2026 06 14 - Are You Starting to Feel Compassion Fatigue? - Popp

Grace, peace and mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. I thought that gummy cluster nerd would be a good idea to get me fired up for the sermon. But I had a crown put in Thursday and for a second there I thought I was in trouble. So grab it.

I didn't know how to help the kids understand what we understand and realize it's different. See, we're. We're busy, we're over scheduled, we're judgy, we're tired. Two weeks ago, when I preached on Trinity Sunday, the Great Commission, I know we desired to do it, but. But it's tough.

We're going to start the next three weeks, kind of a mini sermon series based on the gospel readings in Matthew. Today we're talking about eyes. Eyes to see. We'll get to the hearts and lives to love, but eyes to see. You saw that opening picture a lady coming out of the supermarket who has so many people needing her help, desiring help.

I thought about this a lot and I thought, how many times have we gotten ready to leave a store knowing there's going to be somebody out there wanting help, somebody that's going to need something or somebody wandering the parking lot that's going to ask for a dollar. Wish we had that invisibility cloak, right? Harry Potter. Just walk right through and nobody sees us. Well, I think this is the version we do, right?

Don't make eye contact. Don't make eye contact. How many can we help? What can we do?

I said it before, I think compassion fatigue is a real thing.

I know, I felt it. I know I've talked about it with some of our other servants here. And how do we handle this? He is risen indeed. That is at the base of everything we're going to talk about.

Jesus was doing this thing when he sends out the 12 to join him doing the work of the Lord.

Let's take a closer look at these passages and what eyes we need to view things through, right? Jesus had compassion on them. We heard that right away in chapter nine. So verse 36.

He loved people. They're his. He was doing everything he could, right? Teaching, preaching and healing. What scared me, I kind of emphasized it when I read this to you, was that every healing, every disease and every affliction throughout cities and villages, everyone.

It exhausts me just thinking about it. How do we handle that? I mean, Jesus was still in human body. He had to be tired. And I kind of think it's funny.

He tells the apostles, let's pray to the Lord to send the Workers, and then he sends them. Right. It's kind of how it works sometimes, isn't it? The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. You know, I like this graphic.

As he sends them out, as the twelve gather, he gives them the instructions. We see verses five through eight kind of spelled out there.

They were sent to do his work. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Still is. We're waiting for Jesus to come back and bring us home. We could say the same thing still.

So what makes this different? Well, today I want to focus on this idea, looking at others through the Master's eyes.

Let's focus on Jesus. Focus on what God did. Because the directions were clear. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out the demons, and do it for free. I was a little worried that came up on the day we're going to talk about the budget, right?

That's not good. Do it for free. Didn't exactly say do it for free. Just said, you know, you received without paying, give without pay.

It does go back again to that thing where when I try to hold on to what I have, I have to remember whose it is. What has God blessed us with so we can bless others? Well, what is he asking us to do? I'm going to hit you right now. What is he asking us people here in the sanctuary today?

What is he asking us to do? To help others, to love others, to live different?

I fully believe that if I was to put a lot of you into that same picture, you would have given to the sports team and wished them good luck and maybe looked at those possibilities of those fundraisers and gone and helped the older people put their bags in the car and put their cart away. And you may have even helped the person sleeping in the parking lot.

But are we doing it with a heart? Looking through God's eyes?

How is he preparing us to do this? I hope this preparation is one of the reasons in which you come to worship. Yet we get to sing his praises, we're forgiven of our sins. We hear his word. A lot of blessings that come from worshiping.

But what does it mean when we leave from this place, how often do we walk through those doors and have stopped reading what's right above the door? Because it's just there anymore. Remember what it says. What's it say when we leave this church, Depart to serve. Right, it's that whole saying, you are now entering the mission field.

Depart to serve. How are we prepping and preparing for this? Well, who could we help? How do we recognize them. I think this is where we have to be very careful about trusting our own eyes.

