Audio from Senior Pastor Vaughn Drawdy on Sunday morning June 24th, 2018.
These sermon notes are made available through the YouVersion free Bible app.
https://www.bible.com/events/435034
Colossians 4:5-6 NIV
5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
In our summer series "Live to Share" we are studying and exploring - What does it really look like to make the most of every opportunity we have to share Christ's love and care for others in such a way that they see and feel God's love?
Sharing God's love can place us at the crossroads of self centered actions or Christ centered actions. The deciding factor could be - COMPASSION. Do you have it for others around you? It is as simple as this...
Compassion Defined:
-sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it
-motivates people to go out of their way to help the physical, mental, or emotional pains of another.
The origin of the word helps us grasp the true breadth and significance of compassion. In Latin, 'compati' means "suffer with." Compassion means someone else's heartbreak becomes your heartbreak. Another's suffering becomes your suffering. True compassion changes the way we live.
Jesus showed us how to live. For 3 1/2 years His public ministry portrayed love and obedience in action.
EXAMPLES OF JESUS COMPASSION
1. Matt. 9:35-36
2. Matt. 14:13-14
3. Matt 15:32
4. Matt. 20:30-34
5. Luke 7:12-15
6. John 11:33-38
Matthew 9:35-36 NIV
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew 14:13-14 NIV
13 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 the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
Matthew 15:32 NIV
32 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”
Matthew 20:30-34 NIV
30 Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” 31 The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!” 32 Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. 33 “Lord,” they answered, “we want our sight.” 34 Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.
Luke 7:12-15 NIV
12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. 13 When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.” 14 Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
John 11:33-38 NIV
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 “Where have you laid him?” he asked.“Come and see, Lord,” they replied. 35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” 38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
What did Jesus understand about their (our) suffering that made Him compassionate?-
Hebrews 4:15-16 NIV
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
This identification of one's suffering and feeling as your own goes echos back to what God told Israel. God told Israel to remember their days of suffering and be compassionate to the sojourner, the marginalized, the outcast. Remember that you too once suffered as slaves.
Deut. 5:15
Deut. 15:15
Deut. 16:12
Deut. 24:18-22
Ex. 6:6
We too need to remember our suffering and our deliverance:
Ephesians 5:8
Titus 3:3-5
Col. 1:21-22
Ephesians 5:8 NIV
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
Titus 3:3-5 NIV
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
Colossians 1:21-22 NIV
21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—
What inhibits us from showing compassion?
1. Matt. 24:12 (We can grow cold and cynical)
2. Matt. 7:1-5 (Judge wrongly & inappropriately) - Examine yourself - 2 Cor. 13:5
3. Judges 2:10-15 (Forget who we are and whose we are)