Bayside Baptist Church

Jason King: There is a story of a famous circus clown who was known throughout the country, and in particular in this area of the country that this took place. He was known for making people laugh hysterically every single night. Whatever his routine was, whatever his deal was, he could just get people rolling in laughter.

One day, there was a man who was deeply depressed. He was struggling, in the midst of a dark time in his life, and he went to see a doctor in the town where he lived for help with this sickness. The doctor told him, "I know exactly what you need. You're down on your luck, you're sad in this moment, and you need to laugh. Laughter is such good medicine." He said, "What I need you to do is go to one of these circus shows. This circus clown is in town, the shows are going on during the week. I need you to go to one of these shows, watch his routine, and laugh. It'll help you. If there's anyone else in the world who can make what seems miserable feel filled with joy, it's this guy."

The man in the doctor's office looked at the doctor, burst into tears, and said, "But Doc, I'm that man. I'm the clown." I want you to think about that for a minute because everybody around you right now, although you may not be able to see or tell, everybody is fighting a battle that you know nothing about. Smiles and laughter don't mean that a person is free from hurt. Oftentimes, it's the people who try the hardest to bring joy to other people who are the ones who desperately need it themselves.

The hard reality of this life is that everybody under the sound of my voice in this moment is playing hurt. If you watched football games yesterday or if you have played football, you know that one of the realities of football is it's a rough sport and you get banged up. You get hurt. Things happen to you when you play. That's what happens to players. In the middle of a game, they get bumps and bruises, they get taped up, they do something to take care of the pain, and then they go right back into the game if they are physically able.

I want you to look around this room for just a minute. I want you to do that. Look around the room. Here is what I want you to know. Everybody in this room, some more than others, is playing hurt right now. I'm not necessarily talking about just physical injuries and pain. I'm talking about the pain that we experience more deeply seated than that—the struggle, the adversity, the heartache, the disappointment, the feelings of regret or remorse. The pain that we all carry is the universal human common denominator. It's the pain of this life.

Some people hurt worse than others. It's more obvious in some people's lives than others. We know it about our own lives. You know you've got some pain in your life. You've got some moments, circumstances, or relationships that are broken or things are not as they should be. You know it about your own life, but it is so easy to forget that other people are hurting, too. When we do that, we miss the opportunity that God wants us to step into.

Today, if you have your Bible, I want you to open it to Matthew chapter 25. We'll have it here on the screens and there's a Bible in the seatback in front of you. What we're going to do is look at this passage that teaches us how we are to look outside of ourselves and how God wants to help you and me in that today. It helps us to go beyond. That's the series that we're in, the moment that we're in for our church, where we're asking God, "God, would you stretch me beyond where I am right now? Would you take me beyond where I am in my own life?" This week, I want to talk to you about how we can go beyond for those who are hurting.

It's about making a choice to recognize that your life is not about you. My life is not about me. It is about the kingdom of God at work in us, bringing the kingdom of God through us as we live our lives. It's about making an impact for the kingdom of God. I want to look in Matthew 25 and see exactly how Jesus teaches us to go beyond for those who are hurting today. Look beginning in verse 31.

It says, "But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at his left." If you read the chapter before this, Matthew chapter 24 is this incredible chapter where Jesus says, "If you're wondering how it's all going to shake out when I return, this is it." Matthew 24 is this picture that Jesus is coming back. When Jesus comes back, this is what is going to take place.

He says in verse 34, "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you invited me into your home. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me.' Then the righteous ones will reply, 'Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink, or a stranger and show you hospitality, or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?'" In verse 40, Jesus responds, "And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me.'"

In this passage, Jesus is teaching his followers—teaching you and me today—that helping people who are hurting is not a project, not an emphasis, and not a two-year commitment. It is to be a way of life. It's no different in you and me, no matter our circumstances, no matter our pain or our hurting. This is what in the kingdom of God is to become a normal way of life for us. Jesus is going to teach us today how we see hurting people and then help others as a way of life.

