Sermon 5 - The Case For Compassion Series

A. One night at 3 o’clock in the morning, a husband and wife were awakened by a loud pounding on their door.

1. The husband got out of bed, opened the door, and found a drunken stranger standing in the pouring rain.

2. The inebriated man asked, “Can you give me a push?”

3. “Not a chance,” said the husband, “It is three o’clock in the morning and you’re drunk.”

4. The husband slammed the door and returned to bed.

5. “Who was that?” asked his wife and he replied, “Just some drunk guy asking for a push.”

6. “Did you help him?” she asked and he answered, “No. I did not help him. It’s three o’clock in the morning, it is pouring rain outside, and he is drunk!”

7. His wife said, “Don’t you remember about three months ago when we broke down and those two guys helped us? I think you should help him, and you should be ashamed of yourself!”

8. The husband decided she was right and got dressed and went outside into the pouring rain and called out, “Dear Man, are you still out here and do you still need a push?”

9. “Yes! Please!” came the reply.

10. The husband called out, “Where are you?” The man replied, “Over here! On the swing!”

B. The Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines compassion as “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.”

1. How much sympathy or sorrow do we really feel for the misfortune of others?

2. And an even more important question: Do we really have a strong desire to alleviate their suffering?

3. What if it is 3 o’clock in the morning and it is pouring down rain?

4. If you are like me, then I sometimes find that my compassion quotient isn’t always what it needs to be.

5. If I’m not careful, then my response can often be rather cold – “Well, they did it to themselves” or “It’s not my problem.”

C. But these kinds of attitudes do not reflect the God who we believe in.

1. The Bible presents us with a God who is full of compassion.

2. Exodus 34:6 says: And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…”

3. Over and over again, we see that God commands call upon us to be compassionate.

4. In Deut. 15:11, God says, “I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.”

5. In the parable of the Sheep and Goats in Matt. 25:40, Jesus taught us: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

6. In James 1:27, James wrote, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…”

D. Wouldn’t you agree that caring for the tangible needs of human beings is part-and-parcel of genuine Christianity?

1. When action-oriented compassion is absent, then it’s a tell-tale sign that something is spiritually amiss.

2. Uncaring and uncompassionate Christianity does not attract seekers into its fold, but a clear and consistent demonstration of Christ-like love is a powerful magnet that pulls people toward God.

3. As mission minded disciples who want to value people the way God values people and who want to reach the lost as much as God wants to reach the lost, then we have to be committed to expressing God’s love through compassion.

4. The principle involved in this kind of outreach is that “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” (a famous quote often attributed to Teddy Roosevelt)

E. Jesus illustrated the importance of compassion in one of His most well-known stories – the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10).

1. It’s a story about a man who was walking from Jerusalem toward the city of Jericho.

2. As he traveled along, some thugs robbed him and beat him up, leaving him half-dead in a ditch on the side of the road.

3. A short time later a priest came walking along, but when he saw the man, he moved to the other side of the road and passed by without slowing down.

4. A little while later, another religious man, a Levite, came along. He too quickly passed by on the other side.

5. Finally, along came a man from Samaria and this Samaritan felt compassion for the robbery victim and stopped to see how he could help.

6. After assessing the situation, the Samaritan knelt over the man, cleaned and bandaged his wounds, lifted the man onto his donkey and took him to an inn.