Well, what is up, Heights?
Good to be with you today.
Welcome this morning.
Welcome to those of you in our Prescott Valley location.
So glad that you are with us as well.
Man, it is crazy.
The first week of 2025, the first gathering
that we have together, I can't believe it's 2025.
It's wild to think that we've made it this far.
But I can't move forward without going back.
I know Bob just celebrated it.
But man, we've got to celebrate.
Can we just celebrate 4,500 people?
Come on now.
4,500 people that came to our Christmas gatherings
and got to experience that together.
And that number fires me up.
It fires me up.
And here's why.
It's not just 4,500 people as a crowd.
It's potentially 4,500 people that we're hurting.
It's potentially 4,500 people that we're broken.
It's potentially 4,500 people that
needed the hope and love that only comes through a Savior
that we got to present to them.
And that fires me up.
That is exciting because we do this
so that we can help people live the life that they
were created for in Jesus.
That's why we do this.
That's why we show up.
That's why things like Christmas happen.
We want to help people live the life that they
were created for in Jesus.
And that is important.
That is incredibly, incredibly important.
We can't just gloss over that because it is so important
that we do that.
I hope that you guys had a great Christmas.
I hope the Christmas gatherings were
a highlight for you.
But I hope you had a great Christmas with your families
as well.
I hope that the gifts that you gave were received well.
Husbands, especially, I hope you honored your wives well
and blessed them and gave them good gifts.
And I got to let you know Valentine's Day is coming.
I was at the store two days after Christmas,
and they were putting Valentine's Day stuff out.
I was like, are you serious right now?
So husbands, that's your reminder.
You can't say you didn't know.
I'm telling you, you've got like a month to get ready.
Get ready for it.
This year, we usually give things to the kids,
but we don't exchange gifts for my wife and I.
But this year, we decided we were
going to exchange just little things, just small things.
We're going to do like stocking stuffers.
And so I'm like, all right, that's good.
What do you want?
And my wife goes, whatever you want to get me.
I was like, what?
Come again?
She's like, yeah, whatever you want.
I was like, whatever I want.
So Reese's peanut butter cups and baseball stuff.
That's what you want, right?
I'm like, can I get some direction here?
I started dropping hints.
I was like at the store.
I'm like, oh, look at that.
That's pretty cool, huh?
She's like, yeah, I don't like that.
I'm like, yeah, who would get some of that?
Why would you do that?
I'm like, can you please just point me in the right direction?
I just need to know which direction to go in,
because here's the thing.
Without direction, direction is incredibly, incredibly
important, because when you aim for nothing,
you're guaranteed to hit it.
And when it comes to a gift, direction would be nice.
But when it comes to what we do here at Heights,
direction is absolutely crucial, because we can't aim for
nothing and hit nothing, because what we do
is way too important.
What we do matters way too much.
It's too important what we get to do.
And without direction, we can't find our destination.
We can't get to the place that we're headed
unless we know where it is that we're
headed without direction.
The truth is we have no purpose without direction.
And without vision, we can't have direction.
We have to have this, because without our guiding values,
we will never fulfill our mission.
And the mission that we have is too important.
The mission that we have is too critical for not just us,
but for the community that we live in, for the town that we
live in, for the state that we live in, for our country,
for the world.
It is too important to miss it.
And so we have to have direction.
We have to have guidance.
So we're starting this week.
We're starting a brand new collection
of talks for the next few weeks.
We're going to be diving into this idea of taking shape.
We want to take shape as a church
and figure out what it is the shape that God has for us,
because these guiding values shape who we are.
These guiding values that we have for a church,
they shape who we are.
And we say, this is who we are.
So if you're new to Heights and you're just showing up,
you picked a great week to be here.
You should come the next couple of weeks, too,
because we're going to tell you, this is who we are.
This is the shape that we take in order to fulfill the mission
that God has us on.
And if you've been going to Heights for a while,
this is a great reminder, too, to know this is where we're at.
This is important for us to figure out where we're headed,
because we need to create space for the things that we value.
When you value something, you create space for it.
My wife is a avid reader.
She loves to read.
This last year, she read 68 books.
Listen, I haven't read 68 books in my life.
She doesn't read the little ones.
She reads the 600-page books.
I was like, I didn't even know they made books
with that many pages in it.
She loves reading, and she gets done with it.
I'm like, you read 68 books?
That's crazy.
