Marked by Compassion: Authority, Prayer, and Action

Praise the Lord.Will you stand with me this morning?We’re continuing our series entitled Branded: Whose Brand Are You Wearing?Remember that Christians are like cowboys.Disciples are like desperados, right?We stand out.Jesus never called us to be like everybody else.We’re marked by Jesus.I want to read Mark chapter 2.If you turn in your Bibles, Mark chapter 2.We’re gonna read 12 verses there, and then I’m gonna go over to Mark 16.Mark 2:1-12: A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them.Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by 4 of them.Since they could not get in, uh, could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it, and then lowered the man, or lowered the mat the man was lying on.When Jesus saw their faith, he, he, uh, he said to the, uh, paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”Now, some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, “Why does this fellow talk like that?He’s blaspheming!Who can forgive sins but God alone?”Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why do you think, uh, why are you thinking these things?Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’?But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”He got up and took his mat and walked out in full view of them all.This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”Amen.And then Mark 16:15-16, He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”Let’s pray.Lord, thank you for your Word.And Lord, we honor your Word this morning by standing, because we believe that the Bible is inspired by God.It’s God-breathed.And so, Lord, we thank you for the Word of God to instruct us, to guide us.Lord, I pray for spiritual ears to hear, spiritual eyes to see.Lord, help us to understand your Word this morning and be able to apply it to our lives.In Jesus’ name, amen.Amen.You may be seated.Well, first, just a fun story, okay?And this story is, uh, really relates to one of the points in the message about authority and knowing who you are in Christ Jesus.But this is just for fun.When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office.One day, after a busy morning chasing votes and no lunch, he arrived at a church barbecue.It was late afternoon, and Herter was famished.As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken.Uh, she put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line.”Excuse me,” Governor Herter said, “Do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?””Sorry,” the woman told him.”I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person.””But I’m starved,” the governor said.”Sorry,” the woman said again.”Only one to a customer.”Governor Herter was a modest and un- un- unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around.”Do you know who I am?”he said.”I’m the governor of this state.””Do you know who I am?”the woman said.”I’m the lady in charge of the chicken.Move along.”So I share, I share that story just to remind us that it’s important to know who we are.And for us, as Christians, to know who we are in the Lord, because that’s where your authority comes from in life.We’ve been looking at what marks us as we go through the Gospel of Mark.What marks us as Christians?We’ve already talked about, well, as Christians, we’re marked by repentance and forgiveness.We’re marked by the Spirit and service.And this morning, our message is really focused on the mission of compassion.We’re marked by Jesus’ mission of compassion.I hope we’re getting that Sunday after Sunday.I know God just continues to pour that into my heart.We’re not here for us.We’re f- we’re here for them.Amen.We’re, we’re not, as a church, we’re not here gathered together just for us.Yes, when we come together, this is a Christian gathering.We’re here to worship our God.We’re here to study the Word.We’re here to grow in the Lord.But we’re here to be on mission with Jesus, knowing God, building people, sharing hope.That’s who we are as a church.We want to be on mission with whatever the Lord is up to.We wanna make His name famous.And that’s really what this message is focused on this morning.Jesus was on mission, and it was a mission of compassion.I want us just for a minute to think about the great, the Great Commission.We read from Mark chapter 16.That’s one place that we hear about the biblical commission that Jesus gave to His disciples.It’s also in, in Luke.It’s also in John.It’s, it’s also in Matthew’s gospel.I wanna read Matthew.It’s Matthew 28:18-20, ’cause I think this is kind of the most popular.Here’s what Jesus said.He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, bapt”Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.And so Jesus himself says to us who have chosen to follow him that we are to go.And the way the original reads really is, “As you’re going, do these things.”And so as Christians, as a