Moved with Compassion

We explore the life-changing power of self-compassion and how applying this biblical principle to ourselves can lead to breakthrough, peace, and freedom from anxiety and depression.

• Jesus consistently demonstrated compassion by healing, teaching, and caring for those who were "harassed and helpless"
• God's compassion is not just for others—it's meant for you personally as well
• The biblical definition of compassion goes beyond sympathy (feeling for someone) or empathy (feeling with someone)
• True compassion combines empathy with action: "I feel with you and I want to help"
• Miracles consistently followed when Jesus was moved with compassion
• Many believers show compassion to others but struggle with four barriers to self-compassion: criticism, contempt, self-sabotage, and neglect
• Self-compassion isn't self-indulgence—it's alignment with how God sees and treats us
• The cross represents the ultimate picture of God's compassion as He entered human suffering
• Treating yourself with compassion isn't lowering standards but applying the same grace you extend to others
• "The best version of yourself gives God the greatest worship"

I pray there would be a fresh revelation of Jesus' compassion for all who are listening. Let the love and compassion of God fill you like never before, with grace to apply that compassion to yourself.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Life-Changing Compassion
• 3:12 Jesus as the Model of Compassion
• 10:49 Understanding True Biblical Compassion
• 16:33 Compassion vs. Sympathy and Empathy
• 22:23 Four Barriers to Self-Compassion
• 29:24 The Cross: Ultimate Picture of Compassion

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The Koopalethas Podcast. Three, two, one, let's go Go. Welcome to the Koopalethas Podcast. This is Nick Koopalethas, your host, and I am so glad to be with you right now. It is my honor, episode number 29, and we are going to talk about a topic today that will really change your life.

Speaker 1: 0:31

Now you hear that all the time right, buy this herbal supplement, buy this vitamin, buy this house, property, car, this. It will change your life. But truly, I believe that if you would apply the topic today to your life, you would actually have incredible breakthrough. You would find peace, maybe even be able to release anxiety, depression, heaviness that has been on you for a while. And the topic today is compassion, specifically having compassion for yourself. Now, I just preached this on Sunday and, honestly, I have to have compassion for myself because I think I could have done a better job. I say that Is that negative talk? No, but I'm just saying, even in sharing this topic with you, I feel like I could have done a better job preaching this to my own church. And so I have to apply this compassion to myself, compassion to me, so that I'm not above this topic today. And so I just want to start and I want to lay a foundation for you a little bit here through the Word. This is definitely a consolidated version of the whole sermon, but I think today is going to be enough that it's going to grab hold of your heart.

Speaker 1: 1:48

And so let's begin by thinking about Jesus. Let's think about Jesus. How did Jesus interact with the world around him? Well, thank God for the Bible, thank God for the Gospels, because we have this picture of Jesus in Matthew, chapter 9, verse 35. And this is what the scripture says. And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. Jesus went to the big cities, he went to the villages, he went to the place that was packed full of people. He went to that place where he went to the place that was packed full of people. He went to that place where he could find the one. God is concerned in your life about the big things and he's also concerned in your life about the little details. And every time the king comes, friend, he brings the kingdom.

Speaker 1: 2:38

And I love this scripture here because it says Jesus came and he healed some disease no, every disease. Some affliction, no, every affliction. But then the scripture gives us this picture of what moved Jesus. Verse 36 says this. Matthew 9, verse 36. When he saw the crowns, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like a sheep without a shepherd. Wow, how many times have you or I looked out and saw somebody harassed, maybe, saw somebody helpless, and we didn't help, we weren't moved by it? Maybe we even thought to ourselves, well, all they have to do is get a job, or all I have to do is, you know, do this one thing and they'll be fine.

Speaker 1: 3:29

We come into a place of judgment and yet Jesus, when he sees the crowds, what he sees is not only people who are harassed and helpless, but he sees actually with compassion and he's like you know what I'm going to pray for? The answer for those people and I'm going to be the answer for those people. And the next scripture he says. He says to his disciples Jesus says the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

Speaker 1: 4:06

This is what I'm saying is that Jesus saw the crowd and when he saw the crowd, he had compassion. He was moved with compassion to love and to pray for those around him. This is the God of compassion. God didn't come. Jesus didn't come to bring more condemnation. He didn't come for condemnation. That's what John, chapter 3, tells us. He came to bring liberation. He came to bring healing, he came to bring transformation, but he was moved by compassion. That's what moved him In your life. God loves you so much. He has compassion for you.

