Thank you. So let's share. Thank you. You may be seated.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Randall Langley, and it's an honor for me to be with you today. We love the Father's house, and I always feel like I'm part of the family here.
But we are here to honor some very special people today and recognize their hunger. Really, it represents most of all their hunger to know the Father and know His will and His ways and then be deployed. It's not just what we know. It's what we do with what we know that makes a difference in our lives, right? And so we're here to honor them this morning.
And I'm just curious, how many of you have taken classes from the Father's house Bible college? Let me see your hands today. Look around. There's quite a few hands. I know Pastor Andrew is taking classes. I think Michael Huey, he's in the back, he's also gotten his master's degree recently. And so many students have today.
But these students here are actually receiving their diplomas. The first one that we want to recognize this morning is Nancy Ellen Flint, who has earned her Bachelor of Science theology degree. Amen. So Nancy, it gives us a great honor to present this to you today.
And as customary, the tradition is you can move your tassel from the right to the left, which signifies that the knowledge is passing and that she has achieved this level of degree in her life. So this Bachelor of Theology degree is something that you've deserved and you've earned, and so we're very appreciative of you. Give her another hand clap today. Thank you.
The next one goes to a very special woman here this morning who is, I want to say, an inspiration to a lot of people. Learning is a lifelong event; you never stop learning. When my mentor, Dr. John Maxwell, said, "The day you stop learning is the day you stop leading."
And so I really don't know what to say. Dolores, you put us to shame that we think we can just... but her hunger to know the word of God and to be deployed in kingdom mission and service is commendable.
And so Dolores today has actually earned her Master of Theology degree. Yes, amen. Amen. So Dolores, I think our school is going to write a piece on her to encourage people to keep on going. You're never too old to keep on learning. So it's a great honor that we present this to you today. Well done, good and faithful servant. So give her another hand clap today.
That's good. Blessings to you.
And then the last thing that we're going to do today is honor Pastor Terry, and he is actually receiving an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree. Now, here's what I want to say: many people don't understand an honorary degree. Some people say, "Well, that's kind of a fake degree; you didn't really earn it."
And there are occasions where somebody gives money to an institution, and they award him with something like that. But actually, to be truthful about it, an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree is one of the highest awards that a person could ever receive.
Because you see, when you earn a degree going through college and so forth, it's usually with the expectation of what you hope to accomplish someday in the future. But an honorary degree is actually awarded for what you have accomplished, not what you hope to do, but what you actually have done.
So this is kind of like the apex of honors and in recognition of a life well-lived. And of course, we're in this legacy series. I'll be sharing a little bit about that in a minute. But really, if you look out here today, this is legacy. And these are the people that you've poured into and others throughout the years and the work of God in your life.
So I also want to honor, I know she's not really receiving the degree, but in many ways, vicariously she is. And I want to honor Pastor Anita because they say behind every successful man is a surprised mother-in-law. But actually, behind every successful man is a great woman. And I know she doesn't walk behind you; she walks beside you.
And so we honor you here today as well, Anita. But I want to say there's a poem about, it's called "It's Not the Critic Who Counts." And it goes like this:
"It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again. But because there's no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that this place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
I have a picture on my wall that says, "The ultimate measure of leaders is not where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where they stand in times of challenge and controversy."
Terry, I'm honored to call you a friend. And on behalf of Christian Life School of Theology Global, our board of directors, your family, and friends here today, it gives me great joy and honor to confer this honorary doctorate degree to Dr. Terry Lee Mahan this morning. Amen. Praise God.
May this honorary degree forever stand as a testament to your faithfulness and the great things that God has done. And I know he's not finished. It's not the end; maybe it's the beginning of another level. Appreciate you.
All right. Praise God. Thank you. You may be seated.
It's always good to be at the Father's house. Come on, somebody. This is a great place. Honestly, every time I'm here, it makes me think, "Man, maybe I should move here." Just such a life-giving place, right?
So it's an honor to be here with you on such a special day as part of this series and everything. I got really excited when Pastor Terry, actually Dr. Mahan now, told me about this series that you're in because honestly, at this season of my life, the majority of my time and focus is really spent on helping men and women discover their kingdom purpose and potential so they can do that very thing: leave a powerful and lasting legacy.
