A Compassion That Still Looks Like Jesus

Welcome to the River City Church podcast and a message by our

lead pastor, Jason Powers. Our prayer is that this message

would inspire and encourage you, build your faith and point you

to the life changing love of Jesus.

May you enjoy the goodness of God as you follow him today.

Good morning River City, how are you all?

Oh, that was awesome. That's the best reaction I've

ever gotten. Calling out so fantastic jobs.

For those of you that don't know me, my name is Sean Bowers and

I'm an elder here with the church.

And every once while they ask me to teach.

They just feel. Crazy.

And they're like. We'll give this guy's shot and

today's the day. So I I'm.

Deeply honored when I get a. Chance to do this I look forward

to sharing a message with you all that's that's a very.

Close to my heart, and I think it's really important to kind of

the heart of Christianity. And just to tell you a little

bit more about myself, I've been attending this.

Church for I don't know. 15 ish years time's not a real thing in

my brain all the time, but it's been a long time.

Long enough to be old enough to be an elder.

I know that because I think that was the only requirement when

Jason. Appointed me an elder who was

just you're old let's go. My wife also attends church here

with me her. Name is.

Shaney. And she is.

Amazing Shaney keeps me on track all of the time, which I promise

you. Is a full time.

Ministry in and of itself, if you know anything about me.

And then I have. Two kiddos who were.

Raised in this church. Baptized in this church and are

now college students which is beyond my like I can't even

understand that that my kids are off in college and old wow so

but this church has been very important to us.

It's a very important place, deeply matters to me, this.

Church community and I've always wanted to to.

Contribute in a positive way and help us.

Grow towards. God all of the time and I hope

that today's message. Helps with that as I'll be

preaching about. Christian empathy, Christian

compassion, those two concepts which I think it twisted a lot

of times. And I'll give you a chance.

Right away to put this into practice, this empathy and

compassion thing, I am 72 hours out almost exactly from sitting

in Miami at the Orange Bowl watching the Texas Tech Red

Raiders, my beloved. Texas Tech Red Raiders get

dismantled by the Oregon Ducks. So if you could just feel.

Some of my pain empathetically and extend compassion to me in

my suffering. Today I would.

Be deeply grateful. Because I'm powering through

through that. To be able to preach today, but

what? What I want to talk about is

this idea of compassion and empathy in the church I.

Fear that? What?

I see happening in the church, and I'm not just talking about

our church community, I'm talking about kind.

Of the church community kind of throughout.

The world, throughout the nation, I see kind of two camps

forming with relation to empathy and compassion.

And I think that one of those camps that's beginning to form

is this is to me, this is a camp I've fallen a lot.

Is the world is. Just kind of overwhelming.

There's a lot going on in the world.

There's a lot of suffering. There's a.

Lot of difficulty. There's a lot of pain in our own

lives and our communities and our families globally.

When we look around, we can just become overwhelmed by the things

that we see and that we come in contact with, and it's kind of

human nature on some levels to begin to shut down.

Because we just. Can't carry all that weight.

We weren't designed to carry all that weight.

It's too much for us. So when we get there, it's not

that we stop loving people or that we stop.

Showing up for people, we just kind of run out of margin.

We don't have any more room. To be able to extend the.

Compassion and grace to people sometimes, and that can be

dangerous. To our.

To our. Christianity and to our

Christian lives. And then on the other side, I

see in this, this kind of the schism that's developing in the

church, I see. Folks who have decided.

That empathy and compassion are kind of like signs of weakness,

almost. They've they've learned to.

Protect themselves by shutting down and not engaging with these

things. Not because they're overwhelmed,

but because it's just something that they fear that if they

engage. With folks who are.

Maybe broken or different or somehow they just don't agree

with that they'll be condoning the way.

Those people are. Living that they're just not

going to engage with them. And then what happens with that

is distance from people who need help becomes considered

discernment and hardness of heart.

Gets. Baptized is kind of a wisdom and

withdrawal from people starts to sound like spiritual maturity.

