The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 15: Compassion Weekend

Episode Date: April 29, 2018

When you have been SET FREE by the gift of God's GRACE then you are FREE to GRACE others that are still in bondage through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen and amen. How are we doing, church? You ready for this? You're ready to change the world? I hope so. Grab your Bibles. We're going to be in Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six. How many of you have never been a part of one of our compassion weekends before? Raise your hand at all of our campuses. You've never been. All right, all right. We do this every single year. There's about 2,000 of you that are here this year that weren't here last year. So this will be all new to you. But if you've been around for a while, this is just a part of who we are. I kind of consider it. the compassion question is like the third question you should get asked if you're in 1122. Or you meet somebody at Walmart.

Go, oh, you go to 1122. What campus do you go to? And then they say, what campus? Oh, cool. Where's your disciple group meeting? You're like, oh, we're at Paneras. And then the third one is, so where's your compassion kid from? So this is how standard this is.

That makes sense? And so I have a very clear agenda. I'm an agenda-driven person for some of you that offends you. That bothers me this much, all right? And so this is my agenda. that by the time we are finished in our time together, I would like to convince you to sponsor a compassion kit. So the good news of this is if you don't need the whole sermon,

then you can get up at any time, at any of our locations, at any time. The moment you realize this is happening, then you can get up from where you are and along the walls of all of our campuses and at the tables all around the sides, then you can go and just sponsor a kid and you can just go out to eat right after this and beat the crowds and God bless you. No problem. And I've checked to Jesus.

He's totally cool with that. You don't have to listen to the whole sermon because that is the point. So if you accomplish the point before you hear the sermon, then you're all in, all right? And if you get up to go to the bathroom, we're just going to assume that you are wanting a compassion kid. So you'll get one on the way out towards the bathroom and while you're in there, you can fill it out. All right? And so that's just how this is going. So if you get up, you're getting a packet.

So know that. Now, typically when I preach, I try to not emotionally manipulate or guilt or anything like that. I just typically just like read the Bible, say here's what it says. But in regards to this, all of those rules are out of the window. I'm going to use whatever tactics I can and the gifts that God has given me to accomplish the one goal, which is to get you to sponsor a kid. Now, part of the reason we're doing this in Romans chapter 6 is because for weeks and weeks and weeks, there is just theology, theology. I mean, we started out in chapter 1, verse 5.

Paul says that the reason that he's doing this, preaching the gospel and writing to the Romans, is to bring about an obedience of faith for the sake of his name. And that's a cool sentence. I like that sentence a lot. But what does that practically and tangibly look like in our lives? the past few weeks we've talked about what does it look like to be buried with Christ, to be dead to your sin and resurrected to the newness of life. I mean, that sounds awesome, right?

But what do you do with that on a Tuesday? And what we're going to do in our time together is give you some handles to those theological realities that should drive our lives as followers of Jesus and say, well, here is what it looks like to die to this world and be resurrected in Christ. then our value systems completely, completely change. And so I would also confess that I would never try to lead you to a place that I am not already going. And so my goal for you, if you wonder how many kids should I sponsor, you've got one or two algorithms you could run at your house.

Number one is you could just sit down at dinner, look around the dinner table, count everybody there, that's how many compassion kids would be a good start. That's one way to do it. And if you're like, woo, then my kids are in college. Or you can get out your car insurance and count how many people you're paying for, and that's how many compassionate kids you should go for. Everybody good? We good with this?

All right. Because this is what we do at my house. I didn't bring the packets themselves, but currently at the Martin household, we sponsor six kids. All right? There's four of us that live in my house, and we sponsor six kids. We sponsor a kid named Pedro. He lives in Brazil. I got to hang out with him last year.

He's 20 years old, so we've got to talk about that, you know, because we need to show him to act like men series, and he needs to... Now, he's about to graduate high school. They kind of do it different in Brazil, and he'll be out of the house there soon, and then when we'll get another one. We got twins. I've never seen twins in the history of compassion. And last year, last year we were going to sponsor one more kid, and I preach so good I convinced myself to get twins. So, chew on that for a minute. They're both named Maria Barbosa.

Maria Vittoria and Maria Clara. They are also in Brazil. We sponsor a little girl named Sonia. She is in somewhere. I can't remember. Indonesia. She's in Indonesia. I sponsor a girl named Brandy.