As I was looking at this and I am not smart enough for this three week mini sermon series. I read it on one of our great pastors articles about using the next three weeks.

All of a sudden it opened my eyes to what we were looking at right here and how we can't trust what we see. I thought about John 9:39. Jesus said, for judgment. I came into this world that those who do not see may see and those who see may become blind. Why is it he wants us to be blind to our own eyes?

Well, we have two great examples right in scripture. I want to share two wonderful biblical examples. But before we get to the biblical ones, let's talk about one a lot of us nerds, us Gen Xers will know, right? Little scene in that 1977 movie Star A New Hope where Luke is training and he's training to use the lightsaber and he puts on this helmet with the blast shield and he goes, but I can't see. What does Obi Wan tell him?

Use the force. That's a terrible Alex Guinness impression. But his point was quit worrying about what you see with your eyes and feel. I'm not going to teach how to use a lightsaber today, but I love that idea. Don't trust what we see.

Our eyes are sinful and the way we view things are not going to be the way God views things. I think you know what I mean by that. We have Saul being struck blind. Saul was persecuting Christians and he thought what he was doing was the right thing. How many people out there think they're doing the right thing when they speak ill of our Lord and Savior, when they speak ill of Christians, of the Bible, when they say hateful things and they think they're being helpful?

Of course we saw when the scales were peeled back and he finally was able to explain and the apostles trusted him. What Paul went on to do. The other one I saw, I really liked Washington. Elisha blinds the Armenian army where they're coming in and he just blinds them. Can't fight if you can't see.

And he leads them out and he helps them see in the same army that was coming to kill. He feeds his compassion. God can use the blindness, reaching out to others through the master's eyes.

We have to rely on the Holy Spirit. I was probably very poorly for little little ones, but I was trying to explain up there when we have that push in, that feel where we're like, I should go do. Listen. When we're in touch and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us, we don't know what he's going to call us to do or to help or how to be with others. This last part.

So in today's gospel reading it actually had 9 through 20 in parentheses. I didn't feel the need to read all of it during our gospel reading. But I do want to read that last 16 through 20 to you so you understand where I'm going. Behold, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Beware of men. They will deliver you over to courts and flog you in the synagogues. You'll be dragged before governors and kings for my sake. And bear witness before them, the Gentiles, when they deliver you over. Do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say.

For what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your Father speaking through you. I think that's so important for what we say or do here. Because, and I did change it to beware. That's why I put it in italics.

It actually says, behold, I said beware being sent out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Every time I hear that, I think of that one police officer when we were talking about safety here at school, and I just asked him, I said, should one of us have a gun? He goes, no. So why not? Because more times than not, wonderful God fearing Christian people hesitate and they won't.

And then they have your gun. Thought a lot about that. I'd like to think I'd defend somebody, but we love people. How many second, third, fourth, fifth chances do we give the same person? Only to be hurt, to be wounded.

So difficult.

Do you recognize the wolves around you? Instantly, our thoughts go right to the people we see. But don't assume it's people. I thought about three A's in our lives, things we're addicted to that take our time from God. Our attitude, which can certainly pull us away.

And the worst one of all, I think sometimes apathy goes back to that compassion fatigue when, when we truly stop caring. We have to be careful how it comes. I go back to the phone call I had with a parent. They told me that their child had considered taking their life. And I said, and.

And they're like, and aren't you worried? Of course I am. But it's the third time I've Heard it this week, so you know, I'd like more information.

Do we become so numb that the things that should make us outraged no longer bothers us? I see it in my own viewing habits and the things I watch and how things that should bother me don't anymore. The way I handle things, the way I watch. As the devil works through so many God fearing people in awful ways.

Should we fear them or have pity on them? I'm talking about the wolves of course, the people out there, the ones who are struggling, the ones who push back, the ones who are angry. I want to talk about the difference just for a second in the non Christian versus the anti Christian people. The non Christian person really doesn't bother us much. In fact, they're usually pretty nice.

