God, it looks so perfect, and you bring it inside the kitchen, you cut it, and it’s bleeding like a stuck pig. Are y’all listening to me, everybody?
Okay, and then you say, «All right, we’ve got to put this back on». But watch this. But even… it many times looks good on the outside and you don’t know what’s going on the inside until you cut it and reveal, «Oh my goodness, he’s still raw. He’s moving like a cow, right? That’s raw». And so, what are we gonna do? We’re gonna put it back on the heat. It’s a process that some of us don’t like, and I’m just here to tell you. I don’t wanna preach this. It’s just the truth. And until you cooperate with God’s process and realize that this is how he rolls, okay? I’m so sorry. But that he’s asking us to «rejoice in our sufferings». Nobody’s like, «Whoo, whoo, whoo»! «What’s going on, man? What’s so good»? «Man, going through a trial».
Nobody does that, right? Nobody does that. And the Bible says, yeah, you kinda need to even look at it that way because «suffering produces». And God is committed to you being more patient in your trials. He’s interested in your character so that you can have some hope. And what mature people know how to do in the middle of the storm is is choose to worship, and pray, and ask God, «God, what are you doing inside of me»? And recognize his work on the inside of me. 'Cause listen to me, God’s at work on the inside of you if you’ll let him. And I even believe this, and I’ll move on, and that is if you let him, you actually move through it faster. Like, how do you get to the fifth grade? Pass the fourth grade. And some of us are still taking the same old tests and wonder why we’re still in that grade. Come on, everybody, let’s go ahead and pass the tests and realize that God has a process where he’s developing us. I had three «amens».
All right, here we go. All right, we’ll go to the next one, and that is you also, in the middle of this, need to remember God’s promise. And of course, I’m talking about the Word of God. For some of us… let me just say it like I wanna say it. It’s gonna be a little strong, and I’m sorry. I’m not a strong… I don’t like to say things real strong. But some of y’all hadn’t gotten into God’s Word in a long time, and when you don’t get into God’s Word, and read it on a daily basis, and let that Word of God feed you with the promises of God, you start coming up with bad theology that messes up your soul. In fact, let me say it this way. For some of you, you’re getting way too many parts of other people’s word instead of God’s Word. It’s outweighing God’s Word.
And when Faceback… I mean, Facebook and Instagram and all… that was funnier in my head than yours obviously, right? But that’s what it is. Y’all letting all that stuff speak to you all day long. Now, you’re looking at somebody that does it too. I mean, I have g… for the last three months, I am, I am engaged in more than normal news right now. I don’t know why. And I’m saying this to you as a point of accountability with my sweetheart right there on the front row. I gotta temper this thing. My discipline is I give it about five minutes to be informed, and I read my news, I don’t watch my news, 'cause I can control my own emotions when I’m reading it, but, you know, when you watch it, it’s a different thing.
And I don’t know, since the election, and then post-election and, you know, I mean, this story of this guy that killed a dude up in New York City. I’m reading every day, like, to see if they’ve gotten closer to catching him. It’s almost like a Jason Bourne movie right there in the news, right? I got up this morning, I don’t know why I did this, I never do this, on a Sunday morning, got up, you know, found out that these terrorists have taken over Syria. You know, there’s a civil war that’s been going on for a number of years, and they’ve ousted the dictator there. And like, I thought, oh no, another thing in the middle. And it’s no different, look at me, than the disciples saying, «We’re gonna drown, we’re gonna drown». They only said that because they thought more about what they saw on the outside than the what Jesus already said. He said, «Na, na, na, we going to the other side».
If they’d have remembered that, they would almost laugh through the storm and go like, «I know we going to the other side 'cause the Master already said we’re going to the other side». Are y’all listening to me today? And when’s the last time you’ve reminded yourself of what the Master said? Get back in God’s Word, everybody. «My soul faints,» that’s where you are. I’m… I gotta storm, and my… I’m dying on the inside, and I’m longing, «God help me,» comma. No, I’ll help myself. «I’m gonna put my hope in your Word».
