your power on the preaching tonight. We ask the Lord to bless the rest of the singing and the special. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Number 184, Day by Day. Day by day and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here. Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment, I move not for worry or for fear. He whose heart is at beyond all measure, Every day the Lord himself is near me With a special mercy for each hour Oh, my cares he faint would bear and cheer me He whose name is Counselor and Master The protection of His childhood treasure is a charge that on Himself He laid. As Thy days, Thy strength shall be in measure, this I pledge to me. Help me then in every tribulation So to trust Thy promises, O Lord That I lose not faith's sweet consolation Offer me within Thy holy Word Help me, Lord, when toiling, trouble meeting, Ere to take us from a father's hand. One by one, the days, the moments fleeting, Till I reach the promised land. We have several folks. Now the new prayer list is the yellow one back on the table back there. If you want to get a new prayer list, that's where they're at. I printed it up today. I had to combine some stuff so you'll see. We usually only have activities once a month, but this Friday is the Youth Valentine's Banquet. There's a sign-up sheet on the back table for all the teenagers that would like to go. That will be with Brother Ross. We start at 6 o'clock, go till 9 o'clock. Cost is $12 per person. And again, parents, it is a glow theme, so if you can help your kids dress in like a white shirt or your daughter's in a white blouse, that would help. Because we're going to have a bunch of glow sticks. You say, how many glow sticks you got? Well, if you can imagine $300 worth of glow sticks, that's how many glow sticks and glasses and hair and all the rest of the stuff that we bought to put on them. They'll be on the table. Then Brother Leo's going to do one of those chalk drawings with the black light. Then we're going to have some other black lights around as well. So we want them to reflect. I have them some reflecting hats for everybody, but I didn't buy reflecting clothes. I thought $300 worth of glow sticks was plenty. But again, that will be Friday from 6 to 9. And if the ladies can bring a dessert, we usually have the kids make desserts. And so we'll have the desserts that way. But we're having Chick-fil-A. We're going to buy sandwiches from Chick-fil-A. Brother Bejew, can you hear me? If someone remembers tomorrow, text me or call me to go buy Chick-fil-A and ask about, I was supposed to do that on Monday and I forgot, so I gotta go buy an order of Chick-fil-A. So someone remind me if you think about it. Say, what if 10 people call you? Then I'm probably more likely to do it. But again, we'll have Chick-fil-A sandwiches and the french fries, and then we'll have drinks here at the church and salad. Then, Brother Ross will be with us on Sunday, which is just again, just a couple days away. Brother Ross will be here for Sunday school and here. He'll be here for the Sunday morning service and then Sunday night service. Two weeks after that, Brother Gomez will be with us. He'll be here not for Sunday school, but for the morning service and the evening service. And that's the 23rd of February. That's again, what we take our Wednesday night offerings for. So again, we always do that for the special speakers. We put them up in the hotel and sometimes we take them to eat and things like that. So that's to cover the expenses for that. Everything that comes in for the love offering goes right to them. We don't take expenses out. A lot of churches do. But then Brother Vineyard used to say that he made a commitment that if he even had to pay to go preach somewhere, he would. And he said there were some times he actually had to pay. He lost money going someplace because I know how some churches are. What they do is they take up the offering. They take out the airplane or the driving expenses and the hotel and the food and then they give them what's left. That's not what we do at Liberty Baptist Church. Everything you put in the offering goes right to them. If it's not up to a certain level, Brother Nichols always gives them a certain amount, always makes sure they get a certain amount if we have to take it out of their general fund. So we've always taken care of speakers and preachers and missionaries that come through here. And usually we don't have to add anything. You guys always give really well. So that's always a blessing. But Brother Ross will be with us for three services. Not that we take an offering in Sunday school because we don't. But the two main services on Sunday and then two weeks after that brother Gomez will be with us as well Please stand number 183 come and dine I Jesus has a table spread where the saints of God are fed. He invites his chosen people, come and dine. With his manna he doth feed and supply your every need. O too sweet to stop with Jesus all the time. Come and dine, the Master calleth, come and dine. You may feast at the Jesus table all the time. He who fed the multitude, Turned the water into wine, To the hungry calleth now, Come and dine. Soon the Lamb will take His bride, To be ever by His side, All the hosts of heaven will be assembled, It will be a glorious day, tanks and spotless wine, with Jesus they will feed eternally. Come and dine, the Master calleth, come and dine. He who fed the multitude, turned the water into wine. To the hungry calleth now, come and dine. Heavenly Father, Lord, we're so grateful that we're here tonight, Lord. We ask you to bless the preaching of the Word of God, Lord. God, touch our hearts, Lord. And for the upcoming events, Lord, I pray, Lord, that we see souls saved and baptized when Brother Ross gets here, Lord, and Brother Gomez, Lord. We love you, Lord. Bless this offering. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. you you you Glory to God. All right, before we start this next song, there's a special someone whose birthday it is today, Christina Luna. All right, let's sing happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, God bless you, my wife. Happy birthday to you. Amen. Glory to God. All right, let's sing 185, Rock of Ages. Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed be of sin Like tears forever flowed All for sin could not atone Thou must stay, then thou alone While I draw this fleeting breath When mine eyes shall close in death Just as I am without one gleam, but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God. Just as I am and waiting not To rid my soul of one dark lot To thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb Just as I am, though tossed about With many of conflict, many of doubt, Fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come. Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind, Sight which is healing of the mind, Yea, all I need in thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come. Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, Will welcome, plod, and cleanse, relieve. Yea, all I need indeed to see Jude in your Bible If you see me itching tonight it will be because While I was working on that I had I had the septic tank pumped yesterday because for the last week and a half I've been having septic tank trouble some of you know what that is some of you don't And last week, when I was pumping the septic tank, I knew that there was some kind of issue, because most of it was water. And it's not supposed to, I mean, the water should be OK. And then I thought I would pump the pump and get the water out. So I did the one side, moved it over to the other side. But that broke the, some of you know that, that broke the seal. So I had to prime it again. So I turned it back on. There's a little thing you can screw off and let it prime. About the time it starts to shoot again, you're supposed to screw it on real quick. But the problem was, I didn't get it screwed on fast enough. So it all went shooting up in the air. I dwelled in that for a little bit before I could run around the other side and shut the pump off. So I got it pumped yesterday. And there was still a clog somewhere in the house. So I was trying to get the clog out. And so while I was out there messing with that, somehow I moved the pipe that has the outside faucet on it and broke it. So I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the outside faucet. So I still haven't got the leak fixed. So I'm not sure if I'm going to win or the septic tank's going to win. But so far, we're about even. Although, it did make me smell pretty bad last Saturday. Jude chapter 1, because that's the only chapter in Jude. Verse 22, now last week the young man, brother, he preached on compassion. And again, as I mentioned, he didn't actually cover hardly anything that I will be covering as far as the notes tonight. And again, notice the verse, and of some have compassion making a difference. Now I have as the title, Our Compassion is Lacking. And the reason I say that is it seems like Christians are making very little difference in this world today. So what that means is we don't have enough compassion. Because if we have enough compassion, guess what it does? It makes a difference. In our case we have to get more compassion. We're going to talk about that tonight, about compassion, the definition of compassion, how Jesus Himself showed compassion and then some ways that we can get compassion. But again we're going to look at compassion tonight. Father I ask for Your help and Your blessing. I pray Lord that You'd help me to get the thoughts across that You've given to me and Lord that they would touch hearts and work as they should. In Jesus' name, Amen. First we'll look at the definition of compassion and again if you look in several different dictionaries or Bible dictionaries they'll give you different definitions. The noun compassion means sympathetic pity or concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. So again they can be having physical pain. or they could be having mental or spiritual pain or problems. But again, it's called the sympathetic pity or concern for the sufferings and misfortunes of others. Compassion also means to suffer together. Now I can tell you, it's a lot easier to suffer together than it is to suffer alone. That's why my mom and dad used to always tell us, and all of you older folks have heard this, misery loves company. By the way, that's because when you're hurting, it's always nice to have someone there while you're hurting. Now, us men are the biggest babies. Now, women, they get the flu and they take care of themselves. But when men are sick, I mean, we are invalids. I mean, we're laying there, I mean, and we need a little bell so we can, and then mama keeps saying, if you ring that bell one more time, I'm going to take, I'm going to stuff that right down your throat and you're not going to be able to ring it anymore unless you gurgle. But the truth is, men are babies when we get sick. We love to be cared for. Now, women, like I said, women tough through it most of the time, and most of us men are not caring for our wives, it's the wives caring for the husbands, but again, it's a matter of suffering together. The feeling that arises when we are confronted with another's suffering, and we feel motivated to relieve that suffering. So it means you see their suffering, you see their hurt, then you do something about it. Now, it's easy to see their hurt, and many people see their hurt, and we'll talk about that in a moment. It is easy to see their hurt, but very few people do anything about the hurt. Baker says this, that human disposition that fuels were acts of kindness and mercy, having the bowels yearn for or to show mercy, a combination of love and sorrow, one for another." So that's the definition of compassion. Then let's look at Jesus Himself. There's four places where it says that He was moved with or moved by compassion. Now Understand Jesus had compassion a lot more than four times. I'm not saying that he only showed compassion four times truth is every day of his life He showed compassion on people, but there's four verses in the New Testament that that's that use the phrase moved with compassion We're going to look at the first one that is in Matthew chapter 9 verse 36 It says there in Matthew chapter 9 verse 36, but when he saw the multitude He was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as a sheep having no shepherd Oh, I forgot about versus Levi, grab your verses. Jaden, grab your verses. If you didn't get verses, hold your hand up. These two lads will run over and bring you some verses. The Stephens. Levi, run across. The Stephens need verses. Anyone else? Or you just want to see Jaden and Levi run