And both of these groups are really.

Responding to the same pressure, they're responding to the weight

of a broken world. The question is not whether

compassion is costly, because it is the real question.

We have to. Face is is.

Withdrawing from compassion. Ever Christ like is it OK to?

Withdraw from compassion and the way we're going to look at that

is we're. Going to explore.

God's nature in situations where He ran into us and to others.

And how did he respond? What was his response to these

moments even when he was at the end and spent and worn out?

And I want to start as we talk about compassion with our

confession. Each week.

Here at the church, if you're new or you're visiting, we do a

confession and it's a simple coral response.

I'm simply going to say we are badly broken and you will.

Reply We are deeply loved. And this is a fundamental part

of kind of. What we do here each week?

That gives us a chance to come before God and.

Admit that we are. In fact, broken and.

Receive the grace that is so freely.

Given through us through. Through Jesus Christ.

So let's do our confession. We are badly broken.

Yeah, for me, I know this has become a fundamental.

Part of my faith. When when Jason started doing

this as a church. Body it was so powerful because.

You know, we all know that in our own lives, we, we have

things, we have stuff. We're all.

Broken. We all have.

Difficulties we all carry. Pressures we all make bad.

Choices and each. Week we get a chance to come in

and just in a simple. Phrase say that we are badly.

Broken and receive the. Grace.

Of God and it. Feels good.

It feels good. To know that and that that

confession is intentionally held an attention.

Because badly. Broken without the deeply.

Loved just produces shame. And if we have the the.

Just the deeply loved. Without the badly broken, that's

not effective. It won't work.

And if we just say? That we're deeply loved.

Then we're and not acknowledge our brokenness.

Then we're we're kind of being dishonest with God.

We're just taking the grace without admitting that there are

things about us that are in fact broken.

But when we put them together, it tells us a lot about who we

are and a lot about who God is. And here's why that matters when

we're talking about compassion and empathy, This confession

resonates with us not just because we want compassion.

For ourselves, but because we. Should also want that same

compassion for others. Right, that feel.

Good that we feel when we do that confession.

We should want that for everyone, not just for

ourselves. But if we just begin to

complain, cling to that compassion just for ourselves,

we haven't become holy, but we become inconsistent, only

wanting that. For us.

And grace was never meant to be. Hoarded.

And I get it. The world is heavy.

Like pain is real. Many of us are tired.

Not because we didn't care, but because.

We do care. We.

Listen, we show up, we absorb pain that isn't even ours, and

that exhaustion isn't a. Spiritual failure.

It's what? Happens when finite people

encounter infinite need. We aren't designed to fix

everything. We are not the Savior, and in

Matthew 11, Jesus encounters people just like us, broken and

overwhelmed. The pressures of their lives,

the. Pressures of their families

finances. Food, jobs, shelter.

What are we going to? Do what's next, All those

pressures on them, and when Jesus meets them, hear his

words, listen to what he says to them.

He says Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and

I will. Give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and

humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my

yoke is easy and my burden is light.

See, if we're going to understand Christian compassion,

we have to understand the character and nature.

Of God and hear when. Jesus meets people.

Just like us. Broken and overwhelmed and maybe

even having difficulty listening or concentrating to what he's

saying. He doesn't meet them with

judgement. He meets them with comfort, he

says. I can carry this for you, right?

We're just finite. We need to be putting some of

these things on Jesus when we encounter difficult situations

in different people. We've got to bring.

Jesus into the equation. He doesn't shame that

exhaustion, He names it, and he invites it honestly into the

room, recognizing the that being limited is sometimes.

Faithful you aren't. Supposed to stop being faithful.

To Jesus, just because you're. Limited in your own capacity?

See, empathy is not the problem. The mistake comes when

exhaustion convinces us. That empathy.

Itself is dangerous that caring. Deeply is the issue.

So the solution is. We should feel less.

That protecting ourselves. Is the right thing to do the?

Danger in protecting ourselves is that requires us.

