Luke: 00:09

Heavenly father, Lord, we ask that you would speak this morning. We do not need to hear words of wisdom from a man. We need to hear your words from your word. Lord, I pray that you would be using Cameron's faithful preparation, but that you would be his divine editor and that you would speak through him. Lord, as you are with us, we ask that you would be helping us to perceive you more clearly, that we would be challenged to step outside of our box of faith and to walk with you.

Luke: 00:48

In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Cameron: 00:52

Amen. Good morning, Condu. How are you? Good. Good.

Cameron: 00:55

Good. Okay. So we, last week, we started a sermon series called asking for a friend. And, that series is all about questions that you have asked over the last few weeks as we've been preparing for the series. And, as a manner of course like last week, Pastor Luke preached about how how do we process through when as believers, we have doubts.

Cameron: 01:25

When doubt creeps into our life or when we're plagued with doubt, what do we do with that and how does Jesus respond to us in the midst of our doubt? Today we're gonna talk a little bit about empathy, but over the next few weeks I just kinda wanna see I want you to see what the the content of a couple of weeks is gonna be from our sermons over here, throughout the next week and then we got a lot of questions and a lot of them were really good and so we're take we took 4 more of those questions and we're making them the content for our, our Wednesday night classes, our Wednesday night bible studies. And so if any of those interests you or all of them interest you, make sure that you're there for them. But the the question for the question for today, really is all about empathy. How do we have greater empathy for the hurting?

Cameron: 02:21

So a person is, you have a person in your life you have a relationship with, maybe it's a really good 1, maybe it's a bad 1. How do I both how do I maybe develop empathy for someone who is hurting if I'm not maybe a naturally empathetic person? And I'll talk to you a little bit about this this morning, but I'm just gonna let the cat out of the bag for you this morning. I am not a naturally empathetic person. Meaning that, meaning that empathy or the ability of let's define empathy for our purposes this morning.

Cameron: 02:58

Empathy is the ability to relate to the pain or difficulty that someone else is going through and to offer a compassionate presence and or response to that. So empathy is the that ability to recognize pain or difficulty in someone's life. Someone that they're going through and to, offer a compassionate presence presence of ourselves, and sometimes response in the midst of it. Right? I am not a naturally empathetic person.

Cameron: 03:39

I it is something that as we're gonna talk about the Lord has had to work in me and can continues to work into me in in me to transform me from a naturally kind of like a you know pull yourself up by your bootstraps and deal with it on your own type of type of, attitude to someone who, to someone who recognizes opportunities that the Lord gives me to be empathetic with someone else as an overflow of the empathy of Jesus Christ in me. And so you might be saying well I'm not I'm just not an empathetic person so this is not this is not a, not a sermon for me and what what I would say to that is that sometimes we think of empathy as something that we would talk about or learn about at some like, conference for counselors or conference for psychologists. It's like comes some kind of like psychobabble word that we don't really need to talk about in the church because empathy doesn't matter because we have faith and we have Jesus and what I'm what I hope to show you, this morning is that, like, empathy is not separate from our understanding of who God is in Jesus Christ.

Cameron: 04:55

In fact, at the very nature and core of who God is in Jesus Christ, we see the empathy of God to us in Jesus. We see Jesus himself being empathetic to all those who are hurting and sick that he meets. Right? And we see an opportunity to allow the comfort that we have received in the midst of difficult circumstances in our lives to overflow into the lives of others as a flow of empathy from us to them. So empathy is the ability to relate to the pain or difficulty that someone else is going through and to offer a compassionate presence and response.

Cameron: 05:39

Empathy is a little bit different from sympathy and I want to make this clarification because I don't want you to think that I'm saying the same thing just using 2 different words. Empathy is when we feel or experience something with someone. Meaning, we partner with them in some way, shape, or form. We join them in what they are experiencing. Right?

Cameron: 06:04

We're we're present with them in the midst of it. Sympathy on the other hand is when we simply feel for someone. They can be a long distance off. They can live literally around the world and we can read a story on the news about a horrible circumstance or something like that and we can feel sympathy for what they are experiencing. We feel sad.

