Ep. 009 Do You Suffer from SCD?

Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

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We are a church focused on world evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.

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Welcome back to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. My name is David Bickford again.

I am the pastor here in Salmon Arm and this message that I have for you today is called, Do You Suffer from SCD?

SCD is Sheep Compassion Deficiency.

The text that we will be working from today is Matthew 9 verses 35-38.

Matthew 9:35–38

If you want to follow along, that is where we will be using as a jump off point.

One day there was a Christian kid that was talking to his friend about the concept of Jesus in heaven.

The other kid was blown away and he said, Are you telling me that all I have to do is follow Jesus and I can go to heaven?

Yes, it is that simple. The friend then asked, If my mom wants to go, all she has to do is follow Jesus?

The Christian kid answered, Yeah, and if you don't want her there, just don't tell her.

I think this is a pretty common idea that we have within the Christian world.

This message is more about us as Christians than anything else in the fact that we can oftentimes be so willing to not want to see people reached by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, deep down we all do want that. We want people to get saved, but it is sometimes difficult for us to use that or to understand that desire when it comes from someone that we might be rubbing up against or might be having some issues with.

We sometimes think, I don't want them to be forgiven.

A good example of this in the scripture is with the story of Jonah and the fact that he really didn't want to see the Ninevites saved.

Before we get too far off the beaten path here, I have a poem that I found or a quote rather, and it's called The Wreckers by Edgar A. Guest.

And so it says, I watched them tearing a building down, a gang of men in a busy town, with a ho heave ho and a lusty yell, they swung the beam of a sidewall fell.

I asked the foreman, Are these men skilled and the men you hired if you had to build? He gave me a laugh and said, No, indeed, just common labor is all I need.

I can easily wreck in a day or two what builders have taken a year to do. And I thought to myself as I went my way, which of these two roles have I tried to play?

Am I a builder who works with care, measuring life by the rule and square? Or am I a wrecker who walks the town, content with the labor of tearing down?

All too often as Christians, we can fall into this basket or into this group where it's far too easy for us to see people, you know, be wrecked, whether by our lack of empathy or by our lack of care or care or just our carelessness.

And it's something that we have to battle against as Christians is something that we all have to battle against as humans as well.

And it's everything that's happening in the world today over in the Middle East, and it's been happening for years and it's been happening in Ukraine.

It's been happening, the Russia Ukraine conflict.

What we have noticed, and it's very interesting to me because what we notice is that man truly is wicked at heart.

Now I know some will say, well, no man's inherently good.

I know that from the gospel, from the Bible, we know that the man is inherently wicked, and that makes these things very easy for us to discern if we're going to put on our Christian cap and really kind of our Christian thinking cap and think things through, you know, scripturally.

We know that wickedness came into the world with the first sin.

And so it's very important for us to understand that we're working with that deficit in mind.

We're working with that deficit in mind because of that sin that came into the world.

And so we have to remember that we are fighting against what is human nature.

So in our text, Matthew nine, thirty five to thirty eight, it says the harvest is plentiful.

The laborers are few.

And Jesus went through all the cities and the villages and verse thirty five, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and the healing of every disease and every affliction.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep that have gone without a shepherd.

Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful with the laborers are few.

Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord the harvest is sent out laborers into his harvest.

So as we continue on in this understanding that the laborers are few, but the harvest is plenty.

That's what we see in the world today.

We see a world that's ravaged by sin.

We see people who are dying in their sin and what they need is someone who's going to be willing to reach down into the muck of humanity and pull people out with the gospel.

Jesus Christ and Mark six thirty four.

We see Jesus feeding the five thousands.

And when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

And he began to teach them many things.

What I always found interesting about this verse of scripture, not just as kind of an aside, is the thought that he feeds the crowd, but he doesn't feed them first.

And there was actually no expectation of them to be fed.

Oftentimes nowadays, we think the feeding is the ministry.

But the ministry, if you read the scripture, was the compassion on them.

And he taught them.

He taught them many things, meaning that us as Christians, we bring the gospel forth.

And then we will take care of people when we when the need is there.

That is not we're not without compassion or empathy.

