A Church That Looks Like Heaven

They gathered because of the need to hear the Word, but they also needed to gather to hear the faith and to be encouraging their faith because of the journeys and because of the life experiences that they were having. As we know, we live in a world that in many ways is becoming more and more biblical, that the idea of safe church is not going to be an irrevocabulary. The idea that we can just be safe in our kind of convenient, comfortable place when there's a world that is at war, and that's in one way, very healthy for all of us. It's very healthy for us to wake up, needing God like we've never needed Him before. It's very healthy for us to be out of our comfort zone. Bible talks about when Israel became comfortable, when Israel settled, when Israel traveled and as they traveled on their way to the journey and through the journeys that God had formed, the Bible says that they would come to a place of comfort, and as they camped and as they began to park themselves in a place of just convenience, if you will, and luxury, it just says that they began to lose the life of God, and they lost their conviction, they lost their hunger, they lost the very thing that they used to have at the very beginning of their lives. I don't even remember when you first got saved, it was so real to you. Life was so real to you. Having the vision of God was so real to you. You began to clearly see, in fact, one of the marks of salvation is you can clearly see the difference between what you were and what you are now in Christ, and some of that we just begin to lag behind, and we just need to ask God to keep His Spirit, and the Bible says, "Keep stirring up the Spirit of God that lies within you," because we all have a tendency to settle. We all have a tendency to just kind of begin to rest, and though we are in a rest, Christ being our rest, and we are at peace, the reality is that we are still, as long as we're on this planet, in this world, there is still a warfare, and there is still a battle, and our families need us to stay strong and vigilant. Can I hear an amen? Thank you for lifting up, Jack, and lifting up the family this morning, and I do pray

that as you came in the day that you received, your kingdom come, legacy, booklet that we have prepared for you, for those that are new to our church. Every year, we talk about legacy, and it's not money, it's just more about what are we leaving behind us? What is the impact? What is it that, as a result of our life, people, as it was said in the video, what is it that people will say after we're gone, and what will people say at your funeral? Let me encourage you, don't let people guess what your legacy is when they come to your funeral. Don't let them go, "You know, what was this guy all about? What was his theme, what was his purpose, what was his reason? Because it's not if we're going to have those days, we're going to have those days, and we're going to have that moment." And the reality is, legacy, when it's all said and done, is what are we leaving behind? What is it that people will write about us? Not what we write about us, but what other people will write about us. And God wants us to have this perspective of living to some degree. Yes, we are in today. Today is important. Today, you have enough troubles, enough trials to be worried about tomorrow. But the other aspect of God is that we are very aware that we're living a heavenly life in this earth, that we are not just here. We're not just living for today, but we are living for eternity. It's called eternal life. In a scripture this morning that just hit me to just share with you that wasn't originally in what I was going to talk about, but we'll finish this message today. The reality is, in the book of Isaiah chapter 42, when it comes to legacy, you can choose your legacy. A lot of people don't realize this. You just think legacy is something that's just going to happen.

Well, it's going to happen. You're going to leave a legacy, but you can choose your legacy. You can choose what kind of legacy you're going to build. What kind of life you're going to build. Isaiah 42, 23, tells us in the King James Version, "Who among you will give ear?" That word there, "Who among you?" God is asking through Isaiah the prophet, "Who is going to give their ear?" That word there means to put your hands behind your ears. Whose had to, the older you get, you've had to use your hands behind your ear. You just, "What?" And we expand. That word there means, "Who among you will expand his ability to hear?" "who is going to lean in? Who will hearken and hear?" Now I want to stop before we read the rest of that verse. "Who is going to expand or who's going to give themselves or incline themselves to hear what God is saying from heaven?" The Bible talks about a hearing ear. You may have ears, but you don't have ears to hear. It's amazing how children cannot hear two feet away from you. It's amazing how a husband can't hear two feet away from you. The fact is that we have to have what the Bible says a hearing ear, which means who's going to take their lives, who's going to take their hands, take all of their capabilities, all of their abilities and all of their gifts and say, "God, what are you saying to me? Lord, I don't want to miss this." And then He says, "For the time to come." Who will listen to what I have to say concerning the time to come? In other words, who's going to give their ear to hear what's important, not necessarily for today for the future? What Isaiah is saying, what God is saying actually through Isaiah is, there are those things that, yes, you're aware of the obvious world, and there is an obvious world. It's what we can feel, what we can touch, what we can handle. It's the obvious world of this moment, but then there's another world. It's not obvious. And that world, that's the eternal world, that's the heavenly world. That's the world that Jesus, though He was in this world, and though He walked among us for 33 years, but Jesus was more heavenly conscious than He was earthly conscious. In the book of Acts, the disciples, the church, was more conscious of the heavenly power of God. They were more aware of the world that they could not see than the world that they could see. Stephen, while being stoned,

