Why You Feel Invisible (And How to Be Seen)

TRANSCRIPT

Anyway, this is about Radical Christmas. This is how radical Christmas run in and last week Ruthie started 'cause she is the Queen of Christmas. She doesn't just love Christmas. She embodies it. She embodies Christmas. She believes with all her heart that this is so important because God looked down at the mess that humanity was in and look down at the brokenness.

And he could have done what we do when we get broken things, which is. Toss it away and start again. But instead, he comes up with this elaborate plan to insert himself back in to do what we can't do. He saw his creation trapped in brokenness, unable to get free, and instead of tossing it away, he inserted himself in and he came in in a spectacular way, born of a virgin, so he didn't come in via sin.

And then he grew to be a man and he modeled what the father looked like. So people would say, Hey, listen, show us the father. Listen, if you've seen me, this is the father you've seen. This is what, this is what the father looks like, clothed in flesh. And then of course, then he went to the cross where he had to pay the price for our sins, not his.

He didn't break relationship. We broke relationship. And so he goes and pays the price, and then he goes to hell on our behalf. He takes our punishment, but because he's holy, he then takes the keys of hell and death. So whereas death came in through Adam and we all got trapped in sin and brokenness and death, Jesus comes in another way.

And then actually by being obedient to God to go through death, he frees us from death. And brings us back into eternal life. That is amazing. I understand why Ruth loves Christmas, because without this and without the Christmas that goes to the cross and the Savior and a God that looks down and doesn't look down on us, that we're broken to the point where he is like, well, that's rubbish.

Let's toss it away. No, no. He says, no, no, no. I can do something with that. That is a huge extravagant amount of love. And she challenged us that Jesus, when he walked around, he would stop. If he saw someone, he didn't just look or glance or observe and then look away. He would stop and he would engage and she said, maybe we should see a little bit more.

Really See, 'cause if you do, then you stop. 'cause once we truly see our heart is moved to action, when you see your heart is moved to action. It's kind of what Andy was saying to me like once you see it, you can't, you can't unsee it. You have to do something about this, and it's the same thing for us now.

I'm really gonna hang around where Ruth started because what Ruth shared with that, when you learn to see and you learn to engage, you give some people an incredible gift. An incredible gif and I want to talk about that this morning. But here's what I want you to do. I'm gonna take your phones out and we're gonna play a little Slido 'cause I wanna find out a little bit from you.

There's a QR code coming up on the screen, hopefully. And um, here's the question I want you to answer is this, have you had a moment in your life when you were struggling and, and somebody saw you, someone saw your worth, saw you were struggling and. They engaged with you. So who saw you, who believed in you at a strategic time in life?

I don't want their name. Here's what I don't put their name up there. Put up what? I wonder if you can do this. Put up how old you were. Like a number. Do you ever see the number about how old you were when this happened and who it was? Was it a parent? Was it a teacher? Was it a friend? Was it a pastor? Who was it that saw you at a strategic moment and they didn't turn away, they engaged.

And uh, let's just see what comes up there. And I'll just share with you one for me. Um, I was not, and am not a particularly educated guy. I didn't, I only got to grade 10. That's all I did. My dad made me come out and he made me leave and he made me become a bricklayer and I became a bricklayer by trade and then I had a accident and I ended up having to relearn to walk all over again.

And so that career was gone. So then I thought, how far away can you get from Brick Lang? I know what, I'll go in bands and I'll tour in a band. So I went touring in bands for a season, made incredible mess of my life. But in one of the tours, discovered Christ went to Barber College in 1986. And then at that point in time I started studying all the different religious denominations.

'cause I had a funny feeling. Denominations were. Weren't a part of God's plan. So I had to started to figure out what they were. And then, and I was kinda like, okay. And then I discovered how much of this is based on Jesus teaching and how much of this is really based on, um, the traditions of the old covenant outworked through men's tradition to control people.

And there was not a lot of Jesus and, and a lot of it. So anyway, this is where I was kind of at. And then I met Pastor Wayne Cadro, who, who actually wrote the soap devotions. And, uh, he was an incredible guy and there was another guy called Pastor Guy Higashi. And they looked at me and they could see that God was doing something significant in the way he was leading us.

