Welcome to the River City Church podcast and a message by our
lead pastor, Jason Powers. Our prayer is that this message
would inspire and encourage you, build your faith and point you
to the life changing love of Jesus.
May you enjoy the goodness of God as you follow him today.
Good morning River City, how are you all?
Oh, that was awesome. That's the best reaction I've
ever gotten. Calling out so fantastic jobs.
For those of you that don't know me, my name is Sean Bowers and
I'm an elder here with the church.
And every once while they ask me to teach.
They just feel. Crazy.
And they're like. We'll give this guy's shot and
today's the day. So I I'm.
Deeply honored when I get a. Chance to do this I look forward
to sharing a message with you all that's that's a very.
Close to my heart, and I think it's really important to kind of
the heart of Christianity. And just to tell you a little
bit more about myself, I've been attending this.
Church for I don't know. 15 ish years time's not a real thing in
my brain all the time, but it's been a long time.
Long enough to be old enough to be an elder.
I know that because I think that was the only requirement when
Jason. Appointed me an elder who was
just you're old let's go. My wife also attends church here
with me her. Name is.
Shaney. And she is.
Amazing Shaney keeps me on track all of the time, which I promise
you. Is a full time.
Ministry in and of itself, if you know anything about me.
And then I have. Two kiddos who were.
Raised in this church. Baptized in this church and are
now college students which is beyond my like I can't even
understand that that my kids are off in college and old wow so
but this church has been very important to us.
It's a very important place, deeply matters to me, this.
Church community and I've always wanted to to.
Contribute in a positive way and help us.
Grow towards. God all of the time and I hope
that today's message. Helps with that as I'll be
preaching about. Christian empathy, Christian
compassion, those two concepts which I think it twisted a lot
of times. And I'll give you a chance.
Right away to put this into practice, this empathy and
compassion thing, I am 72 hours out almost exactly from sitting
in Miami at the Orange Bowl watching the Texas Tech Red
Raiders, my beloved. Texas Tech Red Raiders get
dismantled by the Oregon Ducks. So if you could just feel.
Some of my pain empathetically and extend compassion to me in
my suffering. Today I would.
Be deeply grateful. Because I'm powering through
through that. To be able to preach today, but
what? What I want to talk about is
this idea of compassion and empathy in the church I.
Fear that? What?
I see happening in the church, and I'm not just talking about
our church community, I'm talking about kind.
Of the church community kind of throughout.
The world, throughout the nation, I see kind of two camps
forming with relation to empathy and compassion.
And I think that one of those camps that's beginning to form
is this is to me, this is a camp I've fallen a lot.
Is the world is. Just kind of overwhelming.
There's a lot going on in the world.
There's a lot of suffering. There's a.
Lot of difficulty. There's a lot of pain in our own
lives and our communities and our families globally.
When we look around, we can just become overwhelmed by the things
that we see and that we come in contact with, and it's kind of
human nature on some levels to begin to shut down.
Because we just. Can't carry all that weight.
We weren't designed to carry all that weight.
It's too much for us. So when we get there, it's not
that we stop loving people or that we stop.
Showing up for people, we just kind of run out of margin.
We don't have any more room. To be able to extend the.
Compassion and grace to people sometimes, and that can be
dangerous. To our.
Christianity and to our
Christian lives. And then on the other side, I
see in this, this kind of the schism that's developing in the
church, I see. Folks who have decided.
That empathy and compassion are kind of like signs of weakness,
almost. They've they've learned to.
Protect themselves by shutting down and not engaging with these
things. Not because they're overwhelmed,
but because it's just something that they fear that if they
engage. With folks who are.
Maybe broken or different or somehow they just don't agree
with that they'll be condoning the way.
Those people are. Living that they're just not
going to engage with them. And then what happens with that
is distance from people who need help becomes considered
discernment and hardness of heart.
Gets. Baptized is kind of a wisdom and
withdrawal from people starts to sound like spiritual maturity.
And both of these groups are really.
