so we have our launch team here and my family, so here's my girls, Whitney um and our little girl harper Rose, I definitely married outside my league with Whitney and harper Roses. Um I guess if you can go by and energy drinks and fireworks and christmas all in one, that's her um this girl doesn't stop, um and so we uh we've been here now for four months, still trying to figure it out, um But I'm telling you this, being a dad is one of the coolest things I've ever I've ever done um because like, here's the weird thing is like, and if there's any parents in the room and if you don't have kids, um but you've seen kids, I'm sure, right, you get this man, like, they start off as like this just ball of like eating crying, sleeping, and going to the potty, like that's all they do, and slowly, like, I'm watching that little girl becoming human and like, it's the coolest thing, but it's the weirdest thing, cause like, I'm seeing more of myself and her every day, and especially whenever she's when Whitney is really annoyed with her, she's like, oh yeah, she's definitely your kid, you know what I'm saying? Like, she gets so annoying. The truth is a lot of what she has, what she does, a lot of her facial expressions, Everything about harper is a lot of it she's learned from me, which makes me like, what does that picture say about her um she learns from me. Um she's up for any adventure, I guess, and this next one, This face just kind of something, all of that is our life. Um So what does that say about her dad? I don't know. But but psychologists say this, they say there's this idea of attunement. Um which is the need infants have for face to face interaction. So you guys, if you smile at a baby was a baby, do they smile back? Right? Or um infants learn to respond and duplicate the faces we make to them and then based off those faces, like they know how we feel about them, how we think about them. So you're smiling a baby, a baby smiles back. Um If you frown at a baby, they frown back. So whoever you are frowning at babies, we have a meeting for you in the pool and the pool on the roof afterwards. And uh we're gonna dunk you and leave you. I'm kidding. Give me a pity laugh. Please somebody. There we go. But see, here's the thing is I know this the truth is harper Rose has learned a lot of like how she interacts with live and a lot of her facial expressions, her responses to life, of watching, how myself and her mom look at her like how we respond to her, determines a lot of of of how harper Rose looks and smiles and responds to us. And so she's learned, harper Rose has learned what we see in her about how we look at her, right? So harper Rose knows what we think about how we feel. She knows when we're aggravated, She knows we're happy based on how we look at her. Um But my question for today is like, have you ever wondered what God sees when God sees us? Like when God looks at each one of us, like what does God see? And then in and Galatians 3 27 we actually we actually see that, that when God sees us, he sees his son, so he doesn't see our sin. He doesn't see our mistakes. But when God sees you, he sees his son numbers 6 24 through 26. Actually says this may the Lord bless you and protect you, May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you, may the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace. I think about this like now how nice it is like um I don't know, I didn't get the lady's name, but we walked in this morning to like the volunteer huddle and there was we we got greeted by the lady that works the tent if I know your name, I would shout you out. But I I did a terrible job of doing that. But the smile like she was so excited to see us and we're still waking up and like get away from a woman but like she was I'm kidding but she was like happy and there's something special about a smile but then we think about God and he looks at us and there's a smile. Um but there's also this this flip side to it of that when God sees us, he sees his son. And so when God sees you that that flips everything because all of a sudden there's purpose and identity to life. Like when we know how God sees us, it changes how we see life, it changes how we move from day to day because we know when God sees us and he sees his son, like we can walk with purpose, We can walk with some intentionality behind us. And we're continuing this series called prove it and we're talking about like how do people don't just believe that Christianity is real? They don't believe that like what we're saying, like like studies have even shown that today people believe less likely to believe the Bible than they were 10 years ago. Like they don't take it at face value. They want you to prove it. Like our call in life is to prove that jesus is real, that he's alive, not just say it, but but to prove it. And we've been talking about living a life that helps prove that the joy and peace we have is real, but often times for us, I think it's hard to prove it because when we think about our lives, like we may see the past mistakes and I mean it's hard to prove it because of of this, the cinema past, or maybe you're like, if you saw how I lost it on my kid in target last night, I definitely can't prove it. Or maybe for some of us, um it's that blown marriage that we see. Maybe um maybe it's a mistake we made last night as we left the bar and we like, there there's no way that I'm the person that can prove it, or you might even see the fact that you don't even know what you believe about the bible. You're here just because the friendly lady out front and you don't, you don't know if you believe anything we're talking about are the songs we're singing and you're like, how how can I