You are in need of great compassion. S31e123 Matt9:36

You are described as being in need of great compassion.

You are harassed, helpless, like a sheep without a shepherd.

A wise person agrees with the assessment. Why? Because that is a start to get out of this mess. Fortunately, we have a God who has us not only in His "heart", but also in His "GUT"!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey my brothers and sisters, you are in need of great compassion. Now, yesterday the Lord had compassion on a man who had been made mute by a demon. Now the voice is such a critical part of being human, so uniquely human. So certain localized strokes can cause it in our world, call that uh expressive aphasia. You can't speak. And though your thoughts are working, you have no ability to express one's thoughts into the world, into relationship. And it separates you from people and the world of ideas. So it's a major loss. So we talk about it because of a man who lost his voice to a demon. Now, demons are no fun. They work for the prince of demons, the liar, cheat, steal, and murderer. And his demon must be displaced for the man to get his voice back. And Jesus does that. He flexes his authority muscles over this evil. And Jesus is demonstrating his power over the seen and unseen world as we've been working our way through Matthew chapter 9, wind and waves and leprosy and sickness and also unseen stuff about who is he lord over, who gets to be in his family, which clans are allowed, and then here against evil and Satan and death. Alright, so the teaching point yesterday was do you have a voice? Yes, you have a miracle in your mouth, and you have this wonderful gift of speech to do with what you will, and then do the right thing, speak kindness, speak blessing. Okay, today, Matthew chapter nine, uh let me read in verse thirty-five. And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every affliction. Verse 36. When he saw the crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. And he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into this harvest. Now, this compassion word is the most fun Greek word. We have to talk about it. Uh, it's splanktome, and it refers to your gut. So it says that Jesus has compassion. And we would say, I have you in my heart. Well, back then they said, I have great affection for you in my guts, in my viscera, in my bowels, in my intestines. I just think it's so great and funny, which is why we have to talk about it. But the idea is I feel a deep pity for you. I have and feel moved with this sentiment of compassion. I have you in my heart, is how we would say it. They would say, I have you in my bowels. And Jesus was moved deeply as he moved through the cities and the villages. Why? Why was he moved deeply? And it tells us, well, the picture is not pretty. It says we're harassed, troubled, and bothered and annoyed by disease here, against the futility against sin, but we're just afflicted. The Bible in Romans chapter 6 especially talks about us being slaves to sin, unable to get out from under its power, unable to work out, earn away from its penalty. We're just like help us in that regard. And then in Romans 7, it says, But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? In other words, who's going to get me out of this? And then verse 25, Romans 7, 25, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of my God with my mind, but my flesh I serve the law of sin. So in Romans, the Paul makes this argument all the way through Romans is that we are powerless to sin. We need a rescue. And then finally it comes in Romans chapter 7, and then he's going to talk. It changes all in as Romans 8 begins. So the point is we're helpless before him, and we're not so helpless after him. He makes a way of escape. First John 3 8 says that whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of Man appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one from God makes a practice of sinning, for his seeds abide in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because God make because he has been born of God. By this it is evidence who are the children of God, who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not from God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. So we have the power to get over sin once we get God in our life. The other description that is made is we are like sheep without a shepherd. Well, that means we have no protector. John chapter 10 talks about Jesus being the good shepherd. It's a great uh a great chapter, and it talks about the sheep knowing his voice and the shepherd knowing his sheep and taking them out of per of out for pasture for some blessing and then returning them to protection. He's not a hired hand. He lays down his life for the sheep, and he is the good shepherd. So why do we need a shepherd? Well, because we need someone to lay down his life for us, to do what we could not do for ourselves. So this is the helplessness of our previous spiritual state. Shepherdless sheep are mere sheep. And maybe you feel helpless and harassed under your sin. In a way, it's kind of the way it's supposed to be. It's one of the things that leads you to frustration and giving up and bowing the knee to the Lord. Without the reality of the helplessness of sin of being under sin, there is no need for a savior. So why rescue people if everyone is self-helpful? All right, so the big point is that the Lord has compassion towards it towards us. We move in his gut of guts and we touch his heart. Why? I don't know why the Lord has compassion for us, but he does. And so what's the implication? Well, it means everything because without this sentiment, without this feeling that generates the whole business of what the Trinity has done for us, we are sheep without a shepherd, isolated, in danger, and we are just wolf food. We're just mobile wolf food. We are protectionless. So today we see the Lord's compassion on the speech of the demon guy from yesterday, and today in the crowds, in the cities, and the village. So here's how the Lord describes you harassed, helpless, sheep put uh sheep in need of compassion. Without the Lord's compassion, we are toast. Thanks for listening.