church, we’re to be on mission with the Lord.Here’s what I believe.I believe the happiest people in the world are those who have come to understand that life is more than just going to work, it’s more than just paying bills, it’s more than just raising kids, it’s more than just doing the mundane basics of life.But the happiest people in the world are those who have found meaning and purpose through those things.And I do that through my relationship with the Lord, is because I’m connecting with God through Jesus Christ and because I’m able to connect with the mission of Jesus, then whether I’m working out at MU Rec Center or I’m, I’m in a grocery store, or IWherever I am in the day, I can connect what I’m doing with the mission of Jesus.If Jesus was on a, on a, a mission, I can be on a mission too, and that’s what brings purpose.That’s what brings meaning in every area of our life.Mark was, who wrote this gospel, he was a close associate of Paul, Barnabas, and Peter.And when he wrote his gospel, he wrote for Roman believers around 55 to 65 AD, and the, the believers in that day, they were experiencing persecution.And sadly, Christians still experience persecution around the world.Praise God, in America, we don’t really experience persecution.We may not be the coolest kid on the block.We may not always be accepted in, in everything.But praise God we’re not really experienced persecution, but if you just kind of take a step back and look at our world today, there are Christians being killed.There are, there’s still persecution going on, just like when Mark’s gospel was written in the first century.And so as Mark writes, he presents Jesus a little bit differently than maybe Matthew or Luke or John.He presents Jesus as the Son of God, but also as the suffering servant Messiah that Isaiah spoke about in the Old Testament.I’m not gonna turn there, but I have it in my notes.Mark 10:45, kind of a theme verse for Mark as he writes his gospel.And here’s how he describes Jesus: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”So for Mark, Jesus is the suffering servant of Isaiah who has come to save the world and to serve the world.What a great model for us.If you wanna change your home, if you wanna change your marriage, if you wanna change your relationships, change the culture and the atmosphere of your relationship in your home into one of service.Now our kids are pretty much grown up now.Our youngest is 20 years old, but oh, probably a decade a- or, uh, you know, maybe more than a decade.It’s, it’s been a while.But somewhere along the line, Jenny got the idea that you know what?Everybody’s gonna do the dishes.Everybody’s gonna take a turn at the laundry.Everybody’s gonna lead the way in being a servant in our home.And you know what happened?It tr- it, it transformed our home to where i- i- in our home, everybody can take their dishes to the kitchen sink, not just one person.Service will transform your life.That’s what, that’s what Mark is really, when he’s presenting Jesus to us, he’s saying Jesus is the suffering servant of, of, of what Isaiah spoke about.He, he came to serve, not be served.What if we started that atmosphere, culture, that conviction in our own life that everything I do I wanna serve others?I wonder what would happen.I mean, I’m, I haveTrust me, easy to preach, not easy to live, right?So I haven’t arrived yet.I’m preaching to me too.It’s not always easy to be a servant.There’s something about humanity in us that we like to be served.I mean, we do.We like other people to do things for us.But what if, what if in your home, what if in your relationships you took the attitude that, “You know, my needs may not be getting met right now in this marriage, but I’m gonna do everything I can to serve my spouse and build them up and bless them,” I wonder what would change.I believe a lot would change.See, Jesus came to us not to be served, but he came as a servant to, to help and to bless and to save others around him.That’s who I wanna be as a church.That’s who I wanna be as a person.I don’t always get it right, but Lord help me to be like Jesus.You see, in the 1st century, Jews were l- expecting the end of time or last days arrival of God’s special messenger, the Messiah.There was a lot of messianic expectation in the 1st century.They were looking for Messiah, and they had read the prophets like Isaiah and Micah and Daniel and Zachariah, and they had read through the Psalms.They knew that.And in the Old Testament, there’s kind of 2 pictures of who Messiah will be, this special, special messenger from God.The one side is he will be a conquering warrior that will rule over all earthly governments and will establish God’s kingdom as a physical, political government.And sadly, in Jesus’ day when he, Jesus, came and said, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is come,” they didn’t perceive that Jesus was their Messiah because