Intro:

• Recapping last week
  • Yahweh, Yahweh
    • He’s Consistent
    • He’s Connected
    • He’s Covenantal
    • He’s Commissioning 
• This week - What’s God like? What’s His nature?
  • When you are finding out about someone you are dating
  • When you here about someone that is famous

Text:

Exodus 34:6–7 (NASB95) — 6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

To note:

• The “Other’s Consciousness” of God - He could have described Himself and it been all about Himself, but every attribute has to do with the way He treats people.”
• The poetry of the passage - He wrote it for people to remember 
• Focus on two words - Rahum, Hannun 
• Compassion and Gracious 
• Let’s explore these two words

Message:

1. The God of Compassion (Rahum)
   1. Comes from the root word WOMB
      1. Feminine term
      2. The whole maternal process from carrying a child, to nurturing it
      3. Motherly Instinct - Mom’s have a instinctive desire to nurture
         1. When Angie and I had small babies, she would say “DO YOU NOT HEAR!” lol
         2. The level of dinner prep
         3. God has a desire to nurture
      4. Mothers Protective Nature - A mom will do anything to protect her child
         1. Have you ever seen a mom storm onto a field, into a principles office
         2. God has this same desire to protect
         3. Luke 13:34 (NLT) — 34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.
      5. Mothers Desire to Rescue - King Solomon and the mom
         1. Growing up - Scotty the mangy mutt
         2. The girls and cat - Mittens
   2. The eyes of compassion
      1. He sees - Hagar in Genesis 16 calls Him El-Roi 
      2. Compassion is rooted in what you behold
      3. The eyes of the Lord are always watching and He is moved
   3. The heart of compassion
      1. The feeling of responsibility - God has a feeling of responsibility towards us
      2. The feeling of sympathy - God has a feeling of pity when He sees us
      3. The feeling of empathy - God can actually empathize with us because He became one of us! 
2. The God of Grace (Hannun)
   1. What is grace? Khen
      1. Showing generous favor in a spirit of gladness to someone that is undeserving.
      2. A beautiful thing given to an undeserving person.
      3. A poet has words of Khen
      4. A king gives gifts of Khen
      5. Beautiful thing, given to an undeserving person, with a spirit of gladness is Khen
      6. God’s nature is respond to our cries by giving us Khen
   2. Grace lifts
      1. The needy
      2. The undeserving
   3. Grace gives
      1. With generosity 
      2. With gladness

The Good Samaritan from Luke 10

• He had Compassion
  • He saw the man
  • He felt compassion for Him
• He had Grace
  • He lifted the man
  • He gave generously 

How to receive this message

• As Christians, we are called to be like God because we are children of God
  • Ask God to open your eyes, soften your heart
  • Give your life to lifting others, and giving generously
• If you need grace, cry out for it! 
  • God is predisposed to hear the cries of his children