How can you go beyond for those who are hurting? There are a few ways I believe the text shows us that we can do that. The first thing that this text teaches us that Jesus is teaching us is this: to go beyond for those who are hurting, you need to ask God to help you notice people around you who are hurting. You need to pray, "Lord, would you just help me see people? Notice people around me who are hurting." Before you can start to help people who are hurting, before you can do anything about their needs, you've got to see them first. You've got to see that they're hurting.

This is part of what God wants to do in our lives and what he wants to do in you: to give you and me spiritual eyes to see and ears to hear. He wants to help you see other people just like he does. Did you notice the phrase that Jesus used at the end of this passage when he described the people that had been helped? He said it was "the least of these, my brothers and sisters." He's talking about people who are hurting—people that you might not see if you're not looking for them, that you might not notice, or that you might have forgotten or might not be in your field of view or in your normal way of life.

How do you see people? I'm not talking about crowds of people; I mean individual, actual people. How do you see people? Do you notice people? Do you take time to look them in the eyes and spend time interacting or not? We all show up here to church and everybody gets dressed, fixes their hair, and brushes their teeth before they come. We get together in this place and it's easy to just look around this room and think, "Everyone around here looks like they've got their stuff together. They look like they don't have any problems in their life and they've got it all figured out." You might think, "Am I the only one that's a mess in here and hurting?"

It's easy to forget that pain is the universal human common denominator. Every single person in here, every person in here has been hurt, has hurts, has hurt other people, and needs kindness. One of the things that I've learned over the years and I have to remind myself is that even the most difficult people need kindness. I have to constantly remind myself of this reality: hurt people hurt people. Wounded people wound people.

Most of the time, people who hurt you or wound you aren't going to walk up and say, "I'm really carrying something from childhood and that's what makes me so difficult to deal with." They're not going to tell you, "I've really been hurt by this broken relationship or what took place at work, and so that's why I'm going to treat you the way that I'm going to treat you." No, they just show up and they're nasty to you. You might call them a jerk or they're difficult to deal with. As Rick Warren says, they are "extra grace required" people. Someone in our church describes them as "sandpaper people." That's what happens sometimes.

The reality of it is, it's easy to think they're just hard to deal with or they're nasty or they just post stuff online about you. The reality of it is they've been hurt and they're simply acting out of the hurt that they've experienced. It's not okay for people to act that way, but you need to understand that's why people hurt one another. When you notice other people, as Jesus is talking about here, you see them with God's eyes. It changes what you see and then it changes how you respond.

If you aren't paying attention, you'll think they're just difficult or they're angry or they're withdrawn or something else. But if you ask God to help you notice people around you, he will begin to give you compassion to see them as he sees them. Don't miss it when God begins to give you eyes to see people like he does. You may be tempted to look around this room and think all these people have this stuff figured out, but it's not true. The reality of it is, in this room alone, there are significant needs that people are walking through.

Can I share with you just a few of the things that, as a staff, elders, and prayer teams, we have prayed for you that you've asked for prayer with over the last little while? Many of you are struggling in your marriage and you want help. We have people struggling with sexuality, people struggling with their kids, or hurts from childhood. Maybe they've suffered abuse or been the victim of something. They're wrestling through depression and anxiety or trying to be perfect and just dying from the weight of that.

Maybe they're struggling with anger or patience or trusting God. Maybe they're disillusioned. They're facing sickness or a terminal illness and they don't know what to do. They've lost someone they loved. One person asked for help and prayer for forgiveness, to forgive themselves and to forgive other people. Others are consumed with worry and loneliness and addiction to a substance or even pornography. There are sinful choices and consequences. Maybe people are feeling dead or drifting in their faith.

