Jesus and Compassion - Saddleback Weekend Service

everybody welcome to Saddleback Church we're so glad that you're here and we are so excited that we get to worship with you and so we want to invite you we're gonna lift up the name of Jesus are you ready today? I cast my mind to Calvary, where Jesus bled and died for me I see His wounds, His hands, His feet, my Savior on that cursing tree His body bound and drenched in tears, they laid Him down in Joseph's tomb the entrance sealed by heavy stone, Messiah still and all alone come on let's lift our hearts together and praise Him O praise the name of the Lord our God O praise His name forevermore for endless days we will sing Your praise O Lord, O Lord our God on the third at break of dawn the Son of Heaven rose again O trampled death, where is your sting? the angels roar, for Christ our King O praise the name of the Lord our God O praise His name forevermore for endless days we will sing Your praise O Lord, O Lord our God O praise the name of the Lord our God O praise His name forevermore for endless days we will sing Your praise O Lord, O Lord our God shall return in robes of white the blazing sun shall pierce the night and I will rise among the saints my gaze transfixed on Jesus' face He shall return in robes of white

the blazing sun shall pierce the night and I will rise among the saints my gaze transfixed on Jesus' face O praise the name of the Lord our God O praise His name forevermore for endless days we will sing Your praise O Lord, O Lord our God O praise the name of the Lord our God O praise For in this day we will sing your praise, O Lord, O Lord our God, O Lord, O Lord our God. Well, let's praise His name today, church. Come on. All over the room, let's clap our hands like this. Oh yeah, come on. Let's sing together. I raise a hallelujah in the presence of my enemies. I raise a hallelujah louder than the unbelief. I raise a hallelujah, my weapon is a melody. I raise a hallelujah and heaven comes to fight for me. So I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder you're gonna hear my praises roar. Cut from the ashes, hope will arise. As death is defeated, the King is alive. I raise a hallelujah with everything inside of me. I raise a hallelujah and I will watch the darkness flee. I raise a hallelujah in the middle of the mystery. I raise a hallelujah, fear you lost your hold on me. I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder you're gonna hear my praises roar. Cut from the ashes, hope will arise. As death is defeated, the King is alive. I'm so glad the King is alive. Oh, the King is alive.

Here we go. Let's sing. Sing a little louder. Sing a little louder. Sing a little louder. Sing a little louder. Sing a little louder. Sing a little louder. Sing a little louder. Sing a little louder. Sing a little louder. Hear the praises of my enemies. Sing a little louder. Louder than the unbelief. Sing a little louder. My weapon is a melody, yeah. Sing a little louder. Cause heaven comes to fight for me. Sing a little louder. Hear the praises of my enemies. Sing a little louder. Louder than the unbelief. Sing a little louder. My weapon is a melody, yeah. Sing a little louder. Cause heaven comes to fight for me. Sing a little louder. In the middle of the night. Louder and louder. You're gonna hear my praises more. Rose from the ashes.

Hope will arise. The dead is defeated. The king is alive. ♪ Oh, I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm ♪ ♪ Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar ♪ ♪ Up from the ashes, hope will arise ♪ ♪ Nothing's defeated, the King is alive ♪ ♪ I raise a hallelujah, I raise a hallelujah ♪ ♪ I raise a hallelujah, I raise a hallelujah, oh ♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah. We thank you, God, for who you are. Your goodness and your love. It follows us all the days of our lives. And we can dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. Come on, let's sing. ♪ I love you, Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, your mercy never fails me ♪ ♪ All my days I've been held in your hands ♪ ♪ From the moment that I wake up until I lay my head ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ All my life you have been faithful ♪ ♪ All my life you have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ Oh, I love you, Lord ♪ ♪ You have led me through the fire in darkest nights ♪ ♪ You are close like no other ♪ ♪ I've known you as a father ♪

♪ I've known you as a friend ♪ ♪ And I have lived in the goodness of God, yeah ♪ ♪ All my life you have been faithful ♪ ♪ All my life, and all my life you have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God, yeah ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running out, it's running out to me, yeah ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running out, it's running out to me, yeah ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running out, it's running out to me, yeah ♪ ♪ When my life laid down, surrendered now ♪ ♪ I'll give you everything ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running out, it's running out to me, yeah ♪ ♪ All my life, oh, your goodness is running out to me, yeah ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running out, it's running out to me, yeah ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running out, it's running out to me, yeah ♪ ♪ When my life laid down, surrendered now ♪ ♪ I'll give you everything ♪ ♪ Your goodness is running out, it's running out to me, yeah ♪ ♪ All my life you have been. ♪ church, come on let's lift our hearts together. ♪ All my life, you have been so, so good. ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able, oh, I will sing of the goodness of God. ♪ ♪ I'm gonna sing of your goodness. ♪ ♪ Yes, all my life You have been faithful ♪ ♪ All my life You have been so, so good ♪ ♪ With every breath that I am able ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ ♪ Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God ♪ Well, welcome to church.

