Prioritize People

Man.

Well, uh, next Sunday uh we are starting a brand new series called Breakthrough, which is something that I'm really excited about.

Let's all take a moment to be distracted by the graphic and wonder how long.

Shout out to anyone who knows what an Atari 2600 is.

Yes! Yes.

It keeps going till it finishes, but we won't we won't watch that.

Alright, so Breakthrough is our series that begins next Sunday.

Here's the idea behind it.

We all know what it's like to have a breakdown.

And some of us might be in the midst of a breakdown right now.

Something in our life is just going way off course, and that's hard.

That's that's very difficult.

It's amazing though how often a breakthrough is on the other side of a breakdown.

At the same time, it'd be really nice to have a breakthrough without needing a breakdown, right?

It'd be great to have a breakthrough, sans breakdown.

And that's the idea behind this series.

How do you have a breakthrough without having to go through a breakdown?

And I say all that because I need to break through all the time.

There's just always things in my life that are holding me back from what God has for me, from the life that God has for me.

And I'm always just going, like, God, I need you to do something.

I need to plow through this wall that's standing in front of me, and I really need you to do it.

And it's it's challenging, but God gives us things in his word.

He gives us things through his spirit that allow us to have breakthroughs in life.

They're really powerful.

That's how much he loves us.

And I share that with you not only for you to be here, but for also for you to be able to share that with someone else.

Because we all know people right now who might be on the verge of a breakdown.

We all know people right now, people we love, people we work with, live near, people in our families that need a breakthrough.

They need to see something change.

And they need it to be a God change.

And I want to encourage you to bring them for this series, to be a bringer.

We talked about that last Sunday, how powerful it is to not only be someone who knows Jesus, but who knows Jesus for the purpose of sharing Jesus.

It's what a great opportunity to bring someone with you.

Uh, and since our our service times are changing, you know, it's even later than normal.

They get to sleep a little bit more, but just use that as an opportunity.

Bring someone along for a breakthrough next week.

That starts next Sunday.

Today we're wrapping up our series on people.

We've been talking about people all summer long, and it's time for us to be done with people.

Yeah.

A few of you are actually really excited about that.

But that's all good.

If you haven't been here, don't worry.

I'll kind of catch you up.

We've been talking about people all summer long, not because we're taking a break from talking about God, quite the opposite.

We've been talking about people because it's what we think about people that reveals what we actually think about God.

You want to find out what someone really believes about God?

Listen to the way they talk about people.

Because it's our view of people that reveals our actual view of God.

We know this because humanity and God are forever linked.

Our God, Jesus, became one of us.

And he showed us that serving God and serving people are not two choices.

Loving God and loving people are not two dynamics that pull at us and we have to choose one over the other.

It's the same thing.

We love God and we love people.

In fact, it's impossible to love God without loving people.

It's impossible to serve God without serving people.

Jesus showed us this.

So the idea of loving God and loving people, they're forever linked to us by Jesus.

And so we spent our summer talking about people and where we stand on the subject of people.

Today we get to wrap that up.

And so we've got some loose ends to tie up.

It's kind of a review in some ways, talking about some of the things we've already talked about, but making sure we leave here today ultimately with a commitment in our hearts to do something, to have a mentality, to have a way of living that is essential for us if we want the life that God has for us.

It's absolutely essential.

That young child agrees.

That was a amen before language develops, is what that was.

I'm gonna believe that.

But let's just start here.

You know, sometimes people seem impossible.

You ever know an impossible person?

Like some people seem like they are impossible to understand.

I've been married to my wife for 12 years.

We've been dating since we were teenagers.

You would think by now I would have her figured out.

I do not.

Not even close.

There are times where I say things and I expect a certain reaction.

I think I have said it well.

I think I've made my case.

But clearly not.

And I don't really understand why.

I mean, you'd think 12 years into marriage and three children and you know, literally 15 plus years together that I wouldn't be going.

