We Believe In (Messy) People

I wasn't wasn't lying earlier when I said I was really excited about today all week long.

I don't know how your week was.

I hope it was great.

My week was kind of crazy.

It wasn't bad.

It was just it was just crazy.

Megan went on the road trip, so on Monday morning we dropped her off and she was she was gone for the week, hanging out with the students.

I'm really glad she got to do that.

That was important.

But that meant that I was one on three with my kids.

And uh and I'm you know I'm okay saying this.

I think I'm a good dad one-on-one.

I really do.

Uh one on two, I'm okay.

One on three, subpar.

Like, at best, it's just there are certain things that go out the window when it's me with all three kids, especially for an extended number of days.

They were fed, that happened.

Uh one you seem surprised.

They were fed, that was good.

Um it didn't occur to me until Thursday when Megan was coming home, like, oh yeah, baths.

I didn't do that one time.

No, no bathing, but they did swim on Tuesday.

So there was water, they were covered.

I think that at least counts.

But it's just, you know, when it's one on three, it's hard.

And so my my week was was nuts.

And then a bunch of other stuff happened.

It was a busy week anyway.

My son Lean was in basketball camp, so I was shuttling the kids everywhere.

We had car trouble.

It was just crazy.

And the whole time, like Tuesday hit, and I just went, I cannot wait for Sunday.

I need Sunday to be here.

And so I'm really glad that it's Sunday.

I cannot wait for tonight.

I'm just glad that today is here.

I'm glad I get to spend some time with y'all.

I get asked a lot of questions about our church, and I love our church so much.

And it makes sense that I get asked questions because of my role, and I often find it hard to put into words why I love this place the way that I do.

And I should be the one that has the words the quickest that I'm just ready to give the spiel, but there really isn't a spiel for the things you truly love.

And when you love something or someone, it's hard to describe why.

And you can't think about those things objectively.

I have no ability to think about his hands church objectively.

It's changed my life far too much.

I love this place way too much to be able to just express in words easily why it's so important.

But there are there are certain things that always come to mind.

When someone says, hey, tell me about his hands, I talk about the love.

There's so much love in this place.

And it changes people.

It's the love of God, it's the love of Jesus.

And if you're here today for the first time, we want you to know that the love God has for you, it is real.

If you've been looking for real life your entire life, you have found it in Him.

I talk about the uh, yeah, I can clap for that.

I talk about the authenticity that's here, because this is a place where people are just real.

I have never been a part of a place that gives you permission to be who you are, like this place.

There is no pretending, there is no acting, you do not have to be the church version of yourself.

You just get to come and be who you are and feel God's presence in that spot.

That's that's precious.

That is rare.

This place is real.

I talk about that, but one of the things that always comes up as I talk about why I love this church is the people.

It's all of you.

Because you are the church.

We say this often.

We need to be reminded of it.

A church is not a pastor, it's not a staff, it's not a building, it's not an organization with a logo.

A church is people.

We are the church, you are the church, you are his hands, and you, the people, make this place so special.

And so when any when anyone asks me about his hands, I start talking about the people and I light up.

I love, love all of you.

I love the people in this place.

And this morning, we're beginning a series.

We're gonna be in this series all summer long, and it's called people.

We're talking about people, and here's why.

What we think about people defines who we are.

What we think about people defines us.

Now, if I were to say what we think about God defines us in a church gathering on a Sunday morning, I doubt I'd get a lot of pushback.

What we think about God defines who we are.

I believe that's true.

But I believe it is every bit as much true that what we think about people defines who we are.

What we think about people defines us every bit as much as what we think about God.

In fact, I believe Jesus teaches this.

One of my favorite statements that Jesus made while on the earth was let no man separate what God has joined together.

Let no man split apart what God has joined together.

And Jesus, God in the flesh, always, always joined together the concept of loving God and loving people.

Serving God and serving people were not two separate activities to Jesus.

Serving God and serving people, loving God and loving people, they were one in the same.

And so, for example, we get this moment in Scripture in Matthew chapter 22 where a man comes up to Jesus, he's a Pharisee, he's a religious expert, and he asks Jesus this question, Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

And Jesus replied, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.

This is the first and greatest commandment.

A second is equally important.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.

Notice how Jesus says, loving people is equally important to loving God.

