Welcome to our final week of Emotions as we have looked at some of the attributes of God. By all means, we cannot put God into a 4 week series, but I hope that you might see things a little different when it comes to his anger (righteous indignation), His compassion, His Love and after today… His Empathy.

Now I want to define empathy because this day and age, much like the word love has been abused, the word empathy has suffered the same damage.

Sympathy implies sharing (or having the capacity to share) the feelings of another—usually because you may have experienced the same/similar instances. So you can sympathize with them because you have been where they are.

Empathy tends to be used to mean “imagining, or having the capacity to imagine, feelings that one does not actually have. So you empathize with someone when you don’t have the first hand experience to sympathize with them, but you are trying to understand where they are coming from.

In today’s reading, we will see Jesus empathizing with some of his friends. Remember that when we see Jesus’ emotions, we are seeing God’s emotion. He doesn’t do but what the father has shown him (Jn 5:19) So if you would turn to John 11, we’ll be there shortly.

Big Idea: The death and raising of Lazarus gives us a wonderful picture of how God sees and empathizes with the struggles of people.

1) Compassion Leads to Empathy
(Write notes below)

2) God Empathized With Us
(Write notes below)

3) God Wept
(Write notes below)

Application Point: When life’s greatest challenges strike at our foundation and call God’s goodness into question, we can be assured that he cares for us and understands.

The big idea of this series was to see the unique attributes that we can both experience AND EXTEND as we live out the gospel.

Wk1:
Jesus’s passion for the temple pointed to his demand for righteousness and holy living. His anger burned not because he was vindictive or capricious but because he saw his sacred space being used for personal gain and not worship.
--Then you see…
Wk2:
Jesus’ interaction with the woman caught in adultery, the men who brought her to him, and those watching point to his compassion for people—even when they have sinned against him.
--Which gives us a great segue…
Wk3:
The story of Zacchaeus is a great picture of God extending love and openness to people trapped in sin and in need of salvation.
--This tells us that God isn’t hanging us out to dry… he wants to see us through…
Wk4:
The death and raising of Lazarus gives us a wonderful picture of how God sees and empathizes with the struggles of people.
--And in all this we learn:

God is a God of hope for truth and life, and we have every opportunity to step into that life.
And let’s be real, the fruit of our lives is a great litmus test to where we are at.

Wk1:
How we worship with our lives paints a picture of our understanding of God’s essential character. Our failure can taint the image others will have of God.
Wk2:
(As Christ Followers) There is weight to live like a people who know God is always compassionate toward us, in turn extending the same compassion toward others.
Wk3:
How we act makes a difference. We should be able to see in the story of Zacchaeus the power of obedience, humility, and genuine joy in having a relationship with God. But more than that, we should see the depth of God’s love for us.
Wk4:
How we respond makes a difference. When life’s greatest challenges strike at our foundation and call God’s goodness into question, we can be assured that he cares for us and understands.

This space left open to write notes as Pastor Josh seems to go down rabbit trails...