What did I say?

What what?

I don't under like you'd think I would have figured it out, but I haven't.

Some people are impossible to understand.

Some people are are like impossible to be mad at.

You ever have someone like that in your life?

That's how it is for me with my kids, especially when they're really young.

The older they get, the easier it is to be mad at them.

I've found this out.

But when they're really little, it's like impossible.

My son Judah, for example, he's our youngest, he's a year and a half old.

His name, by the way, is Judah, okay?

I had a conversation, this is kind of an aside, but I had a conversation this week with someone who didn't realize I had three children.

We hadn't seen each other in a while, and they're like, Oh, you've three now.

So who's your youngest?

And I said, Oh, he's Judah.

And this guy just made a face.

He's like, Why did you name him Judah?

I was like, Well, I don't know.

He, you know, it was really Megan's decision, but I just uh it's a good name, you know.

I like he's like, why would you name your child after the guy who betrayed Jesus?

And I was like, no, no, that's that's Judas.

I did not name my son Judas, okay?

Like, Judah, not Judas.

I want to be looking behind my back all throughout my life, you know, just waiting for that name to ring true.

So, Judah.

Our youngest son, Judah, not Judas, Judah, you know, he's really attached to me, more so than our other kids at this age in his life.

You know, the the other ones, Liam and Lily, they would wake up and yell, mommy.

Judah wakes up in the morning and he yells, Daddy.

Super inconvenient because I can't nudge Megan and go, like, ah, you gotta go get the baby.

Because he's yelling my name.

He's yelling, Daddy.

He and I are really, really close.

And he, of all of our children, by far the most mischievous.

He's the only one we've had that gets into things like nightmarishly, that he's dangerous.

Yesterday I was at home, it was my birthday, I turned 34 yesterday, mid-30s.

Yeah.

I can't wait till I'm 40.

Because I think it's when I'm 40 that people will stop telling me that I'm young.

That happens to me a lot.

Like, oh, you're so young.

Like I turned 34, like, you're 34, you're young.

This is the oldest I've ever been.

This is as old as I know how to be, okay?

I'm doing my best.

So I'm waiting for 40, because I think then that'll stop.

People will stop saying that, but whatever.

So, you know, birthday yesterday, and I'm doing what every middle-aged person does on their birthday.

I'm like working.

You know, I'm I'm cleaning my house and I'm organizing a closet.

I got a lot of stuff to do.

Liam starts school soon, so we're just trying to get stuff done.

Megan and I were upstairs organizing Liam's bedroom before school.

Judah was with us in the room, and then he walked down the hallway for 15 seconds.

We did not have our eyes on him for 15 seconds, and he comes back holding a knife.

Like a legit knife.

And I'm going, where did you get a knife and how and why?

And it's just that's how Judah is.

He gets into anything he shouldn't.

He's mischievous.

Sometimes it's on accident.

Sometimes, no, it's totally intentional.

About a week ago, I'm in our basement.

It's where we hang out as a family.

I'm sitting on the couch watching TV, and Judah is hanging out and he's eating a little yogurt squeezy.

You know those little tubes of yogurt for kids?

As an adult, if you eat yogurt squeeze, more power to you, be who you are, okay?

I'm not saying you don't need a spoon, just squeeze it in there.

That's fine.

But for kids, you know, the squeezies work really well, and he's got his yogurt squeezy and he's eating his yogurt.

He's mad about something.

And so, in in just this intensity, he looks at me in the eyes, just locks eyes with me, holds up his yogurt squeezy and just goes like this.

Doesn't take his eyes off of me.

And then, still eyes locked into mine, yogurt all over his hand, he reaches down, he just wipes it on the couch.

And then starts to back away with his yogurt squeezy and just goes.

And I thought it was awesome.

I was like, I wish I had that on.

That's so cool.

You know?

Wow, that kid's got attitude.

That's how I felt.

