God Is Passionate and Compassionate - 250104

SPEAKER A Hello, I'm Mike Browning. Welcome to Let God Speak. Some people are more emotional than others. Others are wary of this. Yet God is described in scripture as having a deeply emotional love for us. So we're going to explore the depth of that love. Well, on our panel today, we have Cassie Sollano and Junior Sulusi. Thank you to you both for coming today. We really appreciate your input. We'd like to pray with everyone before we open the scripture today. So please join us. Father in heaven, we just thank you for the privilege of opening the scripture and today learning about your amazing love. So I pray that your Holy Spirit will guide us today, please, in Jesus name. Amen. SPEAKER B Amen. SPEAKER A Now we're talking about love. So, Junior, what is the most profound and deep love that humans can experience when you think about it? SPEAKER B Well, generally speaking, Mike, it is the love of a parent to a child. Parents will go hungry so that their children may eat. SPEAKER A That's amazing, isn't it? It's so true. SPEAKER B And even give their own lives to protect their children. SPEAKER A Yes. And you're a dad, so you know how that feels. That's so true. Thank you for that. Look, I'd like to read Jeremiah, chapter 31 and verse 20, if you can join with me in that. And here is God talking about some of the people of Israel. This is what he says about them, bearing in mind it applies to us as well. Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For though I spoke against him, I earnestly remember him still. That's really interesting, isn't it? So what is this telling us about God's love, Cassie? Yes. SPEAKER C It tells us that God's love yearns for his children. That's in that verse. It says, therefore my heart yearns for him. SPEAKER A Wow. SPEAKER C And how amazing is that? This is not a surface level love. It is deep and emotional. SPEAKER A Okay, thank you for that. Thank you for that. I'd also like to read Psalm 103, if you could turn to that Psalm 103. And I'm going to look there at verse 13 and 14. And this is what it says. As a father pities his children, say, the Lord pities those who fear him, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. So God has mercy. What do you make of that, Junior? How deep is this mercy? SPEAKER B Well, the term there is translated. The mercy is used for divine compassion. That's how it's translated there. And God yearns for us to respond to his love. SPEAKER A Okay, okay. Thank you for that, Junior. And still in Psalm 103. And I think we anticipated a scripture there in Psalm 103 where it talks about a father pitying his children. Can you expand on that for us, Cassie, and go a little further? SPEAKER C Yes. Well, God pities his children completely. He has a complete understanding of everyone. I think that's what is at the heart of that statement, that all our weaknesses, that we might think, oh, no one could love me because of this thing, or I'm too much like this and not enough like this. God understands all of that and loves us still. SPEAKER B Amen. SPEAKER A It's amazing, isn't it? SPEAKER C It really is. SPEAKER A Despite that love, despite that knowing us so, so deeply, what would you say, Junior, to somebody who's had a very poor relationship with their parent and particularly their father, and as a result struggles to relate to God as a father? The picture of God as a father. What do you think of that? SPEAKER B That's interesting, Mike, because this was my very situation. SPEAKER A Is that right? SPEAKER B And so Paul talks about. Well, he gives a metaphor of what it means to be adopted. SPEAKER A Right. SPEAKER B And we'll find this in Galatians, chapter four and verse five. And it reads, to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons and daughters. And so I'd also like to bring to us another verse there that's from Psalms chapter 27 and verse 10, which also reads, when your mother and your father forsake you. SPEAKER A That's great. SPEAKER B I, the Lord will take care of. SPEAKER A That is such a good scripture. SPEAKER B And so to be adopted is to be taken in, to be loved by someone you know, you may not have a relationship with or to be loved because, you know, you've. You've always been. What had those feelings of loneliness, perhaps, those feelings of what is it lost? SPEAKER A Not belonging, perhaps? SPEAKER B Yeah, not belonging. Yeah, absolutely. And so adoption is a very good analogy. SPEAKER A And in God's family, you are somebody that's not so important. SPEAKER B Amen. SPEAKER A Look, thank you for sharing that. Moving on, Cassie. God's love and mercy does extend as far as forgiving all these weaknesses and sins that we've been talking about. For some reason, human beings often find it hard to accept that, and God has to go out of his way to try and get the point across to us. So what did God actually do in the scripture that's recorded there to get that point across? Cassie? SPEAKER C Yes. Well, speaking of analogies, God uses one through the prophet Hosea. That is essentially shock treatment. He commands Hosea to marry a harlot and one with children. And if that seems strange, to us now. It was even stranger at the time. And this was God speaking through Hosea's actions, saying, I will love anyone, even those who have fallen away from me. So I'd like to read Hosea 1, verse 2. And this is what God said. Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord. This was a clear metaphor for his people and Israel at the time and how they had fallen from him, but his mercy would still take them back. SPEAKER A Wow. Isn't that amazing? That's so encouraging. I mean, for all of us, isn't it? Tremendously encouraging. I'm going to read now from Deuteronomy, chapter 1, verse 31, which this is what it says, in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his Son in all the way that you went until you came to this place. What is happening here, Junior? What's he saying here? SPEAKER B God pictures himself like a father carrying his helpless little child, caring for it and feeding it and such like. SPEAKER A It's a lovely picture, isn't it? You know, you can just see that. So what is God saying here, Cassie? Is he saying that he'll go on forgiving us indefinitely, though it doesn't really matter the way we live our lives? Is that what he's saying? SPEAKER C No, it can't be like that. That doesn't make sense. Because if true, God would excuse all of the injustices. He would let people do whatever and just let them get away with it. But that's not the sort of parent he is. He is so compassionate that he will love people, but not to the extent that we can be careless, because the effects of that will be destruction. It will be hate and despair. And he has to draw a line. The flood is one example of that. SPEAKER A Okay, now that. Thank you for that. It is indeed thank you for that. All right, look, I'd like to read now. Matthew, chapter nine and verse 36. Matthew, chapter nine and verse thirty six. Talking about Jesus here, of course. And it says when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep, having no shepherd. And he says similar things over in chapter 14 of Matthew, chapter 14 and verse 14, where he says, I've got to find myself. Here we are. He says, when Jesus went out and saw a great multitude, he was moved with compassion. There it is again. Moved with compassion for them. And he healed their sick. So what does this Tell us about how Jesus viewed the plight of his people there, Junior? SPEAKER B Yeah, Mike. He was moved deeply to the fact that he wept. And so, you know, as a result of that, he went to the multitude and met their needs and healed their diseases, just as you read in chapter 14, verse 14. So he feels the same way when he looks at us. SPEAKER A Okay. And you know, I love the fact that Jesus didn't do a lot of hand wringing and say someone ought to do something. He went and did something. Something very beautiful, Lord. Thank you for that. Really appreciate it. Now, Jesus compassion went a lot further than just caring for the physical needs of the people and the spiritual needs. Even, Cassie, he was willing to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world. And you know, John 3:16 gives us that very famous statement where Jesus said, God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son. And he's talking about himself here, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That's the purpose. That was his goal. Can you explain that for us? Is it possible, Cassie? SPEAKER C Yes, I can only try. This is a love and compassion beyond human comprehension. But we can go to the Bible and we can go to Jesus's words to try and get a glimpse of what this is. Jesus illustrates it this way in John 15:13, he says, Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for a friend. And now as people, we could think, oh, well, yes, maybe my very best friend, I would lay down my life for them. But Jesus died for the entire world. He has such a great love for every single person and it cost him so much to do that. SPEAKER A Yes. No, thank you. In another place it says, perhaps for a righteous person, somebody might lay down their life. The inference being they wouldn't do it for a wicked person, but Jesus did it for us all. That's incredible. What a classic thought. Okay, Now, God has not only pictured Junior in the scriptures being compassionate and so on. There is another surprising characteristic that we need to talk about of God we need to talk about today. Can you share with us what that might be? SPEAKER B Yes. God is not only a God of love there, Mike, he is a jealous God. And, you know, not in the selfish sense, but no disaster will follow when we go after other gods. SPEAKER A Okay? Okay. So he is a jealous God. And we need to talk about this for a moment because it's an interesting thing. I'm going to read from Exodus, chapter 20, verse 5. Now, this is the account of the giving of the Ten Commandments. And here in chapter 20, we have the Ten Commandments spelled out for us. I'm going to read verse 5. This is dealing with the commandment, you shall not make any graven images, carved images. And then in verse five, it says, you shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. And he goes on and talks some more about that. So I want to pursue this a little bit further, Cassie. How can God's jealousy be appropriate, be a righteous jealousy? How can that happen? SPEAKER C Well, we have to separate it from human jealousy. Divine jealousy is different from the ugliness of how humans understand it. SPEAKER A Thank you. SPEAKER C This isn't talking about an envy. It can't be. God says, don't covet your neighbor's things. So divine jealousy is a different concept. SPEAKER A Okay. All right. Thanks for that. A husband and wife. That's a good analogy for us to explore here, junior. So how does that clarify for us the husband and wife relationship? How does