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>>PERRY: Welcome to NewSpring! Come fly with me! I want to welcome every campus. Seriously,
if you are live in Anderson or if you're in a living room in Rock Hill, or you're in Hilton
Head, or you're in Charleston ... By the way, Charleston get their brand new facility in
two weeks. Two weeks from today. I'm excited about that because two weeks from today Clayton
King and I are going to be on stage live doing a Q and A all for services, and your are going
to text in your questions on that, and it's going to be Clayton and I live. There's ... You
just never know what's going to happen. I want to welcome you to NewSpring, and whatever
campus, if you're watching along in a coffee shop or whatever, today we're in the middle
of a series on doubt. I wanted to set it up by ... How many of your remember the commercial,
"Be like Mike" commercial. You remember that on television? Yeah. Here's the problem with
being like Mike. That commercial ... Y'all like how I can do that? I wasn't able
to do that, but I got in touch with Tom Brady and he told me how to let some ... Made it
easier to hold. Anyway, when the original "Be like Mike" commercial
came out, the intention was to get us to desire Gatorade. It was a Gatorade commercial, but
for me it was discouraging. The reason why is because ... out of high school and in college,
listen I was a slightly above average basketball player. You don't hear many guys admit that.
They don't say I was slightly above average ... They talk about how awesome they were
and if they wouldn't have blown their knee out, they would have been the next Michael
... Well, I had two great knees, unfortunately they were attached to this body, so I was
slightly above average. When I mean slightly above average, I mean I could ... I'm 6'6",
same height as Michael Jordan, and so I could ... I had a height advantage. I could shoot
decent. I could rebound awesome, and there was a time in my life that I could dunk. Now,
how many of you think I could dunk right now? Seriously? Y'all think I can dunk? That right
there. That is a regulation 10 foot goal, and I've got on my very first pair of Air
Jordans ever, and for those of you that don't think a 43 year old guy can dunk, I just thought
that today ... Today, I ain't no way ... I ain't going to ... A bunch of crack smokers.
"I watched my pastor break his neck today in church!" There's just no way I could be
like Mike. No way. I can't jump like him. I can't pass like him. I can't shoot like
him. I can't dribble like him. Being like Mike, for me, was an impossibility. After
that commercial I was like, "Man, I might go out and play some pick up games, but I
don't think I'm ever going to be able to be like Mike." Which is why ... I think it's
a beautiful setup today in regards to what we're going to talk about, because if you
got to a little outline ... By the way, lots of fill in the blanks today for all you type
A's, okay? I'm glad you all appreciate that. One of the most challenging things about Christianity
is becoming more like Jesus. Becoming more like Christ. Just like it's a challenge in
basketball to be like Mike, in Christianity the most challenging thing is to actually
be like Jesus. We said a few weeks before ... A few weeks ago that Christianity is not
simply accepting an invitation to go to Heaven when we die. Christianity is you and I saying,
"I'm going to become more like Jesus." And that's ... Let's just be honest. Let's just
be honest, okay? That's hard. Reading your bible everyday, that's not hard. We've got
bibles on our phones. We've got bibles on our smart devices. We've got more bibles now
in the history of the world. Praying is not hard, especially if you're
freaking out, "God help me." That's not ... You throw up the prayer, right? That kind of stuff
isn't difficult, but becoming like Jesus ... That's tough. As I read through the bible I'm like,
"God, why couldn't I have been like one of the other people in the bible?" Like David.
If the bible just said be more like David ... David's the king in the old testament.
David's the king that killed Goliath. David is the guy that wrote most of the psalms,
and as you're reading the psalms, in one psalm David will write, "God, you are so close to
me. You are my rock. You are my refuge. You are my fortress." Then, in the very next psalm
he'll write, "Where are you?" And I'm like, "That's me. That's how I feel." Monday and
Tuesday of last week, that's how I felt right there.
Or, man, I was ... Nehemiah is my favorite Old Testament book. It's my favorite book
in the Old Testament. For those of you that think the bible is boring, you should just
go read Nehemiah because it's awesome. If you're into leadership there's some good stuff
in there. I remember reading the book of Nehemiah for the first time and getting to chapter
13, and reading this verse, "I rebuked them and called curses down on them. I beat some
of the men and pulled out their hair." I'm like, "I could do that." I could do that!
That's not that bad, right? He got a book of the bible named after him. Sometimes I
feel like I could do that with no problem, right? Or, "Why couldn't you have asked me
to be more like Peter?" He cut a guys ear off one time, cussed a little bit. Thomas
doubted. Why couldn't you ask me to be like those people? The call for Christianity is
not for us to be like even our most looked up to bible heroes. The call of Christianity
is to become more like Jesus, because here's the reality, the closer I get to Christ, the
more my life is changed. I write in parentheses, "For the better."