To close our hearts. See, empathy isn't what burns us

out. It's when we.

Try to be the savior. That's what burns us out.

Compassion should move us towards a person in front of us.

And empathy. Should allow us to.

See them and what they're going through.

Neither of those things requires us to carry.

The weight of the world. Christianity without these.

Things without empathy and compassion.

It may still function. It may still organize.

And it may speak. Confidently, but it stops

looking and feeling like Jesus. So before we decide empathy is

the problem, let's keep looking at what Jesus's nature shows us

and what God's nature shows us. If we take a look at Exodus 34

at the very. Beginning of our journey,

there's a moment in Exodus where Moses has gone up Mount Sinai

and he's there to convene with God and receive the covenant of

the Lord for the Israelites. And he's been up there for a

while, and the Israelites are kind of starting to freak out

down at the base of the mountain.

They are starting to feel all the things.

That we as humans. Feel they're starting.

To feel, you know, distant and scared and not sure and

questioning it is this. Is this thing even real?

And as a result of that, they they construct a golden calf.

Like a statue, a. Calf made of gold, and they

begin to. Worship that calf.

Because it's something visible and something manageable and

something controllable. And they even credit their

rescue from Egypt to the golden calf.

And Moses finally comes down from the mountain, and he sees

them worshiping this golden calf.

And he's devastated. He breaks the tablets, throws.

Them down and breaks them not in a moment of rage.

But in a moment of grief. The covenant that he had made

with the Lord was broken before it could ever even be.

Delivered to the people. The later Moses goes back up

that mountain and he intercedes on behalf.

Of. Israelites and he goes before

the Lord, and he asked this deeply human question of God.

He says who? Are you now?

Who are you when your? People fail you like.

This and in Exodus. 34 Six God. Replies to that question.

God says the Lord. The Lord is compassionate and

gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in.

Love and faithful. Love and truth.

So when asked who? He was he simply.

Responds, I am the Lord and I am compassionate.

God's first description of himself is not power, it's not

judgement, it's not distance, it's compassion.

If our faith. Makes us.

Harder instead of gentler. We have drifted away from.

God's heart. If we look.

Further, when God is here on earth and his ministry.

With Jesus, there's a. Moment where he encounters a

leper in Mark chapter 1 and to kind of set the stage, this man

Mark 1 · chapter mention

has been isolated. From Society for.

Quite some time because of his condition.

He's isolated. Physically, he's isolated.

Socially, he's isolated. Religiously, he's isolated

emotionally, he has not been physically touched in years

because of his condition, and he comes to Jesus and.

You have to listen carefully to the.

Question that. He asked Jesus.

Before I read from the scripture, the man says to him,

essentially, are you willing to to heal me?

Are you willing to heal me? So let's read the scripture.

The man with leprosy came to him and on his knees begged him, If

you are willing, you can make me clean.

Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched

him. I am willing, he told him, be

made clean. The man's question was not Can

you help me? It's are you willing to heal me?

The man's question was about. Worth.

It's about value. When people are broken and

separated and left out of community and told they don't

belong in a space, they begin to lose their own value and their

own worth and even to step into a space like.

This with loving people becomes difficult because they.

Question their own value and their own worth.

Jesus's response was to move towards the man.

To say that. He was willing because

compassion doesn't stay distant, right?

That miracle began with a man's question and ended with Jesus

healing him and touching him, the first human touch he had.

Felt. In so long.

People who walk in these. Doors, they come here seeking

that same thing. It may not be.

The physical touch. It may just be.

Feel. Just to feel.

Part of something, again, just to feel a community, just to

know that people care about them and our place is to meet them

the same way. That Jesus did with.

Compassion and a willingness to heal them, not with judgement or

scorn. We are not the Savior.

It is our place. To meet them with the compassion

that Jesus shows. Because compassion restores

belonging and it restores. Health.

It restores spiritual. Health and physical health.

Jesus. Is really great at seeing a

human being rather than the person's problems.