But the real compassion and empathy was the teaching.

And for us as Christians, it's the gospel of Jesus Christ that is supposed to set us apart, not the feeding, but the teaching, because it's a spiritual food.

It is a lack that we have within our soul that is important more than what lack we have in our belly.

In Numbers twenty seven, sixteen through seventeen, we see Moses's request to God and it says, Let the Lord, the God of the spirit of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in the congregation of the Lord.

That the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.

So this brings me to my first point, which is conscience intervention.

So with this, I pulled up a five, a chart rather. It's like a nat chart.

It's got a bunch of bars and stuff like that and numbers.

Anyway, and it basically highlights the ten leading causes of death in twenty twenty one in the United States.

So the data comes from twenty twenty one, twenty twenty years.

So anyway, what we see is we see the main cause of death is heart disease, cancer.

It has covid nineteen on here, unintentional injuries make up a good the next one.

But then it goes to stroke, chronic lower respiratory disease, and then Alzheimer's, diabetes, chronic liver and cirrhosis and kidney disease.

And so what we see with this is we see these causes of death that are within our society and they're all like a lot of these are attached to a lifestyle or types of choices that we've made.

And so it's just important for us to think about that.

And I'll pull this back up in just a second.

But before I jump into it, let's I want to read Jonah chapter four, verses one through three.

We have Jonah's anger and the Lord's compassion, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry and he prayed that the Lord and said, Oh, Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country.

That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God, merciful, slow to anger, abounding and steadfast love and relenting from disaster.

Therefore now, oh, Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

And the Lord said, Do you do well to be angry?

Jonah was willing to let people die in their sin.

He was willing to let them die in their situation, in their circumstance.

We cannot act like going and turning a blind eye to those around us.

We can't do that as Christians.

We cannot stand by and eagerly await the judgment of those who we deem beyond salvation or not worthy of it.

We are called upon God to intervene.

Survival and salvation increases with early intervention, just like the statistics we looked at.

I talked a little bit about before.

So if we look at those statistics again, keeping in mind that the chart does not include specific data in regards to the opioid epidemic or wide acceptance of abortion in our society.

But I believe that we can relate those two omissions into this message, heart disease, cancer, COVID-19 and unintentional injury, stroke, all these things.

What we can notice from all these items on this list is that early intervention is key to saving a life.

In regards to heart disease, research shows us that the probability of survival goes up dramatically when CPR is performed and when an AED is applied before an ambulance arrives.

Even before this, we can lower eliminate the risk of heart disease through lifestyle and dietary changes.

Similarly, we know that early intervention with the gospel can miraculously change a life.

And through that saving grace of our Lord, we can help those who battle against addiction, destructive thoughts, lifestyle choices that make life harder than God intended.

Let's look at abortion quickly.

If we were able to reach more of the youth with the gospel earlier and through Christ, their lives were changed.

How would that affect abortion?

If more kids grew up with Christian morality and virtues, then there would be a lowering of the hookup culture and more godly marriages to raise more godly children.

Now, I know some of you might think, well, the world has fallen and even within the church, there's promiscuity within the church.

But that's the whole point is that the gospel has to be what's being preached.

There's a movement for cultural Christianity or cultural Catholicism or cultural Islam or any of these other things where they don't even adhere to the tenets of the faith.

But yet then they want to judge the faith for not adhering to it.

So as a Christian, we are called to be Christ like we're called to accept the morality that Christ espoused.

And I believe that if someone gets saved young, that they will grow up in godly wisdom.

Too often, the church gets entangled in politics of the day when the Bible message is more a more powerful, solved, solve or balm to the human condition.

Many of the moral diseases that affect our world can be prevented through the daily application of the gospel.

The more you wash yourself in the word of the Lord, the more likely you will live for his purpose for your life.

This brings me to my second point, which is productive therapy.

We see that the real CPR can really help when someone is having a heart attack.

There are six links to their six links in the adult out of hospital chain of survival.

And these and these are things that are recognized for saving lives.

So recognition of a cardiac arrest and activation of emergency response system calling 911 early CPR with an emphasis on chest compressions.

