Transcription
My name is John, and I'm your friend. On the count of three, give me your name. One, two, three. Nice to meet you. It's so good to be here at Seacoast. My gosh, I'm so excited for our time today. I, I think you know this, I have an opportunity to know leaders around the world, literally. And you're so blessed because I, I've known Craig for many, many years, and Craig and Debbie and their founding of this church. And then, of course, Josh, Jason, and just your church is greatly blessed by good, Godly, solid leadership. And, yeah, it really is. It's just, it just, uh, and you're very fortunate that a lot of congregations just don't have that opportunity or that environment. So, to be today with you, you know, Josh, thank you. And it's so good to be with all of you. I'm very excited.
Um, my wife Margaret and I have been married for 53 years, and we have, uh, yeah, we have, we have two children, we have five grandchildren. Grandchildren are God's gift to you for not killing the children. And when Josh was, just all the books I've written, it's really no big deal. Think about it. If you write that many books, the only qualification is you have to be old. I mean, if you're not old, you can't write that many books. And so, but it's just, I'm just so excited to and honored and privileged to be here. Let me, uh, do one thing before I teach. Uh, you, you don't realize this, but, uh, this, I'm going to help you here. I, I'm set, I'm set. First of all, I'm 75. And when you're, when you're 70, here's what happens. When you're 65, you get wisdom. This is amazing. Just, you get about 65, and all of a sudden, you get, you just get wisdom. And you think, wow, that's, that's good. That's good. Now, as I look at many of you, honestly, you have a long time for this. It's going to be a long time for your wives. Okay? Uh, you know, God's got a great sense of humor. When you're young, he gives you energy and no wisdom. When you're old, he gives you wisdom and no energy. You know what I'm saying?
And so, what I have on my iPhone is this. This is so good. I, so I'm going to take two minutes out. I'm going to read this to you. I'm going to explain life to you. So, you know, because we all have questions about life. Well, I'm going to explain it. In fact, look at your neighbor and say, "You're about to understand life." Go ahead and tell them that right now. You're, you're about to understand life. Okay? And so, in fact, look right back at them and say, "Why do you think I brought you here?" Okay?
So, so here, here we go. On the first day, God created the dog. God said, "Sit all day by the door of your house. Embark at anyone that comes by. And I'm going to give you a lifespan of 20 years." That the dog says, "It's too long to be barking. Give me 10 years, and I'll give you back the other 10." And God agreed. So, on the second day, God created the monkey. God said, "Entertain people. Do monkey tricks. Make them laugh. I'll give you a 20-year lifespan." The monkeys said, "How boring. Monkey tricks for 20 years? I don't think so. The dog gave you back 10 years. That's what I'll do too." Okay? God agreed. On the third day, God created a cow. Said, "You must go out in the field of farmer all day long, suffering the sun, have calves, give milk to support the farmer. I'm going to give you a lifespan of 60 years." And the cow said, "That's kind of a tough life. You want me to live for 60 years? He said, I'll tell you what. Let me have 20, and I'll give you back the other 40." And God agreed. So, on the fourth day, God created man. Because I said, "Eat, sleep, drink, play, marry, enjoy your life. I'm going to give you a 20-year lifespan." It says, "What? Only 20 years? I'll tell you what. I'll take my 20, and I'll take the 40 that the cow gave you back. At the time, the monkey gave you back, and in the 10th of the, the dog gave you back." Okay? God said, "Okay, you've got a deal." So, that's why the first 20 years of our lives, we eat, sleep, play. I see the trainer coming. Oh, shoot.
So, the first 20 years of our lives, we eat, sleep, play, marry, enjoy ourselves. For the next 40 years, we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next 10 years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. For the last 10 years, we sit on the front porch and we bark at everybody that goes by. All right, you've just had life explained to you.
