{"id":33805,"date":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/costly-compassion\/"},"modified":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-26T00:00:00","slug":"costly-compassion","status":"publish","type":"sermons","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermons\/costly-compassion\/","title":{"rendered":"Costly Compassion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2005\/08\/19007.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n<p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;You\ndeserve compensation for your suffering,&#8221; according to some lawyers&#8217; ads on\ntelevision these days. &#8220;If you hit your hand on a doorpost; if you cut your\nfinger on your MasterCard when you&#8217;re using it; if you run over your toe with a\ngrocery cart; if you put hot coffee between your thighs, drive off and spill\nsome on you, it&#8217;s not your fault. We ought to sue somebody. Somebody ought to\npay for it. So come to us. We will take care of your problem.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Then\nthey say, &#8220;We&#8217;ll get you a little additional compensation for your pain and\nyour suffering,&#8221; as if somehow or other pain and suffering were not a normal\npart of life.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The Bible makes it clear that if we&#8217;re serious about our faith, we&#8217;ll\nsuffer.<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Who\nsays we ought to get paid for our sufferings? You can make a strong case that\nthis is an antibiblical concept. When Paul meets Christ on the road to\nDamascus, he is struck blind. Jesus says, &#8220;Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting\nme?&#8221; He blinds Paul and sends him off to Damascus. Then Jesus goes immediately\nto Ananias in Damascus.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Here&#8217;s\nwhat Jesus does not say to Ananias. &#8220;I want you to show him what a great\nsuccess he&#8217;s going to have as a missionary. I want you to tell him how many\nfolks he&#8217;s going to move towards God. I want you to show him what a great name\nhe&#8217;s going to make for himself and what heights of fame he&#8217;ll reach.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">No.\nWhat Jesus says is, &#8220;I will show him how much he must suffer for my name&#8217;s\nsake.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Remember\nwhat Jesus said to Timothy? &#8220;All who would live a godly life in Christ Jesus\nwill suffer.&#8221; In Philippians 3 Paul says, &#8220;I want to know C and the power\nof his resurrection.&#8221; And a lot of us would say, &#8220;Yeah, I want to know the\npower of his resurrection too. I want to live a strong Christian life. I want\nGod to pour on the power.&#8221; And we forget that the next thing Paul says is this:\n&#8220;&#8230; and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.&#8221; You realize there is a\npowerful spiritual principle. Nobody ever gets resurrection until they first\nhave a death.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Paul\nmentions 23 different ways he suffered. Some of us say, &#8220;Thank God I didn&#8217;t\nhave to go through all those things.&#8221; Others are saying, &#8220;I wonder why I don&#8217;t\nsuffer any more, if all who live a godly life in Christ Jesus suffer?&#8221; Maybe\nyou&#8217;re thrown off by the whips and the rods and the shipwrecks. We don&#8217;t have much\nof that in our day. But remember the New Tribes missionaries Tim VanDyke and\nSteve Welsh who were kidnapped for sharing Christ last year in Colombia, and\nmartyred last month. There are still some folks who are willing to expose their\nlives to intense sufferings for the cause of Christ.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Why did Paul expose his life to such sufferings when he could have had\nit easy?<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Why\ndid Paul expose his life to such sufferings? Why would he go through this? In\nverse 28 he begins to give us the answer.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;Besides\neverything else, I faced daily the pressure of my concern for all the\nchurches.&#8221; There it is. He&#8217;s saying, &#8220;I love these people. I&#8217;m concerned about\nthese people. And whatever it takes to take care of them, whatever it takes to\nget the Gospel to them, I&#8217;ll do it, because these folks need Christ.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">You\nrealize Paul could have missed all these sufferings. He was a sail maker, a\ntent maker; he could have had a great life of comfort and ease. But somehow or\nother he said, &#8220;I&#8217;m going to choose, instead, to take all of these sufferings,\nbecause I love these people.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">If\nwe lived as if we really longed to rescue a soul from hell, then the buffeting\nwould begin at once for us. The reason a lot of us say, &#8220;I don&#8217;t have any\nsuffering for Jesus,&#8221; may reflect the level of depth and concern we have for\nthe souls of others.