Somebody said they keep failing but they want to be more disciplined, they want to be more diligent, and they need help. They're tired. People want to give up. They're bitter. The financial stress and pressure is overwhelming. Others feel stuck in their job or career. They're fighting alcohol. They're fighting gambling. They need somewhere to live. They're trying to lose weight and be healthier. They have family members that are far from God. Others have kids who have made poor decisions as adults and are now reaping the consequences. As parents, you're watching and suffering as you watch your child suffer. Others have custody battles and constant pain. They're facing cancer and other difficult realities. Maybe you've even been hurt by somebody at a church. Maybe you've watched somebody that you love suffer. You've been left behind by somebody who took their own life, or maybe you've even been thinking about taking your own life.

Those are the things we've been praying for and more. That's just us. Church, we haven't got it together. None of us do. All of us need help and we need compassion and prayer. That's us inside the house, but then when we step out of the walls of this church, out of the walls of being gathered together, other people are walking through the same things, except they don't have the hope of Jesus Christ in their life.

Do you notice people around you? Do you notice them? Patricia Miller worked in a hospital. She was a former staffer in a hospital and she was describing an experience that she had. She said, "While I worked in the emergency room, I learned to stop crying at the pain that was around me." She said it seemed like each day she was becoming more and more insensitive to people in their real needs. She had been in the emergency room for five years, working day in and day out, and it had taken its toll on her. She said there was one day that God intervened in her life.

She was taking information, registering a young woman, and signing her into the hospital. This young lady had overdosed on drugs and attempted suicide. Patricia sat there with this young lady's mom, taking her information and typing the information into a computer to get her checked into the hospital and the ER. She said the mom was unkempt and she was bleary-eyed. She had been woken up in the middle of the night by the police, telling her to come to the hospital immediately.

She said this mom could only speak to her in a whisper, but she found herself in this moment just saying, "Could you hurry up? Could you give me your information so I can type it in?" She was growing impatient with this mom in this moment and she said it was raw. She got the information she needed, got a piece of paper, and went to the copy machine to copy whatever medical information she had in that moment. She said God stopped her in that moment. It was as if God whispered into her heart, "Did you even look at her in the eyes? Did you even look at her?"

She said that moment caught her attention. Then she realized that this was a real person sitting in front of her with real pain and difficult circumstances. She said she began to feel her grief and she said, "I'm sorry, Lord. I'm sorry." She said she went back and sat down in front of the distraught mom, grabbed her hands, let her begin to talk, and said, "I care. Don't give up. Don't quit." She said the mom wept and wept and poured her heart out about years as a single mom of dealing with a rebellious daughter. Then she looked up to her and thanked her. Patricia said her attitude changed that night. Jesus met her there and he sent her to recognize who was in front of her.

What about you? Do you see the other people that are around you? Have you looked into the eyes of the people that you see each day? Have you slowed down enough to notice? That's where you've got to start before you can help anybody. "God, would you help me to see the people around me? Help me to notice the people."

The second thing that this passage teaches us is this: if you want to step into and go beyond to help other people in their time of need, you've got to be generous with your own life. Often when you hear the word "generous," you think of money. Money's a part of it, but there is a bigger spirit of generosity that God wants to cultivate in us. Jesus starts this whole passage with something that we forget, something that often doesn't register to us as real. To be honest, there's this nasty little concept that is in our lives that we like to pour out on other people but dismiss for ourselves. It's called judgment.

The judgment that God is speaking about, that Jesus is talking about, is this moment where Jesus is describing what will happen when he returns and judgment will happen. He gives this picture that there's going to be a separation of people who belong to the Lord on the right and a separation of people who do not on the left. He calls them sheep and goats. That doesn't make sense to us today, but in that day in Palestine, a shepherd would have all of his animals together.

From a distance, you couldn't tell the difference between sheep and goats. It's kind of like Jesus talked about in some other places—that until Christ returns, the wheat and the tares, or those who are part of the kingdom and not a part of the kingdom, are going to be intermingled together. But he says in this moment, there's a time of judgment and there will be a time of separation. The sheep, those who are part of the kingdom of God, go to the right, to the place of honor and blessing with Jesus. Then those who are goats, he says, "I don't know you. Depart from me." There is a separation.

