The Church of Joy

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

What did Jesus understand about their (our) suffering that made Him compassionate?

- Hebrews 4:15-16

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

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)

We need to understand that God wants to workin us and through us to convey His love to a lost, hurting, chaotic, confused and lost world. May compassion stir in our hearts as we remember what He has done for us and as we engage others with the love of Jesus.