Well, what is up, Heights? Good to be with you. Welcome, for those of you in the room. Welcome to those of you online. Shout out to our online fam. Glad you guys are here. Some of you guys might notice that I'm not wearing glasses. Others of you did not notice at all. And that's fine. I wouldn't have noticed either. But I got glasses about a year ago. And right away, I said, man, I want to get contacts. I don't want to deal with these glasses.
And they said, you've got to get used to the glasses first. I'm used to the glasses. And I said, all right, I want to get contacts. And as I was going to get contacts, everyone's going, hey, I don't know if you're going to like these, because it's really hard to put them in and take them out. And it might be difficult. And I'm like, it'll be fine. I got this. Turns out, I'm not very good at poking my own eyeball. Like literally, it's the hardest thing ever. I'm like, are you kidding me?
And so I got contacts on a Friday. And then Saturday, I was going to lead our Prescott Valley Kids Ministry. And so I was like, all right, I'm going to put the contacts in, because I want to show off my beautiful face to everyone. And so I go to put the contacts in. And I'm like, OK, here we go. And I'm like poking my eyeball. Literally, you've got to poke your eyeball, people. This isn't normal. So I go to do this. And I'm like, I got this. I put it in.
And the contact just bent right around my finger and stayed on my finger. I tried that like 10 times. And I'm like, all right, this isn't going well. New method. So I put the contact on. And I'm like, you've got to put your head down, put it in, tip it up, all the things. And I'm like, I think I got it. And then it falls out on my cheek and just lays there. And I'm like, I'm going to kill someone. I'm going to kill everyone. I'm so angry. So I gave up. I was like 25 tries deep.
And I'm like, I'm done. I put my glasses on. I get in the car. We're going to church. My whole family's with me. They get in the car. And my wife looks at me. And she goes, really? You're going to let something that small affect your whole mood? I said, absolutely, I am. I was so frustrated. But the truth is this, is that small things can have a major impact. Small things can have a major impact in life. A lot of times, we overlook the little things.
But in life, the little things can have a major impact. In our faith, we overlook the little things. But a lot of times, the little things can have a major impact. When we center our life on Jesus, even the little things, even the small things can have an impact. As you've probably heard, if you've been around for the last year, we've been in this collection of talks called Center of All Things. And we started in Genesis.
And we went all the way through the Old Testament looking at Jesus as the center of all things. We found Jesus in the Old Testament, even though he didn't show up on the scene for thousands of years into the New Testament. We saw him in the Old Testament. Then we looked at the life of Jesus. Then we looked at when Jesus ascended into heaven. And he left. And he said, hey, go and make disciples. And so we've been following the early church. We've been looking at the early church.
And we've been looking at how the early church was spread, this idea of Jesus, this movement that was called the way that we now call Christianity. And the church that we're in today started. And we've been looking at the different people. We've been looking at Paul's letters. And today, I want to highlight and I want to look at some people that were absolutely amazing people. But oftentimes, they're overlooked.
How many of you guys are excited it's getting colder now and the weather is changing? You're weird. I don't like you. I'm just saying. It was 70 degrees in San Diego. I looked it up. And I got angry and jealous all at the same time. I don't like the cold. I'm from San Diego. I like the warm. And so when it comes to cold, I go, listen, I'm not going outside. I'm not doing it.
And so I needed to figure out what my indoor activities would be and what I could do inside and stay where it's warm where humans were meant to be. And so I started looking. I'm like, you know what? I've always liked puzzles. So I need to get puzzles. And I'm going to do a puzzle on a snow day or something like that so I can stay inside and stay warm. And it's something to do. And my wife just loves it because I take over the dining room table for a week at a time. Super great.
She doesn't love it at all. That was a joke. And so I started doing puzzles. And then my kids, they come in and they start making fun of me. And they're like, dad, you're an old man. And I'm like, puzzles aren't for just old people. They're for people. They're for everybody. You should embrace it. We should all love them. And they're like, nope, you're weird. I'm like, OK, thanks. And I do the puzzles.
And while I do a puzzle, I just pray the whole time that with five kids running around my house, by the time I get to the end, I will still have all the pieces. And I'll put them all together. And I get to the very end. And at nine times out of 10, there's one or two pieces that are missing. And I'm like, I put 2,000 of your friends together. Where are you? And they're gone. Gone. Can't find them. And it's so frustrating because you can't be proud of a puzzle that's missing one or two pieces.
You can't take a picture and post it, because somebody is going to look at it and go, you're missing a piece. No duh. Of course I'm missing a piece. But I put all the rest of them together. It's so frustrating. You're never more aware than in that moment that every single piece, no matter how small it is, matters to the whole. Every single piece matters to the whole. They all work together. See, Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians. He's writing this letter to the Corinthian church.
