Compassion

By Pastor Bob Rasmussen 

Welcome, we are glad you are here. 

I just want to take a moment and praise the Lord for Diana and my 17^th wedding anniversary! Praise Jesus.  As I have said before, we were married in this building 17 years ago yesterday. I am not going to share a message on marriage or marriage counseling other than this. 

The reason that I think we have made it this far is because we are both in love with someone that we place higher than each other, and that is Jesus.  With the grace and mercy of Christ, we made it through some tough times together.  I love her more today than I did when we were first married. She is my best friend, my helper, my encourager, my partner in all that we do – and I praise God that He brought us together. I am forever grateful. With six kids and seven grandchildren together, it is a hectic, crazy life that I would not change for anything. Happy anniversary, baby! 

Can we pray? 

Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to gather, in Jesus’ name. I pray that you would move here in this body and minister to the hearts and minds of my brothers and sisters. I pray that you would break the barriers of indifference and apathy and fill our hearts with compassion—the same compassion you had for us when we were all lost and you found us and brought us into your kingdom, into your marvelous light. In the mighty Name of Jesus, amen. 

Recently, I was working at a job site where I was there 6 different days. There is a woman there. An older lady, and every time I saw her, she seemed to be eating.  

I kind of thought to myself that it was a little odd. On the 3^rd day, she must have had like 7 different meals. And then, when I was working near the bathroom, I figured out why. 

I think she suffers from Bulimia. An eating disorder characterized by regular, often secretive bouts of overeating followed by self-induced vomiting or purging, strict dieting, or extreme exercise, associated with persistent and excessive concern with body weight. 

And it broke my heart that she was struggling with this issue.  It broke my heart that she was so desperate to fill some need that she had to go through that. I mentioned faith in passing and got an “eye roll”. My heart was broken for her. 

And because of my job, I drive all over southern Wisconsin, and I go to Madison and Milwaukee quite often. I see a lot of panhandlers. Some you can tell are most likely drug addicts or alcoholics trying to fuel their addiction. 

And sometimes you see someone who you can tell is struggling with a mental issue, and there is something that is not right. 

And you can also see those who are struggling with life issues. I do not know their story. Who they are, where they come from, or what happened, but still. It breaks my heart. 

I mean, should we not have compassion for them? 

On March 28^th there was an earthquake in Myanmar. I have a few pictures here. 

A building under construction collapsed, many workers were inside. 

 A Buddhist temple collapsed.  

And the death toll when I wrote this was 1644 souls.  

According to what I found that country is 88% Buddhist. 88% of the population believes in the teaching of Buddha, a guy a couple of thousand years old who is dead. 

There is no one they can pray to! There is no one they can ask to intercede with them. They live their lives with no promise of salvation, and it breaks my heart that over 1600 people will not go to heaven. That the families of more than 1600 families will not have the opportunity for peace, knowing their loved ones are saved. 

Should we not have compassion for all these folks? It breaks my heart.  All I can do is cry out in prayer. 

But should we not have compassion for those that we come across who are struggling with addiction? Compassion for those with mental issues and homelessness? Should we, as a church, have compassion for people over 10,000 miles away?  

Compassion that they are under a false teaching and will die without a Savior? 

I want to look at Jesus’s heart, and we will be looking at the only miracle, except for the resurrection, that is in all four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—the feeding of the 5,000. 

Let’s start in Matthew. 

Matthew 14:13 When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart:  

Heard about what? That his cousin, John the Baptist had been killed. He was beheaded. And King Herod is starting to notice the fame of Jesus. 

As I was preparing this message, I considered two schools of thought about why Jesus left, why he departed. The first one was that He was sad and went to grieve and pray. We see Jesus doing that often, which is a good model for us. 

The other thought is that Jesus did not want to get involved with Herod; it was not his time. Jesus knew his mission, and his destiny was not to die now or in that place. 

There is some good advice from Jesus right there. Sometimes we just walk away. We do not have to engage in every battle that we see.  Not every enemy or situation deserves a response from us.  I am learning more and more that some battles are pointless, and it is easier not to engage.  

Jesus’s grieving shows us his humanity. Yes, He was God, but He was also man. He had the same feelings that all of us do; He was empathetic. It is how He has so much compassion for us. In this example, He showed us a healthy response to grief. 

Jesus often went alone to pray. Here, we can see the wisdom of Christ in using a healthy coping mechanism. I don’t know if they had drugs back then, but instead of running to a chemical, Jesus modeled a behavior of prayer to be healed. That is when our hearts are heavy, when we are dealing with pain, when we deal with the drama that we call life. We can carry our hearts into the presence of the Lord. 