The reason that Jesus gives that there is a separation was how these two groups of people responded when they encountered the needs of other people. Jesus said, "You came to me in a time of need. I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, I didn't have any clothes, I didn't have any place to live, I was in prison, I was sick, and you stepped towards me in each of those moments." The people said, "But Lord, there's no way. We didn't know that was you. We would have surely known and noticed that it was you, Jesus, that we were helping. When did we help you?" He said, "Anytime you did it for the least of these, you did it for me."

A hurt was addressed. A need was given an outstretched arm. The righteous nor the wicked knew that they were responding to Jesus and who Jesus represented in that moment. The righteous were just helping people; it was just a way of life. That's what Jesus is saying here. What God wants to do in you is to cultivate a generous spirit with every part of your life, not just your money. Jesus said over and over, your heart does follow your money, so the way I handle money is important. But what he's talking about is just the eyes that you have and the response that you have to people who are hurting around you.

The sheep responded with compassion. The goats ignored the need and kept on doing what they were doing. As far as the sheep were concerned, it was just an act of helping someone out in a time of need. No big deal. It was just a part of who they were. But the goats did nothing.

One thing I want to clarify: this passage is not teaching us that if you go and help people out and do good, then you'll be good on judgment day. The gospel of "doing good" is not a biblical message. You cannot earn your way. It's a very popular message today, but it's just not true. The good that Jesus is talking about is the transforming work of God in your heart, the kingdom of God at work in your life that transforms you. It begins by faith where you say yes to Jesus to begin with and you begin to let him work in your life and it flows out of your life.

In other words, there is evidence that God is at work in you. The Holy Spirit has to transform your life and mine as he applies the word to our lives. Then the overflow of what God is doing in our hearts means that our lives are changed. Church, one of the ways that God demonstrates that he is changing our lives is when we not only know but we live this reality: your life is not about you. My life is not about me. It's about the kingdom of God at work in me and through me, in you and through you.

It's about God working through you to help people who are hurting. You begin to let people into your life. That's the generous spirit that God's talking about here. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 16 says it this way: "And don't forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God, that honor God." We're called to have compassion for people who are hurting. Please don't believe that this is optional, that if you don't think you have the spiritual gift of compassion, you can just flush this. This is what God wants to cultivate in our life. It's a part of the people who are his sheep, who are the people of God. This is what God wants to deposit in our lives and to come to fruition as we help people who are hurting.

Do you remember what Paul said in Colossians chapter 3, verse 12? He says this: "Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." This is the generosity that God wants to come from your life. He wants you to be generous with mercy and kindness and humility and gentleness and patience towards other people. Now the Holy Spirit is helping you out in Christ. He's helping these things become reality and come out of your life, but there's a choice that we have to make to practice compassion.

This isn't a part of a program or some initiative where we're asking you to have compassion for 24 months. No, this is a way of life that Jesus is describing. The people in the text didn't even know that they had helped Jesus. It's just who they were. They were surprised. It was a part of their normal life to not only notice people but step towards people in a time of need and help people in a time of need.

You ever known anybody that's so generous with mercy and patience and compassion? I think about my grandfather. I called him Papaw and he died about 20 years ago, but he made a profound impact on my life. I remember time and time again, there would be circumstances where my grandfather would seek out people in the community. He lived out in the country, out in the middle of nowhere near where he grew up. He moved back there after he retired. He lived in this little place, this little house out in the country, and lots of stuff goes on in the country. People around him all the time were hurting and he took notice.

I remember one time he needed the outside of his house painted, but he knew there was a young man in the community that was hurting. He'd been through a lot, had substance abuse, and all sorts of other trouble that he'd gotten into, but he wanted to help this guy out. His house kind of needed painting, so he hired the guy to paint his house. He had him come to his house to paint his house and they agreed on a price. When the guy showed up the first day, my grandfather paid him the whole amount to paint the house.