around? Jaden, Miss Wallace. Anybody else need verses? Anyone want a bottle of water? Dr. Pepper? All right, Levi, thank you. Thank you, Jayden. So again, Matthew 9, 36, what it said was Jesus saw the multitude, and what He said, He saw them as they were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Now, you'd have to be a farmer to understand this. It doesn't have to be your sheep or your cows or your animals that are out. If you know that the animal's out on the road, you know what you realize? That animal's unsafe. Now, most of you have never hit a cow, and trust me, if you hit a cow, you'd know you hit a cow. Because if you hit a cow, if you think a deer does damage to your car, you haven't seen damage until you've seen a cow. Because a deer weighs maybe 100 pounds, and if it's a bigger deer, maybe 150. A cow, there are cows that weigh as many, most cows weigh at least 800, most times they weigh 1,000, 1,200 for an average cow, and a really big one can weigh more than that, can weigh 1,400, 1,500, 1,600 pounds. I had a bull at one time that when I sold him, he was at a ton. He was 1900 and something pounds. So again, you hit a cow, you're going to know you hit something. But again, it doesn't have to be my cows that are out. If I say anybody's cows out or anybody's livestock out, the rule of the farm is you try to get them back in. You say, how do you know where they go back in? Well, usually if you chase them enough, they'll figure out where they got out. If not, they'll make a new hole to go back in because the gate usually isn't open. Now sometimes the farmer left the gate open, but that doesn't happen most of the time they walk through the fence. But again, he saw and he said they were like sheep having no shepherd. Now again, anyone who has a shepherd's heart, when he sees sheep that have no shepherd, his immediate response is to be their shepherd. Now David, again, there was a lot of shepherds mentioned in the Bible. David was a shepherd in the Old Testament. It was shepherds in the field keeping watch over the flocks by night that was talked about when Jesus' birth happened. So again, shepherds are mentioned a lot. The Bible talks about the pastor being the shepherd of the sheep. over the church. So, the truth is, a shepherd is a very good thing. Now, notice something else underneath that. Notice Matthew 9, verse 37 and verse 38. Now, He saw that they were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Verse 37 says, And he saith unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Now, what he told the disciples was, We need some help over here. Now you've heard that sometimes, whether it's a clean up aisle in a store that's got a mess, or whether it's some show you're watching on TV and they have medical issues. If they can't handle it all by themselves, they'll say, I need some help over here. Now you know what Jesus told his disciples? We need some help over here. The sheep were scattered. They didn't have a shepherd. He talked to the disciples, and again, understand how many disciples are there? There's 12 of them. Okay? But this was a bigger problem than even Jesus and the Twelve could handle. Because He said, pray the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth more laborers into the harvest. So you say, how many did they need? I don't know, but more than they had. There were just so many sheep scattered that they needed some help getting them all back together. And again, He was referring to lost souls, not real sheep. Notice the second time He was moved with compassion. In this case, He was moved by the masses. Notice Matthew chapter 14, verse 14. And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick. Now again, in this case, He saw a bunch of people. How many was there? I don't know. A multitude. When I grew up, we'd call that, it was a gob of them. You say, how many is a gob? A gob, okay, that's how many is in a gob. You say, what do you mean? It doesn't have an exact number, okay? That's like when we say several. Several doesn't, everyone, several means a different number to some people. Or a couple. Now a couple usually means two or three or four, but again, we use a lot of words that don't have an exact number. In this case, multitude, I can tell you multitude means quite a few. And what he said there in verse 14 was, he saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them. Why? Because there was a bunch of sick folks, there was a bunch of folks in need of stuff. Notice Matthew 23, 37, O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. So he referred to himself as a mother hen gathering the baby chicks. And if you know anything about chickens, Now, I've been around chickens all my life. The ones we had back home were all for food. We did not have any laying hens. Every summer, we would buy 200 little chicks. And by the way, they're called fryers or broilers. They're not the laying hens. You say, what's the difference? The difference between a Jersey cow and a beef cow. The fryers grow much faster. We buy the little chick as a fryer, one or two day old chick, and then we'd feed them. And in six weeks to eight weeks, they were completely grown, ready to butcher. So you say, how long does it take a hen, one of the laying hens, to grow? Six months before they lay their first egg, typically. So it takes three times as long. Same thing with Jerseys or Guernseys or any of the other type of milk cows. They grow much slower. By the way, the guys buying them at the stockyards knows that. Longhorns grow a lot slower. They don't put beef on near as fast. So if they can see that they have that in them, you'll get paid a lot less because they realize they're going to take another few extra months to fatten them up. But again, in this case, what he said, when he said, you know what? I wanted to gather you like a bunch of chicks, little chicks. You know why a hen gathers her chicks? Because there's danger. The first great Pyrenees that we had, now we got great Pyrenees not to cover sheep because we never had sheep. Great Pyrenees is a livestock dog, and they typically guard sheep or goats. Or if you see someone with sheep and goats, they'll either have a Great Pyrenees, or they'll have a donkey, or they'll have a llama. Say, what's the donkey and the llama out there for? If any dog or coyote gets close to them, the donkey or the llama will grab them by the neck and shake