Cameron: 06:28

We hope it gets better, we maybe pray for them, right? But empathy is much different than that. Empathy is when we join a person in the midst of their experience. Think of it this way: If I, if I fell into a really large hole, a really large pit, right? And, we'll just use Eric as an example, right?

Cameron: 06:55

Eric Eric walks by and he looks down into that hole. He looks down at me. He's like, wow, That's a really big hole. That looks pretty deep. Man, I am sorry.

Cameron: 07:11

I am I am really sorry that you're down there. That must be really difficult. Let me know how it goes. I mean, I hope it works out. See you.

Cameron: 07:28

Right? That's sympathy. That's someone being like, I'm so sorry that you're down in this big hole. It looks really difficult down there. Right?

Cameron: 07:40

Empathy is different. Empathy is someone coming to the edge of the hole. Look at this hole that you're in. It's this this would be Rachel. Okay?

Cameron: 07:53

This would be Rachel. Rachel comes. Pastor Cameron, you're in this really big hole. I'm you look really alone. It looks scary down there.

Cameron: 08:04

Looks like you don't know how to get out. I'm coming down there with you. I don't know that III don't know if I can get you out of there. I don't know even know if it's my job to get you out of there. But what I do know is I'm not going to let you be there alone.

Cameron: 08:24

I'm gonna come and join you in that place. Right? This is the the difference between sympathy and empathy. And what we see that this is not a this is not a foreign this is not foreign to scripture at all. Empathy is not foreign to the pages of scripture and in fact scripture even encourages encourages us to think of empathy as a way in which we don't just join Paul says in Romans chapter 12 verse 15 that we are, Paul says in Romans chapter 12 verse 15 that we are to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.

Cameron: 09:13

That we can join people in their experience whether it's the experience of someone who is rejoicing or the experience of someone who is hurting. And I don't know. Let's be honest. Joining someone when they're hurting is difficult. Right?

Cameron: 09:30

But if our heart is not turned if if our heart is not transformed by Jesus to be truly empathetic, sometimes bitterness wells up in our lives that it becomes difficult for us to celebrate or rejoice with people who are rejoicing even. It's not just about not being like, oh, it's hard to be with people in their suffering. No. If Christ does not transform our heart into his own heart, take away our heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh, then we might even recognize that when someone else is celebrating or have joy, we have no desire to celebrate with them. Right?

Cameron: 10:14

Because the number 1 response that pops up in our life is well, where's my happy ending? Where's my joyful experience? Where's my thing that's going well for me? And so recognize that when we're praying that the Lord would transform us into people who are empathetic like Jesus is empathetic. That we're talking about the ability to be present with someone in their pain and walk with them through it And we're talking about the ability to walk with someone through their joy and experience true joy with them because that becomes the heart of empathy that we're talking about.

Cameron: 10:57

What I also wanna say what I started to say is, kind of admit to you is that I'm not a naturally empathetic person. You tell ask my wife, she will tell you. I'm not I'm not, I'm not a If you could use this term for lack of a better term, I'm not a feeler. Right? I don't have like a really high.

Cameron: 11:18

I'm an emotional person. Everyone's an emotional person. Right? But I don't but but empathy is not something that I naturally have. But that's okay.

Cameron: 11:27

That's okay. You know why? It's because empathy is not a feeling and it's not an emotion. Empathy is not something. Empathy empathy is a decision.

Cameron: 11:43

Empathy is a decision that we must make. Sometimes people say, well, you know, I I would be a little bit more sensitive to this person in their suffering, in their brokenness, and their hurt, but it's just not my gift. Empathy is just not my it's not my spiritual gift. I have the, I have the spiritual gift of being being ornery. Right?

Cameron: 12:14

Some are you like, Yeah, amen. Right? Amen. The Lord has giveth. Right?

Cameron: 12:19

Right? Yeah empathy is just not my spiritual gift when someone's hurting or broken I kind of just say hey man got to deal with it get over it move on whatever You know? But listen. Empathy is not a gift at all. Some people have natural dispositions that are more inclined to be empathetic than others.

Cameron: 12:52

Certainly. Some people are certainly more either sympathetic or empathetic, and some people are more not. I am more not. K? But empathy is not this thing that as followers of Jesus Christ that we get to decide whether or not we develop and have.