The close I get to Christ, the more my life has changed for the better. I've been in ministry
now for over 2 decades. I've never met anyone that blew their life up because they wanted
to be like Jesus. I've never met anybody that blew their marriage up, their family up, their
finances up, their career up. Nobody has ever told me it all fell apart when I tried to
become more like Christ. The goal of Christianity is to become like Christ, but let's just be
honest; we've already said it's kind of like being like Mike. That seems to be impossible.
In fact, some of you might be like, "I doubt that that could ever be me. I doubt that I
could become more like Jesus." I just want to today ... I want to show you
a few things in this story. If you've got a bible and you want to turn there, it's Matthew
14. If you don't want to turn there, we printed the whole story out for you right there in
your outline. Matthew chapter 14 ... I want to talk to you about the most popular miracle
in the bible, in the gospels. The reason I say it's the most popular miracle is because
it's the only miracle that's recorded in all 4 gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John record
it. In fact, if you're a note taker and you want to go back and read some other perspectives,
Mark chapter 6 ... Mark chapter 6, Luke chapter 9, and John chapter 6. Mark chapter 6, Luke
chapter 9, and John chapter 6 have this same story about Jesus and him feeding the 5,000.
Once again, it's the only miracle recorded in all 4 gospels. What I want us to do is
I want us to walk through this, and I want us to see some things. Then, we're going to
come back around and pull some concepts out where you and I ... Listen, we can practically
today take a step in becoming more like Christ. Right? Here we go.
Matthew chapter 14, verse 13. "When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew
by boat privately to a solitary place." I want to pause right here. The reason I want
to pause is because typically, when I would read this story I would just kind of skip
over the first part of verse 13. The first part of verse 13 is important. The reason
it's important is because of what had just happened. We're told in Matthew chapter 14,
verses 1 through 12 that John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, a significant, important man
in the life of Jesus. This was the man that actually baptized Jesus ... The John the Baptist
had been killed. He had his head cut off. Jesus, when he hears about this ... I love
the fact that Jesus is fully God, but fully man. We get a glimpse of his humanity right
here, because when he hears about this, when he has this ... Finding out your cousin just
got his head cut off, that's not a good day. Jesus finds out about this and he, like all
of us in this room when we find out bad news ... What's the one thing we want to do? Just
get away. Whether it's 5 minutes or 50 minutes, "I just need to get away."
Have you ever had a bad day at work and you're driving home, and you're like, "Man, my wife
and my kids are there, and I love them. I hope they don't talk to me." Right? Your kids
come running out the door, and you just drive by the house. You just kind of keep on going
because you just need some time to process. Right here, Jesus finds out about John the
Baptist getting his head cut off and the bible says he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary
place. Why do you do that? Because you want to be by yourself. You want to be alone. Jesus
wanted to be alone. "Hearing of this, the crowds followed him
on foot from the towns." Verse 14. "When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion
..." I want you to underline that word right there in your outline, okay? Or underline
it in your bible, but if it's not in your bible you can just underline it on that sheet
of paper right there. It's awesome. "... he had compassion on them and healed their sick."
I want to pause right here and tell you if this verse would have been about me, that
verse wouldn't have said he had compassion. It would have said, "Perry showed up on the
boat and saw a crowd of people, and he said, 'Y'all have lost your freaking mind. I need
about 5 minutes by myself, and everywhere I go y'all are there, and y'all need to leave
me alone so I can roll up somewhere private and be all by myself.'" But when Jesus sees
the people, the bible says he has compassion on them. It's so amazing that his motivation
was compassion. We're going to come back to that, but let's keep reading. Verse 15.
"As evening approached ..." Now think about this. If this happened maybe late morning,
early afternoon, the bible ... The next thing we're told is, "As evening approached, the
disciples came to him and said ..." Now, pause. Jesus had been teaching the people for hours,
and hours, and hours. I can't prove this, but I think what happened to the disciples
is they got hangry. Do you know what hangry is? Hangry is when you get so hungry that
you become angry. Has anybody ever been hangry? Anybody? Yeah. This is ... I get this way
every 2 hours. Every 2 hours of my life I've got to be eating something. I've got to have
some almonds. I've got to have an apple. I've got to have a Snickers bar, hello. If not,
I get ... If you let the restaurant take an extra 5 minutes in getting me my food and
I start shak- ... Because I'm hangry. I can't prove this, but I think the disciples
got hangry because Jesus has been teaching like 6 hours. They're over here going, "Man,
this ... Man, he is doing a series. A whole series of messages right here. We're not even
breaking this thing up. Is it going to stop?" Thomas is like, "I doubt it." Anyway, so they
keep going back and forth. The disciples approach Jesus. Now, I want
to pause. How bold do you have to be to interrupt Jesus? This is like the Son of God. "Excuse
me. Hey, listen. All that stuff you've been saying is great. This series of messages have
been awesome." But, this is what they said, �This is a remote place ..." In other words,
remember, we got out here to get away, "... and it�s already getting late. Send the crowds
away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food." They're hungry, and
by the way, we're hungry. "Jesus replied, 'They do not need to go away.
