Christ-like Compassion - Matthew 9:35-38

You are listening to a message from First Baptist

Church, Wichita Falls. For more information about

First Baptist, click the link in the show notes

or go to FBCWF .org. Good morning church family.

Welcome and welcome to those at Shepherd and

West and 11 East. We are so thankful that you're

here today. My name is Sam Powers. I am the middle

school pastor and it is an honor to preach God's

Word while Pastor Bob is out. If you have your

Bibles open up to Matthew chapter 9. As you open

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

up your Bibles, I wanna just tell you a little

bit about me and my family. We've been here just

coming up on three years, and our family is absolutely

blessed by this church. Our two daughters, Charlie

and Audrey, have been involved in our preschool

ministry and also our wee school ministry. Our

son Colson has been involved in first kids ministry.

My wife has been involved in women's ministry

with Jamie, and I've had the pleasure of getting

poured into with men's event with Justin Mendel.

And we have the opportunity to pour our hearts

and to tell middle school students about who

Jesus Christ is. And we're so thankful to serve

with Steven Patterson, our student pastor, who

leads an amazing student ministry but also leads

an amazing bridge ministry. And I wanna challenge

you, if you have not been poured into by the

ministries of our church, I wanna challenge you

to get involved and get plugged in because it

will change your life and be a blessing for you.

In Matthew chapter nine, it says this starting

in verse 35. And Jesus went throughout all the

cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues

and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and

healing every disease and every affliction. When

he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them,

because they were harassed and helpless, like

a sheep without a shepherd. And he said to his

disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the

laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to

the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers

into the harvest. Let's pray. God, I pray as

we just come before you that you would challenge

us, that you would speak to us, that you would

encourage us, and that you would send us out

into the harvest. I pray that as we just hear

your word that it would change lives and allow

us to see your truth. In Jesus' name we pray,

amen. So Jesus is out traveling and he's going

from cities and villages and he's doing three

primary things He's opening up the Old Testament

and he is teaching God's word The second thing

he's doing is he's proclaiming the gospel of

the kingdom So he's taking what the Old Testament

has said about the Messiah and he's revealing

that it's him He's telling people that he is

the way, the truth, and the life, and no one

comes to the Father except through Jesus. And

the third thing he's doing is he's healing every

disease and every affliction. You see, Jesus

was so impacted and made an impact in both the

physical, the spiritual, and the emotional support

of the world. He cared deeply. He uses this word

that when he saw the crowds, he had compassion

on them. And this compassion can be defined as

a deep concern about the pain and suffering of

others and willingness to lend a helping hand.

You see, compassion should be what drives us

as the church, as the body of Christ, to go out

into the nations and to meet the physical, spiritual,

and emotional needs of the world. And when Jesus

had compassion, it gives a reason on why he had

compassion. Because they were harassed and helpless,

like a sheep without a shepherd. When I think

of this image of harassed and helplessness, I

don't think of the image of sheep without a shepherd,

though you can probably draw the analogy. I think

of an image that I have when I was a young boy

of a dog that was tied to a tree, and it had

a chain on it, and so it was a dirt path and

a circle all around the tree, and there was grass.

And the grass was kind of the safe area, so you

could get up to the dog, you could kind of harass

and tease the dog. And I remember one time watching

this cat walk right past it. And the cat was

kind of like, taunting the dog and the dog is

going crazy, barking at this cat, just wanting

to get to the cat, but it's chained up. Can't

do anything about it. And I'm not gonna tell

you the story about the little boy who would

also tease the dog and run across, but I do have

a scar on my left calf because if you run into

that perimeter, the dog can also get you. But

this harassed and helplessness is the reason

why Jesus had compassion. He saw the crowds,

and he was looking at them, and every single

one of us, we are harassed and we're helpless.

And it's not by God, it's by Satan. Like God

had compassion when he saw this, he said, this

isn't the way I intended the world, this isn't

what I created humans for, it's to be helpless.