Guess what never happened? The house never got painted. That guy took the money, painted about a third of the house, and he never heard from him again. I remember asking my grandfather, "Papaw, what in the world are you doing? You can't do that. You've got to let them work and pay them a little bit and do all that." Time and time again, it looked like he was getting taken advantage of, that he just didn't know what he was talking about. But he knew exactly what he was doing.

I asked him one day, "What are you doing? You will literally give the shirt off your back to someone and you know they're going to take advantage of you." Here is what he said: "God has given me everything I have. Everything. And he wants me to be generous with what God has given to me. That's my time, the money he's given me, everything that I have. And I'm doing what God wants me to do with what I have. When I am generous or I give to someone else, guess what? What they do with it, that's between them and the Lord. It's not between me and the Lord. I'm simply doing what God has spoken for me to do." I've never forgotten that.

Jesus is saying to us, "You open up your life, you be generous with every part of your life with other people. You let me take care of what they do, but you step towards people who are hurting. You be a blessing to others. You be the conduit of blessing that I've given to you and you let that blessing flow through your life to help other people."

The last thing that I believe this passage teaches us is this: you need to remember your motivation for helping people who are hurting. You might be thinking, "I'm not doing anything where people are going to take advantage of me." Remember your motivation for helping people who are hurting. Southern culture 101: you're supposed to be nice to other people and other people are supposed to be nice back to you. That's just how it works. But what about when they don't? Well, that's when you graduate from Southern Culture 101 and you go to Southern Culture 201 and you judge them because they're not like you and they need to get it together like you have it together.

Then when we start to think about helping people in a time of need, we're good with that as long as Southern Culture 101 and 201 are in the mix. We want to feel appreciated for what we do. We want people to say thank you. We want them to really take the help and really use it to turn around their lives and to show us that they're helping themselves. But that misses what Jesus is teaching here. Your motivation for helping other people is not to get a thank you. Should they? Sure, they should, but that's not your motivation.

Your motivation is not to see them help themselves after you help them or receive your help and turn their life around. Yes, you pray and you hope and you need to be wise about how you help, but that isn't the goal. That's not your motivation. Your motivation is that you are honoring the Lord with your life and helping someone who is hurting is just one more expression of your gratitude to God and his goodness in your life. Jesus is saying we're to go beyond and we're to help other people if they don't recognize it, if they don't appreciate it, and even if they respond negatively.

If you're not careful, your motivation of hearing a thank you or some type of positive response will lead you to this place, especially when you don't get it, where you'll gradually stop helping people in their time of need. Then you move to Southern Culture 301, where you talk about them and you tell other people that they weren't very nice and they were rude to you and you can't believe that they did that. "What is their problem?" I recognize in some form or another that's how it works, but that misses Following Jesus 101.

To follow Jesus, your motivation is not the applause or the validation of other people. What's really going on when you help other people is you are showing compassion to them and you are ministering to the Lord. You are serving the Lord with your life, not that person or their response or a hope for a response. You're serving the Lord when you help people in need. You're choosing to honor him when you choose to follow his word. Look what John says in 1 John chapter 3, verse 18: "Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions."

How does God love you? Is he good with you only when you say thank you, only when you do what he hopes that you'll do? No, he shows you grace, he shows you love, he shows you compassion, he pursues you. Righteousness is doing the will of God and it's a very practical expression of what Jesus is talking about here. It's how you summarize the law: that treating others like you would want to be treated is at the forefront.

These people had no clue that they were helping out followers of Jesus; they were simply meeting a human need. Why? Because they understood how good God had been to them and they were acting out of the overflow of their hearts. If somebody's in need, move towards them, not because you expect them to respond positively, not because you want to hear a thank you or you want validation from that, but because of your love for the Lord. After all, you never really know who you're helping.

