Compassion
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Matthew 9:35-38 (NKJV)
COMPASSION: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.
Compassion literally means “to suffer together.”
Compassion shows sympathy, it gives support and it demonstrates sacrifice.
Compassion is passion with a heart!
God is FULL of compassion. Jesus was MOVED by compassion.
Mathew 14:14
Mathew 15:32
Mathew 20:34
Luke 7:12-13
1 John 3:17 (KJV)
Jesus said, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
Mathew 9:37-38 (MSG)
What does it look like to be filled with compassion and to be His harvest hands...
Luke 10:25-37 (NLT)
3 different attitudes towards hurting people...
(v.31) - Attitude of Carelessness
(v.32) - Attitude of Concern
(vv.33-35) - Attitude of Compassion
A few quick things about Compassion in this story...
I. Compassion GOES
(v.34) When we are filled with compassion, we are willing to leave our comfort, our positions and convenience to GO where hurting, broken people are.
1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (MSG) - "Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!"
II. Compassion LOVES
Jesus uses the samaritan to teach a lesson to two Jews.
The thing about compassion is, when we are full of it, we will be moved by it!
Ephesians 2:14 (TPT) - "Our reconciling “Peace” is Jesus! He has made Jew and non-Jew one in Christ. By dying as our sacrifice, he has broken down every wall of prejudice that separated us and has now made us equal through our union with Christ."
Galatians 3:28 (TLB) - "We are no longer Jews or Greeks or slaves or free men or even merely men or women, but we are all the same—we are Christians; we are one in Christ Jesus."
QUESTION: If you examen your personal relationships, are you building bridges of peace or building walls of separation?
III. Compassion REMEMBERS
QUESTION: Where were you before God found you?
Compassion remembers the compassion it was given.
We must be "grace givers" not "fault finders"
Galatians 6:1 (AMP) - "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any sin, you who are spiritual [that is, you who are responsive to the guidance of the Spirit] are to restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness [not with a sense of superiority or self-righteousness]..."
IV. Compassion SEES
The priest saw him and the levite saw him but when the samaritan looked at him, He didn't see them the way they saw him, he saw him through the redemptive eyes of God!
Compassion sees the spiritual in the practical...
Don't overlook the spiritual in the practical!
Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.
May we be filled with compassion and may we be His harvest hands! Amen.
