On Purpose with How You See People

So uh if we haven't met, my name is Madison, and we are in the middle of a series called Life on Purpose.

If you've been around his hands for a long time, you know that most of the time we're going through like a section of scripture or going chunk by chunk through the scripture.

We did that What Jesus Wants series a while back through John 17.

But uh every now and then we take a break from that to kind of really get our uh eyes fixed on something that's really important.

And this Life on Purpose series, I don't know about you guys, but it's been very challenging for me.

It's been very good, but it's been like I'm walking away each Sunday going like, dang it, now I have to have like a conversation with someone or say, like, I'm gonna go like spend time with the Lord in a different way.

So I've been I've been growing a ton from this conversation, and it's all about uh just being extra intentional with our faith, with our relationships, with our time.

Um and at Christmas season, I think more than any time in the year, it's uh really helpful just to kind of get focused on intentionality.

I found myself recently, uh, I don't know if any of you are like this, but I'm an app person.

Like I really like an app that helps my life.

I have a to-do list app that I like am so I so enjoy, and it makes a little noise and goes like pooting every time I do like a little thing throughout my day.

I really love the app, but I don't have a calendar app that I'm happy with.

So this is actually a request.

If you have a calendar app that you're like, I am really into this for this specific feature, this specific reason, please come talk to me, come find me afterwards.

I need help with my calendar.

My day is fine, but when it comes to my week or my month, I need to get my stuff together.

And so if you have an app that you're really into, come find me.

Uh but between class parties uh with my kids, uh neighborhood get-togethers, things going on at work, uh, meetings, etc., my calendar has just gotten fuller and fuller as January or as December has gone further and further.

And so this is a really great time to just focus on living with intention.

And we've been looking at Ephesians chapter 5 to kind of fo anchor us in these conversations.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Ephesians 5, 15 through 17 says this.

So be careful how you live.

Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise.

Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days, don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

Today is about being on purpose with people.

And it's a very broad topic, so we've narrowed it down because there's lots of different kinds of relationships, there's lots of seasons for relationships.

We are going to just be on purpose with how we see people, with how we see people.

And when Justin told me that, that, hey Madison, I want you to speak on Sunday, he called me Sunday afternoon last week and said, Hey, you're gonna be speaking on Sunday?

Here's the topic.

My genuine first reaction was anger.

Seriously, like I was actually angry, not like, oh man, I don't really like that topic, but like Justin is trying to test me because Justin's known me since the fifth grade.

I've been here around here for a long time.

I he has seen my highs and he has definitely seen my lows.

And I was like, he is just trying to like jab at me by giving me this thing.

I went and complained to my wife.

I was like, Hannah, uh, can you believe that Justin gave me this message and I had to stop myself to check myself and go like, yeah, maybe Justin is testing me.

And I asked him, I said, Are you trying to test me?

I'm mad at you.

We we talked about it.

He's like, I'm not testing you, I just have known you for a long time, and and the message really has spoken to me first this week because it's really prompted me to examine myself.

Um I'm a person who is pretty open.

I like to meet new people.

If I get your name wrong, I'm sorry.

I will try.

I told uh someone today, like, give me four to six weeks and I will get your name, but it's it's good, just give be patient with me.

I'm open to people meeting them, but um I have this really bad habit, and it's gotten better over the years.

But this bad habit of if you cross a line where the Almighty Madison has decided that this is a line that you cannot cross, um, I'm quick to label.

Like I'm quick to kind of stick you in a bucket, and you belong in that bucket, and I'm slow to lift you out of that bucket.

And it can be serious stuff.

There's stuff in my life where it's like people have genuinely hurt me, and I'm like, they are like out of my life.

I don't want to talk to them, get them out.

Um, you know, I'll like forgive them in word, but not necessarily in practice.

Um, but it could also be like even stupid things.

Like if you disagree with me about a movie, like you have bad taste in movies.

I'm sorry.