She's in East Africa and Uganda. And I've met Brandy and her mom and her grandmother. When we're planting churches over there, I usually swing by the village that she lives in. And it's crazy. One time she invited me over to her home. And so I go over, you know, just to meet her. mother, I've met her a few times, and to meet her grandmother, and the letters that we were exchanging, the letters that we had written, and that my kids had written her were taped up

on the mud walls of their mud house, the letters that we had. And her grandmother was so filled with gratitude that she gave me a chicken. A chicken. And I'm trying to describe, in English, to her Delta's policy on bringing African chickens to Jacksonville. And so whatever we had a chicken all right and so and then also we sponsor a girl named grace and uh grace is also in from Uganda and she was born on Christmas Day and so that's pretty cool and so in fact this picture right here is a picture of one of the girls that we sponsor her name is grace and the reason I show you this picture I showed it to you last year but some of you weren't here last year this this picture is a pretty good representation of what you as a church have done

See, we've done this as a church from before we were even a church. And I don't know if you've heard the rumors, but the rumors are true. Early on in this, we had about, I don't know, we had a few hundred people attending our services. And if you think I'm emotionally manipulative now, man, you should have been there back in the day, like before I hit 40 and got old and gray, all right? One of the things we did in the early years is instead of giving out bulletins, we handed every single person a packet when you came in, we just gave you one. And when people were like, no, no, no, I'm good. No, you're not good. You're a wretched, dark-hearted sinner. Here, take this packet. Every person.

And then I preached a very emotionally manipulative sermon. I had Bible verses. It was all good. And then at the end of it, we had the back of the sanctuary filled with trash cans. And I said, you've got one or two options. You can sponsor the kid or throw them in the trash. And people were like, I know, mad. I was like, you can be mad all you want. They're going to be eating out of the trash. I mean, that's how we did it. And we sponsored all of them. So that went good. That went good. So now it's just kind of a part of our DNA, okay? So again, at any point, at any of our campuses, if you're ready to go,

just make your way over to the table. Also, if you want to text any of your friends that dodged the weekend, because they knew what it would mean for them, then go ahead. Please text them. Or you just get them a packet. Go ahead and fill their name in and charge it to them. I'm sure Jesus would be okay with that. That's totally fine.

And so the reason we got this picture is because the compassion experts have told us that through the influence of the Church of 1122, that over 10,000 children have been released from poverty in Jesus' name. Amen? That's you. That's you. And so this picture of grace, what a great name. I don't know if you can see it from where you are,

but there are, I don't know, there's 10,000 little individual pictures of kids that we have sponsored that make up this collage of a girl named Grace. Now, the reason, the reason that I do this and that church leaders of big growing church has warned me to not do this the reason I do this is because

man nothing smells like Jesus more than this thing and my hope and my prayer is that I mean I pray all the time God let me make a difference for you that is utterly disproportionate to who I am and I don't know what you're doing with the rest of your life

but can you imagine did you know this this very weekend in all of our campuses man we could we could release over a thousand children from poverty in Jesus name and we could change generations after generations after generations you and you think well what could little old me do well do you know where this whole thing started my wife told me we were sponsoring one kid

18 years ago and that one step of obedience of a youth pastor's wife, it's not like she had this, you know, world-renowned influence. She just felt like God was calling her to be obedient to sponsor one kid 18 years ago. That thing, that was the first domino that fell in over 10,000 children being released from poverty in Jesus' name. So I don't know what you're doing with the rest of your life, but why don't we just change the world? and why don't we start right now? So this is kind of what Paul is talking about here

when he gets to Romans chapter 6 verse 15. What he's talking about now is he is going to talk about the application of what it means back in chapter 1 verse 5 to have an obedience of faith or an application of what it looks like to be dead to sin, dead to this world, and alive to Christ. We'll pick it up in verse 15. It says what then? Question mark.

Now we've got to explain this. This is what's taking a lot. nine months to get through Romans. But it's similar to chapter 6, verse 1. Remember a couple weeks ago, he said, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? And the reason he was asking that question is because all the way back to chapter 5

verse 20, he said where sin increases grace abounds, that's really good news if you're a believer in Jesus. Then no matter how big your sin is, Christ's grace on the cross is exponentially bigger. And then some wicked people like me and you would say, well, does that mean the more I sin, the more grace I get? And grace is good, so then I could just fill its place up with grace. fill in this place up with sin, right? Paul's like, no, bro.

If that's what you think, then you don't understand what grace is. And then as he's unpacking that, when he gets to chapter 6, verse 14, he says, for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace. And to which people go, they think, well, if I'm under grace and not under law, can I just do what I want? This is where he picks it up here. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?

By no means, explanation point. You know what that means? That's a capital text. Like he's screaming here in Greek. No way. Do you not know that if you present yourself to anyone as obedient slaves, underline the word slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin which leads to death or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

Basically, Paul is saying this. He goes, look, no matter who you are, how you grew up, what you've done, what you believe, you play on one of two teams. There's only two teams. You are either a slave to sin or you're a slave to righteousness. That's it. Now, the word slave, you can't think like transatlantic American kind of slavery. It's just different.

In Greek, the word is doulas. Say dulos. And it means like, it means slave or bond servant or, but in the first century, it's not talking, it wasn't primarily racially motivated. anybody could be a slave. It was primarily economically motivated. So there were Gentiles that were slaves to Jews. There were Jews that were slaves to Gentiles. It wasn't a racial thing whatsoever.

It was a money thing. And what would happen is that people that owed a debt that they could not pay, they would sell themselves into a bond servant, or they would sell themselves into slavery to pay off the debt. Now, the thing that is true is it meant that you didn't own you anymore. That you had a master that told you what to do. But in this situation, the doulas or the servant could always buy their way out of freedom. Now, this reality is going to really sting your American individualistic ego.