And she goes, yeah, it wasn't very good.
Next year, my goal is 100 books.
I was like, awesome.
I'll see you in 2026, because apparently we're not talking.
You're just reading this whole year.
But because she reads books so much, she has all these books.
Guess what we have in our living room?
We have a bunch of bookshelves.
You know why?
Because you create space for the things that you value.
And when it comes to our church, when
it comes to our church family, when
it comes to how we run things, we
want to create space for the things that we value.
Our values help us live, love, and look like Jesus.
That's what they do.
They guide us to live, love, and look like Jesus.
The problem is the church, for far too long,
not just our church, but the church,
has been known way too much for what they are against
instead of what they are for.
And we want to be a church that is known about what we are for.
This is what the church is for.
We know this is what they're for.
This is what they care about.
This is what they want us to understand.
And so that is why we're here today.
So we're going to decide what it is.
We're going to talk about this is the thing that we value.
This is what shapes us into who we are.
We're going to start in Hebrews chapter 1.
In Hebrews chapter 1, it says this, the Son
is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation
of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.
After He had provided purification for sins,
He sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven.
There it is.
What is it?
All about Jesus.
There He is.
Jesus is representation of God.
Jesus is the majesty.
Jesus is.
That's who it is.
It's all about Jesus.
If you were with us this last year, for 39 weeks,
we went through a collection called Sinner of All Things.
Sinner of All Things for 39 weeks.
It's a short one.
39 weeks straight, we walked through the Bible.
We started and we were like, we've
got to find Jesus in the Bible.
We found Jesus in Genesis, in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,
Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges.
I can do all of them in one breath.
I'm telling you.
It's a talent that I have.
I'll spare you from that.
You can find me later.
But we went through every single book
and we went through the Bible as an entirety
and found Jesus in all of it.
And because Jesus is the center of all things,
it was easy to find Him.
We didn't have to look.
We didn't have to be like, oh, I don't know
if this book's actually about Him.
It was easy to find Him because Jesus
is the center of all things.
And so that for us, when it comes to what we're
going to do as a church, when it comes to who we are,
we are going to first and foremost be for Jesus.
If you're taking notes, write that down.
We are for Jesus.
We're for Jesus.
Some of you are like, wait a second.
Duh, you're a church.
What else would you be for?
That's what you're for, right?
Of course you would be.
But the truth is that a lot of churches,
they start out saying they're for Jesus,
but they drift away from being for Jesus.
And I've seen it and I've been a part of those churches.
And you need to know, Heights is not the only church.
There are plenty of good churches out there.
And we don't say you have to go to Heights.
You can go wherever church you want to go to.
But I'm going to caution you this.
Whatever church you find yourself at,
if they are not for Jesus, that is your cue to run.
That is your cue to run.
If Jesus is not the number one thing,
if a political agenda becomes more important than Jesus,
it's your cue to run.
And if an opinion becomes more important than Jesus,
that is your cue to run.
If a person becomes more important than Jesus
and one person becomes the star of the show,
it is your cue to run.
If knowledge about Jesus becomes more important
than a relationship with Jesus, then they are not for Jesus
and that is your cue to run.
A lot of churches start out and they say, we are for Jesus.
This is where we're going to go.
And then they drift.
They start drifting away from that.
And the truth is that we can have that same drift
because a lot of voices start telling us things.
We start hearing a lot of things in our life.
We get a lot of voices from a lot of different directions.
Let me say it this way.
You ever been driving and you're following your navigation?
You got your Siri on and, sorry, I probably just
turned all your phones on right now by saying that word.
I won't say the S word anymore.
But you're following the navigation
and you're getting there and you get to the last few turns
before you're getting to where you got to go
and you got to turn down the radio
so you can see where you're going.
All right, you know you got to turn down the volume,
you got to see where I'm going,
you got to tell the kids in the back, be quiet,
I got to see where I'm going.
And you got that smart kid in the back that's like,
oh, you see with your ears, huh?
You're like, oh, you want to be grounded for life, huh?
You're like, be quiet because we got to see
where we're going.
And the truth is is what we see is connected
to what we hear and what we hear starts affecting
what we see and if what we're hearing is contradicting
what we're seeing, then we're never gonna get
to where God wants us to go.
And a lot of times we have different voices
that are telling us things that are confusing us
and we got to be able to tune those out
and put our focus on the thing that matters,
which is Jesus.