So I'm thrilled to hear, to be a part of it. Also, my new friend, Pastor Kevin Goff, I told him I'd give you a shout-out for him. And he said, "Greet the people for me." So I'm giving you a shout-out for Pastor Kevin so you can tell him that I, you know, like a good friend, I would tell you a joke about the way he plays golf, but that wouldn't be very friendly of me to do that. I'll save that for the next time, maybe.
All right, are you ready for something good today from the Word of God?
All right, Father, we love you so much. We're your sons and daughters. We're hungry for more of you. We ask you to just unfold this revelation to us today. Father, we don't want to leave here today just being hearers of the Word. We want to be doers of the Word. So take, Father, and use this, massage it deep into the crevice of our soul and let it bring transformation and change. We want to leave a kingdom legacy. In Jesus' name, everybody said amen.
Amen. Now tell your neighbor, elbow them if you want to, and say, "Don't bug me. I'm listening really good today."
All right, John chapter one and verse six. I have the scripture up here on the screen for you, but if you have your Bible... Now this is from the good old King James, which we all know that you can't get to heaven unless you read King James. So just kidding. Somebody will take that for real.
But it says this: "There was a man," say a man. Now this word for man here is the word that we would call human, mankind. It doesn't mean man, meaning male or female. So there was a person sent, ready to say sent, from God whose name was John.
The Amplified Bible, I love this, it goes a little bit deeper. It says, "There was a man, there came a man commissioned and sent from God whose name was John."
Now I appreciate the fact that in the last number of years, we've talked a lot about the roles of, you know, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And I'm sure that that five-fold ministry is not new to you. But the word apostolic is the word that is this word here, sent, where it says there was a man sent. That's the Greek word apostolos, which means apostle, which is really the root word where we get apostolo, which means to send.
So it literally means an official representative sent forth and charged with a commission. And I was thinking about this whole concept of legacy, and then as I thought about the Father's house and Pastors Terry and Anita, this house, the Father's house functions as an apostolic church.
Now, not everybody's an apostle, please understand me, but we are all apostolic people in that we are all sent ones. Now this one here specifically talking about John, but you're just as sent as John was. John was commissioned and sent with a mission. You are, every one of us, and you can put your name in there. And when we close today, your name will go in there. I'm on mission; you're on mission; we are sent. We've been apostled to go forth and live on kingdom mission.
And I think that this relates perfectly to this word legacy because the thing we have to realize is legacy is not what you do; legacy is about the people that you love and serve and develop and disciple and influence and impact. That's what legacy is.
And the thing about legacy is that it just doesn't happen by accident. You don't accidentally leave this kind of legacy; it's deliberate and it's intentional. I like to use this phrase; I use it all the time. I call it kingdom. We're kingdom-minded people, right? We're not world-driven people; we're not self-driven; we're kingdom-minded people.
And kingdom-minded people, I believe God has put each one of us, just like what we read there in John 1:6, God has put each one of us a mission, a call, a purpose for our lives. And so we've got a desire to leave a kingdom legacy, something that's going to go beyond ourselves and something that goes... does something that we can never accomplish alone.
A few years ago, my kids did this legacy box thing for Christmas, and so we had a bunch of old VHS tapes that were around from back in the '80s. You know, when actual video cameras were so big you had to carry them on your shoulder? Isn't that amazing? Now we carry an iPhone. Crazy how technology goes.
But anyhow, they took some of these videos and they put them together and gave us the digital files. And I was watching one, and one was actually from 1987. I was 27 years old, and I'm preaching over in Merritt Island, Florida. I was an associate pastor at 27 years old, and I was preaching from Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6, says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; don't lean on..." and I'm just... I'm just preaching away, man. I'm really into it. I'm really young-looking; I got kind of like a mullet cut with a little... they used to call a little rat's tail hanging down right there, and I thought I was just the coolest thing ever.