as he is literally dying for the gospel, he's giving one lesson after another of the way God led Israel and how God through Moses. And he's just walking him through, read chapter seven of the book of Acts, and the man is giving the most beautiful sermon while taking stones upside his face. And he says, "I see the glory of God. I see the Son of man standing at the right hand of God." He saw Jesus. He saw the heavens open, not seeing the stones. And it's not if you're going to have stones, and I'm talking kidney stones, rolling stones, you're going to have all kinds of stones. But the reality is, is do you focus on what you can't see or do you focus on what you see? And what you have to learn is that this is a life that has to be developed. This is not something that comes naturally. It's something that you have to incline your ear to hear. When it comes to your legacy, it is not something that will happen by accident. You will have to be intentional. You'll have to be intentional about how you're going to live, how you're going to spend your money, how you're going to handle your emotions, how you're going to handle your decisions, you're going to have to be inclined, you're going to have to give you all of your powers, all of your capabilities, all of your desires. You're going to have to point them towards God and say, "Lord, I don't want to live for this world only." Because the Bible says in the book of James, it's a vapor. This world is a vapor. It is a blink of an eye. It is here and gone. But we don't feel that way when we're going through troubles. We don't feel that way when we're going through our trials. We don't feel that way when we're in pain. We don't feel that way when it's hard. We feel like it's going to last forever. I don't know for those that exercise, like this morning, at five o'clock I'm doing my bike for one hour. And I look at my clock. I'll set this phone next to me while I'm riding this Peloton like bike. It's not a Peloton because I'm not paying $70 a month for the subscription. I don't need a man to tell me from that stupid video to tell me how to ride my bike. In fact, I go to a hotel and I've recorded all of the Peloton so, yes, I'm scamming. But as I'm riding that bike and I'm in the last couple of minutes, this happens to everyone that is doing any kind of exercise. You're in those last minutes. I have never, that last three minutes are 32 hours. How many do you know? It's demonic. You know that the clock I'm going to ride that bike until that commercial's over. Not knowing it was a 90-minute commercial for some kind of bed on Fox News or something like that. It's just the reality is that there are days that you will say, "I'm at my finest." And we have the finest of days, but that's not the most important days. Your finest days are not your important days, it's your final days that are the

most important. A lot of people just want to live to have those finest of days, like when you're at your peak, your performance, your success, the income, when things with this or that, whatever you define it as that, but as fine as that is, that's not the most important, the most important are your final days. And the Bible says we're all in our final days. You're not too young to think about legacy. In fact, start today. I don't care how old you are, Pastor Joe, but let me live my life for a few more years. You may not live life for a few more years. You're not guaranteed tomorrow. And hear it from people like myself who would say, "Yeah, there might have been those moments where you could say like the Hebrews." It says that there was a passing pleasure of sin for a moment. It was quick, but it wasn't worth it. And except for the grace of God, I wish I would have not pushed it. I wish I would have not waited. I wish I would have given my life to Christ sooner. Who could say the same thing? That no matter what you've experienced in this world, Christ is better. Eternal life is better. Who will incline? Who will give their ear to hear? You see, kingdom come. Our legacy is really not about what we're doing. And of course, let me just give you those initiatives. We have kingdom expansion. We're going to do some cool things here in Austin. We're expanding the kingdom first of all there. 183a and 2243. What God has given us in this significant piece of property, 935, He's given an opportunity for us as we purchase almost 15 acres at the corner of 2243 and 183. Many of you, that's your route. If you live here north, that's the route we take. Coming down Ronald Reagan, we make a right. And that right is right there where we'll be building and it'll be sitting right there on the face of 183. And it continues to grow the purpose, I believe, for us in this world and in particular Austin, Texas, to continue to expand the kingdom of God through our campuses. Another one, of course, and that would be the Liberty Hill Leander campus as our kingdom generations. And that is providing scholarships and accreditation for ACU. God has given us right now an incredible ingredient of what's happening with higher education with Austin Christian University. As you can see, we've already removed our trailer park and they have not taken the trailers off of our property. But if somebody wants one of those trailers, I told the company if they didn't have it out of the property by the end of this week, they said, "Well, it's raining." I said, "I don't care. It's leaving." If you want one of those trailers, Pastor Jim will help you and you can just pull up and take it to your hunting camp. It's going to be a perfect... I will not... If you steal it, we will not file charges. I will promise you. Is there somebody thinking about it? Where are my Lando people at? Yes, sir.

