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[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Alright, y'all can open your Bibles to Mark chapter 7. And I've been able to preach through the book of Mark in Omega in Peru.

[0:16] And I love it. I enjoy it so much. One of the reasons that I enjoy preaching through Mark so much is because one thing is to preach doctrines that Jesus taught or doctrines of Jesus or our identity in Jesus, which are all super necessary.

[0:31] But it is such an exciting thing to me to see that not only did Jesus have a doctor, but Jesus was and is a real person. Amen? And that He lived on this earth and that He gave of Himself.

[0:43] He poured out His life as a ransom for many. He showed Himself as a servant. And the beautiful thing about Mark is that we see His example in the way that He lived and His example for us.

[0:53] And so I want to look at Mark chapter 7 and we'll start in verse 31. This evening, they're some of the most compassionate verses that you're going to see in the entire Bible. We've seen, you know, if you read through the book of Mark, chapter 1 through chapter 7, you've seen a lot of stuff.

[1:07] You've seen that Jesus has healed individual people. You've seen that He's worked through individuals' lives. You've also seen that He has fed multitudes. He has been a servant all along.

[1:18] And He's really shown His compassion. Even when He's tired and Peter comes and rebukes Him, Jesus still rises up and goes to work. Even when He's tired, even when He's exhausted, He still gives of Himself for everyone.

[1:30] But this passage, this one's pretty special because you see compassion here. You see detail here that you don't see in any other story in the book of Mark. You see detail that Mark decides, and the Holy Spirit through Mark decides to keep track of.

[1:45] And He gives us an example for us. And so we'll start reading verse 31, and we'll go through verse 37. Verse 31 says, And again, departing from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, He came unto the Sea of Galilee through the midst of the coast of Decapolis.

[2:00] And you can remember that if you're taking notes or if you're still underlining, underline that city, Decapolis. Verse 32, And they bring unto Him one that is deaf and had an impediment in His speech.

[2:11] So He's probably a deaf mute or someone that had a terrible impediment in His speech. Kind of like I do right now. Verse 32, And they bring unto Him one that was deaf and had an impediment in His speech.

[2:25] And they beseech Him to put His hands upon Him and took Him aside from the multitude and put His fingers into His ears and He spit and touched His tongue. And looking up to heaven, He sighed and saith unto Him, Ephatha, that is, be open.

[2:42] And straightway His ears were open and the string of His tongue was loose and He spake plain. And He charged them that they should tell no man. But the more He charged them, so much more the great deal they published it and were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well.

[2:58] Can you read that with me? That part says, He hath done all things well. We've got a good God. Amen? And He makes things well. Amen? And that's the beauty of Jesus Christ.

[3:10] That's the beauty of His Word. And we'll see a little bit more about that in a minute. And it says, He hath done all things well. He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Let's pray. Dear God, I ask You that in this evening we might take an opportunity to see Your Son's example as a servant and that we could serve like Jesus served, that we could love like Jesus loved and that You could use us to reach this world with the Gospel, to reach Alpharetta, to reach Forsyth County, and to reach Atlanta with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that You would use us for Your honor and glory.

[3:41] Dear God, don't let me speak. Let Your Word speak. Take any pride out of my life that any desire to impress would be removed and that Your Word just would speak openly and freely tonight.

[3:55] Thank You for all that You do. Thank You for all that You will do. In Jesus' name, we ask You these things. Amen. And so, this man, you see what kind of a man was he? He was deaf and with a speech impediment.

[4:07] Well, you know, for tonight, we'll just call him deaf-mute, okay? Because speech impediment's way harder to say. So, this is a deaf-mute man, right? And what kind of person was he in his community? He wasn't the most popular man in his community, right?

[4:20] He wasn't the most respected man in his community. He's actually probably had a terrible life. somebody that is deaf and mute or somebody that is deaf and can't speak well, they suffer a good bit because what happens is that a blind man can still interact with people around him, right?

[4:39] I mean, he still understands speech and he can still hear you and he can still listen to music. And many deaf people have said that I would rather be blind than deaf because deaf people many times, I don't know about here, I haven't spent too much time in the States, but in many other countries, they're treated horribly.

[4:56] They're treated in a subhuman way. We started a deaf ministry in the Hunter Baptist Church and my sister was actually one of the translators there in the deaf ministry and we had to go looking for deaf people and you couldn't find them.

