Josh: 0:07

Welcome to Made for Good, the podcast where we explore how to live out our purpose through acts of goodness out of a biblical truth. Hey, I'm Josh

Mark: 0:14

and I'm Mark.

Mark: 0:16

In today's episode, we're diving into one of the most challenging topics possible, and that's emulating Jesus. Obviously, we know that Jesus was the ultimate example of what it means to do good, but what does that really mean for us in our daily lives? How can we model his compassion, his service and his love in practical ways in the 21st century? That's what we're going to be exploring today. He was divine and so obviously he was human as well. But, Josh, how in the world can we seek to attain or to emulate Jesus? It seems like a huge undertaking, a challenge so big that it's almost impossible.

Josh: 1:05

It is impossible, but I think the key word is today. We need to focus or we can focus on today, Like, for example imagine if every action we took today was modeled after Jesus. And I'm not talking about the big moments either, but the little ones, Like, for example, how we talk to people, how you respond to interruptions, maybe how you handle something that's inconvenient. Would your life look any different?

Mark: 1:30

So you're saying how would Jesus respond to being stuck in traffic? You know, would he use his horn or would he be patient?

Josh: 1:37

That's what you got out of that.

Mark: 1:38

Yeah, that's how I hit me. Maybe that says more about me than anything else. But you know, if me, maybe that says more about me than anything else.

Mark: 1:43

But you know, it's not just knowing what Jesus did you know we've got the Bible to tell us that but it's figuring out how to you know how really to apply that. You know, we're not in first century Israel, we're in the United States and we're in the 21st century and we have all of this, all these tools around us. The good news is here is that Jesus example is is timeless. It's a model of good works. You know, we can get something from his divine miracles. We can understand kind of the motivation behind that.

Mark: 2:23

You know they all, all of those, were driven by I would say all of them are driven by his compassion for what he saw. But then there are everyday acts of kindness that he did and we're going to talk about those, we're going to unpack this and we are really try to figure out how we can follow in his footsteps. So you know. We want to go to the scripture, obviously, to talk about this and to learn when you introduce somebody to a crowd that doesn't know that person you want to introduce them with, like the most significant or the most important thing about them. You would say, if you're introducing a Hall of Famer, you would say this is Troy Aikman Hall of Famer Troy Aikman, who played for the Dallas Cowboys. You would say this is did we just offend all the non-Dallas?

Mark: 3:20

Cowboys.

Josh: 3:20

We lost a lot of audience. Okay, sorry about that.

Mark: 3:22

Just insert generic superstar LeBron James, whoever you need to, in the hall. But the point is you. You lead with the most important thing, and when Peter went to talk to Cornelius in Acts 10, he did just that with Jesus.

Josh: 3:42

He did just that. In verse 38, he gives a powerful description of Jesus. Now listen to this how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. This verse captures two important aspects of Jesus' life his divine power and his commitment to good works. He didn't just talk about righteousness, he lived it out through tangible acts of love and compassion.

Mark: 4:10

You know, and the key there was he went about doing good. That's, again, that's the thing that defined Jesus. It was the he was anointed by God and the Holy Spirit was with him, gave him power, and God was with him, of course, but he did that. There are two things. As you said, he went about doing good and healing. Well, the healing part from the physical healing, that's the divine part, right, that's the divine power.

Mark: 4:42

But the commitment to good works is he went about doing good and that's really the key for us as Christians. If we're followers of Christ, then we're really called to reflect that character. That means walking in his footsteps, so to speak, doing good as he did. And here's the real essence, I think, in the challenge that we have as Christians today, and that's seeing people through his eyes, jesus was intentional in everything that he said. He was leading his audience to where he wanted them to be. He was driven by compassion and, obviously, selflessness and ultimately giving his own life, his own body, as a sacrifice for us. Those are, those are qualities that should define our lives as Christians as well.

Josh: 5:42

So let's break this down a little bit further. Jesus' good works can be divided into two categories One, his divine good works and two, his human good works. His divine good works included a number of things like well healing the sick, raising the dead Think about in the Gospels where he fed the multitudes or even calming the storm.

Mark: 6:05

That's one of my favorite stories there the calming of the storm.

Josh: 6:08

For sure. While we can't perform miracles in this way like Jesus did, we can emulate his heart behind these actions. You've talked about compassion a number of times already. We can care for the sick, we can provide for those who are in need, we can bring peace into some kind of chaotic situation.

Mark: 6:25

But if we focus on the human good works, the things that Jesus did, we can absolutely emulate these Things. Like he welcomed little children when those around him like, hey, don't bother, jesus, he's doing important things, he welcomed them and he used them in his examples. He prayed for his disciples, he talked to God about them because he cared so much about them, especially when he was getting ready to leave and and and fulfill his mission, complete his mission and return to his place of glory, the right hand of God. He prayed for them, and one of the most humble acts that he did is he washed their feet. You know, I'm just telling you that was that could not have been a pleasant thing. You know to to wash their feet, and you know they were walking in sandals and they were all going on dirt roads and so it was not good.

Josh: 7:26

You're painting a pretty picture,

Mark: 7:27

yeah, yeah.

