24 april 2016

THE GOOD LIFE a life of calling a life of character a life of compassion

LUKE 4:14-15 Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

LUKE 4:16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures.

LUKE 4:17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

LUKE 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

LUKE 4:20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently.

LUKE 4:21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

JESUS IS… …the most faithful …the most truthful …the most generous …the most kind …the most forgiving …the most shocking …the most surprising …the most authentic …the most wonderful & admirable person

compassionbig-heartedness

MATHEW 9:36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

MATTHEW 15:32 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”

compassionbig-heartedness

RACHAM רָ ֫ חַם to have mercy toward to be compassionate towards

SPLAGCHNIZOMAI Σπλαγχνίζομαι to feel compassion to have pity on to be moved

compassionbig-heartedness

why don’t we share Jesus ’ big heart ?

LUKE 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

WHEREVER JESUS IS… …the Gospel is preached …captives are released...blind given sight …oppressed set free …sick being healed …sinful forgiven …poor are helped …compassion poured out

THE HEART IS SHRUNK… when we reduce the gospel to only a spiritual message.

LUKE 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

GOSPEL evangelism – good news justicediscipleship

if you want to change the world, just get people to accept Jesus and he will change people’s hearts and that will change society

What was the most Christianised country in East Africa in the 1980 ’s?

settle for conversion rather than transformation

a church that’s full of compassion and full of compassionate people

THE HEART IS SHRUNK… when we reduce the gospel to only a material message.

LUKE 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

LUKE 4:14-15 Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region.

LUKE 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

WITHOUT THE SPIRIT watering our hearts flooding our hearts filling our hearts our hearts shrivel up they dry up

FRANCIS PERKINS When a person gives a poor man shoes, should you do it for the poor man or should you do it for God?

THE HEART IS SHRUNK… when we reduce God’s mercy to only people like us

LUKE 4:22 Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

LUKE 4:25 “Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land.

LUKE 4:26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner— a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon.

LUKE 4:27 And many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”

LUKE 4:28-29 When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff

THE HEART IS SHRUNK… when we reduce God’s mercy to only people like us

If we only love people who love us back, we make our faith look like a negotiation

shrunkenhearts

HOW DO OUR HEARTS GROW when we see ourselves as potentially needy

HOW DO OUR HEARTS GROW when we get close to suffering

HOW DO OUR HEARTS GROW when we help someone

transformation ministry

living Jesus -ly