Cameron: 13:15

Empathy is similar to love. Emily empathy is similar to forgiveness. For followers of Jesus Christ, love and forgiveness are not something that we do when we feel it. When we develop the emotion of love or the emotion of forgiveness. We love people and we forgive others because that is foundational to our identity as followers of Jesus Christ.

Cameron: 13:46

It is who we are as spirit filled people. Empathy is the same way. We don't get to choose whether or not we are empathetic. If we want to take the life of Christ in us seriously, we must develop the we must develop the posture and spirit of empathy. And some of us will need to pray that the Lord transforms us more than he would than others of us need to be transformed.

Cameron: 14:22

Because some of us for some of us, it's a little bit more natural than it is for others. I'll tell you a little bit about the process of the rest of the message so that you understand it going forward. I have kind of like 7 main points, and, with each main point I have, we've created this like 1 liner prayer, that that you can pray that we can pray as we're asking the Lord to develop in us a greater heart of empathy for others. A greater willingness to come alongside the hurt and broken. A greater understanding of how Jesus has been empathetic to how god has been empathetic to us in Jesus Christ.

Cameron: 15:14

So you'll there'll be 7 short prayers. We'll put them all up on the screen. Last time I checked her this coming week, I'm pretty sure there's 7 days in this this coming week. So maybe it's 1 prayer a week that you consistently pray over and over and over again. Maybe you take these 7 prayers and you pray them throughout the week, so that the Lord begins the transformative process in your heart as well.

Cameron: 15:38

But, they'll put we'll put those up and, so you can either like take maybe take pictures of them or write them down in your journal or in the margin of your bible or something like that. Okay. Here we go. 1st and foremost, we must establish and you must understand, we all must understand that empathy is not some like psychobabble out there for a psych, like a psychology book or a counseling conference or seminar. It's not the latest thing in a podcast or in an audio book.

Cameron: 16:14

Listen, we must gain an understanding that empathy has its rootedness in the very nature of God in Jesus Christ to us. We gain empathy by understanding that it is first and foundationally a part of who god is. God is empathetic. If we look at this, we look at this, the ultimate example of what it means to be empathetic. The incarnation of Jesus Christ to us is the ultimate example of empathy.

Cameron: 17:05

Okay? The thing that we celebrate in an in the advent season and then in Christmas is what? Is that does that god saw it fit to come to us in flesh? To take to take flesh upon himself, to live among us, to be like us, to be tempted in the same ways that we were, to walk with us in life, to offer himself as a sacrifice for our sins. If we use the example from earlier of the pit, is it is as if God looked down at us in the pit of our sin and refused to simply say, hey, good luck with that on your own.

Cameron: 17:53

But instead entered into humanity, entered into the pit so that he could be with us and solve the problem himself. 1 of the most famous scriptures that we read during the Christmas season is, from we we read a couple from the book of isaiah right from the prophet isaiah and in isaiah chapter 53 verses 4 through 5 we see kind of the description of a God who enters into our situation so as to as to display a tremendous amount of partnership with us in the midst of our hurting and brokenness Isaiah, 53 verse 45 should be up on your screen here for you Get there. Says this, surely he took up our pain, our infirmities, and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered him stricken by god and smitten by him and afflicted but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.

Cameron: 19:06

And by his wounds, we were healed. God entered into our mess as a display of his unwillingness to leave us alone to figure it all out on our by ourselves. In the midst of our sin, in the midst of our pain, in the midst of our anguish, suffering under the consequences of all that life has brought upon us in sin. That God in Jesus Christ has come down and joined to be with us. He has made himself present in our lives and has offered a response in the midst of brokenness.

Cameron: 19:56

The incarnation of Jesus Christ is the most significant example of empathy that could ever be displayed ever. So understand. Listen. The foundation upon which we grow in our faith, understand our faith, build our our faith. Right?

Cameron: 20:22

Be discipled into our faith is understanding that we're just listen. Your pastor's not making this stuff up as we as I go along. Right? That this is a part empathy is a part of who god is. Empathy is a part of what he has done for us in Jesus.

Cameron: 20:42

And so if it's a part of who god is, then then then there's good reason to to continue following the breadcrumbs to like, well, if if empathy is a part of who God is and Jesus is the ultimate example of empathy, then it stands to reason that hey, pastor. You're probably gonna get to some examples of how Jesus himself was empathetic. And so, therefore, we also should be empathetic. And, yes. That's the direction that we're going.

