God’s Greatness Demands a World Vision of Compassion

Church, listen carefully. The text teaches us this simple central truth that God reveals his greatness through compassion for the powerless. Calls his people to reflect his justice and love by extending care across every race, nation, and need. I said you have a part in this song to sing. Listen to me again, church. God reveals his greatness through compassion. He does so for the powerless and calls for us to reflect his justice and love by extending care across every boundary of race, nation, and need. [00:57:55] (44 seconds)  #GreatnessThroughCare

I want to make a clear distinction, church. St. Mark doing it organizationally does not excuse you from doing it individually. The church as a body can extend generosity, but that does not preclude you as a believer from having to do it for yourself. I don't have a church in here. Now, I'm saying that there is some child somewhere that needs you today to make a personal investment in their future, in their destiny, in their education, in their emotion, in their mental space. To make their lives reflect that God has not forgotten about them even though the world wants to disregard them. [00:59:30] (54 seconds)  #PersonalGenerosityMatters

God's most descriptive characteristic is God's infinite uniqueness. Ain't nobody like God nowhere. I wish I was in a church in Ethiopia. That ain't nobody nowhere like God. The God who is omnipotent, who has all power and can do all things but fail. The God who is omniscient is the God who knows everything. The God who needs not to learn and cannot be advised and does not need to grow in wisdom. The God who is omnipresent, filling all time and space simultaneously. [01:01:59] (31 seconds)  #UniqueGodPower

God is not just everywhere at the same time. God is also every when at the same time. Existing simultaneously. Existing simultaneously in what I consider my past, present, and future. It's one eternal now to God. That's why God is not in a rush like you're in a rush. Because God is not bound by the confines of your clock, your calendar, or your schedule. God is already in your tomorrow working things out, fixing things up, defeating your enemies, raising up your friends, healing your body, turning your finances around. I'm telling you that this God is like nobody. [01:02:31] (33 seconds)  #EternalNowGod

Sin causes inequity. Sin says, I can have and you can have not. Sin says, I need to get more by taking it from you. And I need to hoard what I have and hold what I have at your expense. Sin and selfishness say there's not enough to go around. When the reality is that the U.S. alone grows enough food to feed the world. Sin says that there's not enough for everybody to have. And I look down. In fact, I'm better than you because I have more than you. That's the sin in your life. [01:03:34] (37 seconds)  #SinBlocksEquity

``Do you see that justice and generosity are the same thing to God? He executes justice for these people in need. These are not exclusive groups. This is a grouping or a listing that is encompassing of all people in need. Fatherless and widow and stranger or foreigner. Come here. God, how do you execute justice? By giving food and clothes. Aye, aye, aye. That generosity to people in need is justice to God. [01:08:18] (41 seconds)  #JusticeIsGenerosity

Justice in the old covenant is synonymous and can be translated and is in other parts of the Bible righteousness. Because you think to be right means you don't drink, you don't smoke, you don't cuss. And then you do it anyway. That's not, that's not, those aren't the markers of righteousness. The markers of righteousness is generosity and consistency and concern for those who are on the margins of society. [01:09:08] (34 seconds)  #RighteousnessIsCare

But when we could not save our own lives, God implemented his world vision. He sent us a sponsor that doesn't meet us with $39 a month. He meets us with new mercies every day. New mercies every morning. I said he sent us a sponsor who decided that the need in our lives was so great that more than just give a piece of his resources, he would give all of his life. Gave his hands to the nails, his feet to a spike, his head to the thorns, his side to a spear, his back to the cross, and his life to the grave. And he stayed in that grave all night Friday and stayed in that grave all night Saturday. But thanks be unto God, early on a Sunday morning, my sponsor did not stay in that grave but he got up with all power in his hand. [01:21:14] (56 seconds)  #ChosenAndCalled

And church, here's what I want to thank God for. He signed up to be chosen and at the same time he chose me. And I want to thank God for a God who chose raggedy, wretched, no good, low down people like you and I. And I don't know how you feel about it but that God can have my everything. That God can tell me where to go. Y'all, if he sponsored us on Calvary, if he sponsored us through his grace that resulted in his grief. If he sponsored us by the shedding of his blood, you and I can sponsor others by the giving of our funds. [01:22:10] (76 seconds)  #GenerosityChangesDestiny