The Lord's Favor: Restoring Compassion (North OC)

Marcel: Have coined this time here, the season of the Lord's favor.

And so we are studying out and we are experiencing and trying to experience

more of God's favor in our lives, not only individually, but most of all as a church

family, as a communal, , spiritual family.

And so we have,, been doing things here, over the, last couple of months here.

Since we had our LA Jubilee in August, and so for September we

had a prayer and fasting chain.

Last month we had this really powerful moving time.

We called it Release Sunday, in which we were able to release our burdens there.

And then, this month we have, , we're in Restore and we

are, having the gratitude wall.

We had a time of service at the end of October.

We have a toy drive coming up here in December.

And so we're trying to really, not only again, uh, study this

out, but really experience this.

As a church family, and so we also have a sermon series that we

have, , been studying out since September called The Lord's Favor.

And, , in the Lord's favor we see that there is a time where God wants us to

have, where we can have a spiritual reset.

Also a spiritual release of things that are holding us back, and then also

having ourselves be spiritually restored.

And so we began talking about a spiritual reset, resetting

our relationship with God, our priorities, and our views of people.

Then we moved on over to release and releasing the burdens, the

things that prevent us from walking fully in God's favor.

Then last week we started our time in restore and restoring

what has been lost or broken.

And Dallas did a great job preaching last week on how the part of the

Lord's favor is restoring peace.

And so today we'll be talking about how the Lord wants to restore compassion.

And so that's what we're gonna be talking about today.

The Lord's favor, restoring compassion.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Father, thank you so much already for the chance to, , be encouraged,

the chance to encourage others.

I know I feel, , built up already being able to sing, being able to

connect with the brothers and sisters.

Father, I'm excited about what you are doing in our church.

I'm excited about what you're doing and my life.

And Father, I pray right now that you will lead us to a greater faith.

You will lead us to take steps toward you to experience more and more of your.

Favor, father, I know that some of us come in excited, some of us come in

and we, we barely made it here today.

And Father, wherever people are at God, I pray to you,

minister to them this morning.

Father, every soul will walk away with strength, hope, and faith.

It's in Jesus' name, a men.

I want us to, , go back here a little bit and understand that, , this all is

coming from what God had established.

With his people.

In the Old Testament, we call it, under the old covenant,

this idea of the Jubilee.

And so in the Jubilee, God had every 50 years his people to

have a year where there was rest.

Did you hear that?

There was a year where they were called to just rest.

Boy, we wanna bring back that jubilee, don't we?

Can we tell our boss in school, can I get a year of rest?

And you don't charge me any bills or anything like that.

We would all love that, wouldn't we?

However, I don't think American society is up for that, but let's pray.

Amen.

But a guy called his people to a time of rest, he called them to forgive all debts.

And I know we would love to have that today as well, wouldn't we?

Can you go ahead and release me from that school debt, that medical debt, that car

loan, that house loan, whatever it may be.

And so God had the land take a time of rest forgiveness, but then also

returning land to the original families.

Those who had went on hard times and had to give up their land.

And at this time, God said, no, you are going to restore the

land to those original families.

Now, this wasn't just something that was economical.

This was something that actually restored the dignity of the people because

yes, they were receiving land, but what that was doing that was restoring

the dignity of those who had lost it.

This also restored compassion in all of God's people.

You see what God is doing here is not just something for the economics, not

just something for the emotional and social wellbeing, but also what he's doing

is what is called spiritual formation.

He's forming his people spiritually to become compassionate people.

You see, by giving back the land, by giving back the property over to others,

what this was doing was putting them in a position and putting them in a posture

to see people with compassionate eyes.

To see people, not with judgment or superiority or inferiority,

but to see them as what's equals.

God is instilling, God is restoring compassion amongst his people because it

can be lost or it could be broken, and he's instilling and he's restoring it

so that God's people will see each other again, not as debtors, not as slaves,

not not as burdens, but as brothers and sisters created in the image of God.

You see?

Jesus does this today through the Lord's favor.

He restores our compassion, which can be lost, which can be broken.

He restores our compassion so that we too can be compassionate.

And Jesus models this.

He teaches it.

He, he initiates it in our lives and allows us to experience compassion.

