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Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”
Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”
Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“
Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“
Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
[00:00:00] <music>
Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.
[00:00:18] <music>
Laura Dugger: Located in Morton, Illinois, Floral Designs is a full-service florist, as well as a home decor store. They are not your typical florist, as they offer fresh floral designs that are one-of-a-kind. They have a beautiful showroom, as well as offering in-home consultations for their clients. Visit them at floraldesigns-ltd.com, or check out their showroom.
Jeff Henderson is one of my favorite people to interview, so I'm excited to let you know we are bringing him back as a returning guest. Jeff just released his first book titled, Know What You're For: A Growth Strategy for Work, an Even Better Strategy for Life. We're going to learn more about his book and writing process, in addition to some practical life tips he shares as he mentors us.
I do want to let you know that we had a few issues with sound quality, especially at the beginning, but it gets much better, so please hang with us. [00:01:23]
Here's our chat.
Welcome back to The Savvy Sauce, Jeff.
Jeff Henderson: Laura, it's great to be back with you. Thanks for having me again.
Laura Dugger: My pleasure. And for anyone who missed our previous recording, will you just give us a glimpse of your current stage of life?
Jeff Henderson: Sure. My wife, Wendy, and I have been married 22 years, and we have a college sophomore daughter at Samford University in Birmingham. And my son, Cole, is in his junior year at North Gwinnett High School, right next door to our church here in Gwinnett County in Atlanta.
We serve here as... I'm the lead pastor at Gwinnett Church, and I've been on staff here for 16 years. Before that, I was lead pastor at Buckhead, and then before that, worked in the chicken business, as you well know, with Chick-fil-A. So that's kind of a little bit of our story.
Laura Dugger: I love it. You have some very exciting news today, because you just came out with your first book. So will you tell us about your book?
Jeff Henderson: Absolutely. Well, as you well know, I've really been fortunate to work for two thriving organizations, Chick-fil-A and North Point Ministries, and I've had a front-row seat. [00:02:24] One of the things that both of these organizations have experienced is explosive growth. And through that explosive growth, they've been able to impact more communities than they ever imagined.
So I began to wonder, what caused them to grow? And then I began to figure it out and say, you know what, if I could boil this down to two questions, I bet it would be really helpful. Because, Laura, as you know, there's all sorts of reasons why an organization or a church or a nonprofit grows. But if you could boil it down to just one sentence or a couple of questions, could I do that?
So I worked through that and basically kind of came to these two questions. The first question is, what do you want to be known for? What do you want your church to be known for? What do you want your business to be known for? What do you want your podcast to be known for? Then the second question is, what are you known for?
So the first question, what do you want to be known for, that's your vision. That's your uniquely different proposition to the world if you're a business. This is what makes this podcast different. This is what makes this restaurant different. But the second question is the customer's experience with your vision. [00:03:25]
Now, the reason these two questions are important is when these two questions match, when the answers to these two questions are the same, when what you want to be known for is actually what you are known for, something powerful happens, Laura. You access the greatest form of marketing the world has ever and will ever see. And that's positive word-of-mouth advertising. The customers start telling other customers about your church, about your business, about your organization.
The reason this is important is in today's world, as you well know, a brand or a business is no longer what it tells customers it is. A brand is what customers tell other customers it is. All the power is now in the hands of the customers. So you can say that you're the best organization and this is what you want to be known for. But if that's not what you're actually known for, there will be a gap and sales and momentum will start to slow down.
So what the book is about is trying to make sure those two questions match. And I do that by calling it the core four. [00:04:26] There's four groups of people that you need to be for to basically shrink the gaps of those questions.
And so it's been fun for me to kind of process through my experience at Chick-fil-A and North Point. But not only that. I've had the opportunity to work alongside of or to observe a lot of great companies and I've applied these two questions to them. And as I've seen them do this, they've experienced the growth.
So that's what the book's about. It's probably a little odd for a pastor to be writing about a marketing or business book. But I'm a really odd person to begin with. So my hope is that this has an impact on business people, certainly pastors and church leaders for sure. But I think it's a principle that we can all learn from.
