Song number 147, as our first song this morning.
Let's all stand together for this first song if you're able.
Song number 147, all together nice and strong on that first verse.
What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms.
Blessed Ness, what a peace is mind-leaning on the everlasting arms.
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms.
the everlasting arms. Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way, leaning on the everlasting
arms. Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day. The everlasting arms, leaning, leaning,
safe and secure from all of the darkness.
everlasting arms. What have I to dread? What have I to fear leaning? On the everlasting arms I have
blessed peace with my Lord so near leaning. On the everlasting arms leaning. Save and secure from
And then great singing, let's start off our service with a word of prayer.
Lord God, Heavenly Father, we just thank you for giving us another day that we can come
here to your house and hear the preaching of your word and be here with our brothers
and sisters in Christ.
We ask that you please bless our service this morning, each and every aspect of it, please
bless us singing, that it would prepare our hearts for the message, Lord.
And most importantly, please feel past me here with your spirit as he preaches unto us and give us all your spirit in the congregation as well, Lord, that when we leave here changed.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
You may be seated.
Please turn your song books to song number 310.
Song number 310, Footprints of Jesus.
Song worth three hundred and ten. All together nice and strong and then verse
verse. Sweetly Lord have we heard thee calling come follow me and we see where
The pathway glow, we will follow the steps of Jesus, where'er they go.
Though they lead o'er the cold, dark mountains seeking His sheep,
or along by Siloam's fountains have.
of Jesus that make the pathway glow. We will follow the steps of Jesus where
there they go. If they lead through the temple, holy preaching the word. Or in
the Lord for prints of Jesus that make the pathway glow we will follow the
steps of Jesus where they go then at last when I
us and at his throne, footprints of Jesus. We will follow the steps of Jesus, where
All right, great singing.
Welcome to First Works Baptist Church,
just a few announcements here.
Before we sing our next song,
which will be song number 100,
day by day, if you wanna get that ready in your songbook,
song number 100.
If you did not get a bulletin,
go ahead and raise your hand.
when one of the ushers can get one for you.
Some important information on there.
Of course, we welcome you to come back
to our Sunday evening service at 5 p.m.
and then we have our Thursday night Bible study.
Excuse me, every Thursday at 7 p.m.
we are currently going through the book of John.
So we'll be in John chapter three this coming week.
Hope to see you then.
We are a family integrated church
and so infants and children
stay with their parents in the service.
But for your convenience,
we do have nurseries located in the building.
Should your child need some diversion,
are available there as well and if you need to know the location of the rooms
you can ask one of the ushers and they can lead you to one and then you see the
so many times in teams the list of expecting mothers and then we have the
stats for salvations and baptisms right there at the bottom great month there
for the month of June
On the right hand side is the upcoming church events.
This Friday is the beach bonfire.
And so we're excited about that.
We do this every year.
And there is a signup sheet at the guest center
if you'd like to participate.
And I believe it's a food signup sheet.
If you have any questions about that,
you can talk to my wife or brother Hernandez
for more details.
Hope to see you then.
And then we have the ladies prayer breakfast
on Saturday, August 9th, meeting at the building
at 10 a.m.
Ladies, if you'd like to participate in that,
you can coordinate with Ms. Janelle Gonzalez.
up and then we got another excuse me TJ missions trip coming up on Saturday
August 30th leaving the building at 9 15 a.m. we had a great trip to Mexico
yesterday we had 27 salvations and so it was very receptive
We had a good group go out there and so it's always, always fruitful when we go.
But today, I'm sorry, yesterday was part of our record Salvation for the Day 27 and so that was exciting.
And then we have our church anniversary coming up on Sunday, September 14th.
We'll give you more details as the day approaches.
And then lastly, please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service.
Let's go ahead and sing our next song, song number 100, Day by Day.
Song number 100 day by day all together nice and strong on that first verse
day by day and with each passing moment
Strength I find to meet my trials here
Trusting in my father's wise bestow men
I've no cause for worry or for fear
Whose heart, his kind beyond all measure, Gives unto each day what he deems best.
Lovingly, it's part of pain and pleasure, Mingling toil with peace and rest.
with a special mercy for each hour.
He fain would bear and cheer me,
he whose name is councilor and power.
The protection of his child and treasure
is a charge that on himself
As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure, This the pledge to me he made.
Help me then in every tribulation, So to trust thy promise says, O Lord,
in toil and trouble meeting,
and to take as from a father's hand,
one by one, the days of moments fleeting,
till I reach the promised land.
Before we take the offering, I forgot to mention two things.
Brother Will and Miss MJ on the announcement of their that they're pregnant, and so he's not pregnant. She's pregnant
So if we give a round of applause
congratulations to you too and
The last thing I forgot to mention was we want to welcome you to come tonight tonight. We are catering
Mediterranean food after the Sunday evening service and so it's part of our family nights
Hope you can make it tonight, and that's it at this time
The ushers are gonna take the offering Gordon turn your Bibles to John chapter 11
we're in John chapter 11 John chapter 11 the Bible reads now a certain man was
sick named Lazarus of Bethany the town of Mary and her sister Martha it was that
Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her
hair whose brother Lazarus was sick therefore her sister sent on him saying
Lord behold he whom thou lovest is sick
When Jesus heard that he said this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God the Son of God might be glorified thereby
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus when he had heard therefore that he was sick
He bowed two days still in the same place where he was then after that say if he to his disciples. Let us go into Judea again
His disciples say to him master the Jews have late sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again
Jesus answered are there not 12 hours in the day? If any man walk in the day
He stumbleeth not because he seeeth the light of this world
But if a man walk in night in the night he stumbleeth because there is no light in him
These things said he and after that he sayeth unto them our friend Lazarus sleepeth
But I go that I may awake him out of sleep
Then said his disciples Lord if he sleep you shall do well
I'll be at Jesus pick up his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep
Then said Jesus them to them plainly Lazarus is dead
Now I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent you may believe.
Nevertheless, let us go unto him.
And said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples,
let us also go, that we may die with him.
Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.
Now, Bethany was nine to Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off.
And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother.
Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him.
But Mary sat still in the house.
And said Martha unto Jesus Lord if thou had been here my brother had not died
But I know that even now whatsoever that will ask of God God will give it thee
Jesus saith under thy brother shall rise again
Martha saith and I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day
Jesus, Senator, I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
And whosoever believeth and believeth in me shall never die.
Believeth thou this?
She saith on him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ,
the Son of God, which should come into the world.
And when she had so said,
she went her way and called Mary her sister secretly,
saying, The Master has come and calleth for thee.
As soon as she had heard that, she rose quickly and came at him.
Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him.
The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her when they saw Mary that
she rose apacely when Al followed her, saying, she goeth unto the grave to weep there.
Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying
unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping which came with her he groaned in the spirit and was troubled and said
Where have you laid him and they said unto him Lord come and see
Jesus wept and said the Jews behold how he loved him and some of them said could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind
I've caused it that even this man should not have died
Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave and a stone lay upon it
Jesus said take he away the stone
Martha the sister of him that was dead saith in him Lord by this time he stinketh free hath been dead four days
Jesus saith under said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe thou should have seen the glory of God
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said father
I thank thee that thou has heard me and I knew that thou heard is hears me always
Because of the people which stand by I said it that they may believe that thou has sent me
And when he thus had spoken he cried to the loud voice Lazarus come forth
And ye that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face
was bound about with a napkin.
Jesus saith unto them, Loose him and let him go.
Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed
on him.
But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done.
Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees of counsel, and said, What do we, for this
man do with many miracles?
If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take
And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them,
ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should
die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.
In the spake he, not of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that
Jesus should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that he should gather
together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.
Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews but went then sent him a country near to the wilderness into a city called Ephraim,
and there continued with his disciples.
And the Jews' Passover was nigh at hand, and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.
Then sought they for Jesus and spake among themselves as they stood in the temple.
What think ye that he will not come to the feast?
Now, both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment that if any man knew
where he were, that he should show it, that they might take him.
Let's pray to your Lord God.
Thank you again for everything you bless us with.
Just ask that you would fill our pastor with your spirit now.
Please bless the message that he's prepared for us this morning, and in Jesus' name we
pray.
Amen.
Okay, we're in John chapter 11 this morning and look down at your Bibles at verse 32.
It says here, then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his
feet saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her,
he groaned in his spirit and was troubled and said, where have you laid him?
They said in Tim, Lord, come and see verse 35, Jesus wept, Jesus wept.
And to tell you my sermon this morning is Jesus wept.
Of course, this is the shortest verse in the Bible, but it has a lot of impact in the word
of God because of the fact that it speaks to God's compassion, God's empathy, how God
feels for the sufferings of his people.
for individuals, for the trials and tribulations that people suffer this side of eternity.
And more specifically, of course, we see here in John chapter 11 that Mary and Martha are
grieving over the death of Lazarus.
And I love this story because of the fact that...
Though Lazarus dies and Jesus Christ knows,
he's obviously God, he knows, he is the resurrection.
He understands that Lazarus will rise again one day.
He understands that Lazarus is saved.
He knows all of the biblical truths
regarding death and eternal life.
But in spite of that, what does he do?
He still weeps.
right? He still feels sorrow for Mary and Martha and it's showing us that you know Jesus Christ is
obviously not some hyper spiritual person that he's just like, oh, don't worry about it. Why are you
even crying? What's the point of even grieving? You know, we're gonna see him again in the resurrection.
No, he actually felt bad. He felt anguish. He felt grief over the pain of Mary and Martha and he expressed
here in John chapter 11.
Now obviously Jesus Christ knew
that he personally before the ultimate resurrection
would resurrect Lazarus from the grave.
This is why when he hears the news that Lazarus is sick,
he waits two days before he goes and he heals him, right?
Before he goes to see him, should I say.
And by the time he gets there,
he's already been dead for four days.
Of course, Mary and Martha are grieved at this and they discuss the resurrection and Jesus Christ explains to him that he is the resurrection, that yes, ultimately one day he will resurrect from the grave, they would see their brother once again, but yet in spite of this, he groans in his spirit.
In his humanity, he has what we would call empathy, right, for others.
And this is what the Bible refers to as compassion.
And what I want to preach on this morning
is the importance of having empathy,
the importance of developing and maintaining
compassion for others, okay?
Just as Jesus had.
Go to Hebrews chapter four,
if you would, Hebrews chapter number four.
Hebrews chapter four.
You know, it's important for us to develop empathy and empathy, of course, is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others.
When people suffer, when people are grieved, when people are feeling pain, it's important for us to know how that feels and seek to weep with them that weep.
you know, grieve with them that grieve and feel those same sufferings that they feel.
God wants us to be empathetic towards other people's pains and sufferings.
He wants us to have compassion towards other people's pains and sufferings.
And you know what? Jesus Christ is the prime example of this as we saw in John chapter 11.
But we also see that Jesus Christ even now has empathy and compassion for us as His people,
even though He's already crossed into eternity, He's sitting at the right hand of the Father.
This is for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like ours we are, yet without sin.
You know, the high priests that were here on this earth serving in the Tabernacle and Temple,
they were human beings, but they couldn't necessarily empathize as much as Jesus Christ
was able to empathize. Jesus was tempted in all points. He suffered in all points.
He suffered trials and tribulations in all points like us, but yet without sin.
And it says there, let us therefore come boldly into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy to find grace and to help in a time of need.
And what this is simply saying is that knowing that Jesus Christ empathizes with us, that he has compassion for us,
we are able to go before God in boldness with confidence knowing that he knows exactly how we feel, right?
We know that he's acquainted with our griefs and the Bible tells us in Isaiah 53 verse 3
He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and
Acquainted with with grief and we did hid excuse me and we hid as it were our faces from him
He was despised and we esteemed him not Psalm 56 verse 8 says thou tell us my wanderings
Put down my tears into thy bottle. Are they not in thy book?
The Bible also says in Psalm 139 verse 3,
Thou compasses my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all of my ways.
Psalm 103 in verse number 12 says,
as far as the east is from west,
so far hath he removed our transgressions from us,
like as a father pitieth his children,
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
You think sometimes when your children get hurt, you know, or they feel sorrow, they
feel sadness, they feel some sort of pain, we empathize with the pain of our children
to a certain degree where you almost feel like you wish you could take with the pain
away from them.
I don't know if you've ever had, you know, a child, a baby, for example, when they go
through a fever.
and I have going on six children and all of them have had fevers and it's
probably one of the worst experiences for a parent when you have a child to have
a really high fever and they're just really struggling they're suffering and
I know myself as a dad I think to myself man I wish I could just like take that
fever from them I wish I could take that pain from them because I don't like to
see my children suffer right what is that it's called having pity on your
children
And the Bible says here that God pities us,
pities those who fear him.
Why?
Because he says, for he knoweth our frame.
He remembereth that we are dust, the Bible tells us.
What am I talking about this morning?
I'm talking about having compassion and empathy for people.
This is a Christian virtue that God wants us to develop.
and to maintain and to cultivate in our personal lives.
And it's important.
Turn with me if you want to Hebrews chapter three,
Hebrews chapter three, if you wouldn't.
I want to preach on the subject of weeping.
I want to preach on the subject of compassion
and the subject of empathy,
being able to feel for others' sufferings and pain.
Let me start off by saying this is that
You know, if you don't have compassion and empathy, I got four points this morning.
