Stay Compassionate | Dr. David Jeremiah

[Music] and just like that a world that seemed quite familiar is now unrecognizable and god whispers i have not changed you lament over the life you loved that is now a vague memory time seems to be moving faster than you can manage and you've gone from simply living to merely surviving and what was once certain is now well uncertain and god whispers trust in me you face a world that appears to be falling apart foundations have splintered institutions fractured nations battered people polarized and god whispers fear not you mourn that what you once held in your hands is now out of reach that the what ifs have become the why me's that i never thought i'd see the day has already come and gone that one day might never arrive and that which lies ahead seems determined to leave you behind and god whispers i am with you always you navigate the ups and downs of a life filled with hard work tough decisions stressful situations and circumstances that seem out of your control you spend day and night managing the highs and lows of a marriage a family your health and your job an alarm to discover that you've lost yourself along the way and god whispers let me be your strength and though trouble assembles all around you and your enemies prevail against you you attempt to stay centered and confident and convinced that even in the midst of uncertainty god has a plan and a purpose for your life and god whispers i love you and just like that the world seems a bit more familiar and god whispers carry on so how do we carry on well it may surprise you to learn that in uncertain times god wants us to stay compassionate our natural tendency is to pull back and withdraw from others but frankly that's opposite of the bible's teaching when we want to pull away god asks us to lean in when we'd rather run and hide god wants us to seize the opportunity to reach out to others and be a source of light in dark times so let's stay compassionate to the needs of people around us in the next few minutes let's consider how we can respond to those around us with compassion and love in this chaotic world join dr jeremiah in just a few minutes for today's message as he teaches how to stay compassionate in this chaotic world you can find this inspirational challenge and nine others in living with confidence in a chaotic world certain hope in uncertain times dr jeremiah's classic book updated for today's generations biblically based practical instruction to help you live with unshakeable confidence whether you're discouraged by the events on the world stage or overwhelmed by the everyday challenges on your own doorstep claim a confident faith that shows as you learn to stay confident and convinced that god has a plan and purpose for your life stay challenged and constructive in the world around you stay compassionate and connected to the people in your life stay centered and committed to god's word and stay consistent and confident in your walk with god request living with confidence in a chaotic world when you give a gift of any amount in support of this program and if you give 65 or more dr jeremiah will send you in appreciation the living with confidence set containing his book his teaching series on your choice of cd or dvd and a companion study guide plus with any order of the book or set you will receive the unshakeable confidence cards to encourage you to stay the course each day you can find certain hope in uncertain times and live with confidence in a chaotic world order these resources from turning point today you are watching a timeless teaching presentation from dr david jeremiah here on turning point in appreciation of your viewership today dr jeremiah would like to send you the unshakeable confidence cards with selected scripture and an inspirational thought from dr jeremiah to help you stay the course each day receive the unshakable confidence cards completely free when you contact turningpoint today now here is dr jeremiah with his message stay compassionate as i listen and talk to people during this time that we're all experiencing i sense among some of our people a growing spirit of cynicism and despair i hear people facetiously talking about locking every door pulling up the bridge that crosses the moat and hunkering down for a long difficult season make sure you have enough for you and yours and just let everyone else spend for themselves sounds kind of familiar doesn't it but surely that cannot be the way god would have us to respond to these days our lesson comes from paul's first letter to the thessalonian believers and verses 11 through 13 in the third chapter here's what we read now may our god and father himself and our lord jesus christ direct our way to you and may the lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all just as we do to you so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our god and father at the coming of our lord jesus christ with all of his saints now folks remember we're taking our cues in this series from verses of scripture that tell us jesus is coming back and in the same text tell us what to do while we're waiting for this to happen so often people who believe in prophecy just get so focused on the future they forget that the prophetic word is given to us to help us know how to function today and many of the passages of the new testament that tell us the lord is coming back also tell us what we should do as we're waiting now if you look down in your bibles you'll notice that at the end of verse 13 it talks about the time when our god and father and the coming of our lord jesus christ with all of his saints that's a reference to the time in the future at the end of the tribulation when god comes back in christ and all of the saints come with him and he gets victory over the world at the battle of armageddon he's coming back now here's what paul says to the believers in thessalonica in light of the fact that he's coming back here's what i need you to know now the reason that paul wanted to go to thessalonica was because the people there were going through some very difficult times they were being persecuted for their faith they were under incredible pressure paul knew they needed a word of encouragement and he wanted to go and bring that word to them personally they were experiencing a time in their culture not too different from