This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Well, welcome to the last day, day five of our look through Matthew chapter
nine. We're going to be looking at verses 27 to 38 today, and as we look at
these verses, we're going to look at the truth about compassion. We're going to
look at the truth about how to really care.

Kindness, gentleness, compassion, they can't be faked. Unless they grow out of a
real concern, a genuine compassion, they're only tools to manipulate people. You
ever had a salesperson try to sell you something by acting like they really
cared about you?

But you know, you just met me and all you want to do is sell me this thing. You
don't have genuine compassion. Now, the truth of the matter is we look around
our world and it seems like people don't care a lot of times.

Why don't people care more? There's a lot of reasons, but two of the greatest
ones is because they're under pressure and because they're overwhelmed. People
don't care because they're under pressure.

And so all they can see is their own needs, or they're overwhelmed. All they can
see is so many needs in other people's lives, they don't think they could meet
any of those needs. Or remember, Jesus is God in human flesh.

He could see every need from heaven when He came, and He could see more needs
than we could imagine while He was on this earth. And He had genuine compassion.
And He teaches us how to have genuine compassion in these verses today.

So for anyone who's ever said, "I wish I could care more. I wish I could do more
to help," these verses are for you. And especially for anyone who feels, "I
don't know how to care," or "I don't care," or "I don't care anymore," these
verses are for you.

Because Jesus teaches us how to have the kind of compassion that can last
through the rest of our lives so we can make the difference in the world that He
made. You cannot make a difference in the world without having compassion for
the world. You can't make a difference in somebody's life without having
compassion for that person.

So what do you do? Well, you do three things He teaches us. You see people, you
touch people, and you serve people.

We're going to take these verses a little out of order today. I want to start
down in verse 35 to 36, because these verses really set the tone for this whole
passage we're looking at. First thing you do is you see people.

Verses 35 and 36, "Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in
their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every
disease and sickness. And when He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them,
because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. " Now, in
one sense, Jesus didn't see crowds.

He saw people. He saw how they were harassed, how they were helpless, how they
were individually like sheep without a shepherd. Compassion meant that He really
saw them.

He saw to their heart of their real need. They're wandering around. They don't
know what direction to go.

Sheep without a shepherd. He had what you might call heart sight. He didn't just
see from the outside, the external.

He saw into people's hearts. How do you and I develop that, the ability to have
compassion, to see not just what's going on on the outside, but see past that
circumstance, to see the person's heart? There's two very important keys.

First, you've got to look past their circumstances. You can look at a person and
say, "Well, they're sinful and dirty. They don't want their needs met.

They're happy where they are. " Or you can say, "They're rich. They're
successful.

They have all their needs met. They're happy where they are. " But Jesus saw
what people needed rather than the circumstances they were in.

He saw what people needed rather than how they acted. He could have said, "These
good-for-nothing, lazy people, they ignore what God's done for them down through
the centuries. They could have had a different life, but look at the life
they're living.

" But instead, He sees their heart and He has compassion. God in human flesh has
compassion for these hurting people. He saw past their circumstances to see the
person.

It's one of the keys to having compassion. When I don't have compassion in my
life, I'm just seeing the circumstance. If God, by His grace, can cause me to
see past that circumstance, I can begin to have compassion.

We've got to look past their circumstance. The second thing we have to look
past, and this one might surprise you, we have to look past our solution. We've
got to look past our solution.

The old phrase says, "Seek first to understand and then to be understood. " Now,
that's a phrase actually that's used in a lot of business books, popular
business management books. People are discovering in the long run it's better
for business if you really care about the other person, but you can't fake it.

It can't be just about business. It can't be just about business. The truth is,
it's got to be about the heart.

You cannot encourage hearts unless you look into the heart. If you don't know
what people need, if you don't look into their heart, what you offer to them,
your solution, you might be offering them fear. You might be offering them
stress.

You might be offering them rejection instead of encouragement. If you say to
somebody who is so overwhelmed, they don't know where to turn, "I'm going to
give you another job because I want you to feel important in your life," you've
just overwhelmed them even more. You haven't taken the time to do the most
important thing with compassion.

You haven't taken the time to listen. Part of compassion is taking the time to
listen so that we understand before we offer our solutions. It is so easy for
all of us, especially men, let's be honest, to rush in with the solution.

Here's how to solve it, before we listen for the heart. The truth of the matter
is a lot of our listening is just waiting our turn to talk. Let's be honest
about that.