And so they wanted, they, they saw me and they wanted to help me. So they said, you, we need to get serious about helping you get some, you know, some letters after your name. So they said, you, we, let's get you to do a master's. I, I knew I wasn't supposed to do it, but they were such lovely guys and their heart was so for, and they loved me and they wanted me to do it.

So I, I, I agreed. And so I, I went on a two year journey doing my masters. I had about 12 big, thick books that you had to go through. And I've been writing and journaling my thoughts and I'm piecing it all together. And I had this, all this stuff and it fitted in nicely into a suitcase. And then I ended up with pneumonia and I got really sick.

And then. As I was getting better, I said, I'm gonna go away for three or four weeks and finish this master's. I'm just finishing this master's. I get it done, then I can get those letters on there, then people will look at me differently. And so, um, I did that, uh, and we decided to go and do it in New Zealand.

So we flew in and then we went and got a hire car. We took a night, then we got a high car, came out. And as I was walking back to the hotel where I was staying, we were in the lane way. And an earthquake hit. And I had grabbed Anne's hand and I had to just avoid these large sandstones falling down. But then I looked up at the room the way we were staying and watched the whole thing collapse, and in there was all my master's material.

And I never got a single page back. Not a single page. And I was. So going, well, that was two year waste of time. And the Lord said to me, yeah, but I told you, I told you you didn't need that. I don't want anything that I do through you here to be a put down to some kind of religious or some kind of academic degree.

I said, you have to follow Paul. Um, Peter and John. I said, what's Peter and John? And he go, he took me to the book of Acts. He said, when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled. Uneducated and ordinary men. I pretty much got those first three down pat, and then they were astonished.

But they were astonished by them. Why? Because they could tell they had been with Jesus. And anything that has happened across the time with here is being because I have been with Jesus and no other reason. God and I have a very interesting kind of a relationship, but I love those guys. And as soon as that happened, I rang 'em.

They said, well, you're gonna have to get the books and start going again. And said, uh, no, I'm not doing it. It's not what I'm supposed to do. That's not how it's gonna be. Whatever God's doing, he's gonna get all of the credit from. But I get it. Their heart was so forming, so forming. They, they were trying to give me, here's the word that Ruth's talking about.

The seeing people. They were trying to give me dignity. Because people would look at me like, well, you don't have any degrees. Where did you go to college? Blah, blah, blah. Well, sometimes I have a bit of fun with people. They go, where did you do your theological studies? Oh, in China. It was in the kneeling district.

Get it? Kneeling. Kneeling. I figure that works well because some of them go off and take ages trying to find this university or whatever it is I've done, but it's a bit of fun. But when the difference between despair and hope and is when someone kinda elevates you and looks at you and sees you and says, I want to help.

I wanna be there, and they affirm you in that. So let's go back to Slido again. Can I see what, what we got up there. 14 Teacher parents. Mom. Mom. Mom's high teacher. 17. My boss, a fellow prisoner. That's cool. That's a story. Pa parishioner. Sorry,

I told you I was uneducated. Granddad Sunday. Guilty classmate, principal boss, track coach, midwife. There's a story in there. Yeah. All people that a time in your life just stopped. My dream is that. At our church, we will become a even greater. We're already, I mean, we've, we've changed so much, but we become more a greater community of just servants that love God.

We pick up a towel and we love God and we love people and there is one little danger with this, and that's that nobody around here is looking for accolades, so therefore we can, if you're not careful. The flip side of this is you don't encourage each other, and I wanna say, let's not miss that. At times if you see someone do something that is incredibly helpful, it's, it's incredibly nice.

Just say, Hey man, I saw what you did. I just wanna know. You're just such a blessing to our community. They don't need anything else. But sometimes it is good to encourage, 'cause we all want to be seen. Now, the sad truth of the world that we're living in is that most of what happens in the world. Takes dignity away from us.

It really, really does. Um, people become expendable assets. They become commodities to get the job done. They become political pawns in a, in a bigger kind of chess game. Like I think the world leaders, if they would just adopt one thing that Jesus said, which is love one another, the way that I have loved you, we could solve all of the ills and all of the problems in this world very quickly.

But the reality is they won't because they are profiting from the status quo of the mess. Somebody is profiting, so therefore they don't mind if people get hurt. They're just expendable assets and that is not what God had in mind. I've even hurt church leaders say this, we want to take that hill. It doesn't matter how many die as long as we take that hill.