Speaker 1: 4:43

Let me ask you this question Do you know God as a compassionate God? Do you know God as someone who brings compassion into your life? All different kinds of thoughts, all different kinds of ideas? And some of you are like I don't know God as a compassionate God. My own father or my own mother, the way I brought up, was harsh, was disconnected, there was a lot of pain, and so, yes, I love Jesus, but I don't know him as compassionate God. Thank you right there for your honesty and your truth. Some of you are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. God is so compassionate, he's such a compassionate God and I'm so glad that you have that revelation. But let me ask you this question you say that you know God as a compassionate God, so here is a question for you how do you allow God to treat you? Do you allow his compassion, do you allow his spirit to minister and take care of you and nourish you and feed you and lead? You See, sometimes we can recognize, we say, yeah, god's a compassionate God, he's compassionate to everybody else and the way that he treats me, actually you know, not so much with me but with everybody else and so you might say that you know God is a compassionate God, but do you allow God to compassionately love you and take care of you? The other questions I would ask to you about if you see God as a compassionate God is how do you treat others? And then, how do you treat yourself?

Speaker 1: 6:32

Some of you are like I treat myself great. Some of you are so hard on yourself. Some of you are so hard on yourself because maybe that's the way that you grew up, maybe you think that's holy. Maybe you think there was some teaching that came into your life that said you know, with fire, hell and brimstone, and it was harsh, and you've never seen yourself really truly as a son of God or a daughter of God, loved and cherished and nurtured, and so you treat yourself harsh. You're like, yeah, if I was in that crowd, jesus would be like. Jesus would be like I'm having compassion for everybody here, but you, you're wicked, you're evil and actually, unfortunately, that's how many of us hear the voice of God and that's not him. He sees that crowd, he'll die for that crowd. That's how much compassion he has.

Speaker 1: 7:17

But maybe you grew up in teaching that was harsh and condemning and so now you're like I don't see God as compassionate. Maybe, honestly, maybe you go online and you listen to all the different Instagram and YouTube, different atheists and agnostics and false preachers out there, and so you walk away going. I just have a skewed perception of God because I have all these arguments in my head. I can't silence them because I'm listening to the voice of the enemy more than the voice of God, and so you have a tough time with believing that God is compassionate, especially if God is compassionate towards you. You know, the other thing that really as I'm kind of chewing this over with you, thinking about this is that there are a lot of experiences that we have in our life that can definitely try to taint our perspective of God as compassionate.

Speaker 1: 8:13

You know, jesus says when you come to the Father and you ask the Father for a bread, he won't give you a stone. If you ask him for something, he's not going to give you something that's toxic or evil or venom. No, when you come to God and you ask him for something, he's not going to give you something that's toxic or evil or venom. No, when you come to God and you ask for something good, he gives good things to those that ask. He gives the Holy Spirit to those that ask. But see, the thing is, we go through trials and we know that in this world we'll have persecution, we have pains, we have things that we hear about constantly on the news. I mean, come on, the news is always, always just negative. It's oh, and the truth is that's the world that we live in. We live in a sinful, fallen world, and so our view, instead of being sharpened by the Word of God, becomes so confused by all the voices around us, if not just our own experiences.

Speaker 1: 9:10

Maybe you've gone through some difficult things in your life and it's really hard for you to grab hold of God as a compassionate God, but I love what the word says. Nothing will separate you from the love of God, not tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness, danger or sword. Nothing will separate you from the love of God and from the compassion of God. And so you're struggling with that question Do I really see God as compassionate? Do I really think he's compassionate towards me? Do my actions actually reflect God's compassion in my own life? Now, if we were to look at the word compassion a couple things, let's just define it together, right? So when we think of the word compassion in our English terminology, the etymology of that word actually means feeling of sorrow or deep tenderness for one who is suffering or experiencing misfortune. In the past it was actually that compassion meant suffering with another, and so in our kind of language now the etymology has kind of come into a place where, if someone has compassion, it means that they feel a certain way. But it's actually much deeper than that. It's not just feeling a certain way, it's actually being with another person in their suffering.

