The Church of Eleven22 - What Kind of Person Am I? - When He Asks - Wk 3

Episode Date: December 1, 2024

God did not give you all that you have so that you could have all that you want, but so that others could have all that they NEED. Text "SPONSOR" to 83393 to sponsor a child through Compassion International. Find more info at Compassion.com - The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To find out more about how God is moving at Eleven22, go to CoE22.com

Amen, amen, amen. How's everybody's morning, all right? Good, good to see you. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. It is Christmastime, my friends. Let me be one of the first to wish you a merry Christmas. Y'all know I love some Christmas. I have my Christmas tree up since July 4th, man.

I'm ready. I'm ready. I start negotiating terms on Christmas music with my children around Labor Day. This is the thing. My youngest has joined me in the fight now, and so she and I take on the other two. We won this year. I'm into it.

Christmas is awesome. I hope you're going to have a great one. It's going to be a great holiday season. If you're new to 1122, you've just been hanging around in the last few weeks. Welcome. I'm Pastor Britt. I get the chance to teach God's word here every now and then. And you have picked a wonderful Sunday to be at the Church of 1122. About once a year, maybe more than once a year. We do things a little different on Sunday, and that is this Sunday. And what we do on this weekend is it's called Compassion Sunday. and we highlight our ministry partnership with an organization called Compassion International. And what Compassion International does is they are a child advocacy organization

where they're releasing children from abject poverty all over the world in Jesus' name. And we've been partnered with them for a long time. And here at 1122, we are serious about this partnership. It's just a part of who we are. It is just a part of what we do. And since about 12 years ago, when our church first launched, we as a church have sponsored, 21,049 children through Compassion International. Praise God for that.

That's significant. That's significant. That's 21,000 kids who now have had the chance to hear the good news of Jesus Christ and to realize who they are as loved by God. That's 21,000 kids who have had their physical needs met, clothes, water, food, 21,000 kids who now have education, who now have opportunities where all that it was before compassion got involved was oppression. and that's 21,000 kids who know that they are believed in, that they are loved by God and by us. They know there's someone around the world praying for them, believing in them, and wanting the best for them in Jesus' name.

And so that's 21,000 kids that now experience that. So good job, church. Good job, but we're not going to stop there. We're going to stay on it. We're going to put our foot on the gas, and we're believing that God is going to increase that number today significantly. I mean, just last service, I walked off the stage. I had a packet, a different packet than this, which is the child's information. and I walk off the stage and there's a couple waiting for me right here and they wanted

that to sponsor that exact child. They couldn't wait to the service is over. They met me at the edge of the stage. This church here is serious about being a part of what God's doing around the world. I met a couple who was here for the first time after last service and they had four children they were sponsored in their hands. I couldn't believe it. Incredible.

Praise God. We say all the time here that we're a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. The first part of that is we're a movement and rest assured at the church. Church of 1122, by God's grace, God is on the move. God is on the move. Since our church started more than 12 years ago now, 19,000 people have surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

That's just here in Jacksonville and through our, and through 1122 online. 19,000 people have stepped out of the darkness of sin and into the light of God's salvation. Praise God for that. God is on the move. God is doing some significant things. Then this says we're movement for all people. We believe that all means all.

We believe that all means our neighbors and our neighborhoods. We believe that all means. The people in our city and our region or around the world, we believe that all means all. We believe that if you have breath in your lungs, that means God's not done with you yet. And he's got a significant purpose for your life. And we want to partner with the Spirit of God to see you walk in your full potential in Jesus. We believe that all means all. It doesn't matter what's in your past, even though it may be significant.