they had missed another aspect of what Isaiah and Micah and Zachariah and all of these Old Testament prophets had said.They said, “Well, yes, he is going to come as a conquering warrior, but he’s also going to come as a suffering servant, and he’s gonna lay down his life as a ransom for many.He’s gonna be despised.He’s gonna be rejected.He’s not gonna come to rule.He’s gonna come to serve.”Now we know that one day Jesus is coming again.Do you know that Muslims today are looking for the, I think it’s called the great Mahdi?They’re looking for a messiah.Do you know that Jews are still looking for their messiah?And we Christians, do you know we Christians, we know the Messiah has come.His name is Jesus.But we also know that Jesus promised that he was gonna come again.And so we’re living in this tension, this timeline of, God is at work in human history, and Jesus has come, and he came as a servant the first time.He came riding on a donkey, not a white horse.He came not to conquer, but to change hearts, to change your heart, to change my heart, to bring the kingdom of peace, the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of righteousness into your life.And friends, it’ll change your relationships.It’ll change your finances.It’ll change your world.Jesus will rock your world if you’ll let him.Amen.And it’ll start in your heart.One day Jesus is coming back again, and when he comes back again, he’s gonna rule.It’ll be a political kingdom.It’ll be, it’ll be everybody will know it.That’s what the Bible tells us.There’s a second coming.There’s, there’s a day of judgment.There’s a day of reckoning.There’s, there’s a day when Jesus is coming back, and he will come back as a conquering warrior.But in that 1st century, many Jews, praise God, came to Jesus and recognized that Jesus was their Messiah.Do you realize all of the first converts to Christianity were Jewish?So don’t, don’t get into this idea that all Jews reject Jesus.That’s not true.All of theIn the 1st century, all of the first converts there in Jerusalem, in Judea, they were Jewish.And there’s still many, many Jewish people today that are recognizing Jesus as their savior.See, Jesus brought a different kind of kingdom, and the good news thatFor example, the prophet Jeremiah, he said, “One day I’m gonnaGod’s gonna write His law on your heart.One day all people will know God.It won’t just be the kings and the priests and the prophets, but everyone can have a personal relationship with God.”That’s what Jesus brought to us today.We can all have a relationship with God.We can all access God.He’s not out there somewhere.He’s just as near as you want Him to be.Amen.That’s what Jesus brought us.That’s the, the good news, that we can have a personal relationship with God.But I also believe a part of the Kingdom of God coming to this earth is that we as Christians, followers of Jesus, and we in the church, we need to believe that we can make this world a better place until Jesus comes.You see, I believe that.I believe that because a, a man gives his heart to Jesus that something begins to change in his home.I believe that when a woman gives her heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and begins to follow Jesus and follow the teachings of Jesus, I believe that something will change in her relationships, something will change in her finances, something will change in her marriage, something will change in, in how she interacts with her children.So if you’re not changing, are you following Jesus?Now I didn’t say, “Are you following your religion?”I didn’t say, “Are you following your traditions?”I didn’t say, “Are you following what your parents taught you?”If you’re following Jesus, you’re changing.You’re becoming more like Jesus every day.You’re, you’re taking on his nature.You’re taking on his character.You’re, you’re, you’re getting more into who Jesus wants you to be, and it’s a process, and it’s by faith and not sight.And some days we feel like we’re really getting closer to Jesus, and other days we’re like, “Oh, I just took 2, 2 steps back.I can’t believe I just said that.I can’t believe I just acted that way.I can’t believe I just treated that neighbor that way.”Right?So it’s a journey.Christians aren’t perfect.Christians are just forgiven.We’re forgiven, and we’ve been brought into a, a relationship with God.And so the good news is that we can have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ because Jesus brought the kingdom of heaven to Earth.But the good news is also that you and I together can make this world a better place.We can have an influence on our community.We can have an influence on our home.And I wanna encourage you, start with your home.Start with your personal life.Start with your relationships.That’s where Jesus wants to come in and make a difference in the world.And then as you begin to make a difference in, in, inor he makes a difference