Let's start tonight, let's find two places, Matthew 15, Matthew 15 and 1 John chapter three. On Tuesday night, I believe it was, when I was up here, we introduced the subject of compassion. It is a compound passion, it's a mixture of love and sorrow. I need more of both. It's a strong emotion resulting from the suffering of another. It's the heart's sympathy and even pain over the distress and misfortunes of another. It is the extreme distress of an enemy that changes our enmity into at least temporary affection. You see someone suffering so greatly that as disappointed as you might be, as angry as you might be, as disgusted as you might be with what they did to get themselves in that mess, your heart goes out to them and you hate to see them reaping what they've sown. You hate to see them getting what they deserve. You might even hate to see them getting what you had hoped they would get. A church split just a week or so ago, it was in 2008. I relive it most every night, just keep it fresh in my mind. And the thing lasted for about two years and I never asked God to hurt any of those people. But I can't say I wouldn't have enjoyed it. And I didn't really want him to hurt them so that they were hurt, I just wanted them to know that he was on my side, not their side. Just let something happen so they know that what they did wasn't okay. And yet most of them have good marriages and their kids turned out all right and they're making good livings and I wasted a lot of time and energy asking God to do something outside of his will and his character. And when you think about compassion as we did Tuesday night, I'm saved because God didn't want me to continue suffering the way I deserve to suffer. And he wanted to rescue me from the consequences of my sin. He wanted to spare me from the hell fire that I surely deserve. And I'm so thankful that he had compassion upon me. The enmity that was between us, I didn't settle it, he settled it. I didn't lay it aside, he laid it aside. And thank the Lord, and now he asks me to let him work in that way in my life, and I'm not so willing to let him do it through me as I was to let him do it to me. That's a whole different matter. Father, help me tonight to tell the truth as you've written it, and help us to receive the truth as you would have us to do, in Jesus' name we pray, and amen. All right, so Matthew 15, we know the story of the Lord feeding the multitude with the five barley loaves and two small fishes, but let me show you what motivated that entire episode. Verse 29, Jesus, the father of the Gentiles, came nigh unto the Sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain, and sat down there, and great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and he healed them. In so much, the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to behold, the lame to walk, the blind to see, and they glorified the God of Israel. Then Jesus called his disciples unto him and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat, and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. So Jesus looks at that multitude and They haven't made proper provision for their trip. They haven't planned this thing out very well. They haven't provided for their families properly. They have come on this journey to hear this preacher and to watch him work miracles, and they stayed one day and didn't restock, and they stayed a second day and didn't restock, and they stayed a third day and didn't restock, and they're out of food because of choices that they made. So, well, isn't it good they were there hearing Jesus preach? Well, I guess it is, but you've come here four nights in a row to hear somebody preach, and it's not up to me to refill your refrigerator, because you didn't go to the store this week. I'm simply saying, in a good, you can say, good situation, bad situation, that's not the point tonight. The point is, these people have run out of food, and they knew they were running out of food. Their supplies dwindled away to nothing, and they knew their supplies were dwindling away to nothing, and now Jesus says, if I send them home like this, they're not gonna make it. They don't have enough strength to get home, and it's their own fault, and they don't have enough food to make it home and feed their wives and feed their children, and they should, it's their responsibility, but he had compassion on them. And he said, I don't want them to suffer the consequences of the choices they have made, and I don't want to happen to them what will surely happen to them if I don't help them. That's compassion. And if you're going to be a pastor or a leader in a church or a Sunday school teacher or a father or a mother, You are going to continually be dealing with people who have gotten themselves into messes by not planning, or not thinking, or planning badly, or thinking badly. And now you look down the road they haven't looked down, and you consider the future they haven't considered, and you say, they don't even know the mess they've gotten themselves in. They don't even know the problem they've created for themselves. They don't even know what's going to happen to their marriage if they keep doing it. They don't even know what's going to happen to those children if they keep doing it. We see that every single day. And what Jesus would have us do is look down their road for them and make their load easier and their burden lighter and their way more comfortable When, and I'm not saying this to be mean or disrespectful, when they don't have the foresight to know what they're doing to themselves by the choices they are making, we are not to sit in the position of you get what you deserve, or you brought this on yourself, or I tried to tell you and you wouldn't listen. Compassion says, okay, feed them. Well, Lord, why are they out of food? It doesn't matter, feed them. Help them get home. Well, Lord, why don't they have a way home? It doesn't matter. Help them get home. That's what Jesus did for this crowd. Now look at 1 John chapter number three. 