And he says it this way in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. He says, just as a body, though one, just one body, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body. So it is with Christ. And he continues in verse 15. And he says, now if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body, it would not, for that reason, stop being part of the body.
And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, it would not, for that reason, stop being part of the body. Can you imagine if the body's talking to itself here, like, hey, you're not part of this body? That's crazy. That's weird. But the analogy itself makes so much sense, because when it comes to the body of Christ, a lot of times that's what we do or that's what we think. He continues in verse 17.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? They couldn't hear if it was an eye. If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you. And the head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.
On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. They're actually indispensable. They're actually super important, and they may seem small. They may seem like they're not a big deal, but they're actually really important. You ever forgotten about a part of your body until it hurts? Like, none of you walk around just thinking about your toes, but until you stub it, when you hit that toe, which it's always the little toe for some reason.
I don't know why, but when you get that, you're thinking about it. Do you ever forget about the inside of your cheek or your lip until you bite it? I don't think any of you woke up this morning, and you're like, God, I just want to thank you for the inside of my cheek and my lip. None of you prayed that prayer, unless you've bit the inside of your cheek or your lip, and then you woke up this morning, and you're like, dear God, in the name of Jesus, heal this lip right now.
You know when you feel it, you understand, man, this is the importance of it. It's important when that happens. But there's things like that in the church as well. The big thing is it's easy to notice. If your head's cut off, you'll notice. You'll notice. If I didn't show up today, you'd notice that the speaker wasn't here at church, but you probably didn't notice the 15 different positions it took to get me on stage today.
The person that unlocked the door so that you could be in here right now, the person that cleaned the seat that you're sitting in, the person that's working the camera, the person that turned on the microphone so that I could talk into it so that you could hear me, the person that's holding the babies right now so that the families could be in church. There's so many opportunities that we have and so many roles and so many things that we have that are all necessary.
But a lot of times, we like to look at different positions that are elevated and go, that's the one that matters. But what Paul's saying, he's saying, listen, we are one body, and it all works together. They are all necessary. But oftentimes, we miss them unless a spotlight is shown on them. Unless we show light on them, we miss them. My kids like to leave landmines around the house in the form of little toys.
And in the middle of the night, when I have to get up and I got to take care of the kids, or I got to do something in the middle of the night, I don't want to turn on all the lights. I don't want to illuminate the entire house. And I'll see the big giant dollhouse that's in the middle of the floor, but the deadly Lego that's on the floor. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're not a parent. Those things, they're evil. The creators of Legos, evil.
And you've got to turn the light on to see those. You've got to illuminate them, because they're harder to see, but you understand what kind of an impact they can have. Today, what I want to do is I want to illuminate. I want to shine a light on some people in the scriptures, some people in the early church that had a massive impact that oftentimes we don't see, that oftentimes we don't notice, but they have a massive impact.
Because people who've centered their life on Jesus had a massive impact, even in the small things. First is epiphras. You guys know that one? Epiphras. Mentioned only twice in scripture, only two times we even hear about epiphras. And in the book of Colossians, Paul is writing this letter to this church. And in the first chapter, he says, you learned it from epiphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
Oftentimes, we credit all of the churches that Paul wrote letters to as him being the person that planted the church and that is now leading the church. But the truth is what we see here is that most likely Paul never even made it to the church. He tried on many of his missionary journeys to make it to the church, but he didn't. And what he says here is epiphras is the one that you learned it from. He's probably the one teaching you. He's the one who's been instrumental in this.
The guy who's only mentioned just two times in scripture that isn't the one who wrote the letter that gets all the credit. But he was there, and he did it. He's mentioned again in chapter four of Colossians. It says epiphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He's always wrestling in prayer for you that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. What did he do? He didn't do anything crazy. He was a faithful servant. And then it said this.
He wrestled in prayer. He prayed earnestly. Listen, every single one of you needs somebody who prays earnestly for you. And in turn, you need to be praying earnestly for someone, praying for your church, praying for your life group. Can you imagine the kind of impact that we had if every single one of us could be called somebody who prayed earnestly? I'm not talking something big. I'm not talking something massive and crazy. It's just praying. It's not that big of a deal.
But what if all of us understood that the little things matter? And what if we were like epiphras, who lived a life centered on Jesus and even in the little things, just praying earnestly, had a massive impact? Next is Onesiphorus. Mentioned one time in scripture. In 2 Timothy 1, verse 16, it says this. May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.