We're so grateful that you're joining us this weekend and what a great weekend it is to worship together. No matter where you're joining us from, whether you're watching on YouTube or maybe you're at one of our extensions, our Puebla, Mexico extension, our Sacramento's extension or wherever you're at, we're so glad that you're here today. And if it's your first time checking out Saddleback Online, we hope that you feel so loved and so welcomed. And we wanna let you know that there are ways to engage with our online community. And so we wanna encourage you to let us know it's your first time by clicking the link in the description if you're watching on YouTube or we have a Saddleback app that you can actually download, set your campus to online community and then open the notes section. There you can access our digital program and take a next step. Let us know that it's your first time. Someone from our team would love to personally reach out to you and help you get connected. But that Saddleback app is also a great tool and resource for everybody to follow along with the message today. You can even find resources that might help you grow in your faith as well, or you can stay up to date with the things that are going on in our church family. So we wanna encourage all of you guys to open that up

so we can prepare for Pastor Stacey's message. Well, we have a few other things going on in the life of our church, so let's check it out together. Hey Saddleback, Easter is just days away. And this is such a special week that we look forward to celebrating as a church all year long. Every year, we see God move in powerful ways as thousands of people walk through our doors and take significant next steps in their faith journey. Over the past couple of weeks, we've been encouraging you to pray for someone in your life who you can invite to hear the good news and celebrate Easter with you. If you haven't already, be sure to grab one of these helpful Easter invite tools on your way out today, or use one of our digital invites in the Saddleback app to reach out to someone this week. We believe an invitation has the power to change someone's life forever. If you're newer to Saddleback or looking to explore next steps in your faith journey, Activate is the place to start. Activate is a one-hour experience designed to help you to grow your faith, discover your purpose, and just get connected. Marnon recently went through Activate and shared this. Activate helped me find community. It gave me the opportunity to learn more, ask questions, and connect in a meaningful way. I was able to get plugged into a team right away, and I also got connected to a small group.

And through both, I found a real sense of stability and belonging. That's what we want for each and every one of you, Saddleback, to discover what God has for you next in your journey with Him. You can sign up for the next Activate at your campus today in the Saddleback app. I also wanna share a quick, awesome story of how your generosity is bringing hope and love to our community. Last week, we hosted Cinderella's Closet, an event for high school girls in foster care or under-resourced situations who wouldn't otherwise be able to attend prom. And we all know, prom can be really expensive for young families. At our Anaheim campus, over 450 girls across Orange County and Los Angeles came through our doors and chose their very own prom dress, shoes, and jewelry, all completely free. Thousands of dresses filled the auditorium, but this event was about so much more than a dress. Each high school girl was treated with dignity and care, reminded that she's seen, she's valued, and deeply loved. For many, this was their first time stepping into a church, and we had the opportunity to invite them and their families back for Easter at Saddleback. One mom shared with us that she couldn't afford a dress for her daughter, and when she realized everything was a gift, she broke down in tears,

tears of joy and gratitude. Church, this is the impact of your generosity. Because of you, hundreds of girls felt honored, and these families got to experience the love of Jesus in a real and tangible way through the church. So thank you for being a generous church. If you'd like to be a part of stories like this, you can give your tithes or offerings. today through the Saddleback app or by using those giving envelopes available at your campus. Now, let's hear from Pastor Stacey. Well, hey there, I want to welcome all of you to Saddleback. If you're joining us online or at one of our campuses or maybe at one of our extensions, we're so glad that you are here with us and you are such a valuable part of our Saddleback family. Now, today we are continuing in this message series. We're in the fourth week of this message series called Jesus on the Move. And we are still in chapter one of Mark. We're in chapter one of Mark, which means that we're gonna wrap up this message series probably in like 2029, as we work our way all the way through the book of Mark. But Andy was just saying to me, you know, I intended to move faster, but there's just too much like good stuff in the first chapter, I couldn't skip it. And so here we are still in chapter one,

but the life of Jesus, man, it is so compelling, so captivating. And no matter where you are on your spiritual journey today, the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth is such a compelling person. He draws people to himself. He did it then and he's still doing it today. The power of his teaching, the authority that he brought, the miracles that he performed, there's no one else like him. And so today, as we are reading through this book of Mark, I hope that there is something that comes alive inside of you and just captivated by the beauty of Jesus. If you are new to reading the Bible, could I just encourage you to start with the life and the teaching of Jesus? In the Bible, there are four specific books that talk about his life, his ministry, his death, his resurrection, the miracles, all of the things in the Bible. And they're in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Those are called the gospels. And during this series, we are marching through the book of Mark. And today, we're gonna look at a story in chapter one, verses 40 through 45. So just six verses. That's probably why we're still in chapter one. If you only do six verses a week, it's gonna take a minute. It's gonna take a minute.

