- Well, everybody, man, so glad you're with us this weekend. This begins our love week that we've been talking about for the last three weeks. Last week, you heard so many opportunities that you can help us out with and you can go out and be part of our vision of making a difference in our communities by serving our communities with the love of Jesus. So let me make us familiar from the very beginning. Years ago now, I mean, we just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary, but years and years ago, probably our third year in, Brenda and I, we were so struggling in our marriage and we were invited to a marriage conference, much like the one that we offer here at Highlands on a yearly basis and anyway, we thought, well, it might help, so let's go and we went and I don't remember a lot from that marriage conference but I do remember one session where they divided up the spouses and I went with a guy, and he begins to talk to us guys about what we need to learn. And he says, do you all know what a bank is? And we say yeah, we all know what a bank is, there's most of us we were young couples, we didn't, you know, we didn't have much invested in those days but he said, well, eventually, you're gonna make investments in your bank because you're gonna want to take a withdrawal from your account so you can go out and eat out or go to a movie or buy a car or whatever. So we all sort of understood this principle. He said, in marriage, it's pretty much the same, you would have a love bank, he called it a love bank, never forgot this. And he said, what I want to encourage you guys is make deposits in your wife's love bank so that when you do something stupid, and that just resonated with me because I'm gonna do some stupid eventually, you know, I'd already done something stupid and you're gonna have to make a withdrawal and if you've not invested anything, she might head out and never come back. And that advice was great advice for me. And so over these last 27 years, you know, after that conference, I've been trying to make investments in Brenda's love bank because I know eventually I'll do something stupid and I'm gonna have to make a withdrawal. So today, I'm asking you guys, hopefully as we've led through COVID, and we have come through this pandemic and now we're able to sort of breathe again and think about going out and actually seeing people face to face, I wanna make an ask, a withdrawal, from our love bank from people here at Highlands, would you go out and would you actually serve people this week in some capacity. I mean, hopefully, we've invested enough in you through biblical teaching and just loving on you and just, you know, telling you that God has a plan and a purpose for your life that now I wanna make an ask, I wanna make a withdrawal from you and give you a challenge to go out into our community and serve other people. And you say, well, why would you do that? Well, let me tell you why, because just minutes away in your neighborhood, and we know in every community, we have a fiscal location, there are hundreds in your community and 1000s in your towns that do not know Jesus Christ, they don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. And guys, one of the greatest opportunities we have is to move out from our facilities as a church, and just love people, you know, not to see him as objectives or projects or anything like that, but just love people, just love on people. And why don't we do that? Because that's what Jesus did, right? I mean, our church here at Highlands, if you think about our church, it has really been blessed, it's incredible. When I go to church conferences with some colleagues and they'll say, where are you and how many people live around you? 'Cause there are churches where they're large and us we're actually in a small town. And really our main campus was, there was a cornfield that we are part of, you know, I mean, we're sort of out in the country, we're in a rural area, and yet for God to put His hand of favor upon our church like He has over these past 25 years, you know what the Scripture says? To much has been given, much is required. And we are blessed church, God has blessed us in amazing ways and because of His favor upon us, then we wanna move out and we wanna serve, it's part of our vision, our communities and make a difference in people's lives. You know, I don't know about you, I can't speak for you but when I see needs in our community, I mean, it just bothers me. You know, I mean, I just take it personal and I feel responsible in some way to help our church be a part of fulfilling those needs so our communities can be better, so that families can prosper, right? We want our families to grow up in communities that are just incredible communities to raise families. So I wanna go back, I wanna look at a few stories today out of Scripture just sort of challenge you as you think about this but let's go back to this particular story in Mark 1 and look at this story with me. This is an unusual story in Scripture, the Bible says in verse 40, a man with leprosy came to Him, he came to Jesus, and actually begged Him on his knees, and notice the request of this leper to Jesus, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Now, I'm probably one of the few people that are listening today that have been privileged to actually been face to face with a leper. Matter of fact, all the way back, I go all the way back to 1990, and my first trip to Africa, and I had a translator and he said, today we're gonna go, one of our speaking points is we're gonna go to a little village called the village of the unknown. And you know, my