What do we got? 15,000 square feet, Jim? Of stealable property in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth? But the funny part is to why it's still sitting there. If you've wondered, "Why is the trailer park still sitting there?" It's because we've used it for so long. It's been here for so long that they actually, because of its age and its decrepity, if that's such a word, they have to add more axles underneath to get it legal to move it down the highway. So I can't promise you, you'll get it to Lando, but you can try. But what's happening at Austin Christian University? You know Miracle. We were given a gift of over $50 million. And that gift is building what will be a state-of-the-art facility. And Austin Christian University, guys, we're hearing from people all over the world. It's not just building buildings, but it's the accreditation process. And so you're going to see more and more... This property, the remaining 110 acres that we have on this property, total 110, the buildings you're going to be seeing are going to be educating the next generation. Kingdom builders, kingdom mindset, people going into the realm of business and politics and the realm of taking the gospel. It's a major... I believe it's a major endeavor, but it's not something we started. It's something that God prepared for us. We're just giving our ear to hear of the things to come. See, legacy is not about you. Come on, we can thank God for that legacy. It's not about you. [BLANK_AUDIO] One of the great stories, great but awful, is a story of a man named Saul. Saul was the first king of Israel. And Saul blessed, anointed to be king in the process of time. God was blessing him, God was expanding him, God was, if you will, gifting him. And that came in 1 Samuel 15, where the Lord said, "I am sorry that I gave Saul the kingdom." I am sorry that I, in fact that says he was grieved that he had made Saul king. And I was just chewing on this. God regretted that he had gifted Saul. God regretted that he had blessed Saul with the authority, with the opportunity, with the doors that he gave him. And I began to think, would God regret that he gave me these gifts? All of you have been gifted, with opportunities, with gifts, the gift of time, the gift of

life. I don't want, and I pray, for all of us, we would not come to the end of our life and go, "Wow, he could have done more through me." And the Bible says the reason why God said I was grieved and regretted that I had gifted Saul with these gifts, and especially giving him the kingdom as the first king. It says that Saul built a monument for himself. Saul, instead of living for God, he lived for himself. And instead of it going to people, it went to himself. Legacy is about you living your life so that it goes to people, not to yourself. Legacy is the depositing into other people. It's living your life so that other people can receive your inheritance, your experiences, your wisdom, so that other people can be benefited as a result of what you've gone through, and instead of you getting mad, or instead of you just taking it for yourself. It's all about, "Lord, how can I help other people?" And especially the next generation. So it's kingdom, expansion, it's kingdom generations, wave student ministry. We need to update. In fact, we want to take what is our heroes building, which is the South Auditorium, and we want to expand that, but we want to enhance that, and we want to continue to see the thousands of students that we're having, and more and more students coming to celebration church, and we just need to create more and more space for them together. And then lastly, it's kingdom impact. This is what you'll see in the booklet. Expansion, generations, and impact, and that is expanding the local and global ministry that we have through our correctional facilities, Mozambique, our school, and our campuses there. And then our military outreach, many of you know of our campuses in Italy. But in Italy, as we have two campuses in the Naples region, God has given us the keys actually to the naval base, and hundreds of military families who come to Naples, serving in the military, and it's not just our military, it's one of the NATO headquarters. And we have some of the head NATO officials that attend celebration church, who are from

