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February 24, 2025 15 mins

What would happen if we approached every interaction, every moment of our day, by asking "What would Jesus do?" Not as a cliché, but as a genuine commitment to embodying His compassion in action? 

The challenge of emulating Christ can seem overwhelming – after all, He was both fully divine and fully human. Yet as we explore in this episode, the essence of Jesus' example wasn't just in His miraculous works, but in His everyday acts of love and service. When Peter described Jesus to Cornelius, he highlighted that Jesus "went about doing good" – a simple yet profound description that captures the heart of Christ's ministry.

While we can't replicate Jesus' divine miracles, we can absolutely embrace the compassion that motivated them. From washing His disciples' feet to ensuring His mother's care even as He hung on the cross, Jesus demonstrated that genuine love takes action. We discover that true Christlike behavior isn't about grand gestures but consistent acts of kindness – listening attentively, serving willingly, and seeing beyond surface appearances to the soul within each person we encounter.

Our challenge to you: pray for eyes that see people as Jesus does, and then take the initiative to serve someone in an unexpected way this week. As we learn to translate compassion into immediate action, we begin to walk more faithfully in the footsteps of the One who embodied goodness perfectly. Subscribe to continue this journey with us, and share with others who might be encouraged to join in doing good – because like Jesus, you were made for it.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Josh (00:07):
Welcome to Made for Good, the podcast where we explore how
to live out our purpose throughacts of goodness out of a
biblical truth.
Hey, I'm Josh
and I'm Mark.
In today's episode, we're divinginto one of the most
challenging topics possible, andthat's emulating Jesus.
Obviously, we know that Jesuswas the ultimate example of what

(00:28):
it means to do good, but whatdoes 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 21stcentury?
That's what we're going to beexploring today.
He was divine and so obviouslyhe was human as well.

(00:51):
But, Josh, how in the world canwe seek to attain or to emulate
Jesus?
It seems like a hugeundertaking, a challenge so big
that it's almost impossible.
It is impossible, but I think the key word is today.
We need to focus or we canfocus on today, Like, for

(01:13):
example imagine if every actionwe took today was modeled after
Jesus.
And I'm not talking about thebig moments either, but the
little ones, Like, for example,how we talk to people, how you
respond to interruptions, maybehow you handle something that's
inconvenient.
Would your life look anydifferent?

Mark (01:30):
So you're saying how would Jesus respond to being stuck in
traffic?
You know, would he use his hornor would he be patient?
That's what you got out of that.
Yeah, that's how I hit me.
Maybe that says more about methan anything else.
But you know, if me, maybe thatsays more about me than
anything else.
But you know, it's not justknowing what Jesus did you know

(01:51):
we've got the Bible to tell usthat but it's figuring out how
to you know how really to applythat.
You know, we're not in firstcentury Israel, we're in the
United States and we're in the21st century and we have all of
this, all these tools around us.
The good news is here is thatJesus example is is timeless.

(02:13):
It's a model of good works.
You know, we can get somethingfrom his divine miracles.
We can understand kind of themotivation behind that.
You know they all, all of those,were driven by I would say all
of them are driven by hiscompassion for what he saw.
But then there are everydayacts of kindness that he did and

(02:34):
we're going to talk about those, we're going to unpack this and
we are really try to figure outhow 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 introducesomebody to a crowd that doesn't

(02:56):
know that person you want tointroduce them with, like the
most significant or the mostimportant thing about them.
You would say, if you'reintroducing a Hall of Famer, you
would say this is Troy AikmanHall of Famer Troy Aikman, who
played for the Dallas Cowboys.
You would say this is did wejust offend all the non-Dallas?

(03:20):
Cowboys.

Josh (03:20):
We lost a lot of audience.
Okay, sorry about that.

Mark (03:22):
Just insert generic superstar LeBron James, whoever
you need to, in the hall.
But the point is you.
You lead with the mostimportant thing, and when Peter
went to talk to Cornelius inActs 10, he did just that with
Jesus.

