B.L.E.S.S. // Spending Time With Sinners

Today we're going to be in Matthew, chapter nine.

Today and this is actually week two of a series that we just started last week.

Last week we started the series.

It starts with a B, starts with a B.

Let's see how good a memory we have in here.

That's I was going to ask, that's right.

Last week the series name was that's good, it was blessed, nikki's on it, it was blessed.

We started this series called bless and what it's all about.

It's about how do we have conversations with people that don't yet know Jesus so we can make Jesus known to them.

And the word bless is actually an acrostic, so every letter starts with something, and last week we learned the first two letters of the acrostic.

So let's see how good we remember.

Okay, the letter B, letter B in bless, letter B in bless.

It starts with we have to have a conversation with people.

We begin with prayer.

Let's go.

You guys remember we begin with prayer.

And then we got to letter L.

We got to, that's right.

We got to letter L, letter L, somebody this is the one where some of you guys were kind of elbow and the person next to you we said letter L was.

Listened to them, some of you guys, I asked, I said how many guys have a hard time listening?

And what you did is is you grab the person's hand next to you and you raise their hand up.

Okay, you know what I'm saying?

We're talking about.

We're talking about listening to people and we said that when Jesus was on earth, he had conversations with people where he listened to people and allowed people to feel seen and heard and understood because he listened.

And we get to a passage of scripture today which actually ended up giving Jesus a little bit of a nickname.

Yes, guys, jesus had a nickname, believe it or not.

Did any of you have a nickname growing up or do you have a nickname Anybody, anybody have anybody have a nickname that you up that you do not appreciate or you did not appreciate?

Yes, okay, I see those hands.

Okay, anybody want to shout out a nickname?

Maybe a nickname, not one that you didn't appreciate, unless you want to share.

Maybe a nickname that you had growing up?

Anybody?

Turtle, turtle, okay, nicky Doodle, nicky Doodle, okay.

Turtle, okay, nicky Doodle.

Little bit, okay, nickname.

So we have different nicknames and I had a nickname growing up.

I think I might have told you guys about this nickname, one of my nicknames growing up was forehead.

Some of you are thinking.

Some of you are thinking, why would your nickname be forehead?

I mean, look at this thing.

Come on, to make matters worse, I had the same size forehead Forehead when I was in sixth grade Believe it or not, yeah, you can like go to Ripley's Believe it or not Museum in San Francisco.

Here's a picture of my forehead there.

And I had this massive forehead and so people would make fun of me and they would call me names and stuff and, yes, all my childhood traumas coming out.

Anybody else want to share Nervous laughter?

I was just kidding.

I'm okay, guys.

I'm okay.

I made it.

I'm still here.

I'm still alive.

I have a hard time sleeping two or three nights a week because of it, but I'm okay.

But we had nicknames growing up.

Jesus had a nickname and his nickname was friend of sinners Friend of sinners.

Now, some of you first of all, you're like I didn't even know Jesus had a nickname.

Others of you are like why would his nickname be friend of sinners?

This is actually really good news.

His nickname was friend of sinners because he was a friend of sinners.

That's what he was.

He was a friend of sinners and he spent time with people that were not like him.

He spent time with people that were different than him, and there's a time where he ate with people.

In fact, he ate with people oftentimes, which is actually the next letter in the acrostic of bless.

We begin with praying for people, we listen to people, but then we eat with them.

Now, if I were to ask you when you think about Jesus, what comes to your mind, no doubt some of you would say, oh, he loved us.

Some of you would think he died on the cross for us.

Some of you would think resurrection.

Some of you would think miracles.

Right Last week, we talked about the blind man.

Some of you think blind man.

Some of you, guys, you really like the story about how Jesus fed 5,000 men with five loaves and two fishes.

You guys remember that.

We think about these things about Jesus, but what a lot of us don't think about is that he ate with people.

He spent time with people that were different than him, and in this series, what we're doing is we're not just looking at what Jesus said, but we're looking at what Jesus did.