But in these six verses, we are gonna see a guy whose life is forever changed, supernaturally changed. We're gonna see the authority of Jesus in this passage. And not just his authority, like Andy talked about in his sermon last week, but also the compassion of Jesus. So let's look at these six verses together. Mark chapter one, starting in verse 40. It says, a man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged him on his knees. If you are willing, you can make me clean. Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said, be clean. Immediately, the leprosy left him and he was cured. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning. See that you don't tell this to anyone, but go show yourself to the priests and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing as a testimony to them. Instead, he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly, but stayed outside in lonely places, yet the people still came to him from everywhere. I kind of love the fact that this guy could not not tell, even though Jesus was like, hey, keep this to yourselves, don't tell anybody this. He was like, how can I not tell anybody this?

Like I just had leprosy five minutes ago, and now my whole life has been changed. I gotta tell somebody. It kind of reminds me of Andy when he was younger and he would buy me a present, like for my birthday or Christmas. He always wanted to give it to me that day, like the day that he bought it. He didn't wanna wait for the occasion because it's like, man, if you've got a gift to give, you gotta give it, right? Or you got good news, you gotta tell it. How many of you are like that? Like you're like, if you get a gift, you want to give it like right away. You just, you can't keep it to yourself. So that's like probably what this guy was experiencing. Like something so amazing has happened to me and I've just got to share this news. Now, for us to really understand the significance of this moment, we need to do a bit of a deep dive on the disease of leprosy. Because today, leprosy is a curable disease. There's only about 200,000 cases in the whole world, which feels like a big number, but when you think about over 8 billion people in the world, it's a really small percentage. And also today, the disease is curable. And so all of those people,

if they were able to receive the right medical treatment, they could be cured. They don't have to move away from their family. They could receive treatment right there at their own home. But that was not true when this story took place. place back in biblical times. There was no cure for the disease of leprosy. And so when people were hearing about it, or if they got near it, or if they contracted it, there was such a fear around this disease. People would have to move away from their family, their community. They would be isolated and could only live on the outskirts of civilization with other lepers. So this was a very isolating and demoralizing disease. Now, by law, a person with leprosy was required to stay at least six feet away from other people. And if the wind was blowing, the law said you had to stay 150 feet away from other people. Now, honestly, when I read that this week, I was like, that sounds a lot like the Bay Area during COVID, to be honest. I mean, it was like, how far can we keep people away from each other? Now, if you had leprosy, the other thing that was weird was you had to call out, unclean, unclean, whenever someone would come near you. And I'm pretty sure in the Bay Area

they tried to institute something like that during COVID, but they didn't have any way to enforce it. And so it just kind of fell flat. But can you imagine? Can you imagine if you're the person that got leprosy, and you had to stay away, and you had to call out, I'm unclean, I'm unclean? What a demoralizing situation to be in. Now, contracting leprosy, it kind of felt like a death sentence, to a slow and miserable death. Because what leprosy did to the body was that it would kill the skin, and that you would end up with lesions and ulcers on your skin that were susceptible to infection. The other thing it would do is it would deaden your nerve endings. And so you couldn't feel your hands, your feet. You couldn't feel. If you were to touch something really hot, you wouldn't be able to tell. Or if you were to hurt your foot, you wouldn't know. And so a lot of times people with leprosy, they would lose their fingers, or their feet, or even a whole appendage because of injury. Leprosy would also disform the human figure. And so it would create further isolation from the leprous person and the rest of civilization, truly a horrible disease. In ancient Israel, where this story took place,

leprosy was not just seen as a physical condition, but people also believed that having leprosy had spiritual parallels. Now, in the Old Testament, there's a book in the Bible called Leviticus. And in Leviticus, there's a whole chapter, like 46 verses, that is devoted to people that have problems with their skin. So it could be anything as simple as a rash, to having a boil, to having leprosy. And if you had something wrong with your skin, the rules were that you had to go to the priest. And the priest would check it out, and he would tell you what to do. And he would determine, are you clean, or are you unclean? I want to read you a couple of verses from Leviticus, just so you can see how people with leprosy were treated. It says in Leviticus 13, anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face, and cry out, unclean, unclean. As long as they have the disease, they remain unclean. They must live alone. They must live outside the camp. Unclean, unclean. Isn't that such an interesting choice of words? These people did not have to cry out, contagious, contagious, or I'm a little bit sick right now. That was not what they had to say. They had to say, I'm unclean.