in you in your home, y- the circle of influence just begins to grow and grow.I wanna return now to the text, and we’re gonna be looking in Mark chapter 1 and Mark chapter 2.I have 4 points this morning.The first point, Jesus’ mission was marked by authority.Let me just read from verses 21I’m gonna read all the way through 34.It’s a lot of verses.I’ve got a couple of verses up there on the screen.Mark chapter 1, verse 21.”They went to Capernaum,” and by the way, Capernaum is on the northwest seashore of the Sea of Galilee.I got to be there last November.I actually got to go to what they think was Peter’s house where Jesus probably stayed when he was in Capernaum.And as we’ll notice here later, Capernaum was like Jesus’ second home.It was his ministry headquarters.”So they went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.The people were amazed at his teaching because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit,” or an evil spirit, “cried out, ‘What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?Have you come to destroy us?I know who you are, the Holy One of God.’ ‘Be quiet,’ said Jesus sternly.’Come out of him.’ The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, ‘What is this?A new teaching and with authority.He even gives orders to impure spirits, and they obey him.’ News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.”And so what we see in Mark’s gospel is Mark wants us to understand that there’s something special about Jesus.In fact, what we’re gonna see before I’m done this morning is that in every chapter of Mark, and we’re gonna see it in chapter 2 for sure, Jesus declares himself as God, in every chapter.And so as Mark is writing his gospel, and you’ll hear that from time to time, people say, “Well, did Jesus really say that he was God?”Well, I’m here to tell you that in every chapter of Mark’s gospel, if you read it and understand it, Jesus declares himself as God.And here Mark wants us to understand that Jesus is special and that Jesus’ mission is marked with authority.Now let’s go back to, to some of these original verses here in 21 and 22.When I was in Israel last fall, I got toI was a-They invited us to a Jewish home, a Jewish rabbi, and they, they had a Shabbat dinner, a Sabbath dinner, and s- uh, Sabbath in Israel, it starts on Friday night and goes all the way to Saturday night.And it’s a day of rest, and it’s a day of worship.But one of the things that was very unique for me as, as a Gentile, a non-Jew, who got, I got to experience that in someone’s home, is it’s really a time of just family fellowship, and the father pla- prays blessings over the children and over the family.It was really, really special.Uh, in fact, um, it mo- at 1 point, it moved me to tears.Now, it might have been that I was missing home, and I was just missing my kids, ’cause I’d been to Poland, I’d been to Israel.But at 1 point, the dad would go over to each child and, and would put his hands over his head and then kind of join their forehead to his forehead with his hands, and then he would pray the high priestly blessing over them.”The Lord bless you and keep you, and may the Lord’s face shine upon you and give you peace and protect you.”Oh, man, I’m telling you what, it was just like, wow.If we could have, if everybody on this planet could have at least one person who would have that kind of connection with God and with them, and pray a blessing over them, this would be a different place.Amen.Because there’s too many people that are living life thinking they’ve been forgotten, that nobody cares for them, nobody wants to help them.But God cares.God wants to help you, and God wants to help us help other people.God wants to help us be a blessing in other people’s lives.What I see here in the first few verses of Mark chapter 1 as we look at the story of Jesus casting out impure, evil spirits is the Kingdom of God came with authority.Jesus’ mission is marked by authority.He heals with authority.He teaches with authority.He even cast out evil spirits with authority.Now, I know for some of us here this morning, you might be thinking, “Well, Pastor, do you really believe in demons?”Well, the answer is I do.You know, it’s interesting today, there’s many people that believe in aliens and UFOs, but they refuse to believe in the supernatural world that the Bible talks about.Right.So I’m just old, whether you call it old-fashioned or just in my own experience, I’ve had, I’ve had some experiences in life where I can tell you that I do believe in spirits.I do believe there’s a supernatural world, and I believe a lot of the, the challenges and problems that we face in life, that yes, there may be some physical, practical explanations to it, but underneath it, many times there’s a spiritual factor.There’s, there’s something spiritual going on.And the quicker we as a, a, as a Christian who’s following Jesus begin to