eyes have been open so many times on this trip and I say, sure, you know, I'm all in, let's go. And so toward the end of the day, we go to this little village and it is a ways out from anything. I mean, it is, I mean, we're on a path, we're on this bicycle for about two hours to get there and then the path gets to where there's no path and we have to walk and cross these bridges to get into this place was secluded, it was a it was a place that was just, I mean, sort of holding the world together, you know, there was nobody there. And we find these almost like little teepee huts there, of course, I have no idea what we're doing and we go into one of these teepee huts and I just was amazed that while I'm looking at it, I see these people, I mean, it's very dim lit and their noses are just running sores, I notice their fingers have rotted off and I'm not, I still have no idea what is wrong with these people. But my translator said, these are the unknown, we're here to pray and ask God to touch their life. We leave that village and I said, what was the problem? My translator's name was Abraham, he said they're lepers. They've been displaced from another country and they've come here for a certain season basically to die, and no one comes to this village. That put a mark on me, and every time I read this story, I'm taken back to where I was with these lepers face to face. So this leper comes to Jesus and I would understand why and he begs Jesus on his knees, and he says, hey, if you're willing, you can make me clean. Now, right out of the gate, notice this guy is not mentioned by name, right? I mean, we have no idea what this guy's name is. This man was known for his problem, rather than who he was. And I think sometimes in life, I mean, how many of you feel like you've been identified by your problem rather than who you are? You are marked by your past, and you seem like no matter what you do, you just can't get beyond it. Well, listen, and this may be the word from God for some of you today, you are not what you've done, you are who God made you to be. And then you need to remember that. Now the neat thing about this story here in Mark is that lepers and, you know, I was reminded of this, in Africa, lepers were not permitted to do what this leper is doing. Lepers were ordered, because it was a very contagious disease, they were ordered to stay 50 feet away from anyone and they were actually ordered to shout that they were unclean. So they would go through a village, if they had to go out just for necessities, and you would often hear in those days a leper saying. I'm unclean, stay away from me. I'm unclean, stay away. But he comes to Jesus on his knees and he says, man, I know you can, I'm just wondering if you're willing. And honestly, Highlands, those of you that call Highlands home, I think so many people in our communities look at our church and they look at how God has blessed us and they say the same thing, I know you guys can, I just wonder if you care? I know you can, my question is, do you care? And I want us always to answer that question as a church with a emphatic yes. We care about you. You see, we not only been blessed to where we're able to do it, we wanna do it, we wanna care. I love, the story goes on in verse 41, Scripture says, filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and He touches a man that nobody else would dare touch, He touches this man. It's so interesting, the ancient translators actually translate this passage here in verse 41 as when Jesus, when this guy comes to Jesus, that Jesus, the actual translation is He was bothered. And Jesus felt something. You know, He assesses this situation and it stops Him in His tracks. And the Bible says He was moved with compassion, it was almost like really? He's going through that? And how many times have we asked those questions like, they're having to live like that? No way. She's struggling with that? And they're having to deal with that? They're not able to do that? I can't take it, you know, I have to help. We've all heard stories that just, you know, just sort of wreck us, right? I mean, just recently I was reading a prayer request that a colleague of mine had sent, and in his community, a veteran that had served eight tours, think about this, eight tours in the military to give us freedom was being evicted from his home and he had no place to go. And this guy said, no, he said, it just bothered us. And as a church, we're rallying to help this guy. I just learned recently, then in our own community, that there is a 17 year old girl living in her car, a vibrant 17 year old girl with her whole future ahead of her and this need was brought to us and we, oh, gosh, you know, we got to do something about that. I read your prayer request, we have so many single moms that are battling cancer and I think, gosh, church, we got to care in situations like this. Jesus, man, he was indignant about it. And he reaches out his hand, Scripture says he touched the man and look at the end of verse 41 Jesus says, I am willing, be clean. This guy was cleansed. Jesus says, you know, I just can't take this. For that person to live in that kind of condition, I gotta get involved. You know, pretty much I think what Jesus is saying, dude, you're not gonna live like that on my watch, not on my watch. And Highlands, as a church, may we say, not only this week, but may it be a model of us, not on our watch, may we be moved with compassion and may we go out and serve others. You know what, I've been praying for you this week? Is you would be bothered, that you would just be bothered, that you would be uneasy, that the Holy