I think that's the wrong approach. Jesus said the church is incredibly special. They're to be cherished. They're to be loved, not used and abused. He said, I died for the church. That's so you guys don't have to. That's why I'll never force someone to keep doing something to the point where their heart and their joy from God diminishes God's people of special.

All people are special 'cause they carry the image of God and they're to be respect and they're to be honored. Doesn't mean you can't, vision cast doesn't mean you can't have big goals and big dreams. It just means that you don't get to achieve those D dreams and then have a big litany of dead bodies in the backgrounds and then try, try and justify it.

That is an old covenant mindset. We take the hill, we take the land no matter what. Doesn't matter how many die as long as we take it. It's a military thing. That's not how it works in the kingdom. People, people will lose dignity when they trapped in poverty. Poverty strips them of it when you can't provide for your family.

That is demoralizing. And just this week something came back up, which was a dream I'd had a long time ago and it's come back up again. I wanted to start a cleaning business or a cleaning and garden and maintenance business called Heaven Sent Me, but with a sea in the scent to represent the aroma of Christ.

And I wanted to so that we as our servants, we could go and serve people in their homes and pray for them and engage with them and love them the way that Jesus has loved us. And then I started to think, wow, if you figured this out right, you could like almost franchise that. And then you could actually give people maybe that are struggling.

For an income, struggling for identity, you can actually give them the dignity of having their own kind of franchise thing that they could work with that's actually loving God and loving people while at the same time have the infrastructure in the background support them in the process. That's something that I, whenever I get these things, I put 'em up and they put 'em in the parking lot and they go, okay, Lord.

But someone just recently, over the last week just said, I, this would give dignity to people again. I thought, okay, I'll put it back in there. Poverty, helping people outta poverty. Injustice, man, when it strips you of dignity, injustice, when you are treated differently because of your gender, your culture, your, your past, your education.

Uh, yesterday Ann and I went up to see a, uh, show up at PAC called Pretty Woman. And, uh, we had to catch a bus from Garden City to pac, and we all jumped on the bus and I'm having the best time. I'm, and, and Anne's just looking at me going, look around buddy, look around. I'm looking around and I suddenly look around like, Ooh, there's no white faces here.

You know, there was Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian, there was Indian. They, they were everywhere. And it's like, and they're all kinda looking at me and then, and, and, and nobody is talking to anybody.

And I thought, blow this. So this lady came down, Malaysian lady probably in her fifties. And so I just said, how are you? And she looked at me. You'd think I'd pulled out a gun. Seriously. You'd think I'd pulled out a gun and everyone else was going. He's talking and Anne's going, shut up. And, and I'm talking.

So I just talking to her and I'm just talking away. I said, how good, good. I said, how long have you lived here? 36 years. Oh, you've seen some changes. Yes. And they're all looking at, and the strange guy is talking to people and, and anyway, she starts pouring out her heart. She goes, I said, have you got some friends?

She goes, no. She said, we had family and friends around, and then they've all moved away and all these new people have moved in and nobody will talk to me. She said, they've all gone. Nobody will talk to me. They drive in, they lock the cars. No one speaks to me. And he said, I used to have it where I would actually go around for the neighbors and I'd take their washing off the line for them if rain was coming and I'm going.

And I could just, she was really struggling with this, that she has no community anymore. And so I thought, oh, that's a good opportunity. Have you considered a local church? And she goes, yes, I've been to sre. And the women just gossip and back bite and slander, and they're nasty and they're controlling. And I said, well, have you tried a different other?

She said, I've tried three or four of 'em. They're all the same. What is the matter with that? What is the matter with these communities that she feels like that? In the end, I said, look, jump online. I dunno if you're online, but if you are good to have you with us. I don't know. There's, it's an injustice where they, she wants community and she can't get it because everyone's like not looking at each other.

I think what is going wrong in our society? Shame also strips us of dignity. When you know, you've mucked up and you've failed and you may be caught in an addiction, got a rejection or something like that, and you dunno. And you feel like everyone thinks you're the worst person in the world and you feel like you're the worst person in the world and you don't need anybody to condemn you.

