Sermon Central
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Compassion - Part 2 Of 2 Series
Contributed by Graham Kettle on Jan 26, 2018 (message contributor)
Summary: Compassion is the fuel that enables & drives us. It is the only fuel that will enable us to fulfil God’s will and finish the task He has set us. In this passage, compassion was the four men’s motivation to get their sick friend to the feet of Jesus.
Many people are moved to action for the wrong reasons, to:
* be known
* have prominence
* like to receive a pat on the back etc.
Is that your motivation? If it is, you will never make it in serving God.
B. ANOTHER EXAMPLE
In John 4, Jesus had been talking to a Samaritan woman and while waiting for the people to come out of her village, His Disciples returned. As they were, no doubt, watching the people come towards them, Jesus grabbed their attention and said to them:
John 4:35 "Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”
What Jesus was saying was, “I want you to see something.” Because, unless we ‘see’ the need, the pain of what people are going through and unless we have a full understanding of what people are going through and what’s required to deliver them, then we’ll never be moved to action to bring people to the feet of Jesus.
4. NOW IT GETS PERSONAL
John 4:35 “Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”
Mat 9:36-37 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the labourers are few.
Let us consider the truth that is shown in two of the previous passages. In John 4:35, Jesus says, “Lift up your eyes and look ... they’re already white for harvest.” In Matthew 9:36-37, His point is, “The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few.”
There is a tremendous harvest all around us in Europe, awaiting a great reaping. However, Western Christianity has bred many Christians who are more concerned with:
* Position
* Prestige
* Finances etc.
These real labourers are the ones who are moved with compassion to do what God has called us to do. All of us, here today, need to be counted among these people.
A. HOW DO WE DO THIS?
The spirit of the worker must be released in each church. Leaders need to let go and the church needs to take up what their leaders have purposely laid down. You know, we are so familiar with the need for the five-fold ministries, but we nearly universally miss or ignore the next verse. Ephesians 4:12 shows us the very purpose of leadership. It has not to do the work; it’s, “For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”
Now, ‘equipping’ in Greek is ‘kartatismos’. This word is used of ‘setting broken bones in place’; ‘mending fisherman’s nets’; ‘putting things back in place’.
Tradition and church history have put the people of God out of their right place; they have become ‘pew warmers’. We have to be willing to put this right and leaders are ordered - through the five-fold ministries - to put the people of God back into their right position, to mend the brokenness caused by gifted Christians lying impotent and to get them out to go and catch the unsaved & the lost. Yet, are we all willing to be trained to take up our ‘work of ministry’?