that clarify for us God's jealousy, what he means by it? SPEAKER B Well, the point is, Mike, that biblical relationships, or let me say godly relationships, just cannot be shared. And that's the example between husband and wife. And so God's relationship with his children is the same. There is only one God. SPEAKER A That's right. SPEAKER B So anyone else assuming that, you know, unique position is an imposter and has no right to be there? SPEAKER A Okay, thank you for that. That's so true. Okay, can you describe this righteous jealousy for us in plain English then? For us, Cassie? SPEAKER C Right. God's righteous jealousy describes God's passionate love for his people. It's a love based on the fact that you are mine and I am your father and that no one else can take that place. I'd like to read in 2nd Corinthians 11:2, this says, for I am jealous for you with godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste version to Christ. SPEAKER B Amen. SPEAKER A Okay, that makes it very clear. Thank you for that, Cassie. Very clear. So summarise for us the main points, if you can, on this particular subject. SPEAKER B God's jealousy is in response to the infidel infidelity of his people. So he is the only one who is qualified of loving his children and for his children not to love other gods. SPEAKER A Okay, so there's nowhere else to go. Thank you for that, folks. I'm going to read Luke, chapter 19 now, Luke 19:41. And again, it's talking about the amazing love that God and Jesus have for us. Luke, chapter 19, verse 41. Here's what it says now. As he drew near, he saw the city. And then it says he wept over it. He saw the city and he wept over it. Cassie, what is this saying about God's love? SPEAKER C Well, no one weeps for someone if it's not a deep love. It is by no means just casual. Jesus feels it so much that he weeps. It's his whole being for these people that he loves so much and wants to be with him. And like his jealousy, it is not narcissistic or self centred. It is completely. I love them. SPEAKER A Yes, okay, that's true. And it's so good. And he wants to bless us so much. I notice it goes on after talking about Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. It says in verse 42, if you had known, even you addressing Jerusalem and its people. Of course, if you had known, even you, especially in this, your day, the things that make for your peace, but now they're hidden from your eyes. This was like his sobbing farewell to his loved one, you know, at this point. And it's very touching as you read that and think about it. It really is. Can you describe this love a little more for us, Junior, if you would? SPEAKER B Sure. You know, this is a heartfelt love, but is expressed in practical ways, such as we find in First Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 4 and 5. This describes God's love for us, which reads, love suffers long and is kind. Love envies not. Love vaunteth not itself. It is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil. Rejoice not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. So one verse there I just want to Highlight is verse 8. It says, Love never fails. It never fails. So God's love never failed me when I was hungry. It never failed me when I was alone. It never failed me when people disappointed me and failed to take care of me. God's love says there in Scripture in verse eight, it never fails. SPEAKER A Wow. Aren't you grateful for that? SPEAKER B Amen. SPEAKER A We might be unfaithful, but he is never unfaithful. He's always faithful. I love that. Thank you so much for it. I was reading verse seven, which is the one that you didn't read there. Love bears all things. In other words, it copes with the pressures of life, but still loves at the same time, which is quite beautiful. Love hopes all things, believes all things. You know, you have to have Hope. We say hope springs eternal in the human breast because you've got to have holy man and it endures all things. So it's a fantastic description of what real love is. Love has got grit, hasn't it, this kind of love? SPEAKER B Amen. SPEAKER A This is tough love at its best. All right, Romans, chapter five, if we can turn to that now. Romans 5. 5. Where are we? I've lost my place. Here we go. Romans 5 and verse 5. I'd like to read this out. It says, now, hope does not disappoint us because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us. Now we're the recipients of God's love. But this is going to influence how we apparently feel about other people, Cassie. SPEAKER C Yes, it will. When we think of other people through the lens that Jesus has died for them, that there is this great love and the great blessing that we have, we will start to look at other people and realise they need it so deeply, even the ones lost in the worst situations, it's really them that needs this wonderful hope the most. And we will love them steadfastly. SPEAKER A Thank you for coming in there. And would you be able to add to that, Junior? SPEAKER B Yes. I mean, it is a miracle by where God gives us the capacity to love as he loves. You know, love reciprocates love, love begets love. You know, it's a mutual thing. SPEAKER A Yes, yes. And because the Holy Spirit, the miracle of the Holy Spirit. You spoke of miracles earlier. This is another one where the Holy Spirit actually dwells within the believer's mind and heart and life, and he is able to equip us, to give us the capacity to love like that and to love like