So then you go to the church and then they condemn you as well because you know, let me show you all the verses that you've just broken. I mean, lemme get the whole 10 comm commandment so you can have a lot I. Yeah, well, I don't really need that because I know I'm mucked up. What I wanna know is how do I get out of it?

How do I get some dignity back here? Can I restore 'em? Is that in, I'm done. You know, like, and many people walk through life and they feel completely unseen and unheard, and that is the real heart behind these junction points. It's a place where people can come and where hopefully they can get physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs met.

I was so excited to, to meet a couple that's here this morning, and they're here because of that wretched stupid line dancing.

Lindsay's not here today. She, she's off to, she's off. She's off to visit her dad, but. People love this line dancing. And we've, we've already talked about another young lady whose mom passed away and she asked us to look after her daughter and she's still here, line dancing. Who would think that line dancing could, could connect people to experience community so they actually feel comfortable to go, maybe go and check that place up.

Maybe they'll love me. It's amazing. It's just amazing. But that's what we wanna be here for and and the reason we do it is 'cause God is for people. And because God is for the people. We have to be for people. He is for people. For God so loved the world, he doesn't hate the world. He loves the world, and if he loves them, we have to love them.

That's why we had to go on the journey of unhitching on some things because you have to learn to love those and not judge them. It's not your job to judge. It's your job to love. They don't need you to point out their sins. They know they're there. What they need is for you to love them enough that they can trust you to share their brokenness so you can help them find a way into the future.

That's what Christmas is all about. God comes up and he gives dignity to human beings, and he seems to use the most ordinary of people. He seems to take great delight in using ordinary people. Think about the Christmas story. Talk about Mary. We'll look at a bit of a, a few verses out of the book of Luke.

Luke was written by Dr. Luke. Uh, he was an educated guy and this is his, um, his ancient document that made it into the scriptures. He also wrote the book of Acts, the one I quoted before. Um, but think about this. Mary is a teenage girl from an insignificant village by society standard. She's a nobody. And yet God chooses her to carry the savior.

Mary wrote a song in Luke, and part of the words is that he's brought down rulers from their thrones, and he's lifted up the humble. He's lifted up the humble. She's talking about herself. She's singing. How did me. An ordinary girl in the middle of nowhere. How did I get this? But this is the heart of God.

On display, he restores dignity to those. The world disregards. Let me say this to you twice. Mary was a nobody. God elevated to a somebody that became a blessing to everybody. I'll say it again. Mary was a nobody. Who God chose to make into a somebody that became a blessing to everybody. This is how God works.

He takes people from the most unusual stations and places, not because they're gifted, not because they're educated, just because for whatever reason they have a heart that he can mold, and they're just stupid enough to believe that he can do what he says he's gonna do. Which is just faith. Let's fast forward 30 years.

Jesus has now grown up. He's, he's a man. He's displaying to the will, what the father looks like. And then in Luke chapter four, verse 18, he actually declares why he's come. He's, this is the reason why I've come everybody. He says, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me that word anointed means enabled or empowered.

He's anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. Nobody cared about the poor. They were a nuisance in the first century. Freedom for the prisoners. Nobody cared about the prisoners. If they're getting what they deserve, recovery of sight to the blind. They're just in the way. You know, they can't see anything, just fallen over people and set the oppressed free.

Now this is Jesus saying, this is why I've come. What's missing from that? All the religious folk,

he's saying, I've come. To actually being freedom and give dignity to the ones the world has rejected. The ones the world has discarded. Now, I get it. The religious leaders, why they did not take to this, because in their culture of their day, if you had any of those things that meant you were cursed by God and if you were cursed by God, that was very convenient because what does that mean?

I don't have to do nothing. I have to do anything. You're cursed by God. It's up to him. You are sort it out with him. So it's very, very interesting. Jesus does this all the time. He brings dignity to people. He goes to a woman in Samaria. Now Samaria is a place Jewish kid. Jewish boys are not allowed to go and Jewish boys are not allowed to talk to women.

They have to go all the way around Samaria, they're not allowed to go to that place. It's bad. Jesus goes, walks right into into Samaria. So he's in a place that he shouldn't be. And he is talking to a woman. He's talking to someone he shouldn't talk to. And he is asking her questions and he's helping her identify what's going on, the longing and the thirst in her.