So this is what we're seeing and it takes us to Matthew 9, which guys is a pretty scandalous passage, because Jesus eats with people that were different than him, people that the religious crowd were like Jesus.

You should not be eaten without a scandalous.

And here's why this is really important, because if we're going to help people that don't know Jesus to know Jesus, we are going to have to build bridges with these people and we're going to have to spend time with these people and we're going to have to maybe share a meal with people, because this is what Jesus did.

So this is what we're going to see in Matthew 9.

We're going to look at this scandalous passage of Scripture.

If you're ready for it, would you say amen?

It says in Matthew 9, verse 9, as Jesus went on from there, the there is Capernaum, he's in Capernaum, he's going on from there.

Matthew 9:9

He saw a man named Matthew.

Everybody say Matthew Ready.

He sees Matthew.

He's sitting at the tax office because he's a tax collector.

And he said to him follow me.

And Matthew got up and followed him.

Matthew is a tax collector.

Now, if you've been in church for a little while or maybe you've read some of Scripture, we know about those tax collector people.

Don't we.

We can't know about those guys, those guys.

Culturally they were known as traders and thieves.

And the reason why they were known as traders and thieves is because, well, they were traders and thieves.

The Roman government.

They would go to a city and they, the Roman government, they go to a city and they'd want to tax everybody and they would just want to tax the snot out of people.

I don't know if you've ever heard of a government that wants to tax the snot out of people.

I don't know if you've heard of one.

We'll leave that right there.

They go to a city and so what they would do is they would find a local, they would find a native that would kind of know, like, the ins and outs of the city and they would say, hey, you're going to be our representative, you're going to be the guy that's going to collect taxes.

And what we want is we want you to collect this much taxes for people.

But you can collect this much if you want, and whatever's over here, you can just pocket it and what can happen?

And you've got a squad of soldiers back here.

They have your back.

So you can go to people and even though we want this much, you can take this much from people and if they give you any attitude, we'll take care of them.

So a tax collector, a native of the city, would go to his people that he supposedly cared about, that he was from, that he was a part of, and he would say I want this much amount of money.

Is that really how much money you want?

Is that really how much money is needed?

Is that what the Roman government really needs?

They really need this much.

Are you sure they don't need this much?

That's how I should say give me this much, or I'm getting that big buff Roman soldier on you right now.

They were traitors, they were thieves, and Jesus calls this task-lector to follow him.

Now to the religious people, the people that, like, kept all the rules.

They are the ritual.

This was scandalous, but the next verse gets even more scandalous because he does something that really rocked the boat for the religious culture.

And verse 10, look what he does.

It says while he was, while he was reclining at the table in the house Minni, everybody say the word minni, ready, minni, minni.

This isn't just Matthew, now.

This is Matthew and his boys, matthew and his crew.

Many task collectors and sinners came to eat with Jesus and his disciples In this time period task collectors.

Are task collectors Good guys or are they bad guys?

Task collectors are the bad guys.

Now Jesus is eating with them, many of them.

He's in the house.

He's reclining at the table.

Whoo, what is going on here?

Now you got these religious people they're called Pharisees, like we talked about.

Kept all the rules, crossed all the tees, dot all the eyes.

They saw this and look what happens in verse 11.

When they saw this.

Look what it says.

When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples.

So they didn't go directly to Jesus.

They kind of like sidestep Jesus and went to his disciples and they said why does your teacher eat With the collectors of taxes and sinners?

What?

Why does he do that?

Now, they didn't go and ask Jesus directly.

They sidestep Jesus.

Ask his disciples.

His disciples were there in the house with him and what they're asking here is not really a question.

They're actually making a statement.

Has anybody ever asked you a question when really they were making a statement?

Mm-hmm, this is exactly what's happening right here.

This is not a question, this is a statement.

Now in here, the Pharisees who were they talking to?

They were talking to.

They're asking the disciples.

Then we're talking to Jesus.

But look what Jesus did in verse number 12.