1 John chapter three. And when I find it, we'll read it together. 1 John chapter three. Can I put in a little plug for the King James Bible here tonight? Look at verse number 16. Hereby perceive we the love Those next two words are, when I was a boy, I called them slanted words. They're called italics. And I asked my Sunday school teacher, Ms. Simpson, when I was in training union in the Southern Baptist Church, I said, why are those words slanted like that? And she said, so when you're reading the Bible, you will emphasize them and say them louder than the other words. You know what, I thank God for a Sunday school teacher that was wrong in a good way. That's a whole lot better if the teacher said, well, because they don't belong there. Isn't that right? So let me read it as she would have me read it. Hereby I receive you the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. Now I wouldn't take those italicized words out, because that tells me the one who laid down his life was God. That's God manifesting the flesh on that cross. And if you take the Talasai's words out, look what you get next. Because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down lives for the brethren. Well, that's very jihadist, isn't it? Maybe you take out that Talasai's word. He's telling you to lay down lives for the brethren. Not our lives. Somebody else's lives. Oh, but it gets even better. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels from him. I think the words of compassion are pretty important there, don't you? Now look, how dwelleth the love of God in him. Now watch what you just read. God loved me so much. that while I was his enemy, he went to the cross and died for me. I perceive the love of God because he did for me what I needed to have done for me. I didn't ask him to do it, I didn't know he was doing it, I didn't understand the reason for it, and I sure couldn't see down into eternity and know what I was going to suffer if he didn't do that for me. He just did it because of compassion. Now that's the love of God toward me. Now, what is the love of God dwelling in me? It's when I then spend my life doing what he did for somebody else. See, I receive the love of God, verse 16, because Christ laid down his life for me. But the love of God dwells in me when I lay down my life for others. Can I make the understatement of the week? When Christ went to the cross, it was an inconvenience. If you're gonna show compassion to others, it's going to be inconvenient. When Christ went to the cross, honestly, he really got nothing out of it. If you're gonna show compassion, don't keep score. You're not gonna get anything out of it. Some ladies, I don't know how many and I don't know how long, but there was a lot of labor that went into the meals that we've eaten this week. You know what those ladies got out of that? Nothing. You say, well, they got a blessing. Maybe, maybe not. They might just got tired. You understand what I'm saying? Those visits that you make, those burdens that you bear, those chores that you perform, those duties that you do for someone else, all of that time and effort and energy that you pour into people, you don't do it to get something back. You don't do it to get a reward. You don't do it to be appreciated. What was done for you, verse 16, is now to be done by you in verse 17. Christ had compassion on me, now I have compassion on others. Christ laid down his life for me, now I lay down my life for others. It's easy to be loved by God. It's a whole different manner to show forth the love of God. And that's what he's asking us to do. Let's see this exemplified, come to Luke chapter number 10. Luke chapter 10, been 700 days since we had a Bible conference together. Who knows how long it'll be before we have another one? So let's get all we can out of this, this evening, Luke chapter 10. You know this story, but maybe you don't know one little word in the midst of it. 25, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he said, Thou should love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, thou hast answered right, this do and thou shalt live. But he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus, who is my neighbor? He didn't want to do any more. Look, if you're gonna be saved by works, let's make sure we don't do five works if we can get in on four. If I can get in on three, I don't wanna do more than three. So he said, well, who's my neighbor? If I can love my neighbor, how many neighbors? Jesus answering said, a certain man went down from Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. No reason for the priest to stop, he'd already been robbed. Verse 32, and likewise the Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. Now