Rapid defibrillation defibrillation.

I've been defibrillated and I can't even say that word.

That's where you use the paddles. You shock someone into rhythm.

Advanced resuscitation by emergency medical services and other health care providers post cardiac arrest care recovery, including additional treatment, observation, rehabilitation, psychological support.

A strong chain of survival can improve the chances of survival and recovery for victims of cardiac arrest.

So is how do we apply this to the word of God?

This presents itself as the time and commitment we put into winning the loss.

We need to first recognize the need.

In Luke 10 to and he said to them, 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.

We call upon the Lord to help those in need.

We work with our brothers and sisters in in in the goal of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We share the word with those who are hurting. We edify each other into the Lord.

God provides the shock with the Holy Spirit that can create a new heart in those who were once lost.

That that idea of salvation is is the first step.

But when someone can get filled with the Holy Ghost, with the Holy Spirit and their heart can truly be transformed, it's like a shock to the system like that defibrillator.

And then we work with those new converts we see that they are clothed and fed in the word of the Lord and we pray that they too will be strengthened and in time they will not only recover, but they will be able to replicate with what has been done in them with others or two others and four others in the Lord.

So it's the same kind of an idea.

Everybody, all the unsaved people that we come in contact with every day, they're basically in in a in a spiritual cardiac arrest.

And we have to recognize that we have to recognize there's an emergency here.

And we have to win when willing when people are willing to hear the word of God. We have to put the time and effort for their care so that they can be set free so they can accept Christ as their Lord and Savior they can be saved.

This brings me my final point which is reinforcement.

Titus three five, not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saves us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

Isaiah 4318 through 19 says, Remember not the former things nor consider the old, or the things of old. Behold I am doing a new thing. And how it springs forth.

Do you not perceive it. We are called to be attentive to the needs of those around us, and to be ready to provide them.

Help, just as Jesus did, and God did for the people of Nineveh.

Too often we allow our emotions our opinions to distract us from what the Bible clearly tells of us, or tells us is the purpose of our life.

We are called to point people to Christ. So what can we learn from this in regards to our lives in Christ, it's like the poem I read.

We have a choice, either to be a record or demolisher, or if we're going to be a builder and a teacher.

And we have a choice, whether or not we're going to be like Jonah, or going to be like Jesus.

When we look at Jonah's life, he ran from the call of God. Here's a preacher and a prophet who was given an opportunity to effect change for an entire country, called by God to go to a country.

The problem is, is he was called to go to a country that he wasn't fond of.

The Assyrians were an aggressive enemy country to the northern tribe of Israel, and to the southern tribe of Judah.

The Assyrians were very, very against God and his purposes for his people. They had their own gods that they worshiped, and they were considered a bloodthirsty enemy.

Now I know we can all think of countries that we think that we could associate that with today. All sorts of people we could associate that with today.

And here's the crux of the story of Jonah though. Jonah wasn't called to chastise these people. He wasn't called to, you know, rail against them or say how bad they were or say, hey, we need to stand up against these people in arms.

Nope.

Unfortunately for poor Jonah, it meant that he was required to administer therapy.

He was being asked to intervene, like our first point, conscious intervention. He was being called by God to go intervene on their behalf for the living God.

So now the Ninevites of Assyria are these wicked wicked people that are against everything that Israel and Judah stand for.

And here you have a prophet of the Lord who's called to go minister to them. And he knew, he knew that his God was gracious.

So he knew what he was being asked to do was to bring this this message of redemption, this message of repentance to the Ninevites, and that he knew that because God is a gracious God, if they repented and turned from their wicked ways, God would spare them from judgment.

So Jonah knew that this judgment, this impending judgment was coming, but that God was gracious enough to stop the judgment if they would turn to him.

And so what did Jonah do? He didn't intervene, not originally, not initially. He ran. He ran away from his calling, not out of fear for his own life, not out of fear for failure, but out of the fear of success.

Too many of us as Christians were too afraid to do the things of God because we're afraid that the people who would get saved, the people who would turn to Christ, are not going to be the people that we want to hang out with or be associated with.