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">A\nfew weeks ago, the television series, <em>ER<\/em>,\nhad a series of stories based on what it costs a doctor to be involved in\nsaving lives in the emergency room. Dr. Green, working 100 hours a week was\nlosing his family, and Dr. Ross was struggling with his emotions. And he got\ninto an assault charge.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">But\nDr. Benton, an AAmerican doctor, was the focus of that evening&#8217;s show.\nHe was having a tough time. He works 100 hours a week, then he goes home to\ntake care of his dying mother. He and his sister are fighting over who takes\ncare of Mom the most. She&#8217;s always mad at him saying &#8220;You&#8217;re never here when we\nneed you. All you do is work down at that hospital. You don&#8217;t keep up your end\nof the load.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Mom&#8217;s\nbirthday party is coming up and his sister makes him promise he&#8217;ll be at the\nparty.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nnext day it&#8217;s quitting time, but another case gets rolled into the emergency\nroom. It&#8217;s a white man, a skinhead. He&#8217;s been stabbed in the heart during a\ngang fight. They move him to the operating table in that emergency room. There\nstands Dr. Benton, the AAmerican doctor, and an AAmerican nurse\ngetting ready to put the IV in.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">(They\nused the word that evening on television that really sinks home. I&#8217;m going to\nuse this word, though I don&#8217;t approve of it.) They roll him over. Tattooed on\nthis skinhead&#8217;s arm, with other words: &#8220;Die, Nigger, Die.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Everybody\nin the emergency room reads the words together. What&#8217;s he going to do? He looks\nat the others and says, &#8220;Folks, we&#8217;ve got a job to do. Let&#8217;s do it.&#8221; Then he\ncuts the skinhead&#8217;s chest open and saves his life.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Dr.\nBenton goes home. The party&#8217;s been over for an hour, and his sister lets him\nhave it. She doesn&#8217;t want an explanation. She storms out of the room. And Dr.\nBenton says, &#8220;Can you beat this? I missed my mother&#8217;s birthday party to save\nthe life of a guy with those words tattooed on his arm.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nguess that&#8217;s how it is if you&#8217;re a doctor and you&#8217;re going to dedicate yourself\nto saving lives. There will be some emotional, some mental, some physical costs\nthat you&#8217;ve never once imagined you&#8217;d face.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">That&#8217;s\nwhat you and I as Christians may say when we get serious about the value of\npeople&#8217;s lives. Like Paul, we&#8217;re going to experience some buffetings we never\nreally signed on for in the beginning. What does this passage say to us?<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">You\nrealize that in our day the value of a human soul is up for grabs. How much is\na soul worth? We&#8217;re fighting this in our society, but somehow we&#8217;re losing. In\nthe United States, we abort babies. What does that say about their value? But\nafter a child is born, we&#8217;ll go to heroic efforts to save him or her. We&#8217;ll put\n$500,000 new heart and lung transplant for a little child, if that&#8217;s what it\ntakes. What&#8217;s the value here?<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nheard Dr. Dean Odell encouraging women, &#8220;Get your mammograms. It can save your\nlife.&#8221; He went on to say that statistics show, last year, it cost $1.2 million\nin mammograms for every life we save. Then he asked, &#8220;Is it worth it?&#8221; Then he\nsaid, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know, but, ladies, get your mammogram.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">What is the value of a soul?<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">What\nis the value of a soul? <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Paul\nput that perspective in 1 Corinthians 9:22. Paul writes: &#8220;To the Jews I become\nlike a Jew, to win some Jews. To those under the law, I&#8217;ll become like one\nunder the law, although I&#8217;m not under the law. If that&#8217;s what it takes to win\nsome of those under the law. For the weak, I&#8217;ll become weak to win some of the\nweak. Why, in fact, I&#8217;ll become all things to all people if that&#8217;s what it\ntakes to somehow win some.&#8221; Paul said, &#8220;Whatever it takes to save a soul, it&#8217;s\nworth it.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Have\nyou ever prayed, &#8220;Dear God, would you please give me a sense of what it would\nbe like for folks who end up in hell?&#8221; If God were to grant that to some of us,\nwe would realize that folks we rub shoulders with, the people in our families,\nwho know not Christ would go on to an eternity in hell.