That’s what I’m gonna do. You’ve already given me your promise. You already told me I’m going to the other side. So you recognize God’s process, he’s working inside of you. Cooperate with it, everybody. I’m just trying to help you now. Get back into God’s Word. Your life would be better if you start every day with God’s Word first, and then decide how much of the outside voices you’re gonna allow in your mind. And some of us are so shocked that we don’t have more faith when we give way more to what the world has to say about things than what God has to say about things. We need to tip that scale. Can I get a better «amen,» everybody? Here’s the third one. I’m preaching pretty good at this Christmas. I’ll «amen» myself if you won’t, all right?
The final is God’s presence. Do you know what should have been the kicker of the whole story? You ready for it? Jesus is in the boat too! We’re gonna die? Well, if they’re gonna die, Jesus is gonna die too. You ain’t gonna die. Jesus is in your boat. And when you remember, I don’t like it, I don’t understand it, but God is with me. Did you… I almost gave you every… I looked up every place in Scripture where it says, «The Lord is with you». It’s like 100 verses. I almost like, «See here, see, see, see, see». I wanted to do that. I knew I’d be out of time. Couldn’t do that. Let me give you two. «God is our refuge and our strength, he’s ever-present when you’re in trouble». No, I thought he would… he forsake. No, he’d forsake anything. And one of the best things you can do is realize that God is there. God is there.
In the New Testament, Hebrews 13, «Never will I leave you,» everybody say «never». He’s always in the boat with you. «Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you». All right, well, if that’s the case, I’m gonna now say with confidence, I don’t know how you’re going do it, but you’re going to help me, aren’t you? «I will not be afraid». What can my boss do to me? What can my neighbor do to me? What can my mother-in-law do to me? Come on, everybody, right? No, I have confidence 'cause I know God’s with me. And I have it in my heart today, since we already gave, and that… I had it in my heart today just to end by praying for needs. And this is gonna be a little different than I normally do.
I normally allow everybody to be raim… remain very, very private of what they’re going through, but I just have this in my heart today that in a minute, I’m gonna ask you to stand, and I’m gonna wait till, wait till I say «all the areas that God’s put in my heart to pray for people,» and that way, no one will know which one was you. There’s some of you, your marriage is in trouble. It’s in trouble. You’re in a marital storm. So for some of you, it’s your kids. They’ve never been more reckless, more away. You don’t like how this thing is trending, and it’s got you worried.
There are some of you, look in my eyes here, you’re under so much stress that it’s affected your sleep, and you know it’s turned from an occasion to something very chronic, and now that lack of sleep is affecting a lot of other things. You’re more irritable than normal. You’re more impat… you’ve even said, «I never act like this». There are some of you have so much fear of the future. What… how’s this gonna happen? How’s this gonna work out? I’m afraid. And you can feel, like in your heart, you feel afraid. For some of you, you got a bad health diagnosis, and you actually need a physical miracle. I serve a God of miracles, and I am believing today that God is gonna heal people physically.
There’s some of you have depression, anxiety in your mind. It’s a mental issue, and you need a healing in your life. And for somebody, finally, it’s financial. There’s a dynamic happening on the job, with your boss, I don’t know, something, and you have a worry there that you haven’t had in a long time. If I named anything about you, now you stand, right there where you are, stand up. I’m gonna pray. If you need a miracle, you need a miracle. My God, my God. And I want you to close your eyes, and I want you to open up your hands and posture yourself in a position of «I’m receiving today a miracle from God». Open your hands as if to almost to say, «God, my hands are open. I’ll receive what you are gonna do in my life».
And Lord, I pray for my dear, amazing church family. And God, in this season of ho, ho, ho and joy, Lord, that’s not where they’re at. They’re discouraged. They’re fearful. They’ve lost their joy. And God, they’re in the middle of a storm that I know you can calm. And while the outside circumstantial storm might not be calm, God, you’re gonna calm the one on the inside of us. Lord, I’m asking today to bring peace, and life, and assurance, and hope, and most importantly, God, the truth that you’re there. You’re right here with us, and you’re bringing us through. We are going to the other side. And God, I stand right now for every marriage, Lord, that it’s healed in Jesus’s name. I pray, God, you’re bringing kids back home. That relationship between parents and children are being restored with our family members, God, on the job, and with our finances. Lord, I pray against every sickness and disease. May the God of all power, the supernatural, great Physician touch their bodies right now, in Jesus’s name. Lord, tonight, God, be the best night’s sleep they’ve had in months. I pray, Lord, bring calm to their soul, knowing that you’re at work inside of them, Lord. Touch them like only you can, Father. I pray.