And like, I should have been really angry.

Because if you came to my house and you did that, like if you came to my house with a yogurt squeezy, this is a weird situation, and you just walked up to me and squeezed it all out and then rubbed it on my furniture and walked away, I'd be like, Yeah, we're not friends for the rest of the day.

You know, I need at least a day.

But Liam, or Judah rather does it, and I'm just laughing and I'm sitting there going, That's that's amazing, that's awesome.

It's like impossible for me to be mad.

My kids.

People can seem so impossible in so many different ways.

Some people seem impossible to please.

Some people seem impossible to get a hold of, some people seem impossible to get away from.

Right?

People can seem impossible.

But but they're not.

People are not impossible.

Nothing is impossible with God.

That's something that Jesus Himself said.

With God, all things are possible.

Even people are possible when it comes to God, but there is something that people are.

People are not impossible, they just seem that way, but people are impractical.

People are incredibly impractical.

And we talked about this when we first began this series.

Our first message was we believe in messy people.

Any messy people show up this morning?

Any okay, good.

And to those of you who are so clean, thank you for gracing us with your presence.

We need you to compensate for our mess.

I'm so glad you're here.

I'm just joking.

But uh, a little bit.

So, you know, we believe in messy people.

People are messy.

We have this way of making a mess of things.

When we don't even try, right?

Like we get good at hiding our mess.

That's the only difference between us and kids.

Kids just aren't good at hiding their messiness.

It just sort of explodes around them.

We get better as time goes on at keeping our mess somewhat contained to the outside eye, but it still has this way of making itself visible at some point in time.

We're messy.

We are not practical.

There's a verse in Proverbs, one of my absolute favorite verses in the Bible, Proverbs 14, 4, says, without oxen, a stable stays clean.

Without oxen, a stable stays clean.

And I I do not own oxen.

I probably didn't need to clarify that.

I don't.

I I can't imagine though, I can't imagine that owning oxen is a really good way to simplify your life.

You know?

Never had someone say, hey, you know what would really help your life get more simple and easier to maintain?

Large farm animals.

That's what you really need.

Because I would just imagine that oxen are messy.

I looked it up.

A male ox weighs 2,400 pounds and eats between 30 and 40 pounds of food per day.

Okay?

I don't know how much 30 and 40 pounds of intake works as far as the output goes.

But I have children and I know that the output can surprise you sometimes.

Okay?

So I can only imagine what can happen with an ox.

And so, yeah, if you have this stable, you have this barn, and there's no oxen, it's gonna stay clean.

You're gonna walk into that stable and you're gonna go, wow, this is this is nice.

Because owning oxen cannot be convenient.

And we live in a world that values convenience so much, don't we?

We live in this very convenient society.

To the point where we start to equate convenience with good, and that's actually rarely the case.

Like things being convenient is not the same as things being good.

You know, money is a great example of that.

It used to be really convenient to go to an ATM.

Like when the ATM was first invented, the idea that you could just go up to a machine, not have to wait in line with a bank teller and fill out that form and get your money and all that kind of stuff.

You could just go up, you know, punch in a few numbers and get, you know, money out of an ATM that was so convenient.

Does anyone think about going to an ATM is convenient anymore?

Like, oh man, I get to go to the ATM.

This is the best.

This is so quick.

No, because now we live in like a culture that's moved past cash.

Cash itself is an inconvenience.

Why would I go to an ATM when I can just use my card everywhere?

Now it's like, why do I even need a card and I can use my phone to pay for things?

Like, I don't, why would I go out of my house?

I'll just Amazon it and two days shipping, it's here.

Like, this is so much more convenient.

But but it's interesting because businesses love to push convenience because when things are convenient, you'll spend more money without even thinking about it.

McDonald's was the very first company, the very first fast food company to allow people to use credit cards and debit cards through the drive-thru.

2004.

I was in college, it was it was awesome.

It was great.