Look at Hebrews chapter 13, verses 1 and 2: "Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters." That's what Jesus has been describing—this is what it looks like to love one another. "Don't forget to show hospitality even to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it." You never know who you're helping. Jesus isn't necessarily telling us to go start a new program at church or in the community. He's telling us to let God transform who we are, how we see people, and our willingness to help others in a time of need because God has been so good to us.

Your motivation to honor the Lord is not to earn your way into heaven. That's not what Jesus is saying. He's not telling you if you're good enough, the scales of good and evil in your life will somehow balance out and they'll let you get in there by the skin of your teeth. The point is not that you cause yourself to enter the kingdom of heaven by doing these things. No, these things are evidence that you have the kingdom of God in you.

If these people were keeping track and they were keeping score, I guarantee you both the righteous and the wicked would have known all of the good things they had done. "Yeah, Jesus, I remember that day. It was September 4th at 12:30 in the afternoon. You were going this way, I was going that way. I kept track of that." But they didn't even know. It's just who they were. You never know the impact of your compassion, of serving, of helping people who are hurting, but sometimes you do get just a glimpse.

I want you to hear the story on the screen of Mary Parton, who I think gives just a glimpse of what happens when you and me respond with noticing people that are hurting. Would you pay attention to Mary's story on the screen?

Mary Parton: My name is Mary Parton. I am 39 years old. I'm an HR manager at a small nonprofit assisted living here in Chattanooga. I'm a mom of twins and a cancer survivor. My life before I got connected with Bayside was kind of living without a purpose, trying to go through the emotions alone with being a cancer survivor and losing my brother a year before that diagnosis.

I first heard about Bayside sitting in my doctor's office. I saw a little card that said breast cancer support group as I was waiting for the doctor to come in to tell me about next steps through my cancer journey. I kind of just saw it and was like, "Oh, that's interesting." My husband and I had been talking about getting back into church and finding a church that was right for us. I ignored the card and then I went to get redressed and I grabbed the card and went home and told my husband we should probably check out Bayside.

Bayside has a great kids' ministry and that was one of the big draws for us with having twin almost five-year-olds—what they would also get out of coming to church. Since becoming part of Bayside, God has worked in my life, showing me how to live with a purpose, that it's not just going through the emotions. My life has changed because God has shown me how not to be scared going through what-ifs with a cancer diagnosis. Even if I get rediagnosed, he'll be there. Even if I have a struggle or don't want to take the medicines that I have to take for the next 10 years to reduce recurrence, he's there with me every step of the way for that journey, holding my hand and giving me a calm in that.

Jason King: I love Mary's story. Just that in and of itself is an incredible story of God at work, but what you may not know is the backstory. James Johnson, who's our discipleship pastor, has been talking for a while about how God has been at work in this group of women who have all walked through breast cancer together and that they've been coming together, meeting together, supporting one another, bringing new people to be a part of it who have experienced this support.

But what you may not know is how this group even got started and how that flyer found its way into the doctor's office. There are several women in our church who have walked through or are walking through breast cancer. There's a lady named Linda Melton who really helped get this group started and became the catalyst for wanting to get together women to try to help one another through this difficult time and season in life. Shandra Bullock and Lisa Clements are two other ladies who helped join in to launch this. Other ladies have since joined and now they meet regularly to help one another, encourage one another, and come along one another in this journey.

James said they had the idea because they had all been in the doctor's office and gotten the diagnosis, felt the feelings, and seen the road that was ahead of them. They went to these doctors' offices and dropped off invitations to the people at the offices to give to patients who were walking through breast cancer as an opportunity to help when people were hurting. Mary saw it, that's why she came. She was a believer already, but she has experienced God's power and presence at work in her life and in her family as a result.

You never know how God will use you going beyond to help those who are hurting. One day you will. One day you will know. I'm praying that for us today, we would make the choice, because of what God has done for us, to go beyond for those who are hurting.