Compassion

Introduction

Happy Mothers Day!

Introduce self

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Mother’s Day is a time to celebrate the mothers in our lives. For some it may be a day that causes some pain for one reason or another. The wonderful thing about mother’s is we all have one. and I pray that you celebrate the mom in your life well today and everyday because they are a blessing from above.

going to be in Exodus 34 today

When you think of a mother, what comes to mind? For me, it’s love. There is something special about a mother’s love.

Many of you understand that more than others. You have a face only a mother could love.

a mother’s love can be described in so many ways but today I don’t want us to see the ways a mother can love, I want us to see where a mother’s love comes from and why it is so intense.

It’s actually a trait of God’s. and baasedd on what we will see today in scripture I believe we will understand it to be a very imporrtant trait, I could saay it is the foundational characteristic that leads to the others and can help us understand Him more.

Thaat trait and the simple title of our message today, is compassion.

Compassion is defined as sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it

Compassion is different from empathy. Empathy feels a persons pain, compassion feels the pain and is a few steps away from the situation and desires to help.

Understanding compassion helps us understand God and allows us to live like Christ, becuase he was compassionate.

As you hear me speak on this topic today, I want you to think of the times God, your mom, or anyone has shown compassion on. I want you to reflect on your own compassion. And at the end of this message I want you to choose to be compassionate towards others.

Before we dive into our text today I’m going to do something I don’t often do but is important. I’m going to present to you a quick word study on the Hebrew word for compassion.

Now listen, there is a reason I don’t often present this stuff to you. However, with the connection I believe this has to mothers day I thinnk you will find it interesting. And, if you don’t, that’s on you.

The connection between the Hebrew word for compassion and the word for womb lies in their shared root. The Hebrew word for compassion is "rachamim" (רחמים), and the word for womb is "rechem" (רחם). Both words are derived from the same root, which is "ר-ח-ם" (resh-chet-mem).

In Hebrew, roots are the building blocks of words, and they typically consist of three consonants that convey a core meaning. Words derived from the same root often share a related or connected theme.

This linguistic connection reveals a deeper, more profound concept. Just as the womb is the place where a mother nurtures, protects, and forms a strong emotional bond with her unborn child, the idea of compassion in Hebrew embodies a similar sense of care, protection, and love.

While I do believe in God as a Heavenly Father, it is apparent His compassion is closely related to that of a mother.

That understand can hep us to feel loved by God and understood the way a mother loves and empathizes with her children.

Between that understanding of Hebrew and what we will see in the passage in just a moment, we can know God loves us as individuals creted by Him. He has an unconditional love towards us.

Look with me at

Exodus 34:5-9 “5 And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. 8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.”

Exegete:

Let’s set the scene here. This is Moses up on Mt. Sinai after He had received the ten commandments and broken the first tablets. He has cut two more in verse 4 and his going back into the presencec of God.

Moses had interaacted with Godd in the burning bush, and on Mt. Sinai in an intimate way. Now, here he is again.

This time God begins to describe himself to moses. He tellls moses who he is, what he wanat to do, and how he will do it.

And right after estbalishing who He is, Jehovah God, he uses the word we learned earlier RAHKOOM, which is translated in the KJV here as merciful, which makes sense for the time period this was translated.

In a more modern vernaccular we would say compassion.

Now that He has established his compassion he gives an indication as to what that will look like in the life of the Israelites.

patient, good, truthful, forgiving, and just.

There us something that’s not said here we have to take notice of though. He did not say, “If you are or you do…I will be compassionate.”

This is not a covenant or agreement. This is a statement of fact.

God is compassionate.

Illustrate:

It’s the compassion of our Heavenly Father we most often see in mothers on earth.

When children become prodigals or make bad decisions, you don’t often hear “You’ll break your fathers heart.”

it’s most often “You’ll break your mothers heart.”