them until they break their neck and kill them. That's why you don't want, if he doesn't know your dog, you don't want to let your dog out there, because your dog is, we would call it dog gone, because that's what's going to happen. But the truth is, When we got the first Great Pyrenees, there was one day, I couldn't figure out, he kept barking. I'm thinking, what are you barking at? I looked around, couldn't see anything he was barking at. Then I noticed a shadow went over me. What it was, was there was a hawk or an eagle above me. And again, do they get chicks? And the answer to that is, yes, they can. And the dog was well aware of that. Now, I hadn't even noticed, but the dog had noticed the shadow, so the dog realized there was danger from above. So understand, he said, you know what? I just wanted to protect Israel. I wanted to protect these folks from the dangers. Now you and I should care as much as Jesus cared because we're supposed to be Christians, which is Christ's imitators. So as He wanted to gather the children of Israel together, we should want to gather and protect the lost as well. Notice the third time He was moved with compassion. That was, again, I said He was moved by the masses. In this case, He was moved by an individual. Notice Mark 1, verse 41. And Jesus moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched him. and saith unto him, I will be thou clean." Now he wasn't talking to a multitude here. He wasn't preaching to 5,000. He wasn't even preaching to 4,000. He was talking to one. Now listen to me. Jesus cared as much about the one as He did about the hundred and one. Now if you don't think that He cared about the one, then study the story about the lost sheep. If you don't think He cared about the one, then notice the times that He healed just one person. Now, He may have healed other people that day, but we only were told about the one. And in this case, He healed an individual. So, not only was Jesus moved by compassion for the masses, He was moved by compassion for the individual. Now, understand this. Notice what that verse says. What he said is, he said unto him, I will be thou clean. Now, he asked him, asked Jesus if he was willing. And Jesus said, I will, and then touched him. Now, it wasn't a matter of whether Jesus was capable or not, because Jesus was capable. What he was asking was, Jesus, I know you're capable, but are you willing? And by the way, Jesus was willing. Now, ask yourself this question. Are you capable? Am I capable? And again, the answer is, yes, we are capable. But then there comes the next question. But are we willing? Do we not? Again, we have the ability, but are we going to actually do something with that ability? Now, that's something that all coaches or teachers or parents get annoyed at. They get annoyed at somebody not living up to their capabilities. or living up to their potential. Now sometimes we think our kids or someone can do more than they actually can, because we like to believe that they can do everything because they're our kid. But the truth is, All of us are capable of passing out a track. All of us are capable of giving out the gospel. All of us are capable of inviting someone to church. Now, whether we're willing or not is entirely up to us. But he didn't ask Jesus, are you capable? He asked Jesus if he was willing, and Jesus was. He said, I will. Now understand, he was moved by the masses. He was moved by the individual. Notice the next thing there in your verses, Mark chapter 6. In this case, he was moved when he saw that they had a physical and a spiritual need both. Mark 6.34 says, By the way, the most important thing to do. Now, again, we have many missionaries that go on the field. Some of them got doctor's training before they got there. You know why they got doctor's training? So they could take care of physical needs, but their main purpose to go there was not to be a doctor. Their main purpose was to give out the gospel and then doctor the people while they were there. We have some that, and again, there are some countries that will let our United States citizens go there. For instance, China, I don't know if they still do, but China used to let missionaries go to China as long as they taught English. If they taught English, they'd let them preach the gospel, or they'd let them teach the gospel. But they had them come across to teach English, because they needed folks to teach English. Which, by the way, most of... Now, I don't know if Texans can go to China and teach English, because we speak... I don't know if Texan and English are in the same category, but the truth is, many missionaries have another ability besides giving out the gospel, but giving out the gospel was the main reason they went. Now if they only go and heal the sick without giving the gospel, shame on them. If they only go and feed the hungry without giving out the gospel, shame on them. If they only go and teach English but they don't teach Jesus, shame on them. and true of us as well. Notice Mark 6, verse 37, right there tied with it, again, from the same story. He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennies' worth of bread, and give it them to eat? What they said is, You realize how much it's going to cost to feed these people? And by the way, sometimes it's going to cost us a chunk. Again, I have no idea if they'll raise the price this year, but last time we paid for Fiesta, it was between $2,500 and $3,000. That's a lot of money. It is. By the way, the buses spend money every week. Sunday school teachers and bus workers spend money every week. It costs money to reach people. It costs money to do stuff. Now, if you're against promotions, you probably wouldn't be very happy with Jesus. You know why? Because Jesus preached in the gospel, then he fed them. And I can guarantee you, some of the folks knew that Jesus, because again, this is not the only group he fed. The feet of the 4,000, the feet of the 5,000 were not the same group. And he fed other folks. So the truth is, some of them had heard that, I mean, there's gonna have Sunday, I mean, dinner on the grounds. I mean, there's gonna have food after church. And if you wonder whether having food after church brings a bigger crowd, the answer to that is, yes, it does. You put food, especially when it's Our Lady's making the food, because Our Lady's can cook. And even some of our guys can