[5:10] And one of the reasons was that they would actually lock their deaf kids in the house and not let them out. They would be treated as crazy people or treated as people with mental deficiencies when they had no mental deficiency at all.

[5:23] And this man, you know, in these times, you could imagine, you know, 2,000 years ago, he's going through a rough time. He's deaf, he's mute, he can't speak, he can't hear, he's completely disconnected from the world, he's treated like a crazy man and he's not very well liked.

[5:39] And the question is this, is why did Jesus give us all these details? I mean, you look at all the details, why did Mark write all these things down? Why did the Holy Spirit decide to use Mark to write these things down and say this is important?

[5:53] Because, you know, in this book, there's not really any wasted ink. Amen? Even in the genealogies, I'm still trying to figure out why, but there's no wasted ink. Amen? And he gave us these details on purpose.

[6:07] All of these things, they're just signs. You know, for you missionaries, this is why it's important to learn the language because Jesus spoke his language. This man couldn't communicate.

[6:19] He didn't know sign language. There's no sign language back in that day. But he comes and he touches his ears and he touches his tongue and he looks straight into his eyes and he takes him apart and speaks to him or spends time with him one-on-one and he decided to speak to him on his level.

[6:35] He decided to speak to him in his language and that's why it's so important for us to learn the language. Amen? Amen? Amen? Thank you, Brendan. Still waiting for you to learn English.

[6:45] He looks to heaven. Not only, you know, this man, he has no clue what's going on.

[6:57] Family members and friends have brought him to Jesus. He has no clue why Jesus is taking him apart. He probably doesn't even know who this man Jesus is. He knows that there's something different because crowds are following him.

[7:07] But Jesus takes him and he sticks his fingers in his ears and then he takes his fingers and touches his lips and his tongue and then he looks to heaven to show him where the power comes from.

[7:19] To show him who is healing him and he speaks in his language. And it's a beautiful picture for me because it shows me how I should try to be a servant to others.

[7:32] How you should seek to serve others. And how we should serve like Jesus served. Because he was a servant. Amen? Philippians chapter 2 it says that he took on the form of a servant that he didn't thinking in Spanish he didn't he thought it not robbery to be equal with God.

[7:57] Thank you Robert. Captain Logos back there. And so he thought it not robbery to be equal with God but he made himself a servant. The first thing that I'd like for you to see is that we've got to go like Jesus went.

[8:10] We must go like Jesus went. And if you look in verse 31 it says and again departing from the coast of Tyre and Sidon he came unto where the Sea of Galilee through the midst of the coast of what?

[8:22] I asked you to underline that where? The Capitals. And so this place is completely far from home. It's a place that's completely far from his hometown and it's not a place where the God of Israel is welcomed.

[8:34] It's not a place where people worship God. Nobody worships Jesus yet. Very few of them do. But nobody worships the God of Israel. Nobody cares about the one true God.

[8:45] There's paganism all over the place. And this is the same place. I don't know if you remember this but in chapter 5 where was the Capitals?

[8:55] It was the same place that had just asked Jesus to leave a little while before. You remember the demoniac of Gadara? Do you know where he was at? He was in the Capitals. And he was in that area.

[9:07] In Mark 5 verse 15 if you want to just jump over a page it says and they came to Jesus and see him that he was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting and clothed in his right mind and they were afraid.

[9:20] These people were afraid of what Jesus was going to do in their town and they didn't like it. And verse 16 says and they saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil and also concerning the swine and verse 17 says and they began to pray him to depart out of their coast.

[9:37] So Jesus is not welcome in this place man. He is not welcome. They don't want him there but he goes. He goes to a place full of paganism. He goes to a place far from his hometown. He goes to a place that is far from God that doesn't even want Jesus in their midst.

[9:53] This wasn't near his comfort zone but he goes and he goes anyway. And many times I'm a big advocate of you reaching out to people that you know people that you work with family members that don't know Christ but there is also a major responsibility for us to go to the world to people a full responsibility to go to the people that we don't even know.

[10:18] And many of us are complacent with reaching out. Many of us are complacent with evangelizing the people that we do know and we never step out of our comfort zone and go to the people that we don't know. And many of us don't even understand why missions, why so much of this missionary stuff, missionary updates that take too much time and why all this stuff because we have a responsibility to go to the Decapolis, to go to this pagan world that needs of Jesus Christ.