You give ..." Underline those two words, you give, "You give them something to eat." They
don't need to go away. You give them something to eat. I love this. Verse 17.
"We have ..." Underline those two words, you give and then underline we have. You give,
we have. You give. We have. "'We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,' they
answered." We know from John's gospel, John chapter 6 tells us that they didn't even have
that. They kind of mugged a little boy that had been to McDonald's and got a Happy Meal,
right? They kind of took his Happy Meal from him. They had some food that they had gotten
from this little boy, and he's like, "This is all we've got, Jesus." I love this. I love
this. Jesus goes, "'Bring them here to me,' he said." I love that.
I love that and here's why. Jesus goes, "Yeah, I can use that, just bring it to me." I love
this, and don't miss the principle. Jesus goes, "Hey, whatever you've got in your hands,
just bring it to me. I'll take that. I can use that." You've got a busted up marriage?
Jesus goes, "Just bring that to me." You're dealing with stress and anxiety in your life,
Jesus goes, "Hey, I'll get that. Why don't you just bring that to me?" Is your career
busted up and you are at a place in life where you never thought you would be, Jesus goes,
"I get that. I understand that. Why don't you just take what you have and why don't
you just bring it to me." That's the invitation in this text. Jesus goes, "I'm not concerned
about how little that you think you have, if you'll just take your little and put it
in my hands, I'll make a play." Now watch what he does, because he's about to go Jordan
right here. It's incredible. Verse 19. "And he directed the people to sit down on
the grass." Now that's a miracle right there, getting 5,000 people to sit down. You sit,
you sit. Right? "Taking the five loaves and the two fish and
looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples,
and the disciples gave them to the people." You've got all this giving going on, right?
Verse 20. "They all ate and were satisfied ..." Now
for me, this is a lot of food. Eat and satisfied? I don't know about you all, but I don't like
these restaurants where the portion sizes are real little and the prices are real big.
I want food falling off the plate when they bring the food out to me. Do you know what
I'm saying? This is like the first biblical buffet. They all ate and were satisfied, "... and
the disciples picked up twelve baskets full of broken pieces that were left over." Everybody
got a doggy bag. This is incredible. Verse 21.
"The number of those who ate was about five thousand, besides women and children." Interesting
that Matthew, the tax collector, counted the people. Isn't that interesting? Someone probably
owed him money. He's like, "There's Tom, there's Frank. He's good for 100. He lost 200. He
owes me $100 from the golf bet." He's kind of ... He counts the number of people and
he wants us to know. With all of this in mind, I want us to walk back through this story.
What I want to introduce to you today is 4 concepts that each of us ... Each of us in
this room, no matter where you are in your journey with Christ, can work on, or pray
through, or apply one of these concepts, and today you can actually take a step in becoming
more like Jesus. The first word that I want you to write down
in your little formula there is compassion. Compassion. Let me ask you this question.
Who do you have a hard time loving? Don't point. I won't ask you to point. Who do you
have a hard time loving? Georgia fans? Don't bark. I'm going to be honest, man, they're
hard to love. Aren't they? I'm just trying to unite my church right now. We're in the
state of South Carolina, okay? [inaudible 00:16:46] fans, are they hard to love? [inaudible
00:16:47] fans, are they hard to love? Yeah. People that have to pay the right amount of
change in front of you in line, are they hard to love? Yes. Slow drivers, are they hard
to love? Yes. People that talk while the movie is playing, are they hard to love? Heck yes.
Don't talk to me while the movie is playing, I'm trying to watch the movie. If you wanted
me to come over for a conversation, you should have invited me over for a conversation, but
you invited me over to watch the movie. I'm trying to watch the movie and you're interrupting
me, so what are we going to do right now? I'm just saying. That's a little personal,
but maybe it's happened lately. I'm just saying there are people that we have a hard time
loving. Hey, let's get more real. Republicans. Democrats.
Black people. White people. Hispanics. People who call themselves gay. Who do you have a
hard time loving? What if we took that person, or that group of people that we have a hard
time loving and we looked at them through the lenses of compassion rather than criticism?
It could change our world. Some people see compassion as a sign of weakness. Understand,
my friend, compassion is not a sign of weakness. Compassion is a sign of strength. Compassion
says even though you might not be just like me, I can love you anyway, and then we can
work through any of the details. Compassion can change the world. When we begin to see
people through the eyes of compassion ... Let me tell you something.
