Through His Eyes | Chad Prewett

God is speaking to me over these last couple of years this thought and I'm going to share it with you today. Chad I want you to see the world as I see it. I want you to see it through my eyes. I don't know how comfortable you are in your walk with Christ or if you just came to Christ or you don't know Christ or you've been with him a long time but God wants to shake us a little bit today. He wants to activate us because we all have a role to play. There's a song by Josiah Queen called Things That Matter and I want to read a verse of this. It says, when did I start missing things that matter? Help me see the world through your eyes till what breaks your heart is breaking mine. Slow me down the world is moving faster but I don't want to miss the things that matter. What if we truly saw this world, the people in your world through the eyes of Jesus today? What would it look like? Would you just pass those people by or would you stop as Jesus did? Because if you go back and you look at the life of Jesus for three years he simply did this. He went from village to village meeting the needs of the people. How can you be a better servant? How can you meet those needs if we're not looking through the eyes of Christ? We always take, at Auburn we'd always take our team on a mission trip and this last few years we've gone to Honduras and it's unbelievable. We go, we stay at an orphanage which means we get to play with the orphans during the day. We do food ministry. We take rice and beans to the city of people that if we don't take it to them they don't eat. Then we have the opportunity to share our faith and the last day we always take the guys and they go play paintball and so our basketball team and some of the staff will go play paintball. But I felt like this time I needed to stay back and so me and four or five guys stayed back and we're sitting around and honestly a little tired from the week. We had been doing long days and a lot of serving and we're sitting there and one of the guys says, hey I feel like we need to just take a few rice and bean packages to some of the people nearby. So we walk down this dirt road and the translator is right beside me and Carlos, I said Carlos let's pray specifically that God will send us. We can only stop by one or two houses that God will send us to the house where he

needs us to go. And so we prayed and we walk up to this one house and we get up there and we see a big old burly guy sitting on the on the porch and he's got his shirt off, hat on backwards. I'm like God are you sure this is where we're supposed to go? There was two, looked like it's two daughters that were also on the porch as well and we go up and we said hey. We introduced ourself and the translator translates it into Spanish and we said hey we're from we're from Alabama and we're here to tell you about Jesus and what Jesus has done in our life. And we gave him some rice and beans and felt really compelled to just share the gospel and so I'm sharing the gospel with this these three and one of the girls is just locked into me. And I looked at her and I said would you like to ask Jesus into your heart, the same Jesus I'm talking about, would you want to pray that prayer and ask Jesus to come into your heart today? And she said she gave me a head nod. And I'm getting ready to pray and I look at the other sister and the other sister is locked in and I said would you like to join your sister in this prayer today? And she gave me a head nod. Then I looked at the big guy on the side and I'm like all right God you got to work here. And I said sir your two daughters are about to pray to ask Jesus into their heart would you consider joining them and praying with me to ask God Jesus to come into your heart? It took him a little longer than the others but he gave me a head nod. And so I'm excited I'm thinking God this is why you sent us to Honduras I'm getting ready to pray and one of the guys said hey their brother heard all of this and they don't he doesn't want to miss out can he also pray with you so I got to lead Jesus those guys to Jesus that day and one day when we're in heaven we're gonna see this whole family that came to Jesus because we saw the world through the eyes of Christ. We had to get out of our comfort zone I wanted to sit back and kick back and I wanted to drink a coca-cola and put my feet up but God had other plans and because of that there's gonna be a family that we're gonna see in heaven. We need a paradigm shift quit thinking about ourself and think about a world that's dying and needs Jesus the hope of the world. There's two prerequisites I want to share with you if we're gonna ever

see people through his eyes. Number one until I have a right view of the way God sees me I can never have a right view of the way God sees me. right view of the way God sees them. Until I have a right view of the way God sees me, I can never have a right view of the way God sees them. I have to see me right before I can see them right. So what does that mean? We all have a false self, a false identity. That's the fear, guilt, and shame that we all deal with. Maybe you did something to someone. Maybe someone did something to you. Maybe you're fearful and it's holding you back. That is the false identity that's not what God has called us to. One of my favorite stories in the Bible is the woman at the well. I love what it says to start that. It says, now Jesus had to go to Samaria. No, he didn't have to go there. God directed him there. But there's this woman at the well, and think about what she carries into that meeting. It says that she meets there at noon, just noontime. Why do you think noon? Because nobody else will be there. She's ostracized from the community. She's probably got that false self or the labels of being unseen, loose, adulterer, outcast, until she met Jesus. And Jesus gives her some living water.

