Compassion In Outreach: The Heart Of Jesus

Early in the ministry of Jesus, he became known as a healer.

Large crowds followed him wherever he went, hoping to be cured of their many ailments. His heart was moved as he saw them as sheep without a shepherd, harassed and helpless. How do we as believers view the great needs around us? Do we share the heart of our Savior? Today we look into the motivation of Jesus when he saw human need and examine our own hearts in the process.

Stay tuned. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching with Pastor Erwin Lutzer. On this program, we begin a brief series on the compassion of Jesus.

Later in our service, we'll learn about having compassion in outreach, the heart of Jesus. The Moody Choir comes now to open our service. Alleluia! Alleluia!

Come, all ye people, come, all ye people, come, all ye people, come, all ye people, Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Oh, praise Him, Alleluia!

How the sheep with them are so strong, because they're seven and above. Alleluia! Alleluia!

How the sheep with them are so strong, because they're seven and above. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Oh, praise Him, Alleluia!

How the sheep with them are so strong, because they're seven and above. Alleluia! Alleluia!

How far so merciful and bright is that, gives to them the warmth and light. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Oh, praise Him, Alleluia! Little kids and the age of class, Set and worship Him in the moment. Oh, praise Him, Alleluia!

Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son, And praise the Spirit, free in God. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Oh, praise Him, Alleluia! Alleluia!

Alleluia! Well, how's the body of Jesus Christ doing this morning? I think I know something about you. You probably didn't have a perfect week.

If you did, that's fine. You can come up and tell us about it later. But most of us have imperfect weeks. Sometimes we don't do it, we know we should.

Sometimes we do things we know we shouldn't. And our week doesn't go the way in which we wanted it to go. But just to remember, that no matter what kind of a week you had, it is always right to give praise to God. And the more praise we give to God, the better our week goes. So the choir has already introduced us to the great desire we have today to give praise to God. And in a moment we're going to be singing praise to the Lord the Almighty. Now if your heart is not yet tuned to sing those praises, would you join with me in prayer? Or if your heart is tuned, let's give ourselves to the Lord and invite his presence in a very special way as we give him honor in song and word.

Join me please as we pray. And our Father, we want to thank you today that we can praise you with all that we have and all that we are. Open our lips, open our hearts today, we pray, that we might be able to give you praise. Lift us, oh Father God, we pray, through your blessed Holy Spirit, through your Word, and through the praise we sing in Jesus' name.

Amen. Oh, my soul praise in your years of health and salvation. All year you've been, now to place your blood on me, for me and God at your hands, Lord. Praise to God, oh Lord, for all things so wondrously made. Shout with me our praise, we drink so gently, so safely, as thou mightst see, thou mightest watch over me, and hear it from me all day.

Praise to God, oh Lord, for God's good will and equality. Shout with me his goodness, and receive him without envy. Father of good, God the Almighty, brand new, with goodness the making brand new. Praise to the Lord, for when the land is deep in authority, all that have died in death have gathered to accept me for a living.

Let me obey you, so promise me, oh my friend, one thing for ever, our Lord. Jesus, when the key is exalted on high, I will praise him, he is our forever Son, and I will praise his name. He is the Lord, for heaven and earth shall reign, heaven and earth, his holy name. He is exalted, he is exalted on high. He is exalted, he is exalted on high. Praise him, he is exalted, he is exalted on high. He will praise his name.

He is the Lord, for heaven and earth shall reign, heaven and earth, his holy name. He is exalted, he is exalted on high. He is exalted, he is exalted on high. He is exalted, he is exalted on high. Wonderful, merciful, Savior, precious, free, demon, and friend, who would have thought that our land would rescue the soul from death.

Oh, would rescue the soul from death. You are the one that we praise. You are the one we adore. You give our healing and praise to us, for our love is wonderful. Oh, our love is wonderful.

Master, comfort, keeper, Spirit, love, truth, and praise. You are the one with our hearts. You are the one that we praise. You are the one we adore. You give our healing and praise to us, for our love is wonderful. Oh, our love is wonderful.

All might be in heaven and earth, if only loving your own. Give in our weakness to find us, falling before your throne. Oh, we're falling before your throne. You are the one that we praise. You are the one we adore. You give our healing and praise to us, for our love is wonderful. Oh, our love is wonderful. You are the one that we praise. You are the one we adore. You give our healing and praise to us, for our love is wonderful.