We believe what the Bible says, and it says there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus. We believe that God has good things for good people, especially for these children that we're going to talk about today. And it says, we're moving it for all people to discover and deepen, and this is the most important, to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Make no mistake about it. The entire point is Jesus Christ. He is the king of kings and he is the Lord of Lords. And all of history and all of time and all of our lives and all of our existence is about that one thing. What do you do with Jesus Christ of Nazareth? We're going to study Jesus' words in Luke chapter 10 today. The passage, parts of it you'll be familiar with. Picking up in verse 17, it says, says this, Luke chapter 10, verse 17. It says that the 72 returned with joy. First part of Luke 10,

Jesus sends 72 people out ahead of him into cities all over the region that they're ministering in. And he gives them the authority to cast out demons and to heal the sick and to do miracles. And they go out ahead of him and they do these things. They are doing significant miracles and they're announcing the kingdom of God. He says, when you go into a town, you tell them the kingdom of God is at hand. Things are different now. The king has come. And so, they're out and they're doing all these miracles and they come back to Jesus the 72 and they look at Jesus and they say, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Let's just pause right there for a second.

We say things all the time like Jesus is the point and Jesus is the biggest deal and Jesus is the first and all these things. He's the first born among the dead. He is the preeminent one. We say these things. Well, this seems the Bible says. This is what Jesus Christ just said. He said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Do you know where he was sitting? On the throne of glory. That's where he was. Do you know what Jesus' reality is right now?

His reality right now is that he's sitting on the throne of heaven, and there are angels of fire flying around him saying, you are holy, holy, you are the Lord God Almighty. That's what he's doing right now. All right, it fires me up. That's fine. Y'all be bored if you want to. I'm having fun.

I saw Satan fall like lightning. Come on. I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. And behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall hurt you, verse 20. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. One of the most influential pastors that ever lived is a man named Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones.

and he's one of my favorites of all time, and he was a significant force in the kingdom of God. And God used him in significant ways, and he pastored in London for many, many, many years. And as he got older in life, before he died, he became ill. And even when he was battling sickness, he would wake up in the mornings, and he would put on a three-piece suit, which I guess that's just what British people do. And he would put on a three-piece suit, and he would work for about an hour, editing old sermon notes or editing notes from the students in his classes at the seminary. where he was able to teach when he could. And he would do this work for about an hour, and then he would just be so tired,

he would go back to bed. And one day, his caretaker, who was also a lifetime friend, asked him and said, Dr. Jones, I mean, God used you in unbelievable ways. Stadiums would pack to hear you preach. Thousands of people surrendered their life to Jesus under your ministry. You saw people literally, lives changed hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds. God, your influence was unmatched in the last hundred years.

God used you in significant ways, and now you can barely stay awake for an hour. And he said, how do you deal with that in your mind? Don't you have some regret? Don't you look back and wish that life was still the way that it used to be? And this is how Dr. Jones answered him. He quoted verse 20 of Luke 10. He says, I do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to me, but I rejoice that my name is written in heaven.

I am completely content. What a testimony. What a testimony. mistake about it. Identity precedes activity. Identity precedes activity. What we do flows out of who we are. Our behaviors are a result of how much we realize how beloved we are by God. Identity always precedes activity. And maybe today you need to be reminded of this truth that if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, if you have surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, your name is written in heaven, my friend.

There is a book, and it is called the Book of Life, and it is a real book. And in this book are the names of everyone who is trusted in Jesus Christ, and when our names are written in heaven, they are written forever, signs sealed and delivered by the blood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Our name is written in heaven, and it is in this, we find our identity. Long before we do anything in Jesus' name, we realize and receive what Jesus has done for us for his name's sake. identity precedes activity Jesus turns verse 23 Luke 10 and then he turns to his disciples so there's 72 and then he pulls the 12 aside and he says blessed are the eyes to see what you see for I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear

and did not hear it he said do you have any idea what you're a part of you can be this close to the miracles of God and to the life change of God and to the the salvation of God and you can grow numb to these things. You can grow numb to the realities of what God's doing in the world. He says, do you have any idea what you are a part of? You are so blessed to be able to see what you see. And that is true for us, too. Praise God for what he's done through the Church of 1122.