And it's just true from the Bible. We are all owned by something. We were not created to be self-sufficient. Every single one of us, every single one of us are owned by something. you're either owned by sin or owned by a savior and those are the only two options and the moment I say this I always get some brother just like not me nobody owns me I'm I am my own man I go man man you kind of look funny right now okay because you're just owned by the pride of life that is your ruler you were owned by self that you were you were owned by your own ego you're owned by your own

And if it's not that, then you are owned by the lust of the flesh, that you are owned by your own comforts, you're owned by your own desires, you're owned by cravings that will never be fully and finally satisfied. It drives you more than anything, or you're owned by the lust of the eyes. That means you're owned by the stuff that you're trying to get your hands on. And I didn't come up with those three categories. We talk about those three categories over and over and over because in 1st John, The Bible lets us know those are the only three categories of temptation and sin that the enemy can throw our way.

Lus of the eyes, lust of the flesh, or the pride of life. And one of those things, if you are not in Christ, owns you. And if you're not careful, one of those things, even if you are in Christ, will tempt you to try to step back under their dominion as if they own you. This is what Paul is talking about here. Now here's the crazy thing. The moment you're like, nothing owns me. Just check your calendar and check your bank account,

and that will tell you what you were subject to. Yeah, some of you are owned by your kid's baseball schedule. Straight up. It rules your world. Some of us are owned by stuff. And I love it when somebody blows up and be like, I'm not owned by that. Okay, just stop it for a minute. Well, I can't do that.

Well, I think it's because it's your master. and you don't get to tell it what to do. Now listen, when you begin to jack around with an idol that has a grip on your heart, it will fight back with a vengeance. Trust me. So one of the ways to see what owns you is to find that place where you find yourself most defensive when somebody brings it up. Like if it's the pride of life, if you're owned by the sin of self,

that person usually bows up and it's like, I don't care what people think about me. I say, brother, you realize the people that actually are actually, don't care, don't have to keep saying that over and over and over. Because I think right now you're trying to convince you, not me. Because you're so concerned about your status, your sole concern about getting that next promotion, you're so concerned about you,

you're willing to do whatever it takes to everybody else to get what you want the most. It controls you. It's your master. You are a due loss, a servant of the pride of life. And again, some people are a servant of, their senses, a servant of their cravings. The Bible would call that the lust of the flesh. And it could be drinking, it can be smoking, it could be sex, it could be pornography,

it could be some dumb television show, it could just be Facebook, and the moment you go, no, no, no, no, no, that doesn't rule me. Okay, just stop it for a minute. I had a brother of mine the other day go, hey, what some people call addiction, some people call dedication. I'm like, I think you're mastered, my man, all right? Just stop it. And I'm telling you, if you can't stop a thing, it's because it owns you. And then for some, a bunch of us, it's the lust of the eyes, that we are a slave to stuff. And here's how I know, because it's the kind of people, man, I have this conversation a whole bunch with these people. The people that are a slave to stuff, a slave to money, a slave to the things of this world,

will be the first people to say to me, the church just wants my money. No, bro, I think you want your money. All the church talks about is money. We're 15 weeks into Romans. We've just been talking about Romans, all right? But if we ever bring it up and you think that's all you talk about, that idol might be getting jacked around in your heart, and he will fight back with a vengeance.

So yeah, we're going to talk about generosity and money. And guess what? At the end of the service, we ain't taking about offering? You know what we're going to do? Here's what we're doing. We're asking our church to take a money. take $2.5 million, not towards the operating budget of 1122, but send it through Compassion International to rescue 5,000 children from poverty in Jesus' name. You see, you realize if this is the money

thing, we wouldn't do the compassion thing. You know what we could do with $2.5 million? We could build some more stuff, and we are going to build some more stuff, all right? Praise God. But you know what? Here's what we are called to do. We are called to build the kingdom of heaven. We're not trying to build some kind of 1122 empire? Nah, man, we don't want your money. God wants your heart. And Jesus says that nothing wraps around the axle of the heart like money. And so Paul would say, so which team are you playing for?

Which team are you playing for? You are either a servant of sin and this world. Like, it tells you what to do. And you might murmur behind its back, but you can never command it. Or your other option is you were a slave or you're a slave. were a servant or you were a due loss to God. And the crazy thing about it is this, is that God is the only master that does not oppress, but sets you free.

Do you realize that anything in this world you chase after long enough, it will disappoint you? And anything that you idolize, when it lets you down, you will demonize. I promise you, I don't know which is worse, man, spending your whole life chasing after something that isn't even real or maybe attaining. that thing and then having your bubble burst right in your face. I've told you before, one of the first things I ever did when I moved here is I went to a greyhound track, not to gamble, just research. You understand it was research?

And I took Pastor Stone with me. He almost had a panic attack, all right? He had never been in a place like that. He's such a good person, all right? And so I went and I checked it out. And I've told you before, you know, you go to the dog track and over and over, you see dogs, these greyhounds, chase after a thing that's not real. They call it Rusty.