And when we are for Jesus, when Jesus becomes our focus,
it allows us to see the direction that he wants us to go in.
It allows us to see where he has us
and the purpose he has us there for.
I'm gonna be very blunt though.
Be very blunt, might hurt some feelings here.
Some of you though would say you're for Jesus,
but you're for Jesus between the hours of 8 a.m.
and 9.30 a.m. on a Sunday morning.
And you live the rest of your life
like Jesus doesn't exist.
And I think that affects more of us
than we would even like to admit.
You think about that and you're okay,
yeah, of course I can say I'm for Jesus
when I'm in this building on a Sunday.
I can say I'm for Jesus when I'm listening to a sermon.
I can say I'm for Jesus when I'm in the right place,
but when I get outside of that,
you live your life like you don't even know he exists.
We gotta live our life for Jesus
and it needs to be something that doesn't just happen
inside of a building on a Sunday morning.
It needs to make its way into work on a Monday.
It needs to make its way into your life on a Tuesday.
And it needs to make its way into the way that you live
and the way that you do that is by continually
to be with Christ.
It says this in John 15.
John 15 verse five says, I am the vine,
this is Jesus talking, Jesus says, I am the vine
and you are the branches.
If you remain in me and I in you,
you will bear much fruit,
but apart from me you can do nothing.
Apart from me you can live like you don't know I exist,
but if you remain in me you will bear fruit.
If you do not remain in me,
you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers.
Such branches are picked up
and thrown into the fire and burned.
But if you remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit,
showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Remain in me.
How do you live consistently?
How do you not just forget and go, okay, yeah,
I'm for Jesus on a Sunday, but not on a Monday,
it's you remain in him.
Another translation says abide.
Abide, stay with him.
All right, how do we do this?
We do this through the rhythms in our life.
Through the rhythms in our life.
Some of you guys, you're five days
into your resolution right now.
All right, you've made it and you're five days in
and you're fired up about it
because you're like, this year is gonna be different
and here's the changes I'm gonna make.
But what you don't realize a lot of times
is that your systems are perfectly designed
for the results that you're getting.
The systems that you have in your life
are perfectly designed for the results that you're getting.
So here's what this means, is those of you
that have made the commitment this year
is the year that you will lose weight,
but I'm not gonna change anything.
It's not gonna happen.
It's not gonna happen because your systems
are perfectly designed for the results that you're getting
and consistency is not the answer,
or consistency is the answer.
It's about consistency, it's not about intensity.
Because we say, okay, I'm all for it right now
and I just really, really care and I want it really bad.
You can want it really bad,
but if you don't have consistency in your life,
if you haven't built in rhythms in your life,
it doesn't matter.
What a rhythm is, is it's remaining in him.
It's being the branch that remains in the vine
saying I am with you, I'm gonna continue to be with you.
What a rhythm looks like is setting time aside
in your life every day to get into God's word.
I had someone come up to me last night after the service
and they said, well, now I gotta go rewrite
all of my 2025 goals.
If that's not on your goal, I'm telling you,
you need to write that right now,
that you need to make time every single day
to get into God's word.
Oh, I just don't have time, I just don't have time.
There's a lot of stuff, but you have time
to scroll on Instagram.
Oh, I just don't have time, I just don't have time,
but you have time to watch all of your shows on Netflix.
I just don't have time, my life's too crazy.
Yes, you have time for the things
that you wanna make time for
and I'm telling you right now,
if you don't make time to get into God's word,
you're not setting the rhythm in your life
so that you can remain in him
so that you won't be before Jesus.
Remain in him, get into word of God.
Like, but I don't understand it, that's okay,
continue to read it, continue to read it.
Get into God's word every single day.
Make time to pray and talk to God.
How do you remain with him?
Build a relationship with him.
How do you build a relationship?
With a conversation, talk to God.
Continue to talk to God.
Set aside time to say, God, I wanna talk to you
and here's the thing, it's not just a prayer before dinner.
We're really good at blessing our food.
Our food's all been blessed,
but the conversation with God stops there.
Conversation is not just one thing
that's said before dinner, can you imagine that?
Your relationship with your spouse.
Hey, we're gonna talk for about 45 seconds before dinner,
that's it.
We're gonna have a great relationship.
Make time in your life, this is a rhythm
that you put in your life to have a conversation with God
so that you can be before Jesus.