I mean, who were we that God would use us? Who were we that God would see us? Who are we that God would save us? Who are we that God would sanctify us? That God would call us and an anoint us and appoint us and give us every good thing for life and godliness. What have I done to deserve anything of God's good pleasure? Nothing but by his grace and by his mercy. He lavishes purpose and significance and mercy on me every day anew. Who are we to get to see what God has been up to? But God has invited us and he's given us eyes to see we are loved,

we are called, we are adopted, we are appointed, we are sons and daughters of the most high king. That is who we are. Identity precedes activity. Verse 25. And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test. Not a good idea. It's just not a good idea. A lawyer stands up and wants to trap Jesus. This is a common occurrence. And don't think lawyer like lawyer today. This guy was an expert in the Mosaic law, the law of the Old Testament. And at any point, you can insert your lawyer joke here, unless you're a lawyer, and then you would want to insert your priest's joke. And I'm not going to do either, but I am going to tell you a joke. Are you ready? What happens when you combine a priest and a lawyer?

you get a father-in-law. You're right. I'll be here all day, my friends. I will be here all day. So this cat who thinks he's smart stands up to test Jesus. And he said, and he asked Jesus a very familiar question. Jesus was asked this question by religious leaders

more than 20 times through the gospel. And the question is the question. This is the question. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? We all agree that everybody's going to die. the question is then what the most famous interchange that jesus has around this question is in john chapter three when nicodemus who is also a religious leader comes to jesus at night time and he asks jesus what must i do to be born again what must i do to inherit eternal life and jesus responds and

says all you got to do is to inherit eternal life is to be born again and nicodemus is like that doesn't make any sense how am i supposed to climb back into my mother's womb and jesus says if you want to inherit in eternal life, you were to be born of water and of spirit. What he's saying is that you have to be regenerated. You have to be made new from the inside out. You have to be indwelt with the spirit of God. You have to be purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. And when we place our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord, as our Savior, as our king, what happens to us in that moment is we become justified. Jesus makes it just as if we never sinned. And we get adopted into the family of God. And we become, and we have a seat at his family, and we become the righteousness of Christ. It's an

unbelievable exchange. It's called the divine exchange. Jesus says to Nicodemus, you're to be born again. And then in verse 8, he quotes this verse that seems out of context. And he says, Nicodemus, the kingdom of God is like the wind. No one knows where it's coming from, and no one knows where it's going. And then Jesus goes on to explain internal life. I love that verse. The first time I I really read and studied that verse, I was actually sitting in the garden in Gassimony in Jerusalem. John chapter three in this encounter with Nicodemus and that verse lands on me. The kingdom of God is like the wind. Nobody knows where it's coming from and nobody knows where it's going. And it was like lightning. God spoke to me in my heart and he told Ryan, what I want you to do for the rest of

your life is I want you to be a wind chaser. I want you to chase the wind. What does that mean? Well, I want you to have eyes to see where I'm at work and I want you to join me in that work. I want you to have ears to hear what I'm up to in other people's lives and I want you to join me that work. I want you to chase the wind. Nobody knows where it's coming. You didn't wake up today thinking, you know what I'm going to do today? I'm going to change someone else's life in Jesus' name. But the wind's blowing, my friends. The wind's blowing, and we have opportunity. So this man asked Jesus the same question. How do I inherit it? And Jesus answers his question with a question. Luke chapter 10, verse 26, he said to him, what is written in the law? How do you read it? Now, if you've been in

any kind of relationship for any amount of time, you know there's a good practice to answer questions with questions. Let me help you young people that are on the front end of relationships with people maybe you'll marry, maybe you just got married. Let me break it down for you how this works. When I first started dating my wife, I would ask a simple question. And the question would be, where would you like to go for dinner, right? And then my wife would reply, I don't really care. I mean, we can go wherever you want. And then I would normally like, okay, cool, I thought that's what she meant. And I'd be like, okay, cool, I want to go to Chick-fil-A. And she'd be like, nah, I don't know. Honestly, I preach here a handful of times a year. Normally, he's Pastor Jobi.

He's way better looking. He's way better preacher, all that stuff. That said, the number one question I get asked from a Church of 1122 people is simply this. Pastor Britt, how many Chick-fil-A points do you have? I used it in an illustration like a year and a half ago. It's the number one question. And I will have you know that right now, as we sit here today, I have about 71,000 Chick-fil-A points. Just confessing it. I don't know if it's sin. I don't know what it is.

