Amen. Morning, church. Good morning to those of you on our online family. I noticed Jake is in
Sholo today, and so welcome to Jake. We also have Luke. Luke used to be on Facilities Team here.
He's part of the family. He is in Tunisia this morning on a mission trip, and so Luke is there.
Could we say hi to Luke? And so Luke, we love you. We're excited to hear stories from you.
Also, Baghdad, we're glad you're there with us. Pauldin. I got to see the crew from Pauldin last
night, and they were bragging about their breakfast today. I have not seen a picture,
but they're like, we're going to send you a picture. It's that good. So I hope you guys are hanging out
and enjoying community together. If you're here in the room and you are new to this space, welcome
to you. We are glad that we get to do life together, and so we hope that what you experience is
a good family day. You picked a good day to be here because today is Celebration Weekend,
which means we are going to put on display what we care about. What it means is we're just going
to celebrate to the best that we can what we believe it looks like to celebrate the things that God
is after. And so you get to see that. If you are new, you also picked a great time because, yes,
it's Celebration Weekend, but we're also talking about values and what matters to the church.
And so it's things like this. We're celebrating. If you're in the room and later today, probably
about seven o'clock tonight, you're going to celebrate a Kansas City Chief's loss. Just let
him know. Let him know. I mean, come on. Let's be honest for a second. I think God's tired of
the Chief's winning. I think he's just like, enough is enough. You know what I mean? But any
any Eagles fans? Where are you at? Where are the Eagles fans at? I heard all the way at the back.
You're hiding. You should be hiding your teams. They're going to Super Bowl. But here's the things
with Eagles fans. There's like one in every service. It's like my favorite thing. Just
just Eagles fans speckled through the family. But you didn't want to wear it today. You're like,
oh, okay. Okay. We're reserving the seat by the commander's jersey. I see how it is. I see how it
is. Yeah, I don't know. Jane Daniels. Everybody loves the rookie, right? Everybody loves the rookie
doing something incredible. And we'll see. We'll see today. The Eagles are a tough, tough gig. But
Bill's fans. Whoa. Whoa. I've never heard the Bill's mafia so quiet. What is happening? Maybe let's
just do this. If you don't care about football, where are you at? It's good to know who I'm talking
to. Glad this is relevant for you. Okay. So that's amazing. I'm encouraged right now. Here's the thing.
What you value, you will do. What you value, you will do. I value football. So therefore,
we talk about football, right? Like what you value, we will do. And when it comes to values,
when it comes to values, super important, super important that what we value, we do. We say we
are four people, right? That's one of our values. We are four people. Agreed? Okay. So I need you
to do something for people right now. If you have empty seats, just stick your hand up. If you have
seats between you that you could love the one you're with better, go ahead and love the one you're
with better. And let's create some seats, but just keep those hands up for a second so our usher
fam can see where you are. Guest services can see where you are and try and get some seats for people
that are coming in. And for some reason, you can't find a seat. There is overflow and our guest
services team can direct you that way. But here's the thing. What we value, we will do. What we value,
we will do. And what happens is if you want to know what you value, just follow your actions.
What is it that you do in your life that you give this life? You only have one life, by the way,
and what you give it away to tells you what you value. And so in your experience, on a personal
level, you can identify these are the things I value. We're just doing that over the last four
weeks from a church perspective. As a church family, we're going, these are our family values.
These are the things that are core to us as a church family. These are the things that we are
anchoring to. And these are the things we are going to do. These are the things we're going to be
known for. And so for example, that we say we are for Jesus, that the hope is that if you meet anybody
from the family, right, that says they're a part of the family of heights, right, then the value
we carry is we are for Jesus, which means that we are going to put him center in our lives,
which means that somebody should be able to meet you as part of the height family and go,
man, those people really care about Jesus. You know how I know I'm watching their life.
Right. And what happens is what you do over time in your personal life, it creates this thing
called legacy, what you are known for. And in a group like this, in a family like this, with
so many different people, when we step out and we go, Hey, this is what we value. This is what
we're going to do. What happens over time is it creates culture. And what culture is, is what you
are known for. It's how you respond. It's how you interact. And so the hope is that people know
straight away, we are for Jesus, which means we are for people that we are going to treat people
like Jesus treated them. I had a moment this week. I ended up at the ER on Tuesday night with my
daughter who's 11. I'm going to finish the story now because I'm notorious for not finishing the
story. She is okay. She is back to normal. And we are just, there's some stuff we're going to chase
with what happened. But we get to the ER. And if you've been to the ER, it's not my favorite
place on the planet, right? You're going to be there. They were extremely busy. And so we ended
up waiting. But one of the beautiful things is we started to meet people from heights.