And then he also invites us to be compassionate to.

And so we see this in our themed passage.

Luke chapter four.

This is our theme passage for the whole series.

Brothers and sisters, are you with me here?

Okay.

You can't be quiet.

You know what I'm preaching.

We don't do all that.

All right, so in Luke chapter four, we're gonna go here and, and, uh, let's see.

I clicked it here, but it's not, it doesn't seem to be

working for some reason there.

Can you go to the next slide there?

Appreciate it.

Luke chapter four.

Or maybe it's not working.

Okay.

Y'all know what happens with me and technology.

It just, I love technology, but technology does not love me back.

You know what I'm saying?

It's like I keep chasing after her and she keeps saying, that's okay.

And so I don't know what, it's okay.

We got it working.

Here we go.

So here's this situation.

Jesus gets up and we, they don't realize it at this time, but

Jesus is making his pronouncement.

He's announcing to the world his public ministry, that he actually is

fulfilling the Jubilee principles that God had established, that he is the

Messiah, the long awaited Messiah.

And he goes to the church service, he picks and scrolls up, and he

goes to this passage and he reads it, and right after he reads it, he

says, this is being fulfilled today.

Everybody's eyes were hung up on him, like, whoa, who is this man?

But look what he says here.

He says, the spirit of the Lord.

He's quoting Isaiah.

So this was a prophecy hundreds of years before the spirit of the Lord

is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for

the blind to set the oppress free to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Now, if you look at this, we see here the Lord's favor is rooted in compassion.

Look at all these things.

Setting the prisoners free, setting the oppressed free to

restore sight to the blind.

Jesus did this literally and he did this spiritually.

All of that is rooted and based in compassion.

He is moved and therefore he wants to restore the site.

He wants to release those who are oppressed.

He wants the prisoners to be set free.

All of that is rooted in compassion.

And so at the heart of the Lord's favor for his people, his favor that

he wants to bestow on all creation, it comes from love and compassion.

Jesus's ministry flowed from compassion.

He saw the broken, he saw the loss, and he was moved by it.

Compassion was his default mode.

We all have a default mode.

Jesus's default mode was compassion, and it was restorative.

It brought life, it brought healing, it brought, uh, dignity.

It brought hope.

It brought more and more.

Jesus' ministry can be labeled as.

God's compassion in action.

That was Jesus's ministry.

And we see this and we wanna study this out over here in Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Churchill, you still with me here this morning, mark, chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Jesus is on his way to the ultimate display of God's

compassion, which is the cross.

And so Jesus, and he's on his way over to that.

To, to, to Jerusalem.

But there's all these stories and interactions that take place, and we

stop here in Mark chapter 10 and it reads, then it came to Jericho as Jesus

Mark 10 · chapter mention

and his disciples together with a large crowd we're leaving the city a blind man.

Bartimaeus, which means son to MEUs.

We're sitting by the roadside begging when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth.

He began to shout Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me.

Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted, all the

more son of David have mercy on me.

Jesus stopped and said, call him.

So they called to the blind Man, cheer up on your feet.

He's calling you, throwing his cloak aside.

He jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

What do you want me to do for you?

Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, rabbi, I want to see.

Go.

Said Jesus.

Your faith has healed you.

Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

Let's stop right there.

Let, let's, let's.

Let's dig into the scene here.

Let's make sure we capture this so that we can draw what God wants

us to see from this passage here.

First off, we see here that there was a blind man sitting by the roadside begging,

and so we can kind of get a visual right there, so they're leaving the city.

This whole group, Jesus, they're departing, they're leaving, and as

they're leaving on the roadside, on the side was a blind man who's begging.

He has this, his little, you know, in our day we had this little jar there.

He is hoping to get some help and as he's begging, he shouts

out to Jesus, have mercy on me.

So we have a blind band begging and asking for mercy.

And what does the crowd do?

How do they respond?

What does it say?

They rebuke him and told him to shut up.

Think about that.

Here he is begging and maybe they thought, oh, this guy, he's, he's, you know,

he's lying, or whatever the case may be.

What did they do?

Shut up, man.

Can you be quiet?

Now, think about this for a second.