Cameron: 21:13

Okay? But this is the first prayer that we can pray this week as we're seeking that the Lord would develop greater, a greater posture of empathy in our lives. Lord, thank you for coming to us and not leaving us to struggle with sin alone. Thank you for coming to us and not leaving us to struggle with sin alone. The tremendous thing about the incarnation, Jesus coming to us, is, has to kind of do with this point.

Cameron: 22:05

You, you cannot be. I cannot be. We cannot be empathetic from a distance. We say, well, what do you what do you what do you mean? Well, remember empathy empathy is the choice that we make to enter into the experience of another.

Cameron: 22:30

It's a choice we make to to to come alongside someone in the midst of their hurting, in the midst of their pain to to to join when with them so that they are not alone. If we are seeking to have an empathetic response or presence in other people's lives, we must be present with the hurting in order to be Jesus to them. You must be present with people that are hurting in order to have the presence of Jesus, the empathetic presence of Jesus or be the empathetic presence, to them. And what do I mean by present? Well, the first thing that I mean is you must be physically present with them.

Cameron: 23:26

You must be to their physical location. You must be able to look them in the eye, to put your arm around them, to give them a hug, to sit with them at a table, to take them out to dinner, to go for a walk. You must be physically present with another person. Your presence brings empathy with it. It shows that you are not content with allowing that person to traverse that experience of life alone.

Cameron: 24:01

Similar to the way, exactly like the way that God was not content to let us traverse the experience of life alone, but it sent his son to enter into humanity that we might know his presence. People must know our presence if they're gonna know the presence of Jesus. But it's not just physically present. Right? Because I think you all understand the dynamic of being physically present with someone, but you're not necessarily You're not necessarily mentally or emotionally present.

Cameron: 24:50

You can be in the same room, but be in a completely different spot. Right? And in fact, that that happens that happens kind of naturally. Sometimes really easily all on your own. You think that, well, I'm here, aren't I?

Cameron: 25:08

Well, yeah. You're here, but you're also not. To be present means that we are present holistically with someone. Meaning that we when we are with them, they have we have horse blinders on to all other things. Meaning we're not being distracted by our phones, that we are listening with our ears, that we are looking with our eyes, that we are present even in our body language and our posture to display to them that we are not just there to take up physical space, but we are there to help shoulder and carry the burden that they are experiencing alongside of them because we love the Lord and we love them.

Cameron: 25:57

Someone once said to me when I was really early in ministry, he said, you know, as you as you sit with people and as you counsel their broken marriages and listen to their the pain of their of their losses and struggles and you are with them in the midst of all of the difficult experiences that they have, You're going to be tempted to want to talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk because that's what breaks the uncomfortability of not knowing what to do in the midst of being with someone who is hurting and broken. But he said this to me. He was like, he said, you can literally listen someone into existence. By just being present, not just in my physical self, but also here and here free of distractions. We bring life to hurting people who recognize that they are no longer in the pit alone.

Cameron: 27:04

That they have someone with them. Not just present physically, but present with our attention and our words. You cannot be empathetic from a distance. Here's the prayer associated with this 1. Lord, help me to be more present with those that are hurting.

Cameron: 27:35

Sometimes the person that's hurting the most is the person that you spend the most time with. But that you've accustomed yourself to be so to be so distant and not present that you haven't recognized how bad that how how how much they are hurting. And so when we pray prayers like, lord, help me to be more present with those that are hurting, it means that you might actually need to change the way that you show up at home. How you spend your time. How you spend your energy.

Cameron: 28:13

It may it may mean that you need to show up a little bit different in this relationship or that You may need to change some things and ask the Lord to begin to change some things in you so that you can be a more empathetic person that is not living at a distance from the hurting and the broken, but has entered into what they're experiencing. Next 1 is this. Empathy was the response of Jesus to the hurting and the broken. Now I'm gonna ask this question, and it is not a rhetorical question. It's gonna sound like a rhetorical question in church because we live in the world of assumptions.

Cameron: 28:58

Right? But this is not a rhetorical question. Do you want to be more like Jesus? Some of us don't. Some of us like right where we are.