And if we're gonna build this rhythm,
if we're gonna have these rhythms in our life
to make sure that we are abiding in him,
that we are remaining in him,
we have to fight to keep ourself off center stage.
We have to fight to keep ourself off center stage.
What I mean is this, is that a lot of times we say,
okay, God, I want you to be on center stage.
It's all about you, Jesus, I am for Jesus,
and then all of a sudden we creep on.
We creep on the stage and it becomes about us.
And what you need to know is that whatever you don't
turn into praise turns into pride.
You have blessings in your life
and whatever you don't turn that into praise,
because everything you've been given is from him.
Everything that you have is from him
and whatever you don't turn into praise turns into pride.
And you start putting yourself on center stage.
Listen, at Heights, we are for Jesus,
which means everything we do here, we're for him.
There's intentional things that we make space for Jesus,
which means this, we intentionally do things
to help people encounter Jesus.
We want them to have encounter with Jesus.
We want you to have an encounter with Jesus,
whether it's the first time or the 100th time,
we want you to encounter Jesus.
We're intentionally creating space
for you to engage in your faith with Jesus,
because Christianity is not a spectator sport.
It's not just to sit there, listen to somebody talk,
get up and leave and go on.
This is something you need to engage in your life.
We do something called life groups.
And life group signups are coming up next week.
And some of you guys need to step out
and make a rhythm in your life this year
to say, I wanna be in life groups.
And you need to sign up for a life group.
And you're going, I don't know, it's kind of weird,
I'm kind of scared about it.
I don't care, step out and do it.
Step out and do it, because that rhythm in your life
is gonna help you engage in your faith,
not just be a spectator of your faith,
but be an engager in your faith.
We have specific opportunities
for you to be empowered to serve Jesus.
We carve out time specifically
to be empowered to serve Jesus.
Every single one of you has been empowered to serve Jesus.
If you haven't heard this yet, and you don't know this,
let me be the one to tell you, here you go, boom,
you're empowered, there it is.
Not that I have the power to do that,
but I'm just telling you, you're empowered.
As if you needed someone to say it, it's been said,
join a serve team, join a serve team.
Be a part of what God's doing.
All right, everything we do here is for Jesus,
and we wanna help people encounter Jesus,
engage in their faith with Jesus,
be empowered to serve Jesus, it is all about him.
All right, it's not about one person.
In fact, that's why you're not gonna hear
just one speaker on the stage all the time.
In fact, if you've been here the last six weeks in a row,
you have not heard the same person two weeks in a row.
For the last six weeks, you have not heard the same person
two weeks in a row.
Now listen, there will be times
where you will hear the same person for weeks in a row,
for maybe months in a row, but it is not about that person.
It is not about one person, it's about Jesus.
We are for Jesus.
And you know what that means?
That means not just for what we do, but for you too.
It's not about one person.
So when you show up and you're like,
oh, that's not my guy speaking.
I wanted to hear the gray haired guy that wears sweatshirts.
That's what I wanted to hear.
Sorry, you got the bald guy, all right?
But it's not about one person, it doesn't matter.
We're not gonna make it about that.
This is one of the things I love about Heights.
I've been to quite a few churches.
I've been around the block when it comes to churches.
I've worked in different churches in different states.
One of the things I love here
is that I can preach the best sermon of my life.
I can be the preacher, the best sermon of my life.
My ministries can be growing exponentially.
It can be incredible.
My direct reports are thriving.
Everything's great.
And when I sit down with my bosses,
with my one-on-one meetings, my bosses,
this is kind of ridiculous,
but my boss is actually Pastor Bob.
I don't know who thought that was a good idea,
but Pastor Bob and Pastor John, those are my bosses.
And when I sit down with them,
the first question they ask me is,
hey, how's your relationship with Jesus?
It's not, man, how many people showed up this week
to all the ministries that you run
and all the things that you do?
Say, is Jesus number one in your life?
Because we have staff values that guide our staff,
your staff that serve you here at Heights Church.
There are values that we live by,
and those all point us to Jesus because we are for Jesus.
We are not for ourself.
It is not about one person.
We are for Jesus.
Can you say in your life that you are for Jesus?
Can you say that what you are doing in your life,
the rhythms that you have in place
are helping you live in a way that is for Jesus?
We are for Jesus.
But he asks this question then,
if we are for Jesus, what was Jesus for?
Because if we're for Jesus, then we're for what Jesus was for,
what was Jesus for?