If you don't have compassion and empathy, number one, let me start off by saying that
you will become desensitized to sin.
Sensitizes it and one thing that I've noticed in our culture is that we have a lot less people who are empathetic towards others
lot less compassion for others and
That's partly due because of social media. It's due because of the internet
There's so much content that's being promoted out there that mocks the sufferings of others
That laughs at the sufferings of others that undermines the pain the death and the the sufferings of humanity
That we become hardened
towards humanity.
We become hardened towards people who suffer
and we become less empathetic and compassionate
towards people.
And you know, let me just tell you this.
That's not godly.
That's not God's will.
God wants us to maintain a tender heart for anyone,
for people, for Christians especially.
And when you don't have a compassionate
and empathetic heart,
you can become desensitized, hardened to sin.
It doesn't bother you anymore, in other words.
You can view sin, you can participate in sin,
you can commit sin, and it doesn't bother you at all.
Why?
Because you lack empathy, you lack compassion,
you lack the reasoning necessary to understand
what sin does to people.
What sin will do to you?
What sin will do to the recipient of your sin?
What sin will do to your family?
You don't have the empathy and the compassion
that accompanies having a tender heart.
You become desensitized to sin
when you don't have compassion and empathy.
Look at Hebrews chapter 3, if you would.
I'm sorry, before you go,
I'm going to read to you a couple of the scriptures here.
Compassion and empathy keeps the heart tender and keeps us sensitive to sin.
Matthew 24 verse 12 says this,
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
So according to the Bible, the more iniquity abounds,
the more sin becomes prevalent in our society,
the more cold people become towards other people.
And you know, you don't have to look very far to see that this is true.
There's so many videos out there on social media on Instagram and X and TikTok of people
dying car accidents, people suffering anguish, children dying, adults dying, suffering,
just all types of crazy stuff out there and you know what people do, they just laugh at
it.
They like the video, they comment on it, they make all types of inappropriate jokes about
people dying.
You know why?
Because they lack compassion, they lack empathy, they become desensitized to sin.
You know, I grew up during that era, and obviously sin has always been around, where, you know,
our parents try to keep us away from viewing such morbid things, right?
Why?
Because it does something.
It robs you of your innocence.
And today you have a lot of a generation that has been desensitized to violence
to the point where someone can literally get hit by a car out in the street
and instead of people helping that individual, what do they do?
They pull out their phones to video them, to record them.
You know you'll have 20 people pull out their phones and just record people in their sufferings
Rather than actually go out of the way to actually help that individual
That's a person that lacks empathy and compassion. Why even record it? You know, it's funny. My son asked me the other day
He's like dad. Why is it the one like something really bad happens in
Public the first thing that people do is pull out their phones and record it. Why would they want to record something like that?
And you know what I didn't have an answer
I was like, yeah, that's actually a really good question.
I don't know why they do that.
Because I was thinking to myself, well,
the reason they do that, and then I thought to myself, well,
actually, I don't know why they do that.
Why do people record stuff like that?
Why do people record gore and violence and people getting beat up and people suffering and all these things?
Why do they record it? I'll tell you why because they've become desensitized to that their brain has become rotten
I mean isn't it called brain rot? It's just become completely desensitized. There's no compassion
There's no empathy towards the sufferings of others and why is that because iniquity has abounded
Therefore, the love of many has waxed cold.
Parents, let me just tell you this.
You know, keep your kids innocent.
And you know, this isn't the sermon,
but you should work twice quadruples hard
to keep your kids off the internet,
specifically off of social media,
because it only takes a couple seconds
to rob them of their innocence.
It only takes them a couple seconds to turn that tender heart into a hardened heart that
no longer feels that empathy and compassion towards others.
So much pornography, so much filth, so much violence, so much disgusting content out there
that can completely destroy the mind of your child.
And I'm preaching to a crowd here of, I'm sure, teenagers who know exactly what I'm
talking about.
Who've already been exposed to that you've either been exposed to by your friends or you yourself have exposed yourself to that content
You can lie and obviously, you know the content that we grew up with doesn't help either watching family guy doesn't help
You know watching South Park for sure doesn't help
You know, but and it's a fact
We are able to just laugh at the sufferings of others because little by little, year by year, week by week, month by month, the world is just constantly influencing us to laugh at the sufferings of others.
But folks, this is not a Christian virtue.
It's wicked in the eyes of God God wants us to maintain a heart of compassion and empathy to be sensitive towards sin
To be sensitive towards iniquity and not allow our hearts to become hardened
The Bible also says in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 1 this know also then in the last days perilous time shall come
For men shall be lovers of their own selves.
Covetches, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, I want you to notice this,
without natural affection.
What is that?
Desensitized to affection, desensitized to sin,
not being able to feel, having a hardened heart.
Look at Hebrews chapter three, verse 13.
And look, this is why it's important, my friends, to be faithful to church.
Not just to read the Bible, but to actually come to church.
Why? Because when you get around other compassionate people, you become a compassionate person.
When you get around individuals who actually have empathy, you become empathetic as well.
But when you get around people who lack empathy, who are desensitized, who are hardened, who love violence,
you become that kind of person too.
Look what the Bible says in Hebrews 3-13,
but exhort one another daily,
while it is called today,
lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin.
See, here it's teaching us that sin
can often cause your heart to become hardened,
and a hardened heart, first and foremost,
lacks empathy, lacks compassion,
but also is incapable of just learning the Bible.
This is why the retention for preaching or for reading the Bible becomes short because of the fact that people are constantly consuming violence, pornography, filth, all this nonsense that's causing their brains to essentially reject what the Word of God says when they read it.
Sin can often harden the heart. Go to Ephesians chapter 4.
Ephesians chapter number four, what's my first point?
My first point is this, you know, if you lack compassion
or empathy, you will become hardened
and desensitized to sin.
And you know what?
You need to do a heart check this morning
and ask yourself, man, do I like laugh at sin?
Do you know the Bible says fools make a mock at sin. Am I okay when people are
Destroyed am I happy when people are violent? Does it make me?
Does it entertain me when people suffer? If that's the case you've probably been hardened towards the things of God
Sin has hardened your heart and you need to work on developing
Compassion and empathy in your personal life folks Jesus Christ who's God himself wept
That should tell you something
Even though he knew Lazarus was gonna rise again in the last days. He knew that Lazarus was saved
He knew he was in heaven, but in spite of that he still wept for Lazarus think about that
And it makes me think of years ago
way before I was a Christian I was a young teenager and
I remember I had an aunt a Pentecostal aunt, you know, we all got that Pentecostal aunt
And quite frankly, I believe Pentecostals are some of the most hyper-spiritual people ever.
Very holier than now individuals.
