Growing Our Love For Jesus

Growing Our Love for Jesus

Luke 7:11-23

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - April 7, 2013

*How much do you love God? -- When I ask myself that question, the answer is: "Thank God, I love Him a whole lot more than I used to! But I don't love Him enough."

*I want to love the Lord more. And most of us would say, "I do too." How can we get there? -- God's Word can help us today, because it shows us 3 great reasons to love the Lord.

1. First: We can love Jesus more, because He comes to us with compassion.

*We see a great example of the Lord's compassion in vs. 11-15:

11. Now it happened, the day after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd.

12. And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her.

13. When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, "Do not weep.''

14. Then He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still. And He said, "Young man, I say to you, arise.''

15. And he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He presented him to his mother.

*In vs. 13, Jesus had compassion on this poor mother. The idea in this New Testament word is being so moved with love, sympathy and pity that you can literally feel it in your gut. The Old Testament words for "compassion" have the ideas of deep love and mercy. Jesus had this kind of loving, merciful compassion for the broken-hearted mother in our Scripture.

*And she needed compassion. This woman was a widow. And now her only son was dead. So on top of her excruciating grief and loneliness was the reality that she may have had no one to take care of her in her old age.

*But Jesus came to the rescue! The Lord stepped in to help her. And it is very important to see why. Notice that this grieving mother did not do anything to earn the Lord's help. She didn’t expect His help. She didn't even ask for His help. The mother did nothing to get the Lord's help. She just needed it. And Jesus helped her because of His compassion.

*Our God is a compassionate God!

-Psalm 145:8-12 says:

8. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy.

9. The Lord is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works.

10. All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, And Your saints shall bless You.

11. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom, And talk of Your power,

12. To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.

*In Isaiah 49:15, the Lord asks: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you."

*Micah 7:18-19 asks:

18. Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.

19. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

*Our God is a compassionate God! -- We see this many places in both the Old Testament and the New.

*In Matthew 9:35-36:

35. . . Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

36. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.

*In Matthew 14:14, Jesus "saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick."

*In Matthew 20:34, blind Bartimaeus and another man cried out to the Lord for help. "So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him."

*In the Lord's great parable of the Prodigal Son, that young man repented of his foolish ways and returned to his father. The father in the story is a picture of our Heavenly Father. And Luke 15:20 tells us that the young man "arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him."