Now, this would have thrown the Pharisees for a loop because the religious people in Jesus' day, they were so devoted to God, or so they thought, that they would often find reasons to excuse their lack of love for people and base it off their love for God.

They would say things like, I don't have time for people because I give so much time to God.

I don't have much generosity left in the tank for people because I've given so much to God.

I'm too busy loving God to really spend time with people.

They saw people in God as these two separate things when it comes to our purpose in this life.

And so for Jesus to say that loving people, that serving people, spending time with people is every bit as important as loving God, that would not have registered for them.

You see, they they forgot one very important thing that to God, people are the priority.

To God, people are the point.

In fact, the Bible says that God created this world and put us on it so that we could be the focus of his love.

That's Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

We are the focus of his love.

People are the point in God's eyes, and so people who don't love people are not very useful to a God who prioritizes people.

And people who say they don't have a lot of time for people because they're so focused on God, that doesn't even compute.

Jesus always, always joined together the idea of loving God and loving people, and let no man separate what God has joined together.

That's why I believe that what we think about people defines us every bit as much as what we think about God.

It is important for us as a church to kind of plant our flag in the ground and say, this is where we stand on the subject of God.

This is what we believe about God, this is what we believe about Jesus, this is what we believe about our relationship with God, how we interact with God, how he feels about us.

That is very important, and we do that often.

But it's also important that we plant a flag in the ground and we make it known what we think about people, where we stand on the subject of people, because people are the point.

And so this summer that's what we're doing.

This summer we're talking about what we think about people.

And this is gonna be very relevant for all of us, partially because we're people, right?

Can we all agree on that?

Can I at least get some agreement that you're a person, you see yourself as a person?

Okay, good.

So, since this is a room filled with people, talking about people ought to be pretty relevant to us.

See, people are a mission for all of us.

Every single one of us was put on this earth, not simply to be a person, but to be a person who loves people, and to be a person who helps people and serves people.

That's what we're made for.

And so it's important that we talk about and find some agreement and some common ground on the subject of people.

That's what we're gonna be doing this summer, and we're gonna look at people from a lot of different angles.

Today, though, I want to start with something really simple, something really basic, just a statement that isn't gonna sound revolutionary at first, but I think if you really explore it and you think about it, you'll find that it's a pretty rare, rare stance to hold, at least to hold with sincerity, and it's this we believe in people.

We believe in people.

Now, like I said, saying that, hearing that, we believe in people.

That doesn't sound revolutionary, no one's gonna go, wow, we're really breaking ground here, we believe in people.

Because everyone in the world will say, sure, I believe in people.

But if you look at the world around you, if you look at our culture, it doesn't actually behave like a culture who really believes in people.

Because if you believe in people, you don't need to manipulate people.

If you believe in people, you don't need to twist the truth to try to give them something that they'll buy into.

If you really believe in people, you don't have to sell them all the time.

You don't have to market to them, you don't have to spin things.

If you really believe in people, you just share with people what the truth is and trust them to figure it out for themselves and make the right decision.

But our world doesn't operate that way because our world doesn't really have that high of an opinion when it comes to people.

It will say that it does, but it doesn't.

Think about a phrase like this: you're only human.

You're only human.

That is a culturally accepted phrase that basically excuses bad behavior, right?

You're only human.

The standard's pretty low.

And look, we're not perfect, I'm not perfect, you're not perfect, and when people make mistakes, I'm all about encouraging them and reminding them to chin up.

You know, perfection is not what God asks of us.

But I heard a pastor talk about this once, and I'll never forget it.

That phrase, you're only human, God would never agree with that phrase.

There will never be a time where God looks at you or looks at us and says, you know what?

You're just people.

And I'm not expecting much.

No, see, God would look at us and he would have the exact opposite opinion.

He would look at you and he would say, You're you're a person, you're human, and that makes you incredibly special to me.

Because the Bible teaches us that God spoke the world into existence.

That God is so powerful that just speaking a word changes things.

By the way, Jesus demonstrated that time and time again when he would just heal people by speaking.

That God's word is that powerful.

And so God speaks the world into existence, except for us.

We're the only ones that he makes by hand.

You're the only part of creation handcrafted by God.

That makes you pretty special.

We're the only part of creation that God said he made in his image.

He made to reflect him, to be like him.

