The Heart of Jesus

[0:00] I'm going to speak today about a very deep theological truth, a doctrine that is very heavy.

[0:14] the love of God. The love of God. The love of God. The love of God. The love of God. The heart of Jesus. We're looking today at the heart of the Lord Jesus, the compassion of Christ. Jesus had compassion. He had passion for people. He had love, deep love and he was moved with this love.

[0:34] He was moved to compassion, to concern, to action. The love of Jesus. And we're going to ask the question, is your heart like his heart today? Our God has feelings. He cares. He's a big God with a big caring heart and we're going to look at sometimes where a special word is used of our Lord and of his great love, his great big compassion for man. We see that Luke 7, 13. Luke 7, 13.

[1:10] The context here is of the passing of a boy and of the widow at Nain. The widow at Nain.

[1:21] Luke 7, 13. We find her weeping because her son had died. In Luke 7, 13. Our Lord comes along. He sees them carrying the body to its burying.

[1:38] And he sees the woman, the widow. Luke 7, 13.

[1:49] And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said unto her, Weep not. Then it says he came and touched the bier, the frame on which he was lying.

[2:03] And they that bear him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, arise. And he that was dead sat up and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother.

[2:15] And there came a fear on all and they glorified God, saying that a great prophet has risen up among us and that God has visited his people. He had compassion on her.

[2:28] And he was moved. In another account we see when our Lord came to the grave of his friend Lazarus.

[2:41] And our Lord felt the pain. He shed tears alongside the grieving ones. He was filled with compassion, it says. He was filled with compassion. It's got the sense of moved in the intestines is the kind of transliteration of this being moved, being moved deeply within, with deep compassion.

[3:09] We see the same word in Luke 10. Luke 10 is the account of the man bashed, left for dead, by the roadside, bleeding.

[3:24] And we see the religious types simply do not care. They can't be bothered. Yet the Samaritan comes. The Samaritan himself, a bit of an outcast in that society.

[3:40] He was someone who kind of didn't fit in. He was a bit kind of different. The Samaritan. Luke 10.33. We see how he was different from the others who just walked by and did nothing.

[3:56] Luke 10.33. The good Samaritan, it says that he stopped in his tracks. He had compassion on him. It speaks to us of how we should stop and think and look and see the need all around us.

[4:14] And when the Samaritan saw the man, he took the time, he put himself out to meet the other man's need. And our Lord painted this picture of his great love, demonstrated alike to the Samaritan.

[4:30] And how we should love our neighbour. As the Samaritan demonstrated.

[4:42] We see another record of Luke 15. Luke 15. Verse 20. Luke 15. This is the familiar account of the prodigal son.

[4:54] The son who was lost. He went to a far country, representing a man going far, far away from the Father God.

[5:08] And this son, this man reached the depth of depravity. He wasted his inheritance in riotous living.

[5:18] Just reckless. And there he was then. In the pig pen of sin. Now, I'm not sure that I've ever seen a pig pen.

[5:34] But I can imagine what one would be like. And what it would smell like. And it would be an awful place, wouldn't it?

[5:46] You know, you hear people say that their house looks like a pigsty. Here he was in the pig pen. Of sin.

[5:58] Barefoot. Bedraggled. Dressed just in rags. You know, people that walked past him would go like this. He'd probably stuck, you know. He'd been living with the pigs.

[6:11] And he got so low that he was eating the pig food. He was in a desperate state, wasn't he? He really hit, he'd really come to the pits of life.

[6:25] Dressed in rags. And then we read how in Luke 15, he came to his senses. He came to himself and thought, I must, I will arise and go to my father, he said.

[6:42] And say, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. And verse 20, we pick up where it says, when he was yet a great way off.

[6:52] He'd started, you know, picked himself up with his smelly rags, got himself out of that pig pen and started trudging towards home. And it says, when he, this prodigal, this lost son, was a great way off still.