Oh, our love is wonderful. I invite you to follow along with me in your bulletin as we read together from John chapter three. Please read aloud with me on the bold print. This is God's holy word. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do this signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel?

And yet you do not understand these things. Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Let me begin today with a question. How big is your world? You know, there are some people whose world is only as big as they are. We call them narcissists. We're all narcissists to some degree, but the true narcissist says to himself or herself, the only thing that really matters is how I look and how I feel. Everything else revolves around them. They have very little compassion for others, and if you would be a sociopath, actually, you would only see others as an opportunity to do them harm and not to do them good. Is your world bigger than that?

I hope so. Now there are some people whose world includes their families at least, so they have a much bigger world, but they're only concerned about their own families. That's all that really matters. I've met people like that, and they never extend hospitality and care to those beyond their little group, and some of them maybe have lots of resources, but they don't see any place where there is a need that they can help. And then, of course, you have those who have a larger family, a larger world, and that is the world of their church and how we thank God for that and the hundreds and hundreds of people here at The Moody Church who are involved in various ministries. We need you and we value you, but if that's all that there is to your world, your world needs to be expanded. My world needs to be expanded. As I've been preparing this message, I need to say that it applies to me as much as it does to anyone else who's listening. My own world needs to get bigger because I work in a Christian environment. I've been here many, many years at The Moody Church, and I've not yet heard a swear word, and now maybe there have been some close calls on occasion, but many of you live with that all the time.

You live in a different world, and in a sense I admire you and envy you because you have an opportunity to expand your larger world, and we'll be explaining what that's all about as all of us expand our world. It's the ninth chapter, the ninth chapter of the book of Matthew where Jesus is doing ministry, and now we come to a very familiar passage, Matthew chapter 9, and I'm going to begin at verse 35. I'll give you enough time to find it. I think in the Bible that's in your seat it's page 814. Verse 35, and Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd, and he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest just that far for now. Could we pray together and ask the Lord to use this passage to change our lives and to enlarge our world?

Father, we come to you as basically selfish people. Today we pray that we might have the blinders taken off. Help us to see like we've never seen before. Grant us, O God, your compassion for a world that is helpless and broken down. Do that in mercy, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. What I'd like to do today is to give you four steps that are necessary for us to expand our world. Four steps that are necessary for us to expand our world, and we take all of those steps directly from the life and the ministry in the example of Jesus. Number one, what we need to do is to see with our eyes, to see with our eyes.

I read it there in verse 36, and when he saw the crowds and when he saw the multitude. You see, what we are determines what we see. For example, if you're into gardening, you will notice gardens throughout the neighborhood or wherever you go. If you travel abroad, all that you'll be looking for or one of the things is to see the gardens, because what you are in your heart determines what your eyes see. I love to tell the story, a true story, about a farmer from Iowa who came here to this lovely sanctuary here at The Moody Church, this large sanctuary. I feel sorry for those of you who are listening by radio or other means and you've never had an opportunity to see this lovely sanctuary at Moody Church, but he came in and said, quote, boy, you could put a lot of hay in here. And you could.

What we are determines what we see. You remember that little poem? You probably learned it in school, at least I did.

I hope I can quote it correctly. Pussy cat, pussy cat, where have you been? I've been to London to see the queen. Pussy cat, pussy cat, what saw you there? I saw a mouse sitting under her chair. I can imagine that when pussy cat came home and she gathered all of her human friends together to show them her slides of her trip to London. She lived during a time when there were no video cameras. She only had slides. They might have asked her, pussy cat, what was the queen wearing? I have no idea. You didn't see her crown?

I had no idea. What were the pictures on the wall? Never saw a single picture. What did you see?

I saw a mouse sitting under her chair because she had a pussy cat heart. Jesus explained this one time in that great parable of the Good Samaritan. The priest saw the man who was wounded and robbed and walked by on the other side, the Levite. What did he see? He saw the same thing and they went back to Jerusalem and they said, we saw somebody who was in great need. We saw somebody who had bad luck. We saw somebody who should have taken more precautions. Maybe they went to the Sanhedrin and said, you know what we need?