prove it? Or maybe you're so discouraged in life about where you are because you you thought at this point you would be here and you're wondering how do you prove it? And one of my favorite actually before I before I read this verse, I was thinking about um every day I I take harper Rose to school almost every day. Some days I sleep in late when you do it. But um I take her to school and I'm walking up to the and she's in kindergarten. So this whole thing is new. Like it's it's weird, but like I actually like kind of cried the first day I drop my kids off at school by the third day, like, thank you, jesus, you're like go um but every day when I walk her to school, we stopped at the patio and I tell her this, I say um I'll tell you this, I go harper Rose, I'm proud of you, so you're beautiful, you're a good friend, you're going to have good friends and you're going to be a leader. And the reason I tell her that because I need her to know how her dad sees her, because when she knows how her dad sees her, there's purpose, there's identity and there's a confidence that she can walk in And then Genesis says this in 127 is that so God created man and woman in his own image and the image of God, he created them. Actually. I read that all wrong, but you can see it on the screen, you get the idea. But here's the thing when we see how God created us, he created us to reflect him. Two point, other people to him. And so just like harper Rose, when I speak purpose and identity into our life, we know how God sees us, proving it just becomes the natural thing to do. So we know how God sees us and he made us with his purpose and this identity, proving it just makes sense that God created us for relationship with him first and then to prove the world that he's real is our 2nd 2nd reason he made us, like he made us to walk on purpose and for purpose and our lives are, are are here to prove it now. Have you ever, have you ever like just stretched the truth a little bit when you were telling a story before? I didn't, I just lied. Um but I was so I'll take you back. I was in middle school and like if you could go back with me to middle school, I was like, what you picture every middle schooler, I was looked a little bit like tom cruise. Um I was buff, I was really funny, you know, every middle school is probably what you think of. And I grew up and, and in south Alabama so I was trying to impress this girl named jenny lee, like that was her real name, that's a good southern name. And um, so we're at the community pool and I walked and I tell everybody there's all these guys around, I'm like, I gotta show them up for jenny lee and I'm like, what is the middle school board need to brag about? I'm like, you see that 15 ft high dive? I did a double backflip off that the other day and I'm like, yeah, I'm the man and then some kids says prove it, have you ever just wish you could like vanish or like disappeared in that moment? I'm scared, I'm scared of heights and I'm like, I gotta get up there and I gotta prove it and so like I was like, I'm terrified, this is the moment I gotta prove it. So I began to climb the ladder and like as I'm climbing the ladder, like I'm thinking about what my life would have been like, you know, because I know I'm about to walk to my death, imagining what I would have named my kids and as a middle school, I'm thinking what I would have ate for lunch later that day, like all the things that really matter in life and as I'm walking to the edge of the plank and I back up like I'm just streaming man, I would have got my license in like four years, you know, and I'm super excited as I'm backing to the edge because they said prove it right. And then we read in first john chapter one through five where we've been talking about in our series in the book of first, john how to prove it. Um I'll come back to it. I know you're, you're, you're waiting to see what I'm gonna do there. Um we read this, this is the message we've heard from jesus and now declared to you God is light and there's no darkness in him at all. And so if we're creating an image of God and were created by the word of life as we talked about last week were created to be the light. We're made in God's image, so there's purpose and that purpose of God is light. We gotta walk in the light, We were created to be the light and then there's this one little line that we're gonna come back to later that says there is no darkness in him at all but see. But we'll circle back to that, but we know this. What does light bring into a room? It brings you joy like my daughter has this neon rainbow nightlight that guys, if you walk in front of our house like it looks like we got a disco party going on in there, like it's so bright, but you know what? She sleeps better. I don't know how with this big neon light online because the light brings joy, it brings peace, it brings comfort, it brings hope and guys, that's what we're to be when we walk into the light, we're supposed to bring peace and joy and comfort and hoping to everyone we we walk in then we read in Matthew five verses 14 to 15, this says you're the light of the world, like a city on a hill top that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and put it puts it under a basket instead. A lamp is placed on the stand where it gives light to everyone in the house. See, jesus saying, you're the light of the world, like when he went to heaven, He goes, I want you now to go and be the light like you have to make the difference, you're the one that's gonna light up the room your job is to prove it. Like, jesus gives us this, he gives us his calling this mission. He's saying be bright, he's saying go shine because see everyone's purpose no matter