Mothers care even when it doesn’t make logical sense to. Mothers love when their child is full grown adults and making poor decisions. The Mothers of murderers never stop loving their children. And they want to do something to make them change, they want to see them be the person they know them to be.

Some of you father’s may be this way and that’s great. beccuase while ti may be most commonly associated with mothers, uncondiaitonal compassion comes from God and is something we should exhibit as we follow Him.

Apply:

Look what Moses did after hearing about the compassion of His God

Exodus 34:8-9 “8 And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. 9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.”

He surrendered himself and his people to the Lord.

Why?

I. God’s unconditional Compassion should produce unconditional surrender

Why are those statements made about breaking moms heart and how could tou do this to your mother?

Becuase it doesn’t make sense to hurt someone that hs loved you so unconditionally.

When we are loved that way, the best response we can give is surrender.

If you are here and have trusted in Jesus as your Savior then you have professed faith in a God that loves you so much He sent Jesus to die for you and be raised again the third day.

You are saying you understand that unconditional compassion. Are you uncconditionalyl surrendered?

God’s compassion should impact us to urrender.

How can you know God’s compassion? You can see it.

Notice what he said to Moses next

Exodus 34:10-11 “10 And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. 11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.”

Exegete:

Now the covenant comes.

While God doesn’t say this directly, based on these verses and the verses that follow down to verse 27

Exodus 34:27 “27 And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.”

He has accepted Moses proposition.

This is the second major ccovenant made with the Israelites. The first was the Abrahamic covenant which, in short, was a one sided agreement where God told Abraham I will give you land, descenddants, and redemption. What did Abraham have to do to receive these things? Nothing.

This was an act of compassion. So is this conditional covenant made with moses.

Becuase of His compassion God did something...

Illustrate:

Even if people reject the gospel, we still must love them. A good example of this was reported by Ralph Neighbour, pastor of Houston’s West Memorial Baptist Church (in Death And The Caring Community, by Larry Richards and Paul Johnson):

Jack had been president of a large corporation, and when he got cancer, they ruthlessly dumped him. He went through his insurance, used his life savings, and had practically nothing left.

I visited him with one of my deacons, who said, “Jack, you speak so openly about the brief life you have left. I wonder if you’ve prepared for your life after death?”

Jack stood up, livid with rage. “You *** Christians. All you ever think about is what’s going to happen to me after I die. If your God is so great, why doesn’t He do something about the real problems of life?” He went on to tell us he was leaving his wife penniless and his daughter without money for college. Then he ordered us out.

Later my deacon insisted we go back. We did.

“Jack, I know I offended you,” he said. “I humbly apologize. But I want you to know I’ve been working since then. Your first problem is where your family will live after you die. A realtor in our church has agreed to sell your house and give your wife his commission.

“I guarantee you that, if you’ll permit us, some other men and I will make the house payments until it’s sold.

“Then, I’ve contacted the owner of an apartment house down the street. He’s offered your wife a three-bedroom apartment plus free utilities and an $850-a-month salary in return for her collecting rents and supervising plumbing and electrical repairs. The income from your house should pay for your daughter’s college. I just want you to know your family will be cared for.”

Jack cried like a baby.

He died shortly thereafter, so wracked in pain he never accepted Christ. But he experienced God’s love even while rejecting Him. And his widow, touched by the caring Christians, responded to the gospel message.

Apply:

You can’t have compassion if you don’t have action.

God took action and made this covenant that showed his love by not onyl caring for His people but also defending them.

A mothers love may be something to admire but if you want to see a mothers compassion result in something other than love or what we normally think of about love…mess with her children.

Whether the action is lovingkindness or violent acts of defense, they are cocming from a placce of compassion.

II. God’s Compassion produces Action

It’s the same compassion Jesus had

Matthew 14:14 “14 And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.”

He had compassion, then he took action.

Knowing God’s unconditional compassionate love towards us should lead us to action for Him.

What do you with your life becuase of God’s compassion towards you?

