[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason, and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 830 or 10:30 a.m. if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison church, find
[email protected] dot. Be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Cecil Rhodes was a statesman, a businessman, and a well known influencer in the field of all things financial. And so because of that, and a lot of those career paths that I just mentioned, of course, comes with a lot of money. And so since God had blessed him with a lot of money, he decided to do something with it. And what Cecil Rhodes decided to create is something called the Rhodes Scholarship. In fact, you might even be familiar with that term because it's something that's still being used today to bless young men and young women choosing to go to different career paths. And what was interesting about Cecil is he kind of kicked off this idea of having a scholarship that is in his name, is that he wanted to get all the young men and the young women together that were going to be a part of that scholar scholarship for that year. And so he's kind of one of those guys that really love, like, the fancy meal and the fancy outfit. So he decided to host a meal, and everything was, you know, to the tea, the flowers on the table, the plates and the napkins, everything set up perfectly. And then he also encouraged everybody to wear the finest attire that they had. And so he loved the fancy meal. He loved the fine attire, but never at the expense, evidently, of other people's feelings.
See, one of the young men that was getting awarded a Rhodes scholarship came from a very, very poor family.
And the young man didn't really have anything nice to wear. And the nice things that he actually had, truthfully, weren't that nice. And to make things worse for him, in order for him just to make it to that dinner that night, he had to take some train rides, some bus rides, and he also had to walk several long distances just to get there. So, of course, what that means for Cecil, he shows up in his ratty old clothes, sweaty and stinky, at a very nice meal. So he walks into that room. And when he walks into that room, he looks around, and Cecil notices his face as he sees the humiliation on this young man's face.
And so what Cecil does is he goes upstairs, and people are like, where in the world did he go?
He comes back down. He had taken off all the nice clothes that he had to match the young man and greeted him for that dinner.
You know, whenever we hear stories like that of empathy, where people don't just see a need, but they share in and they meet you in that need, those kind of stories, they move us.
And part of the reason I think they move us is because we, I think, have all been the recipient, on some level, of a story like that.
Maybe you remember in elementary school, you showed up at a brand new school. Maybe it was middle school or high school, showing up at a brand new school.
Maybe as a professional, you show up at a brand new job, you're like, what are they thinking? But yet there was that one person that went out of their way not just to meet you, but to walk you there to help you along the way.
You know, the term sympathy is one I think we've heard a lot, even in the songs we sing and the scriptures that we go through, we'll see that term. And sympathy is so incredibly important, but empathy is kind of that next level. In fact, sympathy is the idea of, like, seeing the need of that person. But empathy is taking that sympathy to the next level and trying to, on an emotional level. And as we're gonna talk about today, even a spiritual level, trying to understand and take on their perspective of what it might be to be them, to see what they see, to go through what they've gone through, to enter into that trouble with them and make it our own.
This morning, we are concluding our series on the book of Philippians. And I have to just tell you, this series has been such a blessing and a challenge for Brandon and I, because as you go through it, you feel those moments of man that is so encouraging and uplifting. And simultaneously, the thing was also encouraging and uplifting is the very thing that hurt my toes a lot. And I don't know if y'all felt that way as you've gone through this. This letter. And what I love about this letter is how he chooses to end it, because usually what you choose to end with is usually what's the most important thing to you.
Or if you're writing to somebody, usually what you end with is like that final send off. Y'all might remember it back to the days when you were in high school and you did a last will and testament, or I think about our youth group, our seniors, every year at the very end of the summer, one of the things they do is get in front of the youth group, and they share different things with the youth group. Some of those are funny, but a lot of those are very sentimental.
They're things that have stuck out to them, things that they experienced when they walked downstairs for the first time, the feelings that they had as they did different things together as a youth group. And so what they send off is those things that were the most important to them. I mean, think about Jesus send off. What was the most important to him? He said, I want you to go into the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and I'm going to be with you in that. And then acts one eight, he said, it. Start in Jerusalem, Judea, in the uttermost parts of the earth.