Spirit would just cause you some uneasiness. Why is that? Because I believe the church is the hope of the world. And as long as people are hurting, guys, we got to go, right? We have to move out. You know, as much as I love our church and I thank God our church is an amazing church, but when I look out and I see, there's so much more we got to do. I mean, just thinking in our own neighborhood, when we started 25 years ago, Barna estimated 68% of our region was unchurched. Now, obviously, we've made a difference 'cause we've seen 1000s of people come to know Jesus. But here's where they're saying now, this is Catholic Research and it's pretty accurate, I think. This was pre-COVID that now that number is 70%. That instead of going in the direction we want to go, we're seeing our own communities right here in Southwest Virginia and Upper East Tennessee, move more into a post Christian world. And guys, we got a job to do, right? I mean, we really do. I love this verse in Proverbs 3:27, this is what it says. Never Walk away from someone who deserves help. Your hand, catch this, if you're a believer in Jesus, your hand is God's hand for that person. Never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now. So I really, I mean, to the core of my being, I want our church to go, guys, I want us to help others, I want us to share the compassion of Jesus because it has blessed us so much. So as we go this week, I wanna give you three things, all right? Here's the first one; when you go out to love week, this week, here's what I want you to remember, choices lead, feelings follow. Choices lead, feelings follow. Now, we get this backwards, all right? In order to experience something, what do you got to do? You have to take some action, you got to take a step towards it and once you take action and you step toward that, then feelings will come second. But we want this backwards, right? We always want feelings first and then we get the feeling, then we'll say, okay, we'll move to action. You know, you keep waiting for the failing to stop sinning and maybe you'll eventually do it. Or you're waiting for the feeling to read the Bible and spend some time with God every day, and once that feeling comes, then you're gonna do it. No, no, no, no, no, it's so opposite from what Scripture teaches. You start reading the Scripture, and I promise you, you'll have the feeling. Lead with your life choices not your feelings. And so like the guy that you look at that, when you were in corporate worship and he or she, they raise their hand in worship, and you think, man, I hope one day I get the feeling to do that, I wanna worship like that one day, when I get the feeling, I'm gonna raise my hands, well, just start raising your hands and I promise you the feeling will follow. Notice how Jesus went through His life, look here in Matthew 9, Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news in the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them. So notice what Jesus did, he went, took an action step, right, made a choice, and because he went, he saw and then he was overcome with the feeling of compassion and He did something about it. Choices first, feeling second. Now when you see it, you know what happens? It becomes your problem, right? Because I've seen this, now, God's brought this opportunity to me, I need to be part of the solution. And I think we have many ways to do this. Matter of fact, I just learned something from one of our locations and this guy was telling me that he's in a small group here at Highlands and he said, you know what? We've dedicated once a month, when you guys started teaching on up in and out that once a month, on the third Saturday of each month, we're gonna move out in our communities on Saturday morning and we're just sort of spend sometimes, just a couple hours, sometimes it's a whole morning, just serving other people. And I thought, man, that's it. That's exactly what we want you to be. I've always tried to take my kids on a mission trip because I want my kids to know how blessed we are, right? I mean, guys really, I've had the chance to travel around our world in so many countries, mostly third world, but there is a distinct when you see true poverty, it wrecks you if you're a believer. Poverty has a certain smell and when you smell poverty, and you're a believer in Jesus, I mean, it bothers you. I want every one of my kids to experience that and I think once you experience that, you will never be the same. So as we think about love week, would you make the choice of action to move forward, and then feelings will follow. Here's the second thing, we got to see people the right way. Because often when we move out of our walls and we get out of our Christian bubble, we're around people who can be unpleasant people, right? I mean, they're nonbelievers. Sort of like when you don't sleep at night, you get up and you're grumpy. I mean, it's just part of it. Hurt people hurt others and I think when we move out of our sacred walls of our facilities, if you're only looking at what people are putting on on the outside and you refuse to look at what might be happening on the inside of their life, you're gonna miss it. How many of us could share a story where we've would aggravated with somebody, but when we realize what they're dealing with and what is going on in their heart and in their life, man, we understand why they're acting the way they act and all of a sudden, we move from aggravation to compassion because there's a story that we're told. Listen to me church, as Christians, we have to go through life seeing people as Jesus sees them. I mean, ain't the