The Father sympathizes with the children

In honor of our parents, I want to share a Word based on the example of the father par excellence, our unsurpassed superior model who is our heavenly Father.

In Psalm 103 there is an example that has always had a great impact on me and that I have wanted to always be one of the foundations of my ministry and of my own pastoral work, in Psalm 103 verse 13 it says: "As the Father pities of the children" as the Father has compassion on the children "the Lord has compassion on those who fear him."

I'm going to leave it there and then I'm going to have the opportunity to discuss the other verses a little more, but last week during my times of personal visitation, that verse struck me that I have read so many times, I have meditated on it so many times, I have thought about it so many times. I have pointed out in public, private prayers but approaching the time of Father's Day he spoke to me in a stronger, more direct way. As the father pities his children, the Lord pities those who fear him.

And he adds in verse 14 that He pities us that way because He knows our condition, because He knows our condition. I like the basic English translation: "Because He knows our frame." He knows our framework, He knows our structure, He knows what we are made of. He knows the fundamentals of our soul, our mind, our biology, our spirit; He knows the very constitution of our being and adds "He remembers that we are dust."

In other words His intuition of what we are, His insight into our nature lets him see that we are dust. There is nothing more evanescent, there is nothing more fragile and more dissipable to use an invented word, dust. Dust is the essence of what was and is no more, what has been pulverized and reduced to almost nothing.

So when God intuits, the Psalmist tells us, by intuiting our intimate nature, what we are made of, what we are, and knowing our being intimately, that knowledge prompts him to have compassion on us and I believe that therein lies the essence of this revelation that this Word gives us. I looked up the use of the Word sympathize in the original Hebrew, the etymology. The word is raham which means: to love, to love deeply. These are the connotations of that word as used by the Psalmist. To have mercy, to be compassionate, to have tender affection, to have compassion. A compassion that leads him to do things on behalf of his children.

For example in Deuteronomy chapter 30 that same word raham, the Lord uses it talking about when looking into the future He knows that the Hebrews have to sin against Him, they have to stray from their ways and as a consequence they have to be scattered throughout the world. all nations, that is a consequence of sin, always God who gave the land to the Hebrew people always told them: If you follow my ways that land is irrevocably yours, if you pervert behind other gods you will be scattered, expelled of his land.

And the Lord prophetically tells His people even while they are still in the desert but already seeing the disobedience of this people their tendency to sin, He speaks that when they become those places where they have to be expelled when they repent of their evil ways in the midst of all nations, it says where I have thrown them, it says: "Then the Lord will bring back your captives and will have mercy on you" there is that raham verb again, "he will have mercy on you and will take you back from among all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you, even when your exiles are in the most distant parts that are under heaven, wherever the Hebrews are scattered for their sin, says the Lord: From there the Lord your God will take you to the land that your fathers inherited and it will be yours and it will do you good, and it will multiply you more than your fathers."

That merciful, compassionate God. You are going to offend me, that is your tendency, that is your weakness; let yourself be deceived by other gods but I am going to have mercy on you, you cry out to Me I am going to be there present to pick you up again wherever you are I am not going to forget you and that has been fulfilled in the 20th century with the return of the Hebrews to their land.

So that God of mercy. As we always see, God presents himself as the Father of mercy, He has the right to do so, he is perfect. He is the father whom we must imitate in our own fatherhood fathers but also mothers because God has made us protectors in our capacity as fathers and mothers, but I want to address you, future and present father, but also to our entire Christian community about that quality of God, that paternal quality that is defined by mercy, compassion. The characteristic that is highlighted here in this Psalm 103 is that, mercy, getting in tune with someone's true condition.

Because that's the idea right? He remembers. He is always actively remembering leading himself to remember what can be expected from these tadpoles? They are going to water it as the Mexicans say, they are going to offend. But that is the characteristic that we see here in Psalm 103, isn't it? getting in tune with someone's true condition, feeling their fragility and condoling with the individual that is what it means to have compassion. It goes without saying, brothers and sisters, that God wants us to imitate Him and to be a community of compassionate men and women because after all that is the call of this message, it is a call to identify with others and to feel what they feel, to be always ready.

I believe every believer should have a 360-degree radar when they come across the drama of an individual, someone who wants to be immediately that radar should be activated to instinctively feel what that person is. We have to ask the Lord to give us discernment. One of the most important qualities of the child of God is the ability to immediately get in tune with the individuals that God brings around us.