They only had to deal with this for maybe a minute or so, because they're walking.

They're on their way out, so they only had to really deal with this for a little bit.

So my man must've been yelling pretty loud.

But to get to the point where they rebuked him and said, man, you need to shut up.

Can you be quiet?

We're trying to go.

We're leaving here.

You are bothering us.

And then you wanna call for Jesus, man, somebody tell this dude to shut up.

That's what they're doing.

And what does Jesus do?

He said, Jesus stops.

No, no, no, no.

We're gonna stop writing.

Blind man over there who's calling me, tell, tell him to come here.

And so Jesus sees the man, everybody else what ignores the man.

Everybody else thinks he's an annoyance.

Everybody else thinks he's somebody that needs to be discarded, that

needs to actually be rebuked.

He needs to be told that what he's doing is unacceptable.

Oh, and Jesus though sees the men.

And what does he do?

Then he goes and he sees him and he asks him a question.

Now, this is interesting because again, he's blind.

He's a beggar, so in society, he's low on the totem pole.

In fact, he's discarded.

He's to the side.

He's not valuable.

In fact, we can tell he's not valuable because what did people do?

They just walked right by.

And in fact, they not only walked by, they said, quiet the man.

That's how low he is viewed.

But what does Jesus do?

Just by calling him and asking him a question and engaging

with him, he restored dignity.

You are valuable.

I see you.

And in fact, not only do I see you, I want to engage with you.

I want to have a relational connection with you right now.

Wow.

Let's talk.

And again, in the gospels as we read them, remember these are

overall summaries of what happened.

They don't give us every detail, and so I'm sure that there was a longer

conversation, but just this tells us that Jesus gives him value and hears him out.

He hears his story, and what does Jesus do?

Jesus blesses him and he goes and he restores his sights.

Not only does he do that, but he helps him out spiritually as well because he

connects all of this to the real issue that's needed, and that's his faith.

He already has some faith.

He says, I see some faith in you and we're gonna reward that faith, but

what does it say that the man does?

It says he followed Jesus.

I read this story many a times and that never stood out to me.

This man became a follower of Jesus.

He literally was following Jesus.

He becomes a disciple of Jesus.

That's probably why we even have his name.

'cause they're like, oh, this is Bar Mason's story.

Yo, that's crazy.

Barma.

Is this what happened to you?

And so he becomes not only healed physically, but there's a spiritual

blessing of upon his life, and we see something magnificent take place because

Jesus, again, he models compassion.

And he's also instilling and restoring compassion in every,

well, everybody else around.

You see, compassion died in the crowd.

There's no compassion in the crowd.

Did you see that?

But compassion lived in Jesus and the compassion restored in

everyone who was watching, wow, this is what the Messiah is like.

This is the hearts of God.

He sees people, he hears people, he calls people, he redeems people.

He gives them value, dignity, as Corina shared earlier identity.

And then he reminds his people, we need to have the same hearts

and action toward others.

You know, before Jesus restores compassion in us, he gives compassion to us.

Just like Bar Dees, you and I, we were the ones sitting by the road,

spiritually blind, spiritually ignored, spiritually broken.

Jesus not only saw him, but Jesus sees you.

Jesus not only heard him, Jesus hears you.

Jesus not only asked him what he needed, Jesus invites you

to speak your need to him.

Jesus has been compassionate to us.

Has anybody experienced the compassion of Jesus in this room?

Of course you can.

'cause just the fact that you are here and hurt.

What I said, show Jesus' compassion.

And so every one of us can testify to the compassion that we have

experience in and through Christ.

We too cried out Jesus have mercy on me.

And you know what Jesus did?

He stopped for us.

He looked at you.

He saw you.

He called you to him and he dignified you.

He raised you up.

He redeemed you.

All of those of us who have been redeemed.

Can I get an amen?

Amen.

You see, when you remember the compassion you received.

God restores compassion in you.

You know, if the disciples who were literally physically with Jesus

struggled with compassion, we shouldn't be surprised when we do so as well.

You get what I'm saying?

You know, but Jesus, he keeps instilling, he keeps restoring

compassion in his people.

Why?

Because the disciples, they repeatedly lack compassion.

Just a couple of times here.