Speaker 1: 10:38

I heard this story in the late 1800s, a Belgian priest named Father Damien heard the call to serve a people that were pretty much a forgotten people, the lepers that were exiled to an island in Hawaii. This is the late 1800s. He went, he built houses and he bandaged wounds and he fed them, and he loved these lepers so well and it came to a place where in his life he actually contracted leprosy. And not only was he suffering seeing them, but now he was suffering with them with the same disease that they had and ultimately he died from leprosy. But he, the love of God and the compassion in God, said I'm going to serve them by life or by death. What a picture of the word compassion Absolutely amazing. Of the word compassion absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1: 11:38

I love actually the way that the Greek and the Hebrew in the Bible explain compassion. In the Hebrew there's a bunch of different words for the word compassion and it can mean a myriad of things. But one of the words for compassion is actually this word picture of a womb, a mother carrying a child. And the way that a mother carries her child and nourishes and protects and loves her unborn baby is the same way that God has compassion on us. If you look in the Greek, the Greek is actually it's like an emotional reaction. The picture of that would be do you remember the story of the prodigal son? When the prodigal son comes to his senses and says I got to go home. Even my father's servants are better treated than me, and as he's coming home in shame and broke and broken as he's coming.

Speaker 1: 12:31

The Bible tells us the father, who he left, was looking and waiting for him, and when the father saw him, the father had compassion and he ran and embraced the prodigal son and he put a ring on his finger, a cloak on his back, shoes on his feet and came in and celebrated. That's what it looks like to be moved with compassion, to embrace, to forgive, to love. It's this emotional reaction, that's what the Greek gives us, and so in the Hebrew we have this idea of mercy and compassion a mother taking care of this unborn child in her womb. In the Greek, we have this picture of this emotional action, and both of these together they give us kind of this complete picture of how God feels about us, how God loves us. He is, in a sense, the mother taking care of that unborn child. He has compassion for that unborn child, but he's also moved, like the father, running and embracing the prodigal. Wow, this is what compassion looks like.

Speaker 1: 13:41

And so I want to come back and ask you again do you know God as this compassionate God? Do you allow God to be compassionate towards you? Are you compassionate towards yourself? See, in our English word, we have these four words mercy, sympathy, empathy and compassion. Now, mercy and compassion are a lot alike, but mercy because in the scriptures you can see mercy and compassion, sometimes they're interchangeable. But mercy is more of the idea of forgiven and then there's this strong emotion to it, whereas compassion is this tenderness, this emotion, this action. Mercy carries also the connotation of being forgiven or leniency.

Speaker 1: 14:31

There's also these other words sympathy and empathy, and I want to talk about this and you've probably heard this before. But sympathy just basically means I feel for you. So you know, if somebody dies, you send them a condolence card, nothing wrong with that, but you send them a card. I feel for you. When you hear of a tragedy, I feel for them. Empathy actually takes sympathy to the next level, and empathy is this place where it's not I feel just for you, but I feel with you and I'm sharing the feelings. I'm sitting with you in the misery, I'm sitting with you in the pain. I'm not just feeling for you and say I'm so sorry you're going through that, but no, no, no, actually I'm going to sit with you in the brokenness.

Speaker 1: 15:16

Empathy is so important. So many of us men we don't know how to be empathetic, but you embrace the awkward in it, but empathetic. So there's mercy and there's sympathy and there's empathy. But then empathy. See, jesus didn't just have empathy for the crowd, he was healing them, he was moving among them, he was praying for them. He had compassion. And what is compassion Actually? Here's what it is. I feel for you, there's the empathetic. I feel for you, or sympathy. I feel with you. There's the empathetic, but I also want to help. So it's like this I feel with you, but I'm also going to do something about it. I'm going to have action about it. And here's what's so cool In the Bible we see all the time that Jesus is moved with compassion.