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\ntruth is, some of us are more concerned about the condition of our cars than we\nare with the condition of our neighbors&#8217; souls.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Ralph\nNeighbour tells the story of Jack, a businessman in his community, who got\ncancer, lost his job, and all of his life savings.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Neighbour\nand one of his deacons went to visit Jack. Finally the deacon said, &#8220;Jack,\nyou&#8217;ve talked a lot about how little time you have left here on the earth. I\nwonder if you&#8217;ve prepared your soul for life after death?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nthe deacon said that, Jack lost it. &#8220;You Christians. That&#8217;s all you want to\ntalk about&#8212;life after death. Why don&#8217;t you and your God become concerned about\nme while I&#8217;m in the here and now?! Not to mention my physical problems, I&#8217;m\nabout to leave a wife penniless. I&#8217;m leaving a daughter with no funds for\ncollege.&#8221; With that, he kicked them out.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">A\ncouple of weeks later, the deacon called Neighbour and said, &#8220;Let&#8217;s go back and\nvisit him again.&#8221; When the door opened, the deacon apologized profusely. &#8220;I\nobviously struck some tender nerves, and I didn&#8217;t mean to do that. Forgive me.\nBut I want you to know we&#8217;ve been working on your problem since then. Your\nfirst problem is where your family is going to live after you die. We want you\nto know we&#8217;ve contacted a realtor in our church who has agreed to sell your\nhouse and donate the commission back to your family.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;We&#8217;ve\narranged for a number of the men in our church to make all the monthly house\npayments until your house sells. We&#8217;ve contacted the owner of an apartment\nhouse in your neighborhood. He&#8217;s agreed to give your wife and your daughter a\n apartment and an $850 a month salary for collecting rent and\ncoordinating some of the repairs. The income from the sale of your house will\nbe much more than enough to take care of your daughter&#8217;s college education. We\njust want you to know your family will be cared for after you&#8217;re gone.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Jack\nbroke down and cried like a baby. He died shortly thereafter. He never did give\nhis life to Christ, but his widow and his daughter were so impressed by the\nlove and compassion and concern of some Christians who cared, that it wasn&#8217;t\ntoo long until they gave their lives to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">How\nmuch is a soul worth to you? Paul learned the value of a human soul.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Romans\n1:16 says, &#8220;I&#8217;m not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. It is the power of God for\nthe salvation of everyone who believes it.&#8221; In other words, I believe with all\nmy heart that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a powerful gospel and that\neverybody needs it. It&#8217;s a transforming gospel. It will take folks from the\ndepths of society to the heights of heaven.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">There\nwas a man who was struggling desperately with alcohol. His family was just\nbeing decimated. Some friends picked him up, began to share the Gospel with\nhim. He gave his life to Christ and his life was transformed. After a while he\nwent back to some of his drinking buddies. He said, &#8220;Hey, let me tell you what\nJesus Christ has done for me.&#8221; And he began to share a bit about the\ntransforming power of the Gospel.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">One\nof his friends began to laugh and say, &#8220;Hey, don&#8217;t you tell us we shouldn&#8217;t\ndrink. Nothing&#8217;s wrong with drinking. Jesus turned water into wine.&#8221; And the\nman replied. &#8220;I really don&#8217;t know about that. But I do know my wife and\nchildren are impressed because in our house Jesus Christ has turned beer into\nfurniture.&#8221; That&#8217;s the transforming power of the Gospel.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">One\nday Paul is on his way to kill Christians, but meets Jesus on the Damascus\nroad. Inside, he&#8217;s turned 180 degrees, now he&#8217;s on the way to save folks. His\nmessage is, &#8220;Let me tell you what happened to me. My life&#8217;s been transformed.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <strong>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">We often don&#8217;t understand the power of the gospel because we aren&#8217;t\ntransformed.<\/span>\n      <\/strong>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nthink the reason a lot of us don&#8217;t know how much folks need the Gospel, to\nexperience its transforming power, is because we have never been transformed.