Mark: 7:30

But here's another one the compassion and love that he had for his mother. He wanted to make sure his mother was cared for. Even as he's in the most difficult moment of his life, as his life is coming to an end he's hanging on the cross, he wanted to make sure that his mother was cared for. That's such a sweet and tender moment there and, the thing that I love we got to go to Israel a few years ago and stand on the shore of Sea of Galilee where Jesus cooked breakfast for his friends after his resurrection. Wouldn't you love it that Jesus cooked you breakfast? You know these acts of love and this is key. They weren't miraculous, but they were incredibly powerful. They showed really his depth of love for his family, his disciples and just for people around him. And here's the best part of that we can do all of these things today.

Josh: 8:32

I agree with everything that you said, but at this point in the episode it's kind of like a reality check.

Mark: 8:37

A reality check, okay,

Josh: 8:39

we're still talking about Jesus,

Mark: 8:41

yes.

Josh: 8:44

And so how do we start? I mean, he was human. Sure, as you just outlined. There's a number of things that we can do that he did, but we still wrestle with this idea or this, or knowing that he was also divine.

Mark: 8:57

Well, I think, as you said a while ago, that we focus on the now, we focus on today, we break this thing down. It doesn't have to be something big. We don't have to feed 5,000 people, okay. He showed us that the most simple acts of love can be incredibly powerful to the recipient. So so get this. He took time to listen, yeah, and that's simple. It's not big, but it's powerful. He took the time to serve, he took the time to encourage, and what we're saying here is he took the time, and that's going to be our next episode Redeeming the Time. Get a little plug in there. But this is something that all of us can do, no matter how busy or how unqualified we feel. We can do something small and powerful.

Josh: 9:58

I'm just thinking about some of the things that you've said already today, and you've talked about compassion multiple times when it comes to Jesus, and so when I struggle with this idea, what I mentioned earlier with well, he was divine and I can't do a miracle I love how many times we're reading the gospels of when Jesus felt compassion something that I feel too it immediately turned to action. That's a beautiful thing. So if I struggle with that concept of what we're talking about, at the end of the day, there are times in my life where I feel something in my stomach that compassion. Now, if I want to be like Jesus and I want to emulate Jesus, like you started the episode off, I must act, because he always did.

Mark: 10:38

OK, so you're saying that when we feel the compassion our our next thought should be how do I do something?

Josh: 10:47

right

Mark: 10:48

How do I capture that compassion that we have for someone or for a situation and immediately go what can I do? What can I do? How can I turn this into actual action?

Josh: 11:04

And it leads us right into Matthew 14, 14. This is because we're talking about this compassion. So this is when he felt it. Look at this when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them. What does it follow up with Action? And he healed their sick. True compassion doesn't just feel for others. It moves us to do something.

Mark: 11:31

Yeah, I love that, you know. And there's another case where where Jesus had compassion I think only one of the gospels records this, but it was the rich young ruler and it says Jesus and Jesus loved him, or looked at him and loved him. He had compassion for him. So what did he do in that situation? He told him what he needed to hear. He did the difficult thing as well. So that compassion can lead you sometimes to have to have the hard conversation as well, not just and that's doing good. We're going to talk about that as well, but in a future episode.

Mark: 12:03

It's not just, you know, bringing a meal or helping someone out. Sometimes that is, you know, challenging people to do what they really need to do. You know, when we're trying to emulate Jesus, we need to start right. We need to. So we're going to in our mission segment this week. Here's the mission for our listeners. As we often do, start with a prayer, pray for a heart like Jesus, and this is what you're asking God to do is help. You see people the way he does. When you see someone who cuts you off, do you see an inconsiderate person who's only concerned about themselves, or do you see a soul that Jesus gave his life for, if you start from that point because he gave his life for all of us. It's up to us to accept that and believe it.

Josh: 13:03

There's a guy in Murfreesboro and he said if we start looking at people as souls, it changes everything.

Mark: 13:08

Right, right, and that's a big challenge. And that's why that's our challenge, that's our mission for this week. If you, just if you can pray that you can have a heart and vision like Jesus, to see people the way that God sees people, the way that Jesus saw people. And then here's the second part of your mission this week. Let's go out of our way to serve someone and get this in an unexpected way. That means that you're going to do something maybe that nobody else wants to do, or something that somebody can't repay you, but it's something that is unexpected, and you're getting in front of a need. Potentially, they didn't ask you for help, but you looked on them, you saw them, you know you knocked on your neighbor's door and say Look, I know that, you know you just had, you know, your surgery or something and we wanted to bring some cookies or dessert or a meal, or sometimes you can make it really convenient for yourself as well to do good.

Mark: 14:25

You bring them a gift card. You can email somebody a gift card. Hey, I was thinking about you. Maybe they're on the other side of the country and you know they're in a challenging situation, and I'm thinking of someone who just moved to the other side of the country to start a new job. I'm having compassion in this moment, so maybe what I need to do is get online and maybe send them an Amazon gift card because they're setting up a new place, a new apartment in another part of the world. They didn't ask for it, but maybe you could do something like that

Josh: 14:58

Love that

Mark: 14:59

You're getting in front of it. It's an unexpected good work, one that is not requested, so maybe consider that this week as your challenge.

Josh: 15:11

Well, Mark, that's it for episode two of Made for Good. We hope this conversation inspired you. We just ask you to please subscribe and check us out next week.

Mark: 15:23

And if you found it valuable, you know, consider sharing with a friend. Until next time, go out and do good, because remember you were made for it.