They blow the dogs into the little kennels and they get all, I mean, these dogs were built to run. You ever seen a greyhound like up close? It looks like an aging supermodel. You know what I mean? Just in high hills. It looks weird. And I know some of you have greyhounds.

Praise God. At least it's not a cat, all right? No problem. They're not meant to just stroll. They are meant to boom and go. And the announcer comes on. He's like, here's Rusty. And the dogs lose their mind.

I'm going, man. The gates open, and those things, they don't run. Running's like this. It's like reach pull, reach. Have you seen them? They do the little heads going like that. I mean, they go crazy. They go around the corner.

It's like Talladega, man. Daytona, bumping. And they get to the end, and the rabbit disappears. And they're like, so close. I almost had him this time. They're like, yeah, me too. I think we'll ever see him again? I don't know.

Probably not. Sure enough. day, he's back. He's so back. That's what they do. Every day of their life. And you look at that and you're like, what a dumb dog. And every Monday you wake up. And the alarm clock goes, here's Rusty. And you're like, leather. Hang you, leather in here? Bucket seats. Are you serious? Granite. A half bath. Lose your mind. Me too. In a second. Just end the story. I didn't even know I needed that until I saw it.

And spend your whole life chasing after something. It's not even real. The only thing more sad is when they catch it. They chew through the muzzle and they catch it. They're like, hey, wait a minute. I think we've been duped. Do you know they won't run anymore? So who's the dummy now?

You don't know a bunch of us do? We catch the thing. Move into the neighborhood, get the car, get the promotion, get the net. see an assistant manager. And you achieve your dream, and then it lets you down. And then all you do is just reshape the dream into the same dream. And even a dumb Greyhound won't keep chasing after the same thing. And so Paul says, so which team are you on?

Because there's only two teams here. You can either be a servant of sin, and it will own you, and it will oppress you, and it will oppress you and it will trick you and it will kill you and steal from you and destroy you and all the while you think you're in charge he's called an adversary his native tongue is lies and we live in a world that spends billions of dollars a day to get you to buy into that lie and they're dang good at it too or your other option is you can be a slave or a servant or a doulas to God Tim Keller says it this way. Jesus is the only master who, if you find him, will satisfy you.

And if you fail him, he will forgive you. You see, we live in a world that wants to shackle you up with burdens. And then a Savior named Jesus shows up on the scene. And he has a different offer. And his offer is this, come to me. All you who are weary and heavy burden. All you who have taken lap after laugh after laugh after lap, around this track of life and you just can't find satisfaction in it.

All of you who have tried rebellion and religion, all of you who've tried to make much of you, that's called the pride of life, all of you that had the lust of the flesh, and somehow, though you can control your circumstances to find temporary comfort, you just couldn't get that comfort to transcend deep down in your soul. All of you that reached out to grab the stuff of this world and then grab it onto the stuff, you found out it had a great. grip on you that wouldn't let go. Hey, all of you, if you fall in one of those categories,

Jesus says, come to me, because my burden's light. My yoke is easy. And then he says, and I will give you rest for your soul. Imagine that. When you become a slave to righteousness, a servant of the one true God, he doesn't oppress you. He gives you rest for your soul. He changes everything about everything about you. And so this is where Paul hangs out for a minute. In verse 17, he says, but thanks me to God, that you who were once slaves to sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching

to which you were committed. And having been set free from sin have become slaves to righteousness. Verse 19, I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. for just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading the sanctification. There's at least three things here going on based on what Paul says.

Number one is the first few lines. He says this, but thanks be to God. He says, before we go any further, why don't you stop for a second and thank God for your own salvation? Because I'm telling you, the longer you're in the church, the less and less aware. of what a miracle it is that you and I got saved. And all throughout the scriptures, what Paul's going to do, like if you just read the introduction to the majority of the epistles,

the letters that Paul wrote to the churches, most of them will say some version of, to you brothers in, name that town, let me remind you of the gospel. Let me remind you of what Jesus did for you. You see, the gospel is not just for our salvation, the gospel's for our sanctification. So he starts with, but thanks me to God,

and he ends with leading to the gospel. sanctification. Don't you ever get over the fact that you and I did nothing to deserve the grace that was poured out for us. Don't you and I ever get over. Don't you ever quit looking up at Jesus and asking the question, who am I that you would save a wretch like me? You see, because remembering your salvation will fuel your sanctification.

Do you know why we should rescue this? little girl from poverty in Jesus' name? Primarily, because that's what he did for me. And the moment you think you had anything to do with where you live, the education that was afforded to you, who your parents were, the opportunities that we have, it is all of that is by grace. And even all of that pales in comparison to the fact

that you got to hear the gospel and respond by faith to what Christ did for you. Don't you ever get off over that. Here's what he says, but thanks be to God. Why don't we start right there? And then he says, thanks be to God that you

who were once slaves to sin have become obedient from the heart. Never forget what God saved you from. And I don't just mean sex drugs and rock and roll. I mean, never forget

that he saved us from condemnation. That he saved us from guilt, that he saved us from hopelessness. that he saved us from shame. And he goes on to say, because we have become slaves of righteousness. You see, and because of God's grace in our lives, this means that we should act differently.