Cameron: 29:19

We love the decisions that we're making. We love the way that we're acting. We love the type of words that come out of our mouths. We love the type of thoughts that run through our minds. We love the type of relationships that we have, and we are not really interested in becoming more like Jesus, which requires the sanctification of our lives, the repentance of our choices, the forgiveness of others, both the extending and receiving of forgiveness.

Cameron: 29:59

The pursuit of holiness, the feasting on the word of God. The surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ. The letting go of addiction. The letting the chains of bondage and fear come breaking off of us. Not all of us want to become more like Jesus.

Cameron: 30:19

But if you want to be more like Jesus, if you do, if you want to move from the place where you are at now to the place where Jesus desires you to be, if you want to be more like him, we you must begin to make the choice to respond to the hurting and broken with compassion and empathy. This is interesting. This is not this is not rare in the ministry of Jesus, but there's this 1, there's this there's this 1 story in the beginning of the gospel of Mark chapter 1 where Jesus is approached by a man with leprosy. Now this man, leprosy in the in the ancient Near East, especially in Judaism was a is a general term to refer to any type of skin condition, not specifically leprosy, but it was, this was kind of like a deal breaker for people being in community. So if you had leprosy, you were considered to be unclean and you were ostracized from community alone, separate, in the pit, maybe having people's sympathy, but certainly not having anyone's empathy.

Cameron: 31:42

No 1 was joining you. No 1 was joining you in your suffering. No 1 was joining you when you were hurt. Imagine the most difficult experience of your life and then and then do it alone. Do it absolutely alone all the time.

Cameron: 32:00

So a man with leprosy, it says in Mark chapter 1 verse 40, a man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged him on his knees. If you are willing, you can make me clean. This is so interesting here. Right? Because remember when I said empathy is not a feeling.

Cameron: 32:19

Empathy is a choice that we must make. Will we enter into the brokenness and hurt of others? And this man had lived his life with others making a choice to not show him any empathy at all. And so when he came to Jesus, he offered Jesus the choice. Are you willing?

Cameron: 32:41

Are you willing to heal me? I know if if you're willing, then I will be clean. Now my my version says filled with compassion verse 41. This version I think says, Jesus was filled with indignation about it yours may say he was filled with love right but it says filled with compassion Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said.

Cameron: 33:12

Be clean. And immediately, the leprosy left him, and he was cured. Now there's many ways to translate this into English or to state this into English, but I wanna tell you that there is such an interesting word here that the gospel writers use in place of compassion or indignation. It's this word. It's got a I gotta look at it because I have a hard time pronouncing it every time.

Cameron: 33:36

It's splodkismay. K? It's a Greek word. And the literal translation of splod compassion or indignation is to have your bowels yearn. To have your bowels yearn.

Cameron: 33:57

And it is used 12 times in the new testament and every time it's used in the new testament, specifically in relation to Jesus, it's always in these instances where Jesus is moved with compassion. Jesus is moved with love. Jesus sees them as sheep without a shepherd. Right? Or Jesus sees them as hungry and having no food, and he had compassion on them as he served them.

Cameron: 34:26

What was the what was the purpose of using a word like splodchnomai here? It's actually the word that we get the word spleen spleen from, if you're interested. But maybe you're not. I don't know. Someone came up to me after first service and said, well, I had my spleen removed from surgery once, so I guess I don't have to, love like Jesus does.

Cameron: 34:49

I think yeah. Okay. Try that 1 in heaven, buddy. But but what is the purpose of using a word like this? Right?

Cameron: 35:00

What does it like what is it trying to denote? What is it trying to communicate here? How I read this is like is that is what when the man says, if you are willing, you can heal me. And Jesus and and and then the, and then Mark goes moved from his very core down deep into the depths of his very stomach. At the center of all that he was and is.

Cameron: 35:30

Jesus was moved with this response, I am willing. Like Jesus's willingness to enter into this man's suffering could not come from a deeper place within him. It was deep within who he was. It was core to to to the way that he interacted with people, moved with compassion, moved to the very core of his being, moved with indignation. Jesus said, am I willing?