where you are in your faith during now, it's connected with jesus, but you're here on earth to be the light and to prove it now, the best way to do that is in relationship with jesus, but the reason you're here is to be alive and prove it. And guys, that adds so much purpose to the most mundane job you can do when you hate life some days because work isn't fun or relationships are tough when you know you're supposed to be the light, It's a it's a perspective shifter guys, because I see what I see my purpose, I see my calling, I see what God has made me to walk in, but it starts I have to be the lie because you have a purpose that you can be fulfilled through through a relationship with jesus of being the light. So we're to bring peace and comfort and joy to every room we walk in um to every person we encounter, we'll be there were to be the light to our family um were to be the light to Margaret and hr who gets on our nerves were to be the night, the light. That annoying neighbor who lets their bushes grow over and under our wall, whatever it is, we're supposed to be the light. But wow, aren't we the light? Like how do we walk into the light? The tension for us is like, how do we walk in the light and how do we be the light? Have you ever wondered like jesus could be the light of the world and you're like, okay, I just smile more like what do you do? Um I think this is the way we bring peace, joy and comfort and hope into the world. I believe it's two ways I believe we're the light and how we love each other and how quickly we asked for forgiveness. Um the way we love each other and so so john is writing and in first john 27, he goes on, he says this and he's referencing a conversation he had with jesus and he's saying, hey, don't forget this moment, he says this Dear friends, I'm not writing you a new commandment, rather it is an old one you've heard from the very beginning, This old commandment to love one another. It's the same message you've heard before. I believe this when God wants to light a room he sends in a group of believers, hey God sends us to be the spotlight of lighting the room and pointing people to jesus. But you know what? He's going to send in a group of believers to be a light. That is why I hope Valley is planning in the West Valley, that is why Mission Grove is planning and I think this is north phoenix, I'm still trying to figure it out, I just know that one of the ones close but were to be the light and God sends in a group of believers to be the light and the truth is this. Um, and I love guys, my whole job where I came from in Nashville was was to activate people to go serve in the community. Um, and so we on some of our special events just from one campus alone, we can send out 800 people into the community and we can serve and yes guys, I'm the most passionate person about serving in the community and you need to go serve in a project this weekend, but I think you guys need to serve in groups because I believe this, uh huh, hang on, I want to ensure that the test of proof of being the light of making the difference is this one comment that jesus made, that john's referencing and it's, it's in this and john 13 verses 34 through 35 jesus is talking to his disciples, I mean he's about to go to heaven and it's not long before his death and he says so now I'm giving a new commandment, love each other, just as I have loved you, you should love each other now listen, your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples think about that the way we like the world and change the world isn't our instagram posts or facebook post. It, it isn't all the stuff we do in the community, which is great. It is, I promise you, I'm the most passionate advocate about it. But you know what inspires people is the way we love each other. There's a story of a girl um we're gonna call it S. O. That we met. So in Nashville, we um what people didn't realize is Nashville has the highest percentage of of refugees per capita in the country. So like the number of refugees in Nashville um kind of is equivalent to the number of refugees in like say new york city. So there's a lot of foreign born people who have escaped and ended their countries ended up in Tennessee. And I always think of S. O. And S. O. With her family's muslim and esso would always come out to our survey projects and she loved it and she would always get involved. And then one day she said can because we had red shirts that can I have that red shirt because I want to make a difference. And so muslim girl and she sees the people in red shirts, the christians serving and loving jesus and and she's like, well I guess I guess if I want to make the world better, I gotta wear a red shirt, she's kind of getting you know little steps there. Um But I know they're having color wars and kids, so don't tell your kids that. I said the red team was better because they might be offended. Um But I remember s so this um she's one of my favorite girls I met um I remember one day esos dad, her mom and dad had had been really successful here in the US and had got on their feet and had really changed the trajectory of their family's life and um their their dad esos dad met met a girl on facebook and of all places to go back to, he went back to Afghanistan and left the family who had based the life on a on a two person income now. And so the mom is struggling and the mom can't can't put food on the table and and this muslim family and the muslim girl said, hey do you see how how that church over there like the christians, the the way they treat each other, I bet we could call them for help and they would pay our bills and so we did. But the beauty of that moment was it wasn't all the serving