both these men saw the condition this man was in. They had all the information, they had all the facts, they knew what had happened. In fact, they knew what he needed. Boy, can't we look at people. That guy's a drunk. You know how he lives? You know how he spends his money? You know what he does? You know what God says about him? Well, we got all the facts, don't we? We got all the information. That doesn't help that guy a bit. We see that fallen woman, we see that drug addict. Right? Man, we know enough Bible. We got five verses for him and four for her and three for that guy and 10 for that family. We can diagnose everybody's spiritual problem. And we can preach to them and tell them what's gonna happen. You know what's gonna happen to you, you drunkard? You know what's gonna happen to you? You'll straighten up that family! Because we can see down the road. But then we move on and leave them laying there in the ditch. We've evaluated the situation, we've pronounced our judgment upon it, and then we move on down the road like the priest and like the Levite. But a certain Samaritan, As he journeyed, so the other two people had somewhere to go. He's got somewhere to go. Came where he was. Know what Jesus did for you? Listen, God didn't stay in heaven and diagnose your sin problem. And he didn't stay in heaven and pronounce your future judgment. He came down here. He came where we were. Hallelujah. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him. You know what got that man out of the ditch? Compassion. You want to get that man's wounds bound up? Compassion. It wasn't knowledge. It wasn't observation. It wasn't evaluation. It wasn't a pronouncement of scriptures. Compassion moved the Samaritan to do what he could to change this man's life. Now listen, for all I know, he deserved a beating. For all I know, he deserved me robbed. I don't know anything about the man. Sometimes we get out there knocking on doors and you look at the lawn, you look what's on the lawn, you look at the car, you look what's the stickers on the car, you look in the car and see what's in the ashtray and what's in the cup holder and you walk up on the porch and you see the mess there and by the time you knock on the door, you've already determined, you know, man, I know everything there is to know about this person. You know, this Samaritan, he didn't ask, how'd you get here? He didn't ask, where'd you get the money they stole? He didn't ask, you've been living wrong, God getting you? He just said, well, here's a man, here's a man really needs some help. I could help him. I'm going on a journey, but I could delay my journey. I've got money in my pocket. I got some things I wanna spend it on, but I could invest some in him. I'm gonna go down to the innkeeper and get this man a room. He don't even know the man. Compassion, compassion. I'm telling you, we're a street preaching church, I hope you are. We're a door knocking church, I hope you are. We're a face to face witnessing church, I hope you are. But let's not just hammer people with the facts. Let's have a heart that's really truly concerned about the condition that they're in and the mess that they're in. These bus kids come in and man, they don't know how to sit, they don't know how to act, they don't know how to talk. What do you want to do? Just stay in the trailer park and go to hell rather than disrupt your nice little thing you got going? You think that kid signed up to be born in that dump? These kids, they got no dads in the home. You think the kid said, I wanna be born in a home that has no dad? You think they got line in heaven signed up for a mom that's a drug addict? Well, you know those kids, they don't dress right, they don't talk right, they use some bad language. Yeah, who's gonna do something about it if we don't? Who's ever gonna teach them any better if we don't? 12 years of public school, you're gonna reinforce all that junk. TV and video games, you're gonna drive it deeper into their heart. At some point, we've got to be willing to get down in the ditch like Jesus got down in the ditch and pick people up out of a ditch and maybe get dirty doing it. Mm-hmm, mm. Luke 15, Luke chapter 15. Luke 15, oh, we know this story, don't we? I'm just gonna hit the points that suit our purposes for tonight. Verse 11, a certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. Those are, in my opinion, those are the harshest, most cruel words in all the Bible. You know when a son gets his inheritance? When his father's dead. You know what this boy just said to his daddy? You're dead to me. You're dead to me. I never want to hear you speak again. I never want to see your face again. I never want to sit at the table again. I want you to give me what I'm going to get when you're dead and I'm out of here. You couldn't hurt a man. You couldn't hurt a man any more than that boy just hurt his father. When you just go home tonight, you just think on that thing. Some of you, your sons are still little and you think you got a book and you do those five things and they're going to all be spiritual giants. Enjoy that as long as you can. But this man raised two sons and one of them said, I never left. I've done everything you ask. I've been faithful to your household. So the guy knew how to raise sons. This one didn't turn out so good. In fact, this one's a disaster. And