And I didn't even have a clue what I was talking about. I'm preaching to people; I'm talking about destiny and purpose and all these things, and just, you know, out of my 27-year-old brain, I'm thinking about all these things. And as I look back, I think, "Man, I didn't really know what I was talking about. I hadn't lived enough life yet."
But I did have a profound sense of destiny. I believed because I had good leaders over my life that told me, "God's got a plan and a purpose for your life; there's a destiny on your life." And you need to hear that all the time because Satan's a destiny stealer, and he'll tell you, "Oh, you've messed up; it's past your time."
Like Dolores down here with a master's degree, he would tell somebody, "Oh, you're too old; it's past your time." Let me tell you something: it's never too late to step into your destiny with God. Amen?
And so I thought, watching those old videos almost 40 years ago now, I thought, "What would I like to say? What would I like to go back and say to that young man, Randall, about his future self?" Right? If I could go back and speak to him, what would I say to him?
Now, I play a lot of sports, and one thing I've come to understand... I went to college on a baseball scholarship; I love baseball; I just love sports. But sports is built on not the glorious, the glamorous, all these fantastic plays that we like to scream and holler about; it's built on fundamentals.
And if you don't get the fundamentals down, you'll never win a championship; you'll never really cross the finish line. So it's about the fundamentals. It's not necessarily the flashy or the spectacular, but championships are usually won by the team that's grounded in fundamentals.
And now that I'm well into my 60s—I'll be 65 this year—I've learned a few lessons along the way. And most importantly, these are the principles, or what I would call the fundamentals, that guide me that I believe will enable us to leave a lasting legacy.
So I'm just going to unpack these for you. I'm just calling this the five P's. I have five P's of a lasting legacy. Are you ready?
Number one is what? The word presence. The first P is the word presence. Everybody say presence. Make it your number one priority to pursue and learn to lean into the Father's presence. This is first among all of them because the idea is this: everything that you and I need is found in His presence. Whatever you need, it's in the presence of God.
You have to hear His voice, and the way you hear His voice best is to get in His presence. See, like in our house, you know, I have an office that's upstairs, and sometimes I'll forget how far it is from that upstairs office to the living room or the kitchen where my wife might be. And I'll just holler something out, "Hey, will you do this or get this or did you call this or somebody?"
And my wife will just holler, "What?" And I realize, "Oh, hold up a second; I'll come down there and talk to you." And I've got to get up, go down the stairs, march into the kitchen; I've got to get in her presence so she can hear what I'm trying to say.
See, it takes effort; it takes intentionality to get in the presence of God. And it takes proximity.
Okay. We need times in our life where we just steal away or we have a place where we go. We just want to be in the presence of God. Because in the presence of God, I can hear His voice.
Some of you know that my wife had a very devastating motorcycle accident a few years ago. She almost died, and she broke her pelvis in several places. She's all recovered; God's worked many miracles.
But out of that came some life lessons for Lori and me. One of those was this saying: "Whose voice is loudest?" Whose voice is loudest? Because see, pain has a loud voice. Pain will scream at you.
See, the challenges of life, crazy people, the world, the enemy—they all have voices, and they want to get your attention. But the idea is, whose voice is loudest in your life? I want the Father's voice to be the loudest voice in my life. Amen? That's what will ground you. That's what will lead you and guide you and direct you.
But you need to get in His presence to enable His voice to be the loudest voice in your life. And when the pressures of life hit hard and people, you know, disconnect from your life, people who are untethered from the loving heart and presence of God, they do crazy things.
They just do things with no hope. And we need to realize that if we're going to leave a legacy, we've got to get in His presence.
I like Psalm 116:11. It says, "You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your presence, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."
Psalm 84, you should read the whole psalm, but I'll pull a couple verses out here. It says, in verse 4, "What pleasure fills those who live every day in your temple, enjoying you as they worship in your presence."
Have you learned to enjoy God? Or is it just a religious thing you're doing? You're checking things off? "Well, I go to church." No. You need to learn to enjoy the presence of God in your life.
In verse 6, it says, "Even when their paths wind through the dark valley of tears." Has anybody been through some dark valleys of tears in this place? Am I preaching to real people? Or are we just... okay?