Cameron: 36:07

I can do nothing else but be willing to enter into your hurting, to offer response, to walk with you and be healing and offer healing. It was so deeply central to who Jesus was that he could not separate it from how he actually showed up in life. Our prayer here. And this this listen. This is not this is not just this instance.

Cameron: 36:50

You can look at Matthew chapter 9 verse 36. You can look at Mark chapter 14. All of these instances where the scriptures the gospel writers say that that Jesus was moved with compassion, that Jesus that Jesus saw them as sheep without a shepherd, and they were harassed, and he had compassion for them as he entered into their suffering. Our prayer for this this morning is this. Lord, move me to my core, to love and serve the hurting and the broken.

Cameron: 37:29

Now, listen, you need to understand when you begin to pray prayers like this. Especially in prayers like this, like, this is a this is a deeply dangerous prayer for those of us who wanna remain unmoved in our relationship with Jesus. Because what you're asking is you're asking the lord to attack way down deep into the places where there is only darkness and bitterness and anger or your own hurt and brokenness that you've not allowed the lord to heal. But when you begin to ask him, Lord, move it. Move me to my core to love and serve the hurting in the broken.

Cameron: 38:12

You will recognize that an increased burden to love those around you come comes upon your spirit. And you walk with the heaviness of the hurting and the broken all around you, and it moves you to the core to love them and to serve them and to pray for them and to walk with them, but it is the way of Jesus. And this is why I said and this is why I will say is that we must be transformed by Jesus in order to be more empathetic. You must be transformed by Jesus to be more empathetic. Jesus was moved to his core with compassion towards those who were hurting.

Cameron: 39:04

And the question for us is, do you, do we have a burden to love like Jesus had a burden to love? What this really comes down to is it comes down to a a willingness to allow Jesus to transform the values by which we live in this world. Because listen, the the the values of the world are different than the values of Jesus, And we cannot we cannot live in partnership with the values of the world and live in partnership with the values of Jesus at the same time. We must make a choice. And when we if we desire to be transformed, to be more like Jesus, to be more empathetic.

Cameron: 40:03

Right? What we're saying is, lord, help us to lay aside the values of the world so that we may pick up your values. Help us to make what is important to you important to us, and I will tell you that you will look weird. Weird in the 24th century in the 21st century world. Why?

Cameron: 40:34

Well, what are were the values of Jesus, especially as it relates to empathy? Jesus entered into, was physically present with, spent his time going to, eating with, touching, physically touching, being around the sick, the hurting, the poor, the orphan, the mentally ill, the disadvantaged, the addicted, the ostracized, the 1 on the outskirts of the world. Jesus did not value the things that our world and our culture values. What does it value? Individualism, selfishness, self centeredness, self protecting, operate in this mechanical robot mode, empty of affection and true connection with 1 another, subsumed into this culture of absolute apathy and indifference to the plight of anyone other than me.

Cameron: 41:50

But Jesus could not care less about his own plight. He didn't even have a place to lay his head, he told his disciples. His concern was to partner with those whom were broken and hurting and sick and pushed to the outskirts and whom everyone had already decided they were not good enough, not wealthy enough, not righteous enough, not clean enough, not pure enough, not righteous enough, and those were the people that Jesus ran to. And all of the people that said clustered in the middle of their own self righteousness, playing their religious games, did he have his harshest words for? See, what happens is we often fear the destabilization of our lives and our own values, the things that we've built our lives around.

Cameron: 42:59

And so we retract ourselves from people and situations that challenge our worldly values but push us into the values of Jesus. And we remain untransformed because we wanna follow Jesus mentally, but we don't want it to be incarnated in our lives. We don't want to change our relationships. We just want to follow Jesus by listening to the sermon. We don't wanna make different decisions about the things that we do or how we spend our time or how we spend our money or what we let our eyes see, or what we let our ears hear, or what we let our mouths say.

Cameron: 43:43

We don't want to actually change those things. We want to patty cake with the gospel, but not let it actually affect us at our core so that we can move out in the spirit of Jesus. That's why I say these are not hypothetical questions. If we are unwilling to allow the spirit of god to transform us through Jesus Christ, we will be unwilling and unable to offer a truly empathetic presence to people. It will not happen.

Cameron: 44:18

Here's our prayer. Lord, transform the things that are important to me so that it is easier for me to love the things that are important to you. Next, we gain empathy. How can we be more empathetic? We gain empathy by traversing difficult personal experiences ourselves.