Laura Dugger: Definitely. I love hearing where this idea originated. You had also mentioned a long time ago in our first episode that you knew that you were blessed by working with these great churches and Chick-fil-A. But somebody called you out and said, "It's not just a blessing. This is stewardship." So is it just one person or was that multiple conversations you were having that caused you to then write the book? [00:05:32]
Jeff Henderson: It really was multiple. One of whom was my wife, Wendy, who just speaks constant wisdom into my life. But others like my mentor, John Woodall. And then my wife gives me a hard time, Laura, that I've never really left Chick-fil-A. I'm still on the Chick-fil-A voicemail system. I'm down there a lot. But still to this day I get people asking me questions about Chick-fil-A. Then when I'm at Chick-fil-A, people are asking me questions about Northpoint.
So through those questions, I thought, wow, I've actually been on both sides. I understand. Even though I left Chick-fil-A many years ago, I'm still very involved. I kind of know what's happening in the organization. So as people started asking me questions about the organizations and then I heard Wendy and John and others, I just thought, "I think they're right. I got to be a better steward of this opportunity and share with people what I've learned."
I'll give you a quick story real quick about this. The book opens with me driving Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, to a speaking engagement. I can't even remember where we were going or what happened, but that car ride, Laura, has followed me. [00:06:35] And that was 20 years ago.
What I remember about that car ride, Laura, is that Truett asked me questions, but it wasn't anything about the business. He asked me, how am I enjoying working here? He asked me about Wendy. He asked me about our kids. He asked me about my parents. He knew my parents. We talked about life. I asked him, how did he create this billion-dollar business but still be a wonderful husband and dad. We had a great conversation.
At the end of the night, I dropped Truett off, and I'm driving away, and I'm thinking, "Wait, we didn't talk about the business." Truett was more interested in me than he was getting information out of me about the business. And that's when I discovered the secret, one of the secrets that made his business grow.
This was so helpful for me to process this, Laura. I think it will be helpful for our listeners. That Truett was more interested in the business growing people than he was people growing the business. And that's how his business grew. So let me say that again. Truett was more interested in the business growing people versus people growing the business. That's how the business grew. [00:07:44]
And here's what I mean by that. That night, I would have run through a brick wall for Truett Cathy. Because he was interested in me and because he was for me, I wanted to be even more for him and for Chick-fil-A and to prove that he could trust me even more because of his belief and interest in me as a human being.
I see that lost in the business world. I see that as a gigantic opportunity. If people in the business world will actually be interested in the people who work in the business, the people in the business will be for the business. It just seems so obvious and so simple, but it's so very rare. So when I experienced that, that here's the billionaire founder of Chick-fil-A asking me questions about me, I never got over that. That's why I opened the book with that story.
Laura Dugger: I can't wait for people to read your book. I hope that it is a catalyst for change to move in that direction. I've experienced Truett in the same way. I didn't know him nearly as well as you did. Only actually had the opportunity to meet him once in person. But we hear so many stories through Chick-fil-A. So one more while we're on the topic of him. [00:09:00]
Jeff Henderson: Sure.
Laura Dugger: He was married to Jeannette, his loving wife. And so at his funeral, if you can track with me, there's a woman who works at Chick-fil-A, her name's Anita Costello. I've always really admired her. And I remember her sharing this story that she was going through the line and just saying, "You have my sympathy" to Jeannette. And Jeanette said, "Okay, hi, what's your name? Okay, you work with Chick-fil-A. Do you enjoy your work here?
In the line before they're burying Truett, that's what his wife was asking the people. They cared so much individually for everyone there.
Jeff Henderson: Wow. That was Truett and Jeanette. I think that illustrates another lesson that I learned from them. And I think this is true for any organization to ask the people that work there: what does it feel like to work here? What does it feel like to work here? Because people, Laura, as you well know, when they leave the office, the feelings go with them and they show back up the next day. And sometimes we create organizations that are void of emotions. But they're there. They're just under the surface. So what does it feel like to work here? [00:10:08]
Laura Dugger: You have so many good, thought-provoking questions. What are some other takeaways that you want readers to learn after they read your book?