And I remember, you know, someone had passed away in the family, and I wasn't a Christian at the time,
but they had passed away and we were attending their funeral,
and my aunt, who was very close to this individual, wasn't mourning.
and wasn't sad and I remember we went to the grave site and you know just
tradition appropriateness says that when you attend a funeral you wear black
why because it's just a signification of mourning right that you're grieving
it's a very somber time well she was just like bright colors
And I remember, you know, I was grieved over the pain
of my cousins losing a family member.
And I knew the appropriateness of just being somber,
respectful, you know, offering your condolences,
being present there, you know, hurting with other people.
And I remember my aunt went up to me and she's like,
what's the big deal?
Easy to have it.
I don't, I'm not gonna be sad.
I'm not gonna be sad.
I'm gonna celebrate.
And you know, something in me,
And I didn't know the Christian principles behind it,
but now I know, of course,
because mourning and grief is a biblical emotion to have,
right?
It's biblical to actually weep and cry
when you're going through a hard time.
It's absolutely biblical and godly and Christian
and just human to weep with them that weep.
You say, well, how do you know?
Well, Jesus wept even though he knew
that Lazarus was in heaven.
Why, because he was empathetic over the emotions of Mary and Martha, right?
And so the point that I'm making here is that if you lack compassion or empathy, you might
want to make sure that you're not being hardened through sin in your personal life.
And I'm mainly talking about social media, obviously, because I think social media is
Look at Ephesians chapter 4, verse 17, it says,
have given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with
greetingness." What is it saying here? It says that there's individuals who have gone beyond
feeling for others. This is called being desensitized, being hardened.
Verse 31 tells us,
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be
kind one to another,
tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake,
have forgiven you. Compassion and empathy makes us hurt as God hurts. You have to understand
something is that, you know, God is not just up in heaven when you're hurting, just kind of like,
get over it. He's not up in heaven just like, yeah, everyone's gone through something like this,
you just need to get over it. Everything's going to be fine and dead. No, he actually hurts.
He feels pity. He feels compassion. He feels empathy for the hurt of his children.
You know we should hurt let me say this we should hurt when people deviate from the ways of God
Now obviously this is not at the exclusion of anger. I believe we should get angry
Get upset become infuriated over false doctrine false prophets things that displease God hate the things that God hates, right?
But we also need to have compassion and empathy though, okay?
So, these are not at the exclusion of one of the other.
You can have one and still have the other.
It just really depends on what situation you're dealing with, right?
But let me just say this.
You know, when people backslide, I'm not happy about that.
It actually breaks my heart.
When people get out of church who are once fiery soul winners reading the Bible faithful to church
Loving the Lord just enjoying the Christian life, but now they're out in the world
You know, yeah, obviously it angers me that they're involved in sin
But I also feel compassion and empathy for that person because I know their life is gonna be destroyed
And I want them to come back to the fold. I want them to repent and get right with God
You know, I'm not having this attitude,
oh man, I hope God just completely decimates their life.
I hope he just ruins their marriage, ruins their kids.
I hope they just get what's coming to them.
I'm more of the persuasion.
I hope it doesn't even get to that point.
I hope they just get right with God.
Why, because it's a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God.
That's why.
And so we should obviously not become joyful when someone gets thrown out of church
or when they backslide and they get away from God and they're suffering out in the world.
Obviously they're going to get what's coming to them.
But folks, we need to have compassion for people though.
Not compromise.
Compassion is far different from compromise.
Compassion it feels for the people,
but understands you're in the situation that you're in because of your decisions that you've made.
You made your bed, now you got to sleep in it.
But I hurt over the fact that you're gonna suffer
the consequences of your actions.
I'm not like, that's what you get?
No, you know, I'm like, yeah, that is what you get,
but I'm sorry that you have to go through that.
And I wish you wouldn't have to.
I wish you would just listen.
I wish you would be, remain in church
and have the joy of the Lord in your life
and you would enjoy the blessings of God.
I want you to be here with us.
And you know what? We should be sad when people deviate from the ways of God.
May I even say this? We should weep sometimes when people deviate from the ways of God.
It should break our hearts.
You know, there's someone in our church right now.
You know, I've known him for many years since he was a child.
And through a series of events, man, we lost contact.
He was my disciple.
I brought him to church.
I got him saved.
And you know what, when him and I lost contact,
it was devastating to me.
I wept many nights.
Because it made me sad that like I don't know where he was at and he's he was away from the things of God
It made it broke my heart to know that he was no longer in church
No longer with the blessing of the Lord and it bothered me because I could do nothing about it
You know, thank God, you know the Lord worked in his heart and through a series of events. He's back in church
He brought his brothers to church.
They're getting saved.
God's doing a great work in their life.
But I remember those nights being heartbroken
over the fact that I felt like I would never see him again.
That he was just out in the world, no longer serving God.
That bothered me a lot.
And in fact, I remember there was a particular kid
that I had won to Christ on the bus route
a long time ago at my old church.
And I invested a lot into this kid.
I taught him how to read the Bible,
taught him how to go soul winning.
And I remember going to go visit him on Saturdays
to remind him about church on Sunday.
And you know, there came a point where he just stopped coming.
And I thought to myself like, what's going on with this kid?
So then, you know, I would go visit him every Saturday
and his family would tell me, he's not here,
he's not here, he's not here.
So one time I went there and his sister was there
and she was like, he's not here.
And I was like, all right, we'll just tell him I came by.
And as I was walking away, she said, wait,
I just want to let you know, she's like, I'm not a Christian, I don't care about church,
I don't even like the fact that he's going to your church, but I feel like you should
know this.
She's like, my little brother who's the bus kid that I reached, he's like, you know,
we have an older brother and our older brother basically mocked our little brother for reading
the Bible days on end.
He said, my little brother would come home with his Bible you gave him, and would try
to read the Bible every single day, and our older brother would come to him and just mock
him and call him names for reading the Bible, and I'll just be honest with you, he got discouraged,
and he just after that didn't want to go to church anymore.
And you know what?
When she told me that, I wept.
You know why?
Because here's a child who wanted to serve God.
Here's a child who wanted to walk with the Lord, and was a stumbling block, was placed
They got him out of the way and you think to yourself. Ah, yeah, but you know, it'll be all right
Yeah, it will be all right, but Jesus still wept though
And I still had empathy for that kid and
You know what? He's the one that I haven't seen yet, so I don't know what happened to him
And we should have compassion over things like that, you know, we're not for the grace of God
We would be in that position too
There's another bus kid that I had
And he was actually the first one to ride the bus.
He was the first one to get saved.
He was the first one to get baptized.
And we invested a lot into this kid.
And, you know, there were a series of events.
He just ended up getting away from the Lord.
He backslid like many do, unfortunately.
And when I reunited with the guy who's currently
in our church, you know, I was asking about him.
And he's like, oh yeah, he died like years ago.
He overdosed.
You know, I did later.