We need a social program so that we have guards all the way from Jerusalem to Jericho because it's a dangerous piece of road. But the problem is they did not see somebody whom they could help. And you and I can see poverty in this city. We can leave the beautiful sanctuary of The Moody Church and walk out onto LaSalle Street and Weld Street and all over and we do not see people to help. Jesus saw the multitude and he saw them because he was looking for human need.

What we are determines what we see. In fact, in John chapter 4, Jesus is on the well talking to a Samaritan woman. And you remember he's sitting there, the disciples have gone away to buy some meat, to buy some food, and they come back and they're troubled.

They're troubled because a Jewish man did not speak to a woman, particularly an immoral woman and a Samaritan woman at that without other people being around. And that's all that they saw. And Jesus said to them, the harvest is plentiful.

The labors are few, essentially the very same text that we read here, and the fields are white onto harvest. Jesus saw there somebody who wasn't just an immoral woman, a Samaritan woman, but he saw a woman who needed the hope of eternal life. And that's why he sat there on the well. He saw differently than everyone else. We ought to be praying that God will give us new eyes to see the way in which God sees. First step, we have to see with our eyes. Secondly, we have to feel with our hearts.

We have to feel with our hearts. You notice the text says, we're still in verse 36, he saw the multitude, it says, and he felt compassion for them. His heart was tenderized to the needs around him. He felt that compassion because he saw them as sheep without a shepherd.

The text says that they were harassed and helpless. He saw them like helpless sheep. You know that the imagery that is used here probably refers to sheep who sometimes are cast down. A cast down sheep is a sheep that's walking along and perhaps lies down for a rest and then decides to turn over onto its back and cannot on its own get up. As a matter of fact, soon the oxygen is cut off, circulation stops, and sheep can die that way.

And so what the shepherd does is he comes and he massages the sheep to get the circulation going again, and after the circulation helps the sheep stand up and then steadies the sheep so that it can begin to walk on its own. What a vivid picture of the world in which we live. Could we just for a moment look beyond ourselves to the world?

What kind of a world is it? A friend of mine has pointed out that first of all it is a crowded world, a crowded world. Seven billion people live on this planet. If I remember correctly, when I was in grade school we were told that there were two and a half billion people on the planet. Now there are nearly seven billion. You get to a country like India with its near billion and China with a billion and you begin to look at the population explosion around the world. It is a crowded planet. It is an urbanized world. The flight is to the big cities. I looked it up and discovered that Mexico City is probably the biggest city in the world.

If you consider the metropolitan area, 21 million people. It's hard to get our minds around it but it is an urbanized world. It is a suffering world and it's suffering because of natural disasters even as we suffer here in America with natural disasters with floods and tornadoes and tsunamis and what have you. And yet the world continues to suffer for other reasons because of poverty. 20,000 children die every day because of malnutrition.

I can say the words but I have to tell you I can't get my mind around it. And if you aren't there to see it somehow out of sight, out of mind, we have no idea but could we just for a moment try to enter into the pain of parents and children who are starving on this planet. It is a suffering world. And then it's a suffering world because of divorce and the breakup of the family.

You know if we could look into the high rises here even within this area, we might be surprised at the kind of abuse that is taking place in some quarters. It is indeed a suffering world. It is a persecuted world. Persecuted world especially because of the rise of militant Islam. What you have in many of the countries of the Middle East is great persecution today.

I've pointed out in the past that about 400 Christians a day die and are martyred for their faith simply because they believe in Jesus in North Korea and throughout the Middle East. Do we understand what that means? Would we be able to endure that kind of suffering? It is a suffering world. It is a persecuted world. But above all it is a lost world.

It's a lost world. People don't know that they were murdered people don't know that they were created for the glory of God. People don't know how to connect with the almighty. People don't know how to manage their own guilt and their own failure because they don't know the father and his mercy. They don't know how to get through to God.

They pray but have no assurance that they have been heard. And then think of this. This is hard for me to say but I'll say it. To think that after they die the eternity that they are going to endure is even worse than the life that they have had here on earth. It is a lost world. Can we be touched by the feelings of that pain that lostness and that alienation from God? Now of course it's fine to talk about the world that is distant but what about our world?

What about your neighbors your friends where God has planted you? Let us keep in mind that we must have compassion. We must feel with our heart. Jesus saw the crowd the Bible says and was filled with compassion. Third we must go with our feet.

