This is the Truth Network. This is the Truth Network. I'm in a smokehouse, folks. I don't think I've ever done my show from a smokehouse. Chef Jimmy Noble, you got to set the scene.
We're going to talk about 10 million meals to go. We're talking about caring for those who are down and out, but you got to tell us where we are because I'm looking at some amazing meat coming off that. The smoke over there. Set the stage worse. Where are we?
Well, we're in the smokehouse that we built on the property where Noble Smoke is. We have. Six Texas style smokers in here for brisket and things like that, and then the two pits over here. on the wild uh And Wayne Munt from Lexington Barbecue helped us design them with his guys and Roger Koontz, Koontz Masonry. We're standing in the midst of our smokehouse.
And we were, it's Wednesday. It's a crazy day, and this is the quietest place we can find to talk.
So it's really good to be in here, but it's a nice place to hang out. Yeah, sure. I can still see ice out there from the snow that hit.
So it it but and it's still cold, but it's nice and warm in here. But there's a lot of folks hurting. And you know, you have really been a blessing and mentor to me for years, Jimmy Noble, in that You don't just say, Hey, I want to do good business and hey, I want to be profitable and be a blessing to my community, but you're helping folks that maybe can't help you. Like you started across the street a church called The Dream Center. Yeah, and so there's a whole lot.
In your heart. That As a Christian, it's it's you can't be You can't say, hey, I'm big on church Sundays, but then live for the devil during the week or live just for money. Like, talk about the importance of how Christ is... impacted your old business too.
Well, if we are living in union with Christ, He's living in union with us, and seven days a week He's with us. We can't leave him out somewhere and only pick him up on Sundays.
So he's an integral part of everything we do, God's kingdom and... And the restaurant business and ministry are really a lot alike. If you don't want to serve people, You don't need to be any one of them. I mean, if you don't want to serve people, don't get the restaurant business and don't get ministry. It's not about some person, it's about the people that you serve.
For the longest time, now we're across the street from the Dream Center, but for many years we had no walls. All we had was what we did in Outreach. We would come to church at King's Kitchen, but everything out of there was outside the four walls and Most days you go to the Dream Center, there's not a lot happening inside there except when we bring people back. But most of our outreach is outside, so we've We've probably been, the church turned 15 years old this past, last month. The Dream Center is 12 years old this year, this month, and this summer.
We've been doing Friday Night Street Ministry for 14 years, so everything we do is really outside to reach people and We give people an opportunity to help us. I mean, you can go to our website anytime you want to. See what's going on, or anytime you visit one of our stores, any one of them. Like you can go to the grocery store and round up, you know. We leave a place for 10 million meals to go for you to make a donation.
$5 feed somebody. And um We give people an opportunity to help some feed folks. That's the voice of Jimmy Noble, Chef Jimmy Noble. You've got all these concepts. Oscebulas, Noble's Smoke, Roosters, Noble's Grill.
We're in Charlotte, North Carolina, right now, home to our Great Truth Network affiliate, 105.7 FM and AM960. And I'm in a smokehouse. This is just beautiful. I love it. I mean, I love good barbecue, but I tell you, you got some great food here.
If you haven't had Noble Smoke BBQ, Shameless Plug. Not a paid advertisement or anything like that. But just, I'm with a, but you know, but it shows that you can be excellent. As a believer. Like Colossians 3:23, whatever you do, do it heartily ask to the Lord.
So you really don't, you don't own this business. You're working for God, right?
Well, He owns everything, so I'm just a steward of it. Yeah, the Jewish people realized the Hebrews knew this. Everything you even work to them was worship to God. And when I get to create, I was in here one day and I walked out towards the dumpster and looked back and I said, oh my gosh, God, we built this place. And this is a dream that came true.
It was a 37-year-old dream before we did it. But let me say one more thing about 10 meat meals together. We've been in business since 83. We figured out, we calculated. We probably fed 10 million people over the last 43 years.
And we probably fed since 2001 when we began the restaurants and ministries started partnering together. He could probably fed a million people.
So we said, hey. Why don't we feed 10 million more meals to go? Yeah, wow. Feed 10 million more people.
So we want to have everybody I mean everybody whether you believe in what we believe in or not. Everybody cares about those down and out. And if someone's hungry, I'm going to feed them. I don't care what it is. I'll find a way.
