Speaker 1: God wants you to be an agent of mercy in
Speaker 1: the world. There's not enough mercy in this world, and
Speaker 1: God wants you to be a provider. He wants you
Speaker 1: to be an agent. He wants you to be a
Speaker 1: purveyor of mercy in the world. Now, in the fifth
Speaker 1: Key to a blessed life, Jesus says this Matthew five,
Speaker 1: verse seven. God blesses those who are merciful, for they
Speaker 1: will be shown mercy. In other words, what you give out,
Speaker 1: you're going to get back. What you give you're going
Speaker 1: to get. God blesses those who are merciful, for they
Speaker 1: will be shown mercy. This is the fifth key to
Speaker 1: a blessed life. You got to learn to be a
Speaker 1: minister of mercy. You have probably noticed that the verbal
Speaker 1: attacks on Christians are going up in our society. Have
Speaker 1: you noticed this? And it's increased, and people are taking
Speaker 1: slurs at Christians and potshots at Christians and being attacked
Speaker 1: like never a foreign America. And there are a lot
Speaker 1: of groups pushing anti Christian agendas today because we represent
Speaker 1: a barrier, and the barrier is we hold on to
Speaker 1: what God's truth is and we say sorry, God's truth
Speaker 1: is God's truth and we just have to follow God's truth.
Speaker 1: As Peter said, we must obey God rather than men.
Speaker 1: And so these attacks are going up. What are you
Speaker 1: supposed to do with these people, these people who are offensive.
Speaker 1: I remember turning on the TV one time and hearing
Speaker 1: a well known comic, well known comic using very blasphemous
Speaker 1: and very vulgar terms as he read through the purpose
Speaker 1: Driven Life and made fun of God, not of me,
Speaker 1: but of God. And I sat there and I thought, now, Lord,
Speaker 1: what would be my response to this guy? Because you know,
Speaker 1: obviously he's not hurting me, but he certainly is offending you.
Speaker 1: And and it just came in to me. I am
Speaker 1: to be kind to those who are offensive. You see
Speaker 1: the problem today is this whole idea of culture war
Speaker 1: is you got to decide whether you want to win
Speaker 1: the argument or win them to Christ. And and you've
Speaker 1: heard me say this, for you can't. You don't ever
Speaker 1: make a point, you don't get across your point by
Speaker 1: being cross. You've got to just say, I'm more interested
Speaker 1: in winning them to Christ than I am in winning
Speaker 1: the argument. Let me give you an example of why
Speaker 1: we ought to be kind to those who offend us
Speaker 1: one Timothy Chapter one, Paul gives his own life as
Speaker 1: an example. Even though I once was a blasphemer, there
Speaker 1: are plenty of those in our world, and a persecutor
Speaker 1: of Christians and a violent man. He said, I was
Speaker 1: shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelieve. That's
Speaker 1: the key. Realize they're acting in ignorance and unbelief. I
Speaker 1: was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners,
Speaker 1: Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for
Speaker 1: others who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
Speaker 1: You see, if you'd lived in Paul's days, you probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to be very interested in being kind to
Speaker 1: those who offend you. You wouldn't be interested in being
Speaker 1: kind to Paul. He was persecuting Christians, he was attacking Christians,
Speaker 1: he was throwing Christians in jail, and that he said,
Speaker 1: I was shown mercy so that I could come to
Speaker 1: Christ and then my life would be an example to others.
Speaker 1: Jude Chapter one makes it even clearer Verse twenty two
Speaker 1: twenty three show mercy to those who have doubts, and really,
Speaker 1: some translation say, show those who disbelieve he's talking. He
Speaker 1: could say, show mercy the atheist, show mercy to those
Speaker 1: who have doubts, save others by snatching them from the fire.
Speaker 1: One more for Jesus, show mercy to them while being
Speaker 1: careful that you aren't contaminated by their sins. In other words,
Speaker 1: we're to avoid sin, but we are to love everybody.
Speaker 1: That's the way we show mercy. Now let me give
Speaker 1: you two more. And these last two you have probably
Speaker 1: never ever considered as acts of mercy, but Jesus taught
Speaker 1: that they were acts of mercy, and even quotes Oaiah
Speaker 1: six to six and both saying the reason you don't
Speaker 1: get this is keys. You don't understand the full meaning
Speaker 1: of mercy. So let me give you two more. A
Speaker 1: sixth way that you can practice your ministry of mercy
Speaker 1: this week is this, build bridges of love to the unpopular.
Speaker 1: Build bridges of love to the unpopular. There are people
Speaker 1: in your circle, people who live on your street that
Speaker 1: nobody wants to hang out with, people who you work
Speaker 1: with that everybody tells the joke behind their back. They
Speaker 1: may have those quirks, or they may have a different lifestyle,
Speaker 1: or they may have a different belief system. Or they
Speaker 1: may have a different religion, or they may dress differently
Speaker 1: because of their culture or whatever. But they're not on
Speaker 1: the in crowd. They're not popular. They're the outcast. And
Speaker 1: this is a facet of your ministry that's often overlooked.