You know, that was what was important to him. So, Paul, what's important to you as you finish off this letter?
What's amazing is the one thing that stuck out to Paul that he chooses to end this letter with was that this group of christians didn't just see him in the middle of a struggle. They entered into that struggle with him. And that's where we get the word today, empathy.
I think the word empathy is a word that we're using now more than we maybe were several years ago. But yet it's kind of interesting that we're using that word, because don't you think, and would you probably agree that most everything in our culture revolves more around me?
It's more me focused, not seeing what other people are seeing, trying to feel what they feel.
That word empathy is a greek word, I, which is empathea, and it means two different things. It can either mean in passion or in feeling.
In passion is the idea of, you know, when you think of empathy, you just think of, like, weeping with those who weep. And it is partly that, but it's also the very thing that person cares about, the thing that's a passion to them. You kind of make it your own, and you become passionate about it, too. Do you all know those people that are in your life at times that, like, they get excited about something you're excited about, and you're like, I know you literally have no instrument interest in, like, the mandolin or, you know, this, you know, type of, you know, architecture of a building, but they're like, oh, that's awesome. You know, that's kind of in passion, but then there's in feeling. And in feeling are those moments where people are experiencing a difficulty, they're experiencing a loss, and you enter that with them. In fact, the two different definitions I found, and the second one I really, really love, is this actively seeking to understand the emotions, experiences and perspective of others and genuine sharing in and concern for their well being.
And I love this version. And this definition. Empathy is your pain in my heart.
And that's what sticks out to Paul about this church in Philippi, a man that had been so, you know, led by what God wants him to do. Yet he does the thing God wants him to do. And he experiences disappointment, he experiences shipwreck, he experiences loss, he experiences prison. Yet the very thing that sticks out to him is the fact that he was remembered. If you were with us last week, which sets up this empathetic statement that he makes about the church in Philippi, was what Brandon shared last week. Brandon did such an awesome job of really giving us the context of one of the most popular verses of all time. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. And Brandon, I appreciate that context because I used to go to basketball camp or baseball camp, and I always got a shirt that on the back said, I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me yet I never could dunk. And so I was like, what in the world? And so, again, thank you for that perspective, Brandon, that Paul is going through a very difficult time. He's experiencing loss, but yet he learns in whatever state I'm in, I can be content because Christ is with me. But notice what he says. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me yet.
Yet what?
And what he's about to say to me is one of those kind of, like, hobby lobby verses that we need to have plastered on places because it's so important to remember. This is what he said.
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me yet. It was so kind of you to share with me in my struggles.
I want to ask you this morning, have you ever been at a place in life where technically you can do that on your own?
You can face it, you can pull yourself up, you can grin and bear it, you can work through it, but you would rather not have to do it alone?
That's what Paul is saying. Yeah. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me yet.
It was so kind of you to share with me in my struggle, and we're going to deal with what that phrase in the greek means, because, y'all, it is so deep, but yet so encouraging for us to be reminded about what we have in the body of Christ. Because now he's about to show you to the length in which they felt that empathy for him. Because it's another thing to see somebody's need, but then to meet it. And he says, you Philippians yourselves, you know that the very beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, what he's saying is, I, in faith said, I want to go to Asia. Yes, but God said, you go to Macedonia. I followed what he said. We met Lydia. Now the church is growing in Philippi, but even though I'm doing what God has told me to do, I'm still experiencing heartache. We understand that. We've been there. We felt that moment.
He said, there was no other church that entered into a partnership with me except you. Only.
He said, even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent help for my needs once again.
So I got a map out just to see how far that was.
So for them to help Paul and to be generous to him and to meet his needs, that was 160 km, which is just over 100 miles for us.
They walked 100 miles to go meet his needs.