I wept.
You know because we're not for the grace of God we would be there
Go to Matthew chapter 9
And I know that I'm gonna see him again I
Know that he's in heaven. I know he has eternal life. I know he's grateful that he met us
But Jesus is what?
It's important to develop and maintain compassion and empathy.
Why?
Well, number one, if you don't have it,
then you can become desensitized to sin.
Things don't bother you the way they should anymore.
Sin no longer bothers you.
And when sin doesn't bother you,
the deceitfulness of sin can destroy you.
It can destroy those around you.
Maintain the virtue of compassion and empathy
just for the sake of staying away from sin.
for the sake of not suffering the consequences of sin.
But not only that, you know, when you lack,
when you don't have compassion and empathy,
you will lack motivation to win people to Christ.
That is a fact.
Now, why is that?
Well, you know, in our church, we've developed a very disciplined strategy to go soul-winning.
We're very diss I would say we're a very disciplined church when it comes to something like we have so many times
We peer pressure people into going so winning, you know, we're just like why not today? Why not today?
Let's go today, you know, we exhort one another daily for sure
And then some people are like trying to sneak out of church
because they don't want to be asked, you know?
I think it's good peer pressure for sure.
And I'm not gonna stop anybody from being peer pressure
because we're trying to exhort you to go and preach
the gospel and get people saved.
I think that's great.
The discipline of soulning is definitely necessary.
However, I will say that in order for you to do it
in the long run, for the long run,
you gotta have some compassion about yourself.
What do I mean by that?
You actually gotta love people.
Love the people that you're winning that's we obviously we have the love of Christ that constrains us
But you also have to realize that the people you're talking to you know, they if you don't talk if you don't give them the gospel
They will go to hell. That's someone's daughter. That's someone's son. That's someone's mother
That's someone's father. That is someone who has lived a life who others have developed memories fond memories of
That's a soul for whom Christ died
And, you know, it's important for us to develop and maintain compassion for lost people because of the fact that they need us to give them the gospel.
Our compassion will propel us to go and actually win them to Christ and love them unto the Lord through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We need to have bowels of mercy for those who are lost.
And you say, well, you know, what's wrong if I just do it out of discipline? I don't think it's wrong to do it out of discipline.
But I think a large percentage should be done out of compassion.
Why? Because it's inconvenient to go and preach the gospel sometimes.
It's inconvenient to go to Mexico, amongst Mexicans,
crossing the border when we could be doing other things.
It's inconvenient to talk to total strangers.
It's inconvenient to have total strangers yell at you and argue with you.
It's inconvenient to have doors slammed in your face.
It's inconvenient to have your family out there in the heat.
It's inconvenient to do all those things. It's very inconvenient.
The only thing that can override that inconvenience though, is compassion.
It's recognizing like, well, if I don't do it, who will?
Compassion helps us to preach the gospel.
And you know what? Compassion helps us not to be so robotic about it either.
It's just like I got my gospel presentation memorized
and just sit there while I say this and just, you know,
no, you know, compassion helps us to speak
to the soul of that person.
To go to them in love and recognize, man,
this person is lost.
I hope to God that this person gets saved.
And you know what folks, that's why it's important
that before we go out and preach the gospel,
we pray, Lord, please, please, please, please,
help me to get someone saved today.
Lead me to someone who wants the truth.
Help them to overcome the mental barriers
that is hindering them from believing the truth.
And you know what, you'll be surprised
how many times you run into someone
who's going through something,
who's going through a trial, lost a loved one,
is experiencing financial woe,
is experiencing some health crisis,
and then you show up at the door.
That's not an accident.
People we run into in Mexico that were at that park that came from different parts of Mexico because they're fleeing from the cartel
They were removed from the cartel. They're they're they're going through a extremely difficult time and then all of a sudden these Americans just show up
Not to bring them to church but to bring them to gospel
Look at Matthew chapter 9
Matthew chapter 9 in verse 35 says,
because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.
Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenties, but the laborers are few.
Pray, therefore, the Lord of harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.
Jesus Christ is looking at the multitudes and the Bible says that he's moved with compassion.
Why? Because of the fact that there's not enough laborers to go around.
He sees the need of people to get saved. He sees people just scattered, lost.
And he's just like, I have compassion on these people
that have no shepherd,
they have no one to lead them to salvation.
Pray that more laborers would go into the harvest.
You know what, my prayer every single day
is more of you would go out.
My prayer for you is that you would become
a righteous person, but it's also a prayer
that you would catch the bug to go out.
You know why?
Because there's a kid out there that needs you
to give him the gospel.
There's a lost person out there that needs you to give them the gospel.
There is a single mother out there that needs the gospel.
There is a man who's lost his son who needs the gospel.
There's someone out there who needs the truth.
They need the gospel and they need you to bring it to them.
We need to pray for labors to go, but we just need these labors to just go.
Have compassion. He says there that he was moved with compassion upon them. Let me read to you from Lamentations
Chapter 1, Lamentations, Chapter 1, in the book of Lamentations, this is after the destruction of Jerusalem,
after the destruction of Judah, and Jeremiah is walking about, he sees all the destruction, all the fires and the burnings and the dead bodies,
and all of the chaos, and he sees those of Judah just kind of walking around, collecting their things, and he says in verse 12,
Behold, and see if there be any sorrow, like unto my sorrow."
You know what Jeremiah is saying?
He's like, doesn't this stuff bother you?
You know what?
This is the same question that we should ask Christians who refuse to preach the gospel.
Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by?
For Christians who refuse to go out and witness to others because it's inconvenient, well let
me ask you this.
Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by?
To those Christians who refuse to just share their faith with their family with their friends with their cousins with complete strangers
Let me just ask you is it nothing to you all ye that pass by
He also says in lamentations chapter 5 verse 51
Mine I listen to this affected mine heart
Because of all the daughters of my city
You know what Jeremiah is saying here is the reason he developed compassion
For people is because he looked at people this is why I'm foreseeing and not apologetics
This is why I'm not interested in debates
arguments
Apologetics why because it's two people arguing about doctrine when there's a lost and dying world out there
I rather go to the people who actually want the gospel see people in their element and
Win them to Christ
One of the best ways to keep a tender heart is just go soul winning
Go and preach the gospel go to Mexico. Go soul winning this afternoon. Go look at the people who are actually lost
And if you have if you have a hard time with that you say, you know, I just I do lack compassion
I do lack empathy. Yeah, it might be because of social media
It might be because of my political views and might be because I'm not in the Bible enough
Well, let me tell you something go out there and look at the people and you will develop compassion
And ask God, Lord, give me empathy for people who are going to hell, who are lost.
You know, if anybody should have empathy as us, because we were once lost, there is a time when we were without Christ.
There is a time when we did not have salvation, and someone gave it to us.