And you guys, the way they treated us was beautiful. Right? They're like, Hey, let us, let us get
things moving for you. Right? And then, and then the next one, let me, let me see what I can do.
And they're going above them beyond and, and then just the tests that they ran and the things that
they did was the care was so above and beyond the way that they love my daughter. Like it was a
beautiful expression of what it means to be a part of the family of heights. It was not convenient.
It was like between, I think it was 11 and two in the morning when they were helping us. So it's
not a convenient time of the day. And yet the love that poured out, right? I could tell they love
people really well. And that's what we should be known for. Now here's the thing in the ER, it's
one thing, right? Like they're, they're taking what their, their occupation is and they're pouring
into what these values that we talk about as a church, they're pouring them in. And it's one thing
to do it there. If you work at Costco, you should be doing the same thing. Right? But, but I don't
know about you. Costco is not my favorite place either. You know why? All of Prescott and Prescott
Valley show up there. Right? Like it's like a reunion. And, and, and here's the thing though,
whether, whether you're there or whether you're, you happen to be whatever occupation God has you,
what you value you will do, what are you known for? And so what we're talking about over, over the
last weeks are this is who we are. This is what we value. And so here's where we are today. We are
on our last value and it is for celebration. We are going to celebrate often. Right? Here's it.
Yes. Somebody who's ready. Somebody who's ready. We're going to celebrate often. So here's how it
works. If you show up in fact after this service, after this weekend, if you were to go in the back
room here, there's a whiteboard on the wall. And on that whiteboard, there will be celebrations of
where we saw God show up today, where we saw God in each other, where we saw our values lived out.
Like you're going to see that on this board. There's a text thread that's happening right now
where we're encouraging one another with where we see the values being lived out. If you go into a
staff meeting, one of the things we take time for is to celebrate. If you go to our senior leadership
meeting every Tuesday, we're going to take time at the top of that to celebrate what God's been doing.
Why? Because I don't know about you, but for me, I am naturally drawn to the negative, not the positive.
Right? Within me, I've got this broken human nature, and the broken human nature will see the fault
before it sees the good. But here's the thing where we need to set rhythms to go, hey, celebration is
something that's near and dear to God. But to celebrate means I need to remember, and to remember
means I need to set a time. Why? Because to celebrate, you have to see the good. And to see the good
is to see God. Why? Because God is good. Wherever you find good, you find God. And so what we're doing
is slowing down to go, we don't want to miss the good. We want to slow down often. If you look at
the scripture and the narrative and the story of humans walking with God, what you notice
early on in the story is God sets meals for them. He sets moments in a calendar for them. He sets
various rituals for them. Like at one point they have a meal, and the point of the meal is this,
remember what God has done. Every aspect of the meal is to remind you of the goodness of God,
to remind you what He's done, to remind you what He's given. And for us as a church family, we slow
down around the table, and we take this thing called communion, right? And when we slow down and take
the elements together, what are we doing? We're remembering what God has done, and we're celebrating
it in the present. So much so that when Paul's writing to the church, he says, celebrate, you are
celebrating the Lord's death until He comes. You're reminding yourself of who you really are. You're
reminding yourself of the goodness of God. And so within this celebration, right, that I got my
brain got to thinking like, where do we see the celebration of God? Where do we get a glimpse of
that in the person of Jesus? Because if Jesus has gotten in human form, then where do we see that?
Matthew, like what did God actually care about when He was here? Matthew chapter 8,
and verse 5, so it's the story out of the life of Jesus. When Jesus had entered Capernaum,
a centurion came to him asking for help. Lord, he said, my servant lies at home,
paralyzed, suffering terribly. Jesus said to him, shall I come and heal him? The centurion
replied, Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof, but just say the word and my servant
will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority with soldiers under me. I tell this one to go,
and he goes, and that one to come, and he comes. I said, am a servant, do this, and he does it.
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, truly I tell you, I have not
found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east
and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom
of heaven, but the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside into darkness where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion, go, let it be done just as you
believed it would, and his servant was healed at that moment. So this centurion, this soldier
who is a leader, he's over 100 soldiers, he is an outsider to the people of Israel.