And it has a different feeling to it. Because a leper was not just considered physically unclean, but also spiritually unclean. There is a physical and a spiritual reality to a person with leprosy. And I want to give you a couple of examples from the Bible of why it was considered not just a physical disease, but also spiritually making a person unclean. In the book of Numbers, there's a story about a woman named Miriam. Miriam was Moses's older sister. Moses had two siblings, Aaron and Miriam. They were both older than him. And one day, Miriam and Aaron decide, you know what, we're not too happy with Moses. And they start speaking badly about Moses. Now, for context, this is after Moses has already, through the power of God, miraculously delivered the whole nation of Israel from Egypt. This is after they have gone through the Red Sea. There's been manna from heaven. There's been water from a rock. All kinds of miracles that God has done through Moses. But Miriam and Aaron decide they've got some beef with Moses. They don't really like his leadership style. They don't approve of some of the decisions that he's making. And so they begin to speak negatively about them.

So God decides to call the three of them together for a little let's clear it up conversation. And it says in the Bible that the cloud of his glory descended upon them. And God says to them, Moses is my prophet. Why were you not afraid to speak against him? Wow, talk about a rebuke from the Lord. And then the cloud of God's glory lifted and the three of them realized all of a sudden that Miriam is covered with leprosy. Can you imagine that moment? How terrifying would that have been? And so Moses, he prays over his sister to the Lord and God just graciously heals Miriam. But how humbling, right? Talk about being put back in your place. I bet you if God did something like that today, we'd have a lot less gossip in the church. I guarantee you that much. The other story is King Uzziah in 2 Chronicles. And what happens in this story, King Uzziah was a pretty good king. He sought the Lord for most of his life, but then things start going really well. He gains more strength. And as he does, he allows pride to enter into his heart. And he decides one day that he wants to be the one to offer incense on the altar of the Lord. Now that is something that only the priests who have been consecrated are allowed to do.

But Uzziah is like, I'm the king, I'm doing this. And the priests are all like, no, no, no, King Uzziah, don't do it, it doesn't honor the Lord. But instead of humbling himself and saying, you know what, you're right, I repent. He just like rages at these priests. And as he is yelling at them, leprosy breaks out on his forehead. And unlike Miriam, God never heals Uzziah. And he goes to his grave with leprosy. So we can see that from these two examples in the Old Testament, there were moments that God used leprosy as divine judgment. We can see that from these two examples. But the thing is, not all leprosy, even most cases of leprosy would not have been divine judgment, but that's how people saw it. Like, oh, you must've done something real bad for God to give you leprosy. And so for better or worse, leprosy was equated with sin. People thought if you were a leper, you had something really bad going on in your life. You have some kind of sin. That's super important for this passage, the story that we're looking at of this man today. And if you think about it, leprosy does have a pretty powerful parallel to what sin does to our life. If you compare what leprosy does to the human body and what sin does to our soul. So sin, it deadens our spiritual senses.

And so that we feel numb to the things that are actually hurting us. Sin deforms the identity that God has given to us. Sin isolates us from our community. And sin literally makes us unclean before God. So when this man, this leprous man, he comes boldly to Jesus, so much courage. It's actually illegal for him to come this close to Jesus. What's happening in this moment is more than just a sick person asking for physical healing. There's like this whole swirling cloud of historical context and social stigma and religious laws that make this particular moment very significant. And he says to Jesus, as he falls on his knees, he begs Jesus and says, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Can you see how that is such a statement of faith? Like he believes you can do it. I have no doubt in my mind. If you're willing, you can say the word and you can make me clean. He believes this about Jesus. And it's so interesting the way that he phrases it, that you can make me clean. He doesn't say to Jesus, would you heal my leprosy? This is more than just a sick person asking to be physically healed. It reminds me of a couple weeks ago when Andy preached on the paralytic. Do you remember that story?

And what Jesus says to the paralytic, he doesn't say, take up your mat and walk right away. The first thing that Jesus says to the paralytic is, son, your sins are forgiven. So two different stories, the paralytic and this man with leprosy, both clearly people that need physical healing. But to one, Jesus says, your sins are forgiven. And to this one over here, you can make me clean. There's more of a spiritual reality that these people are facing than just a physical need for healing. In verse 41, we see how Jesus so tenderly responds to this man. It says that he was filled with compassion. And Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing. Those three words that changed his life. I am willing. Be clean. Immediately, the leprosy left him and he was cured. Isn't that beautiful how Jesus reached out his hand and he touched him? I wonder how long it had been since that man had felt another human touch. Because no one was touching someone with leprosy. You would do anything you had to do to avoid touching a person with leprosy. If you touched a person with leprosy, that made you ceremonially unclean. So no one was touching him.