Speaker 1: Building a bridge of love to the unpopular is what
Speaker 1: I call premeditated mercy. Now, you often think when I
Speaker 1: say premeditated, you think a premeditated murder. But I'm saying
Speaker 1: premeditated mercy involves intentionally building friendships with people who don't
Speaker 1: have friends, and intentionally building friendship with people who are unbelievers,
Speaker 1: and intentionally building friendships with people who seem on the edge,
Speaker 1: are not as loved or as accepted in the mainstream
Speaker 1: because of their religion, their lifestyle, their looks, or whatever.
Speaker 1: And why does God want us to build bridges of
Speaker 1: love to the unpopular and specifically the unbelievers. Because you
Speaker 1: cannot win your enemies to Christ. You can only win
Speaker 1: your friends. And before somebody's going to accept Christ, they've
Speaker 1: got to have a bridge to Christ. And before they
Speaker 1: want to know is Jesus credible? They want to know
Speaker 1: are you credible? And before they know Jesus is their
Speaker 1: friend they want to know, will you be my friend?
Speaker 1: And long before anybody comes to Christ, it's somebody's got
Speaker 1: to befriend that person. You cannot win an enemy to Christ.
Speaker 1: You must win them to yourself. Before you win them
Speaker 1: to Christ, you must become a friend. That's an act
Speaker 1: of premeditated mercy. Here's a good example of it. Matthew.
Speaker 1: Chapter nine the Bible says Matthew, who was one of
Speaker 1: the twelve Disciples, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to
Speaker 1: be his dinner guest. Nothing wrong with that. But then
Speaker 1: it says, along with his fellow tax collectors and many
Speaker 1: other notorious sinners. Now, if you're in the irs, I
Speaker 1: apologize to you today. So a little bit different today.
Speaker 1: You may be unpopular, but you aren't a notorious sinner
Speaker 1: if you are a tax collector. But in those days,
Speaker 1: here's why tax collectors were considered notorious sinners. They were
Speaker 1: allowed to skim whatever they could get. So a tax
Speaker 1: colector for Rome could come in and say, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe you know Pharaoh, I mean Caesar would say I
Speaker 1: want one denari from every household, and the tax collector
Speaker 1: could come in and say, I need ten denari from you,
Speaker 1: and you had no recourse, there was nobody to appeal to.
Speaker 1: You had to pay it. It was like extortion. Then
Speaker 1: he could pocket nine and pass on one. And so
Speaker 1: the worst job, the most unpopular job, because they were
Speaker 1: all cheats, they were crooks, they were swindlers, were the
Speaker 1: tax collectors, and they were right out there along with
Speaker 1: you know, prostitutes and lepers. And they didn't have drug
Speaker 1: pushers in those days, but that kind of a level
Speaker 1: of people that everybody despised. So it says Matthew invites
Speaker 1: Jesus and his disciples to his dinner as his dinner guest,
Speaker 1: along with all of these people of the ill repute,
Speaker 1: his fellow tax collectors, and many other notorious sinners, the Pharisees,
Speaker 1: that's the religious leaders. They were indignant. Why does your
Speaker 1: teacher eat with such scum, they asked his disciples. And
Speaker 1: when he heard this, Jesus replied, healthy people don't need
Speaker 1: a doctor. Sick people do. Go learn the meaning of
Speaker 1: this scripture, and he quotes HOSEA six six. I want
Speaker 1: you to be merciful. I don't want your sacrifices, for
Speaker 1: I've come to call sinners, not those who think they're
Speaker 1: already good enough. Now follow me on the logic. On this,
Speaker 1: the Pharisees are attacking Jesus for hanging out with the
Speaker 1: wrong clock crowd, and Jesus says, you know what your
Speaker 1: problem is, guys, you don't understand the true nature of mercy.
Speaker 1: Why because they thought mercy was simply forgiving people and
Speaker 1: helping people who need help. No, no, forget. Mercy also
Speaker 1: includes building bridges of love to the unpopular. And Jesus
Speaker 1: says it here. He says, I'm going to a party,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to a party with people that nobody
Speaker 1: wants to hang out with, the ill repute, the unpopular,
Speaker 1: the fringe, the negative, the criminal, the riff raft. I'm
Speaker 1: going to go to a party. Jesus says, why because
Speaker 1: I understand mercy and you don't. And you don't, and
Speaker 1: he says, go learn the meaning of HOSEA six to six. Now,
Speaker 1: I want you to notice this because it's got a
Speaker 1: lot of truth in here. It says Matthew invited circle.
Speaker 1: That word invited. Question, when was the last time you
Speaker 1: invited unbelievers for dinner? That's an act of mercy. When
Speaker 1: was the last time you invited. Have you ever had
Speaker 1: any notorious sinners in your home besides you? Besides you?
