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Perry Noble, in the second part of this series, at http://www.newspring.cc/225499.ihtml, goes into his usual free-for-all entertainment and opens with a story about the generosity of a TCBY ice cream scooper who gave him huge amounts of cookie dough and heath bar in his yogurt. Although it was 5 years ago, he still remembers this woman's generosity. Isn't that how it is? We remember moments of exceptional generosity. He talks about how Santa brought him an Atari game. He didn't expect it and even got the toy he asked for, but on top of that, he recd something he never even expected. 1) Salvation was the idea and grace of God. 2) We didn't deserve it. Years ago, Perry was in the car with a guy named Hazel (??). A policeman was turning around when he saw Perry speeding. When Perry saw this, he floored it to try and lose him, but when he came around the corner further down the road, there was the policeman signalling him down. He demanded that Perry get out of the car and had him face the car. Telling Perry he should be sending him to jail, he said he would instead let him go. It was a moment of grace for Perry, who deserved punishment. "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Perry then shows a video about a woman named Shelley who came from a family who had little exposure to the church. She received Christ at a camp, but later moved to Wisconsin. There, she met a guy who asked her to marry him, got her pregnant beforehand and then left her. Her parents moved to Anderson, SC and asked her and her son to come with her. Here, she found Newspring and she found worship. She became involved in the nursury, she started playing Christian songs and, one day, her son Dalton told her that he was ready to accept Christ. It was an emotional moment on the video, but she was truly blessed to see God working in her life. The last point of Perry's sermon is 3) We didn't ask for it, but God gave his gift anyway. We all have had experiences where we think we don't like someone just because we think we know them. Many people have that same response towards Jesus. They think they already know who he is. God does want something from us; he wants our meaningless life and he wants to give us a life of true purpose. Perry's mission for his church is that he would change one life at a time. Newspring gives and gives and gives, not takes and takes and takes. At the end of this message, they did something that I remember from last year. It is the epidemy of the grace of God and a vibrant church. They show a video of what I think is now a tradition of giving a HOUSE to a single mom, in this case, Shelley, on Mother's Day! A huge crowd at the church get involved and fix it up to be a really nice home for her and her son, who have been living with her parents. It's a touching video. What's more, during the closing song, they play a vido about "greater things yet to be done in the City" and they show captions of what Newspring Church has been doing in the community. I love this church!