It kind of makes me think of when David describes a moment when Saul was after him, trying to kill him, and the very ones that's trying to kill him, his son Jonathan, in one Samuel 23, says this, that Jonathan went down to Horus to help David find strength in God. A casual reading, that may not mean much, but y'all, that was a 36 miles walk.
Jonathan walked 36 miles just to help his friend find strength in God.
I need some friends like that. You need some friends like that. We need to be those kind of friends. That's what he's saying that they did. So you see what we're saying, that empathy is something that at times is not convenient.
It's walking those 36 miles, those 100 miles. But then notice what he says next. I didn't even seek this gift.
I didn't ask for it, but I seek the fruit that increases. To your credit, he was saying that that part of empathy is also going that extra mile. Yes, but also not even having to ask for it. And by the way, when he says I seek the fruit, that increases. To your credit, what he's saying is, you think a lot of times that when I enter into a struggle with somebody, I'm walking with them through that, that's going to really do something for them. He's also saying, no, it's going to do something for you, too.
We understand that with generosity. That's why we talk about that. When the Bible speaks of generosity, it doesn't just do something as it leaves our lives and our hands. It does something in our hearts as it leaves our lives in our hands.
When you think about Paul and you try to put yourself in his shoes, what would it have been like in a prison?
And even though you have this amazing place of faith you're in, to say, in whatever state I'm in, in prison, I'm going to be content.
You know, I think part of what also got him there is the fact that he knew he was remembered.
I don't know if your colleges had these, but when I was at Faulkner, we had a mail room where you would get, like, physical mail, like letters and papers and random coupons, you know, things like that. And that's not me. I wish I was that tall. But we had one at Faulkner, and it was the one that had, like, the little thing where you would turn and you had to remember your code. And so those of us that went to a school that didn't have locker, that was quite the time. So you're trying to learn to do that when you go to that little mailbox, the one thing you don't want is to open the mailbox in front of everybody that's there and have no, what? No mail. So I had family that lived in Montgomery, so they didn't really send me mail because they're seeing me all the time. And so you go there and you open and you're kind of like, okay, I don't want anyone to see me, not grab anything. So you just even make it up and you're like, you know that?
But I'll never forget that. There were a.
A large group of students at Faulkner that were not from America on the soccer team. Most of our team was not from here. They were from all over the world, even the other sides of the world. Some of our baseball team was in that boat, too. And I'll never forget, a lot of the faculty and staff at Faulkner all got together and they said, all right, here's what we're going to do. We're going to write letters to all of those students that don't have family near here, and we're going to write them some Bible verses. We're going to write them some prayers and some words of encouragement.
And what was so neat is to see those students go to their mailboxes and read those letters and hear them say, hey, this person. And this teacher wrote me. I mean, it caused them to see everything in a different light. And I was even thinking about it this morning at Alabama Christian Academy in Montgomery, teaching there. A person that has now put on Christ is now the soccer coach and a teacher at Alabama Christian Academy that received those letters.
And so imagine for Paul, for just a second, what it would have been like to get a letter like that. See, when he says in this text, it was so kind of you to share in my struggle or in my trouble. That phrase in the Greek, I can't say that word in parentheses, but I can say the ones under it, which is having fellowship in.
Now, let me ask you, does it mean more for me to say, hey, man, that person saw you going through a difficult time, or me to say, that person is fellowshipping with you in that time?
What's the difference?
See, that's why I want to draw a line here. Both are important. Both are needed. There is a big difference in friendship and fellowship.
Friendship is built around shared likes and dislikes.
Fellowship is built around a shared common value.
That's for us. Jesus Christ. Now, why does that matter?
Well, here's why that matters. I think fellowship at times has almost gotten like a negative connotation over the years, and we've used it more in a negative sense than a positive sense. Maybe it's because of we want to break fellowship or get away from people or whatever that might be. But fellowship in its original sense, in scripture, was actually not meant to be something that divides, but actually something that unites.
Because what we're uniting around is not a like or a dislike. We are uniting around a common value for us. That's who.
Jesus Christ.