Even when—not if, but even when—we all go through these places, they dig deep to find a pleasant pool where others find only pain. But He, God, gives to them a brook of blessing filled with the rain of an outpouring.
And then in verse 7, it says, "They grow stronger and stronger with every step forward. And the God of all gods will appear before them in Zion."
Verse 9 says, "God, your wraparound presence is my defense. In your kindness, look upon the faces of your anointed ones." And you can go on and read the rest of that there, but it talks about the significance of the presence of God.
In Psalm 92:14, it says, "For in your presence, they will overflow and be anointed." I like this part: "Even in their old age, they will stay fresh, bearing luscious fruit and abiding faithfully." Praise God.
Psalm 140:13 says, "Your godly lovers will thank you no matter what happens, for they choose and cherish your presence above everything else."
See, this is so important to us. Listen to me. Your true identity, who you really are, is not found in the voices of people. Your true identity is discovered in the presence of God.
Your value as a person, your identity cannot be defined by what you do. Your identity is defined in who you are, and only God can tell you who you really are.
See, there's so many people running around, wearing themselves out, trying to prove to people by looking at what I do. But see, the enemy can come along and pull the rug out from underneath you, and then what you do is gone. And now what do you have to stand on?
But he can never pull away who you are. Who you are is rooted and grounded in Him and in His presence. And when who you are is right, then what you do will be right. But what you do can never be determined on who you are. Amen?
So make sure that your true identity is discovered in His presence.
Now, once our identity is discovered in His presence, then you can move on to the next P, and that is purpose. Somebody say purpose. Purpose.
You should really note this. Write it down if you haven't. Man has plans; God has purpose. Man has plans; God has purpose.
So out of God's presence flows purpose. So it's important that you know your life's purpose and then live according to purpose. I like to say it like this: you were created on purpose. You're not an accident. Nobody in here is an accident.
Regardless of what, you know, the enemy would tell you or anything, you are not an accident. You were created on purpose for a purpose.
See that, John 1:6, "There was a man sent from God whose name was John." He was sent; he was created on purpose for a purpose, just like you and me.
We were designed to create something significant and meaningful in the world. That's what makes us come alive. You see, one of the goals at this stage of my life is to help people, I call it, dream within their God-given design and purpose.
People can do great damage to themselves if they don't know their purpose. See, everything has a purpose. Like this microphone right here. If I took this microphone and started hammering nails with it, I would destroy the microphone because that's not the purpose of the microphone.
And if you don't know your purpose, you can do great damage to your life. And you can destroy things that were meant to be a blessing. See, this microphone is meant to be a blessing when used according to purpose.
But if I don't use it according to purpose, I can destroy it. Same thing with your life. Your life is meant to be a great blessing when it's used according to purpose.
But if you don't know your purpose, you can do great damage and harm to your life. Are you following me?
So make sure you know your purpose. And then Proverbs 19:21, this is one of my life verses, it says, "A person may have many ideas concerning God's plan for his life, but only the designs of his purpose will succeed in the end." God's purpose.
Proverbs 4 says, "Set your gaze on the path before you with fixed purpose, looking straight ahead. Ignore life's distractions."
And then Romans 8:28, I love the verse here. "We are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit in God's perfect plan of bringing good into our life." God wants to bring good into your life.
"For we are His lovers who have been called to fulfill His what? Designed purpose." So, it's essential; it's vital for us to discover our purpose in His presence so we can live on mission.
Once you've done that, you can move on to the third P, which is plans. Everybody say plans. You can't launch into plans without them being connected to your purpose.
So, you take all the time to ensure that your vision and your goals and your objectives and your strategies are aligned with purpose. I was saying earlier, talking about how many leaders I work with, organizations I work with that are making all kinds of plans. They've got strategies; they've got goals. But they're not connected to purpose.
And so, it's like getting a ladder leaned up, climbing this ladder, and getting to the top of this ladder and realizing that it's leaning against the wrong building.
Sometimes, it's easier to... well, when you know your purpose, it greatly simplifies things. It makes it easy for you to say no to the wrong things so you can say yes to the right things. You simply say no.