So you got your credit card statement, you're like, I paid$12 for a Big Mac.

Oh no.

Um, you know, because of interest.

And so it was the first company to allow that to happen.

And in the first month, the first, the first quarter rather, that they had uh credit cards and debit cards at the drive-thru, their profits went up 27%.

Just by letting people have a more convenient way to pay.

They hadn't had a jump that big in one quarter since 1987.

In like 20 years, nothing like that.

And the only thing that changed was they made it more convenient to say, sure, supersize it.

Yeah, okay, I'll add that on for a dollar.

It's just, you know, it's because you don't think about it the same way when you hand someone cash and they give you back less than you handed them.

They found that people who use debit cards and credit cards at restaurants spend 47% more than people who use cash.

And so the businesses are all about convenience, right?

Let's make it as convenient as possible for you to spend all your money.

And having to carry cash around, that leads to a very disorganized and messy wallet.

Who wants that?

A wallet with no cash stays clean, right?

But the amazing thing is, I'd rather have money in my bank account.

That's that's that would be better.

Convenient and good is not the same thing.

And here's the reality is people are not convenient.

People make mistakes, people make poor decisions, people trip us up, people can frustrate us at our core.

So people are not impossible, but they're also not practical.

We are by nature impractical.

And here's the thing we have to think about.

You know, yes, a barn with no oxen stays clean, a stable with no oxen stays clean, and a life with no people stays relatively clean too.

The less connected you are to other people, the more your life really becomes focused on you.

The less you're connected with other people, the cleaner your life is.

I mean, your problems are the only problems you have to think about.

Your crises, they're the only crises you have to worry about.

You don't have to worry about the crises of others.

Your burdens, they're the only burdens you have to carry.

Your worries are the only worries you have to worry about.

On the flip side, your joys are the only joys you get to share.

Your wins are the only wins you get to celebrate.

But look, if you live your life disconnected from people, aside from the people you know you have to be involved with, like the people you live with and work with, but if you live your life disconnected with people, your stable will stay clean.

But the question we have to ask ourselves is, is this, is a clean stable the point?

Is a clean stable the win?

And that verse in Proverbs goes on and says, without oxen, the stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest.

See, when when you're a farmer, that's your win.

That's the end game, is the harvest.

You're not celebrating a clean stable, you're celebrating a large harvest.

Jesus lived his life focused on a harvest.

He said as much.

In Matthew chapter 9, verse 37.

Matthew 9:37

He said to his disciples, the harvest is great, but the workers are few.

So pray to the Lord who's in charge of the harvest.

Ask him to send more workers into his fields.

This is Jesus saying, Ask God to send more people.

You know, people and practical and messy and hard to deal with and hard to understand.

He said, We need more of those.

We need more people because we we have a large harvest.

And we have to ask ourselves in our own lives, this is like a look in the mirror moment, am I living life to have a clean stable, or am I living life to have a large harvest?

Because if you want a large harvest in your life, you're gonna need some people to help you reap it.

If you want a harvest of joy and passion and love and you want wisdom, you want all the good things that life has to offer, that's too much for you to go harvest on your own.

You're gonna need good people in your life.

See, Jesus recognized something that it's hard for us to live out sometimes.

I think it's easy for us to agree with it, but hard for us to live out.

And that is yes, people seem impossible, and yes, people are impractical, but people are important.

People are necessary.

People were necessary for Jesus to do what Jesus set out to do.

And when you stop and think about it, if you're someone who believes that Jesus is God, as I do, the idea that God needed people is really interesting.

That God couldn't do it on his own.

Like some people would say that's blasphemous to say, but all I would say in return is that look, either Jesus actually needed people or he acted like he did all the time.

And he was just like fooling us.

I don't think that's that's how Jesus is.

We see this, for example, in Matthew chapter 5, very early in Jesus' ministry.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

It says, one day, as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down.