And I could just imagine the disciples freaking out in this moment. They see him coming. And they're getting on his knees. And they're like, whoa, back up, back up, back up. This guy has leprosy. He is unclean. But Jesus doesn't back up. Jesus could have spoken healing from six feet away. And then he could have gone in for the bear hug. But Jesus doesn't do that. Everybody else is backing up. And Jesus is stepping towards. He's leaning in. He doesn't first proclaim healing and then touch him. Check out the order. He touches him right there in his filth, right there in his pain with the ulcers and the disfiguration. He reaches toward him and touches him. And then he makes the man well. Jesus is so amazing. What a God, right? You would think if there's anyone who needs to be concerned about getting defiled, it would be God himself. God is perfectly holy. And our sin separates us from him. And so if anyone needs to stay protected from that which is unclean, it would be Jesus. But what we see in this story is that Jesus' heart

is filled with compassion for the man. And he doesn't separate himself from this guy. He leans towards him. He touches him. What a God. What I want you to see is that Jesus is not making light of this man's condition. He's not making light of his sin or his uncleanliness. That would be a huge mistake to think that because Jesus actually is very holy. He's perfectly holy and righteous. And our sin is a big deal to him. In Habakkuk, it says that your eyes are too pure to look on evil. You cannot tolerate wrongdoing. So our sin is a big deal to God. And when Jesus reaches out and touches him, he's not making light of the wall. He's not making light of this guy's uncleanliness. He's not lowering the bar of God's holiness. What he's doing is he's showing the power of God's holiness. He's showing that he is the pathway to receive cleansing. So when Jesus touches something that is unclean, Jesus doesn't become unclean. Jesus makes that unclean thing clean because his holiness is more powerful, it's stronger than whatever sin or uncleanliness is in our lives. Whatever Jesus touches makes the unclean thing clean.

Aren't you so thankful that we have a God who's not separated from us by our own sin, but that he, for him, our sin is already a conquered enemy, that he has overcome our sin, and he can reach into our lives, the filth of our lives, and bring holiness and righteousness and cleansing. God is greater than our sin. He's greater than any disease that you have. Jesus is greater than what anyone has ever said about you. He's greater than the identity that you've believed about yourself. There is no area of your life that the touch of Jesus cannot redeem. He is a holy God, and whatever he touches, he makes holy. Now I wanna zoom in on that little phrase at the beginning of. Verse 41, where it says, filled with compassion. Maybe you would circle that phrase, filled with compassion. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. Now that little phrase is a Greek word. I'm going to teach you a Greek word today. You are going to get your money's worth for coming to church today. This word, which I don't really know how to say, but I'm going to say it like I know it, is splognizomai. Splognizomai, OK? Greek word. Let's all just go ahead, and we're going to say that together at every campus.

Say it like you mean it, even if you don't know how to say it. OK, we're just going to say splognizomai on the count of three. Ready, one, two, three, splognizomai. OK, good job, you guys. Now that word is only used 12 times in the Bible. And I want to show you a few examples, because what it means is it's translated often filled with compassion. And it has this guttural sense to it, like it hits you in the gut. If you translated it literally, it would say moved in the bowels. That's actually what it says. But it's that gut feeling, like when something hits you, and there's just this, you're compelled to respond. You can't not do something. It's a visceral reaction. That's what splognizomai means. And I'm going to show you a few examples from scripture so that you can get a more full understanding of what this word means. In Matthew chapter 14, John the Baptist, who was Jesus's cousin, was just beheaded by Herod. And so Jesus gets word of this. And he says, I want to go away by myself with my disciples. I just want to get away. And so the crowd hears about it, though. And they figure out where he's going. And before he gets to that desolate place,

the crowd meets him there. Now, if I'm Jesus, I am super annoyed in this moment, because I'm like, I just need a minute, OK, people? I just need a minute. But that's not how Jesus feels. And in Matthew 14, it says, when Jesus landed and he saw a large crowd, he had compassion, splognizomai, on them. And he healed their sick. This is what led to the feeding of the 5,000-plus people that day, because Jesus was moved with compassion. In Matthew chapter 20, there was a story of a couple blind men. And they were sitting on the side of the road. And they heard that Jesus was passing by. And they were like, this is our only chance to ever possibly be healed. And so they start calling out to him, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on us, just louder and louder. And everybody's like, be quiet. You're creating a ruckus. Stop. This feels like chaos. Just be quiet. But they just shout all the louder. And as Jesus passes by, he hears them. And it says in verse 34, Jesus had compassion, splognizomai, on them. And he touched their eyes. Immediately, they received their sight. And they followed him.