When I know my purpose, then I say no to plans that take me away from that purpose, and I say yes to plans that take me toward that purpose.
Years ago, a few years ago, I really wanted this car. It was a BMW. And we were living in Spartanburg at the time. And I talked my wife into letting me buy this car.
So, I'm searching around on the internet and autos.com and edmunds.com. I find this car, and it's in Atlanta. So, now I've got to talk my wife into going with me because I can't drive down there by myself, buy a car, and drive it back, right?
So, I talked her into going, and she's like, "Eh, okay, whatever," you know. So, we drive down there. And I'd looked at all the pictures. You know how they can make pictures look so good? I mean, I swear they can put lipstick on a pig and make it look like a beauty queen. You know what I'm saying?
And so, we get down there; I'm so excited on the way down there. I'm just excited about, I'm going to get this car. I've been searching for it. I get down there, and that car was nothing like the pictures looked like.
And I was under so much pressure because I had talked my wife into going all the way down there with me, and I didn't want to, you know, run back home with my tail between my legs and like, "Ah, she didn't have bought that car again."
So I was just struggling, and my wife knew I was struggling. And she said this to me: "Honey, a good no is better than a bad yes."
Some of you need to write that one down.
Now, you can't believe over the years how much that has meant. I've shared that with leaders all over the world, with pastors, business owners, with people. And when she said that, it just like totally took the stress and pressure off me. It just brought new revelation to me.
And so I said no, and I went back home without the car, and a couple weeks later, I found the car that I was really looking for. See?
But a good no—how could I say no? Because I knew purpose. And I knew that wasn't it. So sometimes you've got to say no.
You know the enemy of good or the enemy of great is not evil? The enemy of great sometimes is that which looks good. And you're willing to settle for good things instead of saying no to that because you want the great things, the greater things.
So a good no is better than a bad yes. That's why we study the Word of God. We have to know what the Word says about your situation, right?
Psalm 119:105 says, "Thy word is a lamp to my feet." What's a lamp? That's where my feet; that's where I'm at right now. I need the Word of God to illuminate where I'm at, but it says, "And a light unto my path." That means it shines out ahead in the direction that I need to be going.
Jeremiah 1:5 says, "Before I shaped you in the womb, this was God, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, look at this: I had holy plans for you, a prophet to the nations. That's what I had in mind for you."
See, God's got good plans for you. But His plans are connected to your purpose. That's why it's a danger for a lot of Christians today. If you're just listening to the voices of the world and culture, you can get passionate about a lot of things.
Good Lord, I was sitting next to two people on the plane on the way out here from Phoenix. And we're a diverse congregation here, so don't be offended. But golly, they were messed up.
And I tried to block them out. Maybe the Lord wanted me to minister. I'm sorry, Father, I failed. Because they were so obnoxious. And everything. I had my headphones on; I'm turning my music on; I'm praying in tongues; I'm doing anything. But they were just the most miserable people that I think I've encountered in such a long time.
They were so passionate about a bunch of stuff that meant nothing. Right? And you can be passionate about things and miss your greatest potential.
Passion is not the same as purpose. See? I'm passionate about a lot of dumb things, but that's not my purpose.
So I want my plans to be connected to my purpose. Because when you're not on purpose, everything is off course.
When you have the right purpose, then you develop the right plans. And when you develop the right plans, then you have the joy and satisfaction of true success and significance.
So purpose leads to plan. It's presence, it's purpose, it's plans. Number four is perseverance. Somebody say perseverance.
Here's the one thing I've learned in my 65 years of life: you don't drift into your best life. You don't drift into your best life. Most of the time, you've got to dig deep, and you've got to persevere. Life is going to throw some stuff at you. Any of y'all been through some stuff?
I got stuff; you got stuff. James 1:12 says, "If your faith remains strong, even while surrounded by life's difficulties, you will continue to experience the untold blessings of God. True happiness comes as you pass the test of faith and receive the victorious crown of life promised to every lover of God."
James 1:4, the NIV says, "Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." But I like the Amplified. It uses the word endurance. "Let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work so that you may be perfect and completely developed in your faith, lacking in nothing."