Matthew 14:13 and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. 

I try to pay attention to all of the details in scripture. 

Followed them on foot. That shows us that people from these cities come from all over. They are making their way to Jesus, the only way they can, on foot. It does not mention horses or chariots or Uber or Lyft, amen. They want to see this Jesus. They are hungry for Him. They have heard him preach or heard about his preaching. They have seen or heard of the miracles that Jesus has done. This message of truth, this message of transformation, they will do whatever they have to. 

That’s another good lesson. Honesty time.  When Pastor Jeff shared that he wanted to start doing Bible studies on Thursday nights at 6:30, starting this week, my flesh was like, “I don’t want to.” I work five days a week and work plenty of hours, and that sounds like a lot.  

Then I looked at these folks trying to get to Jesus, to get to His Word, and I was a little convicted, amen? 

Yes, I work 5 days a week, but I do that in the world, and I want to be closer to Jesus, to get more of Him in my life, so I had to tell my flesh to shut up. We are better together when the saints gather and declare His Word, amen? 

We get so busy that we hunger for everything else, but I want to have a hunger for Jesus like these people did. I am willing to do whatever to be closer to Him, amen? 

Matthew 14:14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. 

Here we have Jesus, who had wanted to get away, to be by himself and attend to His own needs, and as soon as he gets there, he stops and starts pouring into those people. He had compassion, He had pity on them, and he had empathy and healed their sick. 

That is what can happen to us as well. We can be in the middle of sorrow or maybe we’re depressed. Maybe we are in a moment of loss.  Then we get that phone call or that text, and we can choose to be a little more like Jesus and start pouring into that person’s life. We may be on the phone wiping our own tears for our own pain, but we pour out God’s love and pray with them, weep with them, and encourage them. 

And this is such a beautiful image of Jesus. 

He looks in the crowd and doesn’t just see faces. He sees people who need salvation. He sees people who may be sick or ill, and they need to be healed. He sees people burdened by the false teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees. People who are weary and in need. 

And He is moved by compassion. The same events that I mentioned earlier. He still sees people who are sick. He still sees people who are homeless and not right in their minds. He still sees people under a false doctrine and not the truth that He has. 

And if you hear this, he still sees you. He sees you struggling with addiction. He sees you in your shame. He sees you in your illness. He sees you in your loneliness. He sees you in your pain. He sees you in whatever situation you are in. He sees each and every one of us. And he has compassion for you. He sees you. 

He healed them, and He still heals today, amen? 

In response to all this, He had compassion, and so should we, amen? 

The book of Mark says it a little differently. 

Mark 6:34 And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things. 

That’s powerful. That he saw the need of a shepherd, which He was. And He teaches them the Word of God. In this chapter of Mark, he is not first moved by their hunger in a physical sense. He is not moved by their physical sickness. Rather, He is moved by their spiritual need for salvation and truth. 

Jesus elevates the Word above all else! 

What I see here is, what good is it to clothe or feed someone who is still lost spiritually? Who does not have a relationship with Jesus?  The sharing of the gospel is how we show compassion, until all have heard. You or I cannot bring anyone into the Kingdom by our strength – it is the conviction of the Holy Spirit. 

What I love about this church is that we do not have everything set on a timer. If praise reports go longer, if prayer requests or prayers take longer, we do it as a body. If the preaching goes a little longer, or if praise is a little longer, then God be the glory. 

Some churches I have been to have announcements, two songs, 12-minute messages, and one song. If any of that took longer, people start squirming. The church needs to be more aware of the Holy Spirit so that He can move, so that He can heal, so that He can speak to the hearts of believers instead of being put in a box of religiosity. 

The Holy Spirit is the compassionate worker of Jesus. 

Matthew 14:15 And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals. 

I see a little of myself here in this scripture. It’s been a long day, there is more to do. I am in a desert place. They come across a problem or I come across a problem, big or small, and I am like. No, this isn’t going to work. I quit. I give up. And these guys and I, Jesus is right there, and we don’t even ask him for advice? We naturally tend to quit or take the easy way out without saying first, “Jesus, what should I do?” 

He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is wise and cares – maybe I should be asking Him first before I make decisions, amen? 

Matthew 14: 16 But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat. 

I wonder if Jesus laughed a little there. He knew what He was about to do, but He said, nah, don’t send them away, you feed them! Maybe if you had asked me first, I could have told you what I was going to do, but no, you just threw your hands up and quit. 

Matthew 14:17 And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. 

I know the good part is coming, where he multiplies it, but I want to focus on something else first. Like I said, there are four perspectives here, let’s look at John. 

John 6:9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? 