If you and I were sitting at this table, just the two of us, okay? And you, you said, "John, talk to me about what you think is important in life." Well, first of all, I would automatically, immediately talk about faith, because that's essential. But beside that, if, if you were to sit at this table and we were having a one-on-one conversation, said, "Help me, give me something that's going to really make a difference in my life." What I would talk to you about is, I would talk to you about perspective. Because your perspective right now concerning God, uh, your family, your work, where you live, you, this, the perspective that you have right now is your world. Your, your perspective is your world. You see, how we view things is how we do things. And that's why it's possible for two people to live in the same world and have two totally different viewpoints of that world. You see, we don't see what is before us. We see what our perspective is. It, so you run into somebody that has an abundance mindset, they see opportunity. You see somebody that has the scarcity of mindset, they see closed doors. Now, let me, it's the same world. The, the world is the same, but our perspective is not the same.
Most, most of my life, 80% of my time, I really deal in the business community. And, and I, I deal with people that, by and large, don't know God. And so, when I would become friends with them and, and speak to their companies, etc., and I would have conversations with them, people that don't know God, I would ask them, I say, "Well, how, what, what is your picture of God? I mean, when you think of God, what, what do you see?" And, and almost immediately, I began to understand that, and this was an incredible breakthrough for me for a moment, that that people who don't know God are not anti-God. They just have a wrong picture of him. And in fact, one of the joys of my life for several years now is to help people have a, a correct picture of God. Because the moment that their perspective of God changes, the relationship changes. And that's true in, in everything in your life. That, that perspective is, is just huge. If, if, if I could change in how I see things, everything around me begins to change.
I'm, I'm one of my least favorite places is to go is the dentist. I see, I have friends here, don't I? I mean, okay. I mean, it's just, I mean, it's not like, "Wow, I get to see the dentist today." And, you know, I don't need to tell you everything. It's just, it's not really. I mean, the question is, will dentists go to heaven? That's the question. I suppose they will. But there won't be dentists there. They won't be dentists there, that's for sure. But, you know, they're, they're always, you know, they, you know, you get teeth cleaned, you know, and, you know, you get to go, you know, go do that, you know, you do all that stuff, okay? Well, sometimes I would, I wish I could help a person. I wish that, I wish our heads like had a zipper, and you can unzip it, you could like take the mind out, and, you know, like spray the sucker off, you know what I mean? And, and, and kind of get, you know, get all the cobwebs out, and get all the dust off, and get off, get all, all that stuff off. Because it's, you know, when I go to the dentist, I get dental floss. Well, I, I would like to help people with mental floss. I, I would just, I would just like to walk into the life and say, "Look, my name is John, and I'm your friend, and I want to give you a perspective that's going to be an asset in your life and not a liability."
So, the story we're going to look at today is the story of the Good Samaritan. We know the story well. Jesus tells it to an attorney who comes to him one day and basically he asks the question, "Who is my neighbor?" And so Jesus tells him this story. So, we're going to pick it up. It's on the screen, you can follow along and reply to the question. Jesus said, "A man was going from Jerusalem down to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. Hey, they stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, you passed by on the other side. And so to a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. And he went to him and he bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. And then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense that you may have.' And then Jesus asked the lawyer, 'Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?' And the expert in laws replied, 'The one who had mercy on him.' And Jesus told him, 'Go and do likewise.'"
In this story are three different perspectives, and I want us to look at them just briefly. It's very simple because their perspectives determined their behavior. So, let's look at the robbers first. And, and basically, the robber's perspective was this: "What is yours is mine, and I'm going to take it." So, they see this guy coming down the road. They said, "Hey, we're going to rob him." That, that's a robber's perspective. "What's yours is mine, and I'm going to take it." Now, honestly, I don't have to spend too much time on this perspective because I think most of you are saying, "Well, well, thank God, I, I'm not that. I wouldn't be so quick." You got some robber in you. Yeah, you do. I'm not picking on you. I got robber in me too. Let me explain it this way. We were born robber. We're born in sin. And if you don't think you have some robber in you, think of the behavior of a toddler. In fact, let me give you property law from a toddler's perspective: "If I like it, it's mine. If I can take it away from you, it's mine. If I had it a while ago, it's mine. If I say it's mine, it's mine. If it looks like mine, it's mine. If you're having fun with it, it's mine. If you lay it down, it's mine. If it's broken, it's yours." We all got a little robber in us, every one of us. We were born in sin. And to be honest with you, there are times when I look at those and say, "You know, wow, what's yours is mine, I'm going to take it."