The other person is talking and we're thinking, "What am I going to say next?
What am I going to say next? " We're formulating it in our minds, but if I could
turn that part of my mind off and really hear what the other person is saying,
then I can have compassion, and then Jesus can use you.

He can use me to meet needs in people's lives like you would not imagine. I've
got to, to have compassion, I've got to see people. Second thing I've got to do
is touch people.

I've got to touch people. I've got to do something about it. Let's read all the
way down to verse 34.

As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have
mercy on us, son of David. " When he had gone indoors, the blind men came up to
him and he asked them, "Do you believe that I'm able to do this? " "Yes, Lord,"
they replied.

Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith, will it be done
to you? " And their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, "See that no
one knows about this.

" But they went out and spread the news about him all over the region. While
they were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was
brought to Jesus. And when the demon was driven out, the man who had been mute
spoke.

The crowd was amazed and said, "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.
" But the Pharisees said, "It's by the prince of demons that he drives out
demons. " Now, we're not going to focus on the Pharisees, but again, they're
struggling.

They cannot, by their own beliefs, accept what they're seeing in front of them.
But I want you to notice instead what Jesus did for the people that needed
healing. He touched them.

He often touched a person who needed healing. Even a person who was affected by
leprosy, he would touch someone that no one else would touch, a disease that no
one else would get near. He would reach out and touch them.

He didn't always touch. Sometimes he healed at a distance. He healed different
ways, but he would often touch the person.

And it reminds me, it teaches me that that which I've touched can touch me. That
which you've touched can touch you. You have compassion for that which you know.

It's just a fact of human nature. How can you watch with detachment the news of
hundreds of people dying in some foreign land and you just sort of watch it and
then you find out your neighbor's cat died and you start to cry? What's going on
there?

Now, I know the cat's important. I understand that, but what's going on there is
you've touched that cat. You understand what's going on with that.

It's what you touch that touches you. So if you're going to care about people,
you've got to be in touch with people. Can you imagine meeting some of those
people that Jesus has personally touched with compassion, the feelings they had
about that moment that he touched them, whether it's Lazarus or it's Simon who
suffered with leprosy or these blind men or a woman whose son had died or any of
those people that Jesus took the time to reach out to and make a difference?

When you touch someone, you are communicating into their life God's love in a
very powerful way. The truth is your touch is your choice. You choose to make
contact and Jesus chose to make contact with people.

Whoever you choose to make contact with, you're going to have more compassion
for them. That's a difficult choice sometimes because you think I don't have the
energy, I don't have the strength. Ask God for energy and strength and only he
has for you to touch.

You can't touch everyone. Jesus couldn't heal everyone even while he was on this
earth, but who does God want you to get in touch with so that they can get in
touch with God? You see people, you touch people, and then finally you serve
people.

It's not just a one-time touch, you serve them. In verses 37 and 38, Jesus says
to the disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the
Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

" Now, what did Jesus do about these feelings of compassion? He went out as a
worker into God's harvest field. The scripture, by the way, does not so often
say that Jesus felt compassion as that Jesus had compassion.

It wasn't an emotion, it was an action. He acted upon that compassion. There's a
real difference between feeling compassion for and having compassion on someone.

What we're talking about is doing something about it. Some people act like they
care, other people act because they care. I want to be the kind of person who
acts because I care.

It's the actions that grow out of compassion that make a lasting impact on this
world. It is the actions that grow out of compassion that make a lasting impact
on this world. And God wants to use you, he wants to work in your life, to make
a lasting impact on this world.

Now, notice how Jesus started. He said, "Start by just asking God to send
workers out. " When you do that, guess what happens?

You're making yourself available. You're making yourself available for meeting
that need. When it comes to compassion, always remember, God is responsible for
meeting the need.

God is responsible. He's our Father. So our job is to make ourselves available
for meeting the need.

God, I'm available. What needs do you want to use me to meet in this world today
as I walk through this world? God, I'm available.

Send out workers into the harvest. So let's make ourselves available right now.
Our Father, give us a heart of compassion.

Jesus, help us to see people like you saw people. See past the circumstances,
see past our solution, to see the heart, the person. Help us to touch people
like you touch people.

And Jesus, help us to serve people like you served people. Show us who to serve
today, just one person at a time, one group at a time. Show us who and how to
serve today, and then give us the faith to follow you.

We ask this in your name. Amen. Well, next week, we're going to be looking
together at Matthew chapter 10.

In this chapter, Jesus sends out his apostles, and as he does this, we learn how
to reach out in this world, to do missions in this world Jesus' way. Don't miss
next week.