Like that's just how it is, and it's gonna take a long time for you to climb out of that.

Me and Justin still have arguments about the new Star Wars movies.

I'm not gonna start it today.

But if you disagree with me on a movie, I take that really seriously for some reason.

But guys, I hate that I do this.

I hate that I do this because I want my life to be anchored on what Scripture says.

I want to care about the things that Jesus cares about.

I want to live my life like Jesus lives his life.

I want to live on purpose, not just optimizing every single possible thing that I can optimize, but being faithful to the Lord in the things that I do.

And so when I do this, I'm actually neglecting some of the most important things that Jesus ever taught.

This is uh Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus replied, What does the law of Moses say?

How do you read it?

The man answered, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Write, Jesus told him, Do this and you will live.

We call this the greatest command, love God and love others as yourself.

Uh all throughout Scripture we see like expressions of Jesus teaching this to people.

Um, but one of the most iconic sayings is the golden rule, Jesus teaching us how to love our neighbor.

Uh Matthew 7, 12 says, Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.

This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.

And every time I hold something against someone, I am not doing to them what I would like to be done to me.

I am kind of neglecting that.

I'm avoiding that because it's convenient for me to kind of treat other people that way and see other people that way.

And so it really did lead me to examine myself, and that's kind of like where we'll start.

Examine yourself.

Examining yourself is just simply saying me first.

And uh I was trying to think about all of the ways that y'all have given me the benefit of the doubt over the years.

Like I have been the beneficiary of the benefit of the doubt from a lot of you for many years.

I've been here at His Hands Church since the fifth grade.

The very first time I showed up was on a Christmas Eve.

Someone invited our family.

We showed up and we we stuck, and we've been here ever since.

And so a lot of you have seen the worst of me over the years.

And I just want to say thank you and sorry.

Like, y'all have dealt with a lot of annoying Madison.

Like, I uh I was peak, very annoying and very cringe-worthy teenager.

And uh, if you've got teenagers, they do annoying and cringy things too.

Uh being older now, I get to kind of like put it back on them, make them cringe, throw a little six, seven here and here and there.

Um and so if you if you weren't there for those years, so if you were there for those years, thank you, and I'm sorry.

If you weren't there, I I wanna I wanna show you what I was like.

And guys, this isn't like truly brave, this is just like s silly brave.

But this min this uh video that I'm gonna show you was a minute and twelve seconds long.

It was so unbearable to watch that I had to cut it down to 52 seconds.

Okay?

So this is for me, this is a video from me in high school, and uh yeah, let's just let's just watch it, get it over with.

This is on YouTube somewhere.

So, yeah.

Um yep, thank you.

Those you're applauding my skills.

Um if you noticed, uh, could we show the picture that I took a freeze frame picture from this?

Uh if you noticed anyone familiar in that, that is Matt Simmons uh up in the front.

He's uh our worship pastor here, leads us in worship.

I did ask Matt's permission to show this before I showed it.

Um but a lot of you have dealt with a very annoying version of me for very many years.

And so uh Justin and Megan, thank you.

Marlon, Ben Densmore, Addie Gonin, and anyone who's kind of been with me as I've grown up, thank you.

Um y'all have been so generous with the way you've seen me, and it's been awesome to be able to grow up and uh to mature alongside you guys, and uh thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt.

Um it's really easy to have a low view of teenagers because they are pretty intense and pretty goofy.

Uh, but it's also easy to give them the benefit of the doubt because they're learning, they're growing.

It's much harder when the uh way you're viewing someone is it's like another adult, and maybe they've hurt you, or maybe they've uh done something that you know is wrong, or whatever it might be.

We we can really easily quickly label them as a project or or whatnot, and uh not tend to see them like Jesus sees them.

So how do we do this?

Like it came up with a list, we were chatting about it, me and Justin.

And there's a there's a whole this list is potentially endless because our sin can kind of be, you know, to the depths.

But we thought of some categories that I think would be helpful.