Jeff Henderson: Well, there's... I call it the core four. There's four groups of people that you need to be for as a business or church organization. The first is the customers. That seems so obvious. But really, if I could talk to business leaders, the spotlight and the focus on the business is sometimes so on the business, it excludes the customers in an ironic way.
I point this out to business leaders when I ask them to go to Instagram and count the last ten posts about what did they post. This is true for churches is that most of the time, nine out of ten or ten out of ten are all about the business.
And here's why this is important. If a business were a person, many businesses would be considered narcissists because it's all about them. "We're talking about us. We're so much better than our competition. Look at us. Look at us. Look at us." What we're trying to do is create raving fans. Totally understand that. Still think we need to do that. [00:11:08]
But here's how the game is changing. Thriving organizations in the future will understand that it's not about trying to create raving fans but about becoming a raving fan of the customer. That's where the game is going.
So a very practical suggestion on this, Laura, is that many organizations, many big brands forget the social and social media. It's not social media. It's just an electronic brochure. I was with a big multibillion-dollar brand the other day. I pulled up their Instagram. They had a post, they got 89 comments. Not a single one of them was liked or commented on from the organization.
I told them, I said, "If we came to your organization as a customer and asked you a question and you turned your back on me and didn't respond, you would be embarrassed by that and horrified that that was your reaction. You're doing that every single time you post because your customers are talking to you and you're not talking back." That's a huge mistake. The reason is, is the spotlight is all on the business and they're not focusing and talking to the customers. And that's just one small example. [00:12:11]
So what I try to share with businesses and churches is, and this is just one example, social media is an opportunity for you to get really personal and to tell customers you're actually paying attention to them, you're cheering them on, and you're noticing them.
I'll give you another quick example and then we'll move on. But a friend of mine recently said she works at this massive, huge, wonderful ministry. And she said, You know what? I'm a big Starbucks fan. I posted about being in a Starbucks and Starbucks commented back and said, 'Thank you so much for loving Starbucks.'" And she said, "I took a screenshot of that and sent that all to my friends."
I said, "Okay, two questions. How long ago was that?" She said, "A year and a half ago." I said, "Okay, a year and a half ago. You're still talking about it, aren't you?" I said, what other Starbucks post on Instagram did you take a screenshot of and send to your other friends? She said, "None."
So what happens in that moment is that Starbucks got really personal with one customer. And that leads to a principle that I've learned from Andy Stanley. This is something I've learned from North Point. [00:13:12] Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.
Starbucks can't comment on every post, but they can comment on some. And that one post, one of their customers is still talking and spreading the news and the word about Starbucks a year and a half later.
So that goes back to our two questions: that when what you want to be known for and Starbucks wants to be known as this local community brand, when that's what you're known for and somebody is telling someone else a year and a half later, Starbucks noticed me. They have now become positive word of mouth for you. They have become a sales force for free. So that's just one strategy for the customer. There's one for the team. There's one for the larger community. You need to have a bigger purpose than just towards your customers.
And then the final group is for you. The biggest gift that you can give customers, the team, and a larger purpose and community is an inspired you. So what we talk about in the book is, how can you be for those four groups of people? [00:14:12]
Laura Dugger: Wow. That is such a timely message. Clearly, you're a gifted communicator with all these stories and illustrations. You really drive home the point.
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Laura Dugger: But now getting really practical, you already had a very full schedule. So when did you make time to write this book?
Jeff Henderson: That's a great question. There's a principle, biblical principle, that's so encouraging and so helpful, especially if you're starting out on anything. And that is don't despise the days of humble beginnings. Don't despise the days of humble beginnings. [00:16:09]
So one of the things I learned years ago from a book called On Writing, Stephen King, is that he had a goal of writing 1,000 words a day, six days a week. That was it. And he said, amateurs wait on inspiration. The professionals get up and go hunt it down. And I thought, "That's really interesting." I said, "Well, I'm not obviously Stephen King, but what if I just wrote 500 words a day for five days a week? What would be the math on that that would get me to the word count goal that I would need to get?"