story of the Good Samaritan, I love the story, and you've heard it probably many times, but just let's go back and let's look at this. In Luke 10:33-37, Jesus is sort of wanting people to catch the concept I want you to catch and He tells the story. And He says, all right, there was once a man and this guy is traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and on his way, he is attacked by robbers and these thieves take his clothes, they beat him up, they, you know, leaving half dead on the side of the road. But hey, lucky for him, a priest, a preacher is on his way to Jericho, and it says, a priest was on his way down the same road, and he think, oh, you know, I see a priest, surely he'll help me, he's agent pf the church, right? But notice his response, but when he saw him, he angled across to the other side. And then a Levite, he's a religious man, he shows up, you know, this guy thinks, oh, finally, you know the Levite, he'll help me, but he also avoided the injured person. And then Jesus says a Samaritan, this is referencing to himself, here's how you need to be, traveling down the same road came to him and when he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. And it's interesting when you see that, you got to be part of the solution. So this guy sees it, he has compassion, he's bothered and he says, I got to do something. So he gave first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds, then he lifted him on his donkey, led him to an inn, made the guy comfortable, in the morning, he takes up some money and he gives it to the innkeeper, he obviously knows this guy, he's traveled this way many times he says, hey, take good care of him, cost you any more, put it on my bill I'll pay it when I get back. And then Jesus says, what do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man who was attacked by robbers? Well, the one who treated him kindly, right? The religion scholar responded, Jesus said, you go and do the same, you go and do the same. It's so interesting how different people saw this guy laying on the side of the road differently, right? I mean, the thieves, the robbers, they just saw him as somebody they could take advantage of, they got clothes from him, they took his money, took anything else he had of value and they basically attacked him and beat him up leaving him for dead, they saw him as a victim. And then I think the priest and the Levite, they see this guy has a problem to be avoided. I mean, they look, obviously they could have helped, but they're not gonna to get involved in that guy, I don't know what's happening there, I'm going on the other road. It's a problem but I'm gonna avoid it. But the Good Samaritan saw him as the person to be loved. You know, I think about our church a lot. And honestly, I get a lot of different views and feedback all the time, hundreds and hundreds of people give feedback. And you guys who give feedback, that's great feedback, you always sign your name, that's awesome. But I get a lot that is critical and not always great and I'm never, you know, you don't sign your name on those. And I don't know where it's coming from, you know, we're on TV now and we're in online, so yeah, I'm hoping it's coming from people, maybe outside the church and I know there's a lot of chatter out there in our communities about what people say about Highlands, but here's what I've learned, most of it is actually good, I mean, it is. Most of the people who talk about our church in our community, most of it's actually really good. But you know, I don't wanna be stupid about this, I mean, some of it's not. I mean, some of it is very critical. Here's what I think about that. At the end of the day, I just want those folks to say, you know, I don't really agree with those folks down there at Highlands, I don't even know if I like them. But you know what? They'll help you. They'll try and take care of you. They may not always be what I would want, but I wanna tell you something, they just don't take care of themselves down there, they'll help you. I don't know if I like them but that church, man, they'll help you. There's some generous people over there. Really, that's what I want them to say. They might not like us, that's okay. They might not agree with everything we teach and all those kinds of things, but at the end of the day, I want our community to say, not only do they take care of themselves, man, they'll help you. When you're in need, you can go to those guys, they'll help you. Here's the third thing as we go out this week. Remember what Jesus did for me, right? Remember what Jesus did for me. I forgive others because He forgave me. Why do we serve others? Why do we go out and search for lost and have compassion on those that are lost? Well, because Jesus never quit searching for me, right? I don't know about you, but if you're a follower of Jesus, and this is personal, it's a personal thing. I wanna share one last story with you because this story sort of sums up how I think Jesus helps us to see serve others. And it's this story where Jesus, it's really an unusual story in the Bible, it's a story where He's having a Bible study, as He often did, and He's teaching and He's in a house, alright, and while He's teaching the Scripture, the Bible says that this known prostitute comes in to the house, whether she had been listening outside or how she even knew Jesus was teaching this Bible study, we don't really know. But she comes into the house and she becomes a part of this study. And somewhere during the study, she begins to weep and she's sobbing maybe she realizes Jesus is able to forgive her and cleanse her, I don't