And that's why we're the only part of creation that can actually create.

Like we're we're creative.

I don't just mean biologically, I mean like we can we can envision things, we can imagine things, and we can go and make it so.

We can look at the world around us and we can say, you know what?

Something needs to change, something needs to be different in my home, something needs to be different in my community in this world, and we can go out and we can do things to make it happen because we were made in the image of God.

He gave us that kind of power, that kind of authority.

We're human, we're the only ones who can do that.

God would never look at us and say, you know, you're you're just human.

See, God would look at us and he would say, You're human, you're a person, you are sacred to me.

I made you special, I made you unique.

See, God believes in people.

You cannot read the Bible and come away with a conclusion other than the fact that God believes in people.

Because he entrusts way too much to us to not believe in us.

I mean, it's one thing to have faith in God, but it's another thing to realize that God has faith in you.

That God actually believes in you.

Sometimes it doesn't make sense, does it?

How God would believe in people.

I look at all these examples in scripture of moments where God entrusts so much to people, and if I were in his shoes, I probably wouldn't do the same thing.

I would have a different approach.

For example, Jesus dies and he raises again and he reveals himself to his followers and several other people.

Hundreds of people saw Jesus risen.

It's documented in all kinds of historical documents, not just the Bible, but all kinds of others.

And then there comes a moment where Jesus leaves and he physically leaves the earth and he sends the Holy Spirit, but he leaves the entire mission of spreading his message, the most important message that has ever been spread, the most life-changing, world-shaping message that's ever been given, the message of God's love, that we don't have to earn it, that we don't have to win it.

It's been won for us, it's been earned for us, it's a gift.

We just need to accept it.

He entrusts that message with people.

And if you know much about the people that Jesus entrusted that message to, like these are people you wouldn't let babysit your kids, okay?

If you have children.

These people, these are people you probably wouldn't let babysit your dog, okay?

If you read, if you read the story of Jesus and the people who follow him, they're just they don't get it.

They miss things, they mess up royally, they they screw all kinds of things up.

I always love the fact that Jesus tells his disciples over and over again, I'm gonna die, and on the third day I'll raise to life.

He says that several times in those words, and then Jesus dies and they're shocked.

They're like, How could this happen?

We didn't see this coming.

And then three days later, he raises to life and they're like, What?

Oh, oh, okay.

So when Jesus said he was gonna die and then raise three days later, he meant that he was gonna die and then raise three days later.

Now it all makes sense.

And you want to look at the disciples and be like, You guys are idiots.

How did you not see it, right?

I mean, these people, they they just they mess up.

Jesus has this moment where he desperately needs them.

It's kind of crazy to think about God needing people, but Jesus needs them.

And he he's praying, he's about to go to the cross, and he says, Will you please stay up with me for one hour?

Will you just stay up with me and pray with me?

That's all I want, that's all I need.

I'm about to suffer this horrible death.

Just stay awake and pray, and they can't even do that.

These are the people that are Jesus' disciples.

They abandon him in his darkest hour, they run away, and then Jesus raises to life, and he entrusts his message with these people.

We see what he says too in Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

This is often called the Great Commission.

It says Jesus came and told his disciples, I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations.

Now, at this point, it kind of seems like Jesus is about to say, I've been given all authority in heaven on earth, and therefore I am gonna go.

I've been given all this authority, so I'm gonna get it done.

I'm gonna go to all the corners of the earth, I'm gonna baptize people, I'm gonna rescue them, I'm gonna do this, but that's not what he says.

He says, I've been given all this authority, therefore you go.

You go and baptize the nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I've given you and be sure of this.

I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.

Jesus looks at his disciples and he says, You've got this.

Now I'm not God.

But if I were, and I think we could all agree with this to some capacity, if I were for just a day, I'd do some things a little bit differently.

Like we've all had ideas, right?

We've all counseled God before in prayer.

God, I just have some great ideas if you're listening.

Like if I were Jesus and I wanted to ensure that my message would be protected for thousands of years and it would be preserved and it would be delivered and taken to all the places it needs to go, I would have, I would have, I would have come up with a foolproof plan.

A foolproof plan.

I've thought about this a lot, I've probably talked about this before, but but I would have done something crazy.

Something you couldn't miss.

Like I'd have carved my name in the moon, like a bat symbol in the sky at night that would just say Jesus.