And so this outsider who is also in a position of leadership, he comes to Jesus and he's asking
specifically for healing. But what's fascinating about this, the way he comes to Jesus is he comes
in a posture of humility. He comes in a posture of, first of all, he uses the phrase Lord. Later he
says, I don't deserve, I don't deserve to have you come into my house. And so he shows up,
he has a need, he puts himself under the authority of Jesus, that he goes, hey, I understand,
I'm a leader too, I could tell this one to do that and they do it. I'm putting myself under your,
just say a word, just say a word and it'll be done. So he comes with a very specific request,
but the posture that he comes in under the authority of God, the humility that he comes in,
that he comes in. And then on top of that, the faith that he comes in. Because what he asks for
is he goes, hey, you could say a word and my servant will be healed. But at that time, they believed
you had to have proximity. At that time, they believed that you had to be there, Jesus had to
touch. And so the faith of an outsider would go, no, I don't believe you got to show up and touch.
I believe that you can say a word from a distance and this will be done because you have that kind
of authority. And so it's this moment where this outsider has this step of faith towards Jesus,
and I want you to catch what Jesus celebrates. Because remember, there's people around.
And publicly, what does Jesus celebrate? That I haven't seen this kind of faith in all of Israel.
Right? That's quite a statement because Israel was the hub of faith with God.
And he goes, I haven't seen this kind of faith in all of Israel. Right? And on top of that,
it says that he was amazed. You know what a good day it is if you can amaze God?
Right? Let's just, let's just God size God for a second. Okay? He's all knowing, all powerful,
and he's omnipresent. Nothing gets by him. And yet it says that this human who is an outsider,
not even an insider, amazes God in human form by what? His faith. What is faith maybe kind of
summing up what faith is? It's when what you trust leads to action. Right? What you trust leads to
action. So you don't just say, hey, I believe this, and then there's no action that goes along with it.
Right? Those are just empty words, if you like. One of my favorite phrases I've come across this
year. It's not mine. It's another speaker. He's actually doing an entire collection on it,
but it's the idea of being Christian-ish. Right? Like Christian-ish. Like, hey, I really like you
followers of Jesus and the way you treat people. I'm not crazy about Jesus,
but they'll call themselves a Christian. No, you're just Christian-ish. Right? Like,
you say, hey, I really, really, really, I gave my life to Jesus, and none of your life looks like
Jesus. You're Christian-ish. Right? Like, you're claiming a part of it. And what he's getting
out here is he goes, hey, this Centurion, this outsider had the faith to go, hey, I believe you
are the one who can heal. I believe you have that authority. I believe you are Lord. I'm going to
show up and I'm going to posture myself and I'm going to let my actions wipe because what you value,
you will what? You will do. If you are for Jesus, then your life is what? Going to your actions will
show that, hey, I am for Jesus. A little further in the story, it's interesting, between the two
stories we're going to read, there's another story. And it's one that you might be familiar with,
the disciples are on the water, the waters get crazy, they get scared. Jesus calms the storm,
but he asks them, you have little faith. Right? So in one sense, with an outsider, he celebrated faith,
another sense, he's in a boat with all of his friends and he's like, where is your faith?
And then you get to chapter nine and there's another story in verse 18. While he was saying this,
a synagogue leader, so this is somebody who's in the faith, came and knelt before him and said,
my daughter has just died, but come and put your hand on her and she will live. So Jesus got up,
went with him and so did his disciples. So Jesus is honoring the step of faith of this religious man.
Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years came up behind him,
touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, if I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.
Jesus turned and saw her take heart daughter. She said, he said, your faith has healed you
and the woman was healed at that moment. When Jesus entered the synagogue leader's house,
he saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes. He said, go away. The girl is not dead, but asleep,
but they laughed at him. After the crowd had been put outside, he went and took the girl by the hand
and she got up. News of this spread throughout all that region. So you have two different scenarios.
You have the one where the religious leader is like, hey Jesus, my daughter died, please come put
your hand on her, she'll live again. He's again living out his faith, showing up going, hey,
I know who you are, please come and heal her. At the same time, there's a woman who's subject
to bleeding, who in another spot says that the crowd was pressing in so tight that you couldn't
tell who was touching who. And it says that she comes in and she touches the hem of his garment,
and she's healed on the spot. Now, what's important is because of her situation, because of her
bleeding, she's an outsider. She's ostracized. She's not supposed to be there because she's unclean.
And yet, because we value what you value, you will do, what does she do? I believe Jesus can heal me,
even though I've tried everything else, I believe this man can. And so she now presses through the
crowd, her actions, her trust is put into actions. She touches the hem of his garment and says that
she's healed instantly, to which Jesus turns around. Okay, remember the context. It's an entire crowd.