Someone prayed that they would be used to give you the gospel.
Someone prayed and prepared, someone sacrificed,
someone memorized verses, someone trained,
someone spent their entire life preparing for the moment
when they would come to you and give you the gospel.
Folks, we should do the same.
There's people out there who want us to Christ, who have literally dedicated their entire life
to being preachers of the gospel for the moment that they would be in your presence to win you to Christ.
Folks, we should do the same.
Mine I affecteth mine heart.
I think of the apostle Paul in Acts 17, verse 16, where he says,
Now while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was stirred in him.
When he saw the city holy given to idolatry. Let me ask you this question.
Do you have compassion today? Do you have empathy?
Empathy and compassion comes as we read the Word of God, as we listen to preaching.
as we abstain from things that desensitizes us to sin,
if we lack compassion and empathy,
we're not gonna be preachers of the gospel.
And this is why we do this every week.
Why? To keep the heart tender towards the loss.
And look, I'll be the first one to say,
I grow hard in towards the loss all the time.
It's just the natural byproduct of doing this for this amount of this many years
You know, sometimes I just don't care as much as I should
There's times when I'm just like I don't want to go so many. I don't feel like going so many
I don't feel like preaching the gospel. I talk about the Bible every single week
Every single day. I just don't feel like it. You know when I have those thoughts. I said Lord, please forgive me
Give me a compassionate heart towards the lost
Help me to be empathetic towards the lost condition of the people that are out there
Help me to love and have pity like you love and have pity and move me to go out and preach the gospel to someone
And one thing I've learned is that I don't wait to feel compassionate before I go. I go and compassionate develops as I go
So if you're like, oh, yeah, I'm just gonna pray that I'm just gonna wait
Until I get compassionate. No, the way it works is you actually go out there and do it and
Compassionate and compassion develops empathy develops for the loss
Let me also say this if you don't have compassion and empathy not only will you become desensitized to sin?
Not only will you not preach the gospel? But number three. Let me also say this you will not sympathize with the sufferings of your brethren
You won't realize how important it is
How important the sufferings you feeling the sufferings of others until you go through suffering?
You know God wants us to
Empathize with people and feel the pain of others even if you can't do anything about it
Think about that
The Bible commands us to be compassionate
Which is often just an emotion that we have towards others and there's instances
Let me say this where you can't do anything about that person's situation
And God still wants you to have compassion why because that's an emotion that God wants us to feel
Now why is that?
Well, let me say this is that
You know what it's one of the reasons why God allows us to go through tough times
Think about this
Sometimes we experience trials and tribulations because we're suffering the consequences of our actions. That's a for sure
Sometimes we go through trials and tribulations because God is pruning us.
That's for sure. Sometimes we go through trials and tribulations because, you
know, it's just by chance. That happens. But sometimes God allows trials and
tribulations into your life so you know how it feels. So you know the pain. Why?
So that when someone else experiences that pain, you have empathy towards them.
You're not quick to just ride off their pain right off their suffering. Ah, it'll be all right. Yeah, but remember when you went through
Oh, that's right
And you realize how that person felt when they went through that situation
That's why it's important to suffer because it's helping you empathize with others
We have too many situations in our society where we just get on individuals for suffering
and maybe they are suffering the consequences of their actions, but may I say you've suffered
the consequences of your actions too.
And you know what?
You suffer the consequences of your actions will also cause you to be empathetic towards
others when they suffer the consequences of theirs.
It helps you to be more merciful, more gracious towards individuals, right?
What do I have you turn Matthew 7?
Romans 12 look at Romans 12
The Bible says here in Romans 12 verse 9 let love be without dissimulation
Abhor that which is evil cleave to that which is good be kindly
Affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another
It means you should be nice to each other
You know, I often talk about how the brethren like to cook each other and roast each other.
I'm all for it.
But be kind to one another too, though.
After you're done cooking them, can you go buy them a meal or something?
You know, we got a volunteer here.
You know, I'm all for, you know, getting on each other as brethren, but let us not forget
to be kindly affection one toward another as well.
Show affection and I don't mean physical affection if that's your thing then you know, but just keep it, you know between
You know men with men and the women with women right men do not be kindly affection physically to the women in our church, right?
Unless it's your wife of course or your sister or your daughter
But it says here to be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love
It goes on to say, it looks to skip down to verse number 14,
bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not.
Rejoice with them to do rejoice.
You know what that means?
Don't be a hater.
Someone succeeds in their life.
You know, make sure you congratulate them.
You know, make sure you rejoice with them.
You celebrate with them.
You're happy for them.
You rejoice with them.
Don't be a hater.
No room for haters in our church.
Rejoice with them with every rejoice if someone gets a raise rejoice if
Someone experiences success in their life rejoice if someone wins their soul of their first soul to Christ rejoice with them
Oh only one
Well, maybe you'll get to our level one day or something, you know, oh, that's it. Oh, that's good. Yeah, that's really good
That's not compassionate
Look, I've won. I don't know maybe thousands to the Lord
But when I hear a Christian win their first person to Christ, I'm leaping for joy
I'm super thrilled and excited about that because I remember what it was like winning my first soul to Christ
And how exciting that what and how much it took out of me just to do that
Rejoice with them there rejoice be happy with them. Hey be happy when someone finally makes it to a Sunday night service
Rejoice when someone makes it to a Thursday night service
Rejoice with someone when they wear a suit to church for the first time even if they're mismatched and you know they're
You know, it just doesn't look right. Okay, just rejoice with them and be like man you look sharp kind of
You look good sort of
We get it
Rejoice with them, be happy for them.
Don't be a hater.
Make sure you go out of your way
to congratulate people,
but it also says rejoice with them to do rejoice
and weep with them that weep.
You know someone's hurting on a church?
Ask God for some empathy.
Ask God to give you some tears.
Let them know that you love them,
that you care for them.
Don't send them a video of you crying
or anything like that.
Because you know we also have this little part of social media as well
People just want to record themselves, you know being empathetic, but it's all it's all fake
But you know what weep with them that we what does that mean hurt with them
Why because they're your brother and sister in Christ. That's why because it's the right thing to do thing to do
That's why because God hurts with them. That's why
Because you know what, if you were in that situation,
you would want people to weep for you as well.
You would want people to hurt for you as well.
You know what, it sucks when you're going through a hard time
and no one cares.
That's hard.
It's important for us to weep with them that weep.
And you're like, well, I'm not a crying type of a person.
I'll punch you in the nose, you tell me you don't cry.
You cry.
Let me just punch you right in the nose.
You tell me, of course you're gonna cry.
You know what we need to do?
We just need to develop compassion sometimes.
And look, Jesus was the strongest emotional man
that has ever walked the face of the planet.
And you know what?
Jesus wept.
I'm not saying be a cry baby.