[7:10] His father saw him. His father had been looking, looking, watching, waiting, waiting for his son. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion.

[7:23] He had compassion. He had compassion. That same word again. He had that, being moved with his intestines. He, he, he had that, that overwhelming love and compassion.

[7:38] And it says, and he ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Now, it wasn't custom, it wasn't really the done thing for a father to be running, you know, with his robes flowing and, and it was a little bit undictified, a little bit kind of out of the custom for him to do that.

[8:01] And then, he kissed him. He fell on his neck. He embraced him. He kissed him. And this represents God, doesn't it?

[8:12] This represents God and his response to us when we come to our senses and we say, I must arise and go to my father. I must come to my God.

[8:25] And our God comes running towards us, arms outstretched, jubilant, ecstatic, racing to meet the sinner.

[8:37] There's great joy in heaven when one sinner repents. It says, the angels rejoice. You know, there's joy. They have a party when someone trusts Christ as their saviour.

[8:49] And this is the picture of God himself with a beaming smile, with a joyful embrace, with a glad, hug, ecstatic.

[9:05] He's just over the moon. He's just so full of joy and love. This picture's God's great love to us, doesn't it? And that he still reaches out to the very furthest and sinful, even today, such as me.

[9:22] He comes and he embraces me. He embraces you that trust him. He doesn't hold his nose and think, oh, you smell like a pig. You look like a pig.

[9:34] He says, my son, my daughter. And he embraces you. He holds you to his heart. God's great love. He hugs us. He kisses us.

[9:45] Feel the Father's hug today. God's great love for you. God's great love. And he still reaches still, even today. The word used here in all these verses, it's compassion.

[9:57] Compassion. It means that deep, heart-driven affection. It speaks of the bowels, the intestines. Now, this same word is translated by our Bible translators as the bowels of compassion.

[10:13] It speaks of the very inner feelings and inward parts. You know, it's that part of you, I suppose, in kind of trying to picture it as when you've got that exam.

[10:26] It's when you've got to face someone in authority and have to deal with something. It's when you go for that job interview. It's when you have to stand up and say something in a crowd and you're a little not familiar with that, not comfortable with that.

[10:42] Where you put on the spot and you get this, oh, oh, it's just something goes on on the insides of you, doesn't it? When you have such a thing to face up to something that's challenging.

[10:54] And here was this picture of the intestines, as it were, the bowels, the very, you know, your very digestive tract that gets scrunched up and twisted and you get that feeling within.

[11:07] This is the picture of it, the very deepest levels of the human spirit, the very depths of our being, of our emotions. And this is the very tender mercy of God himself.

[11:18] It's also very practical and down to earth. So we see, just as our Lord was moved at the widow's son, just as the Lord was moved at the grave of Lazarus and he raised him from the dead, just as the Samaritan was moved and reached out to the neighbour, just as the prodigal son was moved and left the pig pen and the father, was moved with compassion.

[11:51] These are pictures of God's great love, the very tender mercy of God. And it has this sense of being moved with compassion, of the bowels, the gut-wrenching passion that it speaks of here.

[12:04] It's like a gasping for air. It means a churning, it means a strong heart breaking, bowel aching feeling, a word used especially of the Lord Jesus himself.

[12:16] Our Lord Jesus Christ was moved with compassion. And it means someone was besides themselves. It's used to describe our Lord's reaction to the crowds, this compassion that shook him, that turned his stomach, his very heart, was poured out, bursting and breaking for the people.

[12:37] We see that when he beheld the city and he was moved with compassion. What would the Lord Jesus do if he visited this city? What would the Lord Jesus do if he visited our place, our town?

[12:52] If he looked around us about us here and he saw the battered and torn, he saw the bruised and hurting, he saw the people, the rejects, the abused, the downtrodden, what would the Lord Jesus do?

[13:07] Would he turn away? Would he turn away? Would he walk away? Would the Lord Jesus tread that easy path, that selfish path? Or would he stoop to care, to show his concern, to touch the hurting and bring healing?