cook. But the truth is, Jesus took care of their spiritual need, and then He took care of their physical need as well. Now, we have a lot of people come to Liberty Baptist Church because they have physical needs, and we try to help them when we can with their physical needs, but you know more important than that is their spiritual need. Now, understand, Jesus cared about the multitudes. He cared about the individual. In this case, He cared about not only their spiritual needs, but their physical needs as well. And again, being Christians, we are supposed to be Christ imitators. The third thing I want you to see besides the definition, besides the fact that Jesus moved with compassion, is what does it mean to make a difference? To make a difference. The first definition you find is to cause distinction. What makes a difference? Compassion makes a difference. Suffering with another. It's a combination of love and sorrow for one another. The thing inside you that moves you to action. Now it's one thing to see something suffering, it's another to do something about the suffering. And we'll talk about that in the very next point, but understand there's lots of folks that notice the need, not near as many that notice a need do anything about the need. Now, I can tell you here a while back, you remember just a few weeks ago, I stood up here and tried to get rid of some puppies and another dog. And then Kurt had a stray at his house at the same time. So we had, in one weekend, we had two adult dogs dropped off in our neighborhood and three puppies. And when I was feeding the puppies, a lady said, what happened to the fourth one? I said, since I've been feeding them, there's only three. Apparently, they started with four. I don't know if the other one got picked up, the other one got killed, but folks drop them off all the time. Now, I can't always take all of them to my house and take care of them, because I just don't have the time and the money to do so. Besides, many times when I take a dog to my house, the first thing they eat is my chickens. And again it takes me six months to get them big enough to lay eggs and the dog can kill. There's a time, my wife loved German Shepherds and some of you probably have heard this story. My wife loved German Shepherds. That was her childhood dog. Two or three times we tried having German Shepherds on the farm. Every time they did the same thing. Say what was it? Kill the chickens. We came home one day, I remember we came home, and we pulled in, as soon as I started to pull down the driveway, I saw him laying all over the, I mean, all over the area in front of me. I jumped, you say, what did the dog do? He came running, the German Shepherd came running over there, wagging his tail, it's like, you gotta come see this. I mean, it was proud of what he had done. It didn't feel, it felt zero shame. You say, what did you do? I did what they tell you to do. I whipped it with a chicken. I tied the chicken around his neck. You say, what did he do? Run around with a chicken around his neck. I guess it was proud of the fact that it had a necklace. I mean, it didn't bother the dog at all. Took me six months to get him grown. I mean, the only ones that lived was the ones that found some place to hide and they quit running. And it's like, be quiet. He's out there somewhere. I mean, the only ones that could keep their mouth shut and stay hidden. Few of them came back out of hidden places, and I had a few alive, but most of them were dead, and some of them they had wounded, and they, I mean, they died the next day or two. So the truth is, wiped out my chicken flock all in one day. You say, what'd you do? A few years later, we tried it again, because my wife really liked German shepherds, and I really liked making my wife happy, we tried it again with the same results. Both times we bought a German shepherd, both times we gave a German shepherd away. Now again, understand, that's why I can't take all the strays, because that last little female dog, now it didn't catch any of them, but it loved to chase them. The first day, it was really nice. I thought, this is going to work out great. Got along fine with Sierra, got along fine with Dante, and just laid there and ate and followed me around. I thought, good dog. Next day I come home and she's chasing chickens. They're running and flying and she's chasing chickens and having a good time. And I haul it out and tell her no. And as she runs by me and I'm yelling at her no, she just runs and chases another chicken. Again, not the dog I needed on the farm. But again, understand, in this case, He not only, he said, you know what, I want you to make a difference. I want you to make a distinction. So in this case, it's an action. We feel something inside, and we get moving. Now, I have fed a lot of strays. I haven't taken near as many to my house as I fed. I remember one night, I fed him, I just bought a hamburger on the way home, and I had like two bites as I was driving, and I saw the dog, and I threw the hamburger out the window to the dog, because I tried to get out, and he started running away. And then the dog walked off, and I thought, I just wasted, I'm hoping they went back and ate it, and usually they do because they can smell it, but I thought, I just gave up my supper, you better eat that hamburger. You say, what'd you do later? I went back, picked it up, dropped it off at the Perry's house. Just joking, I didn't do that. But the truth is, it means you moved to do something. I mean, there's something inside of you that makes you have an action. Now, I mentioned that we'd come back to the story of the, and in this case, the Good Samaritan, because I mentioned that, again, there are folks that look at people that have a need, but they do nothing about it. That's exactly what the story of the Good Samaritan was all about. It was about the, it told of three people, the priest, and the Levite, and then the Samaritan. Now that's in Luke chapter 10. We're not going to read all the verses, but again, I want you to understand that when we consider the story of the Good Samaritan, I want you to understand, notice chapter 10, verse 30. I want you to understand the terminology. And Jesus answering said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. And you say, what did that mean? That meant If he laid out very much longer, especially through the night, he