Even today with everything going on in Israel, everything going on in Gaza with the Palestinian people, we as Christians, we have to understand that God will protect Israel.

We do know that, but we also have to pray for the salvation of both sides, because neither side in this war is right with God.

The Israelis are not a Christian nation. They don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and they need to turn from their own sin to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

And similarly, the Palestinian people need to turn to Christ. That should be our prayer as Christians, is salvation. Our prayer for Christians should be, or for non-Christians should be salvation.

So Jonah ran, and we know the story that he ended up in the belly of a whale, the belly of fish, for three days, three nights. We know that. And in that dark place, he came to his senses and said, I'll do whatever you want, God.

And that's where he gets spit up onto the shore, and he goes and he's in a series in Nineveh.

And so he does what he's called to do, and he preaches to the people of Nineveh, and they turn to the Lord. They accept this message of grace.

And then in what we read with Jonah four was this anger. He was angry at the compassion that God is willing to give.

So he intervened after a time. He applied the necessary therapy to see them saved from their wickedness.

He did what God asked, and he provided the therapy. And then he had in the end a battle within himself because he knew that God was so gracious that he's going to save these people.

I don't want to be like Jonah, though, because at the end, he regretted how he was used by God. And what a scary thing to be disappointed when God uses you to change an entire nation, when God uses you to save an entire generation within that nation.

And that's why I go back to the poem that I read in the very beginning, the record.

It doesn't take a lot of skill to tear down.

You don't have to be special. You can be a common laborer to tear people down, to tear things down.

But you need to want to be a builder.

You need to want to be someone who can build things up, who can edify others.

When we look at the ministry of Jesus Christ, we don't see him tearing down, nearly as often as he's building up.

He did toss the tables in the temple, and he did tear a stripe off some people here and there, but it was always with the anticipation of salvation.

The end goal was always to see people saved.

So that's why I ask, again, do you want to be like Jonah or do you want to be like Jesus? As Christians, we are called to be Christ-like. We are supposed to be becoming more like Christ and less like ourselves in the sense that the human heart is wicked and deceitful.

And we cannot rely on it.

That is why we read the word. That is why we pray. That is why we fellowship with like-minded Christians.

So iron can sharpen iron and we can move to be closer to Christ.

So that's the end of this message, and I want us to take a moment. You're not driving. You can bow everybody. You can bow their head. If you are, keep your eyes on the road.

Ten and two, keep driving.

But I want to take a minute.

Because it is critically important

for us to look at periods of our lives where we have a choice to make to say, which road am I going to go down?

And maybe right now this message is resonated with you. You're not saying, but you know that you are wicked and you know that that Jesus Christ is the only answer.

And if that's you and you can signify that with an uplifted hand wherever you are, because God can see that hand.

I can't, but he can. And if he did that, then you can just repeat after me. Dear Lord, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you sent your son, Jesus Christ, and he died on the cross for my sins.

I turn from my sinfulness. I repent and I accept you as my Lord and Savior. And I thank you for salvation through grace. In Jesus name. Amen.

That simple prayer. It's not a ritual. It's just a simple prayer and a mission of sin and a mission of who Jesus is and accepting him as your Lord and Savior.

That is salvation.

That actual revelation is salvation through grace.

And then from there, read your Bible.

Pray. Find a Bible believing church. If you didn't, Sam and Arb come out. Visit us. Be happy to have you. Small little church, but we're going to touch the world for Jesus.

I just want to close in a quick prayer. I thank you for listening to me again today. And I can't wait for you to come back next time. Dear Lord, I just pray, Lord God, that this message which touched people, Christian and unsaved alike, that it would move everybody closer to a relationship.

With you, Lord God, that we grow our relationship with you, but it also help us to remember to keep our eye on the prize, which is to see the people you saved in Jesus name and for us to have empathy.

For those who are lost.

I give you all the praise and glory. Thank you. In Jesus name. Amen.

Thank you for listening to the P.H.S.A. Potter's House Sam and Arb podcast. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at potter's house underscore Sam and Arb to keep up to date on what we're doing. Join the conversation and discover how Jesus Christ can revolutionize your life.