His disciples gathered around him and he began to teach them.

It's very interesting because this is the moment when Jesus' ministry is like taking off.

So far there's been some buzz about Jesus, but this is like when things are getting real.

All of a sudden, huge crowds are showing up wherever Jesus is.

It gets to the point where Jesus shows up somewhere, people hear that Jesus is there, 10,000 plus people show up just because they heard that's where Jesus is.

It's amazing.

And this is like the start of that.

And this is so huge because Jesus came for the people.

He came to show the multitude who God really is and what God can really do.

So you'd think that in this moment when the crowd first shows up, Jesus is like, all right, my moment has arrived.

Time for me to take the big stage, and that Jesus would look at his disciples and he'd be like, all right, guys, from this point on, you know, thank you for your help.

Thank you for all you've done to get me to this place, but now it's time for me to step into the limelight and do my thing.

And you know what?

Uh, from now on, Peter, uh, you can be like my publicist, and James John, security detail, Bartholomew, coffee, dry cleaning, something, I don't know.

If you read the Bible, Bartholomew is one of the disciples.

He never does a thing, doesn't do anything in the Bible.

He's just listed.

So I imagine that's what he would be given to do.

So you think that Jesus might say, Hey, this is my moment, this is my time, this huge crowd, they're here to see Jesus, not the disciples.

And they show up, and instead of Jesus, you know, taking the stage, so to speak, and the disciples taking a back seat, the opposite happens.

Jesus walks away from the crowd, and he goes and he spends time with the disciples, and he starts to teach them.

And if you read Matthew chapter 5 through 7, you see these teachings.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

These are the foundational teachings of Jesus.

And what's what's going on?

Why is Jesus doing it this way?

It's because Jesus sees this huge crowd and he says, All right, it's happening.

But in order for this to work, in order for the multitude, for the harvest to happen, I need these guys.

I need them to know what I know.

I need them to understand what God is really like.

I need them to be able to do what I do.

I need them to be able to be an extension of me, just like Jesus needs us to be an extension of him in this world.

And so rather than just taking the stage and doing his thing, Jesus withdraws, takes his disciples, and he invests in them.

And the majority of the words that we have in Scripture spoken by Jesus are words spoken by Jesus to his followers, to the disciples that he's investing in.

He acted as if he needed them, that he really needed them to understand.

He couldn't do it on his own.

He needed them to get it, and so he invested in them, and they are not practical for Jesus.

You read the Gospels, the disciples do not make life easier for Jesus.

There's not moments where he's like, Thank you guys for doing what you do.

I've been able to take a few weeks off.

You guys have really just stepped in and it's you've crushed it.

You know, Nathan took a couple weeks off.

Nathan's so awesome.

We have a great, great person leading our worship team.

And that's when you're supposed to clap.

But um, that's good.

I mean, it means less that I told you to do it, but Nathan's a big boy and he knows, he knows you love him.

But uh, but like like one of the things that I love about Nathan, he's a great leader.

What makes Nathan such a great leader is that when Nathan is not here, if he goes out of town for two weeks, it's not like the worship just drops off.

Because he invests so much in his team, he pours into them so much that when he steps away, they're good.

That's a sign of great leadership.

And Jesus spent the majority of his time investing in his people and his followers, and the men and women who were close to him, who followed him, because he needed them.

He legitimately needed them.

And they were impractical and they were messy and they created all these kinds of headaches, but Jesus never stopped.

Later in his ministry, toward the very end, we see Jesus pray and and Things are kind of coming to a close.

He's about to go to the cross, and we have his prayer recorded for us in John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

I want to read this.

And as we read this, I want you to think through and just notice how much of the attention in Jesus' prayer goes to his disciples.

How much of the focus and prioritization of his prayers is for the people that he loved.

John 17, 1.

After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you.

For you have given him authority over everyone.

He gives eternal life to each one you have given him.

And this is the way to have eternal life, to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.