I'll find a need and I'll fit them. You get to the heart a lot of times through the stomach. People come and say, hey, what's behind this? Maybe they're hearing you on the radio. Like, I had no idea that guy was a believer, but I love his food.
I love that brisket. You can cut it, almost cut it with a fork here at Noble Smoke. And your amazing tomato basil soup at Rooster's Restaurant. And now you've got this Copain coffee shop. It's like you're hitting me from every angle, man.
My wife and I leave Rooster's Restaurant in Winston-Salem and walk right into Copain and get a little coffee and a little sweet treat. I'm new coming in Winston, so be in the lookout. Steve, there, you're always inventing. You're making these names quicker, and I keep track of it, man. And I've got to watch the waistline.
Proverbs from the Passions Translation, I think it's Proverbs 19. I'm double-check. But it says, wise people are builders, they build families. Businesses and communities, and through intelligence and insight, their establishments are enterprises are established and they endure.
Well, yeah, that is really cool. And we're seeing that lived out here. And God's favor upon you. God's favor folks have bought in, obviously. And I mean, there's, you know, it's way after lunchtime.
The smoker's still cranking. You still got this. I couldn't believe this smoke out.
So we're here 24-7. And you've got the parking lot still full of cars. There's still people in the eating. And it's probably like 2:30 or something here. But, Jimmy Noble, let me ask you: this morning I mentioned in the Bible study, our Wednesday in the Word, where Rock and Ronnie Kleiner's there, Greg Kennett, a bunch of guys that you grew up with, you know, over in High Point that love you.
They were so excited when I told them I might be with you today. and they all eat your restaurants. A couple of them drove down here. Rock and Ronnie and Tony drove down here to see you preach one Sunday morning. They said, This guy went for an hour and a half with no notes right out of the word.
That's right, yeah.
So they were excited, but we talked about gleaning and how God put in the heart of Boaz and other godly Jewish. farmers and agregarians Hey, leave a little bit for the widows, for the orphans, because people gotta eat too.
So, at least up for the animals, yes, sir. The animals, yeah, so don't muzzle the ox, etc.
So, Jimmy Noble. I get my bill, I'm at one of your restaurants, and back to what you said: this 10 million meals to go, where you want to really touch that many people. That's a lot of numbers. It's a big number to Grand Vision.
So how does it work?
So supposing my wife and I. That's only 50 million, right?
Well, so supposing my wife and I, we're eating. We leave a nice tip, you know, 25-30% for the waitress to take care of her. There's one in IL. That's right. There's one in I.L.
That's right. There you go. That's right. And then supposing I look at the little line there at your restaurant and it says, hey, To donate, to round up, or to put a little extra to give back.
So once I say I want to give $10 toward. Feeding the 10 million meals to go toward the Noble Food Initiative. Where does it go from there? Like, how does it get to the people? Tell us a little bit how it works, the inner workings of that.
For people listening, other business people want to may want to do this. Other restaurant owners may say, I want to do that. Yes. Any donation, any donation that you leave. goes from the restaurant to the dream center.
The dream center is the uh The ministry from which the food comes from.
Now, it was at King's Kitchen, and when we closed King's Kitchen because business wasn't as good uptown. And so I didn't have to raise money to keep a restaurant open. I had plenty of places for people to work.
So we moved it all to the Dream Center. We got a kitchen there, and we do all our outreach out of there.
So that goes to that money. And our budget is somewhere between $500,000 to a million dollars a year. If I raise an extra million, I'm going to give it away. Praise the Lord.
So that's wonderful. You know, I just want to make this very practical. People hear Dream Center, they hear this church, and they're like, I don't want them to have in their mind this massive. Cathedral-laced, you know, glass facility that's chandeliers. No, you see someone on the side of the road with a cardboard sign.
and they're struggling like crazy. Hmm. What Jimmy Noble does, he invites them to come to worship and he invites them to have a hot meal. I mean, that's kind of, these are down and outers. Talk about Jesus went to the least.
And the lost. Talk about the people that are going there and how someone listening and people that are giving and supporting this, even eating in your restaurants. They're supporting and they're solving that little awkward moment that happens at the intersection. I just had it happen to me here in Charlotte. A very sweet lady, Sheila, her first name, I said a quick prayer for her.