Cameron: 44:59

These words to the Corinthians. He says, praise be to the god and father of our lord Jesus Christ, the father of compassion and the god of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from god. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort in salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort which produces in you patient endurance of the same thing.

Cameron: 45:41

And our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in our suffering, so also you share in our comfort. Listen, it is out of the comfort that we have received that on the other end of personal experience, we are are able to sit with 1 who is maybe just starting their journey of difficulty. Empathy is 1 of the ways this is really important. Okay? Empathy is 1 of the ways that we allow our hurts and burdens to be redeemed.

Cameron: 46:27

Empathy is 1 of the ways that we allow god to take what has hurt and broken us at 1 point and redeem it. The thing is is that when we all we'll go through a difficult experience and we'll say, why is this happening to me? This doesn't make sense. This isn't fair. Nothing good can ever come from this.

Cameron: 46:58

And it's natural. In the midst of the whirlwind of a difficult time or season or life or experience for us to question whether or not anything good can come from this. But listen what often happens is that god does bring good from your bad experiences. He just doesn't always bring the good into your life. That god uses your walking through what you have learned in the midst of your pain, What you have learned in the midst of your hurting.

Cameron: 47:39

And he redeems it by putting you in the place of comfort and empathy for the person who was 5 miles from the person who's where you used to be, but now you've traveled through the pain. Right? You've gotten to a new place, and now god is redeeming all that happened back there in the life of someone else. So now, you become an empathetic you become the empathetic salve that god offers to that person through as comfort. Sometimes the way that god redeems things or brings purpose to our pain is to use what we've experienced to bring comfort, peace, and presence to someone else.

Cameron: 48:32

Sometimes our pain is for someone else's future comfort. Our prayer here is this. We're gonna develop increasing empathy. Lord, help me to see how what I have experienced can help bring comfort to others. How will you use what has happened to me, lord, to bring comfort to others?

Cameron: 49:08

And maybe you're in the midst maybe you're in the midst of it right now. Maybe you're in the midst of the pain. And you are just like, I don't care about others pain. I only care about my own. And that's natural.

Cameron: 49:25

And it's okay to feel that. But understand this, like, god is preparing you. God is god is sifting and burning out of you. Every single thing that would stand in the way to your holiness, to his glory. And you can participate with his sanctifying work in your life by asking him the question, Lord, how would you use this thing in my life and in others?

Cameron: 50:01

Make me. Prepare me. Make me fit to carry these things to the hurting and the broken. Sometimes, we lack empathy with others because we believe or we think we lack the resources to help. Sometimes we lack empathy because we think we lack resources to help.

Cameron: 50:30

What do I mean by this? Well, sometimes the resource that we lack is the energy. Like, man, I got my own stuff. K? I don't have the energy to be present with people in the midst of their stuff.

Cameron: 50:49

I am like maxed out. RPM's at 9, 000. K? Can't go any further. I don't have the time.

Cameron: 50:58

I got the energy, but I don't have the time. I'm too busy. My schedule is too demanding. I don't have the resources. I don't have the mental I don't know.

Cameron: 51:08

I don't have this, I don't have the maturity, I don't have the spiritual maturity. What if they ask me a question that I don't know the answer to? What if they need something from me that I can't provide? I don't have what it takes to be empathetic to that person. I can't do it.

Cameron: 51:30

There's a really good story in Matthew chapter 14. After a large crowd had heard all of this teaching from Jesus, the disciples came to Jesus and, they said this. Matthew chapter 14 verse 16 is where it starts. Just a few verses here. Matthew 1416.

Cameron: 51:50

He says this, that they came to him and they were like, at Jesus, all these people are hungry and it's getting really late. You need to send them away so that they can go get food for themselves. Right? How does Jesus reply? They don't need to go anywhere.

Cameron: 52:11

You feed them. He says to the disciples. You feed them. Well, we like don't have the resources to do that. We've got, what does he say here?

Cameron: 52:26

We only have 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, they answered. Listen, my resources are limited. I don't have the time, I don't have the energy, I don't have the money, I don't have anything. I don't have the answers. I cannot enter into this person's pain, and their suffering, and their hurt, and their brokenness.