It's an entire crowd. They're pressed up against it. What does publicly, what does Jesus do?
He doesn't scold her. He doesn't call her out. He looks at her and he goes, your faith. What does
Jesus celebrate? The step of faith. The step that says, hey, I know who you are, and I'm going to
put action to it. Jesus celebrates now for the second time this step of faith that people take.
Matthew 15, there's another story. And in Matthew 15, you get, it's a Canaanite woman.
So another outsider comes to Jesus. Hey, my daughter, she's troubled. She's demon-possessed.
She's greatly troubled. I need your help. And it's kind of a bizarre story because Jesus doesn't
reply. He just keeps going, to which it's awkward enough that you get a sense of this from the
story that the disciples come up to Jesus and they're like, hey, she's not stopping. Can you make a
go away? Like, can you just tell her to be quiet? And so Jesus looks at them and he makes this bizarre
statement. Hey, I didn't come for her. I came for Israel. And so which then the disciples kind of
fade away from the story and she steps in and she goes, Lord, help me. And he says, that didn't come
for you. It's roundabout way. He says, that didn't come for you. And she goes, but even those that
you didn't come for intentionally, even those get the crumbs. And he responds with healing the daughter.
But it's what he says about her. He says, it's because of your great, not just faith, great
faith. There's a deep connection between what you do, what you do, and what you believe. What you
value you will do as a church. If we are for Jesus and Jesus is not center stage, we're not for Jesus.
Right? Yeah, you would see it in what we do. You would see it in what you do. If we are for people,
but we treat them really poorly, we're not for people. Right? Like later on in the,
within the values, if we say we're for generosity and we're stingy, we're not for generosity. You'll
know it by what? By our actions. And Paul catches this, right? He writes to the church. And so the
what celebrated continues on in Colossians chapter one. Paul writes a letter to the church in Colossians.
And he says this, we always thank God. Okay. So this is publicly now Paul is saying, Hey,
we celebrate you to heaven. We celebrate you in the presence of God, the father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love
you have for all God's people, the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in
heaven. And about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to
you in the same way the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, just as it
has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace. What does Paul
do? He goes, Hey, I'm going to celebrate. And what am I celebrating? Then I'm hearing that you are
walking by faith in Jesus. I'm celebrating that the steps of faith you are taking, the steps of
faith that I see, they're being lived out how by your love for all the people by the love for those
around them. Right. So, so instantly where we go is this, right, that back to sounds familiar,
we are for Jesus. Therefore, we are for people. How, how will we know that you are for Jesus
by how you love people, by how you care for those around you? It'll be seen in your actions, not
your words. It'll be seen by how you show up when that person's in need. Hey, it's fascinating to
me that when it comes to faith and it comes to this step of faith, no one can take it for you.
No one can take it for you. I mean, we're, you guys, you guys, we're about to watch
some of the most absurd things happen. Think about it for a second. Somebody signed up to go, Hey,
I'll go in front of a room full of people, cameras with who knows how many people, and I will get
into a tub of water with Earl. That's weird. All right. I love you, Earl. Then we love Earl, you guys.
Well, we're on it just because it's worth it. You know what I love about Earl is the way he loves
people because he loves Jesus. It's amazing. It's amazing.
But you're about to watch people do something absurd. They're going to get into a tub,
and then they're going to allow Earl to put them under the water. They don't know if he's bringing
them back up. Greater yet, this water, you guys, I know the hose it came from. There is nothing
special about this water. Right? What is special is that a human would trust Jesus so much that in
an act of obedience, simply because Jesus says so, that I will step out in front of a group of people
to tell them I am for Jesus, that I will identify with him, that I will take a step of faith to go,
I am putting my flag. Here's what I love about baptism. Life is hard. Life is long. And as you go
through life, there are peaks and there are valleys. And when you hit those valleys, there are times
when you go, I don't know what I believe anymore. You know where the Holy Spirit takes you back to?
He takes you back to the tub and the water and Earl. And he takes you back and he goes, remember,
remember, remember when I'd shown you, remember when you put your flag and said, I am for Jesus.
I believe this narrative. I believe who he is. And in that moment, in that moment, it cements for you
for the rest of your life. You'll never forget it because it's a step of faith. It's where your
values line up with your actions. I love when it comes to baptism, the celebration is seen.