You know?

And he's Jesus, he has all kinds of crazy power.

I think he could get that done, but just imagine that.

How easy would it be to share Jesus if you just had to wait for a full moon so all the letters were revealed, and then just tap someone on the shoulder and be like, hey, Jesus.

Oh, okay.

Makes sense.

That'd be so and it would also, by the way, make the phases of the moon so much more exciting.

Like every month you have this slow reveal one letter at a time, and then full moon hits, and it's just Jesus, and then it's a slow fade.

And then all over again.

That would be a blast.

So, God, if you're listening, that's just an idea.

I mean, just think about it.

See, to me, that that's a foolproof plan.

You know what's not a foolproof plan?

People.

Because some people act like fools, right?

And yet, Jesus, in his infinite wisdom, his infinite power, he says, you know what'll get the job done?

People.

I'll entrust, I'll entrust my mission with these people.

You cannot look at that and come away with any other conclusion other than the fact that Jesus believes in people.

He believes in people.

I have to ask myself a question.

Do I believe in people as much as God believes in people?

And the answer is no.

Do I believe in myself as much as God believes in me?

Absolutely not.

I can think of so many reasons not to believe in me, I can think of so many reasons not to believe in other people, because we don't have to look that hard to find those reasons, do we?

And let's be honest, we're people, we have, we have issues.

We can call them opportunities and feel better about it, right?

We have opportunities for vast self-improvement, as do I.

And we have so many opportunities, so many issues, we couldn't even list them all.

We could just put them under this one giant category and call it messiness.

People are just messy.

We start that way.

I have three kids, they're messy.

They're gross.

Children are gross.

You can take that quote and just put it out there, and it's not even out of context.

They are, just fundamentally.

I have three of them.

They're gross, they make things around them gross.

They look cute, but they're gross.

Some of you are like, never gonna have kids.

But just pray about it first.

That's all I'm gonna say.

You know, we we moved into a house almost four years ago.

It was so beautiful.

Like, it wasn't a new house, but it was it was newly painted and the carpet was new.

Now the carpet's gross.

The walls are gross.

Like, my kids, I don't understand how they get handprints on the walls in places that it makes no sense why you would even put your hand on the wall.

It's like the stairs make sense to me.

You're going down the stairs, you know, you're a little kid, you can't reach the handrail, you're bracing yourself.

Fine, I can accept that.

But but I'll see handprints in places on walls that make no sense whatsoever.

And it's like my kids have just rubbed their hands in mud and then high-fived the wall.

Like, I've seen that, I saw this happen once.

I saw one of my children have a whole handful of syrup.

Don't ask.

Just a hand with syrup all over it.

And I saw them look at their hand and think, what should I do with this?

And come to the conclusion that I'll just wipe it on the wall.

And they did that, and then they turned and they saw me, and I'm like, What are you doing?

Why would you do that?

And they just look, I don't know.

I just, that's what I saw the wall, it spoke to me.

Like last week, okay, this happened.

Last week, I'm downstairs in the basement and I hear a crash upstairs.

And so I run up the stairs.

Kitchen.

Just got it clean the day before.

It takes a lot to keep our house clean.

We got three kids, and so it's clean.

My son Liam, he's at the age now at seven, where he will try to get himself food and things like that.

He's not quite tall enough, strong enough to get everything, but he tries, and it's good for him to learn that independence.

And so we led him.

And he had dropped a white ceramic plate and it had just hit the kitchen floor and shattered, and it's everywhere.

And he's kind of freaking out.

He's like, I'm really sorry.

I'm like, son, it's not that big of a deal.

Just let me get a broom and sweep it up because I don't want Judah or Lily to step on these little shards of ceramic and get one in their in their feet.

And so I'm sweeping it up.

I've been sweeping for 10 seconds.

If that, 10 seconds, and I hear another loud crash behind me.

I turn, there's an entire gallon of milk on the ground, just gushing, just gushing out.

And Liam's like, I'm sorry.

And I just looked at them and I'm like, pick it up.

Like, just I've got a broom in my hand, I'm sweeping the plates, the milk is going all over the place, and it's covering, covering the kitchen floor.

Now I've got this floor full of milk, which is white, and I've got these tiny little shards of white ceramic, and I can't see them because of the milk, they're camouflaged.