Now, what happens is perseverance is a great word because perseverance is a word that keeps you moving forward even when it seems you're going backward.
This is called the process of acclimatization. This is a mountain climbing metaphor. There's a woman by the name of Alan Levine. She's really a history-making polar explorer. She's known for climbing the highest peaks on the planet.
I think it's called, if I'm not mistaken, I think it's called the Adventure Grand Slam, where fewer than 40 people in the world have actually ever done that. But she wrote this book; it's a New York Times bestseller called "On the Edge: The Art of High Impact Leadership."
And in it, she introduces this idea of backward progress. Think about this: backward progress. Because you see, climbing Mount Everest is not a straightforward event. Most of us, when we think about our goals and strategies and objectives, we think about starting at point A and going to point B. We think of a linear line, right?
But you don't go—in mountain climbing, you don't go from here to the top. You go up to base camp where you camp, you spend a couple days at base camp one, then you go back down and you rest for a little while.
Then you go back up to base camp one again and then back down again. Then you go back up to base camp one and stay there a couple days, and then you go up to base camp two, and then you come back down again.
The reason you have to go up and come back down to base camp is because you have to let your body get used to the altitude very, very slowly. And that's what's called the process of acclimatization.
The catch is that for our human bodies, anytime that you're above 18,000 feet—which at Mount Everest, all the base camps are—you go up to base camp two; your body is starting to deteriorate, and your muscles get weak.
So you have to come back down to a lower elevation so you can eat and sleep and rehydrate and regain your strength. And so what she introduced here is that though you're going completely... it seems like you're going completely backwards, you're still in reality making progress.
And so perseverance sometimes means understanding that you have to go backwards strategically eventually to get where you want to be. And so that messes with us psychologically. It messes with us because we know we want to go to the top, but we're going backwards.
And for some reason, we think that progress has to occur this way, but that's not the way life works. Sometimes you have to go completely backwards in order to reach your destination.
And so that's what perseverance does. It keeps you locked in. I like Paul's word; the word I gave him was tenacity. He says at the end of his life, he says, "I fought the good fight; I have finished the race," right?
In other words, you can't quit. It doesn't say you don't want to quit; it says you can't quit. All of us have wanted to quit. You know, look, I pastored for over 35 years in a traditional sense, and now I pastor a lot of pastors.
I can tell you how many times every Monday I wanted to quit. You know, somebody goofy, you know, a church member comes up, and, you know, everybody's hugging on you, loving on you, and then somebody comes up and does a drive-by shooting.
You know, and you can't remember all the nice things that the sheep said to you. All you remember is the thing that that billy goat said to you. You know, the church is full of sheep and goats. Hopefully, no wolves. You got to run the wolves off.
But sometimes you catch a little goat in the church, right? And they butt around a little bit, and they hurt. And your head just wants to remember those things and not all the other things. And so you get discouraged; you get distressed.
You know, love on your pastors. Pray for your pastors. Pastors, encourage your pastors. Trust me, they get enough discouragement; they don't need you to make sure that they're getting their dose of discouragement.
You got to know sometimes life is going to get messy. And you have to have the ability to recover from failure and keep on going.
I love that, you know, we're talking about Pastor Kevin and the Rock Church out there. Every service, the person that gives the announcements, they say, "Welcome to the Rock Church, a church that cares where you're going." And then everybody shouts, "And not where you've been." Isn't that awesome?
I love that. That's the same way here. This is a church that cares where you're going. We don't care where you've been. We know the enemy's got plans to destroy, but we know that God's got plans for victory. We know that God's got plans that are just going to blow your mind.
We don't care where you've been. We know you've been messed up. Come and join the mess. But we're headed somewhere. But you got to be willing to persevere.
Sometimes when you get injured in sports, you got to tape it; you got to ice it. You've got to do whatever you've got to do to get back in the game.
Now, I don't mean you don't get counseling; you don't get help, and, you know, there's an element of wholeness that we have to function from. But sometimes, man, we need you in the game, and you sprained your ankle. We've got to wrap that ankle so you can keep on going.