We must go with our feet. Now Jesus changes the figure of speech. Your Bibles are open there to verse 37. He said to his disciples the harvest is plentiful. The laborers are few therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest field.

A couple of comments. First of all the harvest is God's. I don't think I've ever seen this as clearly as I did this week as I meditated on this passage. The Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest.

I was brought up on a farm. I know something about harvest. I know that there is only a window of time when you can really reap and if you miss that window you can never recoup it. You can't come back in a month because by then everything will have rotted. You can't come back and say well we'll do it next week or even particularly next month or next year.

When it's gone it's gone. I want you to see for a moment today the multitudes who are here today they will be gone tomorrow. The harvest is plentiful Jesus says. And then what he says is that we should pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers. It's been pointed out that that word send out laborers is actually ek balo. In Greek the word balo means to throw.

Ek means to throw out. It's the word that is used frequently in the New Testament for the casting out of demons. When Jesus spoke the word you know the Bible says that the demons ek balo.

He cast them out. Jesus is using the very same expression. And what he says is that we should pray to the Lord of the harvest. When you and I pray we can go behind enemy lines. We can go to any country of the world. We can stand with missionaries. We can go with other Christians because God is not limited by human borders and all the rest. But also please keep in mind that we should not just be praying for the world out there. We should be praying for Moody Church that among us God will ek balo send out many different laborers into his harvest fields.

Chicago needs laborers like that but so does the whole world. And we thank God for every one of our missionaries and your gifts to our missionary ministry help support that ministry. But I pray I pray that God might from this congregation raise up many people who will still go because they sense the call of God and we sense upon their lives the call of God to touch the world.

Jesus said pray pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers into his harvest field. But let us go into the neighborhoods. Let us go to the areas of Chicago that are in great need. Let us support ministries such as by the hand club for kids.

But also ministries in India such as another ministry as our own where we help support an orphanage and are trying to help build a brand new orphanage. What we need to do is to see the larger world. Jesus said pray that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers into his harvest field. He's saying that we have to go with our feet and we most assuredly do. And then we must speak with our mouths.

We must speak with our mouths. Now your bibles are open because I'm going to go to chapter 10. Because chapter 10 is now an example and an extension of what Jesus just simply said. And it says and he called to him his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every disease and affliction. What you need to understand is that these 12 were called to do the very same thing that Jesus did.

The very same. He gave them fully his authority to do these miracles. Now some authority is very weak. There's a story about a man an officer who worked for the DEA that is the Drug Enforcement Agency of the United States of America. And he went to a farmer in Kansas and said to him I'm here to inspect your fields to see whether or not you're growing marijuana. And the farmer said to him hey you can go anywhere you like on my fields. Accept that field over there.

Don't go to that field over there. The officer said wait a moment. He whipped out his badge and said do you see this? This gives me authority from the federal government of the United States of America. I have authority to go wherever I want to go.

Thank you very much. Farmer said oh okay. A few moments later the farmer hears screams, blood-curdling screams as he sees a bull come across the field toward the official. And the official is calling out and the farmer goes to him show him your badge. Show him your badge.

Show him your badge. A badge issued by the federal government does not stop a raging bull. But the authority of Jesus given to disciples will stop demons in their tracks.

Aren't you glad for that? And so these disciples went out with the authority of Jesus. I mean they went out with the authority of Jesus. Now we have to ask a question and answer it. And the question is simply this.

Do we have that kind of authority today? Jesus said to them in verse 5 go nowhere among the gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim as you go saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.

You have received without paying, give without paying or being paid. Folks what we need to understand is this was very unique. You see when Jesus came he offered the kingdom to the nation Israel. He offered himself as Israel's king and that's the gospel of the kingdom. And in order to authenticate the fact that the offer was valid Jesus did all of these miracles.

I mean you know the dead were raised, 5,000 people were fed with a few loaves and a few fish and he did all of and he did all of these miracles and he delegated all of this authority to the disciples. But notice who they were to go to. He says do not go into the towns of the gentiles. Do not go to the Samaritans. Go to the lost house of the people of Israel. Give it only to the Jews. I'm giving you this authority so that they recognize that the king is here and preach the gospel of the kingdom.