You want to change your marriage this week? Ask God, for one week, to let you see your
spouse the way he sees your spouse. It'll change your marriage. Stop praying that God
will fix your spouse for a week, okay? Put that prayer on hold. Just say, "God, let me
see them as you see them." You know what happened to me when I started praying that prayer?
God showed me how special Lucretia was to him and said, "You better treat her that way."
I was like, "I had a list of things I kind of wanted you to do, God." He was like, "Oh,
no no. You focus on you. I work in other ways." What if you began to see that person you couldn't
stand at work through the eyes of compassion rather than criticism? The reason we criticize
is because we're insecure and we're trying to tear people down so we can feel better
than them. What if we began to look at them, or those groups of people, and we begin to
say, "God, let me see people like you see people." I'm telling you ... Because when
Jesus shows up, if he would have looked at the crowd through the lenses of criticism,
he would have gone off on these people. He would have been chucking people left and right,
and kicking butt, and taking names, but no, no, no, no. The compassion ... Don't miss
this. Don't miss this. Compassion was the foundation for the miracle. Compassion was
the foundation for the miracle. I've had people ask me, "Perry, do you think
miracles still happen?" I absolutely believe miracles still happen. "Do you believe God
still heals people?" I absolutely believe God heals people. "Do you believe God still
changes people? I absolutely believe God still changes people. This is where people ask me,
"Well then why don't we see it happening more in the United States of America?" My response
is always the same, "We've never been more less compassionate as a nation than we are
right now." Compassion is the foundation for the miraculous
taking place. In this, I'm just asking, is there an area, is there a person, is there
a group of people where this week ... This week you need to begin to pray, "God, change
me in regards to the way that I see them. Let me see them like you see them." I promise
you it'll be the most uncomfortable and awesome week you've ever had in your life. Compassion.
The next word I want you to write down is concern. All of us are concerned. We're concerned
about different things. Me and my family were driving back from vacation this week, and
I caught up on the news about these guys that escaped from prison in New York. Have y'all
heard about this? Yeah, it's all over the news. The guys escaped with power tools. I'm
like, "How did ... How does somebody not hear a power saw? How do you not hear that?" Anyway,
the more I listened to it, these guys are armed and dangerous, and they're on the loose.
They're armed and dangerous, and they're on the loose. After listening to it for about
an hour, I was like, "Oh, shoot. What if they made it to South Carolina?" Then I thought,
"No, they're fine. If you make it to South Carolina, you're in trouble." Right? I literally
got concerned. We can get concerned over little things like
... Charisse, my daughter, turns 8 in less than 2 weeks. She's 7, okay? 7, and the other
day we had our first discussion about something I thought was cut too low, and she thought
it fit, and our house is not a democracy. I am the king. Actually, Lucretia is, but
we together told her no. She was like, (sighs). I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Come
here. Let's talk about (sighs). We're not going to do (sighs) in our house." We're just
... She left and I'm like, "I'm concerned." She's 7. I expected that at 17, but she's
7. If we watch the news ... Listen, if you are
dealing with stress, anxiety, and worry, stop watching the news for a week and it'll go
away. Okay? I have people calling me going, "What am I going to do about ISIS? What am
I going to do about ... China's building up ... And what are we going to do about this?
What are we going to do about that?" I'm like, "Man, I don't know. I'm just drinking a cup
of coffee looking at the turkey in my backyard thinking, 'Man, I wish I could pop that thing,
but it's not turkey season.'" That's all that's going on in my mind.
What happens ... Don't miss this ... is, as church people, we get concerned about people,
but we have no compassion for them. Because we're concerned about them, we try to step
into their life and change who they are. "Well, you need to stop drinking. You need to stop
smoking. You need to stop shacking up and living together. You need to stop doing all
that stuff. You need to quit partying. You need to quit doing the crack ***." We
tell them all this stuff that they need to stop doing, and listen, listen, listen ... That
stuff might be true, and yes, and amen, I don't think you should do crack ***. I'm
there, but the problem is we try to have concern about people before we have compassion for
them. When our motivation is compassion, then what
we're concerned about in people is not just what they're doing, we literally are concerned
about where they're going to spend eternity. Did you know there are 3.6 million people
in the state of South Carolina that are un-churched, and they say that they're separated from God?
What if that was our concern? What if that was the thing that drove us? I'm telling you,
Jesus, when he shows up on the shore and begins to teach these people, and ultimately feeds
them, he does that because he's concerned about them. Jesus Christ is concerned about
these people. He's not just concerned about them eating food, he's ultimately concerned
about where they're going to spend eternity. What if our motivation became, "We're going
to become concerned not with somebody's behavior, but where their eternal destination is." And
that was motivated with compassion? I'm telling you, this right here could be a game changer.