know what transgressed in her life. But the Bible says that she starts sobbing and sort of all of a sudden Jesus quits teaching and the tension in the room is sort of shifted to this lady, and she comes to Jesus and she gets down on her knees, and as she is crying, think about this, with her tears, she is washing the feet of Jesus with her tears. And then she takes her hair, her hair's obviously long, and after she's washed the feet of Jesus, she drys His feet with her hair. And then she does what is totally unexpected, she takes this expensive bottle of perfume that it seemed like everybody in the room knew that this bottle of perfume was extremely valuable, it says it's almost a year's wage for this lady, and she breaks that perfume bottle, and she takes that perfume, and she places it, she lets it drip on the feet of Jesus. And it creates a commotion, you know, some of the disciples and others are like, what's she doing? Why would she do that? Why would she waste this? What's this all about? I love what Jesus says, look in Luke 7:47. Jesus said, therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven for she loved much. But he has been forgiven little, loves little. In other words, this lady had found forgiveness and an opportunity for new life and because of that, she shared with Jesus, her Savior, the most precious thing she had. And Jesus was okay with it, man. Let me tell you something, none of us have been forgiven little, alright, none of us. All of us, if we're followers of Jesus, have been forgiven much, right? Jesus went to a cross and there on the cross, He hung and bled and died to pay a sin debt, ours, that we could never pay. And He took our place on the cross because of His amazing, extravagant love for us. Why do we do love week? Because he first loved us. He first loved us. So let me ask you, you're blessed people, we're a blessed church, am I asking you too much? To sign up for some opportunity that you can go out into our community for a couple of hours, I'm not asking you to do this every week, okay? I'm gonna be great, I'm just saying, would you do it this week? Would you sign up this week? And would you help mobilize, we've already gotten 100 signed up but I would love to see man, tons more of you. And would you just sign up, you can go to our website, just in a second, our community pastors are gonna give you opportunities. And you might be in here saying, you know, because I get a lot of emails from a lot of you that watch us on TV and online, I'm just not ready to do anything major, alright, alright, you're not off the hook here, would you walk across your driveway into your neighborhood, there's someone you can love and I wanna challenge you because Jesus Christ has loved you in an amazing way. Man, let's love on other people this week. And you know who will be blessed? Not only will you be able to see a blessing in their life, but you're gonna be the one who's blessed. Because there's something in every follower of Jesus, when you get your eyes off yourself and you begin to serve others, all of a sudden, his plan and his favor and his compassion, I mean, it just changes us so that we can be the hands and the feet of Jesus to people. Let's pray. God, I thank you so much for this opportunity that you've given us as a church, that's been favored and blessed by you in an amazing way to do something for someone else, besides ourselves. That God, we would take a step above selfishness this week and move out into our communities because there are some needs, I mean, my goodness, you would have to put blinders on, to miss the needs that are around you. Would you just help us in the name of Jesus, I'm not asking you to do this in the name of our church, let's do this in the name of Jesus. Church, things are gonna automatically happen when we mobilize and when we move out as a church, people will start saying, why are you doing this? Well, Jesus, man, He pursued me, He had compassion on me, we just wanna love you today, we just wanna serve you today. We want you to know we care. And that's one of the greatest things that could ever be said about the local church. And so I pray God that hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Highlanders will move out into our neighborhoods and our communities and God we will serve and this week we will make a difference in people's lives. And we pray for opportunities that might develop to share the gospel. And if we don't get to share the gospel this week, may some seeds be planted in people's hearts and lives where eventually, our neighbor, our coworker, that person we're loving on, would receive the gospel, the good news, the eternal life that Jesus offers. Maybe you're here today, and you've never trusted in Jesus, I would just say today's your day. Today is your day. Those of you that are watching online TV, today's your day, just surrender your life to Him right now. Just ask him to come into your life. Maybe you feel like that prostitute or maybe you feel like that Good Samaritan or maybe you feel like the guy who's been robbed and beaten, I don't know. But today, you are not your past, you are who God created you to be. And if you will allow Christ to come into your life, just surrender your life to Him, ask Him to come in and forgive you and save you. Man, call out to Him and you can have eternity today. Lord, we love you. Thank you so much for loving us, give us incredible week. We actually things in Christ's name. Amen. Alright, all right. Ready for, that was act two. Now you know how like the bands come and then the final big draw comes at the end. Well, that's about ready to happen right now.