You and I live in a very different era. We don't preach the gospel of the kingdom. I don't preach the gospel of the kingdom. I preach the gospel of the grace of God. The grace of God isn't limited to the Jews or to the Samaritans or to the gentiles in any kind of definition but to the entire world because the gospel that we preach now is a gospel that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins and when he died on that cross he got what he didn't deserve, namely our sin, and we in turn get what we don't deserve, namely the gift of his righteousness. He died for sinners and there are some of you who are listening right now who need that message. It's proclaimed from this pulpit virtually every time here at The Moody Church because we know that we are speaking to people who have never experienced the reconciliation that Jesus Christ provided for all who believe and today you can receive that reconciliation and so we don't have authority to raise the dead to do the miracles that Jesus did but Jesus Christ did delegate it for a time to those disciples those apostles who would be the one who would go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim the fact that your king is here and so it was a unique period of time but there are principles of course connected with Jesus Christ's instructions that do apply to us for we also have authority. So what Jesus is saying is here that we need to speak we don't only need to do good things he said proclaim if all that you do as a Christian is good works people may admire that they may think that you are great but unless we explain to them the gospel as I've just explained it a few moments ago and let them know that there is a friend of sinners who can reconcile us to God unless people understand that they have not heard the gospel they just may know that we are they just may know that we are different but they don't understand why and so that's why I'm emphasizing here that we have to speak with our mouth we have to evangelize now what I'd like to do is to nail this down for us just a couple of comments first of all the fields are ripe onto harvest Jesus said that he said the harvest is plentiful he said here in this text what did he mean by that the Lord's harvest is plentiful I believe that one of the things that he meant is that as we go out witnessing God already is preparing hearts for our message can you imagine how ripe the harvest is can you imagine how empty life is for so many people I mean they don't know God they don't know the meaning of life they have to accept their emptiness they have to deal with their guilt on their own they have to deal with their problems all by themselves getting oftentimes unwise counsel from others do we understand what it's like to be disconnected from God groping to try to find him but not knowing how Jesus said there are plenty of people out there who are open to the message in fact in this text you'll notice that as Jesus Christ sent them out he said go into the various villages of the Jews the house of Israel and then he says if you find a house or a town that is worthy stay there and explain to them the gospel of the kingdom what is a worthy house a worthy house is a house that is open to the truth a house that God has already prepared so that they can hear the message and I believe that there are thousands of people here in the city of Chicago who in many respects already have a heart that has been prepared by God but God is saying pray to send laborers and connect them that they might know the gospel that they might believe what should give us great encouragement is that this is not our harvest this is the Lord's harvest and we get the opportunity of being co-partners with him in the great harvest fields of the world yesterday I was on WMVI from 9 to 11 for two hours answering questions that were sent by email and one of the questions was from a man who said he'd been saved for 40 years God had brought him through all kinds of trials he loved the Lord but he could not witness he was just totally paralyzed he couldn't talk about his faith and so I told him I said there's no reason in the world why you can't what you need to understand is that you have to befriend people and just ask them questions you don't have to have all the answers for example simply ask them a question where are you on your spiritual journey ask that to the person who works next to you at a bank or a hospital or wherever you might be simply let them talk and when they've answered they may say well you know I'm nowhere or I've done this or I've tried that keep asking questions to build that bridge and God will give you an opportunity to share your testimony as to what Jesus has done for you and that is the entry point into their lives it's really not that complicated the harvest is plentiful Jesus says elsewhere it is white unto harvest pray that the Lord send labors and it isn't just for those who leave our midst and go to another country it is for you who lives in the city of Chicago with all of its great need with all of its brokenness I want you to see today our city for the most part as helpless and broken down and the message of the gospel God has ordained is going to come through the lips and the lives of his children so we share the good news of the gospel so that is the first thing that we must recognize we are on a journey so is everyone else and this piece of paper was almost going to fly off of the pulpit but I would have finished the message anyway you wouldn't have gotten away without getting the last part here's another question I mentioned to the man and you can write this down it is so simple you know you want to witness to somebody that you meet on a plane or somebody even that you meet casually or someone that you've come to know simply ask them this simple question would it be okay if I shared with you something that somebody once shared