We need your talent; we need your gift; we need your strength. That's called perseverance.
And all that leads to the fifth P: people. Somebody say people.
Listen, friends, legacy is all about people. That's it. Legacy is all about people. The value of life-giving relationships, the success of your life and the legacy you leave is ultimately going to be measured in how you navigated your relationships with people. That's it.
Your spouse, your children, your family, your friends, those you do life with, people in general. There are people whose lives that you will impact that you'll never realize until you go to heaven because you're so aware of the value of connection with people.
Pursue connection above all else. It breaks my heart when people, families blow apart, friendships blow apart because I got to be right, and you got to be wrong, and whatever. We set up these win-lose situations.
And sometimes you've got to know, how many married people we got here? You know, there are some hills you just don't want to crawl up and die on. You know what I'm saying?
Yes, sir. Sometimes you just say, "It's not worth losing connection." Wow, that was a big amen from your pastor.
It's not worth losing connection. Lori and I have sat and had conversations. We need to talk to our kids about this. And she would say, "But honey, it's not worth losing connection."
Because if you lose connection, you lose influence. You no longer have a voice.
So some of us need to be more strategic in our relationships, and connection needs to be the highest priority. Not what we want to say, not what we think we need to do, but connection.
Because if you blow up that bridge of connection, you won't have any influence. So that's how we need to steward our relationships.
I was telling this earlier, the greatest, all the best things that have ever happened in my life are the result of how I have stewarded my relationships with people.
God brings blessing and increase and opportunities and open doors on the basis of how we steward our relationships. That's how the kingdom works. It's about relationships.
That's why Matthew 18 is in your Bible. It talks about how you forgive those who have offended you. Forgive your brother. It even talks about how God won't even hear your prayers.
If you come to the altar with your gift, and you have an odd against your brother, you know, go back, make that right, and then come give your gift. Kingdom priorities, right?
Respectfully, right? Respectfully, right? Respectfully, right? Respectfully, right? Respectfully, right? Respectfully, right?
Communication will go deep into that, but Ephesians 4 talks about speaking the truth in love—not just speaking the truth because you can use the truth to dice and cut and slice and wound, but speaking the truth in love has an entirely different motivation.
God never intended us to do life and ministry alone. We've got to steward relationships to leave a lasting legacy, friends. We've got to steward and strengthen the integrity we have in our relationships with each other.
Proverbs 17 says, "A friend loves at all times, and a brother's born in adversity." Amen?
Presence, purpose, plans, perseverance, people.
Let me close with this. There's a guy by the name of Bob Buford who wrote a book called "Half Time." Many people are familiar with that book, but he wrote a second book which wasn't quite as popular, but it was called "Finishing Well."
And in this book, he introduces the idea of beautiful scars—beautiful scars. Now, in the world, we do everything we can to cover our scars. We have surgeries to take away scars; we use makeup to cover scars, right?
I had a thing burned off my face, and I told Lori, "Put some of your makeup on me; I don't want people to see that dark spot on my face." You know, we try to airbrush away the blemishes, right? Isn't that what we do? Isn't that what culture shows us to do?
We're embarrassed of the flaws; we're embarrassed of the imperfections. And he introduces this concept of beautiful scars. You went through something, and you came out the other side; you got some scars; you got some things that you had to deal with.
But those scars are beautiful because they represent perseverance; they represent you didn't quit.
When my wife had that motorcycle accident, she got a lot of scars, surgeries, a bunch of scars. And a few months later, we were in our bathroom, and like any woman, any wife wants to be attracted to her husband, my wife says to me, "Baby, am I still beautiful to you with all my scars?"
I'll never forget it; it was just like I thought, "Wow." And I thought, "Those scars..." I said, "Honey, those scars are the most beautiful things I've ever seen because to me, they show what a woman she is, what she endured, what she went through, how she didn't quit. They represent victory; I've come through; I come out of something and through to victory. They mean something precious; they mean something beautiful to me."
And I didn't have to hesitate for a second. "No, baby, those scars are beautiful."