Josh (03:42):
He did just that.
In verse 38, he gives apowerful description of Jesus.
Now listen to this how Godanointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Spirit and with power,who went about doing good and
healing all who were oppressedby the devil, for God was with
him.
This verse captures twoimportant aspects of Jesus' life
his divine power and hiscommitment to good works.

(04:04):
He didn't just talk aboutrighteousness, he lived it out
through tangible acts of loveand compassion.

Mark (04:10):
You know, and the key there was he went about doing
good.
That's, again, that's the thingthat defined Jesus.
It was the he was anointed byGod and the Holy Spirit was with
him, gave him power, and Godwas with him, of course, but he

(04:30):
did that.
There are two things.
As you said, he went aboutdoing good and healing.
Well, the healing part from thephysical healing, that's the
divine part, right, that's thedivine power.
But the commitment to good worksis he went about doing good and
that's really the key for us asChristians.
If we're followers of Christ,then we're really called to

(04:54):
reflect that character.
That means walking in hisfootsteps, so to speak, doing
good as he did.
And here's the real essence, Ithink, in the challenge that we
have as Christians today, andthat's seeing people through his

(05:16):
eyes, jesus was intentional ineverything that he said.
He was leading his audience towhere 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 qualitiesthat should define our lives as

(05:40):
Christians as well.

Josh (05:42):
So let's break this down a little bit further.
Jesus' good works can bedivided into two categories One,
his divine good works and two,his human good works.
His divine good works includeda number of things like well
healing the sick, raising thedead Think about in the Gospels
where he fed the multitudes oreven calming the storm.

Mark (06:05):
That's one of my favorite stories there the calming of the
storm.

Josh (06:08):
For sure.
While we can't perform miraclesin this way like Jesus did, we
can emulate his heart behindthese actions.
You've talked about compassiona number of times already.
We can care for the sick, wecan provide for those who are in
need, we can bring peace intosome kind of chaotic situation.

Mark (06:25):
But if we focus on the human good works, the things
that Jesus did, we canabsolutely emulate these Things.
Like he welcomed littlechildren when those around him
like, hey, don't bother, jesus,he's doing important things, he
welcomed them and he used themin his examples.

(06:46):
He prayed for his disciples, hetalked to God about them
because he cared so much aboutthem, especially when he was
getting ready to leave and andand fulfill his mission,
complete his mission and returnto his place of glory, the right
hand of God.
He prayed for them, and one ofthe most humble acts that he did

(07:13):
is he washed their feet.
You know, I'm just telling youthat 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 allgoing on dirt roads and so it
was not good.
You're painting a prettypicture,
yeah, yeah.
But here's another one thecompassion and love that he had

(07:33):
for his mother.
He wanted to make sure hismother was cared for.
Even as he's in the mostdifficult moment of his life, as
his life is coming to an endhe's hanging on the cross, he
wanted to make sure that hismother was cared for.
That's such a sweet and tendermoment there and, the thing that
I love we got to go to Israel afew years ago and stand on the

(07:55):
shore of Sea of Galilee whereJesus cooked breakfast for his
friends after his resurrection.
Wouldn't you love it that Jesuscooked you breakfast?
You know these acts of love andthis is key.
They weren't miraculous, butthey were incredibly powerful.
They showed really his depth oflove for his family, his

(08:23):
disciples and just for peoplearound him.
And here's the best part ofthat we can do all of these
things today.

Josh (08:32):
I agree with everything that you said, but at this point
in the episode it's kind oflike a reality check.
A reality check, okay,
we're still talking about Jesus,

Mark (08:41):
yes.

Josh (08:44):
And so how do we start?
I mean, he was human.
Sure, as you just outlined.
There's a number of things thatwe can do that he did, but we
still wrestle with this idea orthis, or knowing that he was
also divine.