the Bible says in verse 13, not many days after, younger son gathered all together. That's half of his father's livelihood. When he says all together, that's not his stuff. That's his daddy's stuff. He's plundering his father's house. How about tonight? Some of you guys, you've been working 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. You've got a little of this, a little of that, and this stored up and that stored up. What if you went home tonight and somebody stole half of everything you got, took half of your bank accounts, half your retirement fund, half your pension, and then you found out it was your son? I'm telling you, this guy, he's taken a right to the chin and then a left to the chin right behind it. Took his journey into a far country. He didn't move down the road. He got as far away as he could. And there wasted his substance with riotous living. Well, it's really his daddy's substance. That man worked his entire life and provided that boy with home and schooling and food and clothes and transportation and worked overtime, double time, triple time to make sure that boy had everything in life. And then that boy went down and spent it all at the casino. Spent it in the bars. Spent it at the gambling dens. That's bad business. That's bad business. When he spent all their rows of mighty famine, that land he began to be in want, went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, sent him into the fields to feed swine, and would fain have filled his belly with the husk the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. If I hadn't said this here before, I'll say it the first time. If I've said it here before, I'll say it again. I say this most everywhere I go. You young people better listen to me. You just listen to me. This boy is jealous of pigs. That's what the world did for him. He said, I wish I had what a hog has. I wish my life was as good as a pig's life. So I can't imagine anybody ever getting that place, really? People sit around and watch these singers, these movie stars, these ballplayers on TV and on the internet say, I wish I was like her, I wish I was like him. Why are you envying pigs? Why do you want a pig's life? I'm not jealous of those people. If they had any sense, they'd be jealous of me. Verse 17, when he came to himself, because he got nobody else to talk to, He said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger. I will rise and go to my father and say to him, father, I've sinned against heaven for thee and no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. He has broken his daddy's heart. He's broken his daddy's finances. He's broken up his daddy's home. He's brought shame to the family name. He's been a reproach to the God of heaven. I wonder what made him think he could even take a chance on going home. He must have known something about his daddy. If I'd ever done somebody wrong like that, I don't know if I'd ever wanna see him again. He said, I'm gonna walk down that long road, head for my father's house. And verse 20 says, and he arose and came to his father, When he's yet a great way off, his father saw him. Look what changed his life and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. The boy got to clean clothes later. His daddy is hugging hog pen clothes. His boy ate at the table and ate the fatted calf later. He's kissing hog pen breath. That boy comes home and he is stained with riotous living and stained with the filth of his iniquity from the top of his head to the bottom of his toes. You know what that father said? I don't want you to suffer what you deserve to suffer. I don't want to do to you what should be done to you. I want to do for you what people will be talking about for 2,000 years. I'm not telling you to go soft on sin. This man didn't go out seeking after his boy. This man didn't move in the pig pen with his boy. This man didn't go relocate to the far country. This man didn't reject God so he could hang out with a son that rejected God. When that boy said, I'm done with that, I wonder if I could ever, ever, ever get back in my father's house. He was met with compassion. Not compromise. Come on brother, come on sister, not compromise. Compromise would have been the father saying, son, if you don't like our rules, we'll change the rules, you can stay. Son, if you don't like our God, we'll quit going to church. We'll go to one of those rock and roll churches if you don't like this preaching. That's compromise. When that boy repented and said, I'm gonna try to get right. His father didn't want to punish him. He didn't want to hurt him. You know what he's doing before he left? You know what that man was doing before that boy left? Feeding him, housing him, clothing him. You know what he did when that boy got back? He fed him, he housed him, he clothed him. It's compassion. Compassion changed the history of this man's life There's probably not been anything in the Bible preached more than that story of that. I know what you're thinking. I stopped, I didn't say it. You know how we are? This kid came home 2,000 years ago and we still call him the prodigal son. Why doesn't your Bible say the son that came home? Why does it say the prodigal son? because we want him to at least pay a price in his reputation for what he did. It's not compassion. This my son was lost and look at him now. This my son was dead and look at