Pastor Jeff Williams: May 8, 2011 Going Beyond, Part II, "Beyond Compassion." Our church went on a missions trip to the Dominican Republic about four years ago. It was our first trip to the Dominican. One of the days on the calendar, I really wasn't looking forward to. It was the day we were going to go to the Leprosarium. The Leprosarium is just like what it sounds like: it's a place where lepers go. They are basically removed from their family. Their disease isn't understood. People think it's contagious when it is not. It's something called Hansen's disease. I knew I was going to see deformity; I knew I was going to see sorrow, sadness, loneliness, and despair. You really don't look forward to that. I was thinking, "This is going to be kind of depressing. It's going to be hard to see." That day turned out to be one of the most impactful days for me. One of the reasons it was so was because of the doctor we met. We met a very intelligent, very dedicated doctor who had dedicated his life to the lepers in the Leprosarium. He was a trader. He could have been making big bucks working in a hospital or in a private practice, but he chose a life of obscurity where he showed up every day to work and minister among people who could never pay him back. He said to us, "When I see these people, I see the face of Jesus," and I'm sure the same is true for them when they look at his face. "I see the face of Jesus. I am going to be here serving these people until the day I die. Until the day I die, I am here using what God has given me to minister to them." When you looked in their faces, you couldn't help but to see it: you saw the pain. You saw how this one man felt enough compassion to dedicate his life to alleviating their pain and suffering and being their friend. Whatever you do, it could be an obscurity, like this physician, or it could be something that is seen; but living a life that goes beyond compassion is what Christ has called all of us to do. What I want to look at a paradigm for this is to turn to the Book of Mark 6 and look at the miracle that is recorded in all four Gospels. This is the only miracle-aside from the Resurrection-that is recorded in all four Gospels. That, to me, means it is very significant, that its message is very prominent in the Scripture. At this point in time in Christ's life, He is grieving. He has lost a colleague in ministry, but more than that, He has lost a friend and a family member-John the Baptist, His cousin, has been beheaded. This was an act of selfishness and hatred, bitterness and revenge, by the queen of that area, and it cost John his life. When the word was brought to Christ by the Disciples, Jesus decided it was time to have alone time; so they went to the Sea of Galilee. They got in a boat and paddled away, and they were spending some time by themselves. Jesus and the Disciples were grieving this traumatic loss. Jesus is from this area, and He was intensely popular. Eleven of the 12 Disciples grew up in this region; only Judas did not, so they are known. What's more, they have been in this area for about a year now, so they have kind of done a blitz of this area. His power has been seen; He has delegated the Disciples and sent them out in His name, and they've done amazing things. Thus, He has a great degree of notoriety and popularity in this area. When the people begin catching wind that He is coming, they begin leaving their villages and towns by the droves. There are probably around 250 small villages scattered throughout this area. It's a densely-populated area in Galilee. I don't know how they did this, but I think somebody tweeted or texted-maybe Facebooked, but before too long, somebody said, "Jesus is going to be here." Maybe they just did it by talking to people-however strange that is. They were so old-fashioned. By word of mouth, they spread this news that Jesus was coming. Let's pick up the story in Verse 33 together (page 997 of pew Bibles), "But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He…" became irritated and said, "Go away. Leave Me alone. I'm grieving the loss of My cousin. What's the matter with you people? Give Me some space," and they went home in sadness. No, that's not what it says. It says, Jesus saw the large crowd and had "compassion on them..." Why? "…because they were like sheep without a shepherd." You know what happens to sheep without a shepherd. They're vulnerable. They're vulnerable to predators; they're vulnerable to the elements; they're vulnerable to starvation. They need guidance; they're lost. "So He began teaching them many things." In the Greek it tells us that He continued to teach. This was no short sermon. This was a long time of teaching, longer than even one of my sermons seems to be if that gives you any idea (congregation laughing). "By this time it was late in the day, so His Disciples came to Him. 'This is a remote place,' they said, 'and it's already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.'" There isn't a 24/7 McDonalds open; there is no Taco Bell open late at night. If they are going to get something to eat, they have to do it now. In other words, "Let's let them fend for themselves, but let's dismiss this thing. You've really preached a long time today, Pastor Jesus, and it's time to wrap this service up." However, Jesus does this intentionally. He does this twofold. Number one, there is a lot they need to hear; and number two, He has a plan. He is going to teach something; He is going to display something. "But He answered, 'You give them something to eat.'" Jesus knows full well the complexity of the question. First of all, the Bible tells us there are 5,000 men. There are some words that are generic for man in the Greek, and it means mankind. There