She's said five husbands, the one she's with is not her husband. The reason why she's at the well in the middle of the day is because she's discarded by society, because she's not considered to be an AMA woman. So he's in a place he shouldn't be talking to someone he shouldn't talk to, to try and help her understand the very thing that you need is this relationship with God.

And he gives her dignity and guess who goes back to the village and tells them all about Jesus and they all come and discover Jesus.

I wanna look for a nice evangelist or something like that to send off to do it. Maybe someone with a little few numbers after their name, but he goes and takes the most broken person. Gives her dignity, gives her dignity and elevates her, and she becomes the catalyst for people discovering Jesus. He does the same thing.

The religious leaders will not touch lepers because you're unclean for several days. He goes and touches the lepers. He sits with the tax collectors and the sinners. Isn't that amazing? I would've thought a tax collector is a sinner, but apparently a tax collector is worse than a sinner. And I guess that's handy.

'cause you could at least say, if you were a guy in those days, you could say, well, hey honey, I might be not a tax collector. Apparently they had a whole different brand of sin being a tax collector. So, but he goes and he sits with 'em and he gives them dignity. Jesus virtually flips the script on society with the poor, the outcast, the prisoners, everything.

The people that are rejected considered to be under a curse. He says, I'm coming for you. And I want to give you dignity, and I want you to experience eternal life. That's what the new covenant's all about. Paul wrote about it in two Corinthians, chapter five. He says, if anyone is in Christ, anybody here and anyone, does anybody here feel like a nobody?

Hmm. Well, that you're still an anyone. Even nobodies are anyone. Somebody's, anyone, anyone. Is what positioned in Christ. You have to be positioned in Christ. If anyone has surrendered their life to Christ, a new creation has come and the old has gone. The new is here. He's showing them a different way. It's not about following rules and re regulations.

You have to have a relationship with Christ, the anointed king. That's what you've gotta do. He wrote again in Galatians chapter three when he was talking to the church there. He said, so in Christ Jesus, you're all children of God. By faith, there is neither Jew nor Gentile. That was hugely offensive because the Jews and the temple were the epicenter of the universe that they were, that he's saying, no, no, no.

It's not about you anymore. This is now about every nation, all nations to whosoever wants to may come. You're saying it's not. You had your superstar section. That's not, that's over now. Now something new here. And it's neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free. Doesn't matter how rich you are, how poor you are.

If you are in Christ, you're a new creation. And this one's good. It doesn't matter if you're male or female. Now female in the culture of this day, uh, it was not good. Females were not treated good. They were told they can't speak and they should not speak. They were told that they should keep themselves covered.

But Paul is saying, Hey, there's no male and no female in this new creation in Christ. No male or female. There's no distinctive like that. So for all you ladies, don't let anybody tell you you can't speak. Don't let anybody try and cover you up and say, you should not do this, that and the other. No, that's the veil of the old.

You are a new creation in Christ. And for some of us guys, that was hard like 10 years ago, we had a lot of unlearning to do. Every person's created in the image of Christ. Every person decides honor and respect. Hmm. That's one of our values. Family values, honor and respect. Every person you see and you look eyes with has the image of God created in them no matter how badly it's covered up with brokenness, no matter how much dysfunction's going on, the image of God is in them.

So you have to treat them with dignity and respect. And when you start at that base, now you're starting to see, and now you take the time to explore their story and you start to engage and then you become an instrument of righteousness that can actually help make a difference for them. Might be so small.

That lady on that bus yesterday, she will never forget me and neither will everybody else on the bus gets going. That is the weirdest thing I've ever seen. People talking on a bus and he was white.

But that's how far society is kind of. We've been so fragmented and we're not listening to each other. All I can say is you matter to God. No matter where you are at, you matter to God. God left heaven to search you out. Search me out. As far as I'm concerned, anybody that gives up his glory to come to earth as a baby in order to help me, ah, you got my vote.

Anybody that would go to a cross and face a horrible, painful death to deal with my sin so that I could get out of this brokenness and death and sin, man, he's got my vote. Anybody that rises from the dead and says, Hey, listen, now you can come. You don't have to sit and sin and death and brokenness anybody.

Here's your key. Out through me back into a relationship with God and to tasting of eternal life. Whoa, this is amazing. You got my vote. Just last week. I was sitting in the foyer out there and, um. This guy just came in and he just started talking and he, he would, he'd only driven down to, to swap a car over.