Uh maybe you're going through some sin that you notice in somebody else's life.

And when you notice it in someone else's life, it's really easy to maximize it in their life and minimize it in your own heart, and to say maybe they're a project to work on and you can help them and kind of avoid the sin that you're dealing with so that you're, you know, helping them.

Or maybe it's you see the sin in their life and it kind of reveals that struggle in your own heart and you you build that wall so that you don't have to confront that.

It's really easy to label someone as a sinner and neglect them because of what's going on in your own heart.

Or maybe it's religion.

Religion is like, I'm not talking about the deep, reverent love of God.

This is uh more that like you have a strong conviction, and all of our convictions, there's like the ones that are non-negotiables, but then each of us will have convictions as we grow and as we grow closer to the Lord, where we need to kind of process that and come to a point where we say, yeah, this is not okay for me, or this is okay for me.

But you see someone with a different conviction, and that desire to change them kind of puts them again in that like they become this project or they become this source of conflict, and you just have to deal with it.

Maybe it's political.

I will say, we were walking through some of this stuff.

It's really hard that everything in our culture now takes this political edge to it, where there's so much um division in our country, there's so much division uh when you see someone posting online, and this is I I had to get to a place, and again, personal conviction, but I had to get to a place where watching people post online actually like started just really frustrating me.

And uh I was having such, because I struggle with this, I was having such a low view of people just based on what they posted online that if all of our in-person interactions were amazing and wonderful and great and like God-glorifying and fun, I was having such a struggle with what they'd post online that I I just had to delete my Facebook entirely so that I could have and maintain those relationships in a healthy way because everything becomes so charged politically that we can't actually be united by by what unites us.

Maybe it's pride.

Maybe your boss walks out the room after you've after you've been told what to do, or whatever it might be, and you just think if I was them, I would do it so much better.

It might be the way your family or brother or sister raises their kids, it might be uh the way uh someone handles their themselves at work, or the coworker you have, or the the person that you live across the street from.

If I had their life, if I was in their shoes, I would do everything so much better than them.

It could be jealousy, it could be shame.

You can list a whole host of reasons to have a low view of someone to put them into that bucket and make it really difficult for them to climb out.

But again, we are trying to see others the way Jesus sees them.

So what do we do?

We examine ourselves and simply say, me first.

Me first.

For that whole list that we just walked through in all the ways that you can imagine, uh kind of dismissing someone or uh having a big big old label on their forehead in your mind.

Instead of that, take a moment between you and the Lord and say, Me first, Lord, how do I address this?

Luke 6, 37 through 42 says this Judge not and you will not be judged.

Condemn not and you will not be condemned.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

Give and it will be given to you.

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, it will be put into your lap.

And with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

He also told them a parable.

Can a blind man lead a blind man?

Will they not both fall into a pit?

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher.

That's what we're trying to do.

We're trying to be like our teacher, being like Jesus.

Why do you see the speck that's in your brother's eye, but don't notice the log that's in your own eye?

How can you say to your brother, let me take that speck out of your that's in your eye, when you yourself don't see the log that's in your own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, then you will be you will see clearly to take out the speck that's in your brother's brother's eye.

That's a really challenging passage because it is so easy to dole out judgment.

It's so easy to uh just assign a label to people.

But to see people like Jesus would like us to see them is to kind of wake up to our own stuff that we're dealing with before we go and address that with everybody else.

And so for that whole list we came up, came up with, if it's uh sin that you're struggling with and you see that the sin is in their life, it's like, okay, say me first.

I'm noticing a sin in their life, me first.

What is the sin in my life that I need to surrender, to confess, to process between me and the Lord, sure, but to process between you and the person you sinned against, whatever it might be, how does me first affect the sin?

If you see someone has a disagreement on your convictions about something, me first actually I think means uh wrestling with that conviction between you and the Lord, to know if that is a conviction that actually comes from the Lord, or is that a very strong opinion that you don't want to surrender?