Speaker 1: 16:11

And when he's moved with compassion, there's miracles. Not just moved in sympathy, not just moved in empathy, but moved in compassion, there's miracles. So in Matthew 9, we see Jesus filled with compassion. What's he doing? He's praying for the answer for these lost sheep that there would be a shepherd. He's healing their sick. What happens in Matthew 14? Jesus is there. The Bible says that he had compassion on them. And look what happened he healed their sick and then ultimately fed them. When there's that compassion, see, when we're moved by compassion, miracles happen. That's good. Matthew 18 talks about being moved with compassion. Matthew 20, it says Jesus took pity on them. He was moved in compassion and he touched the blind eyes and immediately they received their sight and followed him. What happened right before the miracle? He had compassion on the blind men. In Mark, chapter 1, it tells us that Jesus was moved with compassion your translation might say pity and he stretched out his hand and touched the leper and said I will be clean. And that leper was clean and cleansed and healed Over and over and over again in the Bible. You see, where there's compassion, there's miracles. Where there's compassion, there's miracles. I love this phrase. Check this out.

Speaker 1: 17:40

Compassion in action is where miracles get traction. Compassion in action is where miracles get traction. When you allow yourself to be moved by the Holy Spirit in compassion, do you know? You're going to see breakthrough, you're going to see miracles. Hallelujah, god is going to do something, god is moving. And so when we see Jesus, jesus is filled with his compassion. He's willing to go and not just feel sympathy or empathy, but he's willing to move, to be moved to help.

Speaker 1: 18:15

Now, a lot of us, especially in the Western world, we're doers, and so what do we want to do. All of a sudden we're like let's have a lot of compassion, let's go feed the sick. Let's do it, let's go. Let's go, let's heal the sick. Let's feed the hungry, let's clothe the naked the hungry. Let's clothe the naked, let's go out. Yes, let's do that. Let's be moved with compassion to touch the world around us.

Speaker 1: 18:38

But I want to bring this back to the question I asked you earlier Do you have compassion for yourself? How do you treat yourself? And what I found as a pastor is that a lot of people can have compassion for others but can't have compassion for others, but can't have compassion for themselves. It's hard to have compassion for ourselves. But here's the thing is that when we apply the gospel to others, which is a compassionate gospel, which is a gospel that Jesus said I will come and I will move among you, I will identify with the human race, I will be in your suffering, but I also will bring healing and cleansing and deliverance is that we have to apply that same standard to ourselves. This is hard. You say well, pastor, that sounds so humanistic. No, it's not humanistic.

Speaker 1: 19:24

The best version of ourself gives God the greatest worship. The best version of ourself gives God the greatest worship. Listen, god will receive worship from everybody and anybody, but if he's died and bled and gave his body so we can live in a new and living way, then the best version of me actually gives him the best, the greatest worship. Like, check this out If I have a Lamborghini car that doesn't have wheels on it, you know what it's not going to drive very well, it's still going to kind of look cool but not really do what it's designed to do. When you are holy, who God has created you to be, and you're in wholeness and you're healthy and that's what you then you give God great glory. That's the fullness. Where's that in the Bible, pastor? Where's that in the Bible? Nick?

Speaker 1: 20:25

Jesus said actually to fulfill the law, love God. It says also, love your neighbor as yourself. Paul actually repeats that second commandment and he says you fulfill the entire law in a single decree when you love your neighbor as yourself. And then James actually says this law is so important, I'm going to call it the royal law Love your neighbor as yourself. Wow, how do you love yourself? How do you allow God to love you?

Speaker 1: 20:57

I've met so many people over the years, including meeting myself, including me just struggle with giving compassion. They know it in the word that Jesus gave compassion, but they struggle with really these four things. Number one is criticism. Isn't it so easy to have negative talk? It's so easy to be self-critical, to form internal judgments that are harsh and unrelenting and disconnected from grace. It is just so easy to be self-critical and not have compassion. See, criticism says this I should be better by now. Compassion says God's still working on me, he loves me and he's not finished yet.

Speaker 1: 21:50

Criticism fixates on all the flaws, but God's compassion says hey, remember the cross and that's what I died for. Criticism demands perfection, but compassion accepts that, hey, I'm in a process and I'm gonna get there one day. I might not be perfect today and I probably won't be perfect tomorrow, but there's one who's perfect and that's Jesus, and I'm okay in my process, because my process brings me to my promise, and so I'm okay. God, work on me. Criticism will overtake us. Criticism will silence the voice of God, and I see so many people dealing with criticism.