It says Now, when he heard this, he said hold on, let's stop for a second.

Let's stop for a second.

When he heard this.

So I don't.

So I wonder what the seating of the house was like.

Pharisees talking to the disciples hey, hey, why is he?

Why is your teacher doing this?

Remember this earlier, jesus.

He's climbing at the table.

He's eating with him.

Maybe Jesus is sitting down, maybe he's in the middle of eating a falafel.

He's sitting here like he's about to take a bite.

And then he hears the Pharisees say that to his disciples and he goes ah, puts it down.

And Jesus is about to give them this physical analogy that they understood to communicate a spiritual reality.

He puts the falafel down, he looks over at them and he says it's not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick.

Now I think I I think I shared this last week, but I'm not a fan of doctors, offices, doctors.

A doctor is like the last place I want to go.

Actually, scratch that.

A dentist is the last place I want to go.

How many y'all are with me?

You know what I mean, okay, so doctors, office falls a number.

Doctors office falls number two on that list.

I mean, go to doctors.

Like I have to be dead or dying if I go to the doctor.

If y'all hear that Nate is going to the doctor, y'all need to start a season of fasting and prayer because it might be lights out for me.

I do not like going to the doctor at all.

I don't.

I.

I especially like, don't like getting physicals.

You know you're, you know you're supposed to get a yearly physical.

Oh, my goodness, get yearly physical.

And you know they're asking like all these questions, they're like checking all these things and places and Touching you in places they got no business touching you.

No doctor, I'm not gonna call.

I really don't want to call.

I want you to get your hands off me.

Okay, it's like, come on, you know what I mean.

Like I'm not, I'm not a fan of doctors, not fan doctors.

And if I understand, you know, if you really say you go to doctor, I get that.

And Jesus is he's talking to people that they got that too, like if you're sick, you go to doctor.

So he's trying to do is he's trying to communicate a Physical analogy, to communicate a spiritual reality?

Okay, here's the spiritual reality, those of us that are spiritually sick.

We need a doctor.

In his name is Jesus.

And, by the way, we're all spiritually sick, apart from Jesus.

All of us, like, every single one of us, like we need Christ.

It doesn't matter how religious you are, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter if you do yoga, doesn't matter if you're spiritual, it doesn't matter if you're really strong because you did 75 hard and you made it through.

Maybe, okay, I shouldn't be so and it's like a workout thing.

Um, it doesn't.

It doesn't matter, like how.

It doesn't matter if your grandma went to church, it doesn't matter if your great-grandma went to church, doesn't matter if you have a big family Bible that's sitting at the coffee table and you know you can actually write your fingers in the dust that's on top of it.

It doesn't matter.

Okay, we all are spiritually sick, apart from Jesus.

Like, apart from Jesus, we are spiritually sick.

And Jesus tells them hey guys, it's not those who are well who needed doctor, but those who are sick.

And Then in Hosea, and then in the next verse, he quotes Hosea, chapter 6, which is really like a gut punch Jesus gives to these Pharisees.

Hosea 6 · chapter mention

I mean First 12, like he's about to?

Mm-hmm.

This is what he says to them.

This is this is heavy, right here.

Or uh, verse 13.

He says I want you to go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.

He says, uh, guys, I want you to learn what this means.

Hosea, chapter 6.

Hosea 6 · chapter mention

Now, the thing is is these were guys that really knew the Old Testament.

Hosea is a prophet, a book in the Old Testament.

He's quoting a place that they were familiar with.

Now, in this place, what it was going on is the religious people.

They were like they were going through the religious motions, you know, like worship was happening.

So they were kind of like mouth and some words, because they know they were supposed to.

Communion happens, they kind of.

You know, they knew they're supposed to, but there wasn't any heart behind it.

Right, like they were just putting these sacrifices on the altar with no heart behind it.

And what happened is the prophet Hosea said hey, god doesn't want your sacrifice, god wants your heart.

And you guys are not doing this thing, right, because there's no heart in this.