Because a lot of the time it's like, do I have a conviction about Star Wars?

No, this is just a really strong opinion.

This is not half anything to do with anything that matters.

Does this conviction come from the Lord, or is this a very strong opinion?

Because there might be a way where you kind of just have to let go of that and kind of say, like, actually, that was that was a misplaced conviction.

Or maybe it's confirmed.

And as you read scripture and as you spend time with God, as you say me first, and you investigate yourself, you examine yourself, you're like, no, this is the thing that I think God would have me do in this season of life.

Great, hold on to it, but instead of trying to convince somebody else, it's like surrender that to them, surrender that to the Lord.

If it's politics, it's like, man, me first.

I'm so quick to have a political conversation or to roll my eyes at a political conversation.

And more often than not, I'm probably missing an opportunity to spread the love of Jesus and speak the truth of Jesus because I'm just caught up in the culture war.

I'm caught up in being right about something, I'm caught up in with like getting points on somebody else.

But really, that conversation usually opens up to the deep stuff, and you can say get to the deep stuff with that person and say, like, okay, me first, am I just wanting to fight, or is this an opportunity?

Uh for pride, and we won't go through that whole list, but for pride, the the only one I wanted to really quickly show out to when you say like I would do it better, taking that moment to say, you know, me first, to have empathy and say, I have I I would do maybe that job better, but I don't know if I'd do their life better.

I don't I might be able to do that task better if everything in my life is exactly the same and added that little task.

But I haven't gone what they've gone through, I haven't seen what they've seen, and I haven't experienced even maybe it's temptations that they have experienced.

So saying me first is to really truly go like, well, how would I have true empathy for what they're going through?

Examining yourself creates room for that benefit of the doubt to grow.

So examine yourself, say me first, but then there is gonna be that second step.

It's take the log out, so then that you can help the person take that spec out.

So you can see clearly.

So if you're seeing things clearly, you are will be prompted toward that next step.

And that next step is simply seeing people like Jesus sees them.

Seeing people like Jesus, and that's just loving them.

Love people like Jesus.

Jesus is the master of loving people to the to the broken and what society would call worthless, he saw them as valuable and genuinely worth loving.

To even the prideful and like the arrogant, he saw the bright future that just like waded beyond the horizon of repentance for them.

Like if you change, if you humble yourself, there's so much beauty and so much um talent and all of that in your life, if you just humbled yourself, what could you possibly do?

Oh, Jerusalem, that you would just have repented if you had returned from your sins.

It's the fact that when nobody would include someone, when uh they call them sinners, they call them disreputable sinners, when they call them worthless, Jesus invited them into his presence.

He shared the company of sinners, he shared meals with them, he asked many sinners to become his followers.

And so let's pick up that conversation in Luke chapter 10 with the lawyer, because Jesus challenges us to consider who's actually closest to the heart of God.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Luke 10, 29 through 37.

The man wanted to justify his actions.

So he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor?

Remember, he says, Love God and love your neighbor as yourself, and don't get caught here.

I'm caught here all the time.

I want to know, have I loved enough today?

Have I can I can I get away without helping that person that I see that needs help?

Can I serve myself for the rest of the afternoon because I was out helping people all morning?

Do I have to include everybody?

That's a lot of people, God.

Like so seeking to justify himself, to justify his actions, he says, Who's my neighbor?

And Jesus replied with a story.

A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits.

They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead by the side of the road.

By chance a priest came along.

But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by.

A temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him.

Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged him.

Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him.

The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, Take care of this man.

If his bill runs higher than this, I'll pay you the next time I'm here.

Now, which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?

Jesus asked.

And the man replied, The one who showed him mercy.

Jesus said, Yes.

Now go and do likewise.

Go and do the same.

There's a lot going on here, but Jesus is challenging the lawyer to see people the way God sees them, and it's not by the outward appearance, but it's by the fruit.

It's by the heart.