In Matthew chapter three in verse 13, it says, then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be
baptized by John. But John tried to deter him saying, I need to be baptized by you and do you come to
me? Jesus replied, let it be so now. It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.
Then John consented. So you have this moment, right? Where John's like, really, you're coming to me.
I need to be baptized by you. And Jesus goes, it's an act of obedience because God's been writing a
story, a narrative and to push that story forward and to verify John's ministry and to verify this
gospel that's going out, to verify John's claims that this is the Messiah. Jesus goes, we got to do
this. So Jesus is taking a step of faith. He is honoring what he's here to do. He's honoring the
Father. He's humbling himself for John to baptize him. And I love what happens next. Verse 16,
as soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was opened.
And he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and a lighting on him. And a voice from heaven
said, this is my son, whom I love with him. I am well pleased. Okay, there's a voice from heaven.
We need to put a name to the voice from heaven, right? Because the voice from heaven says, my son,
that means the voice from heaven is the Father. In this moment, you have the entire Trinity
celebrating something. What are they celebrating? The baptism of Jesus. That the Spirit is coming down
and a lighting on him. That the Father is declaring that he is pleased. Why? Because Hebrews says that
how do we please God? It is by faith and it is impossible to please God without faith. And so
within this moment, right, there's a celebration of faith, celebration of what is seen in baptism.
And my question for you is this, that as you go back, right, we look at all the values, you go back
to being for Jesus. Do you know the step of faith that is to be for Jesus? To take yourself off the
center and put Jesus in the center of your life to go, hey, I got one life and Jesus, you're leading
it and I don't know where it's going to go. To release that kind of control and then for Jesus
to go, well, first of all, I'm going to lead you to people, right? And now you start to go, you know
how much faith it takes to love people you don't like? It takes a lot of faith because they're
not going to give you anything back. You're just giving it away. And so by faith, you stand and
you go, I'm going to love people because Jesus loves people. And so you begin to love people well.
And in the midst of that, what happens is you begin to go, okay, Holy Spirit, I'm going to need your
help. And so you become for the Holy Spirit where you create space to hear the Spirit of God in your
life. You know how much faith it takes to sit and believe that the Holy Spirit lives in you and the
Holy Spirit is ignited in you and he wants to empower you and he wants to lead you. That takes a lot
of faith. And so by faith, I go, I'm going to trust the Holy Spirit to lead me and guess where he leads
you to generosity. And then you're like, I'm going to give it away. This one life, I'm going to be
generous. Why? Because God is generous. That takes faith to believe that it's a better life to live
generous than to live stingy. And on top of that, then he goes, hey, I want you to serve. You're
going to be for serving. You know how much faith it takes when you've got a limited time to go,
hey, I'm going to take my time and I'm going to give it to something to give this one life away.
That I'm going to not give the leftovers. I'm going to give the best. And so you step out and you go,
okay, for I'm going to give for our best. Do you know how much faith it takes to not be stingy with
this life? You know how much faith it takes to go, God, you gave me this gift, but I'm going to give
it away for your kingdom. God, you gave me this, this talent. I'm going to give it away for the
kingdom. God, you gave me these resources. I'm going to give it away for the kingdom instead of
building my own. That requires faith. That requires an action to it. And in the midst of that, God goes,
do it together. And you're like with them. And God's like, yeah. And we are four together. You know
how much faith it takes if you have ever been hurt by community to step into community and be vulnerable
and walk alongside and build the kingdom? That takes so much faith, but it's what we're called to.
We're put into a body. And so as a family, we step forward. And what do we step forward to? We are
four forward, which means what? That by faith, we are trusting God's future, not mine. And you know
what we're going to do? Church all along the way, we're going to celebrate every single time somebody
has a step of faith in one of these values. And they go, by faith, I'm going to step in and before
Jesus, we're going to celebrate. Why? Because we are four celebration. We're going to celebrate every
single step. Why? Because it's what heaven does. There's a story that Jesus tells in Luke 15.
And it's about a lost coin, a lost sheep and two sons. But you know what the punchline of the story
is? When what is lost is found. When what is lost is found, there is a party. And the declaration that
is made is that in heaven, one sinner that repents, there is much rejoicing in heaven. What is a
sinner repenting? It's a step of faith that a human makes. What do we see in Jesus? He is amazed
when a human takes a step of faith to put it in him. And so we are going to celebrate church.
We're going to celebrate. But before we do, I need you to hear heaven today celebrating with you.
My daughter, my son, whom I love and I am well pleased. Earl, it's you.