So what happens is, when we unite around a common value, which is Jesus Christ, guess what happens to the likes and the dislikes of. They get put in the category of just likes and dislikes, and we put preeminently the place it needs to be. Jesus Christ.
So that's what brings power to the assembly. That's why there is power and blessing in being a part of the body of Christ is in this room. There are a lot of people that have a lot of different likes and dislikes, but what unites us is Jesus Christ and how awesome that is. And in getting ready for this message, I looked up, why is empathy so important? I came across this article from a counselor, and they said they have noticed in three different areas the dangers of a lack of empathy. None of these will probably surprise you. One of those, of course, is in failed marriages and under that was different statements where wives said, he's really good at seeing other people's needs at work, but not mine or the kids at home.
And then on the flip side, he said, well, you know, she is never taking the time to thank me for what I do more. So focused on what I don't do.
And then when it came to the teenagers, as they go through difficult challenges, they maybe just want to be heard based on their feelings of how they feel about that and how they're going through that. And then this one, which definitely doesn't surprise us in the business place.
You know, one of the things I read from John Maxwell that he mentioned in this article was how he's noticed that you can have the person that's, like, got the greatest capacity to lead, to bring change and help, and to get you from point a to point b. They're those type a personalities, he said. But here's what happens, is those people that have all the characteristics in the world, if they have a lack of empathy, then it means nothing.
I found about this verse, psalm 69, verse 20. It says, scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless. I looked for comfort, but there was none for comforters. But I found none, as we're about to look at in the Bible in just a second. I pray that all of us can be like that church in philippi and be those kind of people that show empathy when it's inconvenient and show empathy when it's even not asked. Here's why. Because it's been modeled for us from the very beginning.
You go back through scripture. There's so many I wanted to put in here, but we didn't have enough time. But I love this one, Isaiah 54, when it says, in overflowing anger, for a moment, I hid my face from you. Hold on to that for just a second. Think about that, he said, I was so angry with you, I didn't even want to look at you.
But then what did he say? But with everlasting love, I will have compassion on you, says the Lord your redeemer. That word redeemer, by the way, means to purchase or to buy back. So he's basically saying, the very person I didn't want to look at, now I want to purchase.
That's incredible. Matthew 1414, talking about Jesus. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd. He had compassion on them and healed their sick. You'll notice this in Jesus ministry over and over again throughout the gospels. He sees a need. He gets close.
He sees a need somebody that everybody stays away from. You know what he says? What's for dinner? Like, that's the way he thinks. That's where his heart is. That's the model. But notice the motive, and here's why the motive is important, that when it comes to empathy, we have to make sure our motive is not, hey, I'm just going to give this person empathy because it helps me.
I'm going to give this person empathy because it will give me a better social influence or social status, or I'm only going to be empathetic because it's convenient.
This says, to be imitators of God as beloved children. How well we walk in love because Christ loved us. I love what Peter shared this morning in our communion. Thoughts? And that was such a perfect connection that we love the way we love because we've been loved that way.
And the method is this. We could pick a lot of texts. I thought about this one. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. If you are part of our connect group prayer night, this was the very first verse all our connect groups went through together in our homes. And when we went through this verse together, I don't know if y'all's group came to this conclusion like our group did, but we spent a lot of time talking about how we feel. At times, it's easier to weep with those who weep than to rejoice with those who rejoice.
And part of the reason we brought that up and talked about it is because when you see someone else get the thing you've wanted, that maybe you've worked hard for, you might even feel like you deserve. And you may deserve. They get it anyway. Sometimes it's very difficult to. To be truly happy. I mean, you can do that. I'm so happy for you. But, like, to truly be happy for them is a whole different thing.
