Good morning to Chief Cornerstone.
We're going to be doing something a little bit different this morning.
For the winter at Chief Cornerstone, they're going to be closing out the Sunday morning services.
So there's only two more.
And I'm going to do that service with you right now, so that they can live stream in.
And that'll be their service this morning.
The Lord has me on just bringing up something, because we've had such a move of God.
We've had so many good things, haven't we?
Yeah, and so when that happens, you know, as oversight or seeing over different things,
and just even just watching online, you could feel the power of God.
Last Sunday's service, I was like, whoa!
Then I wanted to see everything that was going on.
You get frustrated because you're on the other side of the camera.
But at the same time, there's something about the power of God changing us
because he has had compassion on us.
Right?
And then the trueness of Christianity is to translate the compassion that he's had on us to other people.
And so sometimes in full gospel circles, I'm not saying we're not doing this.
I'm just saying, you know, just oversight. Let's pay attention to this.
In full gospel circles, many times we're about, you know, the fire and the altar and miracles and that.
And that is so good. That's him displaying his compassion on us.
That's him coming in his power.
And so when that happens, we take that.
But as we are changed, it should do in us what he's done for us.
It should do in us that compassion.
So we're going to take a look at compassion this morning.
And let's turn our Bibles to Psalms 145.
Mm. Verse 6, 7, 8 and 9, we're going to go over.
145.
Thank you, Jesus.
Men shall speak of the might of your awesome acts.
I like that. I like doing that about God.
And I will declare your greatness.
They shall utter the memory of your great goodness and shall sing of your righteousness.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
The Lord is good to all. That's a key phrase.
And his tender mercies are over all his people.
All his works, I should say.
So when we look at the word compassion,
compassion a lot of times will think might be like,
oh, I feel sorry for her.
No, that might be feeling sorry.
It might be empathy.
There's a difference between saying, oh, I'm sorry you went through that.
And you're acknowledging where a person's at. That's sorrow.
But there is a difference between that and empathy.
Empathy is like, I can feel where you're at.
I have so been there.
And I can feel the pain of what you've gone through.
It's like, woo, you know.
And because I've experienced compassion,
it's completely opposite of what that person is feeling.
They're feeling like, I need me some compassion.
And so you can feel their emptiness.
And so anyways, it says the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.
The key there is the word full.
If we look at the word compassion, we think, like I said,
it might be that, oh, we feel sorry for the person or like a pity.
But really compassion in the Greek means mercy.
That's the main meaning for that word.
It's the word mercy.
And so not only does it mean that,
it means loving tenderly, eager to do something, right?
Like God is just waiting. He's in the shoot.
He's like, I just want to do something for you.
Because He moves by compassion.
And He's full of it.
You know, when people say, you're just full of it.
Well, what are you full of?
Right? What are you full of?
This is saying that God is full of mercy.
He's full of compassion.
His mercy endures forever as another scripture.
And the reason he's able to, all of him is compassion.
Yeah?
And so when we start to see that, it also means having pity.
It means mercy.
It means, you know, where we say grace is,
when God gives you something you don't deserve,
mercy is when He withholds what you do deserve.
Right?
So when we approach Him, we're approaching Him for His grace
and His mercy.
I have needed grace in so many areas,
but sometimes I think I needed more mercy.
In a certain thing, I'm like, I need some mercy right now.
When you look at what it means,
when you look at, you know, the fact that it is withholding,
like, I know I messed up.
I know this is not good. I know this is generational.
I know whatever it is you're coming against.
But when you come to God and you're asking Him for His mercy,
He's withholding what you do deserve,
and He's unleashing His grace to you to cover it.
That doesn't mean, oh, we get out of sin and we, you know, do all this.
I mean, the heart is looking for change.
When you ask God for mercy, you're looking for change,
like blind Barnameas.
Son of David, have mercy on me.
Have compassion toward me.
You know, love me tenderly.
Have pity my way.
Notice me. I'm right here.
Sometimes we'll set it up, you know,
where maybe you go to a conference or something
and people are being prophesied over.
Maybe even it happens here.
And the person prophesying just walks right by you.
And inside, you know, outside you're smiling like,
this is wonderful. I'm so happy.
But inside, you're like, yeah, no one ever notices me.
I'm just saying stuff that we think,
but we don't usually say, so I say it for you.
So it's one of those where it's just like,
what, you know, I've been praying all week.
I've been crying my eyes out
and the prophet just walked right by me.
Or they didn't even really notice me in the prayer line.
Or I came up in the prayer line
and what I was looking for is a blow my face off experience.
And they just said a little something
and moved on to the next person.
When we need mercy,
it's not just because of what we've done.