the time that we face today they were under difficult times and here's what you discover as you begin to study their culture and ours as well that oftentimes persecuted people become self-centered and demanding we begin to think about ourselves if things aren't going our way we have little pity parties don't we oh my poor me of course what life does to us depends upon what life finds in us we can't let any of the circumstances do something to us that's not already there i remember when i first came here years ago a guy by the name of henry brandt was here and i only heard him speak four or five times before he went on to something else but i'll never forget one lesson he taught and that was this that nobody can make you what you are not don't go around telling somebody oh he makes me angry no no no dr brant would say you're already angry they just bring it out of you isn't that true nobody can make you what you're not and that's what's going on here these people can be the right kind of people if they have the right things in them but paul senses they don't and he wants to encourage them as he writes to these people he sends them a prayer this passage we just read is really a prayer he says may god himself and our lord jesus christ direct our way to you and may the lord he's praying for these folks he prays that they might develop greater hearts of compassion how many of you are aware of the fact that sometimes god puts us under pressure to tenderize our hearts and make us aware of the needs that other people have and if we will allow him to do it we come out of it not bitter but better paul's praying for his friends in thessalonica that they might develop greater hearts of compassion now notice first of all the essence of compassion he says may the lord cause you to increase and abound in love as the world grows colder and colder and we're tempted to get harder and harder the world needs more and more of what we alone can provide as followers of christ and while we may not feel hearts of compassion ourselves almighty god is a compassionate god psalm 116 verse 5 says our god is full of compassion and lamentations chapter 3 tells us that his compassions never fail that they are new every morning we have a god who is full of compassion his compassions never fail and they show up new every day the sun rises every morning on all the manna of mercy that we ever need to make it and all the manna we will ever need to help someone else make it we have a compassionate god and notice the prayer may god make you abound in love toward one another how many of you know that sometimes god's the only one who can make you do that if you're under pressure things are going bad maybe you're being mistreated mishandled misrepresented and you're supposed to have hearts of compassion only god can do that and that's what paul is praying for he's praying for these people to develop a kind of love that is not driven by the circumstances under which they find themselves now the love he's talking about is a unique kind of love that only the new testament knows about it's a word we often hear in today's culture it's agape love agape is a greek word and it's a word for a kind of love that is known only to god agape love the best i can illustrate it is a kind of love that loves for the sake of love itself and expects nothing in return it is totally absolutely completely selfless love it's the love that god showed to us and we read about it in the most famous verse of the bible for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life and this kind of love is not available to be discovered unless it is discovered as an action for instance in first john 4 9 we read these words in this the love of god was manifested that he sent his only begotten son into this world how was god's love demonstrated by what he did listen to me friends listen carefully agape love and compassion these are not nouns these are verbs these are not describing something they are action words love is an action that we take on the part of others and compassion is an action that we take out of our own a love for god and reach out to others with it when paul wrote to the people in thessalonica he didn't write to a bunch of unloving people they already knew how to love they were loving many of us here today we're sitting here listening this is what am i supposed to take away from this pastor i have a heart of love and so did the people in thessalonica in fact back in the first chapter it talks about their labor of love and over in chapter 4 verse 9 we read but concerning brotherly love you have no need that i should write to you for you yourselves are taught by god to love one another and indeed you do so toward all the brethren and all who are in macedonia but we urge you brethren that you increase more and more paul is saying to these brethren you already have some love got love in your heart god's put his love in your heart and you express it some but here's his mantra during this whole passage you need to exercise and increase in your love for others the essence of love the essence of compassion is a deep-seated concern and care for people who need a touch from god and everywhere you look today folks there are people like that in the midst of this crisis we can turn our attention on ourselves or we can look out at a needy world and say lord god you put me right in the midst of this for such a time as this show me how to respond so that i can be your outstretched arms to the people who need some compassion today in the midst of the difficult times we are god's hands and his arms to reach out to this world and wrap them up in the love that they so desperately need and the words that he uses in this text are interesting he says i want you to increase and abound in love these are almost synonyms but when they put them together it's simply a very strong thing that says great love and a time of great need now notice the expression of compassion to one another and to all paul says i don't want you just to love each other that's important but i want you to love everybody loving one another was well understood by the believers of that day as it is by our day as to be a requirement for those who follow christ first john 4 21 says this is a commandment that we have from him that he who loves god must love his brother also we're supposed to love one another