Everyone of us in this room are concerned about something. Save the planet. Save pets.
Save the whales. I'm not saying any of those are bad causes, but the ultimate reason that
you and I are on this planet is to make much of Jesus and his glory. That means the relationships
that we're in right now are not accidents. If we have compassion for people it leads
to being concerned about where they're going to spend eternity.
Jesus said this, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry ..." Everything
this world has will leave you hungry. Another relationship, another car, another house,
an upgrade on your iPhone, all that stuff still leaves you hungry. Jesus said, "... and
whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." I love this right here. Right here, first
of all, Jesus us anti-paleo. Some of you are into the diet where you don't eat any bread,
and that's what's wrong with you. Jesus compared himself to bread, not vegetables, not fruit.
He compared himself to bread, therefore bread is necessary. I have people go, "I'm on paleo
because that's what the cavemen did." They lived until they were 25 and died. You know
why? They never had a piece of coconut pie! They would just keel over or the dinosaurs
would eat them. I'm not trying to be that guy ... Y'all have got me distracted. Back
to the scripture. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." Jesus
goes, "I am what will fill you. I am what will satisfy you. I am what will complete
you." When we, as followers of Christ, have compassion for people and then concern about
what they're being filled with, that can make a difference. That can change the world. Everyone
of us can feel compassion and concern about people. Every person in this room. There's
not one single exception. Number 3 ... The third part is compelled,
and in parentheses put, to be generous. Compelled to be generous. Lucretia and I were travelling,
she don't travel with me a whole bunch, but she was travelling with me on this particular
trip. We were in an airport somewhere and she looked at me and she said, "You know we're
going to meet somebody you know." I'm like, "No, we're not." Here's a couple things you
need to understand about my wife. Number 1, she's always right. Always. Number 2, she's
God's favorite child. She gets whatever she prays for. If you want something in your life,
ask Lucretia to pray for you because God always tells her yes. It's the most fascinating thing
in the world. Anyway, she says, "You're going to meet somebody you know." I'm like, "There
is no way I'm going to meet anybody I know in this airport." I swear to you, less than
3 minutes, a guy walks up to me and says, "Perry Noble, I bet you don't remember me."
I want to pause right there. 99% of the time, I don't. If you ever see me in public, please,
please, please don't ever come up to me and go, "Do you remember me?" No. I don't. I don't.
I tell people, "My dad had Alzheimer's. I've got part-timers." I can't remember names.
I can't remember people's names. You can tell me your name and in 2 minutes I forgot it.
You can tell me your phone number and I'll remember it for the rest of my life. Kind
of like Rain Man, a little bit. Right? I had a girl ... One time I was at the Jockey
Lot and a girl came up and said, "Do you remember me?" I'm like, "No." She goes, "You were in
my wedding." I'm like, "Oh dear God. I was in somebody's wedding at the Jockey Lot and
I cannot remember." Anyway, she went and I went into the store where you could buy Little
Debbie's and a duck, literally. If you've never been to the Jockey Lot, you've got to
check that out. It's a great place. This guy comes up to me and he says, "You
probably don't remember me." And I stopped him mid-sentence and I said, "I do, Mr. Shirley.
How are you doing?" Lucretia�s jaw dropped because she knows I don't ... She's like ... We
talked for a few minutes, I was like, "Hey, how are your sons doing?" He was like, "They're
doing great and stuff." He walked away and Lucretia went, "Oh my gosh, you knew him."
I was like, "I know. Jesus is getting ready to come back, isn't he?" All the angels in
Heaven went, "Whoa. Everybody, we're going. We're gone!" Lucretia said, "Why do you know
him?" I said, "That man, right there, I've been a Christian for about 6 months, and he
did something for me that marked me significantly." Lucretia, being my wife, she's like, "What
did he do? Did he disciple you? Did he take you into his home? Did he teach you the scriptures?
Did he give you a book? Did he drop some sort of deep theology on you that messed you up
forever?" I was like, "No. He made my car payment." That's it.