It's because of the effects of sin that sin has had on us.
Sin destroys. It's destructive.
It wrecks the heart. It hardens it.
It messes with our mind.
It brings up the issue over and over.
I mean, sin has this way
of just subtracting from you constantly.
And which causes us to be really needy.
And if a person's really needy
and you tell them,
Buck it up, buttercup, come on.
Get it together.
That doesn't change their heart, right?
You want to toughen them so they can tolerate that?
No. The mind, the heart, the soul is looking for closure.
Let's close this puppy out.
Let's put it behind us.
And we can't deny that it happened.
We can't disassociate from those things
and be like, well, I'm just going to not associate with that.
And it'll go away.
Or I'm just going to deny it
where you lie to yourself in order to push it away.
So when God leads us into prayer
or we see ourself,
once I see myself in areas,
I don't want to see myself overall.
All at once that's too much for the brain.
That's too much.
Especially it's getting better over the years,
but to begin with, I'm like,
You know, I couldn't.
That's too much.
But God will reveal an area to you
and then you'll see your need for compassion.
You'll see your need for mercy.
You'll see your need to cry out.
If we can't self-assess,
then we don't see our own need.
And what's really interesting is sometimes
then we don't see people around us either.
Because once we're in denial to ourself,
people can be hurting all around us
and we're like, what?
Everyone seemed fine to me.
And it's so obvious that people are hurting
around you, but you don't see it because
you're not self-aware right here.
Does that make sense?
So having mercy on me, oh Lord,
is a very powerful prayer.
It is not a shameful prayer.
It shouldn't be, now I'm condemned enough,
I'm going to say something prayer.
It's just an acknowledgement of like,
wow, that's whacked out in that area.
I need to go before God.
Yeah, and that you might start in a stage
where you go before God and you acknowledge something
and you're like, yeah, that ain't right.
There's not a lot of emotion to it.
But as you start to head toward that thing
and you see the depth of it
and you see how it's bound you
and you see how it's affecting others,
all of a sudden that's when the tears start to roll
and you become more self-aware like,
I need his mercy.
I need his grace.
So if we don't understand that process
of how it happens to us,
then evangelistically just helping people
doesn't matter what team you're on,
doesn't matter if you're ministering on the streets
or where you're at.
It would be very difficult to minister
to the person right.
And this is why.
The same way we tell ourselves how to get over stuff
is the same attitude we'll have toward them.
Just, oh man, you know,
what's their problem?
They just need to get over it.
They just need to, you know, whatever it is.
Kind of like sometimes people
will judge other people's children
and the child's freaking out or whatever.
You don't know if they've been up half the night.
You don't know if they have a toothache
and earache or whatever.
They just need to learn how to discipline their children.
Right?
It'll be said like that because we want to now answer.
We want things to go now.
And so compassion
looks deep.
Mercy looks deep.
Mercy looks at the whole thing.
It's a big view.
God is full of mercy.
So if you also approach God
and let's say I had a container of water up here
and it was, you know, maybe
three quarters full instead of full.
If you believe that that's how God's
compassion is toward you,
you will always look to the part that's missing.
So you're like, I know
he has compassion, but he's not going to use
that part that's full
down here. The part that's empty
is what I focus on. How he's probably
going to look at me through that.
Condemnation is under that.
Just feeling of needing for punishments.
Sometimes we actually get
trained in a way where we feel like
we need to be punished. And we'll set it up
in life where I'm going to just keep screwing up until I get punished for it.
Because I know that's what I deserve.
I'm too scared
to ask for compassion and mercy.
But I will look to the part of the glass
I believe is half empty
when God is actually full
of mercy.
So if you approach the altar, let's say
and you're needing something for God
and you're needing his compassion, his mercy,
his touch, his love,
his eagerness to meet
our need. And you have any areas in you
that are like,
well, I see that he's this much full,
but I can't just cross over to believe
that he's all the way full
of compassion.
So then that would mean
God is empty
and void in certain
areas, and he's just not going to be able to meet
our needs.
Right? But when we look at the fact
that he's actually full
of compassion and the word, I like that the word
compassion has the word compass in it.
You know, it's what directs, right?
And so
when we look at that, he's full of compassion.
And that's who we're crying out
for mercy from.
That's who we're going to.
Somebody's just so full of it.
Right?
He's just so full of compassion.
And we're coming up against that.
You know, when we cry out to him,
it's like, wow, he is the full,
he is the all of the answer.
He's how shadowy our father
is more than enough.
In fact, he
says he's full here, but when you
read other scriptures, like my cup runneth
over, that's how he
wants us to be full.
He doesn't give you a little dabble, do you?