That said, that's where I'm at in life, my friends. That's who I am. Okay? Judge me if you want. I've learned answering questions with questions, right? This is what Jesus is doing. You answer questions with questions. It's just a better way to live.

And then so Jesus says, well, what's written in the law? And the man responds. The lawyer says, well, you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. And you will love your neighbor. as yourself. And he said to him, you have answered correctly, do this, and you will live. Now, I believe that Jesus's answer is soaked in sarcasm. Because Jesus says, the guy answers him right. He quotes Deuteronomy chapter 6. He quotes a part of a verse out of Leviticus. And he says,

all, he says, if I want to live forever, all I got to do is love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. And Jesus is like, ta-da, bro, you nailed it. You're absolutely right. If you want to live forever and inherit eternal life, all you have to do is love God with all you got all the time. And there's never, he never takes second place. All you got to do is love him all the time, obey him perfectly and completely and never, ever misstep. If you do that, you will live forever. Do you hear the sarcasm? Yeah, just go do it now, bro.

Just go do it now. Here's the problem. The man brings in the mosaic law, and the thing about the law is this. the law was never meant to cleanse us, it was only meant to convict us. The law is a map and a mirror. It shows us exactly what the standard of perfection for life is. And then it reveals to us, reflects back to us the fact that we can't do it. And here you insert the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The fact that Jesus Christ came and did live according to the law perfectly. He lived our life for us in our place perfectly. And then he died our death. the just and full payment for sin is death, for the wages of sin is death. Jesus died our death and our place so that when we place our faith in him, we become and are able to walk in his resurrected life. This is the good news of the gospel. The law says, do this and you will live.

Grace says, come to Jesus and you will live. Verse 29, Jesus, the lawyer continues and goes, he realizes that Jesus has now got him trapped. And he says, but now, and you want to underline this, but he, desire, to justify himself said to Jesus, who is my neighbor? His motivations for the question are jacked from the onset. Who is my neighbor? We will all go through life and into eternity doing one of two things. Number one is that we will be trying to justify ourselves. I'm trying to do this with good works, trying to do this with good deeds, but what we mean by good is not that bad and every now and then noticeably good. But the question is how many and how much? And which one outweighs the bad

deeds and how do we balance the scales in and of our own efforts. And so we'll be trying to justify ourselves with good deeds, even religious deeds. We may try to justify ourselves with religious deeds. Maybe it's rationalization. Is there anyone here, and don't raise your hand to answer to this, but is there anyone here who would say, I'm a professional at being right in my own mind? I'm a professional at being right in my own mind. I mean, think about it. When's the last time you looked at someone you loved and you said, I'm sorry without any explanation on the ownership? I'm sorry. Salvation. starts with these words. For everyone who comes to Jesus, they come with some version of these words.

Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. Maybe it's rationalization. Maybe it's minimization. We try to minimize a couple of things. Number one is we try to minimize who we are. On both sides, one is we try to minimize sin and its impacts and it's devastating realities. And we try to treat sin like it's a mistake or something we just stumbled over. When the truth is, it's not just something we stumbled over. It is something that we are born with an appetite for and we're born hungry. It is a condition that we live in. And apart from God's grace, we're stuck in. And so we'll minimize our sins.

But another will minimize what happens to us after we place our faith in Jesus Christ. When we are no longer sinners, we are now saints in Jesus' name. And as a saint, we walk in faithfulness. We walk in humility. We are born again holy, which means that God can use you to do far more than you could have ever done on your own without him. God wants to use you. God wants to use your life to make a significant difference on this planet.

that God wants to use you in the lives of other people. God has given you gifts and talents and resources. And we sang the song earlier as a church that the Lord will provide. The Lord provides to us so that the Lord can provide through us. Amen. Amen. So you can try to put, you can try to justify ourselves or we can trust that Jesus Christ has justified us. Romans chapter 5 says this in verse 1 and 2.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. It is positional. Identity precedes activity. Your position is in grace. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Luke chapter 10, verse 30, Jesus replies to this man's self-justifications and he says, I want to tell you a story. So there was a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him. and departed leaving him half dead. There's a lot of gospel here.