I was in college. I was between jobs. I was going to lose my car. I did not have the money
to make my car payment. It was like $123.25, and Mr. Shirley found out about it, and wrote
a check, and gave it to me, and said, "Go make your car payment." That ruined me because
I got to see a snapshot of what generosity looks like. Let me tell you something about
generosity. People can't resist it. They don't understand it. It blows their minds. What
if we were compelled to be generous? I'm not ... Listen, I'm going to pause. I'm
not talking about tithing. This isn't the whole ... We talked about tithing a few weeks
ago. By the way, over 1,100 households signed up for the 90 day tithe challenge. Can we
celebrate that? Over 1,100. Generosity is what we do after tithing. If we're generous
to people, I'm telling you, it blows their minds. This is my soapbox. I'm going to do
this about 2 or 3 times a year, so if you're very familiar with NewSpring, you know what's
coming. If you're not familiar with NewSpring, here's my deal. I almost did not come to Christ
because I worked in the restaurant industry on Sundays. You ask any server ... First of
all, I love it how people go, "People shouldn't work on Sunday!" And then you go to the restaurant,
idiot. You're making people work on Sunday. Hypocrite. Anyway, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm
sorry. Unfiltered today. I worked in the restaurant industry, and you
know the day the people made the least amount of tips? Sunday. You know when they made the
most tips? Friday and Saturday night when people were hammered. Hammered people are
more generous than Christian people. What's the problem with that? I worked in the restaurant
industry and people would come in and they would sit at the table for 8 hours and their
kids were over here, and they were all demon-possessed. They were kind of pouring ketchup all over
the table, and they would leave, and leave you a dollar and a gospel trap that told you
about how to become like them. I don't want to become like that. That's a certified rear-end
right there. I do not want to become like those people because they were not ...
In fact, we do this about 2 or 3 times a year. If you go out to eat today at any NewSpring
campus, I want you to leave your server the biggest tip you've ever left. I want you to
do it. Some of you are like, "I'm going home now. PBJ." You give your server a humongous
tip and then tell them, "God has blessed me so I wanted to bless you." They will talk
about it for the rest of the week. You know why? Because the world is not used to generosity.
My gosh, if the church could just wrap our minds around this concept of generosity, we
wouldn't have the government having to talk about more taxes and more laws. The church
can just say, "Hey, we'll take care of all the needy people. You guys just get that what
y'all are going to figure out healthcare or the T- ... Get the TSA guys taken care of,
all right? We can handle this because people are compelled to be generous."
You say, "Perry, where do you get generosity out of this?" Well, Jesus gave 5 loaves and
2 fish. Some of you will go, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no. The boy. The boy gave 5 loaves
and 2 fish." Who made the fish? Who made the bread? Ultimately, everything is from Jesus.
I love Romans 11:36 says, "For from him and through him and for him are all things." Jesus
just asked the boy to give him what he had given the boy to give in the first place.
When the boy put it in Jesus' hands, did he walk away with less or more? More. I'm not
great in math, but I know 12 baskets full are more than 5 loaves and 2 fish. That's
what happens when you become generous. How many people here today ... How many people
would love to be blessed? You just want to be blessed? Come on, this isn't a trick question.
Some of you aren't playing right, "I don't ever want to be blessed. I'm not having fun
today. No! I'm big Chief No Fun of the I Don't Want To tribe, and I'm not going to have fun
today in church! Not going to raise my hand. I do not want to be blessed." I apologize
for adamantly making fun of you if that was just you. This might be your first time in
church and I just went off on you. The bible says remembering the words of the
Lord Jesus in itself where Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
You want to be blessed? Get generous. Get generous. In fact tomorrow ... Tomorrow is
Monday. When you go to Chick fil A, when you go to Starbucks, do that thing where you buy
the person's thing behind you. Just pay for it. Everybody on every campus just do that
all day tomorrow. Just pay for it. Just pay for it. People will be like ... You bought
somebody cob salad at Chick fil A and they lose their dang mind. "He bought me a cob
salad with grilled nuggets!" People can't resist generosity. You know what? You're not
compelled to be generous until you're truly concerned about where people are going to
spend eternity. You're not truly concerned about where people are going to spend eternity
until you are motivated with compassion for people.
Do you see how this is working? All right every once in a while, about once a year,
I'll have one of these, where I've put a lot of thought into it. All right?
Number 4, compassion, plus concern, plus compelled, plus church equals Christ-like. This is where
I lose some y'all. Some of y'all are like, "I don't like church." Guess what? I don't
either, that's why I started one. Literally. People ask me, "You started a church, why?"
I was like, "Because I didn't like church and nobody would hire me." This is what ... We're
just kind of stuck with this, "How long are you going to be the pastor?" Until Jesus takes
me out or I ... Somebody always asks this, "What happens if a bus hits you?" Number 1,
why is it always a bus? If we were in the UK with those big red double-deckers ... Man,
we are in South Carolina. We've got 2 buses in the whole state. All the buses in the state,
we've rented them to go to [Gauntlet 00:36:33] a few weeks because we are taking ... Anyway.
Some people go, "Well, no, no, no, no. Here's the deal, Perry. I'm on the compassion thing.
Man, I'm compassionate with people. I'm concerned about where they're going to spend eternity.
Yeah. And compelled to be generous? Yeah, I'm there, but I just don't need church."
Well, I understand. Churches are full of problems. Churches are full of hypocrites which should
not drive you away, it should make you feel more welcome. Right? "Somebody at that church
hurt me." Well, guess what? You probably hurt somebody at that church. We're all problem
people. Every person in this room is completely a mess. Completely.