Because typically in something like this, you're like, "I've got to take three months off and go on vacation and just write, you know, be in a log cabin and be inspired and do all that. But I don't have the luxury of that because I have a job that I love here at Gwinnett Church. Things are growing and I've got a family and all that. I can't take three months off to write a book.
So that's what I did, Laura. I just wrote 500 words a day for five days a week. Some days I would check the word count every five minutes and it was like I've gone two words now. [00:17:09] Some days were terrible, just awful struggle.
And that's what Stephen King said. Some days you're going to really struggle to get to your word count goal. But he said there could be other days when you're sitting there working and inspiration is going to show up and you're going to go from 500 words to 3,000. And that's what I discovered. So I gave myself the permission to write bad. Don't edit along the way and then come back and edit during the process, a later process.
There's another book called The War of Art, not a Christian book. Just want to warn everybody. Stephen Pressfield. But Stephen Pressfield said, When you show up and put something on a screen or write something on a piece of paper, you win. It doesn't have to be good. You win when you push against the resistance. So what I discovered is if I did the math correctly, I would need to do that 80 days for five days. And that's what that would get me to my word count goal. That's what happened.
The other thing that I've learned from a friend of mine, [Carrie Newhall?], Carrie says, "Do what you're best at when you're at your best. Do what you're best at when you're at your best. So what I discovered about myself and know about myself is I'm more creative and better early in the morning than I am past noon or in the afternoon or evening. [00:18:18] So I did most of my writing early in the morning and the edits would come later in the day.
So for me, I would ask our listeners, when are you at your best? That for me was in the morning. So knowing I had a word count goal, knowing that I'm at my best when I'm in the morning, that's when I'm the most creative, was a huge help to me. And it took the pressure off. It took the pressure off because I know, hey, yeah, I'm writing this book and I'm only, you know, 500 or 5,000 words in. But don't panic. Just get up and write 500 words today and then get up tomorrow and do 500 words tomorrow. You're going to get there because you've already done the math.
For me those small bite-sized pieces it's not just true for a book. It's really true for anything in life: Parenting, saving financially. That consistency over time really leads to benefits.
Laura Dugger: That is so helpful. Do you have any other routines or habits to reach some of your goals?
Jeff Henderson: I do. I have. We talked a little bit about this at our last podcast. [00:19:20] I have a weekly focus document that I look at rather frequently. But the other thing that I was taught by a friend of mine is a great day begins the night before. So a great day begins the night before.
In fact, from a biblical standpoint, it's really... I think we have it backwards in our Western culture. We think the day starts in the morning. Actually, the day starts at sundown. That's when the day starts. So his advice to me is, hey, before you go to bed at night, write down three ways that tomorrow will be a win. So before you go to sleep, you already know how tomorrow is going to win. He goes, subconsciously, it's going to help you as you're sleeping, as you get up and know what I've got to do to make this day a win.
So a great day begins the night before. I'm telling you, if your listeners would just try this for five days, just five days. Write three things down before you go to sleep that will make tomorrow, the next day a big win. It doesn't have to be, you know, going to go on a vacation. It could be "I'm going to write a note of encouragement to my kids. I'm going to work on that project for 30 minutes and I'm going to do something about our finances." I'm just making this up. If you just do that, you'll hit the ground already knowing where you should go. [00:20:37]
So a great day begins the night before. That's not just a wisdom principle. It's a biblical principle. It's how really God created the world. So I would just say that's a really helpful principle to lean into.
Laura Dugger: Well, and if listeners would only be willing to change one thing about their daily routine today, is that where you would advise them to begin?
Jeff Henderson: I would because I think it's going to put your mind at ease. I think it'll actually help you get better sleep. You know, before we go to sleep, if we're not careful, we can think about everything that went wrong or all the stress, all that. And we struggle going to sleep. But if we can put our mind in a more positive direction, that's going to help us not only in the day that's about to arrive. It's going to help us sleep better.
A tired, exhausted you is just not going to perform better over time than a rested you. And I know we have listeners who have young kids who are like, "Jeff, I wish I could get sleep." I totally understand that. Trust me, it's a season. We're going to get through this. [00:21:36] But overall, if you can get more rest, I think it's going to be helpful. And this principle helps you actually sleep better. If you don't believe me, try it out for five days.