Especially with our children, compassion has to be instinctive in every father and mother. That idea right? to sympathize, to identify with the fragility of the other is the idea of compassion. It is about feeling the same as someone, with their condition at that moment in which we come into contact with them and adapting our treatment of people according to what we intuit about them through the grace of the Lord who dwells in us.

By the way, I believe that this is the hallmark of Christianity. I believe that compassion is not a monopoly of Christians, but I believe that what characterizes Christianity, apart from all the other things it may have, is a great theological system of great moral and ethical truths, deep insights about the composition of being human but that mercy, that identification with the other is the origin of the very incarnation of the Coming of Christ into the world. It is precisely because God identified with us and the way out of His dilemma between His holiness and His mercy was the cross, the incarnation, Christ coming into the world and feeling what we feel. I'll talk a little more about that later.

Let's look at some examples of the compassion of Jesus, of the compassion of the Father and of the Son, and we will have a better idea of how we should manifest that mercy, that compassion. I thought of marks chapter 10 verse 17 onwards but I am going to focus only on a couple.

Remember the story of the rich young ruler? This young man who came running before Jesus full of anxiety, had a deep concern about how he could be saved. His money had not brought him peace, nor had his social influence. His importance, his success, his morality, nothing had provided rest for his soul. He approaches Jesus and says: Lord, what do I have to do to be saved? And the Lord sets a trap for him and he says: But Lord, do I have to keep the commandments? That's right, I've done that all my life. The Lord tells him: Then the only thing you need is, take your money, I imagine that he must have said in parentheses that you love so much, take your money, take your assets, sell them, take all the wealth and give it to the poor and you will find the Salvation you're looking for

Look at what it says here when this young man says to the Lord: "I have kept all this from my youth" verse 21 says that: "Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him" that is where that struck me, it has always struck me "looking at him love." Why does it say there that looking at him she loved him? again there is that ability to look first, to get in tune with a person. When the Lord tells him keep the commandments He knows that he has kept them and He knows what he is going to say after that, he is going to tell him: sell your goods, give it to the poor and He knows that this young man is going to say: no, I can't because I love my money too much.

So when the Lord sees him, he says: I have kept all the commandments and He knows that the true bondage of this young man is his love for money and for men, for society, for what they think of him, he is entangled in vanity. of the world and cannot get out of there; is in a great dilemma and the Lord knowing, intuiting what this young man, his bondage and his inability to find happiness because he is like a caged animal. He wants his freedom but he can't get out of his cage because his cage has dictated it.

Then the Lord looks at him, I think that when he looked at him it was really a look of compassion, it is the father who sees his son who is on the wrong path: I cannot stop him. Looking at him, he loved him, he had compassion on him and then finally the young man leaves sad because he cannot get rid of his money. Maybe one day he did and I hope so but at that moment the Lord knew his condition and instead of criticizing him, attacking him, condemning him, he loved him because He knows that it is difficult to get rid of the things that one loves.

For one to find the freedom one needs there is a price to pay and that is the fight we have. I believe that when we minister, shepherd them, deal with them, one of our instincts should be that: to understand each individual, their struggle to free themselves from their ties, their past struggles, their fears, and we have to walk with that individual. We can diagnose them, we can prescribe medicine, but there is a process that these people have to follow and we have to be willing to accompany them in that process and instead of hitting them or goading them or condemning them too quickly, we have to love them and walk with them.

Now keeping the truth always firm and clear, the Lord did not give up on that, he told him: this is what you have to do but it will be difficult for you, looking at him he loved him. Another passage that I really like is Luke 7 verse 13, the passage about the widow of Nain, remember? He says that this woman had lost her only son, they were burying him, the only son of his mother who was a widow. And when the Lord saw her, he took pity on her and said: Do not cry and then he proceeded to resurrect his son. The Lord took pity on her because she understood; a widow. Do you know what it was like to be a widow in Biblical times? Totally helpless. There is no social security, you are a burden on your family, you do not have much prospect of remarrying, you are truly helpless but on top of that they take away your only child. Perhaps your hope of livelihood but more than that your source of company and simply what you love so much.