Speaker 1: 22:29

The second thing that they deal with is contempt. Oh, how much contempt do you have? What is contempt? Contempt is self-loathing, self-hatred. It's extreme criticism of oneself. When you meet somebody that is really critical or they have a lot of contempt. There's an area in their life where it's not healed, and so a lot of times people will throw up on the people around them, but they themselves they're a mess, they're sick, and so that throw up is from somebody that's sick, and how many people do you know? At the end of the day, they're not confident in their own skin, they're not confident in who they are before God, and so there's a lot of self-loathing, there's a lot of self-hatred, there's extreme criticism, and really, what contempt is? It's a rejection of self.

Speaker 1: 23:21

It's not just saying I did something wrong, it's saying I am wrong. It's not just saying I made a mistake, it says I am a mistake. It brings shame, it brings guilt. It might sound like this God loves others, but doesn't love me. I'm the exception to mercy. If people really knew me, then they'd walk away. Maybe God should too.

Speaker 1: 23:46

And all of this is the antithesis of the gospel. Yes, there are areas that were broken. Yes, there's areas of pain, but guess what? We are deeply loved by God. The Bible says he knows our frame and he remembers that we are dust. Jesus didn't come to earth to save a perfect people. He came to save a separated and broken people who are on their way to hell, and he actually loves us while we were yet sinners. The Bible says Christ died for us, and so you see people with criticism, contempt. I think I've had all of these at one time.

Speaker 1: 24:27

How about self-sabotage? People deliberately destroying, damaging or, you know, just getting in their own way, interfering with their own goals? They don't. They don't see themselves as love, they don't feel the compassion of the lord and they feel isolated and separated and they just they're like I'm just going to reject me before somebody else rejects me, I'm going to hate me before somebody else hates me. And so they get into relationships that are positive maybe their girlfriend, boyfriend, maybe their friendships and instead of living out the gospel, they bring self-sabotage in because they feel like they are inherently broken. They think they deserve to suffer. They sabotage joy, they say that they're not enough, and it's like you know what the lack of compassion is actually a rejection of God's grace. It's not humility.

Speaker 1: 25:25

Some of us, you know there's going to be suffering in this world, but self-sabotage puts the person through needless suffering and then calls it religion. It's like when we have the revelation of how much God loves us and the compassion he has for us. It should liberate us. It brings a depth of joy and peace and righteousness in the Holy Spirit. That is not only a position before God, but it is deeply felt and lived out out and lived out. And so when you see this idea that there's criticism, contempt and self-sabotage, it's like, lord, release your compassion. Let the revelation of your compassion come to that person. Let it come to me. I'm telling you this, but I feel like this is applicable to me.

Speaker 1: 26:20

The last one I've seen a lot is neglect, self-neglect, the way that you treat yourself. This is an important one, because we've had this gospel where it says don't take care of yourself, deny yourself, you know, and, yes, you deny yourself. But what part do you deny? When Jesus is saying take up your cross and follow me, he's not saying. He's not saying take up your cross and follow me. He's not saying. He's not saying deny joy, deny love, deny compassion. He's talking about deny the old nature, deny the old man the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, deny the things of this world Joy, love, happiness, praise, wonderful things, rest, peace. These aren't things of this world. That's gifts from heaven.

Speaker 1: 27:10

And so when people don't know the compassion of the Lord, what do they do? They go and they go, and they go and they go. They can't rest, they don't believe that it's healthy. I heard somebody the other day say you believe God for miracles, but, guess what, you can't believe God to take a nap. It's like, yeah, okay, I've definitely been there.

Speaker 1: 27:32

Some people, they don't nourish their body, their mind, their soul. They're not in a growth mindset, they're not growing because they're like no, no, no, I'm just going to give everything for the ministry, I'm just going to give everything for this job, I'm going to give everything for the assignment that God has called me to be. And as that sounds noble. Even Jesus, even Jesus took breaks. And you got to remember Jesus didn't start his ministry until he was 30. And I'm not saying it wasn't difficult. I'm just saying that you can't neglect the temple of the Holy Spirit and think that you're going to prosper.

