Sermon Notes: Call To Compassion

Passion vs Compassion 

• Passion is often subjective. It is the zeal we feel when we are doing what we enjoy and when we see the positive effects it has on us as well as our team. Compassion, by contrast, is nurtured from within – but it doesn’t have any effect until you apply it to others.
• Passion prompts us to make ourselves happy, whereas, compassion prompts us to make others happy

1 Kings 3:16-28 “16 Some time later two prostitutes came to the king to have an argument settled. 17 “Please, my lord,” one of them began, “this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a baby while she was with me in the house. 18 Three days later this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there were only two of us in the house. 19 “But her baby died during the night when she rolled over on it. 20 Then she got up in the night and took my son from beside me while I was asleep. She laid her dead child in my arms and took mine to sleep beside her. 21 And in the morning when I tried to nurse my son, he was dead! But when I looked more closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t my son at all.” 22 Then the other woman interrupted, “It certainly was your son, and the living child is mine.” “No,” the first woman said, “the living child is mine, and the dead one is yours.” And so they argued back and forth before the king. 23 Then the king said, “Let’s get the facts straight. Both of you claim the living child is yours, and each says that the dead one belongs to the other. 24 All right, bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought to the king. 25 Then he said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other!” 26 Then the woman who was the real mother of the living child, and who loved him very much, cried out, “Oh no, my lord! Give her the child—please do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “All right, he will be neither yours nor mine; divide him between us!” 27 Then the king said, “Do not kill the child, but give him to the woman who wants him to live, for she is his mother!” 28 When all Israel heard the king’s decision, the people were in awe of the king, for they saw the wisdom God had given him for rendering justice.

Rakhamim = compassion (OT) = womb = core (a mother’s tender feeling toward her vulnerable infant)

Splagchnizomai (splangkh-nid’-zom-ahee): to be moved as to one’s bowels, hence to be moved with compassion, have compassion (for the bowels were thought to be the seat of love and pity)

Our compassion keeps us close to the Father.

• Luke 4:42 “Early the next morning Jesus went out to an isolated place.”
• Luke 5:16 “But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.”
• Luke 6:12 One day soon afterward Jesus went up on a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night.”
• Luke 9:18 “One day Jesus left the crowds to pray alone.”

Our compassion determines our assignment.

Matthew 14:13-14 “As soon as Jesus heard the news (about the death of John the Baptist), He left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where He was headed and followed on foot from many towns. Jesus saw the huge crowd as He stepped from the boat, and He had compassion on them and healed their sick.”

Our compassion takes the focus off of us.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 “Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”

Matthew 9:35-36 “Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Hebrews 4:15 “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin.”

Philippians 3:9-11 “For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!”

Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane: Luke 22:41-44 “He walked away, about a stone’s throw and knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened Him. He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.