Humanity And Compassion For Others Series

Thinking, Acting, Being like Jesus

Humanity and Compassion for others

Introduction-

Turn with me to John 3:16. You see it on the screen.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

That verse packs a wallop!

God loves us so much that He sent his Son Jesus to die for us so that we would not die but have eternal life with Him.

It is easy to get overwhelmed by what is happening in the world today.

Violence

Dictators that pose nuclear threats

Terrorism

Poverty, Disease, Economic crisis, all play a part in causing crisis.

We have states, cities that have no money but they seem to get our last dollars.

As Christians we know the end of the story, God wins!

For people to think or believe that God would create something or someone bigger than Himself is a great stretch of faith to me.

The world talks about saving the world, but very little on obeying the Lord. The Lord tells us to

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

I love police shows-CSI, NCIS, those movies where you have to figure out who did what and how.

But even I have to turn them off sometimes because it is too close to home. I don’t like how people act sometimes.

The problem goes from “What problem do I solve, to what would Jesus have me do?

Being a humanitarian is a good thing. We need people to help people. Jesus commands it.

You want to know what the difference is between a good person doing good things and a Christ follower doing humanitarian things-Jesus!

One does it for the greatest humanitarian act of all time- Jesus dying on the cross for mankind, commanding us to show that love of God to others, and one does it to be a good person.

What we do is to be done for the love of Jesus.

Jesus is our goal and purpose.

First to God, then to God’s people He loves. The focus is Jesus, then the motivation will come from the right place. Love the Lord first, and people as much or more than we love ourselves.

It is hard to believe that God loves the man/women in prison as much as the Sunday School teacher. He loves the poor people in Africa as much as the rich movie stars in Hollywood, but He does.

Lost is lost, starving in

Africa or living in luxury, when it is over, the day of judgment is coming.

Randy Frazee says

All have sinned

All wickedness must be punished.

All need salvation.

All will be offered salvation.

All will be without excuse.

There is an adage that goes- “The ground is level at the foot of the cross”

God will reveal Himself to everyone in some manner.

I don’t know how He will do that but I know it is true because He loves us all and does not want any to perish. It is why we need Jesus.

God loves all people and it is why John records the words of Jesus. “I am the way, the truth, and the life , no one comes to the Father except through me.”

Humanity has been given the greatest gift of all time- His name is Jesus.

All are loved by God and should be loved by those who profess the name of Christ.

Some are caught up that Christians are so narrow minded concerning salvation. It is God’s Word. We should be glad and celebrate that God has provided a way of salvation.

How should that play out in our lives?

Value Human life…from the womb to the grave we are called to love people because God loved us.

The young child who has been trafficked for pay, to the old man who has dementia, all have value to God.

Those that have aborted babies, those that have been hurt by others all have value to God and should have a chance to experience God’s love first hand

We see and treat people the way God sees and treats us.

God looks at our hearts to see what is going on inside our heart, not only what comes out of the mouth.

That is why what we do has to be motivated by the love of God in our lives.

How would our lives change is we would see people the way that God sees them?

What kind of impact would we make if we believed and acted upon the fact that there is only one way to enter heaven and that is through Jesus Christ?