And so he challenges them to do something. And

the problem that we have is we don't see the

world like God does. We see the world through

our own lens. Now, my daughter Charlie loves

sunglasses, and I brought a few different pairs

of them. No, I'm not going to try them on for

you. But you can find her walking around our

house. with a pair of sunglasses on, a purse

and a baby doll, or even the grocery cart. And

what she's gonna do is when she puts on these

glasses, it distorts her view. And she trips

over toys and she runs into walls and it distorts

the view. And so today I wanna use this analogy

of glasses that we wear that distort our view

of compassion. So what blocks compassion? The

first thing that blocks compassion is a distorted

view of sin. The way we view sin shapes the way

we view the world I grew up in a family where

there's a lot of drugs and there was alcohol

and it was a broken home I didn't meet my dad

until I was 16 years old and I was literally

the redheaded stepchild and I remember when I

was asking the question that every kid asked

is How are you a good person? How does someone

go to heaven? I answered that question was, I

just have to be better than my parents. So if

I don't drink, if I don't do drugs, if I don't

leave my kids, that makes me a good person. And

I set up a standard in my life that was here.

And so as long as I was above that, I was a good

person. But this distorted view of what sin was

led me. down a path that I was just trying to

be better than other people. And it blocked compassion

because when we view sin as this ladder and as

people go higher and higher, they sin more and

more, we lack compassion and empathy for these

people. And that's how I viewed it. It was this

holy huddle of we get together and it's us. And

in my teenage years, I looked at God's word and

I found verses like Romans 3 10 that says no

one is righteous. No, not one. No one understands.

No one seeks for God. All have turned aside together

and have become worthless. No one does good.

No, not one. You see, the way God views sins

and the way we can view sin is when we remove

the glasses, it's not this ladder. Sin is sin.

And any sin separates us from a holy God and

we are not good. And our acts, our ties, our

offerings, our church attendance doesn't put

the standard of covering that up. And as we look

at sin, we see that people struggle with sin

and they're all in need of compassion. I'm thankful

God removed those blinders and I accepted him

when I was 14 years old. The second thing that

blocks compassion is a distorted view of others.

As you read the Bible, there's a lot of examples

of people that you should look up to and that

just knock it out of the park. But there's also

a lot of examples of people who just fail miserably.

And one story of one of those people is a guy

named Jonah. You see, Jonah was told to go to

the city of Nineveh and preach the gospel and

to tell him to repent. But Jonah decided to run.

And so God picked Jonah up in the Uber Express.

A great fish or how I like to call it, the great

well mobile 3000, right? You can argue whether

it's a well or not, but he put the GPS coordinates

for 316 Nineveh shore and Jonah was dropped off

on the shoreline. He walked into the city and

he preached the shortest sermon, eight words,

told him to repent. And what happened afterwards

is found in Jonah chapter three and Jonah chapter

four. Jonah 3 10 says this. When God saw what

Nineveh did, how they turned from their evil

ways, God relented from the disaster that he

had said that he would do to them, and he did

not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,

and he was very angry. I don't know about you,

but if I preach an eight -word sermon and the

whole city of Wichita Falls repents, I'm gonna

be excited, I'm not gonna be angry. But Jonah

wasn't preaching a sermon to his hometown. Jonah

was going and told to go to the people he didn't

like, the people he didn't respect, the people

he saw unworthy of salvation. So it distorted

his view of compassion on the way he saw other

people. He saw that they weren't worthy of it.

He had no compassion for it. And verse two says

this. And he prayed to the Lord and he said,

is this not what I said to you while I was yet

in my own country, that I made haste to flee

to Tarshish, for I knew that you were a gracious

God, and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in

steadfast love, relenting from disaster. Jonah

said, I knew you were compassionate, I knew you

cared about people, I knew that you wanted it,

but I didn't like them. If we're honest, sometimes

we relate more to people like Jonah than we do

to people like Paul. See, Paul, they took his

handkerchief and they were healing people. No

one's come and asked me for clothes of mine so

that I can go heal people and do miracles. But

I can tell you I've had attitudes and I've had

convictions and complaints in my heart that made

me have a distorted view of other people, people

I didn't like. Maybe it was their personality.

Maybe it was just something about them, but we

have distorted view of people and if you were

real Maybe there's some unread text messages

on your phone because you don't like the person

and don't want to respond to Maybe there's people

that annoy you that you avoid on purpose the

way we view people should be taken away and we

should view people like Jesus does. There's a

group of people that had a disease called leprosy.

Leprosy was this flesh eating disease that just

tore apart every part about you. Not only were

you dying and decaying from the outside, you

were isolated and you were told to be by yourself.

And when people would come near you had a crowd,

unclean, so that they didn't come there. The

people of the day would have said, it's some

kind of sin that you must have done that gave

you leprosy or maybe you're just cursed by God.

These people were broken and they were left alone.