You know what a slave does? You know what a servant does? Whatever the boss says. That's what we do. And see, when you are slaves to sin and you are slave to yourself, then you're being tricked, you're being duped, you're being lied to. You're like the greyhound chasing stuff that's not even real.

But when you become a slave to righteousness, that does not mean right activity. It means right standing. You see, because in God's economy, every slave of righteousness is a son and a daughter of the most high king. And so when that happens, then you begin to do the kind of stuff that Jesus says that you should do. So what does it look like in your life to be set free from sin and become a doulas or a slave of righteousness? A part of what it means is the moment you are rescued from that life of sin, then you and I become a part of the rescue team. And that means locally, like in your house, in your neighborhood,

everywhere you live, and it also means globally to the very ends of the earth. That's what it means. That once you have been rescued, you become a rescuer. And hence, our partnership with Compassion International. Like I said before, I was introduced to Compassion International through my wife Gretchen. I was at a youth pastor's conference, and she just went by a table and signed up for the first kid, and we hadn't even been married a year yet, so we didn't discuss anything. You know, it's what we're doing.

Yes, ma'am, whatever you say, all right? And then I've told you this before. And then the next year we're at the same conference, and she gets another one. I'm like, baby, you're killing us, all right? We kind of tied on the budget. And she said, because it's 38 bucks. I'm like, honey, that's $38 is a lot. She goes, well, Comcast's cable bill costs us about $38, more than $38.

So we called our second kid Comcast until they graduated. Cut it off. We just kept going. You see, the reason that we partner with Compassion International is because we are slaves to righteousness and because what their mission is is to release children from poverty in Jesus' name. And it's a holistic child development program. And they're all over the world. They've been doing it since the Korean War.

I've been to, I don't know, I've been to dozens of projects and met the kids, and met the parents, I met the pastors, and met the teams. And all I can tell you is that it is legit. And they are releasing children from poverty. That's not just physical poverty. It's also spiritual poverty. When I say holistic child development, I mean what Jesus said when he was quoting the Shima, when he said that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart,

with all our soul, with all our mind, with all our strength. So there's a heart component to these kids. Relationally, kids come from some broken, jacked up places. And for some of them, for the first time in their lives, they have adults and authority in their life that love them in the name of Jesus. And mine, they get to go to school, they get an education, get to learn to read, and strength. They get to eat, and they get health care, get to go to the doctor.

And now diseases that are killing other people, like their friends, like preventable diseases that they're not killing the compassion kids because they get to go to the doctor. You realize that 22 million kids died daily from preventable diseases around the world? Like diarrhea. We get it and we think, this ain't good. You go to Walgreens. Pretty much over. And then you don't tell anybody.

I had a stomach issue. A bunch of countries, seriously, you don't live. That's it. That's the difference. that 1.6 billion people in our world live on less than a dollar and 25 a day. That 11 children under five years of age die every minute. And here's the thing. And every person that dies without Jesus goes to hell forever and ever and ever.

And 1122 wants to alleviate all human suffering, especially eternal. This is why it matters, that it's hard. soul, mind and strength. That every single compassion project is rooted in a local church, that we as a church are planting church after church after church, gospel-centered compassion churches in some of the hardest reached places in the world. What Paul would say is this, Paul would say, yeah, yeah, that means that you were helping set them free from sin. And some of the sin that we were able to help children be set free from, some of it is individual sin. Like the life that they are in as a result of the sin of their parents. And some of it is institutional sin.

Corrupt governments. And there's just no chance for them to have any opportunity. And some of it is just cosmic sin. Because we have an enemy that wants to kill and steal and destroy. And listen, there's some things that are true. It is not this kid's fault. And then you might say, well, it ain't my fault. You're absolutely right.

It ain't your fault either. This is not just true when it comes to social justice issues. Let me just tell you this, Christian. The word fault should never come out of the Christian's mouth. Christians need to talk about responsibility, not fault. You're like, where do you get that? The cross? How about if Jesus rolled up in here and went, sin?

That's not my fault. What happens to all of us? Yeah. Our sin then becomes our responsibility. But Jesus took responsibility for something that was not his fault, namely our sin. Why it was fueled and driven by love.

And so this is why we do this. You see, I think Britt told this story just a few weeks ago. We were in Brazil planting churches and we went to this place called Crackland. And it was called that because that's where Crack is. There's a lot. And it was crazy.

We went to these missionaries, these local, this pastor, this older guy and this younger lady. And we were We're going to go feed some folks, and I've done this in countries all over the world. Pastor Britt had a loaf of butterbread, and I had a two-liter fanta. And we're walking through the streets of Rio, and there's a section of the road that's gone because they blew it out so that the police couldn't get in there. And we're like, that's weird.