My thought is this ... Think back to Michael Jordan for a second. In my opinion the greatest
player of all time. You might not agree, and you have every right to be wrong. LeBron is
good, he's not Michael Jordan. Kobe was good. I was going to say he is. Kobe was good, he's
not Michael Jordan. Larry Bird ... Yeah, okay. Okay, he was good, he's not MJ. I think, and
it's just my opinion, Michael Jordan was the greatest player to ever play the game. One
day there might be somebody better, I don't know, but think about Jordan for a second.
What happens if you take Jordan and you separate him from basketball? For example, Jordan the
actor. How many of you saw Space Jam? Can we just honestly put out on the table that
he did not put on an Academy Award performance in Space Jam? Nobody went away and went, "Man,
that guy's going ... I think he's going to switch from acting to basketball." No, no.
You were like, "Play ball." Funny movie, the MonStars and all that stuff. Michael Jordan,
maybe he decides to go into politics? Y'all remember that time that Michael Jordan thought
he was going to be a baseball player? For those of you that are not aware, Michael Jordan
thought he could play baseball. He was horrible. Some of you, "No, he was good!" Y'all ... Stop.
When you take Michael Jordan and you separate him from what he was called and gifted to
do, he became average at best. You put a ball in Michael Jordan's hand, and it was remarkable.
He made a difference when he had a ball in his hand and he was on the court. That's what
happens when you try to separate a Christ follower from church. Separating a Christ
follower from church is like separating ... It's like Michael Jordan playing baseball. At most,
all you will ever achieve in life is mediocrity because Jesus Christ called us to do life
with one another. Then you say, "Perry, where do you get that out of that text?" Isn't it
funny that Matthew counted the number of people? He was like, "I want you to know this many
people together here on a hillside were needs that Jesus met." Don't miss this. Don't miss
this. This is hugely important. I know if you grew
up in the southeast you're like, "Perry, I know a lot of churched people that were just
messed up." Listen, all of us know churched people, but the problem is churched people
aren't always changed people. There are churches today that are full of churched people with
no changed people. What happens when a group of people begin to meet together and they
see people like Jesus sees those people, and they're concerned about the things that Jesus
is concerned about, primarily their eternity, and they're compelled to be as generous to
those people as possible, and they're connected to the church, and they're becoming Christ-like?
Folks, this right here could absolutely change the world. It's something that every one of
us in this room could do. Every one of us in this room.
Here's what I want to ask you. What one area do you need to work on this week? Just circle
one. Circle the one that you think ... Don't circle your spouse's for them, all right?
You circle the one area that you think you need to work on this week. Do you need to
become more compassionate? Do you need to become more concerned about where people ... By
the way, I put some verses underneath if you want to do some additional bible study. Those
are verses, hopefully some of y'all didn't look that up during the message. What's the
area that you need to work on? I want to show you something. I want to show you something
and then we're done. I love this little chart thing.
The last thing I want you to do is on the bottom of the page, I want you to circle where
you think you are in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, don't do it yet. Don't
do it yet. Some of you just circled 10 automatically, "I am awesome!" Yeah, that's great. Okay.
You've got -10, -9, -8, all that, and then you've got the cross, and then you've got
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Now -10's, you're not here. You're not watching online.
You're not listening to podcast. Some of you are like, "I'm a -10!" Nope. Sorry. You're
at least a -8 if you walked inside the door of a church. -10 are people that are not only
not Christians, but they're hostile to Christianity. They don't care about God. They say derogatory
things about Christians and churches. They're just not interested in Christianity at all.
-10, -9. -8 is like they'll entertain some conversations.
They still label themselves maybe as an Atheist, or an Agnostic, or a severe skeptic, right?
-4, they're kind of coming to church, maybe on a regular basis, beginning to get more
into this thing called Jesus, and kind of looking into this thing called a bible even
though they might not agree with it. -1, I want to pause. This is where I think many
people in the southeast are. A -1 is somebody that knows all the answers,
has been in church, knows what's right and knows what's wrong, but they've never actually
prayed to receive Christ. The difference maker on this is not in how good we are. The difference
maker is the cross. Paul tells us in Romans 10:9, "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus
is Lord,' ..." In other words, not, "I really want to go to Heaven when I die but live how
I want to here on this earth." No, no, no, no. It's like, "Jesus, you're Lord. I give
everything to you." "... and believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead, you will be saved." After that, we start our journey to become more
and more like Christ. We do this through compassion, and concern, and compelled to be generous,
and church. Those things ... We get closer, and closer, and closer to Jesus. Understand
we cannot move on this side of the cross if we've never crossed over to begin with. There
are people here that maybe you're a -1, you have been in church, or maybe you've understood,
but you've never given your life to Christ. Here's what I want you to do with me today.