But let's go to perspective number two, because I, I, you know, we've matured beyond that, hopefully. You know, so somebody that they told me, "Well, they're, they're immature, but they're going to get older." And I said, "Well, maturity doesn't always accompany age. You know, sometimes age comes alone." Perspective number two. This is the perspective of the priest and the Levite. Remember, they saw the man, crossed on the other side, kept going. Their perspective is, "What is mine is mine, and I'm going to keep it." So, when I saw this man in terrible trouble, they basically said, "Well, I, you know, that, I, I feel bad for him, but that's his problem. I mean, what's mine is mine, and, and, you know, I'm going to keep it."
I have a wonderful friend who told me about taking his son to McDonald's. To his, his ten-year-old son loved McDonald's french fries. And I mean, I mean, think about it, who, who doesn't love McDonald's french fries? So, a son wanted to go one, you know, Saturday morning. And so, Dad, you know, gets him in the car, takes him to McDonald's, goes up, gets a pack of fries, sits down at the table with him. And they're starting to talk. And you, you know, that, I mean, if you're, if, if you're near McDonald's fries, it's only a matter of time. You look at them and you smell them. And he did what we'd all do. Hey, you know, son, he's reaching over into that pack to get some of the fries. And his son grabs his hand and pushes it back. He said, "Don't, Dad. You can't have these fries. These fries are mine." And he said, "I pulled my hand back." And then, as a father, I immediately thought three things. Number one, he doesn't understand where these fries came from. I'm the one that drove into McDonald's. I'm the one that went to the counter. I'm the one that paid for them. The only reason he has fries is because, I mean, he doesn't understand that I'm the source of his fries. He said, the second thought that came to my mind was, he doesn't understand that I can take them away from him. With that kind of attitude, I'd say, "If that's where you're going to be about, you don't want to share a price? I'm going to take those from." I mean, I'm the father. I can take the fries from him. He said, "In fact, I not only could take the fries from him if I wanted to, I could go back up to the counter and order 20 packs of fries and go over there and dump them on him and bury him in McDonald's french fries." As soon as he said that, I thought, "Wouldn't that be wonderful? How did you die? Was it manna from heaven? It was McDonald's fries from heaven. I smothered. In fact, two people tried to rescue me and I smacked them off." You know, I, I, I, I, I, I just, he, you know, he, he doesn't, I'm the source. That understand I gave them to me. Then I was like, "Take it. Why? I could bury him." And he said, the third thing is, he, he doesn't understand. And this was huge. He doesn't understand. I don't need his fries. I can go back up to the counter and I can get my own pack and I can sit at the table and I can have mine and he has his. And I eat my fries and he, he said, "What he doesn't understand is, this is a father, I don't need his fries. But I would sure love for him to share them with me." Of course, you would. A father-son moment.
What I've discovered is that selfishness and significance are two incompatible words. Let me explain. Selfishness is all about me. It's, it's all about my stuff. Significance is all about others. Now, I know a lot of very successful people that their perspective is, "What's mine is mine." I, I know a lot of, I know a lot of wealthy, successful people, and I know a lot of them that are very unhappy. A lot of unhappy, successful people because, "What's mine is mine." But when you go to significance, when we begin to see others, I've never, I've never met an unhappy person that spent his or her life living in significance. I, I never have. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Well, I'm not selfish." You didn't think you were a robber either. You're over two. I had a lady, really, one time, coming to me and she said, "Well, I just, I just want you know, I'm not a selfish person." And I smiled and I thought to myself, "No, I don't. I, I think you think that. I, you're a delusional person."