Speaker 1: 28:05

Think about the temple in the Old Testament. Think about how they took care of that temple. It was something that they so cherished. Not only a few priests cherished it, but the whole nation cherished the temple, because that's where God resides. And in the New Testament, the Bible says that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit and God resides in you. Listen, if they took care of a building with brick and gold and silver, how much more should you, by the grace and mercy and love of God and the compassion of God, take care of the temple of the Holy Spirit which is you?

Speaker 1: 28:57

Maybe you're listening to all this and you're saying, okay, you're pretty preachy. You're pretty preachy on this podcast right now. I would say, yes, a little bit preachy here, but this is the picture, you know, when you're driving down the road and you look over and you see on a hill, the three crosses. Get that in your heart for a second. Those three crosses the cross in the middle, of course, is Jesus.

Speaker 1: 29:20

On both sides of Jesus hung two thieves. I think this is such an amazing picture the compassion of the Lord. Though with suffering, he came to earth and between thieves, those that were meant to be condemned, the God of the universe came right between them and says I will be right in the suffering. And not only was he right between these two thieves, he carried the sin of these two thieves. He wasn't just sympathetic or empathetic, he was like I will be the compassion of God. And he came right into the midst of the suffering of man and say I will be the answer. And what I love about the story about the two thieves is that they both had a choice. One chose to mock Jesus, make fun of him, not receive his grace, his mercy. The other one recognized who Jesus was and he said remember me, remember me when you go into your kingdom. And what does Jesus say? As he's pinned to that cross? And those thieves are pinned to the cross, he says I will remember you Today, you will be with me in paradise. One chose the compassion of the Lord in the midst of his suffering and the other one rejected the compassion and the mercy and the grace of the Lord in his suffering.

Speaker 1: 30:51

I don't know what you're going through right now. I don't know what's on your heart. I don't know the pain that you've been through. I mean, this world is sinful and broken and tragic. But right now God wants to meet you in the midst of your pain, in the midst of your suffering. Maybe you're critical of yourself, maybe you have contempt, maybe you self-sabotage and maybe you just neglect yourself. You think somehow it makes you a better dad or mom or business owner or this.

Speaker 1: 31:29

And I'm not saying there's not hard work and we're all stretched, but I'm just saying I think God wants to meet you in the midst of your suffering, in the midst of your pain, in the midst of whatever you're carrying, in the midst of your heaviness, and he's asking you which thief are you going to be? Are you going to invite God? Are you going to recognize who he is and receive his compassion? Or even because of the pain which, in a human way, there's a part of me that totally understands God? Why do I feel so much pain? If you were really God, I wouldn't feel this pain. But right in the middle of your pain is a moment to praise and a moment to worship, because on the other side there will be no pain, there will be no suffering. And so right now, when we are in that heaviness, when we're in that loneliness, when we're in that brokenness, we're in that despondency, there's something to praise God for, to give him true worship, not out of our feeling, but out of the depth of our soul.

Speaker 1: 32:36

What are you gonna choose today? Are you gonna choose the compassion of the Lord? Because that's what Jesus did on that cross. He said I will be the compassion of God, I will come and suffer with these people. And you know what he chose. He chose us before we ever decided to choose him. He didn't choose us knowing, let me say it this way. He didn't choose us. Let me say it actually this way. He chose us knowing that some of us would still reject him. That's how much his compassion moved him. He came, he died for us, he died for you. He loves you so much.

Speaker 1: 33:33

Do you know God is compassionate? Do you know him in your words, your thought, your heart, your deeds? Do you know him? Do you allow his spirit to take care of you? Do you know God? Do you allow his spirit to take care of you? Do you know God as compassionate? God, father, in the name of Jesus, I pray that there be a fresh revelation of the compassion of Jesus for all who are listening to this podcast today. Father, I pray for those that have criticism and contempt and Father God and neglect and sabotage. Father, we put it at the foot of the cross and I ask you, god, this moment, whether it's in a car ride or over a phone, or wherever they're listening to this podcast and whenever they're listening to it. Father, fill them with the love of God like never before. Let them know the compassion of God like never before, and I pray that there'd be a grace to apply that compassion to themselves. God bless you, guys. Love you so much.