\nWe&#8217;re just like we&#8217;ve always been. Nothing&#8217;s changed. Why do I need the Gospel?\nIt hasn&#8217;t made any difference in my life. You don&#8217;t need this stuff.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">If\nyour life&#8217;s really been transformed&#8212;and the essence of the Gospel is, when you\nmeet Christ you&#8217;re never the same again&#8212;if you&#8217;ve really been transformed by\nthe Gospel of Christ, you realize folks need this stuff. They need the Gospel.\nIt&#8217;s the only thing that can transform and give us the power to live here and\nthe life to live over there.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I&#8217;ve\nnoticed among many Christians the insidious thought that&#8217;s been creeping in: <em>A loving God would never send anybody to\nhell. Let them believe whatever they want to, and when they die God&#8217;s going to\nsort it out and everything&#8217;s going to be fine.<\/em><\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Hold\nit. Where does that come from? That&#8217;s not what the Bible teaches. Paul said,\n&#8220;It&#8217;s not going to be fine. They must get the Gospel. And if I have to suffer\nto get it to them then, so be it, because souls are invaluable.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nthink of Jesus. He couldn&#8217;t have made it any plainer. John 14:6: &#8220;I am the way.\nI am the truth. I am the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In\nfact, the Bible gives us an interesting picture of Christ. There will come a\ntime when Jesus Christ will be casting folks into hell because they didn&#8217;t\nreceive him. On the other hand, he&#8217;s here to save folks from hell with his arms\noutstretched, saying, &#8220;Listen, I am the only way to avoid this.&#8221; Paul knew\nthat. That&#8217;s why Paul said, &#8220;I&#8217;ll suffer whatever it takes to get these folks\nthe Gospel.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Remember\nJohn 15:13, where Jesus says, &#8220;Greater love has no man than this, that he lay\ndown his life for his friends&#8221;? How many times the Bible ties love and\nsuffering together in the same picture, and it&#8217;s always the picture of the\ncross. Whenever the Bible wants to talk about love, it always goes to one\nplace.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">You\nwant to talk about love? Again and again it ties it right back to the cross of\nChrist. What better picture is there of love than Jesus Christ on the cross,\ntaking all the sin of all the world? Because, you see, there&#8217;s no greater love\nthan when one person gives his life for somebody else. So, by taking all the\nsin of all the world, he suffers there in our place, he died for us. And when\nthe Bible wants to talk about love, it always goes straight to that cross.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">That&#8217;s\nwhat Isaiah 53:46 is about: &#8220;He was pierced for our transgressions. He was\ncrushed for our sins. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. All we\nlike sheep have gone astray. Everybody goes his own way. And the Lord has laid\nupon Jesus the sins of us all.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">What\ndoes this last phrase mean: &#8220;The Lord has laid upon him the sins of us all&#8221;? I\nused to puzzle with that. How could God do that?<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">When\nI was a children&#8217;s pastor, one of our bus captains had a horrific experience on\nLake Dallas. A big storm came, the boat made a quick turn and he was thrown\ninto the water. He hit the water, and all of a sudden his friend in the boat\ndrove away and left him there. His friend did throw him a life preserver, but\nhe was in the middle of this lake in a terrible storm.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">They\ndiscovered later that the steering linkage broke. That&#8217;s what caused the boat\nto turn and flip him out. That&#8217;s why the boat kept going. But he didn&#8217;t know\nthat then.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">He\nwas in the water all night long. The next morning, he washed up unconscious on\nthe shore. He was in the hospital when I saw him. Bob Morgan said to me,\n&#8220;Roger, you know those stories that say when you face death, your whole life\nflashes before your eyes? Well, it&#8217;s true.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;I\nhit the water and my friend sailed away. I knew I was going to die. Roger, in\nten seconds my whole life flashed before my eyes&#8212;my childhood, my adolescence,\nmy teenage years, my college, my working years, my kids. It was all there, in\nten seconds.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">I\nheard that and thought, <em>Wow. If God could\nhave Bob Morgan&#8217;s life flash before his eyes in ten seconds, it&#8217;s not tough for\nGod to take all the sin of all the world and hang it on Jesus&#8217; back in three\nhours. All the sins from Pearl Harbor to Nagasaki to Hiroshima to World War I\nto Bosnia to Uganda to the holocaust. Bangladesh. Laos. It&#8217;s all there in three\nhours.