Don't Lose Your Compassion, Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. It's an amazing thing how fast this works in the context of our media. You might see a, you know, on the national news you'll see a beheading and then a funny cat video right after it. How do you get your thoughts around something like that?

You see things like an epidemic and then a guacamole recipe. You know, it's like things are happening so fast and they come to us and it desensitizes us. And what ends up becoming with each and every one of us is we find ourselves sort of losing our compassion.

So it can be that the whole world we live in has a tendency to make us more narcissistic or it can be that we're just simply overstimulated. One way or the other, we're changing and we're losing our compassion. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. How many of you remember Kony 2012? By the way, it had over 100 million hits on the Internet. It was a campaign to raise awareness of the rebel conflict in Central Africa and the incredible stories behind all of the refugees.

But it's gone. How many of you remember the 276 Nigerian schoolgirls who were abducted? Up until this month, 195 were still missing. And this month, 82 more have been found. How many of you remember the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge?

Right? In just a matter of a few months or even weeks, they raised millions of dollars for ALS research and they're gone. There is no question that social media offers all kinds of benefits when it comes to helping people. But what we're finding out now is it has a downside as well. And that is, is that the material is coming so fast to us at such warp speed, we're so oversaturated with it that it's changing us. There is now research that has indicated that there is a correlation between social media and the decline of compassion. We as Americans have as a culture.

Think about that. We are losing our compassion for others. It seems that what happens is that there is about 15 minutes of fame and then we ease into something very quickly and it becomes discarded and something new replaces it almost immediately.

And one expert calls this whole phenomena a social epidemic. The University of Michigan has done a pervasive research on the study of college graduates over a period of 40 years. And what they found is astounding in this way. After 40 years, America's college graduates are 40 percent less compassionate than they were 40 years ago. That's amazing. But what they find that really surprised them was the standard stayed together for the first 25 to 30 years.

It looked like it was about the same. But then when the advent of social media came, it began to drop exponentially. And the question comes down to is that, you know, what's going on here?

What's happening to us? One of their conclusions was that the whole social media thing has a tendency to make us more and more narcissistic. In other words, it becomes more and more about me.

And I only want things to have a great effect on me. One of the illustrations that they used was the advent of the selfie, which some of you may have taken already this morning. Here's me in church. They even listed them. I didn't even know there were multiple selfies. The driving my car selfie, that level of difficulty is low to medium, depending how fast you're going, I guess.

I don't know what the duck face selfie is, but the level is extremely high. I would imagine there is the me and my BFF selfie, which girls take more than guys from what I read. The kissing somewhere cool selfie. I like that.

I might want to try that myself. The me and my pet selfie. The we've got great seats at the big game while you're home alone selfie. The me and my food selfie. So, if you find yourself at a really nice restaurant, you want to send that. In fact, some people respond to that selfie.

I didn't even know what this was. It said hating you RN. I thought RN was a nurse. It means right now. The me and my rocking outfit selfie.

Again, girls do this more than guys do it. The just woke up selfie. The new do selfie.

You have selfies for almost anything. And so their thought is we're becoming narcissistic and that's why we're losing our compassion. There are many other theories. The one that makes the most sense to me is the reason that we are becoming less compassionate as a nation, as individuals, is we are becoming less compassionate because we have been overexposed in a way that no other generation has ever been overexposed.

The law of diminishing returns. You know what that law is like if you're something you've experienced nationally. I mean, emotionally. And as you experienced it emotionally, it was so great the first time. I mean, you go to an amusement park and you ride the roller coaster. First trip's amazing.

Stay on a five or six. By the fifth and sixth trip, it's nowhere near as amazing as it was. You begin to lose things. You remember this.

Like, how about when you purchase things? The first time you ever bought a new car. The first time. Remember the euphoria you felt compared to the last time. The law of diminishing returns.

I can illustrate that in my own life. I can remember way back, perhaps in the 1970s. I'm not sure if it was the 70s or 80s, but I was channel surfing and I stopped and it was showing me the plight of these poorest children in Africa. First time I'd ever really seen that on television.

It was an infomercial and it showed malnutrition among the children, large pot bellies. Then it showed all the diseases and then flies all over their faces and around their eyes. And I can remember the first time I saw that it was gut wrenching to see it.

I can remember feeling an incredible empathy for them and then almost shame of not ever done anything about this. But, you know, as the years have gone by, I'm nowhere near as moved by things like that as I once was. I've become more and more desensitized because we see everything and we see it all the time. It's an amazing thing how fast this works in the context of our media. You might see a, you know, on the national news, you'll see a beheading.