with me that changed my life I've used that many times I've never yet had a person say no I don't want to hear it let me give it to you again is it okay if I share with you what somebody once shared with me that changed my life give a testimony for Jesus as an entry point because the fields are white onto harvest I remember witnessing to a man who was dying I mean he was within about two weeks of death and he had attended church for years this is a scary thing he had heard me preach many times and so I said to him he was a medical doctor I said you know you're going to be dying soon do you know Christ as your savior have you received him and I'll never forget what this man said who had the word heard the word a good part of his life he said I know I need to do that but I don't know how I mean amazing totally prepared I told him how by faith you have to receive Christ as savior that you have to believe that when he died and rose again he did all that will be necessary for you to stand in God's presence and you must embrace that for yourself and transfer your trust to him and I prayed with him that he might do that afterwards he lived maybe two weeks but all that he wanted people to do is to read the bible to him the fields are white onto harvest said Jesus finally and I think this is very important when we pray for others we are actually praying for ourselves do you have the nerve to ask God to send forth labors into his harvest field to send forth labors into his harvest field because if you do God may be sending you as an ambassador because as I've already mentioned it is so important for us to recognize that no matter where we are regardless of the neighborhood and the and the place where we work what an opportunity to represent Jesus Christ as his ambassador so we pray but we also pray for others and pray for ourselves you know Dietrich Bonhoeffer who is certainly one of my heroes and probably a hero of yours as well in Nazi Germany he asked this question you know Jesus said that when you clothe somebody you've clothed me when you've fed someone then you have fed me and as much as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren Jesus said you've done it for me Bonhoeffer challenged his congregation with this Bonhoeffer said who is Jesus Christ for you in his day it was the Jews of course who were being persecuted and put to death under the Hitler regime but who is Jesus for you could you just use your imagination for a moment who is Jesus Christ coming to you is it the mother who is single is it a child who's being brought up in a broken home that you could connect with and encourage and pray for is it someone in the neighborhood who's out of work is it someone who is addicted who is Jesus Christ for you who is Jesus Christ for me what I want you to do is to take a piece of paper this afternoon this is very critical for something that you're going to learn about in a couple of weeks I want you to take a piece of paper and write down four or five people for whom you can pray people whom you know that need the warmth of the father the comfort of our heavenly father the forgiveness of the father and the knowledge that they too are sons and daughters of the most high would you do that and what happens is as we pray for others we end up praying for ourselves that we might be the conduit that God uses to touch the lives of people this afternoon hundreds of our people are going to be doing various projects as we explained later within the neighborhood I suspect that as a result of these acts of kindness they're going to begin many conversations touch many people's lives but it's only a drop in a bucket for us to live out our faith because Jesus said that what you must do is first of all see people don't oftentimes just throw out their needs and say you know I have this need would you and I have eyes to see would we have hearts to feel would we have feet to go and words to speak so that we aren't always just in our own little clique who is Jesus Christ for us today and for those of you who don't know him as savior who is he for you today a teacher a good man or the savior of the world let us see this city with new eyes would you join me as we pray father today earlier we did sing the song break our hearts for what breaks yours would you do that lord would you break through our agendas our small circle of friends our inability to see human need lord we know we can't touch the world touch the world but we can touch our world if it is enlarged and we begin to see with your eyes we can affect a change in people's lives this afternoon and tomorrow when we leave here today we can shower compassion upon people that they might see Christ grant us oh god that because we need you for this we're too selfish break our hearts today for the city and for our world in Jesus name amen on today's Moody Church hour pastor lutzer spoke about compassion in outreach the heart of Jesus next week we'll see that compassion in action as we look into mark chapter five and see Jesus healing a woman sick for 12 years don't miss compassion in community the touch of Jesus given the condition of our culture it's no surprise that we all need help in knowing how to live pastor lutzer has written holy living in an unholy world to show us the need for discipline as temptations abound this book is our gift to you as a way of saying thanks for your gift of any amount to The Moody Church hour just call 1-800-215-5001 let us know you'd like to support Moody Church's ministry the number again is 1-800-215-5001 or write to us at Moody Church media 1635 north la salle boulevard chicago illinois 60614 online go to moodyoffer.com that's moodyoffer.com join us next week at this same time for another Moody Church hour with pastor erwin lutzer and the congregation of historic Moody Church in chicago this broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church