The Lord sees that spectacle, He could have remained calm but He understood the situation of this woman, He shuddered with her helplessness, He took pity on her, He reached out to her and used His vast and unlimited power to resurrect your son. "Young man, I tell you: get up" the one who had died got up, began to speak and gave it to his mother. "How nice that point.

I always see Jesus is the Shepherd of details. It didn't just heal him and well, see you later, he's doing well. He picked up the resurrected and gave it to his mom again, what a nice gesture. It makes me think of another act of mercy from the Lord when He healed the woman with an issue of blood, who came up behind Him, touched His illegitimately, did not ask for permission, touched the mantle of the Lord, she was already going to slip into her life. she had lived her whole life and the Lord turned around and said: Who was it that touched me?

And then he says that the woman told him everything, her whole life. Her years of being an outcast from society, of having been worn down, rejected, and the Lord did not want this woman to leave merely physically healed, but also to be healed mentally, spiritually, and when the woman finishes telling her about her drama, she tells her : woman your faith has saved you go in peace.

The Lord always likes to put those final touches, we have to be like that, delicate people in the treatment of souls. When we see the pain, when we see the helplessness of the people, we have to express that compassion and stay as long as necessary, finely mending until the work is completed. There is no limit to the man, the woman with a pastoral heart. We have to do that with our children. Parents I'm talking to my father and you too man. You have to try to find that compassion, that delicacy, that tenderness, it's there inside of us but you have to find it.

The last text that I like because all these texts reinforce that idea of a compassionate God who is manifested through His Son Jesus Christ, Mark chapter 6 verse 34 in the famous passage of the feeding of the 5,000, the multiplication of the loaves and the fish, in this passage we see Jesus with His disciples preparing to go on vacation after a time of ministry and He tells His disciples: let's go to a secluded place. We are going to spend a little time there, we are going to bathe in a pool, we are going to eat well; We are going to put on a little weight after those days of work, we are going to listen to good music and they are most enthusiastic.

They get on the boat and when they get to the other side, there are all the people wagging their tails to ask him to heal them, to minister to them, to touch them because they realized that he had gone to the other side and they ran away and They waited on the other side. Hear me when you're anticipating a time of rest and it comes, as sometimes happens to those of us who minister, sometimes we want to slip away because, whatever the reason and maybe I'm revealing too much (laughter). But we realize that we still lack time to minister and there is no word, what is more, words hurt, it is literally a brain pain, one's nails hurt at times, the nervous system is already burned.

But do you know how the Lord reacts when he sees that crowd waiting for him when they are there in that boat? It says: "Jesus went out, saw a great crowd" verse 24 "and had compassion on them" because they were like sheep and began to teach them many things. He got in tune, He saw these people. I imagine that he got over his initial annoyance, he saw these people with their gazes avid for a Word of comfort, affirmation, and courage. Their religious leaders had betrayed them, neglected them, made them feel worthless, used the law as a stick to beat them over the head and this is Christ telling them that God loves them, there is a Father for whom you have meaning and that I am going to teach you, I touched you, I healed you.

And at that moment, seeing the eyes of this crowd, he got in tune with them and felt as if they were sheep without a shepherd, that was the diagnosis that His compassion dictated to him. He lowered his arms, rolled up his shirt sleeves and said: let's go to work. He spent the whole day ministering to them and at the end he even realized that they were hungry. So that is the difference between the disciples and Jesus, the pastoral and non-pastoral heart. It's that at the end of the day when it was over; imagine they were already finished what more do you want? Go home and leave us alone.

The Lord said: no, do not feed them. They're hungry, we have to feed them, we can't send them like this, let's feed them. Compassion, mercy. How can we manifest this in our family pastorates, our fatherhood, our motherhood? We wouldn't have time to talk about Looting, the apparently powerful, corrupt man gets in tune with his drama: come down from there Looting, I'm going to eat at your house. Bartimaeus: Lord Son of David have mercy on me; the disciples: leave him alone, there's no more, the store is closed, what do you want me to do for you? Lord heal me, receive sight. Merciful and compassionate God.

There is one last passage that is very revealing and very deep theologically, Hebrews chapter 4 come with me for a minute, I will finish with the illustrations. 4:15 and 16, let's go to 14 why I'm not going to give it to him, it says: "Therefore having a great high priest who pierced the heavens" how did the Lord pierce the heavens? it came from above down, "pierced the heavens" let's stop our procession look what it says: "Because we have no high priest who cannot sympathize with our needs."