Responding to the same pressure, they're responding to the weight
of a broken world. The question is not whether
compassion is costly, because it is the real question.
We have to. Face is is.
Withdrawing from compassion. Ever Christ like is it OK to?
Withdraw from compassion and the way we're going to look at that
is we're. Going to explore.
God's nature in situations where He ran into us and to others.
And how did he respond? What was his response to these
moments even when he was at the end and spent and worn out?
And I want to start as we talk about compassion with our
confession. Each week.
Here at the church, if you're new or you're visiting, we do a
confession and it's a simple coral response.
I'm simply going to say we are badly broken and you will.
Reply We are deeply loved. And this is a fundamental part
of kind of. What we do here each week?
That gives us a chance to come before God and.
Admit that we are. In fact, broken and.
Receive the grace that is so freely.
Given through us through. Through Jesus Christ.
So let's do our confession. We are badly broken.
Yeah, for me, I know this has become a fundamental.
Part of my faith. When when Jason started doing
this as a church. Body it was so powerful because.
You know, we all know that in our own lives, we, we have
things, we have stuff. We're all.
Broken. We all have.
Difficulties we all carry. Pressures we all make bad.
Choices and each. Week we get a chance to come in
and just in a simple. Phrase say that we are badly.
Broken and receive the. Grace.
Of God and it. Feels good.
It feels good. To know that and that that
confession is intentionally held an attention.
Because badly. Broken without the deeply.
Loved just produces shame. And if we have the the.
Just the deeply loved. Without the badly broken, that's
not effective. It won't work.
And if we just say? That we're deeply loved.
Then we're and not acknowledge our brokenness.
Then we're we're kind of being dishonest with God.
We're just taking the grace without admitting that there are
things about us that are in fact broken.
But when we put them together, it tells us a lot about who we
are and a lot about who God is. And here's why that matters when
we're talking about compassion and empathy, This confession
resonates with us not just because we want compassion.
For ourselves, but because we. Should also want that same
compassion for others. Right, that feel.
Good that we feel when we do that confession.
We should want that for everyone, not just for
ourselves. But if we just begin to
complain, cling to that compassion just for ourselves,
we haven't become holy, but we become inconsistent, only
wanting that. For us.
And grace was never meant to be. Hoarded.
And I get it. The world is heavy.
Like pain is real. Many of us are tired.
Not because we didn't care, but because.
We do care. We.
Listen, we show up, we absorb pain that isn't even ours, and
that exhaustion isn't a. Spiritual failure.
It's what? Happens when finite people
encounter infinite need. We aren't designed to fix
everything. We are not the Savior, and in
Matthew 11, Jesus encounters people just like us, broken and
overwhelmed. The pressures of their lives,
the. Pressures of their families
finances. Food, jobs, shelter.
What are we going to? Do what's next, All those
pressures on them, and when Jesus meets them, hear his
words, listen to what he says to them.
He says Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and
I will. Give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and
humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my
yoke is easy and my burden is light.
See, if we're going to understand Christian compassion,
we have to understand the character and nature.
Of God and hear when. Jesus meets people.
Just like us. Broken and overwhelmed and maybe
even having difficulty listening or concentrating to what he's
saying. He doesn't meet them with
judgement. He meets them with comfort, he
says. I can carry this for you, right?
We're just finite. We need to be putting some of
these things on Jesus when we encounter difficult situations
in different people. We've got to bring.
Jesus into the equation. He doesn't shame that
exhaustion, He names it, and he invites it honestly into the
room, recognizing the that being limited is sometimes.
Faithful you aren't. Supposed to stop being faithful.
To Jesus, just because you're. Limited in your own capacity?
See, empathy is not the problem. The mistake comes when
exhaustion convinces us. That empathy.
Itself is dangerous that caring. Deeply is the issue.
So the solution is. We should feel less.
That protecting ourselves. Is the right thing to do the?
Danger in protecting ourselves is that requires us.
To close our hearts. See, empathy isn't what burns us
out. It's when we.