It looks like one of the video games, my son plays, you know? And then we turn the corner, and I'm not kidding you, there's like six or seven card tables, with however much crap you can stack on it, and these little baggies. Now, I don't know a lot about crack. I'm just going to confess. But the brothers standing next to them, they had like Mac 10 Uzi's. And I turned the corner, and Brits are like, the elders are going to kill me. I was like, yeah, they might not have to.

All right? Straight up, these dudes have Uzies and there's crack, and they got little bandanas like they're, you know, cowboys. And I've never felt like more of a weenie in my life. I was like, anybody want Fanta? I have Fanta. I'm usually pretty well armed, but I wasn't. And I didn't, I felt weird. And, bro, they shut the, the missionaries are like, we preachers.

The preacher's like, we're preaching. And I'm telling you, the main guy is like, the blue, whistled. And then he was like, and he did that. And I thought, I thought that meant like, you know, in my house, that means there, I think it means more. And he said, let's pray. And I'm telling you, all the crack dealers just kind of out of reverence for the Lord they put their oozy's kind of under the table.

And they closed their head, they bowed their head, and they closed one eye. It was like, one eye for Jesus, one eye on the crack, you know. It was crazy, man. So then we go across the tracks through this mud, and there's hundreds of people, just, like, without clothes on, just unconscious in the mud because they're hound crack. And as the people are waking up, we're giving them butter sandwiches and, some phanta and this church is trying to get one or two of them to come to like their halfway house and this is where we're planting churches through compassion right in these

kind of areas and so we're standing there we're talking to this one little family the lady that we're with she's awesome this Brazilian lady's unbelievable man and she's talking to the mom she can tell they i mean they've got this real relationship and this kid wakes up and he comes walking out of his house it's just a it's just a piece of plywood leaning against a concrete overpass and that's where they live. This little boy gets up and he's like 10 years old, nine years old, and he's got basketball shorts on that are way too big and he just looks like a bowlful of elbows.

He's not like Mount Nurse, he just as a kid with crazy hair. And he walks out and I'm telling you, when he comes out, I look at him because this was a couple years ago and I had one at my house like that, except if his hair was blonde. And every day I see the same picture. He gets up out of the bed looking like, you know, and he walks by me. this kid in Brazil and he just goes, stands right over here and uses the bathroom.

I look at Pastor Britt, it looks at me. He said, do you know what the difference thing that kid is and that kid and mine is? Where he was born. That literally is the only difference. That's it. And where you live should not determine if you live. And my kids have been so blessed and so graced. And I am telling you,

What we do with Compassion International is partner with them to reach kids like that, to release them. I mean, because what kind of futures that have had? I mean, you talk to some kids that grew up in East Africa, that grew up in poverty. You know what poverty steals more than anything else? Hope. Hope. You ask a kid in poverty, well, you want to be when you grow up. They're not thinking when.

They're thinking, if I grow up. And what we do is we come in with the gospel. of Jesus Christ. And God uses people like us to do in their lives what he has already done in our lives. Set us free from sin and make us slaves to righteousness. Listen, 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. Do you ever think about that?

So Paul keeps going. Verse 20, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regards to righteousness. Here's what he means. He goes, before you knew Jesus, you were free from things like purpose. You were free from forgiveness. You didn't have any. You were free from grace. You didn't have any.

You were free of hope. You were free of abundance. You were free of a right standing before God. In fact, you and I were actually his enemies, and the best that you could do in this life was based on your effort, period. That's the best you could hope for. Live a good life. but then when Christ saves you, when you get to that place where you realize that when Jesus died on the cross, that counted for me, then everything changes. Now, in him, we can do in this world exponentially more than we ever thought or ever imagined.

You may ask, what kind of difference could I make? I'm going to tell you this, this one girl that I'm married to because of one step of obedience has now influenced 10,000 children in Jesus' name. That could be the kind of difference that we make as a church. understand, that's what hangs in the balance. And I promise you, when you get to heaven, when you get to heaven, there's going to be a whole bunch of stuff that don't matter. I mean, stuff that matters so much to us right now, like how well your jeans fit. That's like a thing, isn't it, for you?

You're like, I cannot believe that. I promise you in 100 years, it's going to matter none, none. So many of the things that take our time and our attention and our effort. it's just not going to matter whatsoever. Verse 21, but what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you were now ashamed for the end of those things is death? But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and it's in eternal life. In other words, every single one of us are on a path and that path goes somewhere. One path goes to death, one path goes to life.

This is we call the principle of the path. And what Paul is saying is, if you are in Christ, you should be on a different path. And the reality is this. Regardless of what you believe, this is your truth. You're going to end up somewhere. Don't you want to end up somewhere on purpose? You are going to end up somewhere. And if we buy into what this world is selling us, we're going to end up what the rest of the world ends up.

It ain't good. And the reality is this, that everything you own, And everything we have is a bloodbought grace gift of Jesus. And everything that you have been given will either lead to regret or reward. So now that's really meddle in your lives and talk about money. And again, we're not taking up an offer. We don't even take up offerings, okay? Verse 21 is saying this.