[10:47] And what kind of people did he go to? These were pagans. They were people that worshipped other gods. They worshipped themselves. They were full of fornication and adultery and they were full of sexual immorality and they were full of their own sin and they just lived for their own lusts.

[11:05] The person that Jesus is receiving in this passage, it's not a nice, clean, pretty person. He's not accepted in his community. He's looked at as a crazy person. But Jesus goes far away to a place far from his hometown and finds needy people and that's what Jesus always does.

[11:22] Isn't it? Isn't that what Jesus always does? Do you remember in Mark chapter 2, he says that the sick were the ones that were in need of a physician. Not the pretty, not the clean ones, but the really messed up ones, the drunk, the public and the sinner.

[11:39] Those were the ones that needed Jesus. He spent time in healing a paralytic man when the scribes and Pharisees didn't even care and didn't get out of the way to let him in the house.

[11:49] He healed the man with a withered hand and while looking at the Pharisees saying, do you love your religion more than you love people? He expelled the demons from the demoniac of Gadara. He resurrected Jairus' daughter.

[12:01] He healed the woman with an issue of blood. He fed 5,000 people that were hungry. He healed the Syrophoenician woman's daughter because Jesus came to serve.

[12:12] For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. This means that Jesus sacrificed his reputation, his time, his emotions, his resources, his power, and even his own life to serve people.

[12:32] And if we are going to reach this world, if we are going to actually do something, if we are actually going to impact this world, if our life is going to be remembered, in any way, it will be by the people that we serve.

[12:47] I was talking to Robert on the way back from Texas on Tuesday, and man, I just had a great time, and we were talking about basically making an impact, and he said, David, your dad told me, which he's never told me this, I'm still waiting for that tidbit of knowledge, but he told Robert, his new son, he told Robert, he said, your knowledge, your ability, your intelligence, isn't what's going to make the biggest impact in your ministry.

[13:20] The effects of your ministry will be completely related with the amount of service, the amount that you serve other people. Man, it's true.

[13:33] Man, it's true. I mean, I've seen so many times, all throughout the years, these imperfect people, you know, not the really fancy, nice ones, but just your regular schmo, and man, God uses them, doesn't He?

[13:48] Because He serves. Why? Why? Because He's being like His Savior. He's being a servant. And we don't like that word, do we? Nobody in the world likes that word.

[14:00] We don't like being a servant. Being a servant is countercultural. To what we desire. Being a servant means that I'm last. Being a servant means that I wash the feet.

[14:12] Being a servant means that I get the last plate, if I get a plate at all. Being a servant means that while people abuse of our relationship, while people take advantage of my love, I keep serving.

[14:27] Kind of like Jesus, right? People that just came to eat because they were hungry. There was a potluck and they wanted to eat, but they didn't want to follow Jesus, but he still served them. He still served them even when he knew that they were going to turn around and betray him.

[14:41] So we've got to go like he went, but we've got to love like he loved. And look at verse 33 and verse 34. It says, and he took him aside from the multitude and put his fingers into his ears and he spit and touched his tongue and looking up to heaven he sighed and saith unto him, Ephatha, that is, be opened.

[15:04] It's so beautiful to see. We see the greatness of God and his love in just these small little details. They're short verses, but they're very profound.

[15:17] Look at the first thing that he did. What's the first thing that he did in verse 33? Where did he take him? He took him aside. On his own, this man was just another face in the crowd.

[15:30] On his own, this guy was just one of the thousands. But when Jesus takes him, he showed him that he understands he's an individual person, that he is an individual that needs help.

[15:43] He completely removes him from the multitude to be with him in private. It's amazing to see how much of a servant Christ is. Even though he's serving multitudes, even though he's feeding thousands, he still takes time to be with individuals.

[15:59] A lot of times we want, personally, I don't know about you, but I can have a pretty wicked heart. We want a big church, and we want big multitudes, and we want big crowds, but we're not willing to see the person in need and spend some time with them and take them apart from the crowd and say, Jesus loves you, and I love you.

[16:18] This man's no longer in the commotion of the world, but now he's alone with Jesus. His eyes can see Jesus. He can experience the love of Jesus. Jesus speaks through his eyes to this man.

[16:28] He shows him, just looking at him, that he loves him. We've got to be willing to spend time with people, show them that we care. We've got to find people that need Jesus, that need the love of Jesus.