And so to help us get into this, I'm going to ask you a question.

I won't be offended, and if I am offended, I promise today I will not put you in a bucket that you have to forever climb out of.

I won't put a label on you as someone who was mean to me.

I've been told by teenagers mostly that I look like a youth pastor.

That I dress like a youth pastor.

So I'm gonna just ask without any more preface, by show of hands, how many of you think I dress like a youth pastor?

Danielle, it's okay.

You can Danielle's so scared to raise her hands.

Okay, there's some hands, there's some hands.

I forgive all of you, I'm not offended.

I just don't know what a youth pastor looks like.

Actually, I do.

I hang out with a bunch of youth pastors, and I don't feel like we all dress the same.

Maybe we all wear hats, but I feel like that's a dude thing, maybe, I don't know.

And so I always get a little bit defensive and try to fight it off.

Like if okay, let's think of it this way.

If you were sitting like in a Starbucks and you saw me walk in and you didn't know me, would you be like, I bet that guy's a youth pastor?

No! Thank you.

Okay, see there.

Jeez, I'm not I'm not mad.

Okay.

Um, I wear a t-shirt and jeans.

I don't know how I'm a youth pastor.

We can discuss the details of my wardrobe later.

But but point being, uh, Jesus brings these uh very obvious sort of God people, church people to mind when he tells the story.

He says, the priest and the the temple assistant.

Uh for us, it's like if a nun walks in a Starbucks, you're gonna know it's a nun.

You're gonna be like, oh, God person, like they're associated with the church.

And so as Jesus says, the priest and the temple assistant, people would have had a very uh vivid visual representation of what that meant and why he was bringing up those people specifically.

And so we have a picture of the uh kind of what that would look like.

Um, these guys have like ornamental chest plates, they've got fancy hats, they've got white clothes, uh, they're very obvious to pick out of a crowd.

And so as he's saying, hey, there's a priest, and then there's a uh temple assistant, a Levite, like people would know what Jesus is referring to and their association would be with God.

And then on the complete other side of the spectrum, he says, the Samaritan.

And the Samaritans have a messy and um complicated history with the Jews because the Samaritans are like spiritual cousins to the Jews.

They connect on the family tree uh hundreds of years back, and the issue that what happened, what had happened was they uh branched off and kind of in their own communities started marrying uh people from other cultures.

And with that uh marrying and disobedience of a command from God, with that marrying of other cultures uh came things like idol worship, and as a consequence of that, it's like this really, really painful part in the the cultural heritage history sort of thing.

It's like you grow further and further apart as the generations go down.

And we're trying to process what this would be like.

This wouldn't be like someone from another religion.

This would be kind of like someone who was like, like it's easy to be like, hey, that person believes what they believe.

I disagree with them, but okay.

But if someone was a Christian and they they branched off and they started saying things that were just wild and really hurtful or really distant from what you actually truly believed, it would be really hard to relate to that person.

So when Jesus brings up the Samaritan, there is a complex history of hurt there.

There's like a little bit of betrayal, there's a little bit of racism because of the intermarrying.

There it's just a whole thing.

Uh the Jews disliked Samaritans so much that they would avoid even stepping foot in Samaria.

And so I have a map.

This map is actually made from our Following Jesus series a few years back, or I guess a year back, where we went through the book of Matthew.

You see Judea, you see Samaria, you see Galilee.

Uh Jews would actually go on their journeys from Judea to Galilee like this.

I drew a little red line.

Let's see, boom, red line.

You see that red line, they would skirt across into Perea and then go up to Galilee that way on their journeys from the north to the south, or from south to the north.

They did that because they didn't want to be associated with Samaritans at all.

I'm trying to think of like what this would be like.

This would be like if you had family in Mississippi for Thanksgiving, but you refused to step foot in Alabama to go see them, you drive all the way around Alabama and then back into Mississippi because you don't want to be associated with Alabammans at all.