countries all over the world. And then when they leave Naples, and going back to their countries, and our military, that leave from Naples, going back to wherever they're reassigned to, they are first asking, "Where can we find another church like celebration?" Because we have, as you drive out of the Naples base, you'll see a large billboard there, and that billboard says, "A home away from home celebration church." How many know our military men and women need to be ministered to all over the world? Can I hear an amen? Yep. And we want to continue to partner. We want to continue to expand. We want to continue to outreach in Italy, and also through our military men and women. Of course, we have strong church, which is another endeavor. You can read about that. We have some 50, 60-plus churches that look to us for council. They look to us for pastoring. They look for us to give them any kind of keys that we've learned along the way to grow their church and continue to expand the gospel. And so thank you. Just thank you for giving your ear to what God would have you to say. It's never about money. It's just about obedience. We didn't show up with money. We didn't come here because we had any money. We had no promise of anything. We just had the Word of God. And I want to talk to you today about leaving Allegus, and I want to talk to you about the importance of it. And it kind of gives us, I think, when we hear about, in fact, if I were to ask you, what are you praying about?

How many have some, let's say the top three prayers. Who has a top three prayer list right now? Or who has a one big prayer on your mind? And if I get into that conversation with you and ask you, what are you praying about? Chances are, what you're praying about is what your life's about. And so when you go to Matthew chapter 6, the Bible tells us, "When Jesus is instructing His disciples how to pray," He says, "pray in this way, our Father who is in heaven." How low be your name? Your what? Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So in other words, when we get into someone's prayer life, you're really getting into their real life. And what is the real life of Jesus? What is His whole purpose for coming? What if we were to talk to Jesus today and say, "Lord, what is on your heart? What's on your mind? What is it that my time is for?" And He said, "Pray this," but I don't think He was just saying, "Pray this." He was saying, "Live this." This is what the church is about. He's talking to His people, His followers, His faithful. And He's saying, "Guys, the whole purpose of me coming to this world, the whole reason why I have come," in fact, John 1 and verse 14 tells us that God came, the Word came, and the Word became flesh. In other words, the Word, Christ was the Word, the Logos, but it had to become practical. It had to become real. It had to become tangible. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw it. It was glorious.

It was so glorious, it had to only come from the One who gave us His Son, and that's the Heavenly Father. The whole of grace and truth, grace and truth, Jesus came. He was the expression of God. He was God, and that did not just come in word form, it came in practical form. It came to display, to reveal, to give a tangible expression of what heaven is. Christ is what heaven is all about, all authority, all life, all power has been given unto His Son. All the pleasure of the Father dwelt in Christ. He is the fulfillment of all the commands, all the laws. He's the fulfillment of all the promises. Heaven is going to be heavenly because it's Christ sitting on the throne. There'll be no need of the light because He will be the light. He will be what is the object of our worship for eternity. And the flesh, it says, and the flesh, God came in the flesh and dwelt among us. I like the message translation. It says that Christ came and He moved into our neighborhood. And guess who moves into the neighborhood today? You do. You see, we as the body, the body of Christ, we are now the word and flesh. We are His body. No, we're not Christ. No, we are not the sons of God and the daughters of God in the singular, but we are His sons and we are His daughters. We are His people and we are moving into the neighborhood. We moved into this neighborhood 26 years ago, the neighborhood of Austin, Texas. There was only 900,000 people we moved here. It didn't take you 30 minutes to go to 7/11 down the street. Now every time you get in the car, you have to be strategic about it. How many don't say it?

And, to be honest with you, people that used to go to our church, where it used to be a 15-minute drive from Forest Creek or other locations, it's now 30, 40 minutes. Guess what? That means it becomes harder and harder for people to go to church. It's harder and harder for people to come. You have to make a decision. They have to make a sacrifice. Will they go through 52 red lights that used to not be there? Every Sunday and every day, my goal is, will I be able to drive to church without being stopped at one red light? I got stopped at one this morning. And my mind's on God, but I will say it's also on practical things. Which means people that used to come to our church don't come to our church, not because it's wrong or bad, it's just that it's too far to stay connected. Which means we take the church to other neighborhoods. That's why we're expanding. That's why we do campuses. That's why people who would like to come can't come anymore because they just can't get involved at the level that they are wanting to be involved in because of just the time that it takes. The church says because you can't come to heaven on your own, I'm coming to you. Now as a result of you believing in him, as a result of following him and becoming a disciple, guess what? Justice Christ moved you moved and you move into the neighborhoods of people. And so what are we doing? We're moving heaven into our neighborhoods. You should be heavenly. Your neighbor should be thinking right now, I have such a heavenly neighbor. They're wonderful. Your neighbor should not be looking through the window going, "Are they gone?"