You know, you come, you're like, just give me
a little something, something, like no. He's always
like, oh, I was a little...
that ran over the top.
Hope that blessed you. That's the God
that he is. And he can't help himself
because he's so full
of mercy.
And it messes with the head
if we start talking like this, because it's like,
yeah, but what if I sinned
and yeah, but the, yeah, but start coming
up and it doesn't take away,
you know, the fact that sin affects you,
the demonic realm affects you, all those kinds of things.
But that's what his mercy is for. That's
what his grace is for.
Son of David, have mercy on me.
So what that's showing us is where
we stop and we go, I'm right here, Lord,
see me.
You know the scripture where it says he looks to
and fro throughout the earth.
He looks
for those that are crying out to him.
He looks for those
that because he wants to meet, he's so
full of compassion. He just wants to
pour that out.
Compassion and mercy will convict
you.
It will change you.
It will make you feel loved. It will cause
safety. It'll give you permission to grow.
It'll bring you to a place of knowledge.
I mean, there's so much in it.
It isn't him feeling sorry for
us.
We're like, God, feel sorry for me enough
that you'll do something. Sometimes we'll
do that in our immaturity. We'll cry.
We make sure we cry extra long.
That way he notices us.
Or you cry out extra
loud. He has no choice
to do that. He's
so full of compassion. He's just looking
for you to ask, seek, and knock.
And if you do that
and say, I'm still here, Lord, I'm right here.
You're looking to and fro throughout the earth.
Why? To look for someone
who'll stand in the gap, one version says.
But it also says, he's looking
for those people he can show
his self strong to.
So he's not coming out of lack. He's coming out
of his overflow. It's like, I got
to have some people.
See who's crying out. Let me just
dump this on them.
Because it is love that changes us.
You can have truth without
love and it won't be truth at all.
You can have love
without truth and it won't be love at
all.
Makes sense?
You know, kind of like, I love
you. That's why I'm correcting you.
And you talk to
a kid a certain way or whatever
and it's like, well, you're missing
the truth part.
Or the love part when we do
things like that. It's more how we
can approach, do the discipline.
But the child knows the whole time,
man, my dad loves me.
He cares enough
to be in my
face. He cares enough
to correct me.
And this is why Proverbs says, if you don't discipline
a child, you hate them. I mean, that's a pretty
extreme statement. But that's a wisdom
book.
So all that was his, that's wisdom.
That's wisdom from God. If you don't
discipline your child, you hate them. How
you discipline your child
has to be through truth and
love.
Because that's what he does with us.
And he is full of compassion. And compassion
doesn't always let you
out of everything. That's
another misconstrued thing.
It's like, yes, the word
compassion is the same as the word mercy.
And so mercy
withholds what you do deserve.
But it still makes you grow.
Do you ever have where God is just kind of
like he answers something that you really didn't deserve?
And then you just go off and do
whatever you want to do. No, he's like,
no, you're going to grow.
We're not leaving this like this.
You're going to need to grow.
That make sense?
Kind of like praying for, there was
a lady in Colorado that
heavy heroin addict. I didn't
know that she was, but
I just took her children in my day care
as a drop off point. You know, they
do drop off day care so you might be
there a day or two days or whatever.
And she called the phone to check on
the kids and she got her answering service
and it said, Word of Life
Ministries. I never told her I was a minister.
I was just taking kids in my home, right?
And so she said, I need God
right now is what she left
on the answering service. I need him and I need
him right now. And so
I called her and she came to the house
and like within five minutes
of coming to the house, she got born again.
And then she said,
I've been a heroin addict in a prostitute for
years and I don't know
how to stop. And we
ask God for His mercy.
And he lifted
that addiction from her. She never had
a craving again.
It was crazy.
Just gone. You don't do that with heroin. Heroin
is not like a huh, you know, because it actually
changes the component in your brain, even
how your brain operates. And you don't just
walk away from it. It takes a process
and the natural to get that to happen.
Well, having had that happen
for her, that was His mercy.
But guess what? All of a sudden the drug
is gone, right?
Now she sees herself.
Ah.
How did I get into that?
Where did I come from? What's my belief system now?
And that's when God is like that same
mercy, that same compassion is saying
I walk with you, but we are going
to go the narrow way.
Right?
So
when we ask Him for compassion
don't feel like, you know, I'm just hoping
He gives me mercy here.
Then I'm getting out of stuff.
Well, you might be getting out of a consequence
of something or, you know,
He might be adding something to your life
that will benefit you, get you through.
But He's still standing there saying, you're
going to grow? When are we growing?
Right?
So compassion.
Whatever you're full of
is what comes out.