If we continue looking at his ministry, there's a moment where

he's invited. To a dinner.

In a a Pharisee's home, it's the Pharisee's name is Simon.

The Pharisees were religious. Leaders of the time.

Very, very important people. They knew.

They knew the. Word of God better than anyone

and he was invited into this dinner and you kind of have to

picture the scene. There are these people.

In this room, lounging kind of on like low couches and a.

Doorways open and. Other very important men, you

know, talking and listening and I'm sure discussing religious

philosophy and the most important things of the time and

the politics of the day. And Jesus has been invited into

the space. And as he's there, a woman comes

into that room. That woman is known as the Town

Center. I mean, everyone knows who she

is and everyone knows why she doesn't belong in that room.

She stands behind Jesus, and she.

Weeps her tears. Fall on his feet and she begins

to use her hair to clean his feet.

And the room goes completely silent.

No one speaks, but everyone is thinking and Simon kind of

silently judges. Jesus.

I mean, he's thinking, I'm sure. Just like I would if if he's

truly God. I mean, what is he doing near

her? Shouldn't he pull away from the

sinful person? And as he's thinking these

thoughts, Jesus answers that question, that unspoken

question, out loud in Luke 7. Jesus says.

Turning to the woman, he said Simon.

Do you see this? Woman, therefore I tell you her

many sins have been forgiven. That's why she loved much.

But the one who is forgiven little loves little.

See, in that moment, Simon could only see her sin.

Jesus saw her humanity. Compassion.

And empathy allow us to have restored sight.

We're able to see people. The same way that.

Jesus sees people as the beautiful.

Creation that he made them to be.

As a. Fully restored human already on

the other side of salvation. When we look at people through

those. Eyes rather than the.

Eyes of judgement, it creates a place.

Where they can find that full restoration?

Through Jesus. Our hearts don't close

overnight. They.

Close due to fatigue, due to fear through disappointment.

We've all had people. In our lives that we've tried to

bring in to meet. Jesus, that it just.

Hasn't happened for whatever reason.

Then we become discouraged by that.

We become disappointed by that the scripture.

Points to the same remedy again. And again and again, when we

feel discouraged, it encourages us to turn back to compassion.

In Psalm One O 313 it says. As a.

Father has compassion on his children.

So the Lord. Has compassion on those who fear

him and Colossians 312. We have an.

Exhortation to us, therefore, is God's chosen ones, wholly and

dearly. Loved.

Put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and

patience. Compassion is not just.

Manufactured by us it. Exists already within us God has

made it a. Part of our spirit, a part of

the good fruits for us if we are truly spiritually saved.

When we seek compassion, we don't have to invent it.

It's just restored. Already from within US.

If we allow God. To do that within us when we

seek compassion, we're better able to model what Jesus models

while he was here in his ministry and I can remember back

in the day I'm this old some of you may remember this we used to

wear around these what would. Jesus do bracelets.

Do you all remember those? Yeah, WWJD and you're.

Supposed to be like, I'm going to go to a party and do bad

things. What would Jesus do?

I'm not going to that. Party right that's that was the

effective. Message I was taught as a child.

But I do wonder sometimes if we shouldn't.

Kind of. Revisit that concept of What

would Jesus do? Because when we look at the

model of compassion and empathy, we've already seen some of the

things that he's done. And I know that we get tired,

but. Jesus never seemed to to really

run out. I mean the story in the book of

Mark where he encounters a woman.

And he's just kind of moving his way through a town.

And this woman is, has been bleeding.

I, I can't remember the term. I'd have to look at the

scripture again. I think like 12 years.

She's just been bleeding and suffering and she's spent her

entire fortune trying to get doctors to help her.

With. That problem, and as Jesus makes

his. Way through that crowd.

It's one of my favorite stories because this woman just wants to

be close to God, just wants to feel something, wants to be.

Healed and she simply. Reaches out and touches his.

Cloak as he goes by. And it's it.

Says in scripture that Jesus could feel the power like leave

his body. And he turns and stops and ask,

You know who who touched my clothes?