And then Judah comes walking in and he thinks it's hysterical.

He thinks it's like a like a party, and he's just like doing this and laughing, you know, and stomping around, and I'm freaking out.

And Lily comes in and she only goes a thousand miles an hour.

She has one setting, and she just like flies and slides in the room, and it's a disaster, and it's everywhere.

And then Megan walks down the stairs and looks at me like, what are you doing?

And I'm like, This place was spotless 30 seconds ago.

This happened in 30 seconds because of my children, and because they're messy.

They're messy.

Kids are messy.

If you're a parent, you have young kids, you know that.

I'm not gonna name the child because I love him too much.

But just yesterday, I heard these words come out of one of my children, and it was just the words, oh no, poop.

Like.

Oh no, indeed.

That's how it goes.

The kids are messy.

Wouldn't it be awesome as if if we got older, if the messes stopped?

But see, let's let's be honest.

Us grown-ups in the room, we're messy.

We're just a different kind of messy.

So when we're young, the mess is always happening outside of us.

As we get older, it feels like the mess starts happening inside of us.

And it's maybe not the world around us that's messy.

We might live in a pristine home and everything's in order, but on the inside, we're a mess.

And there's all this emotional baggage, and it's all tangled up, and we don't even know how to identify it.

We don't know what to make of it.

We definitely don't know how to fix it.

And it manifests in all these incredibly unhealthy behaviors.

And we have to go to counseling and things like that.

We're messy.

People are messy.

And sometimes there's this thought that creeps into our minds, especially when religion gets involved.

And if you're here for the first time, please know that we are not religious.

This is not about man-made rituals or standards of living.

Religion gets involved and it tells us things like God wants the clean ones.

God wants the people who are fixed up, who have it figured out.

But you know what?

Being a parent, for all these years, and those of us who maybe said, I'm never having kids after hearing Justin talk about kids, just hear me out.

If there's one thing I've learned through being a parent, it's that my children are a mess.

But they are worth the mess.

And if there's one thing I've learned following Jesus, it's that I'm a mess.

But he sees me as worth the mess as well.

You know, we're messy, but we're worth it.

What's interesting is that Jesus, the way he lived his life, he did not prefer the clean ones.

A, because there aren't any.

In fact, you can make the argument that Jesus preferred messy people.

We have another interaction with the Pharisee.

They're jerks in Luke chapter 5, verse 27.

Luke 5:27

Later, as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector named Levi, he's also called Matthew, sitting at his tax collector's booth.

The tax collectors, they were like the worst of all the worst people.

They were traitors and criminals and thieves.

And the Pharisees, if they would have seen a tax collector, they either would have scolded the person or they would have walked to the other side of the street to avoid them completely.

Not Jesus.

He walks up to this tax collector.

He says, Follow me and be my disciple.

Jesus says, I want you on my team.

And so Levi got up, he left everything, and he followed him.

Later, Levi held a banquet in his home with Jesus as the guest of honor.

Many of Levi's fellow tax collectors and other guests also ate with him.

But the Pharisees and their teachers of religious law complained bitterly to Jesus' disciples, Why do you eat and drink with such scum?

And Jesus answered them.

Healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do.

And had he stopped there, they probably would have thought that he was calling them healthy.

But he says, I've come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.

See, Jesus, he preferred messy people, provided they were willing to admit their messiness.

He did.

You look at his followers, and it's like a who's who of social outcasts.

It really is.

But they were people who weren't trying to hide their mess.

Some of them were people who frankly couldn't hide their mess.

Like some of the messes in our lives, they're easy to hide, and so we can go about life and we can act like it's all okay, and on the inside, it's a mess, but no one else sees it.

Some of us have messes that are impossible to hide.

They've just gotten to that point.

That is, by the way, why it is so important that we do not judge people when we see their messes, because one day we might have a mess that we can't hide either.

Okay?

But Jesus, see, see, Jesus, he was able to look at the Pharisees and see something they could not.

He was able to do something that they couldn't do.

See, he has this conversation with them, and it's so interesting because it's almost like they don't realize, they think Jesus doesn't realize that these people have issues.

The Pharisees have this attitude, like, doesn't he know that these people have problems?

And he they go up to Jesus as if to inform Jesus, hey man, we we know you probably made a big mistake having dinner here, but these people, you know, they're people.