I want you to consider, right where you sit, giving your life to Jesus.
Can we pray? You'll remain seated. Every campus. We're going to do it a little different today.
You remain seated. Every campus, I seriously want you to circle where you think you are
right now in your journey with Jesus. You just do that on your bulletin right now. Where
are you? Maybe you're here and you're a -4, a -3, and you're just kicking the tires on
Christianity. Man, we're so glad you're here. Maybe you're here and you're young in your
faith and you're like a 1. Maybe you're like really loving Jesus and walking with him right
now, and you're like a 5 or a 6, or even a 7. For those of you that are -2 or -1, and
you want to cross over today, you want to give your life to Christ today, you want to
do what that says in Romans chapter 10, verse 9. In fact, if you know you're a -2 or a -1
and you want to give your life to Christ today, I just want you to look up at me. I just want
you to look at me. I just want you to look. I'm not going to ask you to raise a hand or
jump up and down in your chair. On every campus I just want you to look at me.
My prayer today is that ultimately you would be a person full of compassion, and concern,
and compelled to be generous, and be involved in church, but none of that matters if you've
never connected with God through his son Jesus. I believe the reason God brought you to church
today is so you can do that. The way to go from here to here is here. If you're ready
to give your life to Christ, if you're here today and you've never given your life to
Jesus and you're like, "Man, I want to nail this down. I want to know," and you want to
give your life to Christ, you just bow your head right where you are and just pray this
in your heart. Just say, "Jesus Christ, I confess you right
now as Lord. You are God in my life. I surrender everything to you. I believe you died on the
cross, and rose from the grave, and you now live in me. Jesus, show me how to live for
you the rest of my life the best I can. In Jesus' name, I pray." With head still bowed
and eyes still closed I'm going to count to 3, and when I hit 3 if you prayed to receive
Christ today I just want you to raise your hand, and I want you to just leave it up.
I want you to raise it high and I want you to leave it up. Here we go. 1, 2, 3. If you
prayed to receive Christ I want you to raise your hand on every campus, and I want you
to put it up. I want you to leave it up. I want you to put up your hand. Leave it up.
Put up your hand. Come on, Greenwood, Spartanburg, Florence, Charleston, Columbia ... That's
awesome. If you've got your hand raised I want you
to look at me. In just a few seconds we're going to have a time of invitation where we're
going to ask people ... Maybe there are some people in this room here struggling with compassion,
or concern, or compelled, or you're not involved in church. If God moved in your heart any
way, I want you to feel free to respond to this invitation. If you gave your life to
Christ today then listen, the first thing you've got to do is let somebody know. It's
my prayer that without hesitation as soon as we stand up, that you'll step out and walk
out the back door of your campus, because there are staff members and volunteers that
would love to meet with you and talk to you about the decision you just made.
Can we all stand to our feet? Father, right now, in the name of Jesus, I
pray for every person on every campus. Whether they're sitting in a living room, or they're
sitting in a facility, God, that you would move our hearts to be compassionate people
that are concerned about where people are going to spend eternity. We're compelled to
be generous with our time, with our energy, with our effort, with our finances. Jesus,
we'll be connected to the church. I pray for those, Jesus, that raised their hands today,
that stepped over the line, that gave their lives to you. Father, I pray that they would
feel freedom and encouragement over these next few moments to make that decision public.
With heads still bowed and eyes still closed, if God spoke to you today in the message,
or you gave your life to Christ, I just want you to step out of your aisle and I want you
to walk out the back door of your campus. I want you to go right now. Every campus.
If you gave your life to Christ, if your prayed, if you went from a -1 to a positive 1 today,
we want to walk with you, we want to encourage you. You just go, and there are people moving
in Anderson. If you're in Greenwood, or you're in Florence, or you're in Charleston, listen.
If you gave your life to Christ or you want to talk to somebody about having more compassion,
or concern, or compelled to be generous, or whatever ... If God spoke to your heart, I
want you to move right now because you don't have to do life alone.
This is a place where we always say, "It's okay to not be okay, but it's not okay to
stay that way." Amen. Father, all things are from you, for you, to you. We all acknowledge
this, and everybody that agreed said ... Hey, listen church. Listen to me before we leave.
Next week is Father's Day. Father's Day typically is the lowest church attended day of the year
nationwide. Nationwide. That has not been so at NewSpring in 10 years, and it's not
going to be that way next week because men are going to lead their family to church.
You get free Chick fil A next week, all the daddies, and then your family is going to
leave here and they're going to cook you a filet mignon on your brand new grill that
they just bought you for Father's Day. All right?
Hey, y'all have a great week. God bless. I love y'all.