When we look here, Jesus restoring compassion, they go

and there's all these people.

What do the disciples say?

Send the crowds away.

Jesus says, no, you give them something to eat.

Two of his disciples says, let's call fire den on a Samaritan.

Let's judge them.

Let's condemn them.

Let's, let's kill those guys.

Jesus turned and rebuked them.

Man, that's not what we do up in here.

What's wrong with you?

I'm not a fire breathing minister.

I'm a redeeming man.

When they said who sinned, there was a guy who was blind.

Another man they said, who sinned?

His man or his parents not seeing the person being blind.

They just wanna know who's at fault Here following the culture, Jesus says,

neither this man nor his parents who sinned and he heals the man showing

the disciples the hearts of God.

When they all the, the, the people were bringing kids to Jesus.

They rebuked the people, and they were like, man, take these kids away.

We, what are you doing?

You don't bring these kids to Jesus.

Do you know who this man is?

He's so important to be dealing with these kids.

Jesus says, let the children come to me.

Do not hinder them.

When they saw a woman who had per perfume because she was so grateful for Jesus

and she, she poured this expensive bottle of perfume just to wipe Jesus' feet.

They looked and said, why is she wasting this perfume?

Jesus says, leave her alone.

She has done a beautiful thing to me.

You see the disciples consistently lost and compassion, and what does Jesus do?

He keeps restoring it.

No, you need to get who we are, what we're about, because when I send you

out, you need to have this heart as well.

You need to have this compassion as well.

This is what we were doing.

This is the heart of God's favor upon his people, upon his

creation that he wants to give.

Now, if the disciples who are with Jesus needed their compassion

restored, how much more do we

now?

Can we have a brief moment of honesty here for a second?

Some of y'all say yes, some of y'all said no, we don't want that.

Like they, I want a brief moment of false and, and faking and lying, right?

It's okay, but we ain't gonna do that today.

So it really doesn't matter if you say yes or no, I'm still gonna have it.

Okay?

Brief moment here.

As a church, I believe we need our compassion restored as well.

And when I say we, I literally mean we, because I'm a hundred

percent included in this.

And so this is not a they, this is a we.

You say, well, how do you figure?

Well, because I think we're just like the disciples.

I don't think we've ventured and we've went and we've reached this, this, this

high level of spirituality where we don't follow the same mistakes of the disciples.

You get what I'm saying?

But also what are the, some of the things that we see, I think some of

us, we can tell we need our, our, our compassionately restored because

we see people in a worldly way.

We're viewing each other.

We can view each other in a worldly way.

We can view each other with the lens of politics.

Oh, there's the right wing part of the church.

There's the left wing part of the church, and it becomes they and us.

And we use that language.

They and us, we and them.

We can look at things through the lens of the council culture.

Somebody did something wrong, let's counsel 'em.

We can view people, not we can.

Some of us, that's the way we're viewing it and we don't realize it because

if we realize that we would, we would change it, but we don't realize that

we're viewing people in a worldly way, not seeing them as image bearers,

but seeing them in a worldly fashion.

Some of us, we've forgotten the compassion God has shown.

Sin in the world.

It numbs compassion.

You ever notice, like when you're like into yourself or, um, you know

you've been struggling spiritually, have you noticed that you are really

lacking in compassion for other people?

You get more annoyed by people.

You ever notice that you get angry?

You're quicker to get angry, you're crook to get mad, and

you don't wanna give anything.

What, man?

You want me to, to bring a dish to the, to the thanksgiving from Friendsgiving?

I ain't bringing no dish.

I will bring my appetite though.

And them sides better be good.

'cause if they're not, somebody's going to hear about that.

Okay.

I'll bring some napkins.

You know when we forget, we get corrupted.

Our hearts get hardened.

This is why it's so important.

It's why, man, I love God and his, his just genius.

This is why it's so important that there's a reset in our lives.

There's a reset in our relationship with God and how we view people and

in what we're pursuing, and then it's so important and vital that we have a

release of the things that hold us back.

The sin and the world's grip on us has to be let go.

My bitterness needs to be removed.

My shame and guilt and burdens that I carry need to be dropped

so that God can fill me back up.