But if you've noticed, on Sunday nights in our connect groups, we're studying the parable, the good Samaritan. And as we talk about what it means to love our neighbor, the reason Jesus gave us that illustration of these other men that sympathize with the needs of that guy, but that one guy, that one Samaritan helped the guy, put him on the animal, took him to an inn, took care of his long term needs. He truly neighbored because he didn't just see him, but he empathized with him. Here's the neat thing, is that this is wired into every single one of us. You want to talk about an apologetic proof of a creator. And how our design demands, in fact, that there is a designer is the fact that God has wired empathy into every single human.
In fact, I'll just give you a few examples. Like, there was a study done with MRIs where they did MRIs of the people that were going through a very difficult or a heart wrenching time, and the MRIs of the people that were with them and their neurons were mirroring.
And they did the same thing with people that were near people that had going through great times, that they were celebrating with them. Their neurons were also mirroring. This is where we get the terminal mirror neurons. And, in fact, y'all may not know this, or you may know it already. Like me, I heard a lot in our life is babies.
If you're in a big assembly and one baby cries, what usually happens?
They all start crying, right? I don't know about y'all, but our kids were very empathetic as kids. Just every single Sunday. Empathy.
And even this week at MKC, it was the first week back, and in the summer is so quiet. It's like, I need Brandon to cry or somebody. Cause it's too quiet. And this week, first week back, you know, you just hear one baby cries. Cause the first week away from mama and daddy, and it's a chorus, you know, like, what are they? I think the teachers were crying, too. But anyway, it was a chorus of cries. Why? Because they're mirroring.
And here's the neat thing to show you how this is a part of our God's amazing design, is you see this in the lives of saved people and unsaved people.
I'll give you an example. Exodus two.
Do you remember when the law was given that the little hebrew boys would be killed? Well, Pharaoh's daughter sees Moses in a basket floating, and that baby in that basket is crying. And what does she do?
She rescues that baby, y'all. She came from the house that came up with that rule, but yet she brings that baby home.
That shows you how empathy transcends law. It transcends anything. I'll give you another example of one that is actually in scripture that we also see is in acts eleven. You think about the church in Antioch, too. That's also there where that group of christians gets together and they hear about the church in Judea, how they're struggling with a famine. They're like, hey, you got money? You got money? We got needs. We got this. And I got that. They take this collection, they deliver them to the brothers and sisters in Judea, you got one person saved, one person unsaved, we would say, yet they were wired inside. Why is it. How does it manifest itself? I don't fully know. It's amazing, though. But what I do know is that was given to us by our God, that was put inside of us, which should motivate us to want to take part in that more, but also to understand it's within every one of us. In fact, there's two different levels. One of those is what we call cognitive empathy. Wherever it's perspective taking, that when you see somebody going through something, you try to, in your heart and mind, think, all right, what would it be like to be them?
You might have heard of how Winston Churchill did this, when the guy that was the prime minister before him, Chamberlain, he caused a lot of the problems that Winston had to deal with.
And even though Winston wasn't all the time making the best decisions, he decided still, as Chamberlain was getting older and his health was declining, to protect Chamberlain from all the bad things that were happening, because he was putting himself in his shoes and thinking, hey, what would it be like to be him?
To know what he did and the pain it caused, he decided to protect. Then there's this one effective empathy. This is where you feel something with somebody and then you take it to that next level of engagement. If you've ever read the narrative in the Bible of Ruth, it's an amazing example of it. In fact, I honestly kind of thought this morning about only preaching on Ruth, because to me, that is an amazing example of empathy. If you remember, Ruth lost every man in her life. She was a childless widow. That was her lot, that was her life. Yet what you see in verse nine is Naomi says in chapter one, hey, listen, y'all go and understand. You don't need a mother in law now that your husbands are not here.
And she says this in verse nine, the Lord will grant you rest. And she kissed them and they were lifting up their voices and they were all weeping together.
But then look at verse 14.
They lifted up their voices, they were weeping again.
Orpah kissed her mother in law and she departed.
But Ruth clung to her.
And in the verse we all know or probably heard, Ruth said in verse 16, do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. From where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people and your God. My God. Do you notice what it is that motivates her to stay?