It's the anti Christian going to hurt us, it's going to push back. And yet I'm here to tell you today I'm more worried about the non Christian because if you're anti Christian, you're pushing back for a reason. I think most of them know the truth and they have no choice. They're not going to believe in God and they have to fight it because they know they're going to hell. It's the apathy again, the non Christian that worries me.

How do we reach that?

Are you starting to feel this compassion fatigue? Maybe it's a sibling or a relative in your family. Maybe it was a close friend who's struggling. Maybe it's just where you live and what you see.

I used to struggle so much with the people that have their hands out on the corners. How do we help? What do we do? Should we help?

Are we giving fish instead of teaching the fish? Right. Well, here's why I want to spend just a few minutes before we're done here. God needs our love, not our protection. It was in the epistle that Pastor rick read, Romans 5, 8.

But God shows his love for us and that while we were still sinners, he died for us. He sent his son to die for us. I tried to explain to our seventh and eighth graders this year. It's the first time I've ever done this and I gotta start talking about it more. I think it's so important.

I told the eighth graders if somebody in the next four to eight years, high school or college, pushes back against you as a Christian against God, says something negative, says something awful.

Before you feel the need to stand up and defend your Lord, I want you to think about if you guys were in the opposite position, so you grew up the way they did they grew up the way you did? What would you have seen or heard? What puts somebody in a position to speak like that about our Lord?

I'm gonna tell you right now, God doesn't need us to defend him. He'll do just fine. He needs us to love his child who is lost. How do we respond? In a way that shows love, that shows compassion, that allows us an opening instead of letting them know how wrong and dumb they are.

Which is what sometimes our natural reaction is. The law without love drives people away. We're quick do it. We love to point out when people are wrong. We love to.

We love to show our righteousness and let them know why they're wrong.

I've tried to start responding to some of these things because I do hear it once in a while. Maybe people feel free to tell pastors how stupid they are for believing in God. But start trying to respond to people who push back or question with, I'm so sorry. I don't know what you've dealt with. It must be awful.

I wish you could feel what I felt. I wish you could have had the upbringing I did to know Jesus Christ. To watch the way he's led me through life, the way he's protected me, the way I feel his presence every day.

You obviously haven't felt that. And I'm so sorry. How can we point them to the God whose image they were made in? Man. That Genesis 127 hit me hard Monday at VBS.

I'm still thinking about that being created in his image. Every single one. God loves his people loving others through the Master's eyes. I'm here to tell you today is opening our eyes. To see does not mean opening our own eyes, people.

It means quit looking through your own sinful eyes and allow God to guide you. Let's be blinded like Saul and allow the Holy Spirit to guide our steps, our mouths. I've started thanking the Holy Spirit more for when he shuts my mouth than when he gives me the words to say he knows I need it. I wish he'd start doing it more in the house with my wife. It's a whole nother sermon.

He did it all for us, that last verse. Pastor rick read Romans 5:15. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, many more have the grace of God and the free gift. By the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ abounded for many.

How many people don't know that? How many people are lost? How many people can we love through God's eyes and share next week? Of course we're gonna. We're gonna hit our hearts.

But I want to help us start seeing through God's lens as we go out into this world. It's so great in here. We come in, we share our brothers and sisters. Christ. I mean, you guys early are very cute the way you shake hands and you're very quiet and respectful.

Lay this loud because they just love each other. It's like a family reunion. I feel the compassion and the love in here. Let's take it out into the world to help God's people. The Lord of the Harvest desires for the entire harvest and join him for eternity.

And the Great Commission called us to go and make disciples throughout the entire harvest. May God continue to prepare and lead us to do just that. We have covered the eyes. We have covered the eyes to see. Next week we're going to look at how our hearts can trust.

May we continue to pray thy will, not my will to God be the glory. Amen. Amen.