And I think that's answered in the most famous verse
in the Bible, in John 3, 16, it says this,
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.
For God did not send his son into the world
to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
God sent Jesus, what was Jesus for?
Why did he come?
For the world, and I don't think it was for the plants
and the animals, I think it was for the people.
What was Jesus for?
Jesus was for people, and what does that mean?
That means that we, if you're taking notes,
write this down, we are for people.
We're for people, we are for Jesus,
which means that we are also for people.
That means our doors are open wide.
All right, everyone is welcome.
There is nobody, you don't have to look a certain way,
act a certain way, believe a certain thing to be in here.
Our doors are open wide, everyone is welcome here.
And I gotta be honest, that makes some people
a little uncomfortable because they're like,
well, why is that person here?
Oh, I know what they did the other day.
Oh, you're gonna let them in here?
They believe this.
All right, we get a little nervous about it,
but here's the thing, our doors are open to everyone,
and everyone is welcome, and you know why?
You know why we do it?
Because Jesus welcomed everyone.
You know how I know?
Because you're here.
Right, you know how I know?
Because you're here.
See, I think a lot of times for us, when we get well,
we forget when we were sick.
We show up sick, and then we get well,
and all of a sudden we start judging all the sick people.
What's wrong with them?
Look at them, they're all bad,
and we forgot that we used to be
in the same place they were.
All right, let me say it this way.
Recently I stayed in a hotel,
and I don't love the beds in the hotel,
I love my own bed, but what I do love is free breakfast.
All right, and I'm not talking like just a cup of yogurt
and a muffin, like I'm talking like the buffet,
you know what I'm saying?
Like your boy can get down on a buffet, all right?
Some of you are like, oh, we can tell.
I don't need that right now, all right?
But listen, I love it.
Like the ones that where there's a big old spread,
and so I'm at this hotel, and I get there,
and my favorite part, you gotta know,
if you've been to a hotel and there's a buffet,
this has gotta be the best part.
The ones with the waffle makers, right?
You're like, put it up, you can pour in your own thing,
you gotta put it down, twist it.
Like that's how you know you're living in quality
right there.
I saw him at this hotel,
and I'm getting ready over here,
and I see this lady going for the waffle maker, all right?
And she's about to pour in her batter,
and this lady, I'm like, stop!
She's like, what?
I'm like, you are about to commit a waffle crime right now.
I need to talk to you about this.
She's like, what is going on?
I was like, you pour that in there,
you're gonna have a problem,
you gotta spray it first, right?
And I sprayed it first,
because I was like, if you don't spray it,
you're gonna put the waffle in there,
it's gonna beep, you're gonna pull it up,
you're gonna be excited,
and your waffle's gonna crumble.
There's gonna be pieces everywhere,
you're gonna kill waffles right here.
It's gonna be a heinous crime against waffles,
this is gonna be bad.
I'm like, we can't do this right now, this is not good.
And she's like, oh my gosh,
I can't believe that I was about to do that.
I was like, I know, I saved your life, I know, I know.
And I start walking away,
and she's like, how did you know?
I was like, well, I just have superior waffle knowledge,
I am just a connoisseur of great waffles.
She's like, no, really, how'd you know?
And I'm like, because, here's the deal,
a lot of times we can act like, oh man, that person,
they're the problem when we forget
that we used to be in the same place.
And the reason I knew is because I killed some waffles.
I killed some waffles.
See, when it comes to church,
a lot of times we look at the people that are broken,
and we go, oh man, look at them, they're broken,
and we forget that we used to be broken too.
We are four people,
which means that everyone is welcome here.
1 Timothy 1, 15 says this,
here's a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.
All right, let's listen, full acceptance.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, amen,
absolutely, hallelujah, of whom I am the worst,
hold up, of whom I am the worst?
Who's this Timothy guy?
Why is this in the Bible?
If he's the worst sinner, wait a second,
this letter is actually a letter to Timothy,
who's a young pastor, and it's from Paul.
Paul, the guy who wrote most of the New Testament.
Paul, the guy whose theology probably helped many of you
become a Christian.
Paul, the guy that we look at is this pillar of the faith,
what does he say?
He says, of sinners, who I am the worst.
Listen, you have to understand,
there is no such thing as the perfect church,
because there's no such thing as perfect people,
and the church is made up of people.
If you find the perfect church, don't join it,
because you'll mess it up.