Do you think she really liked probably being there? Was that what she thought she would be doing and where she would be.
I think it boils back down to this, because you're my people and you're my God, and that's a common value we can all go around. So how can we do this?
One way is to enlist all our faculties and resources. Philippians 418 says this.
Paul said, I have received full payment, and even more, I'm so well supplied. Having received from epaphroditus the gifts, you sentence, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice. Acceptable, pleasing to God. Not only did he say, before, you gave me things I didn't even ask for, he's like, I got full power. Like you. I am so well supplied.
And what was neat as I read that, it was talking about all the different ways they met his needs. How do we enlist all of our faculties, all of our resources? Well, I think it's several things. One of those is, by the way we listen. James. One talks about listening to understand, being quick to listen and very slow to speak. Mirror back is when that person shares what they're struggling with. Say you're not mocking them, you're just saying. So what you're saying is you're going through this, and that does something for them. But then this part that I know I struggle with, I don't know if you do, too, but to listen first to the feelings behind what they're saying, not the facts. And I know part of the reason I struggle with that this is maybe escape for me, but, well, you know, because I'm a man, I just want to fix it. Yes, but sometimes my desire to fix gets in the way of my choice to feel. And so because of that, I've had times before where I'm, like, I'm processing and thinking, all right, I know how we can fix that. And I'm listening to the facts, not the feelings behind the facts. And so maybe an encouragement for all of us is when people say, this is what they're going through, what they're struggling with. Don't focus so much on the fix, but the feel. Because when people can hear that, they're being understood from a feeling standpoint, the ability to fix the facts usually take care of themselves and then to help in very meaningful ways. And when I put that there, if you're wanting, like, the abcs of how to show empathy to somebody in a situation, and there are none, and I say that to say that there's so many different ways that you can show empathy, fit in a box type way. It's kind of reading the room understanding the situation.
Number two, to pray for discernment.
When I. So when I first worked on this lesson, I didn't have that up there because I thought, well, that's just too simple. But then I was like, wait, that's the power of it is the most simple thing, is the thing we need the most.
And I can't tell y'all how many times. One time in particular, I walked into a situation with somebody, and we were just talking about, like, what do we say? I mean, they lost somebody younger than me. What do you say to that kind of family going through that, going through that time? And the person that was much younger than me said, andrew, can we pray about it? We prayed about it, walked in that room, and God shut my mouth.
There's power in understanding, the power given to us to discern and in the holy spirit to help us in that when we don't know what to say. Number three, to ask caring questions. Empathy doesn't have to be what we'll call a guessing game. For instance, kind of model a conversation. Maybe someone has gone through a very difficult time, and here's what they, you know, you ask them something along the lines of, hey, tell me, like, what's going on? And they respond, well, yeah, we got a lot going on, but I'll tell you what we believe in. Goddess.
Okay, I know what you believe, and that is awesome, but please tell me about what you feel, that both can be addressed at the same exact time.
Number four, to share it, but not wear it, which is the idea that we also have to be careful as we see people and we walk with people through difficult things. To not wear it to the point that it takes us down a wrong road, that it maybe causes us to stumble or our families to stumble. And the final thing is this, to let go of our expertise when we're going through a difficult time. I think our mind wants to try to formulate the correct answer to what they need as if we have the answer.
And by the way, if you think about it, it's kind of insulting and dangerous anyway to think that we are the answer to someone else's problems.
We're not, but Jesus is.
And so when people go through a difficult time, they don't need to think or us to share that we have the answer, because we don't. That maybe what they need more than anything is just for us to be there for them, just to know we simply care.
He ends this by saying, I want you to greet every saint in Christ Jesus, the brothers who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. Two of the commentaries pointed out that he's saying, listen. That the empathy, the way you reached out to me and shared in my struggle, you had fellowship with me in my struggle. It's not just impacting me, it's impacting others. Have y'all seen before how this has happened?