I imagine that the Lord, there is a little implied criticism towards the high priests who had used their priestly position to magnify themselves, enrich themselves, separate themselves from the people, not understanding their needs. The high priest that you and I have in Christ Jesus knows how to pity us, your weakness. He knows your condition and remembers that you are dust and that is why you can confidently come to the Throne of Grace and we have to give that same privilege to our children.

He says: "That he could not sympathize with our weaknesses but was tempted in everything according to our likeness" but without sin "let us therefore approach the Throne of Grace confidently to obtain mercy and give grace for timely relief." That is, the Lord Jesus through His incarnation participated in all our afflictions, temptations. The Lord is a microcosm of humanity in His incarnation, which is why they called Him the Son of Man because He was man in His very essence.

He submitted to all the temptations of a nervous system, he experienced all the tendencies, temptations for a moment, without sin the Bible says but he recorded them all in His computer. When he ascended to heaven he had them, although God knows them objectively, abstractly it is not the same to experience as to know. God wanted to feel and that is why Christ, when he is up in heaven, intercedes for us. Intimately He knows.

We have to be parents, men of God, we have to feel the drama of our children as much as possible because each one of our children has a drama inside and has a call, has some struggles and has a path to follow and has some contradictions; He will have his tragedies, his suffering and his sufferings and there are things that this boy, this girl is going to have to suffer and we will not be able to avoid it. Each one is constituted differently and we have to know their drama, treat them, love them, forgive them and sympathize with them even when this affects the self-sufficiency of young people today.

They think that because they know about iPads and iPhones they know more about life than we do, but be humored then, you have to have mercy and pity them because we have been there where they are, right? We have been where they have been. That does not mean that we do not tell them the truth, that we do not confront them, that we do not correct them, that we do not discipline them, that is part of love and compassion as well. If you let your son run wild, you don't love him, do you?

But even as you discipline, confront, speak clearly and lucidly, administer the truth, supply the truth, you also sympathize and understand that you are struggling with a being that is going to have to be taken and broken by life and they have to be pitied. You have to stick with them. So we see this right? the Father and the Son are characterized by that deep compassion.

Once again, that willingness to get in tune with the condition of the children, to feel what they feel even when perhaps they themselves are not aware of their true condition, the merciful father goes beyond even the awareness and introspection that the child knows. That same passage that I read from Psalm 103 you read it in all its fullness, it says: "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and great in mercy."

So, brother, the application of this passage, I return and I repeat it to you, men, women too, but I am addressing you, father, man. We must do everything possible so that this same characteristic becomes our hallmark as well, especially with regard to our paternity, with regard to the treatment of our children and our families. Instead of exploiting, oppressing, intimidating, being selfish, thinking about ourselves we must first be the opposite. We must love, serve, affirm, condole, protect, think first of our spouse, of our children as Christ.

Do you know what Ephesians says? It says: "As Christ loved the Church" so we should love our women. It is a tall order, a tall order for us but think about how Christ loves and loved the Church. He gave himself for her, he says, and unfortunately many lack a lot. Men, women have their own things, another day it's your turn (laughs) but I assure you that I myself feel very involved in what I am telling you, right? You know, we counselors who sit in counseling offices listen, we listen to the pain of women who don't feel understood by their husbands.

They feel used sexually by their husbands, ignored, treated physically rough. Abusive and abusive. Daughters sexually abused by their parents, children with distant fathers traumatized by the abuse that their mothers experience and our father hurts, as several have said, because many times we know that they are transferring the pain that they transferred to us.

Generational curses that we carry in our cultures, underestimating women and seeing them as a second class citizen in marriage; that the woman is a being that must be tamed and accustomed to our lordship, that is how people are educated. And the Word of the Lord is totally, turns that on its head. It is a call to man to be like Christ, a servant leader. One who leads by example not by decree and who gives himself up for those for whom he has a certain level of authority.

This exploitation of our leadership, this abuse is a loss of our own humanity and robs us of the privilege of us being like God, of loving those whom we have placed under our leadership and of bringing them to the highest level of their own potentiality. I believe that every man should be a life saver; that is what we are, protector and facilitator of life, that is what you are, that is what Christ has called you to do, that is what your father has called you to do. We have to start with our children, with ourselves.