And in Mark chapter one, we see a leper that

comes to Jesus and he implores him and kneels

down before Jesus and he says, if you will, Mark

1 .40, if you will, you can make me clean. And

moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his

hand and he touched him. And he said, I will

be clean. And immediately the leprosy left him

and he was made clean. When Jesus saw this man,

he didn't just see a man that was sick that could

get him sick. He saw someone that was harassed

and helpless in need of compassion. The way Jesus

views other people sometimes so much more radically

different than how I view other people. My wife

gets sick and I wanna quarantine her off and

be like, I'll throw you the soup, you better

catch. And the way Jesus viewed a man who was

isolated, outcast, hurting. He reached out and

he could have healed him a million different

ways. He could have spoken it. He could have

picked up dust and blown it at him. He could

have not touched him. But Jesus was the only

one that knew the last time someone embraced

him and made human contact with him. So Jesus

stretches out his hands, embraces him and heals

him. This is the God we serve, a gracious, a

merciful, a compassionate God who loves you.

and loves the people of the world. There's a

Latin phrase called Amago Dei. In Genesis 1,

27, it says, so God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created a male and female,

he created them. See, when Jesus saw this man,

he saw a reflection of himself. Because God had

put an imprint on him that gave him value and

worth and love. And sometimes, We view people

because they speak a different language, from

a different part of the world, different skin

color, different socioeconomic class. Maybe they

just have different personalities or different

hobbies than us. Maybe they have some disability

or special needs and we view them differently,

like they're lesser. But God made it clear from

the beginning that we were made in His image.

And I'm so passionate about this issue because

if we had the right mindset of how to view people

as the image of God, it makes sin extremely hard.

There was a professor and he took his class and

he had them draw images of people they disliked.

and the class got together and just started drawing.

And some of them made characteristics and put

big pimples on them, and they drew people who

cheated on their boyfriend, or they drew people

that backstabbed them or stole or lied about

them, people they really were harmed and hated

by. And the professor one by one had them come

up and put the picture on a dart board and throw

darts. And they did it. And some of them threw

with a lot of anger. At the very end of the lesson,

he starts removing every single picture. And

the very last picture that he had placed before

the class had started was a picture of Jesus.

And he explained that when we throw darts at

other people, when we are a distorted view of

how we see others, it's a distorted view of how

we see our Creator. Point number three, as another

thing that blocks compassion, is a distorted

view of ourself. The view of how others see us

directly shapes how we see ourselves. So how

other people see us, how your parents talk to

you, what was spoken to you is how you see yourself.

And that shapes how we see it. And a lot of us,

we have a distorted view of ourselves. And so

if someone asked you today and asked you, how

are you doing? The answer is always, good. It's

never, I'm horrible, today sucks, it's not a

good day. It's always, I'm doing good, I'm doing

great. And if you were to expand on it, you'd

probably use words like, man, life has just been

busy. And that would be like the most vulnerable

that you get. And see, part of it is we don't

think our issues matter. We think there's people

out there that are starving, there's people that

are homeless, there's people that are medically

in a lot of need, and we're doing better than

them, so we don't need compassion. We don't need,

we don't feel that we're harassed or helpless.

Because we're not down at this certain level.

And that distorted view of ourselves puts a blocked

view on where we can have compassion. See Jesus,

when he has compassion, he has it for you too.

Like he loves you, he cares about you. So many

people think that Jesus of course can save other

people, but Jesus could never love me. Jesus

could do this for so many other people, but not

for me. You see, Jesus loves you. Jesus made

you in his image. Jesus cares about you. When

I was thinking about just kind of this selfishness

and just like, how do we view ourselves, the

thing that came to me was our cell phones. You

know, every social media algorithm, every app

that you have, it is all catered to what you

want and what you desire. Everything about it

is catered to what you want. and what you desire.

If you don't like something, you swipe past it,

the algorithm picks up on it and doesn't show

you any more of that content or shows you less

of it. If you spend more time on something, it

caters to you. And so it's hard to be compassionate

when everything about our phone... cowboy hats,

like country, riding a horse makes no sense to

me. You have a truck and the truck has a seat.

Like there's other ways to do this. But I applied

for an Evening Star Ranch foreman position. I

was newly married and me and my wife needed money

to survive. And the sweet family, the Clarks,

gave me a job interview. And in that job interview

they started telling me about how their operation

works. You see the Clarks at the Evening Star

Ranch took in wild Mustangs, They broke and trained

them. I think it's really dumb to jump on a horse

and get bucked off. I don't think that is a smart

way to do it. And if you've ever been a job interview,

but you needed a job and you needed money, you

probably lied at the job interview. So when Doug

was asking me if I was OK with this, if I was

this kind of person, I was like, absolutely.