You're just going through the motions.

And this is what Jesus tells him.

He says I want you to go and learn what that verse means.

Bam checks him.

He says for I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners.

I Came sinners.

And here is something that you cannot get around.

If you look at the patterns, the life of Jesus, you cannot get around the fact that he spent time with people that were different than him.

He spent time number one, with people that were different than him.

Now it's Jesus followers.

We should spend time with each other.

That's this is why growth groups are so important.

This is why community groups are so important, which, by the way, we have more people this semester that are part of groups than ever before.

Isn't that awesome?

Like then, ever before, like groups are where it's at.

This is important right here.

But y'all know that the church is so much more than you guys sitting here and listening to me talk for 25, 30 minutes.

Right, it's us like serving one another and loving one another and praying for each other and caring for each other and being in each Other's life and bearing each other's burdens, and All of this happens in groups.

And what I just gotta say, guys, it's really cool what God's doing at our church.

Some of y'all may notice, like we put out extra chairs for this service.

First service was pretty full and we're kind of like, oh, this is starting to be a problem a little bit filling up two services Good problems to have.

Can somebody say amen, amen, god's out working this place.

We're thankful to be a part of it and what can happen is we can get so Get so used to just spending time with people here and our church family here that Unintentionally we can neglect spending time with people that are different than us out there.

And if we don't realize it, we can even fall into one of three dangerous Postures towards people that don't yet know Jesus.

And all of us, we can all lean into one of these three Postures towards people that don't know Jesus yet.

One posture is we judge them.

We judge people that don't yet know Jesus.

We judge the world.

Here's the mantra.

If this is our posture, jesus followers are the good guys, they're the bad guys.

This posture is shocked.

When people that don't know Jesus do things that people do when they don't know Jesus, it's like I cannot believe that they would do that.

I mean like they don't know Jesus, but I still can't believe they would.

They don't follow him, they're not gonna have a Christian world view.

And what gonna happen with this posture is what we forget is that there's not a good us and a bad them.

There's just a bad we and a gracious he.

I Want you to get this there's not a good us and a bad them.

There's just a bad we and a gracious he.

That, yeah, we're gonna clap for that Is that he is gracious.

Right, remember?

Remember, we've said this before.

Religion divides the world into good guys and bad guys.

The gospel divides the world into bad guys in Jesus.

Religion divides the world into good guys and bad guys.

The gospel divides the world into bad guys in Jesus and the good guy.

Jesus did not come to this earth to beat the bad guys.

I'm gonna beat them.

He came to be beaten for the bad guys.

He came to be beaten for us guys.

And you might be in this room and you might say this might be like your first time in a long time in a church gathering or church service, and I get like you're like what's this all about?

This is what this is about.

This is about a guy named Jesus who came to this earth, who lived a sinless life and died in our place because he loved us so much and he didn't study.

He doesn't say get your act together, clean yourself up and then I'm gonna be here for you.

No, he comes to us exactly as he was and he will accept you exactly as you are.

When you come to him in simple faith and the cross of Calvary, where Jesus died, it levels the playing field.

None of us are better than somebody else and what can happen is we can have a posture if we aren't careful for those of us that know Jesus, that we can have a posture of judging the world.

The second posture that we can have for not careful is we can try to avoid the world.

Avoid the world.

This motto of avoid the world is don't hang out with sinners or you'll catch the sin.

If I hang out with sinners, I'm gonna catch the sin.

Now I want to commend this posture, partially because this posture understands the importance that God's called us out of the world to live a whole life.

And I also want to say and somebody's talking to me after, a teenager's talking to me after the first service about this is awesome is if there's a time in our life where we're being influenced too much by certain people and it's affecting our walk with Jesus.

There are times where maybe we need to set some boundaries, maybe we need to step back from that relationship for a while, or maybe permanently.

There are times when that happens.

But the idea of, like man, we just need to avoid the world completely, is not something that Jesus did.

And in our pursuit of holiness, holy living, we have to remember this that if we're gonna have the holiness of God, it requires us to have the heart of God.