understand that, that there is a spiritual battle, there is spiritual warfare going on, I think the quicker we can understand that, the quicker we are to invite the authority of Jesus into our life and into the situations of our life.Amen.You see, Jesus in his mission, he came with authority.He taught differently.He had authority, and where did that authority come from?He knew who he was.He knew who he was.I work out Monday, Wednesday, Friday in the mornings over at MU Rec Center, and to get in, you’ve gotta, I gotta take my glasses off and put my face like that to the, to the reader.And that’s partly ’cause I’m older and I can’t see, you know, so IBut then that, it’ll read, uh, it’ll read your face, and then you get into the Rothwell where your locker is.But a lot of times, because technology doesn’t work all the time just right, it’ll, it’ll give you the message, “No access allowed,” or we, or it says, “Unrecognized.”And you’re like, “Wait a minute.I’ve been working out here for 20 years.Surely you recognize my face this morning.”Unrecognized.Unre- no entry, you know?And sometimes it’ll go on like 3 or 4 times, and then you’ve gotta go around to the other door, and then you do it once, and that door lets you right in.But you know, that reminds me, this issue of authority is so, so important.What authority do you have as a Christian?What authority do I have as a pastor?I would say as a pastor, I don’t have any different authority than you do as a Christian, because our authority is in who Jesus is.Our authority is in the Word.Our authority is not in our position or our titles.Our authority is not in our parentage.Our authority is not in, uh, how much, uh, money we have in our bank account.Our authority is in the name of Jesus Christ.It’s in who he is.I remember as a child, and someone brought this up in Sunday school, Luke 10:19, Jesus said, “Behold, I given you a power to tread on serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”This was a Bible verse that my mom used to put on cards when I was a kid, and when we’d eat our cereal or our oatmeal, we’d study that verse.And I didn’t know exactly what it meant or even the context.The context is Jesus, there in Luke chapter 10, had just sent out 70 disciples, and they were coming g- back successful, and they were just overjoyed that they were seeing such a good response.And I just know when I was a kid memorizing that, I thought scor- having power over scorpions and serpents was gonna be really cool.I didn’t understand that that was just Jesus’ way in the, in the 1st century Judea, serpents and scorpions represented the powers of evil.The powers of chaos.Uh, all those things that come against health, that come against living a healthy life.And so that’s what Jesus was saying, “I’m gonna give to you power, I’m gonna give to you authority to speak against and overcome, um, dysfunction and lack of health and”Anybody ever had some challenges with those things?You know, a lot of timesMe too.And a lot of times when we think about exercising the authority of Jesus, in our lives we think about for someone else.But I’m here to say to you this morning, and challenge each one of us, we need to start with ourselves.If you’re struggling with anxiety, fear, worry, you need to start speaking some scripture with that.You need to start doing it in the name of Jesus.You need to start taking authority because you are a child of God, and if y- if you’re in Christ, then the old is gone and the new is come.second Corinthians 5:17.Amen?Amen.And we’ve gotta start taking authority, uh, of knowing who we are in Christ Jesus.I remember a story a, a while back, uh, about Abraham Lincoln’s son, and somebody saw Abraham Lincoln’s son heading into the White House and was gonna stop him, and somehow that young man just kept going.They didn’t know it was his son.But Abraham Lincoln, at 1 point they stopped him and, and he said who he was and said, all, all he had to do was get his dad’s attention and everything would be okay.Let me just talk to my dad.And sure enough, he got his dad’s attention and everything was okay.He got perfect access right into the White House.You see, that’s a picture of who you are in Jesus Christ.Now, in some ways I can never be Jesus.Jesus is unique.Jesus is special.Jesus is the unique Son of God.He’s the Son of David, the Son of Man, the Son of God.He is God himself.He’s the one who can forgive sins or raise up a, uh, a man who’s been paralyzed.He’s God.So in some ways I could never be God.I, I don’t wanna just act like this walking in the authority of Jesus is somehow just really easy for me.I wanna be real with you today.There’s, there’s days when my life feels just totally natural.But I can tell you, there’s an increased hunger in my life to walk a little bit more in the authority of Jesus.I can never be Jesus.But study the scriptures in the New Testament.You will see time and time