Compassion

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Welcome to Thrive. It's good to have you here. Especially if this is your first time, maybe your second, who knows. But we love that you are here. We love that you are connecting. Hopefully you will be uplifted today. And we're in a new series. We're starting today and it's running through November, to the end of November, right before we hit Advent, Christmas, Preparations. And it's called The Emotional Jesus. Stop being so emotional, by the way. Has anybody ever said that to you? There's something ironic about somebody saying to you, stop being emotional. You know why? Because, honestly, at the moment that they say that, they're probably emotional themselves because they're reacting to you being emotional and they can't handle you being emotional. They don't like it. They want to tone it down. And so they're being reactive, which is emotional. When people say they're not emotional, honestly, that's not true. That's just not true. By the way, we had a podcast this week. Vicki was in it, right? I think it was kind of fun. We started to talk about compassion as one of the emotions. And what's amazing to me, we kind of shared this, is when we talk about compassion, which is the topic for today, because it is probably of all the emotions that we see in the Gospels about Jesus, it's probably the one that is the most preeminent. But when you hear the word compassion, who do you think is compassionate? When you hear the word compassion. And I was a little surprised, but not totally. It came across as a feminine, more feminine emotion than a masculine emotion. Would you agree with that? We'll see that there might be a little background to it, but when it comes to our God, this is who God is. And Jesus was emotional in a very good way. Very good way. Do you realize that you connect to other people through emotions? That's where you really gain connection. It's through times of grief, or joy, or celebration, or love, or affection, or compassion. And if I would ask you, the greatest memories you have in your life, the most vivid ones are usually tied to having an emotional experience with someone. Do you realize that? It might be wonder or awe at God's creation. It might be grief in the moment you heard a certain word, or whatever. But it was an emotional reaction that takes that, and it's how you connect to other people. You don't connect logically. No one, by the way, is Spock. Okay? No one. Now, you might look at some people and think they are Spock-like, but I'll tell you, their emotions run deep. The most shy individual, or the most introverted individual, or the most logical individual is emotional as well. And here's the thing about Jesus that is amazing. It's the fact that in Jesus Christ, we see a complete, fully human being for the first time since Adam and Eve lived on earth. He is fully human, but in a way that God always intended. Since the rebellion of Adam and Eve in the garden, we've been an emotional basket case as well as a rationalizing creature and self-justifying. And everything's gotten out of whack and out of control, but then when we see Jesus, we find the first human since Adam and Eve to be fully emotionally whole and complete. And yes, we see our God, because He is fully God and fully human at the same time. We see how our God is emotional as well. And so emotions are extremely important. And yet, I'll tell you, especially being a guy, we don't talk about them much at all. And maybe that's why most men right now don't have too many close friends in our society. Have you ever thought about that? Because we're not really willing to be open emotionally to others. We have to almost have a reason to make it. A friend of mine who I'm getting to know now started Cigar Church. Yeah, because guys, some guys, I don't like them, but some guys like cigars. And so it's a way to get together and then all of a sudden they have a group and now all of a sudden they're opening up all with the excuse of having to have a reason for guys to come together that has nothing. And then it's kind of like they're standing next to each other. They're not really looking at each other, but they're kind of talking with each other. And then all of a sudden they're kind of becoming connected emotionally. It's interesting how that works. Women, you probably are often puzzled at us just as much as we're puzzled at you. So today we begin to see how God created us to be emotional beings and how we have not, because of the Fall, loved the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, or strength, or our neighbors as ourselves. And love itself, though it's an action and it's a decision, it's also an emotion. And how, I think, through seeing how Jesus is emotionally connected to us, emotionally responds in so many ways, we're going to grow. We're going to grow in our love for Him, and I hope ...