This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back to our study of Matthew chapter 15, we're in day four of our study,
walking through some honest barriers that come into our lives as followers of
Christ, that keep us from sharing the good news as we should share the good
news, that keep people from hearing through us as they should hear through us.
We've talked about tradition, we've talked about self-righteousness, we've
talked about a narrow focus. A final barrier in this chapter is compassion
fatigue and you hear it in the miracle that happens beginning in verse 29,
listen to what happens, Jesus left there and he went along the Sea of Galilee
and then he went up on a mountainside and he sat down, great crowds came to him
bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others and laid
them at his feet and he healed them.

The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking and the crippled made
well, the lame walking and the blind seeing and they praised the God of Israel.
Jesus called his disciples to him and he said, "I have compassion for these
people. They've already been with me three days and have nothing to eat.

I do not want to send them away hungry or they may collapse on the way. " His
disciples answered, "Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to
feed such a crowd? " "How many loaves do you have?

" Jesus asked. "Seven," they replied, "and a few small fish. " He told the crowd
to sit down on the ground and then he took the seven loaves and the fish and
when he had given thanks he broke them and he gave them to his disciples and
they in turn to the people.

They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven
basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of those who ate was
4,000 besides women and children.

After Jesus had sent the crowd away he got into the boat and went to the
vicinity of Magadon. There is a barrier here that you see in the life of the
disciples and that's the barrier of compassion fatigue. Sometimes we get tired
of serving.

You probably immediately noticed, "Wait, didn't this just happen? Didn't Jesus
just feed 5,000? Now he's feeding 4,000?

" And that's exactly what had happened. They'd already done this once and now
they're having to do it again. Before we talk about compassion fatigue and this
happening in our lives, I'd like to dig in a little bit to this.

Why did Jesus do it more than once? I mean feeding 5,000 once, wasn't that
enough? Why did he do this more than once?

Let me give you three reasons. Number one, because the people were hungry. Jesus
didn't do miracles just to show off.

He did miracles to meet needs and you do things more than once in ministry
because people's needs continue on and on and on. So he did it, number one,
because people were hungry. He did it, number two, because the disciples still
needed to learn.

Remember last week we talked about these truths that little in the hands of
Jesus becomes much. I need to put it into the hands of Jesus. I need to trust
him.

When we get to next week, we're going to see Jesus again talking about the
feeding of the 5,000 and 4,000 and the lessons that the disciples needed to
learn. So there were still things they needed to learn. We'll talk about that
more next week.

There's a third reason that Jesus did this feeding of the 4,000. He did it
twice. It was because all people need Jesus.

It expressed the truth very clearly that all people need Jesus. Let me remind
you of something. There's something interesting here.

Last week when we looked at the feeding of the 5,000, there were 12 baskets that
were picked up afterwards. Here you might have noticed there were seven baskets
that were picked up afterwards. What does that mean?

You might think, well, that means they had less faith because they've got less
baskets. That's not at all what's going on here. The first miracle that Jesus
did, he did for the people of Israel as an example.

There are 12 tribes of Israel. So there's an expression in the 12 baskets that
God wants to fulfill the needs of every tribe, every person in Israel. Now he
picks up seven baskets.

There are seven Canaanite tribes that were taken out by the Israelite people
that were taken out of the land of Canaan that were defeated. These seven
Canaanite tribes are being represented by these seven baskets. And again, here's
the picture that not just for the Jewish people, but also for the Gentile
people, the Canaanite people, God's going to meet the needs of every one of
them.

So Jesus feeds 4,000 and 5,000 to express both of these things. But in the
feeding of the 4,000, you see this barrier in the life of the disciples of
compassion fatigue. Did you notice that Jesus says they've been with me three
days and they still haven't eaten?

That's interesting to me. Now I'm just supposing a little bit here. But when
Jesus fed the 5,000, at the end of the first day the disciples came and said,
could you send them away to get something to eat?

Here it's been three days. Why did they wait three days? Because I think they
knew what Jesus was going to say.

So at the end of the first day, should we ask Jesus about them eating? No.
Remember what happened last time we asked him about them eating?

Let's just sort of let Jesus take care of this one. They wait one day, two days,
three days. And at the end of the third day, Jesus looks at his disciples and
says, I have compassion on these people.

Jesus has God in human flesh. So there was never a moment that he didn't have
compassion. Because God's character is to have compassion for his creation.

But you and I as human beings, we struggle with this thing called compassion
fatigue. The disciples may have had the faith to believe even that Jesus could
feed these 4,000, but not the energy to think they could do it. The first time
you're involved in God working a great miracle, you often feel the adrenaline.

But the second time, the third time, the fourth time, you feel the weariness.
Remember, 4,000 people. That means there are 4,000 men, 4,000 probably women,
4,000 children, and probably 12,000 to 15,000.

And the disciples are handing the bread out to every single person. That's a lot
of bread. That's a lot of fish.

That's a lot of work. What do you do when you get compassion fatigue? Because it
happens to every follower of Jesus.

Everyone who begins to serve others at some point gets to this place of feeling,
"I don't know if I can care anymore. I don't know if I have the strength to
serve anymore. " Here's two things that you do.

If you're not going through this now, you're going to go through it someday. So
remember these two things. Number one, stop trying to be Jesus.

One of the reasons we get compassion fatigue is we're trying to be Jesus for
everyone and you can't. In fact, even Jesus didn't heal everyone. He healed this
person and then that person and then this person.

We try to be even better than Jesus sometimes. You're human. And remember, even
Jesus needed rest.

You need rest. The first thing to do when you have compassion fatigue is to get
physical rest. And then along with that physical rest, you need to get some soul
rest.

You need to spend some time with God. But I will tell you, the physical rest is
almost more important than the soul rest. Elijah and his experience with the
defeat of all the prophets on Mount Carmel and then running away from that,
hiding away in the Old Testament is another great example of compassion fatigue
in the Bible.

And the first thing God told him to do was rest and eat. So stop trying to be
Jesus. Stop trying to be more than Jesus.

Second thing you do when you have compassion fatigue is you do this. You expect
Jesus to be Jesus. You see, only Jesus can feed 5,000 miraculously.

He might involve you in it, but only he can do it. So you get involved in what
he's doing. You keep involved in what he's doing.

And you realize Jesus is Jesus. He's going to be doing it even when I take a
break. Sometimes we think if I take a break, God can't be working.

Just think, just for a moment, think with me about the theology behind that. The
truth of the matter is God has work to do and he wants to do that work through
your life. But as he works through your life, it's Jesus who's doing the work.

It's not you. So stop elevating yourself trying to be Jesus. Expect more and
more Jesus to be Jesus.

Rejoice in who he is and what he's doing and the miracles that he's working.
Don't try to work miracles for him. Get involved in the miracles that he's
working and rejoice in that.

Now I know this is a common problem among servants of Jesus Christ, though I
know you might be going through this right now. I want to pray for God to give
you wisdom. Would you pray with me?

Lord, I pray for those right now who are listening to this, who are facing
compassion fatigue. And I pray you would give them the wisdom, the freedom in
Christ to get the rest that they need, resting in you, resting their bodies and
then resting their souls. And I pray that you would give them the wisdom, the
joy in Jesus to expect you to be the one who's at work, to stop trying to do the
work for you.

Lord, forgive us for those times when we thought it's us. It's you who's doing
the work and we rejoice in that. Thank you that you involve us in the work, but
thank you also that you care about us as we're serving you.

Help us to sense your care and your compassion for us right now, Jesus. I pray
this in your name, amen.