him now. Now, you know why he did that? Because it's a boy. It's his son. It's his family. He loves him. No matter what he's done, he loves him. We get that. Hebrews chapter five. Hebrews chapter five. I'm almost ready for the sermon I came to preach this week. Hebrews chapter five. Look at verse 14. Seeing that we have a great high priest who passed into the heavens, Jesus, Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. With all points tempted like as we are yet without sin, let us therefore come boldly on the throne of grace so we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So I need help. Means I got problems. I need mercy, that means I deserve something I really don't wanna get. And I'm beset with infirmities, which means as much as I am all in on what Brother Brett preached, I'm not as strong as I imagine that I am while I'm hearing him preach it. And my great high priest doesn't say, come back when you're not infirmed. Come back when you don't need mercy. Come back when you don't need help, and then we'll fellowship. Watch, verse one. Forever high priest taken among men is ordained for man in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices. Who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. Now, here I shift back and I talk about Jesus and how good he is to me. Because I got news for you. Since December the 17th, 1976, when I got saved, many times I have been out of the way. Many times I've been out of the way. And many times in my life, in my marriage, in the raising of my children, in dealing with lost people, in dealing with church people, in dealing with God, I have displayed monumental ignorance. People ask me, they say, you have any regrets about getting saved? No. About believing the Bible? No. About life? I don't know, 15 million? 25 million? Who's counting? I have been so ignorant in the things I've said. I've been so ignorant in the things I've done. I've been so ignorant in the way I've responded to people and treated people. How about you? Come on, anybody? Anybody? And when you came to that throne of grace and said, God, I just did another stupid thing. Would you help me? Compassion. Lord, I got out of the way again. Compassion. Thank God for a high priest who doesn't want to pour out upon me the anger that I provoke, but is willing to set it aside because, quite honestly, if the word means what we're told it means, he just feels sorry for me. It's like this God looking down from heaven saying, okay, so let me see if I get this right. I wrote you a book. You've read it every day for 40 years. You've been in church daily for most of those 40 years. You've listened to the best preachers that ever put in the world. You've read the best books I ever had anybody write in the world. And you did that again. And you want me to just love you and forgive you and bless your life. Okay. Okay. Okay. You know what it is? It's compassion. It's not, God's not a compromiser. Jesus isn't a compromiser. I'm not telling you make light of sin. I'm telling you, you're alive today, and you're blessed today, and you're still saved today, and you're still in his hand today, and he's never left you, and he's never forsaken you, and it's not because you're hanging on. It's because he just feels sorry for you. Aren't you glad tonight you have a high priest that can have compassion on the ignorant and compassion on them that are out of the way? All right, so, but here's what happens. When Pastor Logan, or Pastor Camilleri, or Pastor Alltop, or Pastor Doug, or Pastor Fulor, when we are finished preaching about the Lord's compassion on us because we're ignorant, and we sing a song because our hearts are so blessed, thank you, Lord, for having compassion on me when I was out of the way, Then tomorrow morning in our office, we get to deal with someone else's ignorance. And somehow it goes very, very differently than when Jesus deals with our ignorance. And when I have a conversation with my wife about some church member who's out of the way, it doesn't sound like the conversation the father and the son have when I'm out of the way. Come on now. If I came here and for two nights I preached to you about God's compassion toward us and Jesus' compassion toward us, it would be hallelujah time. But when he says, now, how about let me move some of that through you toward the people you think are ignorant and the people you think are out of the way. I don't know about that. I mean, Lord, if you let them get away with that, they're gonna be emboldened, they're gonna keep doing it. I mean, you gotta tell them they're wrong. If we let him get away with that, we'll have 20 of them doing it. Okay, okay. How about next time you come to me, I be you? Oh no, Lord, no, I want compassion, mercy. Jesus never approves of my sin. And he deals with my sin, and he allows the wages of sin to pay off in death. And he said, be sure your sin will find you out. Your sin's gonna punish you. God's not gonna punish you, your sin's gonna punish you. You know, our own dumb actions and mistakes are gonna hurt. God doesn't have to hurt us. Come to Jude, because this is what the Lord just... I wanna say he hurt me with this, because it sounds wrong, but he hurt me with this. It was chastening and no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous. Verse number four, there were certain men crept in unawares. Listen, I'm gonna read you a verse about the modern church movement. It's right here in the Bible. Turn ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness. We're saved by grace, so let's just sin to the max. Now they're not creeping into churches, they're starting them. And filling them with thousands of people. I love Jesus, I love Jesus, I love Jesus. And just live like the devil all day long. So he said, they're gonna come into your churches. Bible says in verse number 10, these speak evil of things which they know not. What they know naturally is brute beasts and those things that corrupt themselves. They've gone the way of Cain, verse 11, run greedily after the heir of Balaam. That's fornication, or Corrie, Ganesan and Corrie, fornication, heir of Balaam, just preaching lies for money. 