I looked up these barley loaves; they were probably the size of a biscuit, a poor man’s food. So, kind of like the Barley Value Meal at Ye Local McDonald’s. Or a quick stop at Ye Old Kwik Trip. 

In the middle of needing to feed 5,000 people, they are focusing on the limitation of what they have in their hands, instead of WHO they have right next to them.  

Come on now. We have all done it: We see only what is right before us and forget who we have with us, amen? They have literally seen Him perform many miracles, and yet they choose to focus on their circumstances instead of Jesus. 

We need to focus on God, who is not limited by what is right before us: He can do everything, and He has no limitations. 

Luke 9:14 For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company. 15 And they did so, and made them all sit down. 16 Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude. 

I like to just picture this, Jesus breaking the bread. Jesus took that broken bread and handed it out. 

Sometimes I think we need to be broken before He can pour more into our lives. For my pride to be broken. For my idols to be taken down. Broken, getting whatever would hinder me in my life. If there are sin areas, they need to be broken so that God can move. I am reminded of a scripture. 

AMP James 1:2 Consider it nothing but joy, my [b]brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials. 3 Be assured that the testing of your faith [through experience] produces endurance [leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace]. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed [in your faith], lacking in nothing. 

Hallelujah and amen! 

But they are all eating, 5000 men sitting. Some bible scholars say it could have been anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 people. It blows my mind. Jesus could have snapped His fingers and put a Xtra value meal in the hands of everyone there, amen? He has power. 

But what happens as those baskets are passed around and everyone sees it filled again and again and again? Their faith grows. I mean, the first row probably knew they would get something. The basket was filled again. Second row, oh, they got some. 3^rd row, wow, they got some too! 4^th row, what is this? There is still bread! But how about the middle? Or those way in the back? I can hear the excitement buzzing, people saying, It’s still full! Minute by minute, their faith grows. Row after row, faith grows! 

This is an amazing miracle! 

Matthew 14:20 And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. 21 And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children. 

So many preachers have used this scripture to promote a prosperity gospel: Give money to me, and God will multiply it! I recently saw a video in which a preacher, Alvin Slaughter, had the ushers close the doors of the church until everyone in there gave a total of $40,000. Crazy times. Wolves in sheep’s clothing. 

No, the power of this miracle is when we look at the context of that time when Jesus was in His ministry. 

Diana and I are trying a low-carb diet now that we are getting older. One requirement for cutting out carbs is no bread. I hate this diet, especially now that our daughter is making homemade bread. Dang it! 

But back in the day, bread was on everyone’s table. Meat was a delicacy. From what I have read, they had bread every single day. Bread traveled well. Bread could be made ahead of time, and some bread was inexpensive. It was the norm; there was no low-carb back then. 

So when they heard bread was on the menu, they thought sustenance. They heard bread, and they thought of survival. A little later in John we see that Jesus used this miracle to reinforce this idea with a powerful truth. 

John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. 

Then a little further we see: 

John 6:32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. 34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. 35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. 

Jesus is all we will ever need. We can keep wanting things in this life. Some people think that maybe when I have enough money, I will feel happy and full. 

When I get that fancy new Tesla, I will be happy. When I get this thing or that thing, it will complete me. 

No, Jesus is the bread of life. And He is calling for His church to be compassionate, we are His hands and feet.  

So what do we do? We clothe the homeless, we feed the hungry, but we do it with compassion and share the same gospel of salvation that rescued us from our sin. 

It’s not up to the government, it’s up to us, His church. 

It’s up to us to pray for the world. To have compassion. 

Let us look to Christ, our daily bread, as we go out into the world this week and every day, and see what He saw, a lost generation needing a Savior. 

VIDEO 

Until all have heard! This video breaks my heart, and I pray for the Lord to make a way. I feel His compassion. They have been taught not by Pharisees and Sadducees but by a cold, liberal, and flesh-filled world—a world of self-love and promiscuity. Different teachers, same sin problems. 

So how do I get my daily bread? 

We can pray, and I am not talking about a 15-second prayer, but taking some time to seek him diligently. That means not just praying to him but giving him time to respond.  

Often, I just say, “Lord, what will you have me do?” and wait. We can listen to praise music and worship Him. We are so blessed that we can carry it wherever we go. I don’t need it, though. I have been known to be singing in front of people I don’t even know. And I am not embarrassed by it. 

His Word. I cannot stress this enough: we all need to know Jesus, and the best way to do that is through His Word. In His Word, He reveals His identity, His character, His love, and His compassion. 

And one of the best ways is in His service, serving with compassion. There is plenty that Jesus wants His people to do – just ask Him. 

He is our daily bread. 

The altar is open