He says, but what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you were now ashamed? So let's talk about this in regards to money. that the path principle of the American dream is a nightmare. It is. It is what I lovingly call the cul-de-sac of stupidity. And again, money's not stupid, but if you think it's going to do something for your soul, that's stupid.

And the reason it's stupid is because when the, like, come on, the first time you bought a car, you thought, oh, this is awesome. Then how long before it was just your car? And you had like french fries in it, and you didn't care. Remember? And then you're like, oh, but this next one, the next one, that's going to do it for me. Or clothes?

We talk about this all the time. You step into a dressing room and you look at yourself in the mirror and you're like, I cannot even believe I go in public looking like this. And you take those clothes off and you, with great disdainer like, get off me, sorry, rags, clothes. And then you put on some new clothes and you be like, that's what I'm talking about. Didn't you do that in those clothes? Same ones?

Take another laugh, stupid. That's what I'm talking about. And I'm not saying stuff is stupid, just hoping in stuff is stupid. And let me tell you one of the most dangerous realities. Most Americans, especially church people, feel generous and are greedy. And most Americans, especially church people, are rich and feel poor. That is a dangerous reality. Like if I were to ask you, are you generous?

I'm like, oh, I am so generous. I tip upwards of 18% sometimes. Oh, God bless you. you, all right? There's literally people dying around the world and we throwing away food. We might not be generous. And yet, you feel broke. And you are rich. Do you know that if your, if your annual household income is $32,000 a year, you're in the top 1% of wage earners in the entire world. 32,000 top 1%. That's crazy. Every time I'm waiting for somebody, be like, ha ha ha, rich, I knew it. It's crazy. You know what, the richest I ever felt? The richest I ever

felt when I used to work at Camp Pine Hill Babbage Retreat Center I made $125 a week and I got to pay an extra 25 because I was the lifeguard and nobody died so they let you give you a bonus and I didn't have any bills because you stay at camp and you know it's free and then when I left there I went back to college and that was covered and I got a check for a thousand dollars and I looked at that and I thought what am I going to do with all this money the richest I've ever felt my whole life all right it is a dangerous place to be, to be rich and feel poor and feel generous, but you're actually greedy. You see, here's what it means to be greedy. Grady means that you spend it all on yourself. And the fruit of that is never being satisfied.

So in regards to this, he says there's two paths here. And you have been down a path that led to the fruit of it was dissatisfaction. You were ashamed of it. Did you know, every time you get $38 in your hands, you're $30,000. $38 is on one of two paths. It leads to life or it leads to death. And I don't know about you, but we waste a whole bunch of $38. Think about some of the stuff you can spend $38 on.

Ready? A stomachache from Denny's. Nobody's ever gone to Denny's on purpose. Have you ever been in Denny? Like planned on it. Hey, three weeks from now, we're going to Denny's. No, you end up in there. You're like, what are we doing here?

And you walk out of this. This is the fruit of that decision. You walk out of there and you're like, I shouldn't have done that. every time you know what you can get for $38 six caramel macchiados that's it now there's anything wrong with those no I like him I like not caramel machado you know why because I'm what's called a grown man all right you can get a bus more just black coffees like you ought to but when you get

38 bucks if you say I don't have money for that but I do have money for that then I'd say, what team you plan for? That's what I'd say. The reality, there's very few of us that actually have to make that kind of decision. And it doesn't have to be coffee, man. It could be nail polish or fishing lures or food or whatever. Gritty, when we spend it all on us,

and when we spend it all on us, it leads us to a house full of junk, a heart full of regret, and a headful of questions. And the question is primarily, is this it? Is this it? I got all the gadgets, 10 million channels, nothing's on. Is this it? Verse 22, though, says,

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification in its end eternal life. The fruit of righteousness leads. There's a thing. You're like, this is what I was built for. I'm telling you, you walk out of Denny's and you're like, really? I'm not doing that anymore. I've never met the person at church that gets a letter from their kid,

and they're like, what a waste of money. No. that that is the fruit of doing the kind of things that Jesus would have you do. You see, the fruit of righteousness is you do stuff that Jesus did. Not only because his righteousness is counted to us, we talk about that all the time, but also because he is united with you. Therefore, because Jesus was so generous to us that God is first,

God loved first, God went first, that God so loved the world that he gave. And because his generous heart is, is in you, if you are in Christ, then you respond when we see this kind of need from the people that Jesus loves so much, we respond in generosity. And you know what we do? We just do what it takes. We do what it takes. And again, don't you ever confuse the results of the gospel with the gospel.

The gospel is that God made Him who was without sin to be sin for us, that we would be made the righteousness of God. But if you have been infected with the gospel, you will show sin. signs and symptoms of that infection. And if you don't show signs and symptoms of that infection, it may be you were just inoculated and it didn't really take. Don't believe me? Check Jesus out. Matthew Chapter 25. Pretty scary stories when he goes, hey, end of the world happens. Here's how this thing's rolling. I'm rolling back strong. I'm going sheep and goats. Sheep on my right. Good job. Goats, you should have said on that side. And they're like, how are we goats? He's like, look,

sheep go to heaven, goats going to hell. Seriously, the goats are like, what? And he goes, yeah, because I was poor and you didn't help me. And straight up, the people are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we went to Sunday school, though. He said, that's not what we're talking about. It's sitting a theology exam. The core question is, do you know Jesus? Because if you knew Jesus, you would have recognized me and you'd help me when you saw me.

