Apathy to Empathy to Caring for Community
Notes
Transcript
Intro: Our passion moves us to do passionate things. Passion can move us to do things that make sense and sometimes not so much. Our passions will move us to strike and opposed those who do not have the same passion as we do or the same things. We support others who agree with our passion and oppose those who disagree with our passions. Our passion moves us so to show compassion to those who are like minded with us as well. This compassion can move one to do great things for people. When moved by compassion you look to help the helpless. However, we are not to limit our compassion and love to those who are just like minded. Jesus teaches us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (see Matt. 5:44). This call of love is a higher calling. The world then what the world encourages how to express love in really favoritism.
God’s love does not show partiality. God is always in control and moves with compassion toward all people just or unjust and good or evil. God’s desire for all to live together in harmony and fellowship. The expression of God’s great love is expressed God’s ultimately toward us in his grace and mercy. When we need his love most is when God extends his compassion toward us. Mercy is withholding punishment and discipline we deserve. Mercy is giving us what we do not deserve, like lovingly providing for us even when we are not living at our best God still allow us to experience his best of grace and mercy. Morning after morning new mercies we see.
DT: God desires to show is grace more than his wrath for God’s grace is for the lost and he dose not stay angry for long.
AIM: Learn to love like God and not allow anger to stay.
Verse for meditation: “And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” (Ex 33:19 NAS95)
Lead into the text: Jonah has preached a message of repentance. Now we find Jonah waiting for them to not respond to the message and for God’s judgement to fall on them.
1 This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry. 2 So he complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. 3 Just kill me now, Lord! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.” 4 The Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry about this?”
“But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry.He prayed to the LORD and said, “Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.“Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life.”The LORD said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?””
(Jonah 4:1–4 NAS95)
I. God loves us when our Passion is misguided by pride and envy
A. Jonah is displeased with God’s mercy on his enemy
1. Some people just don’t want others to be happy/
2. They are jealous for they think they should be the only special ones
B. Jonah reveals his hatred for Nineveh
1. He did not want God to show mercy on the people.
2. He wanted them to get judgement and for God to reserve only mercy for him.
C. God’s Warning to Jonah - Do you have a good reason?
1. What are some reasons we do not care for others?
a) They hurt us and we desire them to pay.
b) They don not agree with us and therefore we want them not to do better than we are doing.
2. God shows him how he loves those he does not want God to bless.
a) Jonah does not control who God loves.
b) God shows us how great his love is toward all of his creation.
• Let us see how God teaches Jonah about this love in Jonah 4:5-8.
5 Then Jonah went out to the east side of the city and made a shelter to sit under as he waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 And the Lord God arranged for a leafy plant to grow there, and soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah’s head, shading him from the sun. This eased his discomfort, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant. 7 But God also arranged for a worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered away. 8 And as the sun grew hot, God arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed.
“Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of it. There he made a shelter for himself and sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city.So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant.But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered.When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, “Death is better to me than life.”” (Jonah 4:5–8 NAS95)
II. Jonah learns Compassion - God provides for the ungrateful as he does for the grateful.
A. Jonah made a shelter waiting on the fall of his enemy (5)
1. Don’t wait for your enemies to fall.
2. Pray for them that God can save them.
B. In waiting God shows compassion to Jonah who is angry with God. (6)
1. God provides a plant for shelter.
2. Jonah was extremely happy about the plant and the shade it provided
C. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away (7)
1. God now appoints a worm that eats the root of the plant and the plant withers
2. God appoints a scorching east wind to accompany the hot sun
a) This results in Jonah becoming faint
b) Jonah now begs God to die
D. Jonah learn to care for a plant because it benefited him.
1. Jonah placed more value to this plant than he did to the people of Nineveh.
2. This irony of care is reflected in todays society how people are treated less than humans and are dehumanized because of perceived differences.
• God now teaches how we are to care for others who are his precious creation and not think of oneself greater than the other.
9 Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?” “Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!” 10 Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly.
“Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.”Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.” (Jonah 4:9–10 NAS95)
III. God Teaches his Compassion has no limit (9-10)
A. God asks again, “Do you have a good reason to be angry about the plant?”
1. Jonah feels justified and says Yes even to death.
2. Jonah is compassionate about the plant
B. God teaches on compassion and how he has no limits
10 Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. 11 But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”
1. “Then the LORD said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. “Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”” (Jonah 4:10–11 NAS95)
2. You are compassionate for a plant.
3. God is compassionate for a city and her animals.
C. Know the Compassion of God- God is not selfish.
1. “The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night.” (Psa 121:5–6 NAS95)
2. All of our help comes from the Lord.
3. Jonah should recognize God is sovereign and is
4. Ex. 33:19 And He said, “aI Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and bI will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”
IV. Answer the Call to Show love
A. Be loving and patient with the unloving.
B. Pray for your enemies and curse not.
Removed envy and thank God how he blessed all the same with his great love.