And then he said, what is this place? And I said, well, it's a church. And then he just poured out his heart about how he was treated within a denomination and what he observed and the abuse that took place. And then I found myself in the same position, which is probably not a week goes by where I'm not having to apologize on God's behalf for people that have misrepresented him so badly.

And then I kind of like was. It was so quickly. 'cause he, he, he's, he's there just to sign over a car and he's, and then suddenly he's tearing up and he goes, I, what's this all about? I said, it's, and I was trying to implore him to take another look at God. Don't, don't stay where you are because of what you've experienced.

And I'm, I'm the first to admit there's still a lot of that going on out there. And that's sad, but I said. God doesn't want you to follow rules and regulations and obey certain things. He wants you to have a relationship with him. He wants you to experience the love that he has for you in Christ. And anyway, we just talked for a little bit more and we did whatever had to happen and I said, look, just jump online.

If you can't find a church up there, jump online and we'll help you to start your journey. 'cause starting and gaining and maintaining a relationship with God is not hard. It's not easy, but it's not hard because you do have to do some discipline things. And anyway, I knew what he, he was then asking some things about calling, and I knew what he was asking because I have seen people waste their entire life, entire Christian life, looking for that special call from God.

What that means is I'm looking for that special thing that I can do that will make me look really great in the kingdom, and I wanna burst that bubble straight away. God's will for you is that you be holy as he. He's holy. That's it. You be holy as he is holy. His call is for you to be conformed to the image of Christ that soaked devotions in community, in the village, letting the Holy Spirit meant to you, conform to the image of Christ.

Why? So that you can go and love someone in the world around you and teach them how to be holy and teach them how to be conformed to the image of Christ. That's it. Yeah, that's where every reward is coming from. Nothing you build in the context of this world is gonna mount anything. When it comes to rewards in heaven.

If you read through the revelation, it says, at the end of the day, this is all gonna get rolled up and thrown into the fire. What matters is people, is the gospel, the good news coming out through God's people, helping people gain dignity and experience his love. It doesn't matter what you do. I've been a brick layer.

I've been a musician, I've been in entertainment. I've done all sorts of things. I've done all sorts of jobs. But God's not saying to me, oh man, go sell lots of cars. You make lots of cars. Make lots of money. You are a good Christian. No, no. He just says whatever you choose. He says, if you wanna be a Qantas father.

Be a great Qantas pilot, but you better be helping the other Qantas pilots around you and the staff. They better see that you, you are following me. You better be slowing my holiness to them and you better be changing for the better conform to the image of Christ and you better be figuring out how do I help these people while I'm here with 'em for this season to experience me as well.

That's what we're rewarded on. That's the whole thing. So what's it mean for us really? Love people. Love people this Christmas. Be radical, be generous. Carry the mission of Christ. That's the reason why. If God was most concerned about you getting to heaven, he'd say, Michael, pray this prayer. And then he'd pull out a gun and shoot him straight away and put him straight into heaven.

Because he knows if he lets Michael continue on, there is a chance Michael could, you know, something could happen, something could change and he could walk away. So if the, if the object was to get you to heaven fast, he should just, if you prayed the sin, his prayer, Tom, all right, let's get you to heaven, then you can't backslide.

But the object is, there's not a lot in there that God's concern about us getting to heaven. That's not what it's about. He wants us to follow him because he wants us to be his ambassadors and to, to, to promote his love and his, his mercy and his justice and his dignity. He wants us to let people know that there's, he's there and he loves them.

And when we, when we give people dignity, we are never. We are never more like Jesus. 'cause Jesus traded his dignity for our shame and we got his dignity. You need to have one ear listening to whatever's going on, and you need to have one ear listening to the Holy Spirit, and you've gotta just do what he tells you to do.

And if as long as what you do out there and you don't, don't come out with, and the Bible says that's definitely a no-no in those circumstances, but if you come out with love, man, how can I love you? How can I support you? What do you need from me? Simple questions. Don't get into the religious base, it's way later, but I think that our people are getting much, much better at this, and I think we will continue to get better at this.

And I hear it all the time. Like a single moms were suddenly that they just, their dignity goes right up because we gave them a hamper and we gave them a hamper or helped them find some clothing. Well, from one lady, she was, she came for a hamper and then she just. Started crying 'cause she couldn't buy a kid, A kid, a Christmas present.