Over in Mark 9, there is a story of a father whose son is possessed by a demon. And he's tried everything he can to help his son. And nobody is able to help him. And so he comes to Jesus in a desperate state. And he says that this demon has often thrown his son into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us, be moved with compassion toward us, and help us. And so Jesus speaks life and freedom over that little boy that day. In Luke chapter 7, there's another time that Jesus is walking through this small town called Nain. And I love this story. He sees a funeral procession. And this story just feels so human. It feels very relatable. Because Jesus finds out who this funeral is for. And it's for the only son of a widow. You think about that for a minute, the precarious situation that that would put this woman in. That her husband is gone. He can't provide for her. Her son has now died. And so she's alone. She has no one to provide for her. And Jesus is moved when he looks at her. It says, when Jesus saw her, his heart went out, slognizomai, to her. And he says to her, don't cry.

Don't cry. And then with the authority that only Jesus has, he brought her son back to life that day and gave the widow her son back. In Luke chapter 10, slognizomai is the word that Jesus uses to describe what motivated the good Samaritan. That day when he passed by the beggar, or the guy that had been beaten. Left for dead and the the good Samaritan was moved with compassion when he saw this man He didn't know this man. This man would have been considered an enemy but from his own wealth He gave toward this man so that he could be restored and to receive the care that he needs that was flogged knees. Oh my now my favorite example comes from Luke 15 and This is the same word that Jesus uses to describe the father of the prodigal son This son who was wayward he had wasted all of his father's riches on wild living the son that had completely disgraced the family name and all this son really deserved was judgment and consequence and punishment But one day the son came to his senses and he decided I'm gonna go home and just sees see what happens And so it says the son got up and he went to his father But while he was still a long way off his father saw him and was filled with compassion Slug knees. Oh my For him and he ran to his son. He threw his arms around him and he kissed him What a father What a guy Can you see how this type of compassion slug knees of my it moves us to action? That's what compassion does Compassion moves us to action that we have to do something when we're filled with compassion We look upon someone else's plight when we Respond as Jesus does in these moments. It requires us to take action to respond

So this was the compassion that it doesn't allow us to be bystanders or onlookers We got to do something slug knees of my was the motivation Behind why Jesus did these things? Why did Jesus heal the sick? Why did he feed all of these hungry people? It was because he was filled with compassion for them The slug knees of my was why he restored sight to the blind Why he set that little boy free from demonic oppression It was why he resurrected that son from the dead for the widowed woman Slug knees of my is what motivated the Good Samaritan to give of his own wealth to help a man He never met before Slug knees of my is what motivated the father to show lavish love and forgiveness on a wayward sign This is such a powerful concept of how God wants us to our hearts to be moved Towards action when we see a need It's more than just scrolling on Instagram and coming across some tragic story and thinking oh man, that's awful I feel so sorry for those people bless their heart and then we just keep scrolling This is a different kind of compassion. It moves us to take action The other thing I wanted you to see about compassion this kind of compassion is that it is the very nature of God It's the very nature of who God is slug knees of my is only used in the Bible to describe Jesus Or it's used by Jesus in a parable that he's teaching And so Jesus is showing us by his very lifestyle that he is our example of compassion It is his very nature even in the Old Testament when God was revealing himself to Moses And he passes by the glory of God passes by the saying that that God calls out is the Lord the Lord Compassionate and gracious low to anger abounding in love. It's how God describes himself Compassion is the very nature and essence of God and here's the part of it that just feels like too good to be true It's that you are the object of his compassion You move his heart and I know for many of you that's hard to believe Because you know what you've done and you know that you don't deserve it And so for a lot of us, we think I I believe that Doctrinally like I can see it in the Bible. I can even believe it for other people But that's really hard for me to receive for myself that I move God's heart Because I know me and I know how far I've gone. I know the choices I've made

I know how I've kind of done this to myself and I've kind of gotten what I deserve And so when God looks at me, he probably doesn't feel compassion towards me. He probably thinks you're getting what you deserve But Frank, can I remind you that? We have a father who runs toward the wayward son We have a father who wraps us up in the finest of robes and he throws a party when we return to him Because he is a God of compassion That is who he is and you are not too far gone to receive the compassion of God today. He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve. So if you're far off today, hear your Father saying, would you come home? Because I've got compassion for you. I want to show you how my love and my affection and my forgiveness is enough to cover all of your sins. The last thing I wanted to show you about compassion is that compassion is the assignment of every Christian. Compassion is our assignment. In Colossians chapter 3, it says, therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion. Clothe yourself with compassion. There are a lot of hurting people all around us. And sometimes the pain is evident, and sometimes the pain is right under the surface, and you can't see it quite as well. But our lives are messy, and we live in a broken world. There is no shortage of opportunities for us to show compassion. And to be honest, a lot of times the thing that is a barrier for us to show compassion is compassion fatigue, right? Because we're bombarded with all of these tragic stories of people's pain, and it just feels like, how could my limited little thing that I could offer them, how could that make any difference in this world? And so we just kind of get paralyzed in our own compassion fatigue. I certainly feel this as a pastor, because I so regularly hear about people's deep pain that they're walking through. And in my heart, I mean, my heart goes out for them. But I do feel that limitation of, what can I even do? Well, there are a couple of principles that I've found to be really helpful. As I've sorted through, Jesus, what does it look like for me to lean towards someone's pain? To, like you did, extend your hand and to touch a person in their pain. These two principles have been very helpful for me. And the first one is this, love who's right in front of you. Love who is in front of me right now. So if you would have eyes to see the people that are just right in front of you, for example, some of you, you might work out at a gym on a regular basis. And there are certain people that you