Like this is kind of what that would be like.

There's a really, I mean, that's a really intense, complicated history.

Jews would have hated Samaritans.

That's why the NLT says the despised Samaritan to kind of illustrate that for us if we don't quite get it already.

But Jesus didn't avoid Samaria.

Jesus didn't avoid Samaritans.

Jesus really expressed this heart of God for people.

Um when uh let's look at 1 Samuel 16, 7, it says, the Lord said to Samuel, Don't judge by his appearance or height, for I've rejected him.

The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them.

People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

So Jesus saw things differently.

Jesus would have known that verse from 1 Samuel 16.

He's living that out.

And I wanted to kind of get close to the end of the message with a longer passage that shows us how to treat people when we have every reason to treat them otherwise.

When you have every reason, whether there's a political background, there's personal issues, there's cultural junk that's getting in the way.

How do we see people like Jesus sees them?

How do we love people?

And it comes from John 4.

So instead of taking that long journey around Samaria, John records this.

So Jesus left Judea and returned to Galilee.

He had to go through Samaria on the way.

You notice that?

Like Jesus goes straight through, doesn't take the long way.

Eventually he came to a Samaritan village of Sikar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime.

Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, Please give me a drink.

He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.

The woman was surprised, for Jews refused to have anything to do with Samaritans.

She said to Jesus, You're a Jew, and I'm a Samaritan woman.

Why are you asking me for a drink?

Jesus replied, If you only knew the gift God has for you, and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.

But, sir, you don't have a rope or a bucket, she said, and this well is very deep.

Where would you get this living water?

And besides, do you think you're greater than our ancestor Jacob who gave us this well?

How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?

Jesus replied, Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again, but those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again.

It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.

Please, sir, said the woman, give me this water.

Then I'll never be thirst thirsty again.

You can tell I have a four-year-old fir thirsty, and I won't have to come here to get the water.

Go and get your husband, Jesus told her.

I don't have a husband, the woman replied, and Jesus said, Yes, you're right.

You don't have a husband.

For you have had five husbands, and you aren't even married to the man you're living with now.

You certainly spoke the truth.

Sir, you must be a prophet.

So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place to worship, while we Samaritans claim that it's here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?

Jesus replied, Believe me, my dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter wet whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem.

You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews.

But the time is coming, indeed, it is here now when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.

For God is spirit, so those who worship him must also worship in spirit and truth.

The woman said, I know the Messiah is coming, the one who is called Christ.

When he comes, he will explain everything to us.

Jesus told her, I am the Messiah.

Just then his disciples came back and they were shocked to find him talking to a woman, but none of them had the nerve to ask, What do you want with her?

Why are you talking to her?

The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did, could he possibly be the Messiah?

And so people came streaming from the village to see him.

I know it was a longer chunk, and thank you for being patient through it, but how beautiful is it that Jesus doesn't bow to any label when it comes to how to see other people.

There's every reason.

There's cultural reasons of her being a woman, there's historical reasons of her being a Samaritan, there's uh personal reasons, sin issues that she's dealing with, and still Jesus draws near.

He didn't roll his eyes, he didn't avoid her, he didn't say, Oh, come on, her again.

I know her story.

He leans in and he invites her into the truth.

For each of us, Jesus knows all that stuff.

The person you used to be, the things we've done that we're not proud of, the things I've done.

And in every single moment, he's drawn near to me, he's called out to me that all I need to do is to respond and receive the benefit of the doubt for sure, but also his spirit and the fruit of the spirit and a community and his love.

Loving like Jesus is seeing people like Jesus means loving like Jesus.

To say, yeah, there there might be every reason to discount somebody, but they might have deserved it.

And maybe there's lots of heavy stuff to process that comes along with that.

But to say, I'm going to love you like I love myself, I'm going to treat you the way I would like to be treated, and I'm going to see you like Jesus sees you.

And so if you do that, if you examine yourself, and if you start to see people the way Jesus sees them, you're going to be prompted to do something next.