What did Jesus do after He died on the cross? He appeared to them in the upper room. What did He do? He said, "Look at the scars." Nail-scarred hands, right? Look at the scar on my side. He revealed the scars.
And sometimes what we're so busy covering up our flaws and our scars and our imperfections, we don't realize those are the very trophies that testify to the goodness of God in our life.
You maybe shouldn't even be here. My wife could be dead. But those scars were beautiful to me. And I'm so grateful for even the things that God has done in our life as a result.
So you might have some flaws; you might have some scars; you might have been through some battles. Things might not have always been perfect or turned out the way you wanted to.
But I want to tell you something: those scars are beautiful to your Father. God doesn't want you to be embarrassed, ashamed, or hidden away because of the scars of your past.
Just bring them all in and let the Father God tell you those scars are beautiful.
Listen, we're all going to leave this planet one day. You're going to leave one of three things. You're going to leave souvenirs, which we all have some souvenirs. They just are little trinkets. They mean, "Oh, I was there. I bought that coffee cup or bought that t-shirt."
And a lot of people leave life like that, and they say, "Oh, yeah, there's a record; they were there." You know, it's a souvenir.
Or you can leave trophies. Trophies are a little more meaningful because they mean you maybe accomplished something, right? You won a tournament; you accomplished a goal; you did something.
But they're all just wood, hay, and stubble. Years ago, I had a whole bunch of trophies from sports and stuff that I did. And one day, I kept them up in the attic. Like, I got these all, you know, stupid trophies.
And I thought one day, "Why do I have all these trophies? I don't even have them out; they look dumb." And so I took the names and all the events off, and I went and gave them to the Christian school.
And they just put new labels on them and gave them away to the kids that won awards and stuff like that. I felt, "Wow, at least they're getting used, right?"
But your life could be a trophy, which meant you accomplished some things. Or when you leave this life, you can leave a legacy.
And a legacy goes beyond. A legacy lives long after you have. And it's all about the people. It's all about the lives that you've impacted and influenced and loved and served.
This is about leaving a lasting legacy. Can you say amen?
So the divine order is, say it with me: presence, purpose, plans, perseverance, people to leave a lasting legacy. Amen?
Bow your head; close your eyes with me.
Father, we love you today. We're so thankful. We're thankful for the scars. We're thankful. I'm thankful that people didn't quit; they're here today.
But, Father, I also know that there's a very real enemy that wants to tell us, "You know, hide your past; hide your scars; don't show who you really are." There are people who have scars on their soul, scars on their heart today. And they're embarrassed.
And I pray, Father, that they'll come to see your love and your goodness through a whole new revelation today. And we can come to you and give you everything.
If you're here today, we had so many people in the first service raise their hands. I'm not going to embarrass you in any way. But if you want to bring all of your messes, if you say, "I'm hurting; I've got issues; I need God to work some miracles in my life; I just need to turn my life completely over to Him," and I'm willing to bring everything I have and say, "Lord, here I am," pray for me.
If that's you here today, and you just want to say, "Take my life, Father," I want to pray for you. And so just while you're there right now, every head bowed and every eye closed, just raise your hand and say, "Pray for me, Dr. Langley."
Yes, yes. I see the hand. Yes, over here. Thank you. Thank you. Hands. So many hands today. Just going to people being honest.
You don't have to hide your scars; you don't have to hide your flaws; you don't have to hide your disappointments or your messes. God already knows about them.
And the Father's house is here to love you, help you discover purpose, get on a right plan with God, and help you see your legacy come to pass.
But if you don't know the Father, if you don't give your life to Him, it's just not going to happen. So this is where it starts.
Let's all pray this together. Say, "Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Jesus to die for me, to shed His own blood and pay the price for my sin. Today, I crack open the door of my life. Take all of me, all of my past, my failures, my wounds and scars, my sins, and bury them beneath the blood of Jesus.
I give you my life today. From this day forward, I'm going to be in your presence, and I'm going to learn your purpose, and I'm going to live for you. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus' name."
And all God's people said, "Amen."
Amen. Pastor Andrea is going to give you some instruction. Bless you, my friends. God bless you.
on Mar 16, 2025
