http://bible.com/events/48533642
It’s far more important for those in our community to understand what we are FOR rather than what we are AGAINST. It’s not even close.
Week 1: We are for Jesus.
Week 2: We are for holiness.
This week: We are for compassion.
What is compassion? It literally means “to suffer with”. We know that it must always involve action, so we often say that compassion is “love in action”.
The story of God is marked by a God of compassion.
-“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness” Exodus 34:6-“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” Isaiah 49:15-The compassion of God in the Old Testament continues in the New Testament. God sends Jesus as the ultimate display of His compassion.-Jesus’ ministry is marked by compassion, and He ultimately suffers on our behalf, dying on the cross for the sin of all mankind.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
-In our suffering, we experience the God of comfort and compassion. He suffers with us in our pain.-And we aren’t just comforted for our own good, but for the purpose of sharing that comfort with others.-We don’t have to conjure up comfort, because we can’t. Instead, we comfort because we have been comforted.
Compassion flows out of us because it has been poured into us.
Luke 6:32-36
32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.