Mark (08:57):
Well, I think, as you said a while ago, that we focus on
the now, we focus on today, webreak this thing down.
It doesn't have to be somethingbig.
We don't have to feed 5,000people, okay.
He showed us that the mostsimple acts of love can be

(09:20):
incredibly powerful to therecipient.
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, hetook the time to encourage, and
what we're saying here is hetook the time, and that's going

(09:43):
to be our next episode Redeemingthe Time.
Get a little plug in there.
But this is something that allof us can do, no matter how busy
or how unqualified we feel.
We can do something small andpowerful.

Josh (09:58):
I'm just thinking about some of the things that you've
said already today, and you'vetalked about compassion multiple
times when it comes to Jesus,and so when I struggle with this
idea, what I mentioned earlierwith well, he was divine and I
can't do a miracle I love howmany times we're reading the
gospels of when Jesus feltcompassion something that I feel

(10:18):
too it immediately turned toaction.
That's a beautiful thing.
So if I struggle with thatconcept of what we're talking
about, at the end of the day,there are times in my life where
I feel something in my stomachthat compassion.
Now, if I want to be like Jesusand 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 howdo I do something?
right
How do I capture that compassion that we have for
someone or for a situation andimmediately go what can I do?

(10:59):
What can I do?
How can I turn this into actualaction?

Josh (11:04):
And it leads us right into Matthew 14, 14.
This is because we're talkingabout this compassion.
So this is when he felt it.
Look at this when he wentashore, he saw a great crowd and
he had compassion on them.
What does it follow up withAction?
And he healed their sick.
True compassion doesn't justfeel for others.
It moves us to do something.

Mark (11:31):
Yeah, I love that, you know.
And there's another case wherewhere Jesus had compassion I
think only one of the gospelsrecords this, but it was the
rich young ruler and it saysJesus and Jesus loved him, or
looked at him and loved him.
He had compassion for him.
So what did he do in thatsituation?
He told him what he needed tohear.
He did the difficult thing aswell.
So that compassion can lead yousometimes to have to have the

(11:55):
hard conversation as well, notjust and that's doing good.
We're going to talk about thatas well, but in a future episode
.
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 toemulate Jesus, we need to start

(12:19):
right.
We need to.
So we're going to in ourmission segment this week.
Here's the mission for ourlisteners.
As we often do, start with aprayer, pray for a heart like
Jesus, and this is what you'reasking God to do is help.
You see people the way he does.

(12:40):
When you see someone who cutsyou off, do you see an
inconsiderate person who's onlyconcerned about themselves, or
do you see a soul that Jesusgave his life for, if you start
from that point because he gavehis life for all of us.
It's up to us to accept thatand 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 ourchallenge, that's our mission
for this week.
If you, just if you can praythat you can have a heart and
vision like Jesus, to see peoplethe way that God sees people,
the way that Jesus saw people.
And then here's the second partof your mission this week.

(13:30):
Let's go out of our way toserve someone and get this in an
unexpected way.
That means that you're going todo something maybe that nobody
else wants to do, or somethingthat somebody can't repay you,

(13:51):
but it's something that isunexpected, and you're getting
in front of a need.
Potentially, they didn't askyou for help, but you looked on
them, you saw them, you know youknocked on your neighbor's door
and say Look, I know that, youknow you just had, you know,

(14:11):
your surgery or something and wewanted to bring some cookies or
dessert or a meal, or sometimesyou can make it really
convenient for yourself as wellto do good.
You bring them a gift card.
You can email somebody a giftcard.
Hey, I was thinking about you.
Maybe they're on the other sideof the country and you know

(14:33):
they're in a challengingsituation, and I'm thinking of
someone who just moved to theother side of the country to
start a new job.
I'm having compassion in thismoment, so maybe what I need to
do is get online and maybe sendthem an Amazon gift card because
they're setting up a new place,a new apartment in another part

(14:53):
of the world.
They didn't ask for it, butmaybe 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 asyour challenge.

Josh (15:11):
Well, Mark, that's it for episode two of Made for Good.
We hope this conversationinspired you.
We just ask you to pleasesubscribe 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 dogood, because remember you were
made for it.
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