On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. See, when Paul found himself in prison, which happened often, a lot of people just dumped him, just ditched him, just said, I don't want to be associated with him. I don't want to deal with him. And so he was dealing with a lot of abandonment from a lot of different people. And this guy actually showed up for him in his time of need. What did he do? He didn't do anything crazy. Here's what he did.
He showed up for someone when they needed him. And he was actually just a nice guy. I'm trying to look. And I'm like, what did he do? Why would he say, may the Lord show mercy to his household? Why? Because he showed up. And he wasn't ashamed of me. He was nice. He was just nice. Listen, I got to be honest. The church has a reputation for being very crotchety.
If I were to tell you a story of a time that a crotchety church person said something to me or did something to me, none of you would bat an eye. You know why? Because all of you have a story of that, too. We all do. Christian, non-Christian, doesn't matter. Somebody's had an interaction with a church person at one time where they were an absolute jerk. Listen, I need to tell you right now, there is no room for a jerk for Jesus. Doesn't exist. Some of you try to be a jerk for Jesus.
You don't need to. Just cut it out. Listen, just be nice. I'm going to relieve some of you guys today. I'm just going to change your life. You ready? When you're in a parking lot and you don't get your parking spot, you don't have to lay on your horn. Oh, baby, chains are being broken this morning. Listen, when you're driving and somebody cuts you off, it's going to be OK. It's going to be OK. I promise it's going to be OK. Listen, you can be nice. What if we were just nice?
It's not a big thing. It's not a massive thing. I'm not going, listen, you've got to have a sermon prepared by next Sunday. No, I'm saying just be nice to people. Just be kind. Onesiphorus wasn't like, man, I hope I find myself in scripture someday. So I just want to be nice. Onesiphorus lived a life centered on Jesus and even in the little things. Just being nice. He had a huge impact. Next is Lois and Eunice.
Mentioned just one time in scripture, in 2 Timothy, Paul is writing this letter to Timothy. And he writes this letter to Timothy. And he says, I am reminded of your sincere faith. That's awesome. I'm glad he has sincere faith. And then he says this, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I'm persuaded, now lives in you also. Your mom and your grandma. Listen to me, moms and grandmas in this room, your role matters more than you know.
It is more important than you know. And you need to erase the phrase, I am just a mom. I am just a grandma. You need to forget that right now, because what you do matters. And what you do is important. And what you do is needed. And you showing up every single day, pouring your life into that little person is something that could have an internal impact. And Lois and Eunice, they just did what they did.
Again, they weren't like, man, you know, I just really hope in 2,000 years somebody at church is going to be reading about us in the Bible. No, they just said, man, this is life. And I'm doing it. But when your life is centered on Jesus and you do the little things, you can have a massive impact. Nobody has more potential to influence a child than their parent. And faith starts at home. It starts in the household. Your role matters. It's just a little thing. It's not a big deal.
When our life is centered on Jesus, even the little things can have a massive impact. I love this next one. Romans chapter 16, verse 13 says, greet Rufus. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord and his mother, who has been a mother to me too. Rufus' mother. She remains nameless in scripture. We don't know her name. We just know Rufus' mother. But what did she do? She stepped in as a mother figure to Paul.
Paul, who's had more influence on the church and more influence on Christianity and more influence in shaping our theology than anyone except Jesus himself. And what does he say? He says, man, I need you to greet her because she's been like a mother to me. She stepped in as a mother figure in my life. You know how powerful that is? I was 22 years old when I got hired at my first full time youth pastor position. And I got hired at this church.
And so we had some seniors that were going to graduate. And so I only got a year with them right before they graduated. And I remember it was getting close to graduation. I'm 22 years old. And our seniors are only 18. And this student walks up, and he's got a necktie with him. And he comes up to me, and he goes, hey, Todd, can you help me tie this tie? And the truth is, I have absolutely no clue how to tie a tie. So we had to look it up together. And together, we worked on tying this tie.
And as we were figuring out how to tie this necktie, all these other students came around. And they're wondering what in the world is going on. They started asking, and they're going, what is going on? What are you doing? And this senior, this 18-year-old, turned to them. And I wasn't expecting what came out of his mouth as he looked at them. And he goes, well, Todd's the closest thing I have to a father in my life. He was 18. I was 22. We're in real trouble, if that's the case.
But here's the thing. There are students and there are kids in our church that are just waiting for somebody to step in as a father figure or a mother figure to them, just like Rufus's mother did to Paul and said, listen, Paul, I'm going to step into your life, and I'm going to care about you, and I'm going to pour into you, and I'm going to invest in you. And there are students in our youth ministries.