There's a lot of gospel here. Man fell among robbers. John chapter 10, Jesus says that the thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy. In this life, we have two choices. We either in partnership with God or we are in partnership with Satan. There's not a neutral ground. That the thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy, and that there is much of this world that has fallen into hands of the robbers.

And if it were not for the grace of God, that would be my story too. falling among robbers the thief and maybe you're here today in your experience over the last couple of weeks or over the last season is that you've just been beat down

by the devil man you just been beat down by the devil the whispers have gotten loud the insecurities have gotten loud the self-justifications have gotten loud maybe you had a tough holiday season and you're all all you feel alone I just want to remind you that you're not alone

I just want to remind you that the whispers are lies from the pit of hell and the condemnation is not the language of the Father. The Father invites us into intimacy with Him. He wants to know you. He knows everything about you. He wants you to be so near to him. Why would he go through all the trouble of sending Jesus Christ to do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves?

If he didn't love us and have good things for us, of course he does. I reject the lies of the enemy that would come against you in Jesus' name. Be free in Jesus' name. Maybe the devil has been beating you down. maybe the truth is apart from the grace of God, all of us are left all alone. Half dead, unable to move is what some translations say. If God does not get involved in our lives, we are dead and stuck in sin. Ephesians chapter 2 explains it like this way.

He says, as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. Verse 4 and 5, but because of God's great love for us, who is rich in mercy, He made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions, it is by grace we have been saved. Jesus Christ, what we're about to celebrate with Christmas is that Jesus Christ came incarnate. He threw himself among robbers, and he subjected himself to a cross so that he could defeat hell and death so that we could live forever as his brothers and sisters. Jesus was stripped down, is what Isaiah 53 says. What the testimony of the Passion Week is, Jesus was stripped so that we could be saved. was abused so that we could be adopted. He was beat down so that we could believe. He was crushed

so that we could be called. He died so that we could be delivered. He was forsaken so that we could be forgiven. He was humiliated so that we could be made holy. He was judged so that we could walk as justified. He subjected himself to isolation so that we could have intimacy with the father. I could go all day. He was killed so that we could become his kin. He was lashed so that we could experience God's love. He was murdered so that we could be made new. I can go through the whole alphabet until I get to X and then I'm stuck. But if you figure that one, I'll shoot me an email, right? Do you get what I'm pointing at here?

Identity precedes activity. Everything we do is a result of who we are because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. Now by chance, the story continues. A man's left, half dead and beaten. Now by chance, a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And so likewise, a Levite. And he came to that place and he saw him and passed by on the other side, a priest and a

Levite, both very religious people. If you were to interview these gentlemen and you were to say, listen, why did you pass by? They would give you a very religious answer. They would give you a very understandable answer. And you would say, well, that's justified. It would be about the religious law of uncleanness or the fact that they actually had other people to help and they couldn't slow down enough to help this person or their answer

would make sense to you. But here's the truth. if your religion causes you to move away or to distance yourself from hurting people, it doesn't have anything to do with Jesus. Today, in a minute, we're going to get to this. But as we see children in need, we can be the kind of people who make excuses and pass by, or we can be the kind of people who make a difference in Jesus' name. Are you going to pass by today?

Verse 33, it says this, but a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. In the first century to a Jew, these are fighting words. The Jews hated the Samaritans. And so the fact that Jesus made a Samaritan, the hero of this story is mind-numbing. They hated them for a lot of reasons, mixed bloodlines, sacrilege, but mostly they hated them because the Jews built their entire life around a mountainous called Mount Moriah, and it's where Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac in the Old Testament.