we did, it was how we love each other in the moment and that inspired her and Vanessa comes and she's so excited, she says George my mom says excuse me that I don't have to be muslim just because she is, I can be a christian if I want. It wasn't the kosher hot dogs, we gave out, it wasn't the bags of Doritos, it wasn't inflatables. We brought in, she looked at a bunch of christians that love serving together and loved each other and it would inspire a muslim family to want to follow jesus, jesus is saying this, if you want to be a lie and you want to light a room create irresistible community. If somebody could get me a cup of water, like I feel like I'm about to like choke to death up here and I don't want to have to call the 1st 18, so I don't know who to ask for that. But I think I see a lot of people running great servants, you love each other. Well there we go. Point the message of peace out, We're gone. Um, so, but I think this hope valley's passion is to create a place where people can belong before they believe because they want to be a part of the community they see us have because the way we love each other is what's going to point people to jesus, so you wanna light a room, that's how we love each other and sometimes it's easier to serve and love a stranger, but I think it's harder to love a family member who is graded on our nerves. It's hard to love if you want, if you're a leader in church a volunteer that doesn't show up. But here's the thing, the way we loved each other. We'll show the world what we believe about jesus is real. So our love and service in our cities, workplaces and world is proven authentic and we love those closest to us. Well, so, or when we give people a cup of water that is probably and a straw. Thank everybody. Give him a hand. The hero and the given in my hand was to give me a chance to sip. So thank you teamwork baby. Um, so the first is this, we say that people, we like the world about how we love one another and I think lastly, is this how quickly we repent. Um, so I told the story of me getting on the back on the hot. I have to do my double backflip to prove it to jenny lee that I'm the man, I'm the toughest middle school boy she's ever seen. Um, and uh, so I'm at the edge of the diving board like I'm, I'm seeing, you know, my 92 chevy s 10 that I was gonna get handed down to me that I couldn't wait for um in a couple of years and I get ready to do this backflip. Um guys, I freaking nailed it. I mean, it was awesome. Like I hit the water like I did it. Of course I did it. You know, I'm the man. So it was the scariest moment and I nailed this double backflip, I approved it. And then the next day I was madly in love with julie's best friend. Cause that's how middle school boys go. But the truth is I nailed the double backflip. Um, but if you've been at church at any point, you've heard the words, we are the light of the world and we all know that doing good deeds is a great way to be the light. But I would argue that if you really wanted to land the double backflip, prove it. Moment for jesus is to learn to apologize. I think it's learning to ask for forgiveness first, john 18 through nine. And, and we, we started earlier talking about that. This is a lot of the world. There's no darkness in him. Um, then we read this. If we claim we have no sin, we're only fooling ourselves and we're not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful. And just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all wickedness. And this is the reality, john points out, we're gonna send, you're gonna mess up. Um, and if you wonder what sin is. Um, the dictionary actually defines sin. Sin. Is this a willful transgression of divine law or any act regarded as such a transgression, especially a willful or deliberate, violation of some religious or moral principle. So let's say the bible clearly lays out what sin is. Um and if you don't believe the bible, if you're not sure where you stand with, jesus in the bible, I would say this um sin is that thing that goes against your moral compass that you said you would never willfully do and then you've done. Um and so here's the thing if we know God sees our sin and sees his son rather than our sin, um we just need to know God wants us to turn quick from when we mess up. He wants us to repent. He wants us to ask ask for forgiveness. And I believe this guys that the world is less impressed by sinless christians, but he's the world is really impressed by authentic christians who are quick to respond when they mess up. I don't think the world wants us to be perfect, but they want to know that we're going to say we're sorry when we mess up. I will say this spiritual maturity is very little about how much bible you can read and that's important, how much scripture you memorize and that's good, how much you pray, how much you serve. All these things are great. But the true true sign of spiritual maturity is when the time from when we sin and when we say I'm sorry, time from when we send, when we repent repent grow shorter and shorter and shorter to that moment that the thought comes and then you're like, oh I better not say that or whenever you want to send that that nasty email, that text back and you're like, yeah over the phone because you got to get rid of it cause you know, you're about to do it because because that's what's going to be authentic. That's what's real. And then we read in first john 21, we read this My dear Children. I'm writing this to you so that you will not sin And guys, this is this is actually this amazing verse of hope. But if anyone does sin and I think I'd like this idea of john saying I'm writing to you that um, if you do send because I think so many