Hold on. My name's John. I'm your friend. I think you're selfish. And somebody takes a picture of you and your group. When you see the picture, let me ask you a question. You know where I'm going with this, don't you? How many are guilty? The first person you look for is yourself. And you're not selfish. You look at yourself. And if it's a good picture, you say, "Oh my gosh, great picture." Said that to me. "Oh my gosh, super picture. Wonderful, wonderful. Oh, that's such a great picture." And hey, and if you don't look good, you say, "Oh my gosh, take another one. Take another one. Take another one. Take it. Come on. Let's go get it. Get the whole group, right?" You judge the whole picture, but how you look. There were 15 of you with the picture, and you're not selfish.
So, the robber says, "What's yours is mine, I'm going to take it." The priest and Levite, their perspective is, "What's mine is mine, and I'm going to keep it." Let's go to perspective number three. This is the perspective of the Samaritan. And they call him good for a reason. It was his perspective. He had a good perspective, so he was a good Samaritan. His perspective is, "What is mine is yours, and I'm going to give it." Now, this is beautiful. In fact, in our life, we basically say this would be the top tier. It's really not, but this would be the top tier of perspective on possessions. "I'm going to give you a higher one in a moment." But this is a very good perspective. He was a good Samaritan. "What is mine is yours, and, and I'm going to give it."
Now, let's make sure that we have the similarities of the three people. The robbers, priest, and Levite, Good Samaritan. They all experienced the same time. The priest and the Levite, they saw the man. Jesus is very clear. They saw the man, walked on the other side. The Good Samaritan saw the man there. It's the same road. It's the same time. It's the same place. But the perspective is entirely different. That's why your perspective is so essential to the success of your life. It's, it's not what happens to me. It's what happens in me that truly matters.
I've spent this week. I had some fun. I was in Nashville, and we, we've decided to take some of my books and put them to music. We're writing songs right now, and it was so much fun because I was, I was with the top five songwriters in Nashville. They have like a hundred number one hits between them, with all of them. And I was in the studio. Of course, I'm not a songwriter. I'm a writer of books. But they were taking my books, and I was explaining what the books were about, and we were writing songs. And they let me in, and we had so much fun. And we wrote four songs. We were four songs. We're going to do four more. We're gonna have an album. We're going to release it. It's gonna be so, and different artists are going to sing it. And it was just, it was just a blast. I mean, now I'm like, I'm the least of the least. They're songwriters. I just write books. And so I'm, I'm learning, and I'm asking questions, and I'm having fun. And, and it was, it was just, and, and one of, one of the songs that we wrote is going to be called "Get Over Yourself." I just love it because I tell people all the time. I tell people, I say, "Oh my gosh, get over yourself." In fact, I tell people, "You ought to laugh at yourself more. Everyone else is. Get over yourself." And so the chorus, which is just so much fun, I can't sing it to you, but the chorus, it goes like this: "You got to find yourself to know yourself. You got to know yourself to be yourself. You got to be yourself to improve yourself. You got to prove yourself to get over yourself, so you can give yourself. You can't give yourself until you get over yourself." Thank you. Thank you. Does that mean you'll buy the album when it comes down? Of course. Of course. It's, it's, I, I just wish I could tell you all the wonderful experiences.
