#struggles: Part 4 - "Compassion" with Craig Groeschel - LifeChurch.tv

Resurrecting Compassion in a Selfie-Centered World

Scripture References

Primary text

• Mark 1:40-41
• Matthew 14:14
• Matthew 20:34

Other references

• Mark 6
• Luke 8
• Mark 2

Overview

The message exposes how a “selfie-centered” culture can deaden our hearts and shrink empathy, yet followers of Jesus are called to a compassion that always moves toward action. Using research, everyday examples, and stories from the Gospels, we are urged to let God interrupt our schedules, accept the cost, and join Him in changing lives—starting with our own.

Main Points

The empathy decline

• University of Michigan study of 14,000 students (1979-2009): empathy down 40% since the 1980s.
• Audience reaction—even indifference to that statistic—illustrates the problem.

Three ways technology numbs our hearts

More obsessed with ourselves

• 80 % of social media activity centers on the user: “Did you like my picture?”
• Dopamine hits train the brain toward self-focus (illustrated by a gallery of selfie types).

Overwhelming exposure to suffering

• Constant images—hungry children, violence, crises—create desensitization.
• Timeline format places guacamole recipes beside beheadings; the mind levels the weight of each item.

Lack of personal interaction

• Online empathy often stops at “So sorry—praying for you.”
• Face-to-face stories (lost job, family impact) stir far deeper response.

Compassion is action, not emotion

• Greek word splagchnizomai: “bowels yearn,” “moved to action.”

• “To say that you care but not act is to not care at all.”

• Every Gospel mention of Jesus’ compassion is followed by action:
  • He touched and healed the leper (Mark 1:40-41).
  • He healed the crowd (Matthew 14:14).
  • He touched blind eyes (Matthew 20:34).

Nearness to Jesus reshapes priorities

• More time on social media → bigger focus on self.
• More time with Jesus → self-denial, cross-bearing, genuine love for others.
• Question posed: When was the last time you sacrificed time, money, or plans for someone else?

Compassion interrupts

• Story: After a long day and a delayed flight, the pastor tried to rest. A woman confessed an affair in the airport; prayer and counseling followed.
• Story: Two days later, the husband “randomly” met the pastor in Walmart at the exact hour of confession—evidence of a divine interruption.

• God often hides ministry opportunities inside schedule disruptions.

Compassion costs

• Story: Offering to buy groceries for an ex-inmate led to weeks of complex follow-up, housing hurdles, and community resources.

• Clicking is clean; real ministry is often messy and inconvenient.

Compassion changes lives

• Story: “Grandpa Jack” took a fatherless 12-year-old fishing 50 years ago; both lives were transformed, and the memory still moves him at 84.

• Serving others reshapes both the receiver and the giver.

Key Truths

• Genuine compassion always results in concrete action.
• Self-focus and constant digital noise dull spiritual sensitivity.
• God regularly speaks through unexpected interruptions.
• The price of compassion may be time, money, energy, or comfort.
• When we walk closely with Jesus, caring for people becomes natural and joyful.

Response

• Invite the Holy Spirit to interrupt your routine today.
• Limit self-focused screen time and pursue practices that draw you nearer to Jesus.
• Act on the next need you notice; don’t settle for a “like” or a comment.
• Budget time and money so generosity is immediately possible.
• Join or start a ministry that serves people face-to-face in your community.

Closing

Our culture may care 40 % less, but that statistic must not describe the Church. True compassion interrupts comfort, costs something valuable, and changes lives—often beginning with our own.

“To say that you care but not act is to not care at all.”

Prayer

Father, stir our hearts with the same compassion that moved Jesus. Interrupt our schedules, pry our hands off our comforts, and use us today to love someone in a tangible way. Amen.