And they have issues and problems, and it's it's messy.

And Jesus basically says, Yeah, I know.

I see it.

I see your mess too.

But Jesus lets them know that he's just not interested.

He's just not interested in spending a lot of time with people who can't admit their mess.

He says to the Pharisees, You see these people, you see their problems, I see these people, I see who they could be.

You see these people and you dismiss them.

I see these people, I believe in them.

I believe in who they're meant to be.

I want to invest in them.

Because unlike you Pharisees, I can see past their mess.

You can't see past it.

You see their mess, you stop.

I see their hearts, I see them for who they can be, and I believe in them.

Jesus believes in messy people.

And as a church, as a family, as we begin this conversation this summer about people, as we plant our flag in the ground and say, this is where we stand on the subject of people.

I just want it to be known.

I want it to be understood.

I want us as a church to have a reputation because I believe Jesus wants us as a church to have this reputation.

We are his hands church, and we believe in messy people.

We believe in them.

And here's why that's so cool.

That means we believe in you.

Don't be offended.

When you have to spend energy trying to hide the mess or pretend like it's not there, it's so exhausting.

And when you actually spend time with Jesus and you figure out that you can let your guard down and that you don't have to hide the mess, he comes and he does what only he can do.

He begins to unravel it, he rolls up his sleeves, he jumps in, your mess, and he begins to clean it up.

See, he looks past the mess, but he doesn't ignore it.

There's a big difference between looking past something and ignoring it.

Pretending like it's not there.

No, Jesus doesn't ignore our mess, he just looks past it and he gets to work.

And he starts to work within us, and to whatever degree we're able to open ourselves up and admit our messiness, to that same degree, Jesus jumps in and he heals it and he cleanses it.

And so if you're here this morning and you're a mess, welcome to the family.

Seriously, we are too.

I am.

I'm a giant mess.

Just ask my wife.

Just ask me, I'll tell you about it.

You know, I know there's a couple different groups of us in the room this morning.

There are those of us who have given our lives to Jesus.

We've made that decision at some point in our life.

That's probably most of us in the room.

That at some point in our life we've said, I belong to you, Jesus.

That means at some point in time we recognize that there's a mess that needs dealt with.

And sometimes the longer that we we follow Jesus, the more we forget about the mess.

Sometimes the more, I don't know, church we do, as if church is an activity, the more we we start to ignore the mess.

Sometimes, sometimes I'll pretend like my messiness is on purpose.

I'll say things like, I'm not a jerk, I'm just strongly opinionated.

Right?

No, I'm just being a jerk.

No matter where we're at with God, how long we've been following God, it's important for us as people to always, always be okay with the fact that we're a little messy.

And rather than hide it or pretend like it's not there, just be willing to address it and pray and say, God, this is what's going on.

I don't know why, I don't know how this happened, or maybe we do and we're sorry for it, whatever, but just to let all that pretense go out the door and say, I'm a messy person, God help me.

Heal me.

Some of us this morning need to be reminded that God believes in you.

He believes in you.

He has faith in you.

Sure, he sees the junk that is going on in your life, but he looks past it.

He sees who you were meant to be, and he's the only one who knows who you were meant to be.

He believes in people, he believes in you.

And so, to some degree, you've got to believe in you.

You've got to ask God to have eyes that can see yourself the way that He sees you.

You've got to see people around you like God sees them.

Do you believe in people?

Is there one person in your life that you would like to see changed?

One person in your life, someone you're connected to, someone in your family, someone you work with, a friend, a neighbor, and you look at their life and you're like, they're kind of messy.

And and you want to see them change, the question is, do you believe that they can?

Do you believe in them to the same degree that Jesus does?

And if so, do they know that?

Because maybe, maybe you letting it be known to them that you believe in them will be the first time they get a taste of how God feels about them.

And so if you want to see them change, believe in them.

And ask God and pray and say, God, help me believe in this person every bit as much as you do.

What we believe about people defines us.

What we believe about ourselves defines us.

And we need to believe to believe like God believes.

I know there are some of us in the room who have never given our lives to Jesus.

We've never had that moment.

We've never said, I'm in.

Maybe we've been coming here for a while.

By the way, if that's you, we're so glad you're here.