And there are kids in our kids' ministry that just need somebody to come alongside of them, that just need somebody to say, listen, I care enough to pour into your life. I care enough to walk and to love you and to be somebody that can step in as a mother or father figure and can point you to Jesus. It's not a huge thing. It's not a big thing. But it's something that you can step in. And when Jesus is the center of your life, even the small thing can have a massive impact.
And that student, that young man or that young woman, someday is going to look back and they're going to go, man, thank that person because they were like a mother to me, because they were like a father to me. Rufus's mother, she lived a life centered on Jesus. And even in the little things of just stepping in, she had a massive impact. Tertius and Lydia both only mentioned one time in scripture. Only one time do we have any mention of them in scripture.
In Romans chapter 16, verse 22, it says, I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord. That's it. Lydia, one mention in scripture in Acts chapter 16, she was saved and then she was baptized. And then she invited Paul and Silas to come stay at her house. That's it. She just invited them to come stay at her house. Both of these people, they did what was needed. Tertius was the scribe that wrote down the letter. Paul wrote it. He just wrote it down. He did what was needed.
Lydia practiced hospitality. They needed a place to stay. And she said, just come over to my house. She did what was needed. Those aren't huge things, but they were needed. Tertius and Lydia, they lived a life centered on Jesus. And even in the little things, just writing down the letter, just inviting them over, they had a major impact because they did what was needed. Listen to me, church. We need to start giving God our hands, not our plans.
Because sometimes we want to give God our plans and say, God, this is how it needs to be done. This is what I want to do. Instead of just giving Him our hands and saying, I'm available. Here I am. What little thing do you have for me to do? What do you have for me to step into? We see the spotlight. We see influence. We see the big. But God's saying, no, I just need the small. I just need you to be the little puzzle piece in the big story. We are one body, and I just need you to step in.
So what do you step into? You step into what's in front of you. But we like to tell God things, right? We like to tell God, well, listen, I checked out that ministry, and it just wasn't for me. It just didn't work for me. I saw some things, and it just wasn't for me, and I didn't like it. And me, listen, it's not about you. That's good that it wasn't for you, because it's not about you. All right, we like to tell God, OK, God, you know what? I'll serve, but here's the ways that I will serve.
And I won't serve in any other capacity, but these are the ones that you can use for me. Here we go, God. I'm giving you my plans. And God's going, I just want your hands. Now, here's the list of the things that I can do, and this is all I'll be able to do, and you won't get me to do anything else. Instead of stepping into what is in front of them. Listen, I'm not saying to not use your gifting. In fact, I want to be very clear.
If you don't like kids, we do not want you serving in kids ministry. Listen, I want to be very clear. If you struggle just turning on your phone, we do not need you in our tech department. We don't. I'm not saying to not use your giftings. What I'm saying is a lot of times that we want to tell God, hey, listen, I'm going to use your phone. But we want to tell God, hey, listen, this is the only way that you're going to be able to use me.
And when God's saying no, I want to use you in the small things. And you need to be willing to give me your hands and say I'm willing to step into whatever is needed in front of me. I started coaching baseball. For years I've been coaching, but last year I started coaching at the college level. I started coaching at Embry-Riddle University. And it was different for me because it's the closest level to where I finished playing myself.
And so it's been different because there's a part of me that goes, man, I still got this. Maybe it'll change once I get older. But right now I'm close enough that I'm like, I can do some of the stuff they can do. I can keep up a little bit with them. And so the hardest part for me has been showing up to games and watching them take the field while I sit back. Listen, I was never good at sitting the bench. I didn't do it very often. I wasn't very good at it. You know what coaches do?
They sit the bench the whole time. That's all they do. That's their job. And it's terrible because I show up to the field and they take the field. And I'm like, I want to go out there so bad. I want to do it. And we would all agree. None of us are like, yeah, sitting the bench is fun. I'd love to be on the team. My favorite position is left bench. Like none of you would say that.
But here's the thing is most of you, when it comes to your faith and when it comes to church, you just sit the bench and you never get in the game. Oh, that's a gut punch right there. That's hard to swallow. But the truth is a lot of you have been sitting the bench for far too long. And you're watching the game happen around you. And God's saying, listen, I just need your hands. I need you to step in. But you've been sitting on the bench.
And you need to get up and off the bench and into the game. Because God says, listen, I don't need anything big. I just need you to center your life on me. And even the small things can have a massive impact. So what does that look like? What does it look like to get in the game? It looks like faithfulness. It looks like faithfulness. See, the problem is we live in a microwave society. We like everything to be like now.