There's no such thing as the perfect church,
because the church is made of people.
We have this view of what church should be like
when you show up to church, it's like,
well, this is just a bunch of people
who only watch PG rated movies, right?
This is a bunch of people who, when they stub their toe,
they just say, gosh darn it, right?
This is a bunch of people who only have one glass of wine,
just one, right?
This is a bunch of people who are perfect,
no, and that's not the truth, this is a hospital,
and what do you find in hospital?
You find sick people, and you were once a sick person,
and once you get better, a lot of times,
we forget that we were once sick,
but you need to realize that you're now a nurse
to help point the sick people to a doctor, that's your job.
We have a savior, and his name is Jesus,
and he came for everyone.
He was four people, which means that we are four people.
We're four people, which is really easy to say,
but it's a lot harder when there's real people involved.
It's really easy to say you're four people,
and we are four people, but when there's actual people
involved, that means that we have to love people
that are different than us.
We gotta love people that are different than us,
and loving people that are different than us
is pretty difficult.
It's easy when they're like us, right?
It's easy to like a Padres fan,
it's a lot harder to like a Dodgers fan,
I'm just saying, I'm just saying.
It's easy to like someone who's in the same tax bracket
as you, because you can hang out with them,
and you're on the same level, and everything's great,
but it's a lot harder when somebody's in a different.
It's really easy to love someone who voted
for the same political candidate you did.
It's a lot harder to vote, or to love someone
who voted for the other person.
It's a lot harder to love somebody, or to be four people,
when that person is not like you.
All right, but here's what it says in Galatians,
Galatians three, so in Christ Jesus,
you are all children of God through faith.
For all of you who are baptized into Christ
have clothed yourself with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Gentile,
neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
All people matter to God.
All people matter to God, so they matter to us.
They matter to us, we're four people.
All right, God created space for humans to belong to him,
and so we will follow his example,
and we will treat people with the value that they deserve.
We will treat people with the value that they deserve.
I think a lot of times we think, man,
but we gotta just huddle in here.
Like the church is the safe place
because the world is difficult.
And we read verses like this, it says in Ephesians 5.15,
so be very careful how you live.
Do not live like those who are not wise, but live wisely.
Use every chance you have for doing good,
because these are evil times.
These are evil times, and church people,
we like to focus on the fact that they're evil times.
Oh, these are evil times we're living in.
Evil times, oh, the whole world is terrible,
it's the worst it's ever been in human history,
and that's just not true, first of all.
But we like to focus on how evil the times are
instead of realizing that we can do good in the times.
Doing good in the evil times.
Oh, but it's dark out there, it's dark out there.
But you know what the cure for darkness is?
It's light, and we have a bright light,
so why don't we let our light shine, church?
Why don't we let our light shine?
We are living in evil times,
which means that we have more of an opportunity
to do good, to show up in a world
that desperately needs Jesus and say,
listen, because we are for Jesus, we are for people,
which means that you are welcome,
and you are loved, and you are cared for,
and we want to show up with a gospel
that can change your life.
That is why we exist, we are for people.
I think that there's people that God has put in your life
right now that you need to step out and you need to love.
And they're not the easy to love people.
There's somebody in your life right now
that is not easy to love, but God has put them in your life
for an opportunity for you to love them.
So I think that there are people in your life right now
that God has put in your life that you need to forgive.
Forgiveness is really hard, because what we like to do
is we like to build a wall, we like to cut them off,
we like to hold a grudge, we like to say,
no, you wronged me, and I'm gonna hold on to this.
But being for people is forgiving people.
And there's somebody in your life right now,
and the Holy Spirit is bringing them to your mind
that you know you need to forgive.
Because if you are for people, you need to forgive people.
All right, if you are for people,
if you would say, yes, I am for people,
here's what, what if we just did this year?
What if we just assumed the best in people?
Why do we always just jump to assuming the worst?
Oh, they meant to do that.
Oh, they're out to get me.
What if they're not?
What if we just assumed the best in people?
Listen, I think we could change so much of our culture
if we just started assuming the best in people.
What if we were for people enough to do things
and do actions to point them to Jesus?
What if we pointed people to Jesus?
What if we were pushing them to Jesus
in the way that we lived?
Well, there's people that God has put in your life
that you can invite, because if you're for people,
you want them to know Jesus.
There's people in your life that you can invite to church
or that you can talk to them about Jesus.