Cameron: 52:41

I ain't got what it takes, I'm not going there, I can't. See. Told you. I don't have it. I've only got 5 loaves, 2 fish.

Cameron: 52:47

What are you gonna do with that? What does Jesus say? Bring them to me. Bring the bring the loaves and, bring the loaves and fishes to me. And what he did?

Cameron: 52:58

He gave thanks to his father for what he have, and then he he gave he gave that to his disciples, and the disciples gave it to the people. He directed the people to sit down on the grass, taking the 5 loaves, 2 fish, looking up to heaven. He gave thanks, broke the loaves, then he gave them to his disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. And what happened? What happened next in the story?

Cameron: 53:23

Next verse. They all ate and were satisfied. And the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. The number of people that were fed that day were 5 1, 000 plus women and children. You may not believe and you may truly not have a whole lot of energy to be present with people who are hurting and broken.

Cameron: 53:51

You may not have a whole lot of money. You may not have a whole lot of time. You may not have the mental capacity or the spiritual capacity. You may not have the emotional desire. You may not have the answers.

Cameron: 54:01

But listen, when you take what you do have and you offer it to God in service of those who are in need, God takes what you don't have and multiplies it into exactly what is needed for the situation so much so that it comes out in an abundance of resources, not a lack of resources. That when you move forward in the faithfulness that what I do have listen. I don't know the answers. I don't have the energy, but I will be with you in this. I I will be with you in this.

Cameron: 54:42

What you offer to god when you're hurting or when when you're when you're, loving and being empathetic to others is multiplied in the hands of god to produce blessing and not just blessing, but favor. Here's the prayer. Lord, help me to show empathy even when I have nothing left of my own to give. Help me to show empathy even when I have nothing left of my own to give. This last 1 is kind of a rehash of several of them and what I've already said, a number of times.

Cameron: 55:32

But it is the core to the message this morning. Without a burden to love others, empathy is impossible. Without a burden in your heart, in your core, down in your spleen, without a burden to love others, Empathy is impossible. Meaning meaning, we will find every excuse in the book to not partner with or empty enter the pit with those who are hurting and broken. We will we will we will make a 1, 000 and 1 excuses what what we don't have and why we can't.

Cameron: 56:21

Right? We will we will walk in our own sense of selfishness and self centeredness away from both the character of god, the ministry and the example of Jesus, and the overall wisdom of the world to walk with the broken if we are not asking the Lord to give us a burden to love other people. When's the last time you prayed that prayer? When's the last time you prayed this prayer, this last prayer? Lord, help me to love others more deeply.

Cameron: 56:59

Help me to love others more deeply. Because the implication here is not this this is not help me to love the people that I love more. No. The implication of this is almost always help me to love the people that I'd rather not be with. Help me to love them more deeply.

Cameron: 57:24

Help me to have more love for the hurting. Help me to have more love for the broken. Help me have more love for those that would just take and take and take and take and take. Help me have more love for those who are in the pit. Help me have more love for those who are addicted and abused and alone and ashamed.

Cameron: 57:44

Help me to have more love. Help me to have more love. Help me to have more love. Lord, give me a burden to love other people. It is this prayer that recognizes and signifies the transforming work of God's spirit in us as we say, Lord, transform me into a person who would rather sit like this into a person who is like this to the hurting and the broken.

Cameron: 58:22

Right? We can have a heart that looks like this. But as we're praying to the lord, lord, help me to love others more deeply. Help me to love others more deeply. Help me to love others more deeply.

Cameron: 58:41

We end up like this. This is the posture. This is the plan. This is what it means. Let's pray.

Cameron: 58:59

Lord, help us to love others more deeply. Help us to show empathy, Lord, when we've got nothing left to give. Help us to see, lord, how what we have experienced as pain or suffering or loneliness in our lives can be used to comfort others. Transform us, lord. Transform us so that the things that are important to you are more important to me.

Cameron: 59:47

Move us to our core, Lord, for the hurting and the broken, that we may be more present with them just as you, Lord, have been present with us in Jesus in the midst of our sin and brokenness. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love just as Christ has loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Conduit, you are loved.

Cameron: 01:00:32

Have a great week. See you next time.