That's real talk. That's what Jesus said. What he's saying is, don't miss this. If you know me, then you do the kind of thing. that I would do and I would care for the least of these brothers in mind. This is the opportunity that we have. And so he says, he finishes it this way. For the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. You see that, if you read this in the context, it's not only a verse about eternal salvation. It is also a verse about the way we live our lives. That there's a path. One path leads to death. the wages of sin, and that master always pays his wages. In other words, if you're on that path of this world, it leads to death. But there is a gift of God that is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

So here's the point. When you have been set free by the gift of God's grace, then you are free to grace others that are still in bondage through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen, you want to change the world? We can do it right now. We can release 1,000 children from poverty. in Jesus' name. And so now I brought a very special guest.

Reagan, will you come up here? We go right over there and come up here as fast as you can, all right? And if you think I am being emotionally manipulative, it is greater than you think, all right? And if you get up and leave, we're going to tase you, all right? So you stay right there. Come here, baby. This is my daughter.

Her name's Reagan Capri. All right? Amen? Yeah. Say hey. And she loves it. Try not to look at yourself. Look at the folks, all right?

I know. So she's just like me. She loves me up here. She asks if she could speak. She loves gymnastics. You did gymnastics today. Yeah. She would love to do cartwheels for you now.

We're not going to do that. She loves unicorns. She loves to sing. She loves all these kind of things. One of my favorite things, she loves me a bunch. All right? She really does, man. Every time I walk in the house, she greets me like a puppy as if I've been gone.

I was like, I was just here, you know? I don't care. I'll take it. And here's the thing, man. And I love her. I mean, you know what I'm talking about. I love her in a way that words can't express. I love her in a way that simultaneously would say,

I would die for you and kill for you. When she gets a little bit older, and then some of your boys start snuffing around my house. You understand what I'm saying. That's why we're investing heavily in our student ministry, all right? Because I'll start my prison ministry from the inside. I ain't scared. I ain't scared.

And she had no decision where she grew up. And we didn't get to pick her. One of the things I tell, we pray every night, and I say this all the time to her. I'm like Reagan of all the little girls in the whole world. I wonder why God gave me the best one. And every single night, we pray together and read the Jesus storybook Bible and ride around and go on dates. And we do all that. I mean, if you're a parent, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

If you're an aunt, if you're an uncle, if you're a grandparent, you know what I mean. And she's eight years old. And I would give my life of her in one second. And this is Maria. And she's eight years old. and her mom and daddy love her no less, no less. And every single time I go to one of these projects and go to one of these countries, which I go every single year, the thing that I cannot get over is the grace of God in my life,

that I was born where I was born and given the gifts and the abilities and the opportunities, and I did nothing to deserve them. It is by the grace of God. And as I look into the eyes of moms and dads and I hold the hands of little children and that are being affected by poverty. And I think, what if that one was mine? I mean, what if I was waking up every day and just doing the absolute best that I could?

But there's just not a job or somebody is sick or whatever it is. It was not because of a lack of trying or a lack of love. But if there was some thing that happened in my world that I could not take care of mine, what would I be willing to do? I'd be willing to do whatever it took, wouldn't you? Now, what if you know?

What if you knew that on the other side of the world at our churches 10,000 people would gather this weekend and they had the ability to change the future of your family what would you want them to do you should do that

that's what you should do you should do for this little girl and that little boy you should do for them what you would wish and pray that people that would bear the name of Jesus would do for your little boys and your little girls

if you couldn't do it for them. And so that's why we partner with Compassion International. So in just a second, I'm going to stand us, and we're going to pray, and you don't even have to wait until the end of the prayer. And the band is going to come up, and we're going to sing a song. And as that is happening, you can just go. You can go straight to the thing, go to the tables. You can go to the places where they're hanging up.

There are people with compassion shirts on. And just know this, for every single one of these kids that we rescue from poverty in Jesus. name. This is somebody's son. This is somebody's daughter. And even more important than that, this is somebody that Jesus died for. And they're going to hear the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so would you please stand and pray with me? And again, as I pray, if you want to go right now, you can go right now and begin to fill them out. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you because you love us first. God, I thank you and I praise you that you primarily want us to know you as Father. As a good, good Father. And Lord, I pray,

that we would no longer be slaves to sin, but we would be slaves to righteousness, that we would not build our lives on the sinking sand of this world, but we would build our lives on the rock of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God, I pray that you would help us see the way you see. God, you would help us to see through the lives of the enemy. God, that we would shake off the bondage of sin, the bondage of the pride of life and the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh.

and God, we would walk in the freedom that comes with imputed righteousness. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.