So why this is important
when we believe in the gifts of the Spirit
is because
if we're not moved by compassion
what is coming
out of us? Well, it's the power of God.
It might be a strange fire.
It might be a mix of your
lack of character, your
lack of moving and compassion for the
person, and we're just wanting to move in power.
And when I first got saved
I had compassion for people
on one hand, but on the other hand
I was watching people get healed and I'm like
I want to do that.
So you get all excited.
And then you forget that that's a person
you're praying for.
Right? It's more of like
I want to see the results.
I want to see that happen.
Well, are you seeing that happen for you?
Are we in
some type of at a boy
for ourselves?
Or is it like, you know
I don't care
if we're in a, you know, a
back corner and no one ever knows I prayed
for this person. I want to see them healed
so bad. They're suffering.
I can hear the cry
of their soul.
Right?
So
if you look up scriptures
on
compassion, there's a whole bunch
of them. And like I said in the Greek
it's the same as mercy. It's to
have pity. It's that there's
an eagerness to help.
And there's a
love tenderly.
This is what I don't like. When I
first got saved I was in a church that
there was a lady that organized stuff.
Well, she organized stuff
to get it done, right? That's a good
that's a good gift. Until
you coerce people
into doing something. Like you're on
them like white on rice and
you guilt them and you do all come on
you need to be in the choir. Come
on, you know. You're not
actually
getting them in a spot where they're like
I have been so eager to do this.
I feel like if I can get up there and help sing
and we can work hard on this
that when we sing the anointing will
come and change people.
Right? It's more like okay, fine
I'll be in the Christmas play.
You ever get wrangled into something like that?
Well, you're not eager.
You're not looking loving tenderly
toward it. You're just fulfilling something that you'll say
and I am never going to do that again.
I don't know how to tell this woman no though.
It was interesting. She would come
she would come. I had
an understood church besides Mary
much religion and rarely going.
So I've never encountered
this woman, right? In any
other church. And so
she would come and if you're sitting in the chair
she would stand over you.
See, that's a posture of
I'm in control.
Right? Not sit down next to you
and be like, hey, let's talk.
And I don't even like it when people
approach and ask me a question here. It just feels so weird.
You're up here like, yes, small one.
You know, it's like you have to come
down and meet a person and look in their
face and you know, it's like I don't
I don't like that. And in fact
there's a huge
like a bit red like they have a huge podium
that I can stand behind. I just
never do. I just don't like it.
So we brought up the one that used to be here and I
put her down on the floor. So I want to see people's
faces. I love you.
Right? And
so I want them to feel
God's compassion and when compassion
hits the room, it's an ability
to let people
know my answer
is here
because love is in the house.
So, but I've seen
you know, like I said, when I first got saved
people would try to coerce you into things
and they'd have big programs and all the stuff
but there was no
anointing. It was a thing you did.
When the anointing is there
is when you yourself began to
get eager to minister.
Compassion was shown to you and now you're like
I have to share this
with somebody else.
Amen?
Whatever you're full of
is what comes out.
Full of pride, that's going to come out.
The anointing of God
can be on you because of the Holy Spirit.
He's in you, right?
And His Word has its own anointing.
So I can be jacked up, right?
And go and minister to somebody
and speak the Word to them
and the Word will minister to them
because it has its own inherent power.
It's Jesus.
And I walk away like, that's right, I minister to them.
Nah, the Word actually did
when you spoke it over them.
Your attitude is kind of messed up, right?
And so we have to do attitude checks
as we're moving into the big
things of God.
To the revelation things of God
and the anointing becomes stronger in this house.
And in the house to come
we have to
have a compassion check.
So
I'm that person, when I speak
I'm very apostolic
in the way of like, let's establish this the right way, right?
We got great things going on.
I'm not picking at anything.
I'm just saying hard check
and making sure
that we move
with compassion.
Because that's the trueness of where the anointing is.
And God's full of it.
He is full of compassion.
So let's stand this morning
and those of you watching online
or at Red Lake
once again
we just love you and we're glad that you can
be with us this morning
online here.
God's the same yesterday, today and forever
and he was moved
by compassion.
And as we're standing here
I want you to be thinking about
the things that you're
tolerating
because you can
put up with it.
But God actually wants it gone.
But you're putting up with it
because you don't want to bother him
because you don't know how full he is
towards you.
Oh, he's so full of compassion toward other people.
We are talking about me, right?
We approach him like that.
And we'll put up with the silliest things
I don't care
if it's an infected toenail. We'll put up with that
because I don't want to bother him.
I can do this.
When he's saying I'm looking to
and fro throughout the earth
I want to show myself strong.