Laura Dugger: More patrons have joined the club recently, and we are so grateful. When you pledge five dollars per month to support The Savvy Sauce through Patreon, you're going to automatically unlock 12 additional incredible episodes and five downloadable scripture cards. And these goodies just keep appearing each month.
If you join before November 1st, we have an extra special surprise for you. We hope you consider joining today. Visit thesavvysauce.com, click on our "patron" tab, and then click "Join patron here". We appreciate your support.
What is something you're learning right now?
Jeff Henderson: One of the things we're learning right now, we're in the early stages of empty nesting. What is that like? I mean, don't tell my kids this, but we're loving this. And it's great because we need to have a little bit more extra time. [00:22:35]
But we're also learning how to leverage the time when Jesse comes home from college to make sure... How do we go? We went from a family of four to a family of three when Jesse went to college. So how do we parent Cole a little bit differently? And now he's driving now. So we're trying to figure all that out. So we're learning the role of empty nesting and we're enjoying it. But we also love when the family gets back together.
The other thing I'm learning here at Gwinnett Church is we are about to open up a second location. So I'm going to be lead pastor over both locations for a season. So what I've had to ask myself is what do I need to stop doing in order to be able to take on two campuses? Because I've got to grow and be a better leader. But to do that, I'm going to have to stop doing some things and delegate some things to other leaders around here. So trying to figure out that list of what do I need to stop doing in order to maximize and leverage this new season for me? [00:23:36]
Then the other thing I'm trying to do, Laura, is just trying to keep up pace with technology. Actually, my daughter is teaching me to be better in terms of Instagram design, in terms of photographs. The other thing I love about this is just spending some time with my daughter. And she's training me. I think she's loving that.
So I'm trying to stay up to speed with technology, which I would concur with everyone that that's an impossible goal. So I want to have one thing that I'm doing that will help me learn. So we downloaded an Instagram app and she's helping me kind of get a little bit better, a lot better about photo design on Instagram.
Laura Dugger: That's awesome. I know that you often bring up thought-provoking questions. So what are a few questions that listeners can start asking themselves today to take a step toward their own growth?
Jeff Henderson: I would take the two questions we started with, we put it in kind of an organizational or business or church context. What do you want to be known for? What are you known for? I would take those two questions and I would apply them to you personally. What do you want to be known for and what are you known for? [00:24:41]
Those are two powerful questions. They're challenging questions. We've talked about Truett Cathy, Truett's life versus a good name is better than great riches. So he wanted to make sure that he had a good name. I think that's great. We have a brand. It's called You. I know we don't like to think of ourselves as a brand, but we all have a personal brand. Okay? And we also carry an emotional climate around with us.
I did a sermon series not too long ago at our church called Climate Change. Basically what I meant by that is you have a climate and that climate follows you into the conference room, that climate follows you into the dinner table, that climate follows you into your relationships. But many times we don't know what the climate is.
Our creative team created this video where people walked into a meeting, Laura, and they all had these weather symbols on top of their heads. There was one person that walked in that, had a storm cloud over their head, and everybody knew to stay away from that person because she wasn't having a great day that day. [00:25:42]
What that illustrated, though, is that everyone around the table knew to stay away from that person, but her she wasn't aware of what her storm cloud, her climate was communicating to everyone in the room. That leads me to another question, which is this one. It's a very challenging question. But I would encourage everyone to ask three people in your life this question. And that is: what's it like to be on the other side of me? What's it like to be on the other side of me?
The reality for you and me, Laura, and all of our listeners, we don't know what it's like to be on the other side of us because we've never been there. And when you ask that question, you're going to get three pieces of information. The first piece of information, you're going to get some encouraging information about you. The second is you're going to get some surprising information about you. And the third is you're going to get your feelings hurt. As a result of this, it's going to take some courage for you and me to ask that question.