You ever put something in the microwave before and you push 30 seconds and then you take it out with like two seconds left because you couldn't wait? Couldn't wait those extra two seconds you got to take it out? All right, you ever gone to the drive-through before and you pull up to the drive-through window and you're like, they got to make my food? What is wrong with them? It should just be ready. I got to have it now. We would have laughed at this one 10, 15 years ago.
You ever get mad at the internet because it took four seconds to load instead of one? I don't got all day. We live in a microwave society and the problem is we don't understand that faithfulness takes time. Long obedience in the same direction with Jesus at the center leads to the life that you are created for in Jesus. I'm going to say that again because some of you might have looked down.
Long obedience in the same direction with Jesus at the center leads to the life that you are created for in Jesus. I want to celebrate my mom. She's in the service actually. She's been serving in her church for 30 years in the kids ministry, same church, same church in San Diego. And for 30 plus years she showed up to third, fourth, fifth graders. Many kids pastors have come and gone, kids directors. She's never asked for more. She's never seen when the next promotion's coming.
She's never wanted more. She's been faithful. It kills her to be here this week because she had to miss her class. She said, what am I fifth graders going to do without me? Because she's faithful. Faithfulness, long obedience in the same direction. I want to celebrate Miss Beth. Miss Beth, if you know her, yeah, there we go. Miss Beth for 17 years at Heights Church, she served in the two and three year old room. May the Lord bless her soul, two and three year olds. And every week she shows up.
And what you need to know is that there are two and three year olds that only come to church because of her. And you know what that means? That means there might be someone sitting next to you right now that's only in church because their kid would only come because of her. That's long faithfulness. That's long obedience in the same direction with Jesus at the center. And when you do that, you start discovering the life that you were created for in Jesus.
Pastor Ben said this week, he told me, salvation comes through faith. And we know that, salvation comes through faith. But growth comes through obedience. Growth comes through obedience. It comes from stepping out and saying, God, here's my hands. I wanna be a part of the puzzle. I know that every body part matters and I'm part of the body. And so I'm willing to do what it takes. So what does it look like for you to be faithful with what's in front of you? Here's what I want you to do this week.
I want you to think and I want you to pray. God, what is it that you want me to step into? Next week, we're gonna have a serve team sign up. We're gonna have an opportunity next week for you to step into. A serving opportunity. All the ministries will be represented and say, hey, this is what we have. And you have an opportunity to give God your hands and not your plans and say, I'm willing to step in. I'm willing to sign up. I'm willing to show up.
And I'm willing to allow God with Jesus at the center of my life to make even the little things have a massive impact. What is it that God wants you to do? I want you to think this week, what little things can you put Jesus at the center of this week so that when they take your parking spot, you can handle it. So when you get cut off, it's okay. So when you can't get your contact in, it's gonna be okay. What little thing can you do this week to put Jesus at the center of your life?
Because when you live a life centered on Jesus, even in the little things, you can have a huge impact. Did you catch where it starts though? With a life centered on Jesus. See, if you're in here right now and you've never made Jesus the Lord of your life, you've never centered your life on Him because you've never said, God, I wanna go to Jesus and I wanna give up and it's nothing I can do because I wanna give up and make sure that my faith and trust is in Jesus alone.
There'll be people after the service up front that wanna talk with you, that wanna pray with you. If you need to make that decision today, don't let today pass. For the rest of you that have made that decision already, life happens, man. Sometimes we just lose focus. Sometimes we just drift a little bit. But if we're gonna have an impact, our life needs to be centered on Jesus. When you walked in today, you were given a cup. Communion is a time for us to stop, to reflect and to re-center.
So you're gonna have a few moments here to re-center, to refocus, to think about what Jesus did for you and to allow what He did for you to become the focus so that Jesus can be the center of your life. It'll take a few minutes to do that and we'll take it together. 'The Most High' video Jesus was around a table with his disciples, and Jesus knew what was coming. He knew he was heading to a cross.
As they were sharing a meal, Jesus took the bread and as he passed it around to them, he said, this bread represents my body. It was broken for you. He said, take, eat in remembrance of me. Let's eat together. It says that in the same way he took the cup, he said, this represents my blood that was poured out on your behalf. He said, take, drink this and remember me.
God, we come before you this morning, Lord, as humbled servants of you, of undeserving, but God, we know that you loved us enough to send Jesus to that cross. And Lord, we are eternally grateful. God, I pray for each one of us that we would allow our life to be centered on you, that we would refocus and re-centered because God, we know that when our life is centered on you, even the little things can have a huge impact, not because of us, but because of you.
I pray for each one of us, Lord, that you would show us what it is you would have us step into. What it is you have for us, God, that we can get in the game and serve so that even in the little things, through you, we can see a huge impact. Lord, we love you. We praise you. We pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.