With his compassion, love, grace, and mercy.

So we have to remove it.

That's why it's so important that we went down this road here.

You guys get what I'm saying?

Church.

Because now what God is doing communally what he's doing to all of us, he's

restoring and it's the peace of God.

He's restoring.

And it's the compassion because that's who he is and that's

what he wants to do through us.

And some of us, or maybe, I think it's safe to say many of us.

We're not sharing the gospel with people, and I'm convicted by this.

God convicted me a couple weeks.

Like Marcel, you don't share the way you used to.

You don't share the way you need to.

You're not seeing people's true needs.

You know, we can get caught up in opinions.

We can think politics or self-help, tactics and quotes like that will

be the answer for those people.

That will be the answer for my friends in need.

That's not their biggest need.

The biggest need is the gospel of Jesus.

Your biggest need was the gospel of Jesus.

Your biggest need still is the gospel of Jesus.

So why would it be any different for anybody outside of this room?

They need the gospel of Jesus as well.

They need to experience God's compassion.

You know, Jesus is the way, the truth in a life, a relationship with God, and

following his example and teachings.

That's the answer at the core.

Yeah.

Then all these other things are added benefits, which can enhance

our walking God in our lives.

You know, Jesus is what saved your soul and made you whole

and is making you whole.

That's the same thing that's gonna help your family member, your friend,

your colleague, your classmate, your neighbor, and the stranger is Jesus.

When compassion gets lost in God's people, we stop reflecting his heart.

Here's the thing.

Here's the good news.

Jesus is inviting you and me to be restored.

He's not down on us.

He's not condemning us.

'cause that's not what he's about.

He's about inviting us to be restored and to have our compassion restored

because he's compassionate and his people have the same heart, same lifestyle.

So he is restoring that in us.

You say, well, how should we respond?

Well, we need to have God restore compassion in us and how does

God restore compassion in us?

God does some cool things, but he also gives us a, a little part

of the responsibility in this.

So I want us to go over some of these things here.

Brother and sister, are you still with me here?

Here's how God restores compassion, and it's number one, remembering

Jesus' compassion for us.

That's the very first thing.

What, let's think about Bartimaeus.

Bartimaeus received this, I'm sure.

I think it's safe to say when Bartimaeus saw another blind man or another person

in need, he responded differently because he remembered that he too was

once that blind man in need and begging.

So I'm sure he was like, Hey guys, y'all see that person over there?

What can we do to help?

Birdman, I'm sure, was very familiar with his story.

That led to compassion for others.

You know, compassion is restored.

When we remember the compassion Jesus showed us, the compassion we receive

becomes a compassion that flows to other.

We have to remember all that Jesus has and is doing in our lives.

And second, we need to see and hear like Jesus seen and hearing like Jesus.

Number one, we need to see people as people and not as enemies.

Did you hear what I said there?

We need to see people as people.

You are a person made in the image of God, you are not my enemy.

You are my fellow image bearer.

You know, that's the relational resets having a different view.

But here's the thing, also, seeing people's true need when it comes to

seeing, seeing people, not just the behavior, but seeing, you know, what?

They're really hurt and they need healing.

That's the real issue.

You know, that person is actually, they're just really insecure and they need to

know God's love and God's truth, seeing the real need, not just the surface.

You see, that's what Jesus saw in bar mass, but that's what Jesus sees in you.

And so we are called, and this is how we can, uh, uh, work with God

in, in restoring our compassion is by asking God to help us see

and hear like Jesus, but then also hearing people's hearts and stories.

You know, we lose compassion when we label.

Instead of listening, we put a label on him.

We judge a story that we've never even heard.

Or we judged the story and we only heard the pieces of it.

We only heard the, the, the first chapter.

We didn't hear the story and understand what's really going

on in this person's lives.

We judge and condemn, but we don't even know the whole story.

You know, compassion grows when we hear, see, and understand people's

true needs, not just their behavior.

Here, and this is tough and I, I appreciate God, he's been working on me.

'cause there's things, and you, maybe you're like me as well, but there's things

you see on TV that can boil your skin.

There's things I see on social media that, that, that can really irk me.

And I'm like, man, are you serious?

These people, I can't believe this.