[13:24] What would Jesus do? I had a little message on my phone on Saturday. I need help. I need help.

[13:35] I often get such things and sometimes it's people that kind of, at times, have a lend of you, you know, that can happen. Oh, there's a church, they've got money, I'll ask for some money, whatever it be.

[13:52] It's often get that kind of thing. But no, it's a woman in need, a woman who needs some furniture removed. And I thought, who would I call, who would I contact? And I knew just the person, one of you guys, one of you people, one of you good Christian people.

[14:06] And I said, would you be available? Yes, I'll help. And I said, the church will pay you. He said, no, I'm glad to do it.

[14:18] That's the kind of people you are, God's people. That's what we should be. That's what God wants us to be, isn't it? Now, this person who's going to move some furniture might need a bit of a hand, because they need a bit of a worker.

[14:31] So, see me afterwards if you can be that one. I might get a hundred people come to me. We need some help to move that furniture. But, you know, sometimes we could say, oh, delete, delete, just another one of them, hangers-on, bludgers, whatever.

[14:51] We can have that attitude, can't we? Oh, I'm not going to care. I'm not going to help. It's just another user. That's what people can be like, isn't it? That's what I can be like in my selfish self, the ugly Andrew Craig, the ugly man that is selfish and prideful and uncaring, thoughtless, self-censored.

[15:16] cynical and putting down others. But I don't want to be like that. God doesn't want us to be like that, does he?

[15:28] He wants us to be like Jesus. He wants us to be like Jesus. And so we see that gut-wrenching compassion, a heart bursting, breaking, poured out.

[15:40] That's what Jesus wants us to be like. What would Jesus do if he visited Elizabeth? Salisbury, Gawler, this area, the north, Adelaide. What would Jesus do?

[15:51] Would he walk away? Or would he show his love? Would he show his concern to touch the hurting, even the leprous, even those that, well, that's dangerous to go amongst people like that.

[16:03] There's some streets around here you wouldn't go down that street, especially at night. There's some places you wouldn't go. It's too dangerous. some taxi drivers won't go around some of the streets around here.

[16:18] It's too dangerous. What would Jesus do? What would he do? Jesus came to people who needed help and he touched the hurting and brought healing.

[16:33] Jesus heard them, he looked at them with love and he helped them. He put himself out. This is a deep theological truth, people of God. the love of God.

[16:45] Jesus heard them, he looked out and he helped them. Luke 5, we see again, a lot of scriptures from Luke here. Luke 5, verse 29. I know I'm just scratching the surface really but it's all painting the picture of our Lord and what he was like, what he caused us to be like.

[17:05] We can get so theological, so doctrinal, so narrow-minded and so focused on some particular theological truth that we miss the whole point.

[17:20] It's like the Pharisees, you know, they had their doctrine just down pat. But what does our Lord say? In Matthew 23, I'm getting diverted here, but we see what the Pharisees had, they miss the whole point of the Lord, don't they?

[17:42] What does he say? The weightier matters of the Lord, judgment, mercy and faith. They missed it, they missed the whole point. Luke 5, 29, and we see, and Levi made him a great feast in his own house and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them.

[18:00] But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples and said, why do you eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

[18:15] I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He didn't come for the righteous, but sinners. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

[18:30] Jesus is where the sinners are at. The Lord Jesus was sensitive to people's pain. the suffering, the lepers. It was to them that he went.

[18:40] The sick, the sinfully sick, the sickly sinful. And he came and he touched, he reached out, and he responds to needs.

[18:51] And the Lord Jesus took time for the children, the children too. I'm glad the children are with us this morning, that the Lord Jesus takes time for the children to reach out, to hold them in his arms, to bless them.

[19:07] Whereas others would say, oh, they're just noisy little annoyances, you know, don't they? Some people look at children as if they're just a nuisance. But Jesus said, bring them to me.