I always think it's crazy when someone says,
oh, this is my friend, I love them so much,
but they've never told them about Jesus,
because essentially what you're doing,
you can't love them, you actually hate them
if you haven't told them about Jesus.
Because what you're saying is I want you to spend eternity
apart from Jesus forever.
That's not love.
If there's somebody in your life that you say that you love,
but you haven't told them about Jesus,
you don't actually love them.
Who is it that God has put in your life that you can say,
miss, I wanna teach you about Jesus,
I wanna invite you to church?
Like man, but I invited him and they said no.
That's okay, invite him again.
Oh, but they said no again, invite him again.
Invite him again and again and again,
because the Holy Spirit is working on them.
And it's through your invite
that it might change their life forever.
And if you're four people, then you're four people
knowing about Jesus.
And I think if you went to the store right now,
and you found these on the wall,
you found these on the shelf, you go to the store
and you're looking at these at the shelf right now
and you're like, okay, sweet, awesome, look at that.
And you saw this hanging up there.
You look at this and one of these is a lot more desirable
than the other one, right?
This one you're like, I don't want your ghetto paper bag.
Like I don't even know what's in there.
Like what is this?
Like that's terrible, I don't want that.
So if you saw this, you'd be like, oh, okay.
But you see this and you're like, yeah, all right.
Some of you are five days clean on your diet
so far this year.
And you didn't know you were gonna get tempted
in church this morning.
You're like, get that evil away from me, Ricky Bobby.
Like I don't need that in my life.
Some of you, that's where you're at right now.
But here's the truth.
Here's the truth, this is a lot more attractive, right?
They both have the same contents.
They both have the same contents in these package,
but the packaging matters.
The packaging matters.
What it's wrapped in is important.
And some of you are like, well, God will take care of it.
It doesn't matter how I live because it's all about God.
No, listen, you might be the only God that they ever see.
They don't know God, they know you.
And the way that you live is gonna make them want
what's on the inside.
And when you wrap yourself in the right kind of packaging
and you live in a way that shows the world around you
that you are for Jesus and for people,
now all of a sudden they wanna be for Jesus too.
Because they saw you.
Let me ask you this.
Would knowing you make someone want to know Jesus?
Or not?
Would knowing you make someone wanna know Jesus or not?
Are you living in a way that takes the fact
that you are for Jesus and makes it for people
and you are attractive enough to make people go,
man, I wanna know what's on the inside
and I need some of that?
When Jesus is the center,
when Jesus is the focus,
when you are for Jesus,
then you will live in a way that is for people.
So let me challenge you with this.
What rhythms do you need to put in your life
so you can be for Jesus?
What is it in your life that you need to do
so that you can be for Jesus?
You can say, listen, I am remaining in Him
by allowing this rhythm to be something that happens
in my life and pushes me back to the fact
that I am for Him and not drifting off
and putting myself on center stage.
Let me challenge you with this.
Who is it that the Holy Spirit has put on your mind
that you need to love?
Who is it that you need to love?
Who is it that the Holy Spirit
has put on your mind that you need to forgive?
Oh, it's not gonna be easy.
But who is it right now that the Holy Spirit
has put on your mind that you need to forgive?
Who is it the Holy Spirit has put on your mind
that you need to invite?
That you need to invite and say, come on, come on,
I need you to know about this Jesus
change your life.
It starts with this, if you aren't for Jesus, maybe you just show up to church, but you
haven't made a commitment to say, Hey, I'm for Jesus.
It starts with that.
It starts with you today saying, I want to trust that Jesus died on the cross from my
sins so that I can have a relationship with God.
And I want to live in a way that is for Jesus so that I can be for people.
Let's pray.
God, thank you so much that you loved the world so much that you sent
your son to make a way for us to have a relationship with you.
God, I pray for anyone in here today that needs to make that commitment, that needs
to re-up that commitment, that needs to say, Hey, I am for Jesus.
And God, I pray that we would live that way.
We would be for Jesus.
And God, I pray today for the extra difficult task of being for people.
God, that you would give us the strength to be able to be for people, that the overflow
of our love for you would make its way to the other, to the people around us.
And that through the way we live, it would show them who you are.
God, we are so grateful that you welcome everyone, that you welcomed us.
And then in spite of all of our mess-ups, you continue to welcome us.
We praise you, Jesus.
We pray all of this in your name.
Amen.