I wore jeans to the interview just to impress

him. And I was all in because I was a broke,

married college student. And I needed a job.

that provided for my family. I'm very thankful

for Doug because Doug taught me that there's

more than one way to break an animal. There's

this thing called desensitization. Blah, I messed

that one up. Yeah, desensitizing the Mustangs.

And so my job wasn't to jump on the horse and

get bucked off and get back on and get bucked

off. My job was to brush the horse and move my

hand real fast. And when it started, the horse

to calm it down and do it again. And I was to

put the saddle on the horse and take it off and

put it on the horse and take it off. And we desensitized

the horse in like a million different ways. I

had a flag and I would just like wave the flag

when I was near him and it would scare the horse.

But sooner or later, the horse just got used

to this crazy redheaded guy just waving stuff

around and making some noise. And they became

calm and they became tame. It's crazy to watch

horses do that. But in the terms of compassion,

our culture's doing it to us. You see, we get

on our phone and we see our favorite sports clip,

our athlete top 10 moment from ESPN, and it's

so cool, and it's so awesome, and we get the

endorphins, and we think about what it was like,

and if only there was cameras when I was a student

and I was playing sports, because I would have

made the top 10. And then we scroll, and there's

a flooding that kills kids. and our hearts is

filled with compassion. But instead of doing

anything with it, we scroll again. And there's

a puppy video that's really cute and we're all

happy again and we forget about that. A little

bit later scrolling, we see another devastating,

heartbreaking situation that breaks our heart.

But instead of letting God build that compassion,

it blocks the compassion because we can scroll

and do it. The world is desensitizing us as Christians

to compassion. So what do we do about it? We

have to build compassion. And so how do we build

compassion? First, you have to live for the kingdom.

As a Christian, every day, every single day of

every single moment, we are on mission for God.

And God is giving you opportunities to build

compassion at your job, in your home, in the

work field, no matter where you're at, God is

doing it in your hobbies. every aspect of our

life is a mission field. And I'm so glad that

God allows each and every single one of us have

different mission fields because where you work,

you get to be the hands and feet of Jesus to

those people. But you have to look up and have

vision because God's gonna give you opportunities

every single day to have compassion. The question

is, are you gonna be ready? I've learned one

thing about God is that when he gives opportunities,

it's not like I can say, hey God, I wanna be

more compassionate. Can we block off Tuesday

from like four to five and I'm just gonna be

on mission for you right then? No, it's always

at the most inconvenient time. I absolutely love

flying, but I absolutely hate flying. because

I roll the dice on who I sit next to every single

time. Some of those are good conversations, some

of those are bad, but when I'm flying, especially

when I'm returning home from flying and I'm exhausted,

my conversation goes like this with God. God,

can I just put my AirPods in and just fall asleep

and just relax and enjoy it? Can the roll be

empty? And usually God laughs because when I'm

tired and I'm exhausted and it's an inconvenient

time to be compassionate and be the hands and

feet of Jesus, that's when he shows opportunities.

And if you're willing and you're able to listen

and look for those admissions and those compassionate

opportunities, God will be faithful. And there

will be amazing stories of what he does in everyday

moments. Some days I get done with work and I've

gotta run to Walmart or Target and pick up one

item and I wanna get in and get out and I'm in

a rush and that is the moment when I meet someone

from my past 15 years ago and we start connecting

and we start talking and of course they ask what

I'm doing and I get to say I'm a pastor and I

get to tell people about Jesus and that's always

the best set up just to be like, hey, so do you

go to church? Do you know Jesus? And I get to

ask that question. And some of those conversations

aren't always easy and some of them are sticky

and some of the people are going through divorces

and they're having a hard time in life and they're

harassed and helpless. And as a compassionate

person every single day in those moments that

I don't want to, it gives me the opportunity,

it gives you the opportunity to be the hands

and feet of Jesus. I want to warn you that when

you live every day for the kingdom, When you

have this kingdom -minded or the kingdom vision,

it's gonna change how you see everything. You're

exhausted to come home, guess what? Your kids

need compassion. Your wife needs compassion.

Your husband needs compassion because Satan has

been speaking lies all day and you get to be

the hands and feet of it. Number two, you get

to serve on mission. Here at First Baptist Church,

we talk a lot about serving because serving can

change your Serving is so important for the Christian.