That when people see our church family helping other people in our church family, at times in need, they're like, wow, who are these people?
Why are all these people here lined up to help? Where are these meals coming from? All of these kind of things? He's saying it's having an impact on Caesar's household. And those commentaries also mention the reason he's saying saints twice. He's trying to remind them, you are saints.
That that's not a job, just relocated to a select few. That if we have put on Christ and we've experienced as ephesians five talks about the love of God, we reflect that because we have been loved.
Just to show you how simple yet powerful empathy can be, this is a man named Don Ritchie, and Don lived in Sydney, Australia. He has since passed, but he lived by one of the most beautiful places in the world.
It's called the Gap. It's this huge cliff, and you can see it in the background in Sydney, Australia.
And his house was right near it. And while it's a very beautiful place, it also had the very awful reputation of a place where a lot of people went to go and take their lives.
Well, Donna realized and thought, you know, the reason I think my house is here is to help the person that's there.
And so what Don did was whenever he would see a person by themselves walking to the edge of that cliff, he walked out.
And by the way, in the article I read, they have confirmed that he saved the lives of 180 people.
His family said, oh, it's way more than that. Those are just the ones he's mentioned. They said, we think it's close to around 400, whatever the number is. That's incredible. But what was his method?
So it must have been something very articulate, he said, and something he really knew a lot about in order to help them with their struggle.
Yet when he was interviewed, when they asked, well, what were you saying to the people that were on the edge of that cliff?
He said, well, I just asked them if they wanted tea.
Hold up. You saved the life of possibly 400 people by just asking, do you want tea?
He said, yeah, I just bring him in and we'd have tea together.
No formal conversation, no articulate message. Just had tea.
You know what he ended up getting? The name he was called angel of the gap. The reason I shared that illustration with you is we have people in this room right now. We have people on our streets. Our kids have families, and on their sports teams. They're all over the place.
We see them all the time.
And it's those people that are kind of on the edge of a cliff in a way.
They need hope, they need encouragement.
But maybe so simply, all they need is this, just to be asked, hey, can we get some tea?
I guess if it were to be the made for Monday today, the made for Monday is this.
I want all of us to think of one person we know that's kind of on the fringe.
And the reason I mention whoever that is that's in your life that you're very concerned about, you can tell something's not off. Maybe a sign is this. Slowly disconnecting is oftentimes like an emergency signal that something's off.
I want you to reach out to them, and not just to reach out to them, but see if there's a way that you can say this.
Let's have tea for every person in this room. I hope we heard what Peter said this morning, because the empathy we're talking about, yes, it was an example of the church in Philippi, but ultimately, it was an example of Jesus.
The book of Hebrews says that we don't have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. Isn't that amazing?
And it doesn't just stop at the sympathy.
It says, he left heaven to come down in order to bring us to goddesse.
That depth of love and empathy is blueprinted in the heart and the DNA of every single person in this room saved and those outside of this room unsaved.
I think it's important for us to be reminded of how beautifully we were designed, but to use that for the Lord. Maybe you're here today and you've never made the decision to put on Christ in baptism.
Do that today.
Maybe you're here today and you have. But part of what's happened is you've maybe struggled to know how to let your heart break for somebody that's got a broken heart because you think, well, I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do.
Well, here's the power. Sometimes, like we talked about, it's not about what we say, but what we can do is we can trust in God. Pray for that discernment about where he needs to lead us and what we need to say. Maybe that's what you need this morning, just a prayer of what to do next.
If you're here this morning struggling with anything, first, we want you to know that God loves you. Number two, we want you to know that we love you. So whatever struggle you're dealing with, whatever area you're maybe feeling weak in, you can go to one of these exits. Our shepherds are going to be standing there for you, to pray for you. Or maybe you want to come down here and let us pray for you, to have this entire room lifting you up before God. There would be nothing more than we would love than to that, to literally live out the life of Jesus in your life. So whatever it is you have a need of, please come while we stand and we sing this song.