Let's go outside now. Those people are not heavenly. They're scary. I get it. I know we can't be scary at times, but we are the expression of the kingdom. We are the expression of God's mind. We as Christ followers. We as the people of God, this comes with salvation. Pastor Joe, I don't want that responsibility. Oh, you get it. If you want heaven, you got to get it. You can't have His heaven and not want to bring heaven to other people. You can't just want to use Christ. You just can't say, "Forgive me of my sins, get me into heaven, and to hell with everybody else, Lord, I'll be by myself." And God says, "Oh, there's nobody by themselves in heaven. No one is going to have this little private life, this little yacht in heaven. Just going to kind of do your own thing." See, this is part of the expression of legacy. This is part of the expression of what we do as God's people. And so when I consider even these two passages from Matthew 6 and that John 1 and 14, when I think about God, it talks very clearly that the earth, the world, is why we are here to redeem it, to bring life, eternal life, eternal life. There are two band members talking about even this week. I went to my very first concert in 1980. And that first concert, I did not know what I was going to, a friend of mine, Trey Weber, said, "Come to a concert," and I went to a concert, went with him and his dad, drove to Monroe, Louisiana, and it was 1980, and the band was rushed. Yeah, that's eternal life, Tom Sawyer. And I've been a fan of Rush, not all the stuff, but some cool licks.

And they're on this 50-year tour, and I was watching Getty Lee and Alex, they are the two first origin or original members, talking about their friend, Neil Pert, arguably the greatest drummer in rock 'n' roll, and all the people from the rock 'n' roll world would say, and they were doing a toast to Neil. This was a documentary on their friend Neil, 50 years together, and Neil died, and they said, "Neil, wherever you are, whatever has happened to you, wherever you may be, we hope you're there." And you're sad for people, you're sad for people, because they don't know eternal life. They just don't know, or they don't give their ear to hear. But it's sad to have all the success and all the things that life can afford you, all the money, hundreds of millions of dollars of worth, millions and millions and millions of fans, and yet lose their soul. You see, that's not a legacy. That's not what's important. What's important is eternal life. This is why the Bible says in 1 John 5, "The one who believes in the Son of God will have this testimony, this report. It will bear witness in themselves. They have God, they have eternal life, and the one who does not believe God has made God a liar." So in other words, your unfaithfulness or your disbelieving or your rejection of the gospel, the Bible says you're simply calling God a liar, because God said, "I'm the way the truth and the life." Jesus said that himself. And so for us to say, "No, I don't believe it," is to say, "Well, then you're a liar, because you said it, therefore you must be a liar, and I'm the truth." Because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life. And this life is in his Son, and he who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

You don't have eternity. You can't have eternity in heaven. You can't have the forgiveness of sins, and what Christ came to give us is redemption. He's rescued us from darkness. He's rescued us from hopelessness, and he's promised us eternal life. The Bible says to not have Christ, this is to not have eternal life. You may have religion, but that's not eternal life. You may have a faith, but that's not eternal life. You may have a belief system, but that's not eternal life. It's Christ. Who is eternal life? It's belief in him. It's faith in him. It's trusting in him. It's giving everything to him. And the Bible says that he who does not have this Son does not have this life, these things I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is what it's about. Even John writing this one of three letters for this reason, he goes, I want people to have eternal life. That is legacy. As a believer, the ultimate legacy is I want my family to know eternal life. I want my family to know. And this is God's plan from the very beginning, it's eternal life. Heaven is God's way of doing things. When he says, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." It's God's will, God's mind, God's way of doing things, it's thinking the way God thinks. Truly, it is fashioning yourself after God and your behavior becomes like God's behavior. Jesus said, "Be ye perfect as I am perfect."