we've been describing. You know, it's God's love that he wants to share with us, which is a pretty profound and amazing love. Absolutely is. So love begets love. Yes, it does. But the miracle is he's going to implant it in your heart. And I think we all would probably like and appreciate being able to love more than we do. A love that takes the pressure, that copes with the setbacks, the misunderstandings that go with love and be able to still love. And I think that's a very beautiful thought. Now, I want to spend a bit of time on this next question. Cassie, we may know somebody who we don't want to show this kind of love to. Now, I can think of some people I would struggle to do that with, and I do struggle and work with that, because I take this very, very seriously, what we're reading here. So what do you suggest we do about it, Cassie? Yes. SPEAKER C Well, we have to have God. We can't do it of ourselves. That's. We can see people through any bias and we'll say, oh, well, you know, maybe not them, or maybe it's too difficult, but we pray and we get this wonderful spirit from God that will allow us to see them as a lost soul that needs to be saved. SPEAKER A That's the thing, isn't it, to recognise that, you know, if we deserve salvation. SPEAKER C Everyone does. SPEAKER A Everyone does, yes. And so there are definitely people out there whom we're going to struggle with. I'm giving it to. Jesus talked about loving your enemies and doing good to those who abuse you and despitefully use you. It's one thing to forgive, another thing to do nice things for them. And I did hear a person talking about this, about that scripture not so long ago, and they were clearly struggling with doing that and even wanted to try and make it sound as though it was saying the opposite of what it was saying. But Jesus was giving it in plain English. Do good to those who hurt you and abuse you and be kind to those. So it's a big challenge, don't you think? SPEAKER C It is. SPEAKER A And it really is. I don't know if you can think of anybody in your life that you need to expend forgiveness too. But we need to be quite clear about the fact that we need to do that no matter how hard it is or how challenging it is. And I think that we're going to have to be people of prayer, serious prayer, that we might have the capacity to do that. So, junior, are we up to the challenge of loving and even the unlovely? SPEAKER B When you look at what Jesus has done for us, can we do any less? SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER B You know me personally, Mike. It's not possible without Jesus. It is impossible. There is no way I can love you whom I don't know and is a stranger. And even if I didn't like you, there's no way I could express such a love if I did not know what Jesus has done for me. SPEAKER A Thank you for that. That's so true. That's so true. God loves us with an amazing love and he's able to communicate it and make it part of us if he wasn't. What could you offer the person down the street who's struggling with life? If we couldn't offer them the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit to change their lives on the inside, what hope could we give them you know, I once knew a man who was an alcoholic and he's in Little Country Town. And I realised through the experience of trying to share with this man what a tremendous challenge it is to people who have addictions. And I'm not sure if this man ever did make the grade and step out. But if we can accept that coming to Christ enables him, by making a commitment to him, enables him to change us on the inside and to perform the miracle, if we can accept that, then we can know that we've got a powerful message. If we couldn't give that, we wouldn't have a message. If people's lives couldn't improve, what could you offer them? Well, yes, we could offer them forgiveness, but don't we all want to have and live a better life? And I really see people wanting to be able to demonstrate the kind of love we're talking about, truly from the heart to everybody that they meet. And one of the most beautiful things, when I became a committed Christian at the age of 21, Junior was seeing people differently and finding myself with the capacity to love people as I didn't have before. And I detect the same in your experience, Cassie, you're younger and growing up in an understanding of these things, which is such an advantage. And how blessed you are to do that. Well, folks, we do have to leave it there. Thank you to both of you for your input today. SPEAKER B Thank you, Pastor Mike. SPEAKER A I felt that that was very heartfelt in the things that we shared today, so thank you so much. Well, we've seen that the Bible pictures God as both compassionate and passionate. He loves us with an infinite love, a love that can brook no rivals. Through his dynamic Holy Spirit, he implants this love deep within us to make our world a better place. Well, we're so glad you joined us today and Let God Speak. If you would like to watch this programme again, all our past programmes are on our website, 3abnaustralia.org.au Teacher's notes are available there also and you can send us emails on [email protected]. Do join us again next time. God bless. SPEAKER B You have been listening to let God speak, a production of 3ABN Australia television. To catch up on past programmes, please visit 3abnaustralia.org.au. Call us in Australia on 02 4973 3456. Or email [email protected]. we'd love to hear from you.