work out with regularly. You kind of know them to some degree. And maybe one day after a workout, you're chatting and someone shares with you something difficult that they're going through in their life. That is the person right in front of you that God wants you to love. And maybe you could just offer a 30-second prayer over that person, and they would feel so much comfort from your prayer for them. Or maybe there's some physical need that you could step in and meet for that person, that you're just loving the person that God brought to you that day, in that moment. Maybe it's your neighbor or a co-worker, someone in your life. You see, all of these examples of Jesus, it wasn't like he went on a trip so that he could show compassion to those people. Like he signed up for an event, and on that day, he was going to go and show compassion. These were people that he just, they were right in front of him. As he was going, they had a need, and they were right in front of him, and so he loved them. So just pray. Say, God, would you give me eyes to see the people right in front of me, and how I can lean towards them in compassion? The second principle that's been very helpful to me is to do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone. Listen, friend, the reality is you can't provide a meal for every person that you know of that's going through a crisis. But you could provide a meal for someone. And so don't allow the reality that I can't do it for everyone to stop you. Just choose one person, and to say, I'll do it for you. You can't, you can't tutor or mentor every vulnerable child or every student that's at risk, but you could tutor or mentor someone. You could invite a single person to spend the holidays with you. You couldn't do it for every single person, but your family could adopt one person. Your family might be led to adopt a child or foster a child. You might not be able to solve the problem of vulnerable children in the world, but you might could do it for one person. There's a huge homeless crisis in our world today, and you're probably not the person that's going to figure it out and solve it. But there might be a homeless person in your neighborhood that you could find out their name, you could befriend them, hear a little bit about their story, move towards them with compassion. There's so many needs that are all around us, and we get overwhelmed. and paralyzed by them. But what if we would allow our hearts

to be broken for one person? And to say, I can't do it for everybody, but I can do it for you. And so I'm not going to allow my heart to grow cold, and hardened, and cynical. I'm going to allow God to break my heart, to fill me with compassion for this person, and I'm gonna give myself to them. Pastor Buddy was telling me in between services that let's say we have about 20,000 people that attend Saddleback all over our campuses. What if all of us did it for one person? 20,000 people whose lives would be touched just this week because we saw them, because we moved towards them. What if we did it for one person every single week for a whole year? That would be a million people that our church could touch. Your one person matters. And so if you would lean in and allow God to break your heart, fill you with compassion for one person through this church family, we could have such an impact on the communities in which we live. You know, in a couple weeks we have Easter. And Easter is such an amazing opportunity to show love and compassion to people. Somehow people know that Easter is about more than the Easter bunny in pastel colors. They somehow know that it has something

to do with Christianity. And if they knew a Christian in their life who would extend an invitation to come to church with them, you would be amazed at how delighted people might be to say yes to that, to come with you to church on Easter, to hear about this amazing news that there is a God in heaven who has so much compassion and love for them that he stepped out of heaven into their world and he lived a perfect life and he died a death that he should not have died to make a way for us to experience his love and his forgiveness and his compassion. That's the most amazing news. And your invitation to that one person could make all the difference in their life. It's an act of compassion. It's an act of love to lean towards someone and to invite them in. So I wanna give us a time to respond today. And the invitation that I have for you is threefold, okay? Three different ways to respond. And I think each of us can find ourself in here somewhere. The first invitation is for those of us who have never experienced the compassion of God before in our life, that you're the wayward son. You're the one who's far off. And God is saying, here I am. I am a loving father and you are invited home. Would you come home to me? Would you repent of trying to do life on your own

because I have so much love and forgiveness and compassion for you and I wanna welcome you into the family today. If you've never received Jesus as your savior, if you've never experienced his love and compassion, today could be that day for you. The second invitation is for so many people, so many people that are going through a really painful situation in your life and you need to feel the touch of heaven today. Like that man, that leprous man that fell on his knees begging Jesus to intervene in this situation that he had no control over. There was nothing he could do to make himself well. There was nothing he could do to make himself clean. And he says, Jesus, I'm begging you, would you be willing? And Jesus said, yes, I'm willing. I will step in your pain with you. I know there are those of you who are grieving today. There are those of you who are walking through divorce today. Some of you are fighting so hard to be free from addiction today. There's so much pain in our midst and you are the people that Jesus wants to step towards with compassion. And so if that's you today, I just wanna invite you, whether literally or figuratively, that you would just like that leprous man, get on your knees before God and say, this is my situation. Would you touch me today?