Jesus said, "Be as I am," to say that you love me and not keep my commandments is not an indication that you love me. You begin to say, "Lord, any and everything in my life, I want you to have access into it, and Lord, whatever is not pleasing to you, whatever, Lord breaks your heart, whatever is causing an inconsistency of a heavenly pattern, a heavenly mind, a heavenly thought, Lord, I don't want it in my life." And that's the power of the Holy Spirit. He comes and he takes and he reproves us and he teaches us and he guides us and you're not alone. And when it comes to this heaven on earth, this is the whole reason why we live. But when you and I carry heaven to this world as believers, the Bible says in Colossians, Paul writes these words, he says, "I have been praying since the day I heard of your faith in Christ, and I have not ceased to pray for you, and I have prayed that you would be filled with the knowledge of His will." You know what he's saying? That you'd be filled with the knowledge of heaven's mind concerning you. Why are you on this planet? Why are you alive? What is it? God, I believe you gave me life. I believe that God, you're there. Now, I want knowledge. I want understanding. I want to be able to cross the teas and dant the ... Lord, I want the language of heaven. And this is what he was praying, that you would know the language of heaven, that you would not walk in the dark, so that you would know His will, that you'd be filled with the knowledge of Israel and spiritual wisdom and understanding. In other words, it starts to come in practical understanding, for what reason? So that you would walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, that it looks like Christ, or for our conversation today, that being an expression of heaven, that when people meet you, they

mean an expression of heaven, that they can honestly say. As the Bible tells us, speaking as though you speak and when you speak, it's like you're speaking the very oracles of God, that what comes out of your mouth is heavenly. Oh, I know we have a long way to go. I know the farther we go with Christ, the deeper you go with Christ, the farther you feel away from Christ, and the more shallow you feel. But you see, this is part of the journey, part of the journey, and part of the reason why we are together. The reason why you've been brought to Austin, and the reason why we are a local church is so that we would bring heaven to earth. And then he says, bearing fruit, bearing fruit, in all respects. In other words, wherever you go, in every good deed, working and increasing in the knowledge of God. And Paul then goes a little bit further describing, what is this life? What is a heavenly life? And it's not just the natural, it's not just money, it's not just the giving of words. It's not just the giving of your time, your talent, your treasure. It's not just your service, and all those are a part of it. There's something else that happens in heaven. Paul says, "I have received from you Philippians chapter 4 verse 18, because I have received everything in full and in abundance, and I am amply supplied through this man, Epaphroditus. In other words, talking to the church and Philippians, Epaphroditus delivered a gift or the legacy gifts that came from the church in Philippi, and he goes, "And what you sent, what you gave, what you deposited is a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God." And when you get down to it, what is a legacy? When it gets down to it, what are your gifts, your talents, your treasures? What is it that when you are walking on this planet for the glory of God and for the kingdom of God, for heaven to come, it becomes an aroma? It becomes a fragrance.

And he says, "A sweet smelling aroma." See, this is what gets into the fabric of your children. You see, there's a lot of parents that come to me and say, "Pastor Joe, my kids are out of control." And I have been trying to get them to do this, and I tell them to do that, and I bring in the church, and I drop them off, and I pick them up, and I yell them all the way home, and then you know the story. And they don't want anything to do with the church, and they don't want anything to do with us. And it's just, and so what's your house smell like? Because just by your breath alone. (audience laughing) There's an aroma and it's called the aroma of religion and you're not sweet, your parenting is not sweet, your responses are not sweet, your giving is not sweet, though you give Bible verses and you don't give it sweetly. Read the Bible. God told the world that they gave us, they'll never come. And you can quote Scripture and bring death because the Bible says the letter without the Spirit is death. Legacy is living in aroma. It's not an inheritance in the form of money and possessions and things. Listen, celebration church, we are not building buildings for the sake of brick and mortar buildings. When it's all said and done, the greatest legacy we will live in Austin is the fragrance of Christ Jesus. And that is not something that you just get by your download of information sitting in the congregation, sitting in a church on a Sunday morning. It's something that happens because God is working in your own personal life as you're leaning in to say, "Lord, what are you saying to me?" Yesterday I smelled an aroma called shrimp a two fey.