And again, this is a huge topic.

We could do a whole series on this.

Uh, so I can't go through every possible response to that.

But my encouragement to you guys is just to trust the Lord with what to do next.

Trust the Lord with the what next.

Uh when you examine yourself and you see people like Jesus sees them, you're gonna be prompted to help.

Uh trust the Lord with that help.

It might help so much it's inconvenient.

You might be like, I have to spend the rest of my day doing this.

Uh trust the Lord with that.

It might cost you something, it might cost you financially, it might cost you time, it might cost you physically.

If you're prompted to help, help.

And trust the Lord with what next?

If you're prompted to forgive someone, forgive.

It might cost to forgive, it might be painful to forgive, but trust him with that forgiveness and see what he does next.

It might be that you actually need to stand up and speak the truth.

That someone does need to be corrected, and it's gonna take bravery and boldness.

Jesus isn't afraid in that conversation with the woman at the well to tell the truth, to say something that would be politically controversial.

I am the Messiah is so politically controversial that he was killed for it.

But he speaks the truth.

Might be to repent of your own sin, to apologize.

Whatever action it is, trust him with the what's next.

And that's where it gets really personal for us.

And worship team, you can make your way on out here as we read this.

Philippians 2, 3 through 11 says, Don't be selfish.

Don't try to impress others.

Be humble.

Thinking of others as better than yourselves.

Don't look out only for your own interests, but take interest in others, too.

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

Though he was God, he didn't think equality with God as something to cling to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges.

He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on the cross.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names.

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus saw me as valuable.

Jesus saw me as worth it.

Jesus saw me as worthy of love.

He sees you as worthy of love.

First John says, uh, we love because he first loved us.

And so to see others like Jesus sees them, to be intentional, to be on purpose with how we see people, it's to love them.

It's to examine what we're going through, to see them like Jesus, and to trust the Lord with what's next.

And what's so beautiful and awesome is uh that every single week we get to share Lord's Supper together.

Um there's tables in the back.

So if you missed that on your way in, we know that it's dark in the back.

Uh it's totally okay to stand up and go grab one.

You will not be messing anything up.

Uh, you are invited to do this.

This is a way that we get our eyes fixed on Jesus every single week.

And we do this because what Jesus has done for us is so important.

And there's not gonna be a week where you figured it out.

Like Justin gave a message, or Madison gave a message, or Fred gave a message, and all of a sudden I figured everything out.

I didn't mess anything up during the week.

Like we are people, we struggle.

I will probably be dismissive or overly frustrated or uh just a sarcastic jerk to somebody this week because I tend towards that way, but it's not who my spirit is.

It's not who God is creating me to be and growing me to be.

And so each week as we take this meal together, we remember that we've got stuff that Jesus died for.

That he surrendered himself so that we wouldn't be condemned by our weak.

And that's the really, really beautiful thing is that while it might be easy to judge and it might be easy to condemn, Jesus does not condemn us.

If we belong to him, we have been forgiven.

If we belong to him, we are loved.

If we belong to him, we're actually given the ability to love like him.

Because his spirit joins with our spirit so that we can actually like know God.

There isn't a wall that's separating, there isn't this bucket that we have to climb out of.

To prove that we have earned the right to be in the presence of God.

This meal helps us remember what Jesus did so that we can have a relationship with him.

And so, if you would open up the little bread pouch and hold up the bread.

Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you for this bread and what it represents.

Thank you for your body that was broken on the cross for us.

Thank you for deeming us worth it.

Thank you for humbling yourself in that death.

Let's take the bread.

Now let's open the juice.

Jesus, thank you for your blood that washes us clean of our sins and makes us uh new, a new creation in your eyes, that we aren't defined by who we were in middle school or high school or in our past relationships or when we lived in that other state back there, but we are defined by how you see us now.

Thank you for your blood as it washes us clean.

Let's take the juice.