[19:21] Don't stop them coming to me, bring them to me. And so, mums, dads, bring your children. To hear the gospel message, to hear the story of Jesus, it's so important.

[19:34] So many neglect that and miss out. On Saturn, when I hear of some parents, they'd rather take the kids down to the sports field. And what's the point of that? They learn how to kick a ball.

[19:48] What's the point? What's the point of that? Yet, if they come and hear the gospel, it's life-changing. It's eternity changing. And so, when people have got a problem with the children in our church, they may have a problem in heaven.

[20:06] Because Jesus says, of such is the kingdom of heaven. Become as a little child. Now, some people think, maybe when we go to heaven, we're all going to be in our prime, you know, 30 or something.

[20:21] Or, you know, I'm sure some of you in their 40s, you're still very prime. But, you know, I sometimes think maybe when we get to heaven, we won't all be 30, we might all be five.

[20:32] We might all be just little children just running around and just jumping and just rejoicing in our Lord's presence that we become as little children.

[20:45] You know, we get too elevated in our thinking and in our mindset sometimes that we should humble ourselves and become as little children.

[20:55] And that's the kind of the Lord Jesus. He just has that heart because of such is the kingdom of heaven. Become as a little child. It's the needy people who come to Jesus.

[21:08] It's the needy people. You know, I hear some who've tried to plant churches in Burnside or, you know, in some flash suburb where it's a lot more cash.

[21:19] And there's, it's like the response is woeful. But it's the needy people who come to Jesus, isn't it? He says, preach the gospel to the poor.

[21:31] We should reach the poorest of the poor. We should reach the furthest and the hardest as the most hardest towards the gospel.

[21:44] When they see their need and come to Jesus, it's life-changing, isn't it? So let's walk a little with Jesus this morning. See how his heart responds to human need.

[21:54] We see in Matthew 9, another gospel account, Matthew 9, where we see we should shepherd the sheep. Shepherd the sheep. Now I know some of you can identify with that this morning because you've got real sheep.

[22:08] Real sheep. I was showing someone this morning, I know when I'm at work sometimes my boss and other workers, they kind of get out their phones and they say, oh, have a look at the latest picture of my little granddaughter or my little grandson.

[22:28] And they like to pass the mobile phone around the meeting table while we're at work and sort of brag about their latest newborn, their latest edition.

[22:39] And I got my phone out this morning and showed some friends here about my latest editions. Six little lambs. And they're running around and skipping and jumping and really it's a blessing to see little lambs.

[22:56] And what the Lord Jesus wants us to learn from him. Because he is the great shepherd, isn't he? The good shepherd. He looks after the sheep. And Matthew 9, 36 it says, but when he, the Lord Jesus, saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them.

[23:13] There's that word again. Because they fainted and they were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few.

[23:29] Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. He saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion. They were as sheep having no shepherd.

[23:41] shepherd. You know, when the sheep don't have the shepherd, there's one particularly naughty little sheep at our place and they just like to go and jump the fence or push their way through the fence.

[23:55] And then they're over there and they're little lambs on our side and their mother sheep, the ewe, is on the neighbour's side and they just stand at the fence going baaah, baaah.

[24:09] You know, they just and I'm going there trying to bring them back in and chase them around and try to get them through the gate and then they go the wrong way and you know, it's madness. But, you know, they're like sheep without a shepherd.

[24:23] You know, this sheep needs a shepherd to get it into the paddock where it's meant to be so it can get some feed. And the Lord Jesus is like that, isn't he? He's just trying to get these sheep and they just, you know, like it says, all we, like sheep, have gone astray.

[24:38] We've turned everyone to his own way. We're like this sheep that just, just dump, just doesn't do, it doesn't go through the open gate. It just gets lost in the in the fence line.

[24:51] And so we see, but our Lord Jesus is like a shepherd and he looks and he sees the troubled people, people that are wandering like a sheep that doesn't know where it's meant to be.