again, Jesus saying, “I’m giving you my authority.I’m giving you the keys to the kingdom.I’m giving you authority to minister, to be on mission, to live the life I’ve called you to live.”Here’s what I believe: If you’re following Jesus and you’re remaining in your past, then you’re not experiencing the authority of Jesus.God.If you’re following Jesus and you’re walking with him, and you’re not serving others and you’re not seeing God working in your life, guess what?You’re fall- you’re, you’re not living in the authority of Jesus.And so you might, it might be a small step for you or a big step for you, but I hope you will start to get a little bit of hunger to say, “Lord, I wanna be the jo- child of God that you called me to be.I wanna be the, the person of God that you called me to be, and I wanna start walking in the authority of the name of Jesus, and I wanna start walking in the authority of God’s Word.”And that’s where it’s really out today, at, at today.How do we walk in the authority of Jesus?We get into the Word of God and we begin to apply the Word of God to our lives.That’s how we walk in the authority of Jesus.A second truth that we see in, in the scriptures here from verse 35 to 39 is that the mission of Jesus is clarified by prayer.Welcome in, guys.We’re glad you’re here.Jesus’ mission is clarified with prayer.Look with me at verse 35.This is Mark 1:35.”Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed, ‘Everyone is looking for you.’ Jesus replied, ‘Let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages so I can preach there also.This is why I have come.'” Hi, everybody.Good to see you.Glad you’re here.So Jesus’ mission comes with authority, but Jesus’ mission is clarified by prayer.I love the way this text reads because Jesus is clearly thinking things his disciples are not thinking.Jesus gets up very early in the morning, and he goes to a solitary or a lone place to pray.Let me just real quickly say I hope you have a place to pray, I hope you have a time to pray, and I hope that you’re praying often.Because prayer is what brings clarity.Prayer is what brings peace.Prayer is what will bring authority and power to your life when you spend time with God in that prayer, that place of prayer.Now, for me, increasingly, it’s when I walk or it’s when I swim or, and, and I certainly have times where I, I, I pray right here and, and, and I have a place I pray at home.But, but don’t be religious with your prayer time.Just find time to pray.You may be driving.Don’t close your eyes.But you, you may be driving, and maybe that’s when you pray, but you need to spend time talking with the Lord.Jesus did.Jesus did.Jesus was known for his prayer life.in this passage, it was very early in the morning.It was, it was in a, a, a quiet place that Jesus went to pray.And I love it that when Jesus comes out of prayer in verse, what, 38, the disciples are thinking one thing, but he says, “Hey, let’s go over here now.Let’s minister.”Jesus has clearly been with God, and he comes out of that time of prayer, and now his priorities for the day are clarified.Have you ever had that happen?I have so many times.In fact, there’s been times in my day where I’m like, “I gotta pause and pray because I don’t even know what I’m doing today.”And then I go spend about 15 minutes in prayer, and suddenly God starts just adjusting your priorities, starts helping you understand what’s important, what’s not important.Are you developing a life of prayer like Jesus?If you’re gonna be on mission with Jesus, you gotta walk in his authority, but you also have to be a person of prayer.A third truth that we see in these verses, and now we’re gonna look at verse 40 through 45, is Jesus, his mission is fueled by compassion.And if you don’t take anything else away from the message this morning, I hope you take this away.The mission of Jesus is fueled by compassion.I’m gonna read verses 40 through 45.”A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ Jesus was filled with compassion.”Another translation is Jesus was indignant.Now, I know that seems really different, but the Greek word just is a word, it’s a, it’s a word about being moved in your guts.Can everybody just say, say that, “Moved in your guts.”Moved in my guts, right?That’s what it means to ha- feel compassion, to feel sympathy, to feel empathy.Something is moved within your emotions so that you want to take action for other people.”Jesus was filled with compassion.He reached out his hand and touched the man.’I am willing,’ he said.’Be clean.’ Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.Jesus went, uh, sent him away at once with a strong warning: ‘See that you don’t tell this to anyone.But go show yourself to the priest 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.”Jesus’ mission is fueled by compassion.I wanna just think about this man with leprosy for just a moment.We can go back to Leviticus 13 and 14, and Leviticus 13 and 14 had, uh, had l- laws, medical laws back then for quarantine, and if you had certain skin diseases, you had to be removed from society.Does this sound similar to maybe COVID-19?Come on.We just went through this.We know what this feels like, right?And, and medical today, governments around the world still use quarantine.Quick personal story.I won’t make this too long.But I remember when I came back from the mission field one time, we went right down here to the Boone County Health, and we were tested for tuberculosis.Well, my arm swelled so big that the gal was shocked.”Where have you been?What kind of work do you do?what have you been up to?Do you do drugs?”Started to get all these questions.It’s like, “No, I don’t do drugs, but I, I’m a missionary, and I’ve been living in Kyiv, Ukraine.”She said, “Well, you got tuberculosis, and you’re gonna have to take medication.”So I, do you know I, I’m good, I’m good this morning, okay?This is, this has been, it’s been a long time ago.But I can tell you when I walked out of that office, I felt different.I started to think about my wife, my kids.”Hey, should I separate from them?”Jenny assured me that there was no way under heaven or Earth that that was gonna happen.She was gonna stay right with me no matter what.I remember the next few, because I had to take like 6 months of medication.I needed to get my lungs tested again.I needed to make sure that I wasn’t contagious to other people.And I don’t know if you know the history of tuberculosis, but you go back to the early 1900s, it is pretty bad.It, it could kill people.And so I have had just a little taste as being a former missionary of what it feels like to be a person who maybe has something that could hurt other people.And the need to kind of be quarantined.You see, lepers in those days, they didn’t have any cures.They didn’t know how to handle it, and so they would just separate them from society.They would remove them.And so when, when this man comes crying out to Jesus, he needs help.He’s got no other place to go.He doesn’t know what to do.And the Bible tells us that Jesus is moved, something, his guts move.He is moved with compassion.He wants to help this poor person.Church, I hope that God will help me and help you and help us to be moved with compassion for hurting people.And they’re all around us.They’re all around us.People who need the Lord, people who need a, a blessing, they need help in the midst of their life situations.And so we desperately need to return to compassion in the church, we need to return to compassion in our lives.And unfortunately, many of us are suffering from media overload in this area.We are ex- we are experiencing what I call compassion exhaustion.Compassion exhaustion.Ha- have you ever, have, do you know what that is?That’s where because of so much media, you can know about every problem on the face of the planet every hour of every day till you’re just like, “Ah, I don’t know what to do anymore.”So what we really need to do is just unplug from all of that and look right to our family and to our neighbors and to people right around us, say, “Who can I help today?Who can I bless today?”Let’s stop worrying about what’s happening over there somewhere, and how that makes us feel and makes us worry and fearful, and let’s just look for somebody right next to us who we can bless and who we can help.Fourth and finally this morning, and this is the story we read when we opened.Jesus’ identity demanded faith when he came with his message of, “Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”His identity as God, his identity as the Son of God demanded faith.I love the story in Mark 2:1-12.We, we read it when we began this morning, where it was the faith of friends who lowered this man through the roof so that this man could get to Jesus and Jesus could touch him.You see, too often we focus on our own faith, perhaps.It’s important to have faith.Faith is important to God.Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, tells us without faith it’s impossible to please God, and that God rewards those who diligently seek Him.So we know we can’t live by sight, we’ve got to live by faith.Faith is important.But what I see in that story for us who are on mission with Jesus is that it’s more important to have faith for other people.And we live in a very politically divided world today in America, and so it’s easy to just discount people and say, “Well, I’ll have faith, I’ll help those who are like me, and I don’t really care about those who aren’t like me.I’ll help those who are liberal because I’m a liberal, but, but I won’t care about the conservatives,” or, “I, I, I’m a conservative, so I’m gonna, I’m gonna help the conservatives and think bad things about the liberals.”Come on, church.That’s easy for us to do today, ’cause we live in this very divided world and, and God