[16:40] Show them the love of Jesus. We must look at people in the eyes and show them that Jesus loves them. Is there anybody in this room that you came to church or you came to Jesus, you were moved to seek and repent because somebody loved you and brought you to Jesus?

[17:02] Anybody? I was. My mom led me to the Lord. She loved me enough to share the gospel with me, even though I was probably demon possessed before that night.

[17:15] She loved me. Somebody went to look for you, where you were. He touched him. Look at the verse. It says, He took him aside from the multitude and he put his fingers into his ears and he spit and touched his tongue.

[17:31] And Jesus isn't just content with looking at him from afar. Jesus isn't content with just, you know, go get him, champ. Like, that's not enough for Jesus.

[17:43] Everything's going to be alright. Lord bless you, brother. No, he takes him aside. He gets close to him and he touches his ears and he goes, he touches his tongue and he gets involved in his life.

[17:58] And you know what the sad part is? I think one of the sad parts of church today and the sad part of Christianity today is that we're not willing to get dirty. We're not willing to make other people's problems our problems, right?

[18:11] Jesus looks at this man and he says, I care. Your problem is my problem and we're going to take care of it. And how many times do we do that? You know, Jesus cared for us. Jesus got his hands dirty for us.

[18:23] Isn't that what he did? Philippians chapter 2, he made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men, being found in fashion of men.

[18:34] He humbled himself. He became obedient unto the death, even the death of the cross. Didn't he become sin? He who knew no sin, he made him to be sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

[18:48] He took part in his life and he touched him and he spent time with him. And he told him that this is my issue too. And this is the biggest problem is that a lot of times we just, we see the world, we see their need, but that's your issue, man.

[19:05] I mean, my family's, we're cool, man. We're great. We're good to go. And good luck. Lord bless you. We're not willing to get dirty.

[19:17] We're not willing to seek these people out. We're not willing to be there for them when their family's falling apart.

[19:28] A young man at Omega has, I mean, he's been in church for four or five years now, six years. And the kid's been a drunk forever.

[19:39] He's 18 years old. And he just got a girl pregnant. And his life is pretty much, you know, in his eyes, destroyed. And he's been a pain in the rear for five or six years because he doesn't do anything.

[19:56] But we as a church are getting involved in his life. We're trying to help him. He still struggles with alcohol. I don't think he's saved.

[20:07] He thinks he is. We'll see who's right in a little while. But it's taking part in that life. It's loving it. Is it not good?

[20:20] Yeah, it's not good. Is it not good that the kid smells like alcohol? Absolutely. But he needs somebody to love him and show him that Jesus loved him. Amen? Don't you remember that you were in that place?

[20:35] Look at the next thing that he does. It says in verse 34, it says, in looking up to heaven, he showed him, I believe, he showed him, he says, you know, he looks up to heaven.

[20:53] He says, God's going to work something. It's not our power. Amen? It's God's power. Amen? We think we can do it on our own, but it's him. It's heaven. He looks to the Father because Jesus is in constant communication.

[21:07] He's in constant prayer with the Father. He's in constant fellowship with the Father. And anything that Jesus does, he does through the power of the Father. Amen? And they do it together and they work together and Jesus knows that his power comes from the Father.

[21:22] Shouldn't we be that way also? Knowing? And this is one of the most impacting parts to me. In verse 34, it says, in looking up to heaven, what are those two words?

[21:34] He sighed. He didn't take time to criticize. He didn't take time to go, ew, you haven't taken a shower in weeks.

[21:46] He sighed. Sighed to let that man know that he had compassion. Maybe he didn't hear the, but he saw it. And he saw this man actually cares.

[22:01] And let me ask you this question. When's the last time that you saw somebody that had a more messed up life than yours and instead of going, good grief, man. He smells like where he's going.

[22:15] Instead of saying that, going, man, I feel for him. Hmm, he needs Jesus. You know, when's the last time that you looked at somebody like Jesus looked at someone?

[22:30] And instead of being critical, instead of being a self-righteous Pharisee, you went, hmm, if not for grace, I ought to be in the same position. Whew, somebody needs to help that guy.

[22:43] When's the last time you did that? Whew. Compassion. Actual compassion. Not criticism. Not judgmentalism, but actual compassion for people.

[22:55] Because it is so easy for us to reach that point in life where we think that our holiness comes from us and not from the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. Christ. And he looks on him and he says, I have compassion.