[25:02] Sheep that just get lost and like a lamb caught in the thickets and like our Lord pictures of the 99 that are safe and then there's one that's gone off the beaten track and got stuck in the bramble bush or something and the Lord Jesus goes and reaches that one that's gone astray.

[25:20] And that's the heart of Jesus, people. That's the heart of Jesus. He looks for the troubled. He looks for the wandering. He looks for the weary, for the helpless, the Christless ones, the sinful.

[25:31] He looks out for them and he cares for them and he becomes their shepherd. And don't we need him? Don't we need the shepherd? He comes and he cares for us. He notices when we sickly and need care, when we need feed, when we need nurture, when we need nourishment and he still reaches out today.

[25:50] Whosoever will may come. I love that, don't you? Wow. No exception. Whosoever will may come. That means me.

[26:01] That means you. If you'll hear his voice, whosoever will. Notice the care, the reaching out. He still reaches out today. His arms are wide open to receive the sinful, the searching, the straying.

[26:14] And as the shepherd, he sees the lamb needing care and the sheep wandering from the fold. Shepherd the sheep. That's the heart of Jesus. And we can all do that, can't we? The sheep you can shepherd.

[26:26] You that are older in Christ. You that are more knowledgeable. Use that knowledge. Not to brag about it, to show off your theology, but to make it real.

[26:38] Get real with people. Shepherd the sheep. Care for those straying ones. Put your theology into action. Shepherd the sheep. That's the heart of Jesus. The second thing is touch the troubled.

[26:51] Touch the troubled. Matthew 14, 14. We see again he was moved with compassion. Matthew 14, 14. And Jesus went forth and he saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them and he healed their sick.

[27:08] He saw the crying need of people. And it's noteworthy that he always went and helped the people that needed help. Isn't it? Isn't it so? Of course, it depicts a spiritual truth.

[27:21] But it showed his heart. The heart of Jesus. The heart of Jesus. He hears the pleading for mercy. He hears the grieving. He hears the wounded.

[27:32] Those needing healing. He sees the crying need of the hurting, the bruised, the suffering, the wounded ones. And he cares about each one's individual need in the crowd.

[27:43] And he reaches the sick ones. Another instance is Matthew 20, 34. Where two blind men seek his help. Matthew 20, 34. The same word again.

[27:54] And Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes and immediately their eyes received sight and they followed him. Blind men.

[28:05] They were outcasts. Disabled. You reject people like that. They don't fit. They're not normal. They're not like us. But Jesus went to them.

[28:16] He went to them. He heard them. And he touched them. And immediately their eyes received sight and they followed him. Another instance, Mark 1, 41. Mark 1, 41.

[28:27] Sorry, there's lots of references here. But it's just painting the picture through the Gospels. Mark 1, 41. Another instance here. Here's a man covered with putrid sores and highly contagious.

[28:40] Pussy, weeping, oozing, ugly sores. A leper. Someone people wouldn't go near with a barge pole. Oh, they stink.

[28:52] They are, ugh, I don't even look at them. That's what some people would have been like and still are like today, isn't it? Oh, they don't, they need an extreme makeover.

[29:04] You know, they're people I don't want to hang around with. I don't want to go near such people. I might catch something. Mark 1, 41. Jesus, moved with compassion, moved with compassion.

[29:16] He put forth his hand and touched him and saith unto him, I will, be thou clean. The compassion of Jesus moves him. His hand is moved. His hand extends to touch the very untouchable, the rejects of society, the rejects, a leper, the horror of it.

[29:34] Jesus looks and he sees and he reaches out and touches people. And friends, how shouldn't we be the same? We should touch the troubled. Touch the troubled. Don't turn away but touch them.

[29:46] Touch them for Jesus. The sick ones, the diseased. Literally, the ones without strength. You know, the weakly, the weak, the frail, the hurting. What could it mean for us here in Elizabeth, South Australia, where we live, this place, this city, this region, could mean the injured, the torn, the addicts, the druggies, the alcoholics.