are other words that are gender-specific. This is a gender-specific word. This is speaking exclusively and only of men, and He is telling us there are 5,000 men. It isn't telling us how many women; it's not telling us how many children. Scholars estimate between 15-25,000 [people were in attendance]. There were 15,000 on the low end; 25,000 on the high end. Let's take the median and say there were probably about 20,000 people-about 5,000 women, about 10,000 children. Families would come, so logistically, there were 20,000 people. They had no food; they weren't exactly rolling in the dough, so how in the world were they going to supply food for all of these people? "They said to Him, 'That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?'" This is not good budgeting. This is not a good decision on your part, [Jesus]. I don't know how much money they had, but that's a lot of money. "'How many loaves do you have?' He asked. 'Go and see.'" Another Gospel account tells us they found a little boy whose mom had packed him a lunch. It says, "'Five-and two fish.' "Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.'" It's green grass; this is early spring. This is like April of the year 29, so approximately this time of year. "So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to Heaven, He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to the Disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied…" You recognize what's happening here. You recognize this is a creative act. You recognize they understand this is no magic trick. There is no way to stash food for 20,000 people in your tunic. There isn't a freezer to keep the fish in; there is no oven to bake the bread in. I do not bake, but I do know where bread comes, if that helps. They know this is a creative miracle. This is the work of God; this is the hand of God. It's a miracle that none can deny. "…and the Disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. "Immediately Jesus made His Disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, He went up on the mountainside to pray." So that is the story, and I want to use that as a paradigm to talk about how we can go beyond compassion. What are the steps Jesus took to go beyond compassion, and what can you and I do if we are to move beyond compassion? I'm going to be intensely practical today with you. This Passage is miraculous, supernatural, but it's also very practical; so I want to talk to the few. Statistics tell us it's not going to be many, but I want to talk to the few who are going to take this message to heart and seek to go beyond compassion and make a difference. [There are five steps we will follow to do so.] 1.) Jesus sees the need. Jesus doesn't just look at the crowd; He studies the crowd. He observes their behavior. He looks in their faces, and He sees desperation; He sees their lost condition; He sees their helplessness, their confusion, and He studies them before He even says a word, teaches a word, or gives one command. He truly looks at them, and He sees they have no direction. He sees they are lost. When we were at that Leprosarium, you had to look at the need. You had to see the need-you were forced to-so here Jesus sees the need. Do you see the needs that are around you? Have you ever encountered a situation of need that was in front of you all the time, and you didn't see it: Someone's loneliness, someone's pain, someone's lack? Maybe it was a group need, and it was in front of you the whole time, and you didn't see it. We're going to learn about a story like that about this process of discovery in our own community; but that's been you. Jesus looked and saw there was physical need and spiritual need, so He ministered to both physical and spiritual needs of the people. Friends, the mission of the church to proclaim the Gospel is spiritual and physical. In fact, the physical is spiritual. When we minister to physical needs in the name of Christ, that is a spiritual act; and the church is finally getting that. It's been in our Bibles the whole time, but we thought all we had to do was say the magic words. Apparently we missed in James where it says, "What good does it do to say, 'Go and be blessed. God loves you,' if they're hungry?" You send them away with empty stomachs. Jesus ministers to physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. The church is called to do the same. They're not just called to proclaim the Gospel in words, but to reach out in action and minister to physical needs in the name of Christ to our community and our world. Jesus does that; He sees the need. Another important part of seeing the need is to use discernment to see the real and fake. [We need to be able to see the difference between] the people who really have needs and concerns and the people who are using the system, taking advantage of kindness. If I see somebody who is genuine and sincere, who has fallen on some hard times and just needs some help, I'm willing to help them. You bet I'm willing to help them, but there are people who when they see somebody who is doing an act of kindness will take advantage of that. Do you know that to be true? They will tell you anything to get what they want. It is like the guy I heard about who at three in the morning the doorbell rang and woke him up. It was one of those stormy dark nights. It was windy, raining, lightning was flashing, and thunder was crashing. It was one of those nights where you really nestled in and were sleeping good, where you're just glad you have a home. The doorbell rang, and he thought, "Who in the world?" He opened the door, and there was a guy standing out there who was drunk. He asked the man, "What do you want?" (In Pastor Jeff's imitation of an intoxicated