You know what she did? She exchanged her false self for her true self. And God sends her back into the community and she becomes Jesus' first evangelist. She goes back and wins her village to Christ. She now was called the daughter of the king. Isaiah 43, one and two says this, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. If Jesus was introducing you today, he would say, this is my, what is that name that he calls you? There's eight billion people in this world and not any of us have the same thumbprint. He formed you intricately. You're one of one. You're his masterpiece. What does he call you today? He has a name for you. And the world needs the real you. Your family, sir, needs the real you. They don't need to fault you. This world needs the identity that God has called you. I coached girls' basketball earlier in my career. I also had a wife and three daughters, so God was teaching me something. A lot of females in my life. A lot of estrogen going on, for sure. But one of my favorite players I ever coached was a girl named Sheely White.

Sheely White, five foot tall, Sheely White. Basketball player, Sheely White, five foot, doesn't all go together. But this was one of my favorite players because she was one of the toughest players I ever coached. She was the best defensive player that I've ever coached. And if the ball was on the ground right there, you had to cover your knees and your ankles because she's diving on top of it. Sheely White would steal your ball. And one day, the point guard's coming across half court. Sheely White's sitting in a stance at half court waiting on her. Point guard crosses over and Sheely White steals the ball like she had done many, many times before. She takes one dribble and she kicks it out of bounds. And I did something that's not something I'm super proud of, but I grabbed the ball and I drop kicked it across the gym. And I said something that I'm pretty sure she does not have this quote hanging on her refrigerator today. I said, Sheely White, never dribble the ball again the rest of your life. I said, we can't even celebrate what you do so well because you're trying to do something you weren't made to do. And all of our frustrations in life come when we try to be something that we're not called to be. God's got a specific name for you.

What is that name? The second prerequisite is this. God does not call the qualified. He qualifies those he calls. If you feel unqualified today, you're in a perfect place for God to use you. When we got ready to lead this movement, my wife's a former educator. I'm a former basketball coach and we're leading one of the biggest revivals. We weren't qualified. I'm like, God, why didn't you call a pastor or somebody who's done events? Somebody who understands that's not how God works. You look at the disciples, he called a rough crew. Go look at them. They weren't from the greatest part of the city. They didn't have the greatest pedigree. God loves to take ordinary people and do extraordinary things. Because you know why? Because then he gets all the glory. Think about Moses. He called Moses. He said, Moses, you're gonna be my deliverer. And he says, I can't. even speak, please choose someone else. Or maybe David, remember Samuel lines, all the sons up of Jesse. And he says, one of you are going to be the king. And he goes down the line and he says, it's none of these. Do you have another son? He

says, yeah, but he's out with a sheep. It can't be him. Aren't you glad that God doesn't look at the outer appearance? He looks at the heart. Do you feel unqualified today? You're in great company. You may be like Gideon where he says, Gideon, you're my mighty warrior. You talking about me? I'm the least in my family and our clan is the weakest of all of them. God does not measure like the world measures. So if you sit here today and you say it's easy for you, Chad, because you're a coach and you know this and people know you, God wants you. What is God speaking for you to do today? My prayer is I've been praying over this is that God activates you today. He shows you where he wants to use you today. There's four action steps I want to talk about today. What do I do? How can I see people through the eyes of Christ? Number one, abide in him. In John 15, it says, Jesus is saying that this is this is the end of his life. He said, abide in me as I in you. In other words, make your home in me. I'm going to make my home in you is a life union. If you don't think this was important, this was some of the last words that Jesus ever spoke to his disciples. Much like a branch that stays connected to the vine to thrive, abiding involves continuous daily commitment to live in fellowship with him. I'm not talking about a blessing over a meal. I'm not talking about a devotion. I'm talking about abiding. I'm talking about spending time with the creator. And as we spend more time with him, we're going to start seeing people like he sees them. Are you abiding in him today? When you do everything around you will begin to change. The second step is practice unending forgiveness. This one's not any fun. Practice unending forgiveness. For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly

father will also forgive you, Matthew 6, 14 says. Peter asked the question to Jesus, Jesus, how many times should we forgive? Seven? He's like, no, 70 times seven. And some people even think that's even daily, which is telling you it's limitless. You need to continue to forgive. And some of you in this room are being held back because you won't ask for that forgiveness or release people in your life that have done you wrong. It's one of the blockages we can have in our life if we don't practice unending forgiveness. Forgiving flips the script. It pulls you out of resentment and into compassion. Bryce Brown was one of our best basketball players that's ever put on a uniform at Auburn University. The second leading three-point shooter in the history of the SEC, Bryce Brown was. Bryce Brown was a nightmare as a recruit. I'll just be honest with you, he was a nightmare. Never wanted to go to class, was always whining. I remember this, he would just walk off to court. We'd be in practice and he'd get upset and he would just walk off to court and Coach Pearl would give me one of these, which meant, go get him. I'd go over there and put my arm around Bryce and I'd just remind him who he was. Bryce, you can't throw all this away. You got this. Get back in the game. You're going to be fine. Bryce had a really tough upbringing and there was things in his life that he was missing and he needed an authority figure, but he needed somebody just to love him. We made the Final Four that year, largely due to Bryce. At the end of the year, he comes into my office, knocks on my door, comes into my office. Nobody else was there that day, but me. It was late in the evening. He sits down and we just start talking about, man, some of the great times we had, all the games and all the championships we had won together. Bryce is a tough,

tough guy from Atlanta. I looked over there and he had a big old tear right in the side of his corner of his eye. It just began to roll down his cheek. Then I saw another one begin to roll down his cheek and he says, coach, why did you not give up on me? Coach, why did you not give up on me? So many times you should have kicked me off the team. I deserve to be kicked off the team, but you did not give up on me. Why? And maybe you're here today and you say, God, why have you not given up on me? He is continually forgiving you and he wants you to make sure you're continuing to forgive those in your life. Some of you today need to release some people in your life. Number three is live in obedience. Simply obedience means is simply hearing God and then do what he says. Don't overcomplicate it. Hear him, do what he says. In John 21, Jesus had died. He'd been crucified and died, resurrected. The disciples are out in the middle of the water going back fishing. A lot of us, that's what we do when we feel like God's abandoned us. We go back to old things of life. So they're out there fishing and they didn't catch anything all night. And there's a guy standing on the shore and he says, Hey, y'all catching any fish? They didn't know it was Jesus. He says, why don't you throw the net on the other side of the boat? Now these are professional fishermen. This is not me and you out there trying to catch fish. These are real fishermen. I have to think they're saying, you're telling me there's fish right here, but there's not fish right here. But you know what they did? They threw the net on the other side and the Bible says they couldn't contain all of the fish that they caught. It's actually 153 fish that they caught. What is on the other side of your obedience today? What's on the other side of you

just saying, yes, Lord, what is he waiting to do in your life because you obey? In John 21, 8, it says, then the disciples who Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. As soon as he saw, as Simon Peter heard him say, it is the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him for he had taken it off and he jumped into the water. My fourth and last point is if you want to understand that we're going to see people through the eyes of Christ, you got to get out of the boat. Now I'm just picturing him. I don't know that he just stepped out of the boat like this. I think he saw Jesus who he knew that was his Lord and Savior. He had watched him do all those miracles. I think he probably dove out of that boat. And God speaking to some of you today, it's time for you to get out of the boat. It's time for you to get out of the boat, out of your comfort zone and into the water. There's people in your life who's counting on you to get into the water. Get off the sidelines, but quit being a spectator and get into the game. Matthew 28, Jesus says, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. It may be today God's asking you to get in the game, get into the water. Jesus is on the other side of that. In conclusion, the four things we've got to do if we're going to see people through his eyes, abide in him, practice unending forgiveness, live in obedience, and lastly, step out of the boat. About two months ago, we get a call from our daughter, our youngest daughter, Mary Michael. She called Tanya, my wife, and she couldn't say anything. She was trying to speak and she couldn't say anything. She was bawling and screaming and trying to get the words out that her best friend in the world at age 22 didn't

wake up. She had talked to her the night before at 11 o'clock. She says, Mary, I'm tired. I'm going to go to sleep. She never woke back up. It shook us. It shook my wife. It shook Mary Michael. It shook our family that her best friend who had the whole world in front of her didn't wake up. She knew Jesus, so we're going to see her again. It just reminded me that it doesn't matter what else you do in life. I don't care how good your grades are. I don't care how many businesses you own. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and he's not the Lord of your life, you are going to lose. But if you can ask Jesus into your heart, he's going to come in and change your life forever.