The third invitation is for everybody because there is someone in all of our lives that Jesus wants us to be filled with compassion towards. And so I'm asking for God to drop a specific name in each of our hearts. Who is the person in your life that Jesus wants you to lean towards, to show some act of compassion? Maybe it's a word, maybe it's meeting a physical need, maybe it's that. invitation to come to Easter with your family, whatever it is, there's someone for all of us that Jesus wants us to lean towards this week. And I'm asking that he would put that name in your heart. So let's pray for a few minutes together, and we'll just walk through these three different invitations. If today you need to receive the compassion of Jesus for the first time, the forgiveness of your sins, to receive him as your savior, would you just say something like this to him? Jesus, I acknowledge that I need you. I'm sorry for trying to live life according to my own way, my own strength, and I want to invite you now to come and forgive me of my sin. I surrender control of my life to you, and I want you to be my Lord and my savior. Thank you for your compassion, your love, and your mercy towards me.

For those of you who are hurting today, and you need the touch of heaven in your painful situation, I just want to pray over you. Jesus, just as you extended your hand to touch the leper, would you extend your hand towards these people who are in pain today? You know each of their situations. And so God, we just lift them up to you, knowing that you are willing. You are a God of compassion. You lean into our pain. You don't step back. So God, I pray that you would allow people to realize you are so near to them when they're brokenhearted. They never walk alone. Be their comfort and their strength in this pain. And Father, I also want to pray for all of us that you would drop a name in our heart. Someone that you are saying, I want you to be my hands of compassion on the earth right now. Just like you extended your hand toward the leper. God, how can we extend our hand towards someone who's needing compassion right now around us? Give us eyes to see. Give us a heart of love that's moved with compassion. Come Lord, we give our lives to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen, amen. Amen. ♪ I'll live for the moments we're still in your presence ♪

♪ All the noise dies down, Lord speak to me now ♪ ♪ You have all my attention, I will linger and listen ♪ ♪ I can't miss a thing, Lord I know my heart wants more of you ♪ ♪ My heart wants something new so I surrender all I want ♪ ♪ All I want is to live within your love ♪ ♪ Being done by who you are, my desire is to know you deeper ♪ ♪ My desire is to know you deeper, Lord I will open up again ♪ ♪ Throw my fears into the wind, I am desperate for a touch ♪ ♪ There's hope that I want, Lord, Lord I'll still live within your love ♪ ♪ Being done by who you are, my desire is to know you deeper ♪ ♪ Lord, I will open up again, throw my fears into the wind ♪ ♪ I am desperate for a touch of heaven ♪ ♪ Everything changes in your presence, Lord, I sing ♪ ♪ I open up my heart to you, I open up my heart to you, Lord ♪ ♪ I open up my heart to you, let this be a response and invitation ♪ ♪ To do what only you can, Jesus, Jesus have your way in me now ♪ ♪ I open up my heart to you, yes, I open up my heart to you, Lord ♪ ♪ I open up my heart to you, yes, I open up my heart to you, Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, so do what only you can ♪ ♪ Jesus have your way in me now ♪ ♪ All I want is to live within your love ♪ ♪ Be undone by who you are ♪ ♪ My desire is to blow you deeper ♪ ♪ Lord, I will open up again ♪ ♪ Throw my fears into the wind ♪ ♪ I am desperate for your love ♪ ♪ All I want is to live within your love ♪ ♪ Be undone by who you are, Lord ♪ ♪ My desire is to know you deeper ♪ ♪ Lord, I will open up again ♪

♪ Throw my fears into the wind ♪ ♪ I am desperate for a touch of heaven ♪ Well, we are so glad that you decided to join us for church today. It was such a powerful message from Pastor Stacey, and she encouraged us to take a next step. We get to hear such great messages each weekend, but we also wanna take a next step in our faith and to grow. And so she encouraged us in three things. One, maybe there's a way that you need to accept Christ into your life for the very first time. Two, maybe there's something that you need prayer for, something that you need to receive compassion in from Jesus. Or three, maybe there's somebody in your life who needs to hear the hope of Jesus. We would love to be praying for you and helping you walk through these next steps as well. So you can let us know what next step you might wanna take in your faith by clicking the link in the description if you're watching on YouTube, or you can open the Saddleback app and go to our digital program to let us know that way as well. But Easter is also three weeks away, and so we wanna encourage you to be thinking about who you can be inviting to watch the Easter message with you or who you can share the message with. Church family, we love you so much. We hope to see you again next week.

Thank you.