just wants us to have compassion for our neighbor.God just wants us to be moved to action, help and, and that’s what we see with these friends.The man who was paralyzed, he didn’t do anything other than his friends brought him to Jesus, broke through the roof and lowered him down to Jesus.I wonder why they did that.What do you think, Sonny?They wanted to see Jesus.They wanted to help his friend.Sonny knows.I wanted to help my friend.They wanted to help the friend.And here’s, here’s what I see as well, Sonny, is that they must have heard about Jesus.They must have somehow been convinced, “If we can get our friend to Jesus, Jesus will fix this.”And so that’s where we’re gonna end this morning.We’re on mission with Jesus.His mission is a compassionate mission.But what, what we really need to do this morning is put our faith in Jesus and in His identity.Because if you remember the story, after the friends get that paralyzed man to Jesus, then there’s a discussion about, well, which is easier?To say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.”And then the, the religious guys, what did they do?They said, “Hey, you’re blaspheming.You’re blaspheming.”What does that mean?That means someone who is not God is calling themselves God.Well, Jesus says, “Hey, I can say your sins are forgiven, or I can say rise, take up your bed and walk, because I have the power to forgive sins and I have the power to heal.”And so Jesus, right there in Mark chapter 2, is reminding us that He is God.He is God.And so I wanna invite you this morning, I think the worship team or Ken’s here to help me.Can we just play something softly?I wanna invite you this morning to put your faith in Jesus and s- and get on mission with Him.Could we all just stand for a moment as we pray?Whether you’re the governor or you’re the, the l- the lady who’s in charge of the chicken, it’s really important that you know who you are.And as Christians, we have to know who we are in Him.You’re a child of God.You’ve been given authority.You’re on mission with Jesus, and you can make a difference in this world.You can make this world a better place as you walk with Him and walk in your authority.I wanna lead us in prayer this morning, and then we’re gonna sing a chorus.Would you just bow your heads with me today and just begin to pray?I wanna invite someone here this morning who has never had the opportunity to make Jesus Lord and Savior of your life, but this morning you’re here, you’re worshiping, and you’ve sensed the Spirit of God speaking to you, and you want to follow Jesus.You want to receive forgiveness and receive Jesus into your life.Would you just slip your hand up and say, “Pastor, I need Jesus.I want to follow Jesus”?Is there anybody here this morning that wants to do that?I need Jesus in my life.I’ll wait just a moment.Thank you, Lord.Is there anybody here today with me that would say, “I wanna be on mission with Jesus, and I, I know it’s a compassionate mission, and so Lord, help me to be compassionate”?If that’s you, would you just slip your hand up?And I’m gonna pray.We’re gonna ask God to help us be on mission with Him.Lord Jesus, thank you for each and every person here today that wants to be on mission with you.And Lord, we pray that you would help compassion be poured into our hearts, that we would be a blessing to our friends, families, neighbors, community.Lord, help us as a church to be on mission with Jesus, sharing compassion, sharing hope, and we give you all the glory, Lord, and all the thanks.In Jesus’ name,Hi, I’m Pastor Tom Ragsdell. I’m Pastor Ellis Benus. And we’re from Columbia first Assembly.We are a church that’s on mission with Jesus.Our vision is simple: we wanna make Jesus famous in your heart and in our community. Absolutely.Thank you so much for connecting with us online.We would also love to connect with you in person.We are located at 1100 North 7th Street, right in the heart of Columbia, Missouri, right across the street from Hickman High School.So if you’re in the central Missouri area and you’re looking for a home church, come hang out with us.If you’re just connecting online and you’re nowhere near us, then please connect with us in the comments.If you have a prayer request, if you have a question, if you’re, if you’re wondering anything about the Lord or Christianity, please let us know, and we would be happy to engage with you in the comments.We believe God’s doing something special at our church, and we want you to be a part of it.We’re a multi-generational church.We have people from all different backgrounds.We’re, we’re a church of the Word.We’re a church of the Spirit.We believe Jesus can transform your life.That’s why we’re on mission with him, and we wanna help you know God, we wanna help you grow in God, and we wanna share hope in our community.So connect with us, and we wanna connect withAwesome.Have a wonderful and a blessed day.