I'm not saying cry for every little thing that happens.
I'm saying though, when someone is hurting
and going through a tough time,
you know, ask God to give you some compassion
to shed some tears for them.
So what's the point? What's the point of that? I'll tell you what's the point of it?
It'll tenderize your heart is what it'll do. You know what might do might keep you up at night so you can pray for them
You know my do and might cause you to think upon them when you're at work and so you can pray for them
You know my do might cause you to send people a meal or try to be a blessing to them if that's the case
Weep with them that weep
It says, be of the same mind, one toward another.
Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate.
Be not wise in your own conceits.
First Corinthians chapter 12,
turn with me if you would to second Corinthians chapter one.
I'm going to read to you from first Corinthians.
You go to the second Corinthians.
First Corinthians 12, 24 says,
For our comely parts have no need,
but God hath tempered the body together,
having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked.
He goes on to say in verse 26 and whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it or
One member be honored all the members rejoice with it
What is the same rejoice with them that rejoice weep with them that weep and this is saying that you know
When one of us goes through a tough time we all go through a tough time. That's how it should be
When someone is suffering emotionally in our church,
we should all suffer with that person as well.
Why?
Because they're a member of the body of Christ.
And you know what?
You need to make sure that you sow some good seeds
of compassion and mercy and grace
because you're gonna need that one day too.
You're gonna go through a really hard time one day.
You're gonna go through a heartbreaking,
heart-wrenching, grievous time in your life
and you're gonna need God's people
to be compassionate towards you.
You don't really understand how much you need it until you're in that situation
You don't know how lonely it can get until you're in that situation
You just don't know and you know what that's why it's important that if you lack compassion and empathy
Towards the sufferings of others in our church you need to pray Lord, please forgive me and give me some compassion
Help me to love help me to have empathy help me to weep help me to feel that suffering for this individual
Look at 2 Corinthians 1 in verse number 3,
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort,
who comforted us in all our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble
by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
So the Bible is saying here that you go through trials and tribulations,
you experience that suffering,
so that God can comfort you, give you solutions,
so that in turn someone else, when they experience that,
you can impart that same comfort unto them.
And look, all of us go through different trials,
and none of them are exactly the same.
And let me just give you a word of advice.
If someone in our church goes through a hard trial,
an extremely difficult trial that you've never experienced,
never say, I know how that feels
if you really don't know how that feels.
He said, what do I say?
This is what you tell him.
Just wanna let you know I love you.
Love you guys, and I'm here for anything you guys need
and I'm praying for you.
And that's it.
But I forgot this one last thing.
Be sincere about it.
Have sincerity.
But you know, the point that I'm making
with this passage here.
the fact that don't let your trial go to waste either though. You've experienced
sufferings, it's because someone along down the road in the coming years is
going to experience that same suffering who's going to need you to comfort them
during that particular trial. He says in verse 5, as far as the sufferings of
Christ abound in us, so are consolation also abounded by Christ. Hebrews 13 verse 3
and then which suffer adversity as being yourselves also in the body.
What is that called? Empathy.
And look, again, don't be fake about it.
Like, yeah, I'm really sorry you're going through this.
You know, if you're not sorry, don't say it.
You know, pray for compassion, pray for empathy,
and ask God to give you that empathy, ask God to give you that compassion.
The less the least amount of words often counts even more
Just like I'm here for you. I'm sorry you're going through this if you need anything just let me know
But I'm here and we love you guys. That's it
But then they're not gonna know how spiritual I am then
It's not about that
And look, let me just say this compassion is necessary within marriage too and this is something that I've had to learn
you know, as a husband.
Because husbands, you know, sometimes we can lack
a little compassion for our wives.
Lack a little empathy for our wives.
Why?
Because we're dudes, we're guys, you know?
It's just, for us it's just like, you know,
one plus one equals two.
Here's the solution, you know?
What do you mean you're sad?
Why are we, is every, bills are paid?
Food's on the table?
Everything's okay. You have me, you know, like why would you be sad? Life's perfect, you know
And you know the the Bible tells us in 1 Peter 3 7 finally be he all of one mind having
Compassion one of another love his brethren be pitiful be courteous, and you know one of the best ways to learn this is in marriage
Because sometimes guys and I'm speaking by from experience here we can lack compassion for our wives
You know, my wife, for example, you know, we are on our sixth child, and you know, she's
currently pregnant, she's doing about four or five weeks or so, and they go through
all types of changes emotionally, too.
I don't understand that, because I've never had a baby before.
It's 100% foreign to me.
I don't get that, but you know, I have to pray to get it a little bit, though.
And to be compassionate towards my wife if she gets off kilter sometimes emotionally because of her hormones or whatever it may be
It's not like I just get it together. You've done this before
Come on you got it
You're lacking compassion and empathy right and you know one one way that I've learned compassion and empathy for my wife
Is being there when she's giving birth
That's I mean, I don't know exactly how she feels the only thing I could compare it to is when I get a cold or something
You know cuz when you get a cold, it's really bad
Can I get a witness here?
I'm joking. All right
Be compassionate
But when I see my wife give birth I'm like man, she's she's suffering a lot
And it helps me to realize like my wife's going through a lot right now
My wife is suffering right now
And you know, the Bible tells us to be compassionate one toward another.
You know, you might be stronger than your wife mentally, emotionally,
hopefully physically too. You better be stronger physically.
But you know, at the end of the day we need to condescend
and be compassionate towards her as the weaker vessel
and not have these unrealistic expectations of them
and think that they need to just meet our qualification and our standard
where they need to be emotionally.
Be compassionate.
Be merciful.
Now, obviously, there needs to be a balance to that, but at the end of the day, the Bible is commanding us.
God bless you.
The Bible is commanding us here to have compassion towards our spouses and to love as brethren.
And it literally says to be pitiful.
Be courteous to them.
Don't be rude to your spouse.
Show some courtesy to your spouse.
Don't disrespect your spouse.
Hold the door open for your spouse.
Treat her with honor, treat her with dignity.
Favor her.
Treat her as the weaker vessel.
Be kind, respectful, courteous, compassionate towards your spouse.
Go to Philippians.
Actually, yeah, go to Philippians 3.
Philippians 3.
What's the sermon today?
It's just a reminder to be more compassionate and empathetic towards others.
Obviously towards the loss.
But the Bible actually says to favor those of the house of God, though, too.
And here's a perfect place to learn compassion and empathy in a room filled with people of different walks of life with different temperaments, different spiritual gifts, different personalities, different strengths and weaknesses.
We have an opportunity to exercise compassion and empathy when people experience these.
Let me say this, this is the last point that I have and I think this is very, very important.
And that is that if you don't have compassion and empathy,
or if you lack it,
you can't really connect with people at a deeper level.