everybody knows that that's not news we're supposed to do that not only are we supposed to do it the bible says that by doing it we tell everybody that we're christians did you know that people don't know that we're christians by what we say not because we come to church not because we carry a big bible under our arm not because we have mastered christianese and we can speak in all that language you know people know that we are christians because we have love for one another that's what john 13 35 says by this shall all men know that you are my disciples because you have love one for another when people are looking out at the culture and they want to find out who's a christian the bible says they have the right to examine us on the basis of our compassion for each other in the body of christ isn't that interesting we walk around posturing all the time don't we want everybody to know what christians we are well most of the time our christianity is shown on our knees serving somebody washing feet helping them with the problems nobody else will touch now paul would have been okay with the thessalonians and probably with a lot of us if he had just stopped at the end of love one another but he adds a little phrase there that really haunts you when you read it it says may the lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all and for the thessalonians the all included all those people that were treating them cruelly we have to love the people that we don't like we have to ask god to help us be filled with his love so that we can reach out and here's the text not only to those who are one of us in christ but to all to those people where you work who criticize you and make fun of you because of your faith you need to love them that's what the bible says so god wants to make us all compassionate now we have the essence of it love one another and increase and abound in love we have the expression of it love one another and all now let's notice just briefly the example of it paul says something here in this next part of this text that is truly amazing may the lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all now watch this little phrase just as we do to you paul says you want to know how to do this let me show you how to do it the way you need to love other people is the way we have loved you you kind of get the impression that when paul went to thessalonica he wasn't exactly immediately accepted but he went there and he loved these people and if you take your bibles now and go back to the first chapter let me just show you a few things paul did to express his love to them in chapter one and verse two he says we give thanks to god always for you he thanked god for the people in thessalonica notice the next phrase and we pray for you in our prayers you know somebody loves you when they thank god for you and when they pray for you and he says in chapter 2 verse 2 he says but after we had suffered before and were spitefully treated at philippi as you know we were bold in our god to speak to you the gospel of god in much what's the next thing he did he preached the gospel to them did you know some people don't want the gospel preached to them did you know that paul preached the gospel to them whether they wanted it or not he thanked god for them he prayed for them he preached the gospel to them we're told he suffered for them we're followers of the lord having received the word in much affliction he says in verse seven and eight of chapter two we're told he was gentle and kind and compassionate toward them like a nursing mother would cherish your own children in verse 9 we're told that he sacrificed for them and that verse says for you remember brethren our labors and toil for laboring night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you we preach the gospel of god you know what that means that means paul was the first vocational preacher he wouldn't allow the believers in thessalonica to pay him for his service so he worked an extra job he was a tent maker and he said you want to know how it is to show compassion to other folks let me tell you just do it do it like we have done pray for them thank god for them minister to them be willing to sacrifice for them show them mercy just like we've done you do folks i wish i was confident to stand in this pulpit and say you want to know how to live the christian life watch me i'm not going to say that i'm not paul and i have a lot of flaws i'd be afraid you'd see the flaw and miss all the rest somebody somewhere is watching you and saying i wonder what christianity is all about and here's what the bible says the way they will find out is by your love for one another and for them i had a woman ask me this week how do i minister to somebody who won't even let me talk about jesus i want that person to go to heaven and they're not going to go to heaven how do i witness to them all i could say to us you have to be jesus to them well what do you mean you have to love them love them when they reject your love love them when they cuss you out because of what you do you don't have to say anything because they're not going to hear your words but they cannot deny your actions love them as jesus would love them so the essence of compassion is that the lord would cause you to increase and abound in love and the expression of it is to one another and to all and the example of it is as paul loved them and now notice the effect of it and i just need to say a word about this verse 13 says so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness here's a purpose clause what is the purpose of doing this this is so profound i don't want you to miss this and and i'm not going to say it as well as it should be said but listen up the way to become like christ is to do what christ did the way to become holy is not to stand around reciting verses or learn how to pray in a sepulchral voice the way to become holy is to do what christ did and christ was the epitome of compassion and if we want to grow in christ's likeness we will do what christ did and that's what the passage says when you love one another and all and you do what paul did the bible says the result of that will be that you will be established in holiness your life will become more and more like christ when you do christ-like things you become more like christ you say well i don't know if my motive is