probably would be dead in the morning. Because he was bleeding and if he didn't get warm, again, he would be dead. If he got help, he'd live. If he didn't get help, he'd die. That was the position he was in. I don't mean he just had a little boo-boo. I don't mean he just had to put a band-aid on him. I mean, that wasn't the case. I mean, he was hurt pretty bad. They beat him up, again, on those roads. That's why usually they traveled in groups on those roads. There was a lot of bandits, and that's, I mean, and they robbed people. And they didn't care whether they lived or died. They took everything. Usually they took their shoes and their boots, anything that was on them that was of value, they took off of them. Now the priest walked by, and the Levite walked by, and you and I condemn them as we should. But in condemning them, we also condemn ourselves many times. and I'll show you that in just a moment. Now, we know the story of Luke 10, verse 33. Notice what it says, but a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. You know what happened? He was moved with compassion. You say, what did that compassion make him do? Well, flip over on the back and you'll see what the compassion made him do. Verse 34 says, and he went to him, bound up his wounds, so he took care of him right then, pouring in oil and wine, and then he didn't just stop there, set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. So he took him to the inn, didn't just say this guy needs some help, he stayed there and helped the fella, probably put his travels off for a day or two while he helped this fella through the toughest times. Usually after all that, you have a fever, if you can get him past the fever, then they're gonna make it, but he stayed there. Then notice verse 35, and on the morrow when he departed, He took out two pence and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. He gave him some money, and he said, If it cost you more than that, I'll pay thee the next time through. So he must have traveled that route fairly often. Now, understand, we all think that we are the good Samaritan. We all want to be the good Samaritan. And by the way, we are charged to do so. But when you think of that, how many of us, in this case, he was physically half dead. When we think of a lost person, they are physically alive and spiritually dead. So every lost person out there, every lost person on the streets of San Antonio, every lost person in HEB, every lost person at the place you work and the place I work, every lost person is half dead. They are physically alive, spiritually dead. So when you and I look on them and notice their condition and then do nothing about their condition, you know who we are like? The priest and the Levite. So my question today is this, how many half-dead people did you pass by? How many half-dead people did I pass by and look on them and realize they probably are half-dead but we did nothing about it? Now again, we all would like to think that we are the good Samaritan, because we do some good things from time to time. But I'm talking about we walk by half-dead people every day. If you get out of the house, I mean, if you leave your house, you're going to pass some half-dead people. You say, Brother Block, I don't have the time to help all the half-dead people. Well, then help all the half-dead people that you can. And I guarantee we can all help more half-dead people than we do. How long does it take to give them a track? How long does it take to give them an invite to Liberty Baptist Church? Again, help those who are half dead. Notice Ephesians chapter 2. Verse one, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. That's the scripture that has to do with the fact that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. So again, we are alive physically, but while we are now, most of us now, we are not half dead. We are fully alive. We are physically alive and we are also spiritually alive. So we're fully alive, but that's not true of many, many people, even some of our relatives and loved ones. Notice Luke chapter 10, verse 37. Here's what Jesus told them. Now, at the end of the story, What he said, he asked them, who do you think did the right thing? And the one he was talking to said this, he that showeth mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, go and do thou likewise. Now again, understand, we're not just supposed to go. We're supposed to go and we're supposed to do. Now those are two entirely things. We can go without doing. Now you can't do without going, because if you don't get out there, again, how many of you like to fish? How many of you haven't went fishing in a long time? You know why? Because even though you have the desire to fish, you just haven't taken the time to fish. I could say the same thing about hunting, or shopping, or whatever it is that you like, golfing. Brother Perry and I like to golf. How long has it been since you golfed? Four, five, or six, or ten years? Quite a while. It's been a year or two for me, but the truth is, you can like something and still not ever do it, not find the time or take the time to do it. We ought not just talk about, I mean, we know we need to do so when, we can't do that unless we go. Again, you can't catch fish unless you go fishing. You can't, now you might go fishing and not catch a fish, but you can't catch a fish if you don't go fishing. Again, so not only are we supposed to go, but we're supposed to do as well. Then the last thing, I'm sorry, it's not the last thing. It'd be nice if it was, wouldn't it? Number four. We too can make a difference in this sin sick world by having compassion. Notice Romans chapter 12 verse 15. It says rejoice with them that do rejoice and that's easier to do. And then it says and weep with them that weep. Now that's a lot harder to do especially for us fellas. Now I can tell you right now Brother Perry and I have no problem crying. We don't. I don't know when his kicked in. When did his kick in? Oh, he's always been, so Brother Perry's always been a crier. But Brother Block wasn't. Brother Block used to, I mean, I cried for O'Yeller. That's about the, I mean, if you showed O'Yeller every night, I'd have cried every night. And if you haven't seen O Yeller, and I didn't know it had a cuss word when I showed it for youth activity and I got chewed out for it later because apparently there's a cuss word in O Yeller. And I'd heard it so many times I didn't even pay attention. And I got fussed out later about showing a movie that had a cuss word in it. But you say, what was it? I don't know. I don't remember now. But the truth is I used to cry about O Yeller. Now I can cry about anything. I can cry because I'm thinking something they're not even thinking on the TV show. I mean, I can cry about all kinds of stuff today. But again, we want to make sure that we can weep with those that weep. Notice 1 Corinthians 12, verse 26. By the way, when one member suffers what happens, we all should fill it. Notice 1 Corinthians 12, verse 26. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Will one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now think about it. If you have a headache, you will say this, I don't feel good. What are you referring to? The whole thing. Say, why are you saying that? Now, if I ask you where you're hurting at, you probably can say, well, my knees bother me, or my hips bother me, or I got a headache, or I got a sinus problem. I mean, you probably can narrow it down to one organ or two. Now, I looked up online before I got here how many different body parts there are. And by the way, there's a bunch. The thing that amazed me the most was, do you realize if we took all of our blood vessels and veins and put them together, you know how much that stretches out? this boggled my mind, two times around the earth. Now Google's wrong sometimes, but even if they was a little wrong, that's still a lot of blood vessels in you and I's body and veins. But the truth is that we have lots of organs. When one of them's messed up, we don't feel good. The whole body don't feel good. So by the way, when there's someone in the church that's hurting, you know what ought to happen? All of us should be hurting with them and for them. When one suffers, they all suffered. Now again, Notice 1 Peter 3, verse 8 says, Now again, he says, having compassion one of another. Now, I could tell you when Brother Moss was hurting, you know what many of the rest of us was doing? We was hurting with him. Say why? Because we love Brother Moss. Were we actually in any pain ourselves? No, but because he was hurting, we were hurting. There's been some of you that when you were hurting, there was someone that came and hurt with you. Now, understand, not everybody hurts the same way. Some people hurt and they're verbal about it. Some people hurt and they're not verbal about it. I've mentioned before when Brother Castile, when they lost the little boy that they adopted, Kurt was over there, and I went over there, and they were just, they were sitting, they weren't saying a word. And I can tell you that was one of the hardest times for Brother Block, because not saying a word is hard for me. But Roy didn't want to talk. But Roy did appreciate the fact that we just came and sat by him. So we just sat, you say, what did you do? We were comforting Roy. What did you say? Nothing. Because he didn't, I mean, he didn't want to talk. And I can tell you for those of you that think the person who's suffering wants to talk, more times than not, that is not true. And for you to walk up and ask them how they feel, that's about the dumbest thing. That'd be like, I mean, they just got their leg cut off, and you say, how you doing? Not very good. I just got my leg cut off, and blood's pumping out there, OK? I mean, I'm doing, you want them to say, I'm doing great. What do you expect? Again, you say, what would they do? Usually, they'll lie to you, because that's what you want to hear. You want to hear them say, I'm doing OK. But you know what? That's the farthest thing from usually how they're doing. They're usually not even close to being OK. Now, they might get OK. They can get back to OK. But trust me, right away, that didn't happen. So again, he said, you know what, I want you to have compassion one for another. And then the fifth thing, and I will actually be done, three ways that we can become more compassionate or get compassion. Notice Matthew 21, verse 22. And all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive. So you know the best way to get compassion? Ask God for it. You know what he tells us? You have not because you ask not. So if you want, you say, Brother Block, I have a hard time caring for people. I have a hard time hurting for people. Ask God to help you. So one way to get compassion is by asking God for it. There's another way to get it. Notice Matthew 9, verse 36. See their needs. See, the shepherd saw these sheep all scattered. You know what he knew was gonna happen? They're gonna get lost. They're gonna get grabbed by the... I mean, again, when they're out there scattered, they have... Now, sheep are pretty defenseless anyway, but if they're with the shepherd, they have the shepherd to protect them. If they're with the shepherd, they have the shepherd's dogs to protect them. And if you've ever seen some of the shepherd's dogs, some of the shepherd's dogs can take on the wolves and the coyotes and other animals, even they'll even attack a bear. But when those sheep are out, scattered all around, they have no safety. None. A sheep, I mean, if you ever thought of a ferocious animal, trust me, sheep was not in the first, it wasn't in the top 10. It wasn't even in the top 20 or the top 50. There's a lot of ferocious animals. Sheep is not usually the one you think about. Now, a goat's a little bit different. If you've ever had a goat, you realize how ornery and mean a goat can be. And they love the butt. Love to butt. I mean, so that's why you always have to keep your eye on the goat when you're out there with the goat, because they love to, and by the way, they like to charge you before they butt you. They don't just walk up and butt you. I mean, they like to get a little run on, a running head start. See, you speaking from experience, I am. They're cute when they're little, but they're not so cute when they get bigger and then they can knock you down. But the truth is, we have to see people's needs. So if you get out there enough and you see people's needs, Jesus saw their needs, and each time he was moved, it burdened him. So the first thing, if we want compassion, we can ask Jesus, we can ask for it, we can pray about it. The second thing is see people's needs. The third way to get it, and this is not near as much fun, to go