This is the same mountain where Jerusalem is, where the temple was built, where the sacrifices were made for the forgiveness of sins and where Jesus went to be sacrificed, to be the full and final sacrifice for sins. Mount Moriah is a big deal. The temple, Solomon's temple, and then it was rebuilt by Nehemiah, and then it was built by Herod again until 70 AD when it was torn down. The temple was the most holy place in all of the world. Okay, and so this is what the Jews believed. The Samaritans, they were, they never were accepted by the Jews, and so they said, forget y'all, and they picked another mountain, Mount Garazim, and they built their own temple, and they began to sacrifice like the Jews and the temple look just like Solomon's temple, and they begin to sacrifice their own

animals and do their own religious practice. In the first century, this is absolute blasphemy. They hated each other. And so if Jesus to pick a Samaritan, there's something going on here. He says, this Samaritan sees this man in need and has compassion. He went to him and he bound up his wounds. He poured oil and wine on him. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an end and took care of him.

and the next day he took out two denari and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, take care of him and whatever you spend, I will repay you when I come back. Verse 36, and which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers? The question that Jesus is getting at in the story of the Good Samaritan is this. The question is not who is my neighbor. The question is, what kind of person am I? That's what this is all about.

the question is not who is my neighbor the question is what kind of person am i am i neighborly am i the kind of person that sees someone in need and goes toward it am i neighborly the truth of the gospel is this is that jesus bound up our wounds jesus poured oil and wine on our heads a healing bomb to our souls when we were at our worst he gave us his blood and gave us his spirit my favorite part of this whole thing the whole my gospel the gospel connection that's my favorite is that that this man gave him a ride and make no mistake about it, that the only way we get to heaven is by riding on Jesus' back. That's the only way.

And Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. Jesus paid it all for this man to be healed. Sound familiar? A propitiation. He gave a payment that satisfied. He gave him a caretaker, someone to take care of him, someone who was willing to bear his burdens and to provide to meet his needs.

And this good Samaritan saw him and had compassion. Verse 37, it ends like this. And Jesus said, and the lawyer replied to Jesus, the one who showed him mercy. Isn't it fascinating that the lawyer can't even say the Samaritan's name? He just can't even say it. What's the right answer? Well, the Samaritan is the right answer.

And the man just can't even say it. It is amazing what happens, what negative feelings were capable of when thoughts rise up in us and we're trying to be right in our own minds. That's what this man's doing. The man said, the one who showed mercy, and Jesus looked at him and said, you go and do likewise. Today, our invitation is the same invitation. It is to go and to do likewise.

And in this simple act of faith and obedience and starting a relationship with a child somewhere around the world that is in desperate need, sponsoring a kid through compassion, And what we were doing through this simple act of faith and obedience is three things. Before I became a pastor here at the Church of 1122, I spent a lot of time in other countries. I was a mission's pastor like a missionary. And I spent a ton of time in some of the darkest and hardest places you can imagine.

And here's the thing about abject poverty. Do you know who suffers the most at the hands of abject poverty? It's always the children. It's always the children. And here I have a child named Vishnu, and he's a child. He lives in Sri Lanka. And in Sri Lanka, the dominant religion is Buddhism. And Buddhism and the fastest-growing religion in the world is Islam.

This is a huge problem because these do not lead to heaven. They do not lead to Jesus Christ. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only way. And when my wife and I were first looking for organizations that we wanted to partner our ministry with, This was before I even came on staff at 1122. There were three things we were looking for.

Number one, we were looking for organizations that were serious about reaching the lost. We believe that people who die without Christ, go into a Christless eternity because that's what the Bible teaches. And we wanted to partner with people who were serious about people having access to the gospel. People like Vishnu who grew up in a place where there's not missionaries around every corner. There's not a church in every corner. The majority of these languages, they don't even have a Bible translated in their language yet. And so the fact that through Compassion International, this child can have access to Christians to believers, to local church leaders who are going to meet their needs and who are going to disciple them, this is significant. Because Vishnu will be sponsored today, Vishnu will have a chance to hear the good news of Jesus Christ and spend his eternity in heaven with God and to have the hope of what it means to walk with Jesus Christ in this life.