<\/em><\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nBible says if you want to talk about love, then you go to the cross.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">John\nPayton was a student in England. He was finishing seminary and God said, &#8220;I\nwant you to go to the mission field. I want you to go to the New Hebrides\nIslands.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">John\nPayton said, &#8220;New Hebrides Islands? God, those are I inhabited by cannibals.\nYou want me to go there? Are you sure?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">God\nsaid, &#8220;Yes.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">So\nhe gathered up his young bride and got on a sailing ship, and was let off on\nthe New Hebrides Islands. The ship sailed away and he and his wife were alone.\nHow do you start? You don&#8217;t stick up a sign on the beach that says, &#8220;Sunday\nschool next Sunday, right here.&#8221; He didn&#8217;t know their language; they didn&#8217;t\nknow his.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">His\nwife gave birth to their first child, who contracted a tropical disease and\ndied two weeks later. Two days later his wife died. Payton wrote in his\nbiography: &#8220;I slept on their graves for three nights to keep the natives from\ndigging them up and eating them.&#8221; Then he wrote, &#8220;God, how far does love go?\nHow far does obedience and commitment to Christ have to go?&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">In\nGod&#8217;s providence, there was an outcast from one of the tribes who met Payton,\nand became friends. The native taught John Payton some of the language. John\nPayton stayed on New Hebrides Islands for  years. After that, he\nwrote, &#8220;I do not know of a single native in these islands who has not made a\nprofession of faith in Jesus Christ.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Maybe\nwe say it with broken hearts, &#8220;God, why are there no blessings, no fruits in my\nlife?&#8221; or, &#8220;God, why are there no sufferings for Christ?&#8221; You realize, of\ncourse, the principle: no one gets the blessings without some buffeting. But\nthe buffetings are worth it.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Because,\nnumber one, we must learn the value of a human soul. Number two, we must\nunderstand the value of that Gospel. And number three, we must experience the\nvalue of love.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Remember\nGeorge Orwell, who wrote <em>1984<\/em>? He\ndescribed an experience near the end of his life which illustrates human\nlostness. Orwell writes:<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">&#8220;A\nwasp was sucking jam on my plate when I cut him in half. He paid no attention,\nmerely went on with his meal while a tiny stream of jam trickled out his\nsevered esophagus. Only when he tried to fly away did he grasp the dreadful\nthing that had happened to him.&#8221;<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">The\nwasp and people without Christ have much in common. Severed from their souls,\nbut greedy and unaware, people continue to consume life&#8217;s sweetness. Only when\nit&#8217;s time to fly away will they grasp their dreadful condition.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">That&#8217;s\nwhy Paul said, &#8220;I&#8217;m willing to suffer at any price to get the Gospel of Jesus\nChrist to a needy world.&#8221; May his suffering speak volumes to us.<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <em>\n        <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Roger Barrier is pastor of\nCasas Adobes Baptist Church in Tucson, Arizona. He is a contributor to the <\/span>\n      <\/em>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">Leadership Handbooks of\nPractical Theology<em>.<\/em><\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">(c) Roger Barrier<\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Preaching Today Tape #164<\/h2>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/www.preachingtodaysermons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">www.PreachingTodaySermons.com<\/a>\n      <\/span>\n    <\/p>\n    <p>\n      <span style=\"\" class=\"\">A resource of Christianity Today\nInternational<\/span>\n    <\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[306],"tax_ctp_authors":[2876],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[170],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[412],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_sermon_series":[],"tax_ctp_tags":[3648,3897,5103],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-33805","sermons","type-sermons","status-publish","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-roger-barrier","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-compassion","tax_ctp_tags-evangelism","tax_ctp_tags-suffering"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - 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