So if I'm gonna have God's holiness, it requires me to have God's hearts.

Like God didn't call us to go in our homes in high.

He called us to go into the world in share.

God didn't call us to run from the places and run from the people that maybe don't know Jesus and don't agree with us.

No, no, he called us to get in the grit with them so we can show them the hope of Jesus.

Like right now, there's like this move of people like moving out of California, of Christ followers moving out of California, and I understand.

Like there's financial things.

I totally get it.

I've had some great friends do that and I understand.

But sometimes what's gonna happen is because California, by and large, is not as conservative as it used to be or not as this.

It's like I want to go away from this and I want to go to a place that's more comfortable, where more people are like me, where people seek more like me, and can I just say that maybe God has you here for a reason.

Maybe God has you here for a purpose, on purpose.

Maybe God has you here because this is actually a mission field.

Maybe we don't have to go to Mexico or China.

Maybe we can go across the street.

Maybe we don't have to be a group of people that run because we're scared but can go bully in the power of Jesus Christ, because we have the Holy Spirit.

And could somebody say amen?

We don't want to have the posture of I'm going to avoid the world.

We don't have the posture of I'm going to judge the world.

We also don't want to have the posture of I'm going to jump in and join the world.

I'm gonna do what everybody else does Like as I'm scrolling on my Instagram feed or my TikTok or my YouTube.

Like this is the next thing.

So I guess this is what I should do.

This posture says I check in with culture before I check in with scripture on what I should be doing.

This posture checks more in on what's socially acceptable than they do what's acceptable with our Savior.

This is a posture.

This is a posture that looks at certain issues and says, well, what's everybody saying?

That's what I'm going to do and this is what I would say.

If you have a tendency to lean into this posture is that you have to be different to make a difference.

You have to be different to make a difference and I want to ask you a really honest question this morning how is your life different from somebody that doesn't know Jesus?

How is your value system different than somebody that doesn't know Jesus?

How are your priorities different than somebody that doesn't know Jesus?

We have to be different to make a difference.

Now, we don't have to be weird.

Ok, you know what I'm saying.

Like, how many of you have ever met a Christ follower?

That's just kind of weird.

You ever met?

Ok, that's right.

If you're not, if you didn't just raise your hand, you just might be that person.

Don't have to be weird.

Don't have to be weird.

We don't have to judge the world.

We don't have to avoid the world.

We don't have to join the world.

This is what Jesus calls us to do, guys ready.

Calls us to reach the world.

To reach the world.

This is what he calls us to do to reach them.

And if we're going to do this, it's going to be.

It's going to call us to have relationships with people that are different than us, to love people that are different than us, to spend time with people that are different than us, to listen to them, to build relationships with them.

Now, I know, in a room like this, with different people, I know that we have different personalities, right?

In fact, how many in the room you would say I'm a little more introverted, I'm a little more introverted.

I'll tell you what.

Ok, well, here's what was funny.

I asked how many of you guys are a little more introverted and some of you guys were like, huh Right, extroverts.

How many of you are a little more extroverted?

A little more extroverted?

Ok, extroverts.

Y'all were so quick, so much faster to put your hands up in the air, right?

Some of you guys are like you've never met a stranger in your life Extroverts out there.

Some of you, right?

Some of you guys.

You go to the grocery store and you're talking to two or three or four people.

I go to the and I'm extroverted, but I go to the grocery store.

I'm like headphones in, please, nobody talk to me.

So some of you extroverts, you go somewhere with somebody and you spend more time talking to random people than you do the person you're with.

You know what I mean.

So some of y'all that's a touch of people right there.

Ok, and sometimes what we could think is we could think well, because my personality type is not as extroverted, it's more introverted.

I can't really share my faith with people because I keep to myself more.

And I would say some of you that are introverted, you have the best people skills of anybody that I know, because introverts really know how to have really deep, meaningful relationships with people.

Not the extroverts don't.