[23:09] And he sighs. Maybe he sighed because he saw the pain that this man was going through. Maybe he sighed because he saw the effects of sin on this world. And when sin entered into the world, death entered also.

[23:21] And death passed on to every man and sickness and disease and all the horrible things that we see in this world today. They're all due to sin. And he's looking at this man and he's thinking, man, look what sin has done.

[23:36] But I care. But I have compassion. And no Christian should ever go through this life with dry eyes. Jeremiah says, Oh, that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.

[23:59] There's a man that was a leader in the church at Omega. This isn't a victory story, so I'm just talking bad about, you know, myself and my church right now. There's a man that was a leader in the church, one of the, you know, main leaders in the church at Omega.

[24:15] And now he's fallen into sin. Terrible, terrible sin. His family's falling apart. His wife has lost all respect for him. And he comes to church with a terrible attitude and a hard heart.

[24:31] And, you know, for the first few months, the people in the church were going, man, we just need to keep praying for him. We need to keep, you know, trying to restore him. We need to keep trying to restore him. But now, they're all just going, man, I'm just getting sick of him.

[24:43] Let's just kick him out. Let's just kick him out. I hate those people with a bad attitude. Don't you hate that person with a bad attitude? You can be honest. I know you've sinned in your heart, right?

[24:53] And you say, well, in my church, there's nobody with a bad attitude. Well, you're it then. And so, you know, you get tired of it and you get heavy laden and your heart just can't handle it.

[25:05] But he sighed because he had compassion. And this is where I'd like to finish is that our compassion should always lead to action because when we ignore compassion, when we ignore this actual feeling of pain for another person, all it leads to is to a cold heart and hypocrisy.

[25:25] And when we ignore, when we do not act on compassion, we just harden our heart and callous our heart every time. And what Jesus does is that he speaks. And that's what compassion should always do is that it always leads us to speak the word of God because it is only the word of God that brings life.

[25:43] Amen? And in Romans 10.45 it says, excuse me, that's part in Spanish still on my outline. Romans 10.14 says, How then shall they call on him whom they have not believed?

[25:57] And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written? How beautiful, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.

[26:14] Why? Because the word of God brings life. Amen? And when you have compassion, when you serve like Jesus served, when you're moved to compassion, when you get involved in a person's life and you actually care, it will move you to compassion and that compassion should move you each and every time to preach the word of God.

[26:33] Amen? To share the word of God. You see a person with problems, you see a person with issues, you say, I don't have the answers. That's fine. That's cool. God wrote a whole book for it. You know, you think, I don't have the answers.

[26:44] I don't know how to help this person through their marriage, through their problems, through their addiction, through their whatever. That's fine. God knows. And preach and speak and teach and disciple and share the word of God.

[26:56] And when you do that, when the word of God is spoken, you can always see the fruit that God had. Because it's not your ability.

[27:06] It's His word. And in Genesis, Genesis chapter 1 and verse 31 says, And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.

[27:18] And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. And if you could pop up Mark 7 and the last part, verse 37, if I'm not mistaken. You know, in Genesis, He says that all things were very good.

[27:29] And then in verse 37, they say, He hath done all things well. And when God's word is spoken, worlds are created and lives are changed.

[27:42] And you can depend on this word of God and see the fruit of the word of God working in lives of people. And so let me ask you, church, are we willing to serve like Jesus served?

[27:54] Are we willing to get our hands dirty? Are we willing to risk time, money, effort, reputation? Are we willing to risk of ourselves to serve others?

[28:09] Are we willing to go out and find people? Well, the website does that. That'll be fine. Is that enough? Or are we willing to really care and to speak the word of God?

[28:21] Compassion's not enough. It's got to be moved to action. The greatest action we could ever do is preach the word of God and we will see the fruits of His word. Because the word never returns void.

[28:34] Amen? Dear God, I ask you this evening that you would help us and work in us and work in our heart that we would love you, that we would love your word. And because we love you, because we love your word, we seek to obey you and to imitate your life and that we would go to unwanted places and we would go to unwanted people, that we would go to places that are uncomfortable for us, but that we would have compassion, that we would see people for who they really are, that we would serve as Jesus served, and that we could go out with a promise knowing that when your word is spoken, all things are good.

[29:18] You make all things well. You make the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Thank you for the power and the authority of your word. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia.

[29:32] For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.