Try to be the savior. That's what burns us out.
Compassion should move us towards a person in front of us.
And empathy. Should allow us to.
See them and what they're going through.
Neither of those things requires us to carry.
The weight of the world. Christianity without these.
Things without empathy and compassion.
It may still function. It may still organize.
And it may speak. Confidently, but it stops
looking and feeling like Jesus. So before we decide empathy is
the problem, let's keep looking at what Jesus's nature shows us
and what God's nature shows us. If we take a look at Exodus 34
at the very. Beginning of our journey,
there's a moment in Exodus where Moses has gone up Mount Sinai
and he's there to convene with God and receive the covenant of
the Lord for the Israelites. And he's been up there for a
while, and the Israelites are kind of starting to freak out
down at the base of the mountain.
They are starting to feel all the things.
That we as humans. Feel they're starting.
To feel, you know, distant and scared and not sure and
questioning it is this. Is this thing even real?
And as a result of that, they they construct a golden calf.
Like a statue, a. Calf made of gold, and they
begin to. Worship that calf.
Because it's something visible and something manageable and
something controllable. And they even credit their
rescue from Egypt to the golden calf.
And Moses finally comes down from the mountain, and he sees
them worshiping this golden calf.
And he's devastated. He breaks the tablets, throws.
Them down and breaks them not in a moment of rage.
But in a moment of grief. The covenant that he had made
with the Lord was broken before it could ever even be.
Delivered to the people. The later Moses goes back up
that mountain and he intercedes on behalf.
Of. Israelites and he goes before
the Lord, and he asked this deeply human question of God.
He says who? Are you now?
Who are you when your? People fail you like.
This and in Exodus. 34 Six God. Replies to that question.
God says the Lord. The Lord is compassionate and
gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in.
Love and faithful. Love and truth.
So when asked who? He was he simply.
Responds, I am the Lord and I am compassionate.
God's first description of himself is not power, it's not
judgement, it's not distance, it's compassion.
If our faith. Makes us.
Harder instead of gentler. We have drifted away from.
God's heart. If we look.
Further, when God is here on earth and his ministry.
With Jesus, there's a. Moment where he encounters a
leper in Mark chapter 1 and to kind of set the stage, this man
has been isolated. From Society for.
Quite some time because of his condition.
He's isolated. Physically, he's isolated.
Socially, he's isolated. Religiously, he's isolated
emotionally, he has not been physically touched in years
because of his condition, and he comes to Jesus and.
You have to listen carefully to the.
Question that. He asked Jesus.
Before I read from the scripture, the man says to him,
essentially, are you willing to to heal me?
Are you willing to heal me? So let's read the scripture.
The man with leprosy came to him and on his knees begged him, If
you are willing, you can make me clean.
Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched
him. I am willing, he told him, be
made clean. The man's question was not Can
you help me? It's are you willing to heal me?
The man's question was about. Worth.
It's about value. When people are broken and
separated and left out of community and told they don't
belong in a space, they begin to lose their own value and their
own worth and even to step into a space like.
This with loving people becomes difficult because they.
Question their own value and their own worth.
Jesus's response was to move towards the man.
To say that. He was willing because
compassion doesn't stay distant, right?
That miracle began with a man's question and ended with Jesus
healing him and touching him, the first human touch he had.
Felt. In so long.
People who walk in these. Doors, they come here seeking
that same thing. It may not be.
The physical touch. It may just be.
Feel. Just to feel.
Part of something, again, just to feel a community, just to
know that people care about them and our place is to meet them
the same way. That Jesus did with.
Compassion and a willingness to heal them, not with judgement or
scorn. We are not the Savior.
It is our place. To meet them with the compassion
that Jesus shows. Because compassion restores
belonging and it restores. Health.
It restores spiritual. Health and physical health.
Jesus. Is really great at seeing a
human being rather than the person's problems.
If we continue looking at his ministry, there's a moment where
he's invited. To a dinner.
In a a Pharisee's home, it's the Pharisee's name is Simon.