We wanted to partner with an organization that was serious about reaching the loss and Compassion International is that. And the second was we wanted to partner with an organization that was focused. on reaching the least of these people who lived in abject poverty abject poverty is defined as living on less than two dollars and 16 cents a day they do not have access to medical care they do not have access to clean water Vishnu wakes up every day and do you know what Vishnu does he wakes up every day he probably only has one parent if he has any parents at all sub-sahead he lives in Sri Lanka but in sub-Saharan Africa in the mid-90s 90s 90% of the male population in east in sub-Saharan Africa was contracted the HIV-AIDS epidemic.

This is serious business. This is life-threatening things. Vishnu wakes up every day, gets up off the mud floor that he sleeps on, and the tin house that he goes on, and he walks around and wonders, does anybody see me and does anybody care? We have the opportunity to see and to care. So we wanted to have an organization that was focused on the lost and the least. My daughter, Abigail, when she was young, she was going in for a well check at the doctor.

And they were looking in her ears and they were like, that's funny. And they kind of looked down deep in there and they saw that somehow she had gotten a little plastic bead lodged down in her ear canal. How does this happen? Can someone explain this to me? I'm like, I look at her older sister. I'm like, did you have like a rubber mallet and just bang that thing in there? They're like, that is deep. They had to like put her under to go in and surgically pull this thing out, right?

But, you know, within a couple of days, it was resolved. Here's the thing. What's easy for us is almost impossible for Vishnu. Access to medical care like that, to education, to discipleship, truly the least. And the last was this, lost least. And we wanted to partner with an organization that was deeply committed to raising up leaders. to giving kids an opportunity to make a significant difference in this world. And Compassion International does that.

They deliver their ministry through local churches and through local believers. That means there's people just like you and me sitting around churches all over the world that have heard the call of God and have responded to where God put them in life and they are stepping in to meet needs and to help people like Vishnu raise up and change communities. I want to introduce you to one of our friends through compassion, who was a compassion child that now God is using in significant ways to change his community. his story. I was born in the middle of an era in the Dominican Republic.

There was a lot of crime, people being killed. That was our reality. My mom used to work in a factory. She was making that back in the 90, like a dollar a day. I didn't eat for days. In fact, there were days that I could only eat a cookie because that was all we could get. I do remember going to the streets to sell juice and empanadas. We couldn't eat it because that was the only money to pay the place where we were. To my chain, I wanted to be a game member.

This guy selling drugs in my neighborhood had nice clothes and nice sneakers and I choose. And every day I was on the streets looking for cardboard to put it inside my shoes. in order to walk. But the one thing that I learned to be was to be aggressive and to fight. You learn to hide your emotions. There was so much trauma and there was so much brokenness in my life.

And my mom said, the reason we are impover is because there is not a man at home. When I got into the Compassion Center, I was seven years old. It was my house. The church was like a house where I felt safe. where I have food, but I don't want to portray the nice story that things started to change immediately.

I was fighting in the center for five years. I gave them all reason to keep me out. The worst fight happened when I was 12. I was buying something to eat outside of the center. And another boy came and pushed me. I punched it into the side. into the sidewalk. And immediately, his eyes got open and his mouth.

And so he ended up in a coma. I was taken to the Compassion Center Director. And I was sitting there crying. I knew the end was coming. She took my face off, and she looked at me, and she said, Jonathan, why are you fighting? You don't have to fight. We love you.

And that's the moment that I had. I started reflecting on the path that I was taking. By the grace of God, my friend woke up from the coma. What I rightly deserved was to be kicked out of the Compassion Center, and they didn't do it. The same way Jesus died in the cross without us deserving any grace at all, that was the gospel right there. And that's the turning point in my life.

After getting baptized, it's when I got many opportunities. There were godly men who portrayed me the humble heart of Christ. They saw the material for a leader to be made. I got the opportunity to join Compassion. It was a blessing to me. Right now I serve with Compassion International as a manner of supporter engagement, but I also work in the form of public relations for Compassion. for compassion here in the DR.

