God is Compassionate

God is Series (Character of God)

Good Morning Church! How is everyone doing this morning? I am excited for this morning as we continue our sermon series fon exploring the self-revealed character of God found in Exodus 34:6-7 .

Series Objectives:

Who remembers what objective we talked about last week? - Understand the series verse in its narrative context and how its repeated throughout scripture.

Understand the five attributes of Yahweh and how they contribute to a deeper and wholistic picture of God in the Bible.

Identify and Understand literary and linguistic patterns within a text rather than adopting a simple and “flat reading” of scripture.

Series Outcomes:

Honestly and accurately articulate “Who” God is rooted in the Biblical Story

Share God’s consistent character displayed through the Biblical narrative.

Engage with and study Biblical texts with an “incarnational” approach as we grow as students of the Word and Followers of the Teacher.

God is… Board:

What did we have to do for our homework last week?

at the end of the benches there are sticky notes we are going to pass them down and write some of the characteristics on your card and we are going to fill this board up with Characteristics!

Give time for People to come up (3 minutes) - Play instrumental music on Youtube.

Prayer: Yahweh, We come before you this morning desiring simply to know you. We ask that you would open our eyes to see your presence this morning. Open our ears to hear from your story this morning. Open our minds to understand the fullness of your character. Open our hearts to be transformed by your Living Word- Jesus Christ, Amen!

God is… Compassionate

Word Study on Compassion

Does anyone know the definition of compassion? Definition: feeling or showing sympathy and concern for others

Rakhum - adjective (Repeat twice out-loud)

Rakhhamim- noun (Repeat twice out-loud)

These two words are deeply connected to the hebrew word Rekhem- which means womb!

So when we describe God as compassionate we are describing God as womby.

Think about that God as womby- How does that change how you think about God?

Why do you think that compassionate is connected to the womb?

Examples from the Old Testament

Popular Story from Solomon depicting this connection

have someone read out-loud (1 Kings 3:16-28)

In this story the real mother has rakhum for the child of a rakhem. She has compassion because of something that came from her womb. Her response is womby!

compassionate is connected to the womb because the feeling comes from the center of your being

Transition: God is also depicted as having the same compassion that this mother had for her children for his people. Lets take a look!

God as a parent

Isaiah 49:15-16 (Slides)

Here we see God having more compassion for his children than a nursing mother does for her child.

Even if a nursing mother forgets about her child, God will not forget his people.

God is depicted here as a mother, for some of us this is incomfortable if we have always thought about God as father!

I think this highlights two things: The ability of God to be many different things for people, Mother, Father, Brother, Sister

The same compassion that women have for their children comes from God.

Thus, we can see Mothers just as Godly as Fathers and God just as motherly as He is fatherly.

God as a father

Jerimiah 31:20 (Slide)

God call Himself, Israels father here. On whom he will have compassion

Psalm 103:13-14 (Slides)

The Lord is compared to earthly fathers here.

Note on this: some people struggle with this because they dont have a good relationship with their father or they didnt have Good Fathers, or didnt have one!

God taught me when my dad passed away that He too is my father, in many ways my own father was, but He also is my father in the ways my own dad could not be or failed to be.

My encouragement to those who struggle with the idea of God as Father, remember what Hebrews 12 says, our fathers disciplined as they thought best, how much more will our heavanly father treat us

Transition: Yet, compassion is not just an adjective, but an emotion that moves God into action and even changes his course of action .

Compassion as Action

Deut 30:2-3 (Slides)

God is saying that if the people will repent his compassion will lead to pardon.

Sometimes we struggle with Talking about God having feelings because often We think of feelings as so fleeting. Yet, God feels deeply.

We also struggle with the idea of God changing his course of action- We say, “God never changes”- but thats not entirely true, God does change, but his character remains consistant

In fact, his feeling of compassion is the one thing that Changes his course of action most!

Last weeks story he threatened to destroy the people- compassion made him change his mind

In the story of Jonah the Ninevites repent and God changes his mind.

God’s compassion Changes Him

Transition: In fact I believe it was God’s compassion that caused him to change Himself entirely! God’s compassion gave birth to the incarnation!

Jesus is Compassion incarnate

Jesus displays these same characteristics of compassion that Yahweh did in the Old Testament.

He has compassion when he encouters the poor and suffering, he has compassion when he sees the sick and infirm

In John 11, When lazarus Dies Jesus has compassion and weeps with those weeping for Lazarus.

In Matthew 9:36 (Slide) - Jesus sees the crowd of people like sheep without a shepherd.

Compassion Displayed on the Cross.

The Cross is the one place we see Jesus (God’s) Compassion both as an adjective and an action

He died so we might have new life- free from sin.

He died as an act of love even when the people he loved most (Israel) put him on the cross.

The cross is so powerful to me. Often we see it as the place where our sins were nailed and washed clean, but Id invite you to imagine as a place where compassion was displayed.

Compassion: That deep feeling in the gut that moves us to love. We see the cross and we think salvation, but our thought should also lead compassion.

This is where we see God exposed, naked, and vulnerable, We see What God says about Himself in Exodus 34:6, the first characteristic is compassion.

Wrap Up

We have explored this word compassion today. Rakhum in Hebrew. We learned that it comes from the word Womb - Rakhem.

We learned that God is compassionate like a nursing mother, like a caring father.

We learned that compassion moves God into action and compassion made God incarnate and Jesus was compassion incarnate.

We have explored God’s compassion in the Bible, now I want to explore it in our world today! In our church Family.

Sharing of God’s Compassion.

Yesterday, I sent out an email to inviting you to answer the following:

When have you felt God's compassion in your life? or How do you know God is compassionate? (Slide)

I am going to sit down and I would invite people to share their answers. You can share from your seat or come up to the mic.

I will Close in Prayer.

Closing and Benediction

Benediction:

Call and Response:

Leader: God, you are compassionate

People: Help us to reflect your compassion in the way we love and the way we live!

Leader: God, you care for us like a nursing mother does her baby.

People: Help us to care for everyone as we are all your children!

Leader: Jesus, you displayed your compassion for the entire world to see.

People: Help us display the same love for even our worst enemy.

Leader: God, you are compassionate

People: May your Compassion, Lord, Move us into action to show that same compassion to all we see!

Go in Peace Church!