But I'm an extrovert and I can typically be like oh, you're all over the place, you know, talking about all this stuff out here.

You introverts, man, y'all go like straight deep y'all.

You know what I mean If I'm talking to an introvert for a length of time.

After a while it's like cut the small talk, let's talk about real stuff.

And here's the thing.

What do you want to know Is that your ability to share your faith is not dependent on your personality type, guys.

So we might be in here like man we talked about this sharing our faith, stuff.

We're talking about man listening to people and spending time with them to share our faith.

That's just not me, bro, like I just introverted guys, it is not limited by your personality type and this is why because the Holy Spirit is in you, like our ability to share our faith is not dependent on us.

It's dependent on what the Holy Spirit can do in and through you.

And our role is I just want to start it to the Spirit and let the Spirit do whatever the Spirit wants to do, and I want to be fully dependent on the Holy Spirit and let the Holy Spirit work.

And when you're talking to people, you're having conversations.

You might be like Nate.

What do I even bring up?

How do I start having spiritual conversations?

How do I have questions Like what do I do?

This is what I want to do.

I want to give you four questions that you can ask somebody, four spiritual questions you can ask somebody, and some of these are a little bit heavier.

That can really help you have some conversations with people.

Full disclosure.

I got this question from Dennis Beatty's growth group.

I was in it last semester.

It's a great growth group.

I'm not just saying that was great.

Here's a question.

You're talking, what do you believe about?

How did the universe, our world and human beings come into existence?

Ask somebody that You're talking to somebody.

I don't necessarily encourage you to walk up to a random stranger at Walmart and be like, hey, I mean you could do that, but you could ask him that.

You could ask a friend what do you think is the meaning of life?

It's a good question, like what do you really think is the meaning of life?

Is there such thing as right or wrong?

Do you believe there's a right and there's a wrong?

And if there is, then there has to be a.

That means there's a moral law.

So there has to be a moral law giver which points us to God and let's talk about him.

How about this?

What happens after we die?

Is there an afterlife?

These are questions that maybe you can ask and maybe these can spur the conversation with somebody.

We've had some people have talked to us and said hey, how do I even bring up conversations with people about faith?

Many of you guys are putting ping pong balls in the display in the lobby, by the way, how many of you guys saw it?

You guys see the display in the lobby.

Some of you guys see, ok, we're trying to have 500 gospel conversations in the next 90 days.

That displays being filled up in the next episode of Information Table.

It's awesome, but some of you have told us I want to have conversations.

How do I even do it?

How do I even broach the topic?

This is what you can say.

You can blame your pastor.

You can be like hey, hey, hey, hey, there's these questions that my pastor said that we should ask some people and I just want to ask you what you think.

There's no right or wrong answer.

And then, after you get to question for what happens after we died, what do you think after life?

You could say, hey, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and if you believe in Jesus and trust him, you can go to heaven.

Bam, you just did it.

I suggest you slow down a little bit.

Ok, I suggest you slow down, but these are some questions you can ask to have some spiritual conversations with people.

Now you might be sitting here thinking you're like OK, so we're in this series right now about having gospel conversations with people.

Last week, we talked about begin with prayer.

We talked about listening to people.

Now you're talking about spending time with people having these conversations.

You think I'm so busy, nate, like I'm just trying to survive.

I'm tired all the time.

I can't even find the motivation to do this.

What's the motivation to do this?

It's compassion.

It's having compassion to people that don't yet know Jesus.

And here's what we see when we look at the life of Jesus is that the compassion that he had led him to spend time with people, to eat, with people that were different than him.

Because when we put our screens down and our devices down and we step out away from them and we step out from our echo chambers and we step out from our social media feeds and we step out from our news network of choice, we turn off the TV and we sit at a table with somebody that may be a little different than us.

It's really hard to vilify them, it's really hard to malign them, it's really hard to call them names, and people no longer become hashtags, they no longer become political parties, they no longer become the problem and they finally become people whom Jesus loved and died for.