[30:12] We should touch them for Jesus, shouldn't we? Shouldn't we? Put your theology into action. Put your doctrine into practice. He heals. There was a wise woman who said this, the struggle of life is one of our greatest blessings.

[30:27] It makes us patient, sensitive and like God. It teaches us that although the world is full of suffering, it's also full of the overcoming of it. The suffering around us.

[30:39] You know, some would count Elizabeth as a hopeless city, a city without hope. You know, the north, no jobs, no hope.

[30:54] It's a basket case, the rust bucket, the rust belt. And sometimes people get housed here that nobody else wants.

[31:07] Sometimes suffering helps us to identify with the hurting. We need to reach out, all of us, because we're all suffering. We're all flesh and we'll all die.

[31:18] Reach out while we can, while we have life. Share something of their pain and hurt. Come alongside those that need you as a believer to lift them, to help them, to bring healing.

[31:29] God can use you to do that. So we see we should have the heart of Jesus. We should have the heart of Jesus to shepherd the sheep, to touch the troubled, and thirdly, to feed the hungry.

[31:43] Matthew 15, 32. Then Jesus called his disciples. Matthew 15, 32. Then Jesus called his disciples unto him and said, I have compassion on the multitude.

[31:54] Here was this multitude. They'd been hearing our Lord and it was getting on a bit and it was time to, as some would say, send them home to get something to eat. But he had compassion on them.

[32:06] He said, because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat and I will not send them away fasting lest they faint in the way. He had a practical mindset. It's a practical thing to help someone move some furniture, isn't it?

[32:24] Somebody else can do that. And they can. You know, Anglicare, Vinnie's, people help people. The world helps people. Malcolm Turnbull helps people.

[32:35] Jay Weatherill helps people. The government can help people. But even in practical ways, we can play a part. We can play a part.

[32:46] It's not our core mission but our Lord has that heart and so should we. The Lord Jesus looks, he sees these very practical needs. These are people that are hungry. The Lord Jesus' heart broke for them.

[33:00] He was overwhelmed by their need. The Lord Jesus was a very down-to-earth person and so he cared very much about everyday feelings and problems of people.

[33:12] Let me just draw this together now. There was a man who was an amateur golfer. Robert Di Vincenzo was his name and he was a golfer and he got in the big league here and he stunned everybody by winning this tournament.

[33:30] It wasn't usual. He was kind of raced through the field and he got to the winning place and the winner that was custom there was to get a cheque, you know, quite a big sum on the 18th green.

[33:46] You know, they reached that place and point and the officials gave him this flash cheque and Roberto flashed a smile for the cameras as he walked alone to the clubhouse and in the back there was this car parked and a sad-eyed young lady walked up to him and she said, it's a good day for you but I have a baby with an incurable disease.

[34:12] It's of the blood and the doctors say she will die. The golfer paused. In slow English he said, may I help your little girl.

[34:23] The woman's face froze. He took out a pen, endorsed his winning cheque and pressed it into her hand. Make some good days for the baby, he said.

[34:34] A week later he was having lunch in a country club where a PGA official approached. Some of the boys in the parking lot told me you met a young woman after you won the tournament and Di Vincenzo nodded.

[34:49] Well, said the official, I have bad news for you. She is a phony. She has no sick baby. She's not even married. She fleeced you, my friend.

[35:00] The golfer looked up. You mean that there is no baby who is dying without hope? And the official said, that's right. And the golfer grinned and said, that's the best news I've heard all week.

[35:14] He didn't care that he'd put himself out for someone, that he'd given this massive cheque to someone who just bludged off of him. You know, it can happen to us. Some of you people have given money to people and you've been hurt by the ones you've given it to.

[35:32] Don't let it stop you from loving like Jesus did. Don't let it stop you from caring. You know, we'll get used up by people. It happens to me lots, I tell you.

[35:44] It has done. And if I was to dwell on everyone who's wronged me, I'd be a bitter and twisted soul. But people of God, we can't let it affect us, can we?