I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

Now, Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.

I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world.

They were always yours.

You gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, for I have passed on to them the message you gave me.

They accepted it, and they know that I came from you, and they believe that you sent me.

My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you.

All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory.

Now I am departing from the world, they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you.

Holy Father, you have given me your name.

Now protect them by the power of your name, so that they will be united just as we are.

During my time here, I protected them by the power of the name you gave me.

I guarded them so that not one was lost except the one headed for destruction.

That was Judas, not Judah.

Okay?

As the scriptures foretold.

Now I am coming to you.

I told them many things while I was with them in this world so they could be filled with my joy.

I have given them your word, and the world hates them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.

They do not belong to this world any more than I do.

Make them holy by your truth.

Teach them your word, which is truth.

Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world, and I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them, so they can be made holy by your truth.

I'm praying not only for these disciples, but for all who will ever believe in me through their message.

I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one.

As you are in me, Father, and I am in you, and may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one, I am in them, and you are in me.

May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.

Wow.

Father, I want these whom you have given me to be with me where I am.

Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began.

O righteous Father, the world doesn't know you, but I do.

And these disciples know you sent me.

I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so, then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.

So here we have Jesus at the end, and he's praying.

These are precious moments, by the way.

These are his last moments of peace.

To say whatever he wants to say with his Father God privately before the soldiers come and before he's on trial, and that whole mess happens.

And what does Jesus focus his prayers on?

It's his friends, it's his disciples, it's the people that were in his life.

Jesus is sitting here and he's just praying and he's prioritizing people in his prayers because he prioritized people in his life.

That's because to Jesus, people are the priority.

Yes, people seem impossible.

Yes, people are impractical.

But people are so important that if we want to have a life that looks like the life Jesus lived, there's one thing that we have to do consistently, and that is we have to prioritize people.

We have to prioritize people because Jesus prioritized people.

Because Jesus prioritizes you.

That's because people are the point.

I mean, every day we're we're inundated with so many things that need to get done.

We have so many important things to do in our minds that it's so easy for us to have no time for people, even people we really love.

Because we just have so much to do.

I mean, it's so normal for me in conversations to see someone that I haven't even talked to in a month that I actually really love and enjoy, and be like, oh man, I'm sorry I haven't spoken to you, reached out to you, called you, texted you.

I've just, I've been busy.

And when I do that, I'm deprioritizing people.

Because it's much more rare for me to say, oh, I didn't get those things done, because I was really focused on some people that needed me and some people that I needed.

So I didn't get to that.

Sorry.

Our culture doesn't really value that as much.

I had an experience with this yesterday.

Kind of hit me hard.

It was a convicting moment.

But I was hanging out at home, and like I said earlier, it was my birthday, so I'm cleaning and organizing like you know you should do on your birthday.

And uh and Lily, my three-year-old, comes up to me.

I'm working on a closet, trying to get this closet all organized, and I hate clutter, I just hate it.

So Lily's like, Dad, can you you play with me?

And first off, you gotta know how much I love my daughter.

She's just, she's the only girl I've got.

And so, like, as a child, I mean Megan counts, but I'm saying, like, as a as a, you know.

And Lily and I have some things that we say together a lot.

I'll ask her almost every day, you know, especially at bedtime, hey, Lily, how many boys did God give daddy?

Two.

How many girls did God give daddy?

One, who's that girl?

It's me.

And we just, I love her so much.

She also drives me absolutely insane.

But that's beside the point.

And so Lily comes up to me and she's like, Dad, can we play?

And I said, uh, honey, in a minute, I've got some stuff I gotta do.

And Lily's at this age at three that she doesn't quite have a developed sense of time, you know?

And those of us who have had kids have probably had similar experiences where as your kids are starting to learn what time kind of is and how it works, they come up with some really interesting concepts, some interesting things that they say to try to like qualify time.