And then a funny cat video right after it. You see, how do you how do you get your thoughts around something like that? You see things like an epidemic and then a guacamole recipe. You know, it's like things are happening so fast and they come to us and it desensitizes us. And what ends up becoming with each and every one of us is we find ourselves sort of losing our compassion. So it can be that the whole world we live in has a tendency to make us more narcissistic or it can be that we're just simply overstimulated. One way or the other, we're changing and we're losing our compassion. I can remember from the University of Michigan study two quotes, both of them apparently by Christians, that sort of reflect the way I think some of us are.

Rob V. wrote this. I get so sick of everyone posting about the latest big thing. Just last week, a guy from work was raising money for his neighbor's daughter who has leukemia. Another person said they needed money for a mission trip to Honduras. And this one lady from our small group posts stories every week about human trafficking. Now, I know these things are all supposed to be important, but they're not my things. I feel bad sometimes, but I really wish people wouldn't talk about this kind of stuff.

Where's the compassion? Marla Kay on a personal level. We've been friends since high school, so I thought we'd be friends forever. I can't believe she doesn't want to talk to me anymore. I knew it was a big deal to her when she posted that her mom had lung cancer.

It wasn't a huge surprise to me because I remember her mom smoking like two packs a day whenever I stayed over there. Knowing it was a big deal to her, though, I commented on her Facebook post and told her I was praying. And then I even sent her a text later in the day to tell her how sorry I felt. But now she's furious because that's all I did. Evidently, she expected me to call or actually visit her. I would have done more, but I just am so busy. She thinks I don't care.

I think she's just being a bit of a baby. Where's the compassion? You see, the question I have for you is this. Are you a compassionate person?

Now, I think what you say now might not be what you say when I finish. Because I'm not talking about what you think compassion is. I'm going to talk to you about what the Bible says compassion is.

And it's a very different kind of thing. Okay, let's begin by opening our Bibles to Mark chapter one. Mark chapter one. And verse 40. I want to use Jesus as a model here and I'm going to go through several texts of just showing him so you can come to your own conclusion.

But to see how this works for Jesus. Mark chapter one and verse 40. And it says in a leper came to Jesus. I've spoken on this before, for those of you who know, but leprosy in their world is the worst of all curses. You're ostracized in their society completely, isolated, much like today. But in their world, a person was considered unclean. And depending on which rabbi was teaching it, there was a distance that you had to be from a leper. That even if you got even close to a leper, you could become unclean.

That was the culture. But notice that this leper approaches Jesus. And the leper came to Jesus, besieging him and falling on his knees before him and saying, If you are willing, you can make me clean.

And then don't miss this. Moved with what? Compassion. Jesus is moved with compassion.

He sees the leper. Splagnizomai is the word. It is an incredible word. Our English word compassion may be not enough.

Splagnizomai. Jesus looks in him with this type of what we call compassion. Literally that word means to be moved down in your bowels. That's what it means. But you got to understand, the ancient believed that all the great feelings come from inside you. We use heart that way. You see, we say, Oh boy, you know, you're so special in my heart.

My heart's telling me this. But that's where we talk about that emotional idea. In their day, your bowels is where your deepest emotions were. So you're moved as to your bowels. It means something really deep that grabs a hold of you.

But splagnizomai means something else. And what it means is something very important for us to understand. It always, and I mean this always, means that you're moved to action.

You're always moved to an action. If you don't have an action, you don't have biblical compassion. So it really doesn't matter how you feel. It doesn't matter if you have alligator tears.

It really doesn't matter. That's not biblical compassion. That could be empathy and that could be sympathy. But that's not biblical compassion.

Biblical compassion means I'm moved to do something about this. Notice with Jesus, moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and he touched him and he said, I am willing, be cleansed. And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. Jesus felt it deep in his bowels.

He was moved by it and he was moved to action. And in this case, he cleansed the leper. Go with me to Matthew chapter 20. Matthew chapter 20 and verse 29. And in verse 29 it says, And as they were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed them, and two blind men were sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by. And they cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, the son of David.

And the crowd sternly told them to be quiet. But they cried out all the more, Lord, son of David, have mercy on us. Now you remember this from an earlier account with Jesus, but what was the crowd's view of those who were blind? The crowd's view was either they sinned or their parents sinned. Somebody did some terrible sin and that's why they're blind. You see, so the crowd said, you guys shut up. We don't want to hear from you. But they cry out.

Now watch how this story unfolds then. And Jesus stopped and he called them and he said, what do you want me to do for you? And they said, Lord, we want our eyes to be opened and moved with compassion.