That's why we had the volunteer video. And there's

many different ways where you can serve. You

can serve in preschool, and you can serve in

the media team, and you can serve with the greeting

team, you can serve in kids ministry, or you

can serve in 180 ministry. Yeah, yeah. And as

you look at all these places to serve, this builds

compassion. And it builds compassion in a different

way. Because what I find is when we go serve,

a lot of times we're looking at the people we're

looking to help, but God is doing something in

our own heart, in our own mind. When you serve,

God wants to change your heart, your compassion,

your mind. And you have to be willing to let

him do it. It gives you a better perspective

and allows you to see that compassion can change

you, but it also changes the people that you

do serve with. And not only should you serve

locally just here, like you should go on a mission

trip. It's easy to give to a mission trip, but

when you go on a mission trip, right now as they're

in Kenya and they are serving, their perspective

is radically being changed. Their heart is being

softened for compassion as they see different

needs of the world and they see different people.

When you go to Mission Arlington just down the

road, it gives you a heart of compassion and

it builds it because you see the needs of the

world. And so you should serve. And not only

does it change you, but it changes those you

serve. Life changes when you're willing to sacrifice

and give abundantly to those around you. You're

willing to see the harassed and the helpless,

and you're willing to tell them that they're

not harassed and helpless by God, but by Satan.

and that there's a shepherd and there is a savior

and his name is Jesus Christ and he loves you

unconditionally and he is compassionate for you

and you get to make his name known. Point number

three in there, how to build compassion is to

stay in God's word. When we're on our phone,

we get to see what we want, what our desires

needs, but when we open up God's word, guess

what? Doesn't really care what you want. what

your desires are or what your need is. It speaks

truth into your life. And as you read the story

of the Bible, you're gonna read stories of people

who spit in the face of God and you're gonna

be like, God, why didn't you just destroy these

people? They were stubborn. They were all running

away from you. They didn't care about you. And

God's gonna turn the flip. And you're gonna see

that you're stubborn, that I'm stubborn, that

I deserve, God, not to be slow to anger. but

he's compassionate. And when you see the compassion

that he has for other people in the Bible, when

you see the picture of how he can save people

like Jonah, he can save people like Paul, he

can save people like Nineveh, he can heal people

like the leopard, it changes your heart. But

it's when you force yourself to read what God

wants you to, you can see how God is a gracious

God. how God is a merciful God, how He is slow

to anger, how He's abounding in steadfast love,

and how He is relenting from disaster. Even now,

in a world that doesn't deserve it, He's showing

compassion. Compassion should produce action,

though. That's my final point. Passion should

produce action. It is impossible to have compassion

without action. Almost every instant of scripture

where we see Jesus have compassion, there is

an action that follows. He sees the leopard,

and he has compassion on him, and he touches

him, and he heals him. He sees the crowds, and

they're hungry, and they're tired, and he says,

feed them, and he feeds them. He sees in this

passage, and he gathers up his disciples, and

he says, who pray for laborers because the harvest

is plentiful but the laborers are few. Jesus

prays for laborers. Me and you, we are the laborers.

Jesus is challenging you. Jesus is calling you

out. The laborers are right here. They just haven't

been sent out yet. So as you're in the seed and

as you're listening, there's people all around

us. They're harassed. They're helpless. They're

at Walmart. They're at Target. They're at those

moments where it's real busy. And let's just

be honest, they're right here in this room. It's

me. So many times, I'm just like harassed and

I'm helpless, and that's not because I have a

one year old. It is the moments where Satan is

speaking lies to me. He's trying to tear me down.

Someone says something that they didn't mean

anything, but all of a sudden it's got me in

a bad attitude and it ruins my day. And I need

more compassion. for myself, but I also need

more vision to see compassion for those around

me, those who are hurting, those who are lonely.

Compassion must produce action and if it doesn't

produce action, it will callous your heart and

your heart will become hard and you'll see God

as an evil God who's not loving, who's not kind.

Some people in this room, you are harassed and

helpless. and you're at the point of giving up.

Some of you that are in this room, you have blocked

compassion out for so long that you feel numb.

Some of you who are in this room, you've never

seen the compassion that Jesus has for you. And

I want you to know there's a savior. His name

is Jesus. We're not helpless if we call out to

the one who can help us. You've been listening

to a message from First Baptist Church, Wichita

Falls. For more information about First Baptist,

including gathering times and locations, click

the link in the show notes or go to FBCWF .org.

We'll see you next week.