Let me say that again.
If you lack compassion and empathy,
you will never connect with other people at a deeper level.
That's a fact.
You say, what do you mean by that?
Well, look at Philippians 3 verse 10.
This is the Apostle Paul speaking says that I may know him referring to Jesus and the power of his resurrection and the
Fellowship of his suffering the Bible says you know when you suffer when you go through hardships
You're actually fellowship with Christ more
Because you experience some of that sufferings that he experienced. That's why it's important for us to experience persecution
Why because Jesus was persecuted?
A lot of Christians out there don't want to experience any kind of persecution,
any kind of hardships, any kind of backlash.
You know what that is?
That's them not wanting to experience any fellowship with Jesus Christ.
But when we go through persecution, when we go through hardships,
we experience some of that persecution that Jesus, some of that suffering that Christ experienced.
And let me say this, when you go through hardships with other people,
your relationship deepens.
We grow together when we have success together, but we grow far more together when we go through hard times together
When you suffer with your spouse your relationship becomes deeper
Years ago, my wife went through a major sickness,
a major, major sickness,
that almost literally took me out of the ministry.
I was gonna step down as a pastor.
I wasn't sin, anything sinful.
It was a sickness that she had that I felt like
I was not gonna be able to help her with
and also pastor at the same time
for a lengthy period of time.
It was an extremely hard trial that we experienced.
Probably the hardest trial that my wife and I
have ever gone through.
and it lasted for like six months.
And we experienced some of the most deepest forms
of suffering emotionally that we've ever gone through,
that I've ever gone through just as a person,
as a Christian, non-Christian, it was extremely hard.
And I remember phoning some of my pastor friends
and I was trying to tell him like, I think I'm done,
I don't think I could do this anymore.
My wife's going through a really hard time
and she's extremely sick
and I just don't think I can do both.
And my pastor friends would just say,
just hold on for one more day.
Just one more.
And every day I tell them like,
I think I'm gonna quit.
I think this is it.
And you know, thankfully I didn't quit.
And I, but I remember after we came out of that trial
and just talking to my wife, you know,
our relationship deepened so much more after that.
Like, we loved each other before, for sure.
We had a lot of deep love for one another before.
We were best friends before.
We were, our marriage was great before,
but it became far more profound after that trial.
Because that trial brought out the most inner recesses
of like our sufferings, and we went through it together.
I prayed for my wife in ways that I've never prayed
for my wife before.
I saw my wife's vulnerability more than I've ever seen her vulnerability and it
caused me to love my wife more. And let me say this, when people suffer in our
church, when your spouse suffers, don't run away from experiencing that same
suffering, suffer with them. Go through it with them.
Pray with them be there for them be there with them when they suffer don't abandon your family
Don't abandon your spouse don't abandon your brothers and sisters in Christ when they go through a hard time
Number one because they need you, but also number two your relationship with them will be far more profound afterwards
And look guys know this
You know if you've had a brother who you fought with
You know physically or if you had a best friend that you fought with
You're a lot closer to one another, right?
Afterwards, hopefully.
You know, I will say this, you know, I love our church.
I believe I love our church equally,
but there is a certain level of profound fellowship
that I have with people who are there during the persecution
just because we were there during that time.
You know, they're there when we're, you know,
just went through all that nonsense.
You know, I have a certain level of friendship
with Brother Ulysses.
Obviously, he's my employee, but I consider him to be a very close friend because we went
through some really crazy stuff together during that whole persecution.
He's the only one calling me at 3 AM saying that the building was bombed.
And then he's there at 5 o'clock in the morning with the bomb squad and him and I are in the
back of a cop car and they're explaining to us that the FBI is coming and we're just like,
And so I have a lot of deep love for Brother Ulysses.
I'm never gonna tell him that.
It's kind of, you know,
this is the only time you're gonna hear a brother, right?
Clip it and save it for later.
Bring it up whenever you need it in the future.
No, I'm just kidding.
You know, I have a lot of love for him and his family
because we just went through a lot together.
Certain people that you suffer with,
that you experience a deeper form of relationship with.
And those are some of the most meaningful relationships
are those who you suffer with.
There's certain pastors that I have a deep level of love for
because they were there for me
when I went through a really hard time.
They were on the phone with me at my lowest.
They saw me when I was extremely vulnerable
and they walked me through my trial.
Folks what I'm what I'm telling you here is that you know
We need to have empathy and compassion towards others when they experience a hard time because I'm just telling you right now
Their loyalty to you as a friend will boost after that whole situation blows over
Your relationship will become far more deepened in your marriage
With your brothers and sisters in Christ if you're there for them
What's the sermon this morning? You know, I'm not preaching on reprobates. I'm not preaching on the end times prophecy
I'm not preaching on you know anything like that. What I'm just reminding you that you're a Christian
I'm reminding you that God expects for you to be compassionate
not a weak person
Meekness is not weakness
Compassion is not weakness
Compassion is a tender heart
Compassion is the ability to uphold the justice and judgment of God, but still weep over the condition of the consequences that person will face.
Compassion and empathy is recognizing someone else is hurting and I wish I could just remove the hurt from them.
Compassion and empathy is staying up at night because you can't sleep because you're wondering how are they doing?
Where are they going through? What can I do to help?
Compassion is weeping with them that weep, and I'm telling you right now, please listen to me
You're gonna wish you were compassionate and empathetic
In the future when it comes upon you
So pray for that
Pray for empathy and compassion. Let's pray father. We thank you so much for weeping for us
We're thankful that Jesus Christ wept
We're thankful that he was
Tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin that he was acquainted with grief
Lord, in like manner, may we do the same for our brothers and sisters in Christ when they
go through sufferings.
But also, Lord, help us to be compassionate towards the loss.
And it's easy to go out there because we've done it so many times before and just preach
the gospel and just talk to people and collect salvations and to kind of go through the motions.
But Lord, may we not lose the element of empathy when we go out there and recognize that the
person we're talking to is not a number. It's literally a person who's on their way to help.
And I pray that you help us to maintain a tender heart for the lost
And when we sow those seeds of empathy so that one day we will reap them when we are going through a hard time as well.
We love you. We thank you. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Please turn your song books to song number 152.
Song number 152, security.
Song number 152, Altogether, nice and strong on that first verse.
More secure is no one ever than the loved ones of the Saviour,
Not yon star on high abiding, nor the bird in home nest hiding.
In his holy courts they flourish Like a father kind he spares them
In his loving arms he bears them Neither life nor death can ever
Come forth them in tribulation
Little flock to joy, then yield thee
Jacob's God will ever shield thee
Rest secure with this defender
At his will all foes surrender
What he takes or...
shows the Father's love so precious.
We may trust His purpose wholly,
tis His children's welfare solely.
Amen. Wonderful singing. You are dismissed.