He's moved with compassion. Jesus touched their eyes and immediately they regained their sight and they followed him. Notice this is the pattern of Jesus Christ and we're going to see this on and on. Go with me now to Matthew chapter 9.

Just a few pages to your left. And I want to show you several accounts because I want you to see this as the pattern of Christ. Starting in verse 18.

In verse 18, Matthew writes, and while he was saying these things to them, the synagogue official, he came and he bowed down before him and he said, my daughters just died. That's about as bad as it gets. I mean, there's a lot of pain in this world.

We all know that. I don't know if anything equals anything, the loss of a child. I just don't know if there's any pain deeper than that particular pain. My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live. Wow. This comes under desperate people doing desperate things. And Jesus got up and began to follow him and so did his disciples. Now on the way there, a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for 12 years.

I couldn't imagine what that would have been like. Came up behind him, touched the fringe of his cloak. For she was saying to herself, if I can only touch his garment, I will get well. And Jesus turning and seeing her said, daughter, take courage. Your faith has made you well. At once the woman was made well. And when Jesus came into the official's house, he saw the flute players in the crowd in noisy disorder. Now don't go right by that. Wait, wait, flute players? Yes.

Under Hebrew law, one of the things that's been written about the time of Christ is this statement. Even the poorest in Israel should have not less than two flutes and one wailing woman at every funeral. These were professionals. The more money you have, the more flute players and professional whalers you get. This is a synagogue official, so I'm gonna guess there were many, many flute players and many, many professional women who do nothing but wail.

That would be an interesting profession, wouldn't it? You get a call, you make an appointment, you go to the house and then you just wail. The idea was that this is cultural to them. And it says it was in disarray, a noisy disorder.

And Jesus said, leave, for the girl has not died but is asleep, now watch. And they began laughing at him. Why would they laugh at him? Because they're experts. That's all they do. That's their profession.

Anybody knows death, the flute players and the professional whalers know death. And so they laugh at him and think this is funny. It says, but when the crowd had been sent out, he entered and he took her by the hand and the girl got up.

That's all it says, no conversation, nothing. This news spread throughout all the land, I'll bet it did. It says that when Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, crying out, have mercy on us, son of David. And when he entered the house, the blind man came up to him and he said, and Jesus said to them, do you believe that I'm able to do this? And they said, yes, Lord. And he touched their eyes and it shall be done for you according to your faith. So now again, watch.

It says and their eyes were opened and Jesus sternly warned them, see that no one knows about this. Now, I want you to think about that for a moment though. I don't know, say you've been blind for your whole life. The guy touches you and now you see.

I'm just gonna guess. How many of you would tell someone? Really? Because notice, Jesus said don't tell anyone. It says, but they went out and they spread the news about them throughout all the land. They told everyone they ever met.

Then it says this, and they were going out. A mute, demon possessed man was brought to them. After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed and they were saying nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel. But the Pharisees were saying he cast out demons by the ruler of demons. And Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

And then this verse. Seeing the people, he felt compassion. Why did the blind see and the dead walk? Compassion.

He's the son of God, he can do this. He felt compassion. He says because they were distressed and dispirited. Notice, in this case, like sheep without a shepherd. And he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest. Why does Jesus want people to go out and share the good news of his kingdom?

Because he has compassion. These are like sheep without a shepherd. These are like people that have life without meaning.

Boy, there are so many people in our world like that. They have life but no meaning, no purpose. Jesus said, I feel compassion for that. He said, look, the harvest, it's there. All we need are laborers to go out. He's telling his own disciples that when you start thinking about Jesus, it affects every part of his life.

B.B. Warfield and his wonderful work on the life of Christ said that his whole life was a mission of compassion. Think about it. Everything Jesus taught out of compassion, he preached out of compassion, he healed out of compassion, he died out of compassion. Everything that Jesus did was out of this idea of compassion.

That's who he is. Look at chapter 15, just one more verse for Jesus. Chapter 15 of Matthew and verse 32. It's everything, he's got compassion about everything.

Big things, little things. He has compassion. Verse 32, Jesus called his disciples and said to him, I feel compassion for the people because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat and I do not want to send them away hungry for they might faint on the way. Wow, you mean he has compassion because people are hungry?

Yes, not just because they're lepers or not just because they're blind or not just because they're dead. He has compassion because they have a need and it always sparks them to action. Question again, do you have compassion? Do you have biblical compassion?

You see, that's the question and the most important one without a doubt. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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That's fbcnola.org. At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for you can listen online or if you prefer you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. ... ...