But it takes compassion, like the heart of God, in us to have that and as God's people, we got to have his compassion towards others.

Like we have to have this, like this is not something that we can just kind of put on the back burner and say it's not that big a deal, guys.

This is a huge deal, like if we can have the heart of God and the compassion of God it's gonna lead us to live like him.

Now I wanna end with my favorite story, one of my favorite stories about compassion, something that impacted countless people because one man had compassion.

I wanna show you guys a picture up on the screen.

On the left there is a guy named Shane Windemeyer.

Shane Windemeyer is a gay rights activist leader and he's the leader of a group called Campus Pride.

On the right there is Dan Caffey.

Dan Caffey was the founder and owner of Chick-fil-A.

Some of you guys really love that guy because you're like he own.

He founded Chick-fil-A.

This guy's my hero.

Okay, all right, chick-fil-a fans in the room.

Yeah, okay, yeah, speaking your language.

So years ago now, about 12 years ago, 13 years ago Campus Pride, who Shane was the leader of.

They found out that Chick-fil-A who's a very generous organization.

They were giving resources to organizations that stood for God's design, for intimacy and marriage, and Shane's group, campus Pride, heard about this.

So what they did was they staged a protest in front of Chick-fil-A, protesting what they were doing.

The media got wind of all this and they let people know about this and Chick-fil-A supporters found out what was happening.

So Chick-fil-A supporters staged the protest of the protest.

It was called Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day and if you guys remember this, 12 years ago or so, chick-fil-a Appreciation Day, it was the most profitable day in Chick-fil-A's history.

People were waiting literally two hours to get a chicken sandwich or whatever.

In this protest of the protest, unbeknownst to most people, dan Cathy never commented on Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.

He didn't have any interviews in support of it.

He never supported it.

He didn't have comments in support of it.

He wasn't on any news supporting about how great it was and how glad he was.

Didn't do that, unbeknownst to people.

He befriended Shane Windemeyer, the leader of Campus Pride, and he said hey, bro.

I don't know if Dan Cathy said bro, but that's what I would have said.

He said hey.

He said I would like to hear your story.

Can we get together?

Shane was like what he was like, do you want to get together with me?

And like, get to know me.

Dan's like, yeah, I want to get to know you.

So they met without fanfare, without cameras, without news reporters.

They spent time together and something happened.

It's mind blowing.

They became real friends and Shane invited Dan to his ski lodge in Colorado.

Dan invited Shane to be an honored guest at his house for different dinners and this is a picture at the Chick-fil-A bowl in Georgia where Dan invited Shane to sit in his big fancy suite and watch the game.

Shane would go on about a year after this picture was taken to write an article in the Huffington Post entitled coming out as a friend of Dan Cathy Coming out as a friend of Dan Cathy and he talked about the impact that Dan's compassion and care and love had on him.

And I want you to see.

I want to read a little bit about the article so you can see some of this.

This is what Shane said.

It's not often, when people were deeply held in completely opposite viewpoints, actually risk sitting down and listening to one another.

He, dan Cathy, sought first.

This is important to understand, not to be understood.

Dan and I shared respectful and enduring communication.

We built trust.

His demeanor has always been one of kindness and openness.

Dan expressed regret and genuine sadness when he heard of people being treated unkindly in the name of Chick-fil-A, but he offered no apology for his genuine beliefs about marriage.

Now, dan Cathy could have spoken out boldly to make a point, but he chose respect and compassion to make a difference.

And here's why I tell you this story.

It's because if we're going to help people that don't know Jesus, know Jesus we're gonna have to spend time with them and we're gonna have to have compassion on them.

And where does this happen?

It happens when letter B we begin with prayer.

Letter L we listen to people.

Letter E we eat with them.

And if we are going to help people know Jesus, then what we're gonna have to do is we're gonna have to live like Jesus, and living like Jesus means spending time with people who don't know Jesus.

Now, next week, we're gonna learn the last two letters and the word bless.

Let's have a word of prayer together, thank you.