The Pharisees were religious. Leaders of the time.
Very, very important people. They knew.
They knew the. Word of God better than anyone
and he was invited into this dinner and you kind of have to
picture the scene. There are these people.
In this room, lounging kind of on like low couches and a.
Doorways open and. Other very important men, you
know, talking and listening and I'm sure discussing religious
philosophy and the most important things of the time and
the politics of the day. And Jesus has been invited into
the space. And as he's there, a woman comes
into that room. That woman is known as the Town
Center. I mean, everyone knows who she
is and everyone knows why she doesn't belong in that room.
She stands behind Jesus, and she.
Weeps her tears. Fall on his feet and she begins
to use her hair to clean his feet.
And the room goes completely silent.
No one speaks, but everyone is thinking and Simon kind of
silently judges. Jesus.
I mean, he's thinking, I'm sure. Just like I would if if he's
truly God. I mean, what is he doing near
her? Shouldn't he pull away from the
sinful person? And as he's thinking these
thoughts, Jesus answers that question, that unspoken
question, out loud in Luke 7. Jesus says.
Turning to the woman, he said Simon.
Do you see this? Woman, therefore I tell you her
many sins have been forgiven. That's why she loved much.
But the one who is forgiven little loves little.
See, in that moment, Simon could only see her sin.
Jesus saw her humanity. Compassion.
And empathy allow us to have restored sight.
We're able to see people. The same way that.
Jesus sees people as the beautiful.
Creation that he made them to be.
As a. Fully restored human already on
the other side of salvation. When we look at people through
those. Eyes rather than the.
Eyes of judgement, it creates a place.
Where they can find that full restoration?
Through Jesus. Our hearts don't close
overnight. They.
Close due to fatigue, due to fear through disappointment.
We've all had people. In our lives that we've tried to
bring in to meet. Jesus, that it just.
Hasn't happened for whatever reason.
Then we become discouraged by that.
We become disappointed by that the scripture.
Points to the same remedy again. And again and again, when we
feel discouraged, it encourages us to turn back to compassion.
In Psalm One O 313 it says. As a.
Father has compassion on his children.
So the Lord. Has compassion on those who fear
him and Colossians 312. We have an.
Exhortation to us, therefore, is God's chosen ones, wholly and
dearly. Loved.
Put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and
patience. Compassion is not just.
Manufactured by us it. Exists already within us God has
made it a. Part of our spirit, a part of
the good fruits for us if we are truly spiritually saved.
When we seek compassion, we don't have to invent it.
It's just restored. Already from within US.
If we allow God. To do that within us when we
seek compassion, we're better able to model what Jesus models
while he was here in his ministry and I can remember back
in the day I'm this old some of you may remember this we used to
wear around these what would. Jesus do bracelets.
Do you all remember those? Yeah, WWJD and you're.
Supposed to be like, I'm going to go to a party and do bad
things. What would Jesus do?
I'm not going to that. Party right that's that was the
effective. Message I was taught as a child.
But I do wonder sometimes if we shouldn't.
Kind of. Revisit that concept of What
would Jesus do? Because when we look at the
model of compassion and empathy, we've already seen some of the
things that he's done. And I know that we get tired,
but. Jesus never seemed to to really
run out. I mean the story in the book of
Mark where he encounters a woman.
And he's just kind of moving his way through a town.
And this woman is, has been bleeding.
I, I can't remember the term. I'd have to look at the
scripture again. I think like 12 years.
She's just been bleeding and suffering and she's spent her
entire fortune trying to get doctors to help her.
With. That problem, and as Jesus makes
his. Way through that crowd.
It's one of my favorite stories because this woman just wants to
be close to God, just wants to feel something, wants to be.
Healed and she simply. Reaches out and touches his.
Cloak as he goes by. And it's it.
Says in scripture that Jesus could feel the power like leave
his body. And he turns and stops and ask,
You know who who touched my clothes?
And his disciples were like, well.
Everybody's here. They're.