Brother parishioners of our Congregation, the people of our community. The Church of Christ has to be like this, for me that is the most important thing. If we do not love and have compassion, we are useless, forget about no matter how much Bible you know, no matter how much money you show, it is useless to you, filth in the eyes of the Lord. Love, against that says there is no law. The devil doesn't know what to do with a person he loves, you know? Who loves in Christ and in the spirit of Jesus, is the most powerful weapon that we have, love in Christ, not love simply in an artistic and romantic way, love in Christ.

The last thing I say then is that, right? that compassion and mercy should distinguish us in all that we do. I think of this passage and I leave you with that passage in Philippians chapter 4 verse 5. Philippians 4:5 says: "Your grace be known to all men" your grace be known to all men. Do you know what should distinguish a community like this? The kindness.

The original Greek is epieikes which means: generosity, grace is the same idea. This weekend we had with us here some brothers from the Free Methodist Church, a denomination here in the United States and they asked us if they could use our sanctuary for their annual convention in this area of the Northeast and we said: of course, welcome use it. We invested the resources of our Church, the space, the human resources, the talents and we said: this place is yours, use it and on Saturday morning the brothers spoke of how impacted they had been by our attitude of generosity.

We did not know them, we were introduced by someone we know, but brother, I have always believed that a community like ours has to stand out for being a generous community and wherever the Lord allows us to share what we have received by grace, there we have to be present and say: yes. And when we live like this, stripping ourselves and giving, you know what? God never tires of giving to us.

Do you want to be happy? be a cheerful giver. Share, have mercy, forgive, forget yourself and give in Jesus' Name and you will never lack. The Lord will always give you more so you can give more.

I believe that we should never be too busy or too deprived of resources to give, we always have to have to give. Take that banana and cut it in half and give a little piece to another and God will give you the satisfaction you need. Live being compassionate, merciful, tender, generous with others and the Lord will rejoice in giving you and opening the windows of heaven until there is an abundance, that is the secret of happiness.

So we in our fatherhood, our friendship, our brotherhood have to be compassionate, merciful people always in tune with the needs of others. Every person who has been truly treated by the Spirit of God is characterized by that capacity to feel the pain of others preventively, continuously and to treat human beings with love and compassion. I leave you with the words again from the Psalm.

"The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not contend forever, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our iniquities, nor has He repaid us according to our sins. Heavens to earth magnified His Mercy on those who fear Him. How far the East is from the West He wanted to keep our rebellions away from us. As the father pities his children, Jehovah pities those who fear Him because He knows our condition, remembers that we are dust."

May the Lord bless you. Men of God, women of God, let us make compassion a distinctive art, our essential characteristic, that by which we are known. People of mercy, people of compassion, forgiving people, people who are not continuously collecting debts. As the Father forgave us, let us also forgive, let us pity others. May the Lord bless you and may the compassion of the Father fill our hearts.

I ask that we lower our heads for a moment now that he has spoken to us about compassion, feeling what the other feels, identifying with the other's weakness, not taking into account their debts towards us. Father do us like this, do me now. Fill my heart with compassion now. That I can feel what you feel first, that what breaks your heart breaks my heart, that what gives you joy gives me joy.

Give us, Lord, the ability to intuit the pain of others, give us eminent discernment of the hearts and condition of others, that when we feel sorry for ourselves and feel and speak from our compassion, our word has the ability to heal, restore, and lift up the fallen. Make us a Church of truth and condition. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit Lord Jesus, let cruelty have no place here. May legalism have no place in this place but rather the straight, upright, perfectly plumb spirit, Your Word Jesus.

Fill us right now with Your compassionate character Lord. Help us to be fathers, tender men, servant men, men like Christ, men of mercy, fragile men and at the same time strong in You Lord; transparent, emptied of ourselves so that Your oil by hollowing out ourselves, that Your Power can enter us and manifest through us. On this day we celebrate you as the Father par excellence, there is no other father who resembles You Lord. Thank you for tolerating us and feeling sorry for us and thank you Jesus for coming into this world to feel what we feel and then ascending and listening to us, feeling sorry for us. We praise you, thank you Lord in Jesus Name amen and amen. I bless you my brothers, may the Grace of the Lord be with you, amen.