Compassion

This month's blog is an excerpt from a sermon I recently preached.

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And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.

(Jude 1.23)

There was a time when you were in the fire and you couldn't see. Your family tried to tell you to go right or left, but you couldn't see because you were in the fire. Your life was going down the tubes. Your reputation and self-respect were going down the tubes, and the Lord had compassion on you. Have compassion on others because, at one time, the Lord had compassion on you.

My message to the body is giving back. I made a vow to the Lord that if he would clean up the mess I made, I would give back and serve him the rest of my life.

Often people want to debate with me about how to win the lost. There are many ways to win the lost; there are thousands, if not, millions of ways to win the lost. People seem to think they have a finger on how to win the lost and how not to win them. Do we win the lost by the great commission or by the great commandment? Many would say that you have to make a choice, it can't be both.

The Great Commission is to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

The Great Commandment is to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul and strength.

The second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.

The Great Commission is that we send missionaries into the world. The Great Commandment is to take care of the people in our own backyard. Do we go door-by-door and block-by-block, or do we pass out tracts. Do we send people on motorcycles into the communities or do we use television and radio? There is no one way to reach the lost. Jesus only told us to go and make disciples. What He put into us, he wants us to put into someone else. If our experience is good enough for us, it has to be good enough for them. If my experience is good enough for me, I'm going to do all I can to draw people into the same experience.

I may not have to look over my shoulder anymore and worry about who's going to snitch on me or hurt me, but some of my boys are still out there.

And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad,

as sheep having no shepherd.
(Matthew 9.35-36)

God has called you and me to be shepherds to those outside of the four walls of the church. When Jesus looked at the multitudes, he was moved with compassion. Compassion is when my heart drops and I want to cry. It's when I see the news and I get angry. It's when I see young men on the corner throwing their lives away. Compassion makes me do right when I want to do wrong. I am free to come and go as I please, but there are still men behind prison walls.

Compassion makes me do right when I want to do wrong.

There are still mothers selling their bodies to feed their children or to buy drugs. Or, the teenage girl who's pregnant, but she's not married. It makes me do right when I want to do wrong.

There's the wife who needs to be hid from her husband because he's beating her. It makes me do right when I want to do wrong. The homeless show up and don't have anywhere to live or anything to eat. Compassion makes me want to do right.

It's not only about me standing in the congregation. I have to want to take this experience on the job and into the schools and into the communities. It makes me want to do right when I want to do wrong. You may not ever feel this way, but people are depending on you. They're watching you and they're watching me.

When I got born again over 21 years ago, my boys said we are depending on you to make it. I can still hear the desperation in their voices from many years ago when they told me that they were depending on me to make it. They told me that if I could make it, they knew they could make it. It makes me do right when I want to do wrong. There are lives in the balance. if we ever lose compassoin, we're in trouble.

In Matthew 15.29, Jesus saw with his eyes and his heart was touched. Something ought to be moving you and making you cry. Jesus was telling his disciples, "You don't know what I feel for the people; I have compassion for them. They are My sheep and I've got to feed them because for three days they have not eaten." The Bible tells us that Jesus fed the 3000, the 4000 and the 5000. He fed them because He was moved with compassion. Compassion is what makes you look at a person, see the gift of God in them and tell them that they are more than what they think they are; and, that they can do more then what they think they can do.

Jesus was moving through crowds. A woman had been bleeding for 12 years and there was not a single doctor who could help her. In fact, she had spent all of her money on doctors and she was still not healed. She said to herself, "if I can just touch Him, I will be made whole." Sometimes you have to position yourself where people can touch you, come to you and be ministered to by you. Doctors and lawyers may not be able to help them, but God has anointed you. I have been in hospital rooms where someone has been on their deathbed and God raised them up. I have been in courtrooms where someone was going to be put away for life and seen them go free. God has called us to make a difference...He's called you to make a difference through compassion.

The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. (Jeremiah 20.8)

Jesus never told us to raise Christians, He told us to make disciples. We need to make sure everyone has the kind of experience that makes them want to give back. Look at the fields. We have to see beyond the four walls of the church because the harvest is ripe and it's ready. As Christians, we can never forget where God brought us from. I will never forget where God brought me from. We can't forget when we were in need, waiting and praying that God would send somebody to save us. Summer has come and gone and still we are not saved. The streets are crying out, looking at the church to save them. They will die unless we save them. The summer has come and gone and still they are not saved. He puts a weight on our shoulders to do something, that weight is compassion.

Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. (Matthew 9.38)

God is calling us higher and deeper. We can't miss it this time...we can't afford to miss it again. He's calling you to the secret place to give you instructions and plans for how to reach the lost. You will have to shut other things off and get alone, by yourself, with God. Lives are depending on you, if you will hear the word of the Lord. God said to look at the fields and pray that the Lord of harvest will send laborers. The harvest is ripe and it's ready. Pray that God will send laborers into the fields to reap the harvest. Pray that the Lord will move you with compassion to become a laborer. We can't afford to lose another generation.