All pressing up against you. I mean, everyone's touching you
but the woman. Stepped forward with fear.
And trembling, it says in Scripture, fear and trembling.
And she said I'm I'm the one who touched you.
And Jesus's response was not. How dare you?
I was. Going somewhere else?
I was already busy. Working on some other piece of
ministry I had things to get done.
I have A to do list. I'm supposed to be finishing he
simply. Said to her daughter, Your faith
has saved you. Go in peace and be free from
your. Affliction.
Jesus does not dismiss her as an interruption.
Empathy makes him stop. Compassion makes him turn, and
he restores her fully. She reaches out physically.
In that moment, for what? So many.
People are reaching out for spiritually.
To be seen and to be made whole. This is this is the place where
that. Happens.
If we look at what Jesus would do, I mean all the way to the.
End. He had empathy and compassion
for us as humans. We had taken him.
The humans. We had taken him, arrested him,
beaten him, humiliated. Him.
Scourged him, whipped him, made him.
Carry the instrument of his death.
The top of a mountain and nailed him.
To that to die. At some point in there, I think
it would have been perfectly human to say I've done enough
for these people. This is what?
They've done for me. Their answer to my salvation is
my death. I'm done.
I'm about to leave this place and I'll do no more.
But instead what we saw. Him do was turn to one of the
two men being crucified with him that man one of the men mocks
Jesus and the other man says you do not know what you're doing
and ask Jesus simply to remember him that day and again instead
of Jesus saying. Nope, y'all are.
Killing me, he said. Truly, I tell you today, you
will be. With me in paradise, I mean,
Jesus is suffering and exposed and dying and.
For the people that he loves. And he still responds with
compassion. His compassion.
Refuses to cap. Out even at the end.
So if Jesus doesn't ration his empathy and compassion, how do
we as Christians justify saying that we will?
Friends, I know, I know, many of you are tired.
And this sermon is not asking you to carry more weight.
I'm asking you not to lose what matters most.
Empathy is the root. Of the Christian heart and
compassion is the. Flower.
Once we are in full bloom with that compassion, it provides new
life. If we allow that root to dry up.
Then nothing blooms. When the heart hardens, churches
harden. It is important that we not lose
heart. My encouragement to you is as
you go into the week, remember you're not the Savior.
It's your job to point people to the Savior.
It's your job to reflect. His love and his caring.
When you feel that you've reached that.
Reached that maxed out point dealing with someone or some
situation in your life? Admit that you were there.
It's just like we. Do with our confession.
I am badly broken, but I am deeply.
Loved and asked that that. Same brokenness that you have
and that same. Grace, that's extended to you.
Be given to that person. That Jesus do.
Work on their hearts. If you doubt that, Jesus.
Can do work on people? 'S hearts without you then, I'm
afraid. You've got this equation all
wrong. It's important that we.
Steer people to Jesus and that we reflect his love, but we.
Are not the savior. Like, free yourself from that
burden. Allow Jesus to do the.
Saving for you. Let me pray for us, Heavenly
Father, as we go into. This week may our.
Hearts stay open, even when openness feels costly.
May we offer the compassion we have so badly needed and the
compassion that we have. Received May we trust that God
is already. Holding everything that we
cannot, we are not asked to be the.
Savior. But only to reflect Him with
honesty, humility and love. May the love of the Father, the
compassion of the Son, and the comfort of the Holy.
Spirit go with you. Sustain you and surround you,
now and always. Amen.
Thank you for joining us today. River City Church is all about
experiencing and expressing God's love in our lives and
community, and we hope that you've been able to experience
that today. As grateful as I am that you've
spent this time listening in this morning, this podcast is no
substitute for full participation in a local church.
I love it when River City people listen to other pastors, but it
is those who show up week after week, faithfully giving their
support and time and resources that make all of this possible.
If we can help you get connected to a local church, pray for you,
or support you in any way, click the link in the description and
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Thanks so much for listening. May the Lord bless and keep you
in all grace and peace.