And his disciples were like, well.

Everybody's here. They're.

All pressing up against you. I mean, everyone's touching you

but the woman. Stepped forward with fear.

And trembling, it says in Scripture, fear and trembling.

And she said I'm I'm the one who touched you.

And Jesus's response was not. How dare you?

I was. Going somewhere else?

I was already busy. Working on some other piece of

ministry I had things to get done.

I have A to do list. I'm supposed to be finishing he

simply. Said to her daughter, Your faith

has saved you. Go in peace and be free from

your. Affliction.

Jesus does not dismiss her as an interruption.

Empathy makes him stop. Compassion makes him turn, and

he restores her fully. She reaches out physically.

In that moment, for what? So many.

People are reaching out for spiritually.

To be seen and to be made whole. This is this is the place where

that. Happens.

If we look at what Jesus would do, I mean all the way to the.

End. He had empathy and compassion

for us as humans. We had taken him.

The humans. We had taken him, arrested him,

beaten him, humiliated. Him.

Scourged him, whipped him, made him.

Carry the instrument of his death.

The top of a mountain and nailed him.

To that to die. At some point in there, I think

it would have been perfectly human to say I've done enough

for these people. This is what?

They've done for me. Their answer to my salvation is

my death. I'm done.

I'm about to leave this place and I'll do no more.

But instead what we saw. Him do was turn to one of the

two men being crucified with him that man one of the men mocks

Jesus and the other man says you do not know what you're doing

and ask Jesus simply to remember him that day and again instead

of Jesus saying. Nope, y'all are.

Killing me, he said. Truly, I tell you today, you

will be. With me in paradise, I mean,

Jesus is suffering and exposed and dying and.

For the people that he loves. And he still responds with

compassion. His compassion.

Refuses to cap. Out even at the end.

So if Jesus doesn't ration his empathy and compassion, how do

we as Christians justify saying that we will?

Friends, I know, I know, many of you are tired.

And this sermon is not asking you to carry more weight.

I'm asking you not to lose what matters most.

Empathy is the root. Of the Christian heart and

compassion is the. Flower.

Once we are in full bloom with that compassion, it provides new

life. If we allow that root to dry up.

Then nothing blooms. When the heart hardens, churches

harden. It is important that we not lose

heart. My encouragement to you is as

you go into the week, remember you're not the Savior.

It's your job to point people to the Savior.

It's your job to reflect. His love and his caring.

When you feel that you've reached that.

Reached that maxed out point dealing with someone or some

situation in your life? Admit that you were there.

It's just like we. Do with our confession.

I am badly broken, but I am deeply.

Loved and asked that that. Same brokenness that you have

and that same. Grace, that's extended to you.

Be given to that person. That Jesus do.

Work on their hearts. If you doubt that, Jesus.

Can do work on people? 'S hearts without you then, I'm

afraid. You've got this equation all

wrong. It's important that we.

Steer people to Jesus and that we reflect his love, but we.

Are not the savior. Like, free yourself from that

burden. Allow Jesus to do the.

Saving for you. Let me pray for us, Heavenly

Father, as we go into. This week may our.

Hearts stay open, even when openness feels costly.

May we offer the compassion we have so badly needed and the

compassion that we have. Received May we trust that God

is already. Holding everything that we

cannot, we are not asked to be the.

Savior. But only to reflect Him with

honesty, humility and love. May the love of the Father, the

compassion of the Son, and the comfort of the Holy.

Spirit go with you. Sustain you and surround you,

now and always. Amen.

Thank you for joining us today. River City Church is all about

experiencing and expressing God's love in our lives and

community, and we hope that you've been able to experience

that today. As grateful as I am that you've

spent this time listening in this morning, this podcast is no

substitute for full participation in a local church.

I love it when River City people listen to other pastors, but it

is those who show up week after week, faithfully giving their

support and time and resources that make all of this possible.

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Thanks so much for listening. May the Lord bless and keep you

in all grace and peace.