Max Lucado is the pastor at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio.  He presented on the idea of outliving your life at the RightNow Conference 2010.

*Max Lucado has sold over 65 million books.  Try to wrap your mind around that.

At the end of time, we will be separated into two groups.  What a sight it will be when all people from all times will be there.

And when the cosmos finally has what it needs, a 1 king kingdom…what a sight it will be.

The first act of the just-crowned king will be to applaud our works of compassions.

We’re right to say that we’re not saved by our works of compassion, but by the compassion of Christ.  But those who are saved by Christ in return to acts of compassion.

And God makes a big deal out of the Church’s response (and applauds) her simple acts of mercy.

We find a great example of God’s compassion at the first all-church meeting.

Acts 6:1-7

Widows in the NT period needed help being taken care of.  Their only option in their culture was to turn to the Church.  And to the credit to the Church, they did care for the widows.  But apparently, some favoritism crept in.

We could envision the church leaders wanting to turn people away, couldn’t we?  We can just hear them say, “We are in the business of building churches, not feeding bodies.  Not serving soup.”

The only time we find Jesus reading a Scripture (Luke 4:16-19, cf. Isaiah 61:1-2), and who does he talk about?

The poor.

And to declare the year of the Lord’s favor.

And what we see from this passage is that God doesn’t want those who have to be so far from those who have not that they don’t see them.

Why is it that 80% of the world’s resources are owned and controlled by 20% of the people?  And should that bother us?  Should we do anything about it?

Some people are poor because they’re lazy.  Others are poor because of latitude.  They are more than willing to work.  And it’s a tough time to be alive on this Earth.

Compassion is our greatest apologetic.

The book of Acts isn’t just a record of what the Church did, but what the Church can do.

Have you been serious when it comes to compassion?

Are you engaging your church in acts around the world?

2000 verses in the Bible tell us to care for the poor.