I believe God brought me to compassion to educate people who could have a voice for those children without hope to understand that this is beyond sponsorship itself. But it is about helping local churches in need to be what God wants them to be and the church to be the church, spreading hope not only for the children that God,

has allowed us to serve, but the many, many more children that we're not serving right now. I am a testimony on how hope spread to me. Now is the time to give to others. Amen. So the impact is significant. And here's how we're going to close our service today is three things. I want you to know. One, there's a person in need. And the person in this case is a child. And they're located somewhere in the world and they're facing devastating situation. Because God is good and God is kind and God wants to be known. He's going to use people like me and you to help these children in need. And at all of our campuses, there's packets that look just like this one and they're on tables and they're hanging on walls all around. And as we see these children in need, we're moved by

the spirit of God and our heart beats with the heart of God and we take a step in that direction. will you be a person that passes by today or will you be a person that shows compassion to the one who's in need? There's also an innkeeper. The innkeeper in this instance is Compassion International. They are experts at delivering holistic child development and discipleship so that these kids will have all the opportunities they need to flourish in and throughout their life. They are the place where this child will go to receive care, to receive resources, and to receive the healing love and the healing bomb. of Jesus. So there's a person in need, there's an innkeeper, and there's good Samaritans. And that's you and me. And you're like, yes, Pastor Britt, I knew I was a good Samaritan.

It's true. We have the opportunity today to go toward those in need. And here's how we're going to do it. We're going to respond. And normally when we respond, we would invite you to come down front and to pray and to bring and to sing. And you can still sing and you can and you can still bring and you can pray. But our primary response today is that we're going to sponsor children. It is our single focus for this weekend to sponsor as many kids as we can to see them released from poverty in Jesus' name. And so in a minute, I'm going to pray and we're going to stand. And as soon as I say amen, you can go ahead and you can start going toward the tables at the top, at the tables around you, on the walls. You can go ahead and begin to look and read children's names and begin to learn a little bit about their stories.

And you can start a relationship with a child today. And one of the things I love about this is that my kids, we sponsor four as a family of four, and we write letters to our kids four or five times a year. We receive letters from our kids and we write letters from them. And now we're a part of their life and they're a part of our life. It's a significant relationship. When you go and get a packet, you're going to read on the back and you're going to say, okay, you're going to learn about what sponsorship means.

And what it means is $43 a month to change a kid's life forever. And for $43 a month, you can partner to change a child's life forever. When you grab your packet in the back, there's an area where you fill in the information. we would love for you. You need to fill that information in before you leave and give us that information back. Because if you don't, if you just take the compassion, the packet in full and you don't give us the information,

the child will come out of circulation for sponsorship for a few months and it'll put them behind. So please fill out the information appropriately and give that back to us once you found the child that God wants you to sponsor today. If you're joining us online, you can text the word at any point, the word sponsor to 83393, and you can do all the same things that we're about to do here.

If you would, stand with me. I'm going to pray for us, and as soon as I say amen, you start heading toward the tables and you start seeing what child God has for you today. Father, we love you. We thank you for loving us first. God, we thank you that when we were lost, you saw us and you did not pass by. We thank you that when we were facing, when we were stuck in the least, you didn't leave us alone to our own efforts, but you saved us and you met us and you

and you brought us in to your family. And God, we thank you that you have called us and appointed us and anointed us as leaders in the kingdom of God as people who go first and people who say yes. And so I just pray for our church today as we say yes in this way through child sponsorship that you would take our yes that we put on the table and you would put it on the map. And we're praying for the children in Jesus' name that we would be sponsored through our church this weekend. We pray that you raise up kingdom warriors. We pray that you raise up men and women that are willing to preach the gospel, to proclaim the gospel, to demonstrate the gospel. We pray that you would save them, that you would sanctify them. God, we pray that you would release them from the chains of poverty in Jesus' name. We pray that you would protect them from the

fiery darts of the enemy. And as God's people, we raise up the shield of faith and we stand against the enemy that would come against this next generation of children. And we say, no, and we bind him up in Jesus' name. And we lose healing. We lose wholeness. We lose forgiveness. And we lose purpose in Jesus' name. Through our partnership with compassion. God, we pray that you would help us to help others. We thank you that you have provided to us so that you can provide through us. We pray all these things in the wonderful and the powerful name of Jesus. And all God's people said, amen. Amen.

Let's sponsor some kids.