Give me an opportunity to show myself
I am so full. It's overflowing.
And he wants us in a position
to be able to receive that
if our world view of him
is not that well
then our receiver is going to be broke.
This is
one scripture. When Jesus heard what had happened
he withdrew by boat privately
to a solitary place.
Hearing of this the crowds followed him on foot from town.
When Jesus landed
and saw a large crowd
he didn't go, cool, my ministry is growing
this is going to be so awesome.
He said, it says he had compassion
on them and healed their sick.
It came up out of the fullness
of who he was like
there are hurting people here.
Another scripture he says
he's moved by compassion because
they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Hallelujah, let's have the band come.
Hallelujah, thank you.
Colossians 312 says
therefore as God's chosen people
holy and dearly loved
clothe yourself with compassion.
Clothe yourself with compassion.
Kindness, humility, gentleness
and patience.
And if you ask God for compassion
you're asking him for mercy
what are you asking him for mercy for?
It's going to be your own self assessment
between you and him.
It's not a thing he just gives you
for nothing like you got it all going on
let me just give you a ticket of compassion
or mercy you go use that
on other people. Now what happens
is where I'm the most compassionate
is where I'm clearly aware
he's shown me the most mercy.
I mean it just flows.
If I see someone struggling with cancer
it's like get out my way.
Right?
I need to be with that person.
I just have a...
there was a lady that was literally
in the process of passing away
and I got to her house
and she said I am so glad you're here
and she said I've just felt so alone
in this bedroom.
I said well you got to get up.
And she said
I just want to talk to you.
So I said I'm looking she's in bed
like I'm like where do I sit or whatever.
And I said I'm that person
who would just crawl right there in bed with you.
She goes well let's do it.
Holds the covers back.
And so I crawl in bed with her out.
I'm holding her hand. We're face to face.
And I was able to speak the word to her
speak over her
regarding fear.
I'm running with tears.
She's running with tears.
I didn't feel sorry for her.
I could feel the compassion
of God for her.
And I was so proud of the fight
that she was fighting.
I was like look at you girl
look at you girl
if you step out of your body this week
you have fought the good fight.
See that's how compassion.
It wasn't like let's pray.
I feel sorry for her.
That's not the compassion of God.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. So you got things
that you know maybe
are things that you're overlooking
and you're not having compassion on yourself.
Because you can't stand
putting up with you.
You're tired of how you are.
You don't even want to hang out with you.
You're just like get, get, stop.
I'm going to go focus on something else.
Well we also can't give compassion to others
if we can't have compassion on
ourselves. And where do we get this compassion
by asking for mercy
from God. Hallelujah.
Let's begin to pray in the spirit.
1st Peter 3.8 says finally keep going
and I'll just read this over you.
Finally all of you be like-minded
be sympathetic, love one another
be compassionate and
humble. That's the going low part
while we're giving out this compassion.
We bring those things. This is a fast way of doing it.
But we're going to bring those things before
you and ask for mercy
in those areas. Lord, show us
if we're mistreating ourselves.
Show us if we're mistreating others.
Lord God, this is just a self analysis
to see how much compassion
is flowing through us.
How much do we
understand how full you
are of mercy.
Your mercy
endures forever. So we bring
the thing that we've been struggling with
the thing that we've been ignoring
the thing that we don't want to address
we bring that before you now and just mention it
and I know as you're looking to
and fro throughout the earth you see us
really what we're saying when we speak that thing out
is we're right here God
right here. Son of David
have mercy
have mercy over the finances
have mercy in the marriages
Lord God have mercy
let the fullness of who you are
spill out onto this body
let the fullness of who you are
bring about change
we receive it Lord
God we're so empty we empty ourselves
and then we stand here so empty
we're asking for your mercy
the very thing
that we're scared to address
we ask for mercy on
how you know
if you're scared to address something
This is a spiritual thing. First, let's deal with it. See, if we're afraid to do that, that means we're not also believing there's going to be any mercy flowing there.
I commend the spirits that are in this house right now to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? And you go and you say something to your husband. I'm so sorry if I've treated you poorly. This is a spiritual thing. First, let's deal with it. See, if we're afraid to do that, that means we're not also believing there's going to be any mercy flowing there.
So we're scared we're going to stir this thing up and it's going to get bad. That's for a whole bunch of people. Right? The thing you fear you can't speak into and you can't have what you speak against.
Well, I've always been like this and that's just the way it is in my family. And God's saying he wants this for, yeah, but you don't understand it. You can't have what you speak against.
His mercy, when we ask for his mercy, it's a belief that comes up in us that says, oh, he's so full of compassion. He's got this with me. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.