12, these are spots in your feasts of charity, feeding themselves without fear, clouds without water, trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. They just post all their sin on the internet for everybody to see. You know, as a young Christian, people hid their sin. They hoped the pastor didn't find out. Now they put it on Facebook and dare him to say something about it. Different times, wandering stars to whom is reserved Blackness of darkness forever. Bad, bad folks. Then Enoch steps in. Oh, I read this, I think, yeah, yeah, here we go. Enoch also sent down a prophesy to these saying, behold, the Lord come with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment upon all. Convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds that they've ungodly committed, of all their hard speech of the ungodly sinners that spoke in against him. Yeah, get them, Lord! Ungodly, ungodly, ungodly, ungodly, ungodly, ungodly. God come and get you. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, with their mouths speaking great swelling words, having men's purse and admiration because of advantage. You know, you pastors, I think most of you have been at your church for a good long while. You know how many names you could fill in beside every one of these verses? We've fought with these people. We've battled these people. We've seen these people pull families out of our church. We've seen these people destroy our reputation on the internet. 17. But beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after the ungodly lust. These be those who separate themselves. They're sensual. They're sensual. They don't just sing their little rock songs on the platform. They put girls in skin-tight clothing up there, little mini skirts and little muscle boys with their shirts unbuttoned and all that. They're sensual. Their preachers don't preach. They give you little psych ops, little psychological pep talks. How do you feel? How do you feel about it? Here's how I feel. What did you feel when you felt what you felt? Bunch of effeminate slop, man. It is. Wouldn't it be fun, people like, their minds work different than mine, thank God. I'd like to have a transcript of Brent's sermon delivered by Joel Osteen. That'd just be fun to watch. Be strong. I mean really strong. Not in a mean way. I probably told you this. I run up and down the road so much. I was at this church one time. I'm sure I've told you this. I like to tell it anyway. And I hadn't had a haircut in a while. And in some circles, if your hair's touching your collar, I mean, that's like getting drunk. I mean, it's bad, man. This guy came up. He just kind of flicked the back of my hair. He said, you start looking like Joel Osteen. So I went out the next day, I got a haircut, and I came in, I looked for that guy, and I said, you happy? Now I look like Joyce Meyer. Now she could preach that sermon. Anyway, that wasn't very compassionate, was it? Happiest a man condemneth not himself in the things he alloweth. So look what he says. Brother Brent preached to you, verse 20. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God. You know what the Lord said? You're gonna deal with these people and deal with these people and deal with these people and deal with these people. Make sure they don't take God's love out of your heart. Make sure you don't become a Bible-quoting, self-righteous machine who doesn't have any feelings anymore for what people are doing to themselves. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. I got eternal life. They need the mercy of the Lord unto eternal life, and if I stop loving them, who's gonna give it to them? Who's gonna offer it to them? Now look, and of some have compassion making a difference. And I'm not even gonna read verse 23, because you know that one. It's this one. When he says some, he's talking about some of the certain men who creep into our churches and do so much harm and so much damage. And he said, don't stop loving them. and don't stop having compassion toward them because you might yet make a difference in their lives. You don't ever know. We heard that earlier this week. You don't know what God is doing in somebody's life. Now, I'm heading down the homestretch. There's a man in Luke 15 whose son has torn up his house wrecked his family, hurt his finances, brought reproach upon his name, and left under those circumstances. But when he turned toward home, his father had compassion on him. Why? Because he's family. Right? Because he's family. Brother Tim, listen, I almost wish this wasn't in the Bible, because it just goes