Moved with Compassion
“But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then said he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” Matt. 9:36-38.
It is interesting to study the word compassion as it appears in the Bible. In this passage, Jesus’ compassion for the multitudes leads him to instruct his disciples to pray for more laborers. In Luke 10:33, the good Samaritan had compassion on the man who had been robbed, and helped him. In Luke 15:20, the father had compassion on the prodigal son. Often, it was said that a healing or miracle was motivated by Jesus’ compassion for someone.
In Matthew 24, Jesus said, speaking of the last days, “Because iniquity shall abound, the (agape) love (of Christians) shall wax cold.” Faced with so much wickedness around us, we Christians can easily harden our hearts to those around us. I get tired of people asking me for spare change, knowing most will use it for drugs and alcohol. I don’t want to support these habits, but I do want to have compassion for these people and seek to meet their legitimate needs. When I preach, I often speak of God’s holiness and judgment, but I must always preach with a heart broken by God’s love. As hard as people’s hearts may be, I must remember that God is not willing that any should perish, but wants everyone to come to repentance. God is able to, and often does, save the hardest sinner.
In 1 Corin. 13, Paul says we can even have the faith to move mountains and give all our goods to feed the poor, yet without charity we are nothing. Jesus gave us two commandments. The first is to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. The second is like unto it, to love our neighbor as ourself. Who is my neighbor? Every one around me. If I truly love the unsaved people around me, I will do everything possible to tell them about Jesus and prevent them from suffering eternal torment in Hell.
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). Are you following in the footsteps of our Lord? Is your purpose in life to seek and to save those who are lost? God, deliver us from Pharisaical religion! Give us compassion for those around us who are headed for eternal Hell without Christ!
Outreach News
Last month, I mentioned that 80 Christians from Vineyard Christian Fellowship joined us for an Easter Outreach. They gave out food and clothing to the homeless, as well as special Easter tracts. They prayed with at least 75 people for salvation and other needs. At least 25 of these people attended their church on Easter Sunday. Ten came forward for prayer and, at last report, seven are continuing to attend church there and are being discipled.
I am convinced that bringing the church to the street is one of the most effective kinds of outreach– if the church will come. When we get families with children, older people, teenagers, and people of different races and ethnic backgrounds to join us at a worship rally, we see a much greater response to the gospel. Many of us attend worship services where we sense the presence of God and our hearts are melted by His love. We would like to see unbelievers come to church so they could sense God’s presence and be drawn by His Spirit. Most unsaved people, however, will never come to our churches. So we must take the church to them.
Last month, I spoke at the San Diego Coalition of Evangelists and Street Ministries. Leaders of several different ministries have joined together to encourage one another to reach that area with the gospel. I showed them the video from last year’s SOS and many were encouraged to do a city-wide outreach. San Diego has many thousands of Christians, two Christian newspapers (one with a circulation of over 40,000), excellent weather, and many good places to witness, including Tijuana, Mexico — a city of a million largely unevangelized people an hour away. Despite this, very little witnessing is being done. Several members of this group attend a church of over 5000 which has just 5 people involved in street ministry! Christians tell me that everyone is not called to the streets, but this is ridiculous! Sadly, this is typical of most churches, not a rare exception. When will the church awake?
On Saturday April 24, we witnessed at the Gospelfest, a Christian concert at the Golden Gate Park Bandshell. About 200 Christians came to listen to Christian music. I had several good conversations with people in the area, including some young people from Sweden, a man from the Philippines, and two Mormon teenagers. I also saw some Christians I hadn’t seen in over ten years. One man I had first met on a bus about 15 years ago. He was 19 then and had recently arrived in San Francisco. He had just received Christ and had not found a church. I was able to get him into a good church and help disciple him. Today he is married, has three children, and is an elder in that same church.
Last Friday, we witnessed in the Tenderloin district. We began witnessing near the Warfield Theater, where several rock groups were playing, including one called “The Jesus Lizard.” Later we preached and witnessed to a crowd down the street as they left the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar.” How people mock our Lord! For many years, Christians have avoided their responsibility to evangelize our nation. Today, we are reaping the consequences as people turn farther and farther from God. Despite this, some are being saved. Sondra Berry Young reports that rock singer Ozzy Osbourne has recently been saved and is testifying on TV of his new faith! Pray that he will get grounded in the Lord.
On Saturday May 1, I spoke to a men’s group at a Berkeley church, Great Expectations Ministries. They want to do some outreaches with us in Berkeley, and also bring a team to SOS-San Francisco. Eighteen of the men were from the Richmond Rescue Mission’s discipleship program. Pray that these men will be able to come to SOS.
That afternoon, we witnessed in Berkeley. May Day is a big holiday for Communists and pagans, and Telegraph and Haste was closed for a street party. As we arrived, thirty naked people ran by. A rock band was playing on the corner where we had a permit to preach. We were apprehensive about possible violence, but we decided to move down the street half a block and start preaching and witnessing. We had no problems, and were able to preach and give out hundreds of tracts. By the end of the afternoon, almost everyone was taking a gospel tract, and several people grabbed them out of my hands! Steve Styles spoke for 30 minutes with a teenage Hare Krishna who had grown up in this cult, but had questions about it. Please pray for him.
Ministry Needs
When people mail in responses to our children’s tract, we send them a Bible correspondence course. Alice has been going through this course since November, gets a perfect score on every test, and said she has been saved while going through the course. She is 15 and lives in San Francisco. Recently, she indicated on her lesson that she is not allowed to go to church. Please pray for Alice.
Last week, I spoke with Pastor Lester Hughes of Oakland Christian Center. They have a discipleship program with 40 men in it. He said he would like to have these men come to SOS-San Francisco, but they don’t have any transportation. Please let me know if you have access to a church bus or one or more vans we could use during the outreach. Otherwise, it would cost about $140 per day for bus fare to get these men to San Francisco.
Don’t forget to order SOS posters and bulletin inserts. We still have thousands left and need to get them out to let Christians know about SOS-San Francisco. Ask your pastor if SOS inserts could be put in your church bulletin, or if an announcement could be made in church about SOS and literature could be put in back. Ask your local Christian bookstore to put up an SOS poster and put out some SOS literature. Invite several of your friends to join you for SOS.
Also, don’t forget to send in your SOS registration form. We are extending the deadline for free T shirts to June 12. (If this letter arrives after the deadline, call us if you want a T shirt.) I realize it is a sacrifice to take time off work to come to SOS, but God will bless you abundantly–both in the joy and excitement you experience joining other on-fire Christians in the gospel trenches and in the eternal rewards you will be storing up in heaven. If you can’t come the whole week, plan to join us on Saturdays and as many nights as you can. We especially hope you can join us for the rally and march on Saturday July 17.
DON’T DELAY. SEND IN YOUR SOS REGISTRATION FORM TODAY!
Our Tape of the Month is Evangelical Initiative: The Key to Finding God’s Will for Your Life by Ray Comfort. Ray preaches regularly on the streets of Los Angeles and teaches evangelism to Christians around the world. He has written over 20 books, including Hell’s Best Kept Secret. Ray will be speaking at this year’s SOS outreach.
Please continue to pray for us as we prepare for SOS-San Francis co. Pray that God will guide us in every aspect of our planning, and that He will bring many Christians to labor in this harvest field during SOS. Pray that God will stir us up with compassion for the multitudes around us who are headed for eternal Hell. Pray that God will shake us from our complacency and get us out of our seats and into the streets.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