But here's what happens. And this is so important to understand. [00:26:43] If we don't have the courage to ask that question, it doesn't mean the information goes away. It's still there. We just don't have the courage to access the information. And in that moment, what happens is, is a person puts a lid on top of his or her potential. Because many times it's not the smart, hard skills, if you will, the intelligence, the SAT scores that hold us back. It's really the emotional intelligence, the soft skills or the lack thereof that is the biggest thing that holds people back. I've seen that in the business world. I've seen that in the nonprofit world.
Soft skills rule the day. And those that have soft skills, emotional intelligence combined with real talent will succeed every single time over those who have very smart technical skills, but have a lack of emotional awareness of how they are coming across. So what's it like to be on the other side of me? And then those two questions, what do you want to be known for and what are you known for? You apply those to you personally, that's going to really help you, I think, take steps toward the person you want to be. [00:27:52]
Laura Dugger: Those are incredible. I wonder if listeners are feeling the same way I am. It just feels like a power mentoring session right now. So if they want to go one step further, where can listeners now find your book or connect with you online?
Jeff Henderson: I would love for them to go to jeffhenderson.com or the For company, forcompany.com. Both of those provide some free resources. But at jeffhenderson.com, you'll find a variety of free resources that are there for you just to get better, to improve, to kind of close the gap between those two questions.
Then they can just follow me on Instagram at @jeffhenderson. Anything that they can do to kind of spread the word on the book, I would be very, very appreciative of.
Laura Dugger: Awesome. Well, we will link to all of that in our show notes. Jeff, you may remember from last time, we are called The Savvy Sauce because "savvy" is synonymous with practical knowledge or insight, or discernment. So we would all love to hear what is your savvy sauce? [00:28:55]
Jeff Henderson: Again, Laura, I told you this last time. This is such a great question. It's such a hard question because I hate to kind of boil it down to just one. But I'll go back to another thing my mentor, Steve Polk, told me. And he said, Jeff, leave things better than you found them. Leave things better than you found them. So you're here for a season and in every area of your life. So when you leave, whatever it is, leave things better.
Another way to put this is one of my life goals is to be found faithful. Jesus said, when I come back, am I going to find faith? And so if Jesus were to come back today, I would want Him to look at my life and say, Oh, wow, I found you faithful. That's awesome. But to do that, you have to leave things better than you found them.
So I wanted to leave Chick-fil-A better than I found it. I wanted to leave Buckhead Church better than I found it. And when I eventually leave Gwinnett Church, I want to leave Gwinnett Church better than I found it. And so having that principle and having a mindset of it's not about me, but it's about me being here to improve the organization and move it forward. [00:30:03] What did I do today to leave things better than when I found it? So that was something Steve Polk spoke into my life that I've never really forgotten. And goodness, that's been over three years ago.
Laura Dugger: Wow. It's just so inspiring just listening to you speak, for all of us to find a mentor. It sound like you've learned so much through your mentors. Thank you for mentoring all of us today. It's just been such a treasure time to get to stay under your teaching and your wisdom. I'm so excited for everybody to get their hand on this resource. So thanks for joining us today, Jeff.
Jeff Henderson: Laura, thanks for having me back for a second time. I look forward to doing this again sometime in the future. Thanks so much.
Laura Dugger: One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term "gospel" before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news. Every single one of us were born sinners and God is perfect and holy, so He cannot be in the presence of sin. Therefore, we're separated from Him. [00:31:05]
This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. We need a savior. But God loved us so much, He made a way for His only Son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute.
This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with Him. That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus.
We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us. Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. [00:32:07]
So would you pray with me now? Heavenly, Father, thank You for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to You. Will You clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare You as Lord of their life? We trust You to work and change their lives now for eternity. In Jesus name, we pray, amen.
If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring Him for me, so me for Him, you get the opportunity to live your life for Him.
At this podcast, we are called Savvy for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So you're ready to get started?
First, tell someone. Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision my parents took me to Barnes and Noble to get the Quest NIV Bible and I love it. Start by reading the book of John. [00:33:05]
Get connected locally, which basically means just tell someone who is part of the church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.
We want to celebrate with you too. So feel free to leave a comment for us if you made a decision for Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read Scripture that describes this process.
Finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.
If you've already received this good news, I pray that you have someone else to share it with today. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.