man), "I want a push. Can you give me a push?" "Can I give you a push? It's three in the morning. I have to get up in the morning. You're drunk, and I don't have time for this." He slammed the door and went upstairs. He was trying to stay in his sleep mode, and he got back under the covers. His wife said, "Honey, who was that? "It was some guy at the door. He was drunk!" "What did he want?" "He wanted a push," the man said. "Did you help him?" his wife asked. "No! It's 3 a.m. I have to get up in the morning. I'm tired!" "Well, how about when your car broke down last week, and that stranger stopped and helped you? Aren't you grateful for him? Are you going to just let this poor man sit out there? What's the matter with you?" "Fine!" He put on his shoes and put on his coat. Now he was wide awake. He went downstairs and opened the door. It was still dark and stormy, and he said, "Hello. Are you out there?" "I'm out here." "Where are you?" He said, "I'm here." "Do you still need help?" "Yeah. I need a push." "You need a push. Okay, where are you? I can't even see you." He said, "I'm right over here on your swing," (congregation laughing). She was going to get an earful, I guarantee you, when he got back upstairs. Friends, there are people who want you to push their swing. It's not destitute. When I talk to you about this, this is not about you becoming Santa Claus. We help a need, and one of the things we try to do is help equip them so they can provide for themselves. Jesus is equipping these people through teaching, so they're not lost anymore, so they have guidance and direction. When you minister, you want to minister in a way that you equip somebody so they can provide for themselves, their needs, and their family's needs. Because if I'm Santa Claus and that person becomes dependant on me, all I've done is entered into a dysfunctional co-dependent relationship. That's not healthy. You might call us at the church and ask for help with your utilities because your utilities are about to be shut off. We'll help you this one time, but if you call us again next month and the month after for help with your utilities, we're going to say no. We don't have that kind of money. Our job is to get the Gospel out. If we start paying everybody's utilities and everybody's rent, we're not going to exist in a couple weeks here. We can't do that. So it is important to be discerning. Does this person want me to push their swing, or is there a legitimate need? It's important to set boundaries. You should say, "Okay, I'm helping you. Here is what I'm going to do. Here is how I want to minister to you, but here is what I'm not going to do," so that the person doesn't become dependent upon you but realizes you are there to help them with that burden, help solve that problem, or alleviate that problem so it doesn't continue. Did you notice at Verse 45-46 what Jesus said? It says He dismissed them. He said, "Now go home." He didn't say, "Come back tomorrow. I'm going to feed you again. I'll be here all week cooking. Come back when you need a meal." In fact, John tells us they want to make Him king. "I mean this would be an awesome king. Anybody who can do that can defeat the Romans. You can heal all of our diseases. You can make all of our problems go away. You're going to feed us every day. We want You to be king." Jesus said, "It's not My job to feed you every day." In fact the next day, hundreds of them showed up again, and Jesus dismissed them. He said, "You didn't come to hear from God. You came because your bellies were fed." Can you imagine having fish prepared by God? I bet even if you didn't like fish, that was good fish; and that bread must have been so good. "We want some more of that," and Jesus said, "You just came for your tummies. Go home. I'm not going to do that for you today." It's important that if you're going to be a trader, not only do you see the need, but you set boundaries as well because there are people that will take advantage. You can burn out really fast if you don't set those boundaries. 2.) The second thing Jesus did was He assessed His inventory, His resources. "What is available? What do we have? Let's not waste anything." They say, "Well, we have a couple fish, some loaves of bread here. Let's use it." Did Jesus need that? No, but we're going to use what we have. We're going to be resourceful. If I see a need and I've determined I'm going to do something about that need, I want to say, "What are my resources? What is available to me? What are my talents? What are my resources? What is available in society?" 3.) Then on the heels of this, we start to enlist others because they are resources as well. Jesus enlisted others to help. He called the Disciples and He began using them. He said, "I'm going to use you to serve. You're going to divide up the groups, and you can distribute the food." 4.) Then He began to vision-cast. I'm giving you three steps at once here because they are all kind of intertwined. You assess your resources, and part of assessing your resources is people, "Who is around me that is like-minded? Who around me can help? What are my resources?" Enlist those people. Enlisting those people involves vision-casting. This is where you let the cat out of the bag and say, "Here is what I want to do. Here is the need I want to meet. Work with me. Let's figure out together how we can meet this need." This is where Jesus starts telling the Disciples, "We're going to feed these people." "What do you mean we're going to feed these people? How are we going to feed these people?" "You watch. We are going to feed these people. God is going to provide, and we are going to feed these people." Then the people themselves begin to understand the vision. "Why are we being seated in groups of 50 and 100? Why are we getting table settings and napkins here?" No, [just kidding]. They understand that they see Jesus with the bread and the fish. They do a headcount. They look at the small amount of food, and they see the sea of people. They think, "We are either going to see something absolutely miraculous here, or we are going to see a fraud. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. We are either going to see the hand of God provide miraculously, or Jesus is going to be proven to be not from God." Those were the only two alternatives. You don't just sort of turn a couple fish and loaves of bread into food for 20,000 people; you either do or you don't. God either shows up or He doesn't. That's this step of faith because sooner or later you have to break the bread. Sooner or later you have to break the fish. You vision-cast. You say, "Here is what we're going to do. Here is the mountain we're going to take on." Sooner or later, it's time to act; it's time to move on that vision; it's time to meet that need; it's time to buy that ticket and leave home. One of our people who I'm looking at right now is doing that-going off on the mission field. She was challenged in the message last week. As soon as I heard she was leaving, I said, "No, we weren't talking about you. You stay home. You stay with us." I'm just teasing of course. 5.) But you buy that ticket, you make your plans known, you step out in faith, and you trust God. You make that phone call; you send that letter; you take that risk. You begin to break the fish; you begin to break the bread. If it's for God and in the Will of God, God is the One that is on the line. Jesus is the one who is on the line-not the Disciples. They're simply doing what they were told. If we do the Will of God, God provides-not us. It's only when we come to this point and we take the step of faith that we see the hand of God providing. I can remember in the early days when our church met in the Rock County Christian School, the grade school campus by the airport. We were a small group of people, and we weren't very old; but we took a big step of faith to buy this five acre parcel that we now sit on. I'd never bought land like that before, so I didn't know about green fees, lateral fees, sewer fees, and curb and gutter [fees]. I just knew it took us a lot of money to get our down payment together. When we got ready to close, the realtor called me and said, "Okay, are you all set for the closing this week?" I said, "Yeah, we've been giving and saving, and we're ready." He gave me the total, and I'm no genius at math, but it wasn't hard to calculate that we were $8,000 short. He said, "Okay, so we'll see you at the closing on Friday." "Sounds good, Carl, see you at the closing." I hung up the phone, and I went, "What are we going to do? We're $8,000 short." One thing I knew I couldn't do was go to the church and ask for more money because that little group had already given their best. I got up on a Sunday; we had our music time, and I preached the sermon. I said, "Now, before you go home, join me in prayer. I received a call from the real estate agent. We have this fee, this fee, this fee, and this fee." I said, "The bottom line is we're closing this week, and we're $8,000 short. I'm not asking you for your money. You've already given your best. I'm going to ask you to pray with me that God will provide and that we'll own this land," so we did. There was no hype, no big offering, and no big pleas. We just prayed a quiet prayer. The real estate agent didn't know about this because I thought, "If I tell him, it's going to scare everybody. It's going to make everybody have cold feet. Maybe they'll back out of the deal. I don't know," so I didn't tell them what was going on. I knew I'd eventually tell him if God didn't provide, but I was trusting God. Monday morning, I received a call from Carl Luedtke. He was our realtor with Keefe Real Estate here in Janesville. He said, "Hey, I have some good unexpected news for you, Pastor Jeff." I said, "What's that? I could use some." He said, "Well, I don't think I have ever seen the city do this before, and I didn't ask them to do this, but they've decided to wave your green fee. These lateral fees you have, they're going to take this and spread it out for you over five years. They're going to defer the first payment for a year. You won't owe that first payment for the first year. Bottom line is closing is going to be about $8,000 less than we thought. Isn't that good news?" "Yeah, Carl, that's great news." I went back and told our church, some members who are still here with us, "O Happy Day-God has provided." That's what God does. You take that step of faith. You're next on the chopping block [and God pulls you down off that block]. What would have happened if Jesus starting breaking that fish, tore that fish in half, and He gave it away and "oops! No more fish. Uh-oh. Thanks for coming, everybody!" He was on the line, and that's where God provides. I want to share a story with you. I talked about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. We just started this series last week. I said, "Okay, if I tell you here is a person from the Bible," you would have said, "That doesn't count. That's an extraordinary person because they're in the Bible, so don't tell me they're ordinary if they're in the Bible. If they're in the Bible, they're extraordinary; so they don't count." Then I used Tyndale. We talked him being about an ordinary person doing an extraordinary thing. He gave his life to bring the Bible to us in English. Now, I'm going to get even more contemporary than that. I'm going to talk about a couple of people who are still very much