And so Lily's thing is she has, you know, heard enough and picked up enough that she knows an hour is a thing, and it's a it's a time thing, but so's a minute.

But she doesn't know how many minutes an hour is and how all that works.

And so what she'll do is if you tell her that something's gonna take a while, she'll say, like, an hour minute?

Is it gonna be like an hour minute?

And and she knows that that's that's a long amount of time.

And so, you know, I I tell her, no, I can't play right now, I'm busy doing this thing, and and I gotta get this closet organized, you know.

God forbid.

And so she comes up about 30 minutes later.

She says, Daddy, can you play with me?

And I said, Honey, not right now.

I'm busy, I gotta do this just a few minutes.

Just give me a minute.

And she comes up about 30 minutes later, Daddy, will you please play with me?

And I'm like, honey, it I just need a few minutes to get this finished.

And she looked at me and she said, Dad, it has been like an hour minute.

Please play with me.

And I'm like, Okay, alright.

You know, eventually, even I get it.

Because the truth is, and I wasn't intending this, but the truth is, for that period of time, the closet was my priority, not my daughter.

And I was essentially telling her, this is more important than you.

And that's so far from the truth.

And I wasn't doing this intentionally, it wasn't like malicious, it's just the way our world works.

We we are told that we are successful.

We are successful when we get things done.

To be a successful person means to cross things off a list.

You're someone that, man, you're getting stuff done.

We're not told that being a successful person means that you have rich and satisfying relationships with many people.

We're not told that being a successful person means that there are people that you know so well and that know you so well that you have real connection and real fulfillment because of the love that you share with people.

That's not viewed as success.

But what's the point of success if you can't share it?

What's the point of getting to the mountaintop of life if you're alone?

Like people are the priority.

People are the point.

I would much rather be someone unsuccessful in the world's eyes, but surrounded by people who I love and love me, than to be some person with a fancy title and and accolades, trophies I can put on a shelf, but be alone.

Trophies don't love you.

Accolades don't help you.

Accomplishments don't pray for you.

But people change things.

Do you want a clean stable or do you want a large harvest?

It's a big choice.

Because sometimes there are days where I'm like, I'll take the clean stable.

Thank you.

But if I actually take a step back and I think with God's perspective in mind, and I really evaluate my life, I want a harvest.

I want a life that has impact.

I want to see people change.

I want to see the world change.

And I can't do that on my own.

We need each other.

You need people.

You need them so much that you have to prioritize them.

And look, if you're a list person and you're like, ah, my to-do list, people, just put people on the top of your to-do list.

Boom, life hack.

You're good.

Okay?

Just prioritize people because you need people.

You absolutely need people.

And it's one thing for us to nod our heads and go, yeah, that's true.

It's another thing to live it out.

That's why I love this church.

Because this church makes me be with people.

Like it'd be so much easier to do church if y'all weren't here.

I could give the same message.

You know?

Same thing.

No, like honestly.

People are hard.

But people are the point.

And what makes this church so great, if you're new, by the way, it's the people here.

That's why I love being part of this place, because not only does it make me engage with people, but it makes me engage with amazing people.

The wisest, godliest, most generous, the kindest, the most incredible and inspiring people I've ever met in my life are here.

And I look out and I see I see people who have changed my life.

I see people who have prayed for me and poured into me and invested in me and encouraged me and challenged me and strengthened me and given me different perspective.

I look out and I see so many amazing people.

And I can promise you this, there are people sitting within earshot of you right now that God wants involved in your life.

That God wants you to be involved in theirs.

And as a church, as a church, we have to decide what kind of church are we going to be.

I want to be a church that's interconnected.

I want to be a church where it's impossible for someone to have a problem and no one in the church to know about it.

I don't want to be part of a lonely church.

And so I just want to encourage you going into the fall to prioritize people.

That if you need some people in your life, or if you believe that some people need you and theirs, that you would take the opportunity to get involved.