Now, here, here's the point. The Good Samaritan said, "No, what is mine is yours, and, and I'm going to give it." There's one more perspective that's higher than those three. This is kind of unusual because we would say, "Wow, that's huge." But there's a perspective higher than that. Let me give it to you. This is a biblical perspective. I want to teach it now for the next few minutes. It's even higher than the first three. And here it is: "What is mine is not mine, and I'm going to manage it." In other words, the highest perspective is to know that your stuff is not your stuff. It isn't. It's God's. It's all God's. Psalm 24:1, "The Earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it." It's, it's all His. James 1:17, "Every good and every perfect gift, where is it? It's from above and comes down from the Father of Lights." In other words, everything that you've got, it's not yours. Everything I have, it's not mine. It's not my stuff. It's here. Thank you. I saw you clap, First Lady. It was so wonderful. Thank you. The rest of them had no clue, and you just led the way. And then, you know, a few of them fall kind of begrudgingly because, you know, we kind of like to think it's our stuff. We really do.
And God loves a cheerful giver, by the way. I was talking to the family in the green room, and we're going to go lunch afterwards. I told him I would buy. And then I looked in my wallet. Gosh, I don't have enough money. And I just thought, "Oh man, you know, where can I get money?" Well, would anybody want to, you know, like, bring me a hundred dollars and I could help, you know, help with the deal? So, "Hi, my name's John." "Hi, I'm Jahira." "Nice to meet you." "Nice to meet you." "I need friends like you." "This is so, thank you for the hundred dollars, man. That I'll buy." "Oh my God." Okay. Where was I?
Maybe I should ask again. Now, let me just stop here because I know you're, you're thinking, "What just happened? He's doing this teaching, and all of a sudden he wants a hundred bucks." And she steps out and gives him a hundred dollars. What happened? Why did she do that? Why did she, why did she do that like immediately? And, and then you're probably asking yourself, "Why didn't I do it?" I'm asking that question myself. No, no. Let me explain to you something about the hundred dollars. When I asked somebody to bring me a hundred dollars, the reason she stepped out so quickly and brought it to me, it's a 200. Before the service, I gave it to her. I said, "This is my money. And during the sermon, if you don't mind if I asked for it, would you just bring it back to me?" And she said, "Of course." Why did she do it so quickly? She did it so quickly. Why did she do it so readily? She didn't so readily because it wasn't her money. And when you, when you have a hard time giving and being generous with God, you've got a problem. You've got a perspective problem. You think it's your money. It's all His.
If you took a package down to get it delivered to FedEx or whatever, and you gave it to the person, and so you called the, the friend you were sending it to the next day, and she said, "Well, no, no, I didn't get the the box." You'd look at it and say, "What? You didn't get the box?" I just, "What happened?" And so you go down to the delivery guy and you say, "Do you remember me?" "Oh, yeah. You brought in a box yesterday." "Yes, I did." And then he looks like he says, "I want to thank you for that box. My gosh, I just, you're very generous." Yes, it wasn't for you. You're just a delivery boy. This was Samson. I'm just God's delivery boy. God gives me blessings, and God only gives to me what he knows will flow through me. It's not mine. And the moment that we understand that, that we just, we continually just give it and pass it on. You see, I've got a shovel, and God's got a shovel. And God shovels blessings on me, and I take my shovel and I pass them on to you. And, and I can't keep up with His blessings because He shovel is bigger than mine. But it's not my stuff. If it's, if you think it's your stuff, when you die, tell me how much you get to take with you. You and I are stewards and managers for a very short time of our possessions. And the moment that we have this perspective, all of a sudden, we begin to have joy in giving. We began to, we begin to be our brother's keeper. All of a sudden, everything changes. Now, what made the change? It was our perspective. All of a sudden, we realized, "What's mine is it mine? I'm just a steward of it. I'm just a manager of it."
You're beautiful people. It's a simple message, and you got it. I can tell you got it. So, let's pray. Father, what beautiful people these are. They, they have learned that there are four perspectives about possessions. And help me, help us to get to level four. Help us to understand that it's all Yours. It's not ours. What's mine isn't mine. I just manage it. I just steward it. Help all of us to be Your delivery girl, Your delivery boy. Help us all to understand that that You entrust to us what is Yours to steward it and manage it well. And may we do it well. In Your name, I prayed. Everybody said, "God bless you very much. Thank you."