It was around five o'clock. I've been wondering, "God, what are you saying to me today?" And all of a sudden I smelled out of the kitchen the most beautiful fragrance, sweet a two fey. If you're from Louisiana, it's almost heavenly. And I said, "Lori, may the Lord bless you and keep you." And that will keep you around for the glory of God. Of course, ultimately, she keeps me around. But how many can remember homes going into your mom's home, your grandma's? There was a smell. Nothing has more connected to your memory than your smell. Has it happened to you where you smelled something and you can go to a stairwell, you can go to a classroom, you can go to a locker, sadly. You can go and you go there immediately because your memory is most connected by your smell. And when Paul says the gifts and the legacy gifts that were given by the church of Philippi, he says, "It wasn't something that was in the form of money, possessions, and things though it was. It was in a roma that got into the family. It's in a roma that gets into your family. It's something that happens not by force, but by the Spirit of God. And I'll close as the worship team comes so that we can watch another great day happen outside. Paul the Apostle says, "I came to trust for the gospel." Let me just say, you came to Austin for the gospel. You didn't come to Austin for your job. If you're a believer, you're not here for your job. You're here for the gospel and you get a job. And yes, you need a job. But how many know the gospel, the kingdom, bringing heaven to the earth is more important than money, possessions, and things.

And yes, God does use. We get the power and the divine nature of work. It's all part of it. But Paul says it's for the gospel, and the door was opened for me. And I had no rest in my spirit. Of course, he was looking for Titus. I didn't find him, but moving from there, I went on to Macedonia. And then he says, verse 14, "Thanks be to God who always leads us in the truth of Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place." Paul the Apostle knew what he was. As a believer, as a follower of Christ, as a disciple, as a minister, which we are all ministers, we're all unto our God, kings and priests. You are giving off an aroma. You're giving off a legacy. The question is, what will your legacy be? Will it be sweet or will it be bitter? And when I think about our initiatives that we're going to be talking about and the things ahead in the next couple of days, it's going to be sweet seeing a building on Leander Liberty Hill. It's going to be a sweet building. I believe it's going to be sweet driving up and down and going, I was a part of that. Like many of you who have been a part of this campus or part of other campuses, being a part of the campuses, the 13 corrections, increasing that, it will be a sweet seeing the next generation of wave-seated serving Jesus. It will be sweet seeing the world come to Austin Christian University. It will be sweet seeing more ground taken in Mozambique and Italy. It's going to be sweet seeing more military families served and cared for around the world. It's going to be sweet. And this is where I want to close.

It will be sweet seeing our families living in the aroma of God's favor. I have lived my life to the best of my ability by God's grace, not that I would build anything for my name or for any church's name. May it be said that at the end of your life you don't have regrets, and you won't have regrets when your life is about other people. With every head bowed and every eye closed this morning. (gentle piano music) I want to say, God loves you. (gentle piano music) And He has a reason for you to be here today. (gentle piano music) Now hear what He has to say. Will you give your ear to it? Will you give your heart to it? Will you give your attention to Him right now? (gentle piano music) Of the things that will come to pass. You're gonna die. You're gonna have to have eternal life, and you to have eternal life. And if you don't, Jesus said, it's gonna happen. Without me, you can go nowhere. You can have nothing but hopelessness and darkness. But with me, I'm the light. I'm the hope of the world. I conquered the grave. Now we have an ear to say today, Lord, I want to be ready for the future of standing before you one day, being prepared.

You are my savior and my Lord. If you're here today and you say, Pastor Joe and Klubian in that prayer, would you just slip up your hand right now? As heads are bound, eyes are closed all over this place. Ultimately, my main position in life, as I minister and pray, is number two, to plead with you, be reconciled to God. Don't wait. I see so many hands. You may put those down. Number two, how many would say Pastor Joe? I want to leave a legacy that is sweet to my family and to my future. Let me see all over this place. How many want the sweetness of God's aroma? The Bible says that there's a life that you can live, that's sweet and pleasurable to God. And maybe today, the Lord's convicting you about your decisions, about your choices, about your passions, about your personality, about your focus, about your direction, about the path that you're on today. He says, "Choose me. "Choose ye this day. "And I'll bring to your life a life "that you'll never regret. "Can we say this out loud, Lord Jesus? "Thank you for your kindness, your mercy, "your grace from this moment on.

"Your mind, and I'm yours, I don't belong to myself. "I exchange my life for your life. "In the life that I now live, I live by the power, "and the nature of the Son of God. "Thank you for saving me and leading me." And all the God's people say, "Come on, Lord." (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)