so against what I am. Those people hurt you and hurt your church and hurt the finances of this church and did so much damage to your name, they're family. That's why it hurts so bad. You don't care when strangers post junk about you on our website somewhere, but it's family. You know what God wants to work in my heart? He wants my heart toward the people who have harmed our family to be the same heart that man had in Luke 15 toward the boy that had hurt his family. And I'm telling you, I got a long way to go. I got a long way to go. But when the people who hurt our church and lied about me and went out there in that world, should they ever turn back, should they ever turn back, I don't want them to find that my heart has turned to stone. I want them to find that the love that God had for me, that I had for them when we were in agreement, I still have for them. now that we're enemies. And I want the pity that God had toward me when I made a mess out of my life. I want that to be in my heart toward the people who have made a mess out of their lives. I got a phone call here about two months ago, maybe three months ago. And a man said, I don't know if you remember me or not, he told me his name. And he said, we went to high school together. Been a long time ago. Long time ago. He said, we went to high school together. He said, I'm the vice president of a conservative political action committee. This was in January. And he said, I've lost all hope. I've lost all hope in my life. I've lost all hope for America. He said that the head of our organization, we had a meeting yesterday and he said, he's considering ending his life. And he said, I wanted to know, are you still a preacher? And I said, I am. He said, can you offer me any hope? Can you offer me any hope? I bet when this man's son came back down the road, I bet he's glad he hadn't sold the house. I bet he's glad he was still there and that boy's room was still there. When he got home, he could move him right back in his room. And I got saved 40 plus years ago. I went and witnessed all my friends. Most of them laughed. Most of them said, you'll be back. I haven't gone back. One by one, one by one, you'd be surprised how many of them, when their marriages fell apart, when their child was in a terrible accident, when they bottomed out on drugs or alcohol, you'd be surprised how many of them said, do you remember me? Can I talk to you? I'll tell you, Jesus reached out and reached out and reached out, and we said, no, no, no, no. But the day we finally turned toward home. Aren't you glad you found a compassionate Savior? And many of you, since you got saved, some of you have been a long ways out of the way. Some of you have been deep into ignorance. Aren't you glad when the Lord turned, when you turned toward home? Aren't you glad the Lord was compassionate? Tonight, I'm talking to people whose, whose children are where you never thought they'd be. Who have been hurt so deeply by your very best friends that you serve God together with in a church. Most of the damage that's been done to your ministries, most of the things that hurt your kids were things that people you trusted in the church house did. And Jude, I'm telling you the Holy Spirit in the book of Jude, he tears those people limb from limb. And he said, but I want you to keep yourselves in the love of God. and to have compassion in hopes that one day in one of those lives, you can make a difference. And if you couldn't make any difference, why would the Lord give us a false hope like that in the Bible? I like to see visitors come. I like to see new people come. I like to see people get saved. I like to see people get baptized. I like to baptize people and then see them again. That's a thrill. Three weeks ago, a man stopped me outside church Sunday morning. And he said, you remember so and so, don't you? I said, well, of course I remember him. I remember him because through some terrible, terrible times in his life, I gave up time with my family to spend with him, keep his family together. Then something happened, he got bitter, he laughed, said awful things to me, said awful things about me, terrible things about our church. Three weeks ago, a man said, I ran into so-and-so, He wanted me to ask you if he would ever be allowed to come back to church. I said, you tell him if he'll walk through these doors, I'll throw my arms around him. So I love him as much as I did the day he left. Brother, I want to be strong, I do. I want to preach hard. I want to stand against sin. I don't want to compromise with the devil. But I don't want to let other people's sins and other people's ignorance and other people going out of the way to rob my heart of this love of God that's my only lifeline in this world. I don't wanna lose that. Brother, sister, we're gonna get hurt. We're gonna get offended. and have people do things, say things, and they got severe consequences. But compassion was the only hope we had. In fact, it's the only hope we have. God's compassion toward us. And the only hope those people that are messing up our churches and the testimony of Christ, quite honestly, and their own lives, the only hope they've got are compassionate Christians willing to make a difference. Let's be strong, but let's not be hard. Let's be steadfast. Let's not turn to stone on the inside. Some having compassion, making a difference.