And, and I start to get angry and I start to get mad and I, and

I wanna combat, but then I just love it when God has me coming to.

Contact and engagement with somebody who I think might be doing something that is

in agreement with what I'm upset by, and I hear their story and I go, oh, I get you.

Now.

We might not even agree about something, but I see you as a

person now and I see your need.

Now.

I see why there's this anger.

I see why there's this approach, because you're missing the gospel.

Jesus.

I love it when I get a chance to hear your stories, when I get a chance

because sometimes I can be at this post here and I'm just be honest.

Okay?

Can I be honest?

It don't matter if you say yes or no, I'm gonna be honest.

Okay?

Alright.

I'll be honest with you, I can look at this because of my position, being in a

position of leadership, I hear a lot of good news, but I can also hear a lot of

bad news and that can really tain me.

Then I can get frustrated like, man, why aren't we like this?

Or why aren't we doing this?

And I can get angry and then I engage.

And I've been grateful, you know, I was able to to in our family groups

and went to the Placentia family group, uh, two weeks ago and just hearing

people's hearts and I'm just softened.

I got, man, this is God's people.

This is, people love Jesus.

They really do.

I go, Karina, people love Jesus.

And it softens me.

And I go, man, and it makes me grateful.

I go, man, I love God's people.

Yeah.

We're not perfect.

We, no, we, we, we got some things we gotta work on,

but man, people are awesome.

And it makes me more compassionate.

It makes me want to help people instead of come down and condemn.

I want to lift them up and walk with them.

This is why it's so important, brothers and sisters that we model,

that we follow Jesus's model.

Seeing and hearing people, hearing their hearts and hearing their stories.

Are you with me?

Lastly here.

All right, I gotta hurry up here.

Helping people spiritually, you know, I don't know about you, but my compassion

grows when I'm involved in helping people.

I see their need and I get excited, see the way God is moving in their lives,

and, and it reminds me of what he's doing in my life and how he's worked.

And then I just go, wow, this helps me have more compassion, not only upon him,

but on others that I come in contact with.

So what happens when compassion is restored?

Well, we become like God in nature and character, and that's what God wants.

He's a father and he wants his kids to be like him in our nature and our character.

So when you and I have our compassion restored, guess who we reflect?

God, the Creator.

And there's nothing sweeter, nothing better than that.

But then also what happens is that we are then used by God in his redeeming work of

this world, and there's nothing greater than joining God and helping him redeem

his creation, helping people experience God's compassion and coming to salvation.

You know, God isn't calling you to try harder.

Please do not hear that today.

God is calling.

No.

God is inviting you to be restored.

When compassion grows, God's favor flows.

Let's get real practical here, brothers and sisters, action

steps here for the week.

Just try this out for the week here.

Okay?

You can expand past this week if you want to.

Number one, pray for compassion each day this week.

Just every day have a prayer.

It doesn't have to be long.

Ask God to soften your heart.

God, soften my hearts.

Help me to see and hear people's stories the way you do.

Restoring me.

The compassion that you have, help me to hear what you hear.

And then secondly, help someone spiritually.

You know, this is when compassion moves from the head to the

hands, and that's what God wants.

He doesn't want it to stay in our heads.

He doesn't want this to be nice, cool theory and things that we just talk about.

He wants it to be flowing through us.

And so maybe it's one conversation, one invitation, one act of mercy.

One step of love, but just help someone spiritually this week.

You know, God's favor doesn't stop at freedom.

It moves us toward restoration.

God restores what's been lost or broken in us so that we can bring restoration, so

that he can bring restoration through us.

The goal isn't just personal peace, it's communal compassion.

God's favor is experiencing compassion and then becoming compassionate.

God's favor is a flow of compassion.

God's compassion for us and in God's compassion through us.

And so as we come to a close here, we're reminded of this that a reset prepares us.

Release frees us.

Let's go back here.

Can you go back there?

Reset prepares us.

A reset, a release, freeze us and restore.

Sends us Luke four verse 18.

We'll close out there.

The spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to

proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and

recovery of sight for the blind.

To set the oppressed free to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Brothers and sisters, may we experience more of the Lord's

favor in restoring our compassion?

Amen.