through the infirmity yourself. You know how you understand someone who's got, I mean, a migraine headache? Have a migraine headache yourself. Then you realize what they mean by shut the light off and please. Be quiet. Don't shake me, or I'm going to throw up on you. You'll understand it. Now, most of us have never had a migraine. Now, when I say migraine, I'm talking about a real migraine. Many of us have had a headache, and if we've had a really bad headache, we think we've came close to migraine. You say, do you think you ever have? I don't know. But I can tell you, the folks I know that have had migraines, I mean, they're tough. And it's usually ladies more than guys. They're tough. And when they're down, it means there's a reason they're down, because it takes a lot to put them down. But again, you want to understand a migraine person, have one yourself. For years, I played sports, would see people spring an ankle, and I kept thinking, come on, man, why are you being such a baby? Nothing's broke, walk it off. And I had never had sprang my ankle. Till one time I sprained my ankle, I had a big old, I mean, that ankle swole up that big on one side. Then I realized they weren't faking it. They weren't being babies. It really hurts. Now I twisted it many a time. And I had tweaked it many a time. I had never sprained it till that time I got that big knot on the side. And listen to me, it hurt. Then I finally understood. So the next time someone said, I got a sprained ankle, I went, they hurt, don't they? Man, and it takes a long time to heal them, because by the time you're getting a little bit better, you step out wrong again, and you mess it up all over again. So again, I'd rather do it the first way. I'd rather ask Jesus for compassion, or just get it by looking and seeing people's needs. Because if you have to go through it, if you have to experience the hurt yourself, and some of you have. See, I can now understand. When a person loses a brother, I've lost one. My baby brother, younger than me, when he was in his 40s. When someone loses a mom or a dad, I can understand that because I've lost a mom and a dad. When someone loses a wife, I understand that. I lost a wife. And again, there are some things I have not experienced, so those I don't understand your pain. So if I see you suffering, I would just try to understand that because I love you, I'll suffer with you, but I have no idea how bad it hurts, because I've never had that hurt. But again, there's three ways to get it. One, you can ask God for it. Two, you can just see people's needs and see people's hurts and just go care for them and hurt with them. And again, misery loves company, so when they're hurting, it's nice to have someone, I mean, to help them. Again, the last way and the most painful way is to go through the infirmity yourself. Notice there in your notes, Hebrews chapter 5 verse 2, who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way for that he himself also has compassion with infirmity. So you know what, if you experience it yourself, you don't have this because I didn't want to just put one verse on another page, but Hebrews 13, 3 says, remember them that are in bonds, how? As bound with them. And then would suffer adversity as being yourselves also in that body. He said, when you see their body hurting, think what it would be like if that was your body. So again, it's easier for us when we see someone else hurting. Now I'd whole lot rather hurt with them than be the one hurting. But I can tell you that there are times that people at Liberty Baptist Church are hurting. And I can tell you, if you want to be a big blessing to somebody, It's easy to rejoice with them when they rejoice, and they like that. When they're having a party, they like it when people come to their party. But when people are hurting, that's actually when they need you more. It's not near as much fun, but that's when they need you the most. By the way, they will remember that far more than the folks who came to their party. They'll remember the one that suffered for them when they suffered, that weeped with them when they wept, that, by the way, helped them carry their burden that they couldn't carry on their own. Now again, I said, We need more compassion because I don't think we are making enough difference. Now, I can tell you that Christians can make a difference because it happened the last election. I mean, good people can make a difference. More times than not, good people wait around. It takes a lot to wake us up sometimes. I mean, you have to whip us and kick us and push us quite a bit before we finally take action. It'd be nice in this case, in this spiritual case, if we didn't have to wait until, I mean, until our backs are up against the wall and things are looking really ugly and we're about to lose something before we take action. I can tell you there are a lot of lost folks. There's a lot of half-dead people that we walk by every day. We need to be the good Samaritan Don't just look at them. Again, we condemn the priest. We condemn the Levite. You have and I have too. And said, shame on them. If anyone should have helped them, they should have because they're church folks. This other guy, I mean, it's not even his job. It was their job. I mean, if anyone had, if anyone should have helped him, it should have been the priest and the Levite. They're supposed to, their ministry is people. Supposed to care for people. They would go around and tell people they love them. Well, by the way, if you really love someone when they're hurt, you're going to help them. You're not going to walk on by and go, God bless you. By the way, God bless you. That's nice. It doesn't actually fix most things. Doesn't even help too much. Now, we need to make sure that we are the Samaritan, the good Samaritan, and we do something for those who are half dead. Father, we thank you for your goodness. We pray, Lord, you challenge each of us. you push each of us to realize that you, when you saw the sheep without a shepherd, you have moved with compassion. Sometimes it was for hundreds, even thousands of people. Many times it was just for one. That day when you looked up in the tree and saw Zacchaeus, oh, the reason he was in the tree was because there was a bunch of people on both sides of the road. But you know what? Those folks on both sides of the road, you didn't pay much attention