Our God is full of compassion. It must hurt something awful to see the world through the eyes of God. Jesus wept when He heard of Lazarus’s death. He knew the downfall of Jerusalem was ahead and He cried. The night before His crucifixion, He cried out to His heavenly Father. He knew the pain and agony that awaited Him, but nevertheless He accomplished what He came here to do.

Humans just won’t accept that God knows us better than we know ourselves. When Jesus came to earth, He did not come to see the evil in men. He knew it well. He knows well the things that keep man from the desire, from the hope, from the need to approach the throne of grace. He knows that just as Lot dallied when the angels told him to leave the city, so man dallies at turning away from the lusts of the world. Just as Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt for looking back at all she was losing – so man will lose eternal life for regarding more highly the things of this world and refusing to turn. All the buts in the world will not save man. Jesus said let the dead bury the dead.

The Righteous One came too Abraham to deliver a message and He had a “by the way.”

“Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” Genesis 18:17

We are all familiar with the pain of letting go of someone we so dearly love. God is the same way, He wishes for no one to perish, but millions will. I am sure God did not wish to see His Son hanging on a cross, but Jesus knew what was at stake, and He knew the outcome.

Man has become godly in his own eyes. He looks down at the imperfect ways of others and says, “Thank God, I am not like that, or I am not that bad.” He does not see the evil in his heart. Remember the men at Lot’s door?

And they said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one came in to stay here, and he keeps acting as a judge; now we will deal worse with you than with them.”

God has asked us to follow Him, but at what price? Living a godly life is not easy, but hypocrisy is often very noticeable. And isn’t the hypocrisy in the church what turns most people off?

And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Matthew 8:18-22

But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

So y’all be blessed! More on this message later.