right well just do it anyway the lord will help you with your motive just do it do it out of obedience and watch what god begins to do in your life so we've talked about the essence of compassion and the expression of it and the example of it and the effect of it now comes the good part the exercise of compassion did you know that when you show compassion to other people you are not only living an obedient life and you're not only learning how to live confidently in a chaotic world but there is therapy in kindness and you know what it's interesting to me sooner or later if you just wait long enough somebody in the secular world will find out that some truth from the word of god that we've known about for years is true they do research on it and they discover that what we've already known is true and they can't deny it some guy by the name of alan lux wrote a book called the healing power of doing good and in this book he tells about a study he did with 3 000 volunteers of all ages throughout the country using a questionnaire he asked them some questions and when he got these questions back and computerized them he saw a clear cause and effect relationship between helping and good health in a nutshell he concluded helping contributes to the maintenance of good health and it can diminish the effect of diseases and disorders that are both serious and minor psychological and physical helping others get your attention off of yourself and causes you to begin to open up and be the person god wants you to be now i want to tell you something i thought a lot about this this week you all know this to be true but i want to help you practice it just if it's just for one week okay now let me tell you about a little act of kindness i did some years ago some of you've heard the story but it's my favorite act of kindness story i was going to mcdonald's on a given day and thinking about something else and apparently when i pulled into mcdonald's i cut a lady off who was trying to pull in coming the other way and to say that she was angry is the understatement of the world and i rather assumed at least i hoped she wasn't a member of shadow mountain because the language that came out of her mouth i mean it was it was it was blue and it penetrated the car and i got in line to get my order and she pulled in behind me and i looked in the mirror and she was still jabbering she was cussing she was just you know the veins popped out in her neck and i felt bad i didn't know that i had done anything but i assumed i had done something so when i got up to the window i said to the guy hey you know the car that's behind me do you know how much their bill is he says oh yeah it's right here i said i want to pay for it he says what yeah i want to pay for their food he says are their family i said i never saw him before in my life i just want to pay for their food so i paid for the food and then i kind of pulled out slowly and pulled up there and sat there and watched it he was so interesting how it confounded this woman she did not know what to do and i never did hear from her i don't know she might be in church this morning you never know but you know what happened when i did that it obviously took the edge off of her anger and it made me feel better i was just glad now i told the guys the story and staff this week and i said let me just give you a little counsel before you pull that one make sure you look in the rearview mirror and discover whether there's 10 or 12 people in the car behind you because this might be out of your budget this little trick right here but listen to me what i want you to do this week is to think about what we've said this morning and whether it's to a christian or to somebody you don't know or somebody you do know is not a christian i want you to figure out some way to do something kind for them that they would never expect that you don't have any reason to get anything back for it just do it a random act of kindness and here's the verse for this week first john 4 18 there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear if you're going through a fearful time let me tell you how to deal with it love somebody show that love to somebody express your love and it will give you a feeling of confidence like you never could believe and you will live to tell others what god did for you in a time when you learn how to be more compassionate to others dr jeremiah just shared his heart about how we can stay confident in this chaotic world and he would like to extend an invitation for you to know the true source and foundation for a confident life jesus christ if you would like to know more about how you can begin or grow in your relationship with jesus dr jeremiah would like to help by sending you two free resources the first is a booklet called your greatest turning point and the second is our monthly devotional magazine turning points these resources are yours completely free when you contact turningpoint today thank you for watching turningpoint when you support this program with a gift of any amount dr jeremiah will send you in appreciation his book living with confidence in a chaotic world certain hope for uncertain times and for a generous gift of 65 or more dr jeremiah will send you the living with confidence set containing his book his teaching series on your choice of cd or dvd and a companion study guide plus with any order of the book or set you will receive the unshakable confidence cards to encourage you to stay the course each day receive these resources when you support the ministry of turning point today next time on turning point you don't want the remorse and the sadness of a stumbling christian life and peter says here's the way you get past it here's the promise of god if you will diligently apply your heart to the word of god and to the principles of the word you can go through life and you won't have to stumble along the way thank you for being with us today join dr jeremiah next time for his message stay challenged here on turning point

Channel: David Jeremiah

Views: 70,439

Rating: 4.9231753 out of 5

Keywords: Dr. David Jeremiah, David Jeremiah, Turning Point with David Jeremiah, Turning Point, God, Jesus, Christ, Bible, 2021, comfort, fear, concern, overwhelmed, overwhelming, troubled, crisis, compassion

Id: o3w3OzSrBhI

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021