Everyone has a different tongue print.

This was the second point keynote speaker and former football star Henry Tellis expressed to a crowd of hundreds gathered at the Hank Williams Sr. Music Park Friday night for the Community Youth Association’s 10th annual Back to School Bash.

The former Troy University standout, who also played for the New York Giants and New York Jets of the National Football League and NFL Europe’s Amsterdam Admirals, came to speak to students, parents and community members about the importance of coming to know one’s faith.

“We are really living in a fallen world,” Tellis said. “We’re experiencing a lot of hurt and pain in all facets of our lives and we’re also experiencing a lot of rejection. The great thing about all of the hurt and the pain we’re experiencing in this world, we must always understand that there is hope in Jesus Christ.”

Tellis went on to use John 3:16 to help express three points of why people continually reject God.

Because people have never experienced true or pure love from anyone on Earth, people turn away from God, according to Tellis.

“We reject it because we have never experienced it here on Earth,” Tellis said. “Some of you have never been told that you are loved, but I’m here to tell you that when you leave this place, you must understand that God loves you. He loves you and wants to have a relationship with you.”

Between fingerprints and tongue prints, Tellis urged everyone to understand how unique each person is.

“We are so concerned with what everyone thinks about us,” Tellis said. “You must understand that we are all created by God to be unique. When God created us in His great way, we were all made in his image but God uniquely made all of us to be different.”

The third and final point of Tellis’ speech was that no one is unworthy of God’s love and sin should not be a deterring factor.

“You have gone home and your mom or dad said they’re about to whoop you,” Tellis said. “You know you deserve a whooping, but when your father or mother is about to reach the belt back, someone runs in front and says, ‘Whip me first and I’ll take their punishment. I love them so much that I don’t want them to take the punishment.’ God sent his son for your worst situation and worst sin.”

Tellis grew up in an environment where he never heard the words, “I love you,” but it was God’s love that brought him to the stage to help others he said.

“I’m 30 years old and my dad has never told me that he loves me,” Tellis said. “I grew up in an environment where people don’t share love. When I understood God’s love, it changed everything for me.”