All I had was a cinnamon roll that brother Bob made. A Bible study this morning. And he gave it to me in the name of Jesus. I gave it right to her in the name of Jesus. I gave her a little Christian radio card.
and said, This is in Jesus' name, and she was very happy to get it. But Serving those people, people are like, Well, do I give to them? Are they gonna just go buy a liquor? What do I do?
Well, you're actually meeting those needs. You have people working in your Dream Center church who were homeless and streetless. And had all kinds of stuff going on, and God saved him. Talk about where this goes.
Well,. All the outreach we do are to reach people with hope who've given up. There's the guys in the street. And everybody says, well, those people are all crazy.
Well, that's not true, but if you go out and Visit these folks, you find that the none are true. But if I had to do some of the things they go through and been in the street five years, I may be close to crazy.
So, what we do is take them hope, which is a joyful, intense expectation of good. Our answer to homelessness is not a homeless Jesus Christ and We take to them the hope of the gospel so they can see themselves as God sees them and change their life. If they come to our church and they're homeless five, ten years from now, we haven't done our job. Our job is to make disciples of men, teach them to trust God. He's got promises for them for every challenge that we face in life, every one of us, even if we're affluent.
It doesn't make any difference. There's challenges that we face. God has a promise to get you through it. And if it works for us, it'll work for anybody. It'll work for the guy in the street.
And we've seen too many people's lives change because they heard the truth and they trusted God. Yeah, there's not many people I know who can. Take care of a high-level executive. You have billionaires eating this restaurant right here, and you go across the street and you're ministering to people who don't have two pennies to rub together and don't have a they're sleeping in a cardboard thing tonight. But isn't that the gospel?
Doesn't Jesus go? Is it? Aren't we glad he didn't give up on us? Amen. He said in Luke 4, when he was in his own hometown in the synagogue.
He said, and this is Luke 4. He goes, The Spirit of the Lord of God is upon me, and because He's anointed me. The first thing you said to preach the gospel to the poor. What's good news to the poor? You don't have to be poor.
Are you always going to have poor, will you? Yeah. Are you going to have everybody going to get saved? No. But I'm going to keep telling the truth.
You don't have to be poor. You don't have to stay in the street. You don't have to be that way. If you trust God, He'll change your life.
Well, thank you for trusting God and for being a blessing and inspiration to all of us. Jimmy Noble, now. Here's my dilemma. I keep bringing these pastors over here to lunch, and other people from out of town. And they call me like, Hey, I'm in t I'm in Charlotte.
or in Winston, I gotta go back to that restaurant you took me to. Or even that. Make sure they give 10 million meals to camera. Absolutely. Or that Bossy Beula's.
That's some of the best hot chicken I've ever put in my mouth right there. Oh, yeah. That's the best chicken sandwich I've ever had. It's delicious. You can buy a cheaper chicken sandwich, but you can't buy a better one.
Now, tell about Beulah. Tell us how that was inspired. That was my aunt Butte. She used to babysit us. On Saturdays, we start begging Butte, Butte, would you fry chicken for tomorrow after church?
And she'd fry chicken for us. She'd make pan gravy. Not for the chicken, but for rice or potatoes and green beans. He fried his chicken every Sunday we begged her.
So you get a little taste of that when you go to the Bostabulas. They're sprinkled all around Charlotte in this area, and they're they're in winter in Winston-Salem and more locations probably to come. But the sweet tea. I mean, Jimmy Noble, this might be the best sweet tea I've ever put in my mouth.
Well, I take that same tea. I don't put sugar. I put Stevie in it, and it is my favorite tea. I mean, it's the best nice tea I can find. I mean, we serve the same stuff as smoke.
I don't know. When I go in Boston's, the tea tastes better. I don't know why.
Well, what's the best website for folks to learn more about what you're doing, learn about your restaurants, and maybe even they want to reach out to you to learn how they can do this with their business, how they can give back. We're all, none of it's ours anyway.
So let's advance the kingdom, let's reach people through what God's given us. To make a difference to the world, what's the best way to find out? You can search for Charlotte Meckenberg Dream Center. Or you can look at CLTDC.org. CLTDC.org.
That's it. Or just fly into Charlotte Douglas Airport or Greensboro Airport and go eat one of these restaurants. Wow. And get out of the way, baby. It's good stuff.
And drop a meal for someone. Yes, sir. True to the