times like we live, we live not to lose instead of live to win. My wife's gonna make fun of me and call me uncle rico. But I uh, I played college, I played and I did not play college football. Sorry, I don't know why I said that I'm dreaming out loud right now. I played high school football and you know, my, my junior year, we were the worst team in the state. We were, oh and 10 and my senior year, we won everything, we were state champions and somebody, somebody asked me what was the difference and this is what I took into even coaching when I started coaching because we went from being scared to lose to playing to win. And there's a difference. And I think with Sin, it's not playing. We don't play not to lose, we play to win. I think that's what john is saying, I don't see him, but if you do, he goes on and says this, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the father, he is, jesus christ, the one who is truly right righteous, We're all going to mess up. But there's this idea idea that jesus is sitting there talking to God, he's advocating for. You said, hey, remember you said you see me not there since I died for that. All we have to do is ask for forgiveness. And if you don't have a relationship with jesus, there's this idea that he's sitting before God advocating for you saying, hey, you love them, I love them, You created them for a purpose. Let's help him walk in it. I guess people, people are going to be changed, We're gonna prove it. We're going to live a life that makes a difference. Mhm. When we love each other, well, we were quick to apologize, were quick to ask for forgiveness. That's with each other and that's what God does. Sometimes a lot easier to tell jesus, I'm sorry than to tell your spouse, you're sorry. Not that that's me, I'm perfect. I always do it really quick. I'm lying. Give me a laugh there. Somebody please thank you. I feel like I should just hold up a sign that says laugh, it seems to be pretty helpful right now. Um we started talking about how God sees us and this is why we're here planning hope Valley and this is my passion. Um this is my like double backflip moment. Um that that like jesus did the double backflip for me and I had this moment one time when God really stepped on my toes and he told me this, he goes, jordans, my ultimate plan for your life. I'm more interested in who you're becoming than what you do. Like I care about what you do. Like I've sent you across the country for a reason. But if you're not that person that loves each other that loves your family, well, love your friends. Well, if you're not that person that asked for forgiveness, well, you can do the what? Great, but I'm more interested in who you're becoming and see that's God's plan for your life. He cares what you do. But he really wants, he's more interested in the who than the what and as we begin to get that right, um we're gonna make a difference. And I believe that starts with two things loving each other. Well, because maybe it means today when you leave, you need to apologize to somebody and that's gonna be, the hardest thing you have to do is to find somebody, Maybe some person, maybe it's a situation that you don't need to step back into and just the text is okay. Or maybe maybe maybe it's an Evernote text because you don't even need to start a text back with them. Let's say you're sorry. Maybe you need to ask for forgiveness somewhere and maybe it's loving each other. Well, and I think this church, I'm so passionate about this, I believe that the church will be the biggest difference in light in this valley when we create a community that people are dying to be a part of like people can't wait to get to the church and they don't even like jesus and don't like most of you, but there's something special here and they're gonna show up and they're gonna sit there and they're gonna belong and one day they'll believe, but that's starting how we love each other. That starts with a simple smile that starts with the way we love our family to realize that we're the light when we go into If you have kids, when you go into chick fil a if you're, if you're single, when you, when you go out to when you're hanging out with your with your friends at night on the weekend, the way you act with each other, that's what's going to draw people in, that's what's gonna make us the light, can I pray for you, jesus? We love you and I pray that God you that you help us be the light and God there's so many of us in here today that Lord we oftentimes struggle. um, we struggle to love each other. Well, so God, in those moments give us the patience and the wisdom to love our family, to love our friends. I love other people in the church. Well, God let our love be contagious, You gotta let it and let it be irresistible. I pray that I'm I pray that people are drawn to us by our love for each other, or the hardest thing is to say, I'm sorry. So God give us the strength and wisdom to repent God first to you and God today, there may be some of us that we need to repent for something um to you, we need to say, we're sorry. So that um let us see that you're loving and you're drawing us in like you're not browbeating us, but yet you're saying, hey, I don't see that I see you and I forgive you, just ask for the forgiveness and God, maybe some of us we need to go to somebody else and and ask for forgiveness and God, wherever that moment is, give us the peace to do it, the strength to do it and to know that that that you're healing and you're doing what only you can do. So God, we thank you for your love for us. God, help us be the line everywhere we go in, jesus name guys, we're going to respond to what we just heard. If you guys will stand up and worship