Moses chose to surrender himself and his nation...

Then look what happened after being surrendered to the Lord and with Him for forty days and nights

Exodus 34:28-29 “28 And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. 29 And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him.”

Exegete:

Moses face shone, it was bright. This is often referred to as the Shekanah glory.

After being with God and surrendering himself to the Lord, there was something different abotu him.

After Israel accepted God and lived for Him as best they could, they had something different about them.

Can you imagine fi Israel had heard what God wa offering and said no?

If Moses, who at this point has witnesed the burning bush, the ten plauges, and the parting of the red sea, had heard of the compassioin God had for them and said …well that seems like fun…I’m gonnna do something else.

That would be foolish.

When we accept the compassionate love of God and live in full surrender to it, we become different, it impacts us.

Illustrate:

Sometimes moments of forgiveness and friendship come from unexpected places. In 2018, the comedian Pete Davidson appeared on the “Weekend Update” segment of Saturday Night Live (SNL). Davidson made a crude joke about a former Navy Seal turned Congressman-elect Dan Crenshaw.

Crenshaw had lost an eye in the line of duty, which became the butt of Davidson’s vulgar joke. The combination of mocking a person’s disability (especially a disability that came from serving his country in war) alongside a clear disapproval of Crenshaw’s political beliefs led to a burst of public outrage. While Davidson was making the joke, it became clear many found it in poor taste, and the vitriol aimed at the young comedian would ultimately lead him down a spiral of depression and self-loathing.

Davidson then took his anguish public, posting on the social media platform Instagram:

“I really don’t want to be on this earth anymore. I’m doing my best to stay here for you but I actually don’t know how much longer I can last. All I’ve ever tried to do was help people. Just remember I told you so.”

When Crenshaw heard about Davidson’s condition, he didn’t do what many do when embroiled in a public tiff: tell the offender the public scorn served him right, or make some other cutting comment at Davidson’s expense.

Instead, Crenshaw decided to extend an olive branch, befriending the comedian, and even offering words of life to a person who clearly felt lost amidst being stuck in the cross-hairs of the American public. Davidson recounts that Crenshaw reached out and comforted him: “God put you here for a reason. It’s your job to find that purpose. And you should live that way.”

Humor, it has often been said, is a coping mechanism to deal with the pain that life throws at us. But in the midst of the deep, unsettling pain of being publicly shamed, what Davidson needed was not a good joke, but forgiveness, and perhaps, even a friend who could share the good news of the gospel with him. In some ways it is ironic that a man trained to kill and destroy his enemies could be so moved by compassion that he reached out to someone who publicly mocked him and his deeply held political beliefs. But that is the beauty of the gospel, it enables us to look beyond our own reputation, our own pride, to care for others.

Apply:

Had Davidson refused the compassion being extended to him by Crenshaw, he may not be on this earth today.

For those of us that are bevlievers, what if Crenshaw had withheld that compassiion. NOw listen, I’m not promoting Crenshaw. I’m promoting Christ. The act he did was a compassionate act.

We have to give compassion and accept compassion when it is given to us for it to cchange us and transform us from the inside out.

III. Full Surrender to God’s Compassion results in transformation

When you accept that compassion from God, from your mother, or anyone ,it will transform you.

The ultimate transformation comes with we acceept the compassion of God that was exhibited in the deaath, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

The greatest action that shows transformation and aids in our transformation is when we show that compassion to others. Not just to those we love but to those that don’t love us.

Jesus said that we are to love our enemies.

As we celebrate mothers and their love today, I want you to remember the source of that type of love. It’s their compassion.

And it is the compassion of God that resulted in Jesus dieing fo rus. It is the compassion of God that leads to all good things being from Him. It is the compassion of God that will traansform our hearts with compassion towards others.

This mothers daay and all ddays going forward, be compassionate on those around you.

Take aaction to alleviate their suffering, some how some way.

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