That you would take the opportunity to join in.

You know, home groups are going to start back up in a few weeks.

All of our home group leaders are staying after today to go through some stuff and then home group signups start next week.

I can tell you this, being part of a home group is not practical.

Because it's all people.

If you go into being part of a home group and you're like, and this happens to us, by the way, they're like, I really want a home group and I want it to be on Tuesday nights from 7-8:30.

And there needs to be childcare, and I want it to be mainly people at this stage of life, and I want it to be people that really like these three things.

We're like, yeah, that, yeah.

No.

Sorry.

You know.

What you need to do is go to a restaurant and order something off a menu.

Because that's not how people work.

But if you if you go into being part of a home group and you say, look, I need people.

I need some great people in my life.

I'm tired of the clean barn.

It's not that clean anyway.

I want to harvest in my life and I need people.

And I'm willing to actually make adjustments in my life to be near good people and to be invested in good people and to have good people invested in me.

So help me connect.

Like if that's your mentality, get ready to have great friends.

Because those people exist and they're here.

We're gonna wrap up.

I want to say this as we close.

It's our last Sunday in the People series.

And I think for some of us, this series has been kind of hard.

Because when we think about the problems in our lives, most of them are connected to a person, to some situation where a person is involved.

So much of the hurt that we experience in our hearts is hurt that was done to us by a person.

And sometimes we take those hurts and we put those on to God.

And we're angry with God and we're mad at God.

We're really just mad at a person and we're we're taking that person's sin and we're placing it on God's shoulders.

People are messy.

But people are the point.

And whether we like it or not, we need people.

Badly.

We're not meant to live it alone.

God did not create us to be self-sustaining.

Remember back, we we talked early in the series about Adam and Eve and how before the world got all messed up, God looked at man and said, it's not good for him to be alone.

That was before everything got messed up.

God looked at the world and said, something isn't right.

And it was that we were alone.

We are meant to live in relationship together.

And I want you to know one thing as we pray.

This is a commitment that we make, all of us as a church.

Your life will never get too messy for us.

Your life will never get too complicated for us to be involved with you.

There will never be a situation in your life that makes us run away.

Because we are a family.

And you're a person in our family, and we prioritize people.

So we will support you, we will love you, we will be with you, we will encourage you, we will help you, we will do whatever we can possibly do to show you that you are our priority, because that is how Jesus is.

And that's how we've got to be.

So pray with me, please.

Jesus, thank you so much for His Hands Church.

Thank you so much for this group of people that just fill my life with so much, so much joy, so much energy, so much encouragement, so much love, so much work.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you so much, God, for people.

And thank you, Lord, for for becoming one of us and having the courage to jump into our mess, to live your life waiting through all the junk that we deal with, Father.

You didn't you didn't love us from afar, even though you could have.

You didn't save us from afar, even though you could have.

You saved us and you loved us by becoming one of us and living life as us.

You know exactly what it's like to be a person.

You know exactly what it's like to be a person dealing with people.

And Lord, I pray right now that you give us an unnatural, I pray, Lord, a supernatural love for people.

That we would be a church united in love for the people that you've created.

That we would be a church that says to the world around us, it doesn't matter how messy you are, it doesn't matter how impractical you may be, you are valuable, you are important, and we will prioritize you because we want you to know the one who prioritizes you most.

His name is Jesus.

Father, I pray if there's one person here today that doesn't know you, one person today that's never experienced that love that only comes from knowing you, that they would just give their heart to you right now.

It's a simple thing, it's not some complicated process.

They don't have to fill out a form.

They just have to tell you right now in their heart, just say it out loud in their heart, in their mind, that I'm yours, I belong to you, I believe, Lord.

And we just pray that that happens right now.

As we worship, as we walk out of here today, God, I pray that we go into our August, that we go into our fall, passionate about prioritizing people, Lord.

We love you, we thank you for all you do, for all you are.

Amen.