[35:57] Don't let it stop you from loving. Even to love the unlovely, to love those who don't return their love, the ones who hate you in return for love. The heart of Jesus.

[36:10] When we shepherd the sheep, when we touch the troubled, when we feed the hungry, when we have the heart of Jesus, that heart moved with compassion.

[36:22] Do you have his heart, his bowels, his guts, if you like, getting a bit descriptive there, but that's what it means. It's getting his insights, get the insides of Jesus inside of you so that you see people like Jesus sees them.

[36:40] In Colossians 3 verse 12, we see this word again. As Paul writes, put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved. He says, put this on like a garment, wear this, wrap yourself in this, he says.

[36:56] What is it? Bowels of mercies. That same insights, the bowels of mercies.

[37:07] Have the mercy of Jesus. Have the mercy that motivates and moves Jesus. Have that inside of you, he says. Bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering.

[37:22] How tender is your heart? We can all get hurt, can't we? We all can. And there's memories and sad times and you might still feel bruised and sore.

[37:39] Someone's wronged you, falsely accused you, stabbed you in the back, tried to malign your character, your reputation, tried to kick you when you're down, stab you in the back, kick you in the guts.

[37:54] And our heart can get hardened. As Christians, we can get hard. We can not have the love of Jesus in us. And what a sad thing that would be, to not have the love of Jesus in us.

[38:07] How tender is your heart? is his compassion, his compassion at work in you, his passion, his care. You know, there's a saying, have a heart, have a heart.

[38:19] And to put it in one sentence, what I'm saying to you today is have the heart of Jesus. Have the heart of Jesus. A heart like God's heart, not cold and selfish, heartless, insulated, uncaring, unmoved.

[38:35] You know, when people come and you see a need or you hear a need, you try to walk away, we can all be like that, can't we? I could have been like that, oh, I need some help, delete.

[38:54] The heart of Jesus, that's what we need. That's what we need, people of God. A compassion that moves us to care, to love, to reach out, to touch and not based on the response, not stopped by the response, to be a shepherd to the wandering ones, a healer of the hurting ones, a feeder of the hungry ones.

[39:19] Let us pray. Lord, we know your heart. It took you all the way to the cross, where your heart very burst, as it were.

[39:31] your heart was so enlarged that it burst and broke open and gushed forth. Lord God, let us have your heart. Help us, Lord, not to stop loving people, even when it's hard.

[39:47] Help us, Lord, to have the heart of Jesus. We pray if there's any here today that don't know the great love of God, maybe they've never known what it is to know the love of God, the Father.

[40:03] Maybe the sad reasons why it's hard to love you, that they would put that aside and see what you've done, and that you do care for each one here today.

[40:14] Lord, that each one can know that love of God, which passes all understanding, passes all knowledge. We can't really put it into human language, Lord, the love that you've showed to us in dying at the cross, in shedding of blood, suffering for our sin, and paying the penalty of it there, and rising from the dead as our living, loving saviour.

[40:37] Lord, we pray that we'll come to you, that each one would know what it is to know the love of God that took you to the cross, and held you there, not the nails, but your very love, love, and that they'll come as that lost son to the father, that we will come to your very father's heart, Lord, and come to your warm embrace, and know your love, and your reception of us, that there is access, there is acceptance, that there is full access to the father now, for those who will come, and they will come in faith, and say, Lord, forgive me of my sin, take my guilt, I receive your pardon, I receive your love, I come now as a child of God, as a son, a daughter of the living God, and help us each one as believers to walk in love, as you have loved us, that love might be that identification mark, that just shines so brightly from our lives, that love that will not stop loving, that love that will love beyond human love, the love of God, we pray for that love to be in our hearts, that we'll have the heart of

[41:54] Jesus, and we'll have your eyes to see, your hands to touch and reach out, and Lord, use us for your glory, in Jesus' name, Amen.