If you've been coming for a while, maybe you've been dragged here by someone in your family, and you're wondering when I'm going to stop talking, the answer is soon.

Let's just pretend something for a second.

Let's pretend that every God, every little g god throughout history is real.

So all the made-up gods, even the ones that no one believes in anymore, like like Zeus and the Egyptian gods, things like that.

Let's just pretend they're all real.

They're all options, equal options.

We just have to pick which one we want to be associated with.

Let's pretend like that's the case.

And let's pretend that they're all standing up here right now, all of them in a line.

And we get to ask them questions as we make our decision, as we make our selection.

If you were to ask the question, will one of you step forward if you believe in people?

Which of you believes in people?

One would step forward.

In his name is Jesus.

See, if you actually look at the history of faiths in this world, it's it's actually a really telling reflection of human nature that the gods that we invent act like we do.

The gods that we've invented don't believe in people.

The gods that we've invented are typically mad at people, at the very best, tolerate people.

But the real God, the one true God, Jesus Christ, see, he would step forward and he would say, I do.

I believe greatly in people.

I have a high opinion of people.

And my heart is to know people and for people to know me so that I can show them who they're meant to be.

If you don't know Jesus, I just want you to know that when you put your faith in him, you're believing in a God who believes in you.

You're putting your faith in someone who has faith in you, who thinks highly of you, who will show you and teach you who you're meant to be.

So believe in the one who believes in you.

And you can do that very, very simply, by the way.

There's no you know ritual you have to perform.

It's just a confession of your heart.

It's just you saying, God, I believe in you, Jesus, I believe you are who you say you are.

You know, forgive me for my mess.

Help me clean it up.

I want you in my life.

I give my life to you.

That's all it is.

It's a condition of your heart.

I will say this though, as we're talking about people, don't do it alone.

You don't you don't need to make a decision like that by yourself.

It's too important.

You gotta celebrate it.

And so, if you want to make that decision today, if you feel something stirring on your heart and you're like, I've never understood before that God actually believes in me.

I want to give my life to the one who's given everything to me.

Do me a favor, meet me in the prayer room in like two minutes.

We're gonna sing another song, worship team, you guys can come out, we're gonna worship together.

And I'm gonna head back to the prayer room with some other people on the prayer team, and we're just gonna be in that room.

And if you want to give your life to Jesus, just walk in.

And you don't have to like make an entrance even.

And you just walk in and be like, I'm here.

And we were gonna we're just gonna pray with you, we're gonna encourage you, we're gonna celebrate this life-defining decision in your life because we love you, he loves you.

We are his hands church, and we believe in people.

We believe in messy people.

And we want to be like Jesus.

We wanna we want to be a church that sees the best in people.

I think church should just look like Jesus.

We want to be a church that sees people for who they can be.

We want to be a church that looks past the mess.

We don't ignore it, but we look past it and we see things for how they could be, and we believe the best in people.

Because God believes the best in people, and he believes the best in you.

Pray with me.

Jesus, thank you so much for believing in us.

Honestly, we wouldn't believe in you if you didn't believe in us so much.

We wouldn't have known you, you would have given up on us, you never would have come.

You would have snuck out the back door if you didn't believe so strongly in people.

And it is one thing for us to stand here and say we believe in you, but it's something else to stop and think about the fact that you actually believe in us.

You believe in messy people.

So, Lord, we're asking that you would help us believe in messy people, that you would help every single person in this room actually believe in the people around them.

Believe that they're capable of more than we think they're capable of, believe that they're able to do more than we think they can do.

God, do not allow us to be a church who underestimates people because you don't do that.

In fact, Lord, help us be a church who overestimates people, who believes in them greater and more than anyone else ever has.

We want to see people change, we want to see people know you, Jesus.

We want to see people come to life because of you.

And we just believe in our hearts, Lord, that that's not going to happen if we don't love them and believe in them.

You are not going to allow us to change the people who we don't love and we don't believe in.

So help us do that, Lord.

And help us do that with ourselves.

Sometimes we look in the mirror, Lord, and all we can see is the mess.

And I pray right now, Father, that you would free us from that, that you would help us look in the mirror and see past it just like you do.

Remind us today that you believe in us.

Individually, collectively.

You believe in us, you believe in me.

We love you, Jesus.

You're awesome.

Thank you for this day.

Amen.