alive and live in our community. In fact, one of them is sitting among you right now, and only I know who she is. We appreciate our teachers so very much, what they do, and how they contribute to our children. There are a couple of teachers in our system who are working with special needs and working with children who really became concerned about the plight of homelessness among our teens. As they began putting the pieces together of the puzzle, they began to realize the volume of the problem; it was an eye-opening experience for them. They really began to see the problem in the fullness that they had not seen before. Even though they were working with the children, working in the system, their eyes became open to see the need in a greater capacity than they ever had before. Do you realize that there are thousands of homeless children in Rock County? Did you realize that 47 percent of the homeless in our area are children? That takes away the stereotype of what a homeless person is, doesn't it? Do you realize that there are many teens who stay in school long after school is done because there is no home for them to go for, or they go from place to place until they're kicked out of here and kicked out of there? When they leave school, they don't know where they're going to get a meal; they don't know where they're going to sleep, so those become long, hard hours for them. Two teachers said, "We can do something about this. We have to reach these kids before they leave schools, before they turn to crime or drugs. We can make our community a better place if we provide transitional housing for these kids," so they began talking. They said, "Okay, we see the need. We know these children. We know their stories. We see their faces. Let's move beyond compassion. Let's do something." They began looking at their resources. "What grants are available? What people can we enlist to help? Who is like-minded?" They contacted the YWCA. "They're like-minded. They'll care." They began to partner with them. The vision of having transitional housing for teens [began to become clearer]. They began looking at what their resources were. "Let's work together. Let's vision-cast. Let's decide together what the best way to do that is." That's the phase they're in right now. We're going to show you a video that's about five minutes long. I'm not showing you this video to take an offering. We are not taking an offering for this cause today, although you can certainly give if you'd like to. We're not taking an offering today. We're not asking for anything from you today but to be aware, to pray, and to consider how you might go beyond compassion to action to help some of these kids. Let's go ahead and watch this video: (Here is a link to the clip: http://www.wix.com/reburgos/164900). Our staff watched that this week, and it was a lot longer than that; but we wanted you to see that story, see the need. What they're going to do is buy or build transitional housing for these teens in Rock County, so they have a place to live. When they get to the point where they know what they're going to do, their plans are specific, "We're going to buy this house or we're going to build this house. We're getting ready to launch," then Faith Community Church is going to be behind them. We're going to be with them; we're going to help them. I want you to meet Ann Forbeck. Say hi to Ann. I think I see Jeff Bealles too from the YWCA, director of development there. Jeff, great to see you. We appreciate the YWCA so much, and we are friends with them. We believe in the work that they're doing. We've helped with the CARE House, and we're going to help with this as well. I wanted you to see that. Yes, there will come a day when we give. I just wanted you to see that ordinary people can do extraordinary things. I don't know if they do it or not, but they're following the steps that Jesus did. They're seeing the need. They're moving beyond compassion and into action. They're gathering their resources. They're enlisting people. They're casting the vision, and one day, they're going to take that step of faith and open those doors; and the kids are going to come in. That's when the boundaries part comes in, and that's when it gets really fun. I pray that God will birth big things in this congregation because I think we're capable. I think we're able to do so much more than we're doing now. It might be something big like this that impacts a lot of lives, or you might be investing in one or two lives where you can go beyond compassion to action. I'll let the Holy Spirit deal with you on that one, but let's pray: Father, we thank You today for the challenge of Your Word. Lord, we see how You minister to the physical and spiritual needs of those who are following You. We see the boundaries that You set. We see the action steps of using the resources that were available, of using the people, or casting the vision, and then finally breaking the bread and meeting the need. Lord, You've called us to be the same. You've called us to see with eyes of compassion, to see beyond ourselves and our own needs. Lord, when we do that, we find that we enlarge our own hearts. We find that by giving of ourselves, we are not diminished. In fact, by giving of ourselves, we find that we have increased. We have increased in our capacity to love. We have increased in our capacity to have faith. We have increased in our joy; we have enriched our lives because we have entered into the plan and will of Almighty God. So, Lord, I pray that You'd help us as a church and as individuals to move beyond compassion to action, but it begins with seeing. Father, entrust them that You will meet needs through us. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.