She left with, with a gift card ready to go get her kid a Christmas present. It's, it's simple. It's not hard. You've just gotta be able to see and give the people dignity and that that's the power of the gospel. The gospel really means good news. It's the power of the good news of the gospel. I'm gonna ask the team just to come back 'cause I want 'em to sing.

First, and so we can just reflect. I sort of say this, you will never be more like Jesus. You'll never be more like Jesus when you're giving someone dignity. You're more like him then than you will ever know when you are stopping and seeing and giving someone dignity. That's what these junction points are all about.

We're not, we're not on some massive church planting kind of, let's take over the world. No, no, no. We. Every suburb needs somewhere like this where the people that don't judge that they love and they know how to connect people with Jesus in a simple way and they let the love of Christ flow through them to bring healing, to bring restoration.

You know, that's why we say around here, it's physical, emotional, social, and spiritual. Look at some people in here. They are not interested in the spiritual. They just wanna be. I just wanna be here 'cause I feel good. That's great. Come feel good for a while. Maybe God will reveal himself to you. And then some of them have over the years discovered Jesus.

'cause that's the reason why they feel good. They just didn't know. They did not know that God wanted it or even they could have a relationship with him. They thought it was just about obeying rules and regulations, which doesn't save anyone. So we see, we act, we give dignity, we give dignity. So all I wanna say to you is like, across this radical Christmas, just be generous.

When you think and when you're thinking about, well, I'm donating to this, or I'm donating to that, or I serve in this, just remember, it's not about food. It's not about clothing. It's not about all the things. It's about the dignity that comes. That's what you're giving people dignity. You are helping them see the God that loves them deeply.

The God that sacrificed everything for them. He's for them. He's for them. If he wasn't for the broken Jesus' mandate would not be to go and fix up all the help, engage all the broken people. He wouldn't have been that if Jesus was worried about close proximity to people that aren't holy, he would never have left heaven.

He just wouldn't have done it. If I don't wanna get around those sinful people, Jesus had no trouble sitting with tax collectors and sinners. He loved them. He loved them desperately and he wants, he wants to be seen through his people loving the way that he loved. And I think the message is really like you matter.

You matter. God sees you, and Christ came to give you dignity and that's why we are here as well. And I know you think about some of this stuff and it's so scary. Like Ann was freaking out when I was talking to that lady on the bus. I don't know what was going on, but it, it feels like that. But you can be like a nobody.

I was a nobody on that bus. And by just opening up saying hello, I became a somebody in that place for her that acknowledged her that. Why can't I find community anymore? Why is there nowhere that I can experience love and nobody became a somebody that became a blessing? And maybe to everybody on that bus, I don't know.

But it's, what I'm trying to say is it's simple. It's you just being you and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through you and just love them the way that Jesus loved you. And when you think about how much Jesus loved you, we've already shared about this, about the cross, that's immense love. And you go love like that.

And when you are not sure what to do in an environment, like should I come down and hammer this person? Ask the question, what does love require? And when you are not sure what to say and do, what does love require, you'll always know the right way out. So father, I just thank you. Let's pray. Thank you for the time to be together and just to hear about, um, dresser with Dignity.

And Lord, you want us to be free. You want us to be free people because if we are free, then we can help other people get free. Help us to see the unseen people, the ones that are just sitting on a bus somewhere and that's carrying burdens and weights and things like that. And all they need is for someone to actually stop and just see and just start a conversation.

Lord, I pray that this Christmas would be a really radical one. Really radical where we just under bless people, encourage people and, and if you're here and you don't have a relationship with God, and you can still engage in this, share some money, do some things, give something to people and watch what happens in your heart when you give to someone else so you don't have to be a follower of Jesus to do this.

And for those of us that have maybe let our hearts drift a little bit into thinking it's. It's more than what it is. Help us to come back to true North. We just gotta love you with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and outta that place. Love others. So Holy Spirit, would you, as the team just sings now, would you just speak to us and just help us to realize we are conduits of your dignity, conduits of your love, and we will never know this side of heaven, the impact that we're having.

Other than we are a people that love, well care well and give others dignity. So we thank you for this time. In Jesus' name, amen.