Speaker 1: You want to be merciful. Now we're getting where the
Speaker 1: rubber meets the road. Do you even have any close
Speaker 1: unbelieving friends? Do you? If you don't, you're not like Jesus.
Speaker 1: The problem is, the longer you are a Christian, the
Speaker 1: more you tend to hang out with other Christians, and
Speaker 1: the fewer non believing friends you got. How do you
Speaker 1: expect the good news to get out if you don't
Speaker 1: have any friends who are unbelievers and you're not inviting
Speaker 1: them over for dinner. If you're not, you don't understand
Speaker 1: what mercy is all about. Jesus says, go learn the scriptures. Now.
Speaker 1: Notice it says Matthew invites these quote riff raft, these unpopular,
Speaker 1: the non loved people of society over for dinner, and
Speaker 1: it says the religious people are indignant. I want to
Speaker 1: warn you that if you truly listen, if you truly
Speaker 1: begin to live a life of mercy, the moral and
Speaker 1: the political legalists will criticize you. They will attack you,
Speaker 1: and they will get mad at you. Why because they
Speaker 1: did with Jesus. Today. I want to invite you to
Speaker 1: join me in something that's very close to my heart
Speaker 1: fulfilling the great commission of Jesus Christ. Sharing the good
Speaker 1: news is the most important thing we do when we
Speaker 1: work together. There's nothing that God cannot do to us.
Speaker 1: When we're unified through Daily Hope. The message of Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ is now reaching nearly every country in the world.
Speaker 1: That's one hundred and ninety seven nations. We're going to
Speaker 1: even places where it's difficult or dangerous or illegal to
Speaker 1: talk about Christ openly. We're sharing the certain hope of
Speaker 1: Jesus and it's changing lives every single day. Right now.
Speaker 1: We have an incredible opportunity. That's why I'm saying this
Speaker 1: to you personally. There's some very generous friends that have
Speaker 1: offered to match every single gift given to Daily Hope
Speaker 1: dollar for dollar. That means whatever you give today is
Speaker 1: going to be doubled in impact. So I'm asking you.
Speaker 1: I want to encourage you to give as God leads
Speaker 1: you today, and I want you to pray this prayer, God,
Speaker 1: what do you want to give through me? Not say God,
Speaker 1: what should I give? Say God? What do you want
Speaker 1: to give through me? That's called giving by faith giving
Speaker 1: by revelation, and your gift will go twice as far
Speaker 1: to share the certain hope of Jesus Christ and make
Speaker 1: disciples all around the world. God bless you.
Speaker 2: You know when you give a gift to Daily Hope,
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Speaker 2: And right now your gift will be doubled by the
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Speaker 1: If you truly begin to live a life of mercy,
Speaker 1: the moral and the political legalist will criticize you. They
Speaker 1: will attack you, and they will get mad at you.
Speaker 1: Why because they did with Jesus. It wasn't It wasn't
Speaker 1: the riff raff of life that disliked Jesus. It was
Speaker 1: the religious people because he hung out with the wrong crowd.
Speaker 1: It's like a Democrat hanging out with Republicans, or a
Speaker 1: Republican actually having Democratic friends for dinner, or another religion
Speaker 1: or another lifestyle, or someone who is involved in some
Speaker 1: kind of sin you totally just agree with. If you
Speaker 1: begin to live a life of mercy, you will be criticized.
Speaker 1: This is a motivation behind much of the criticism that
Speaker 1: I get. Why because I make friends with a lot
Speaker 1: of different people. I have friends who are Muslims, and
Speaker 1: I have friends who are Jewish and Mormon and Buddhists.
Speaker 1: I have friends who are atheists. I have friends who
Speaker 1: are gay. I have friends who are all kinds. I
Speaker 1: spend when I'm not at saddleback, I spend most of
Speaker 1: my time usually speaking to groups that I totally disagree with.
Speaker 1: Why Because I'm practicing the ministry of mercy and Jesus
Speaker 1: hung out with people who were different than him. This
Speaker 1: is the motivation. Now they come to him, the pharisee say,
Speaker 1: why do you hang out with this scum? You know,
Speaker 1: let me ask you who's the socially unacceptable group in
Speaker 1: your circle? By the way, they called him scum. Anytime
Speaker 1: you use a put down or humor against somebody else,
Speaker 1: you are being unmerciful. Now, Jesus wasn't afraid of guilt
Speaker 1: by association for two reasons. He knew who he was,
Speaker 1: and he knew what his mission was. He knewho he was.
Speaker 1: He didn't need the approval of pharisees. He knew exactly
Speaker 1: who he was, and he knew his mission to seek
Speaker 1: to save that which is lost. And if you know
Speaker 1: who you are, you don't need the approval of the legalist.
Speaker 1: You don't need the approval of the critics. You don't
Speaker 1: need the approval of the self righteous who set them
Speaker 1: out as jury and judge on your life. You do
Speaker 1: what Jesus did. You go have parties with people in
Speaker 1: order to win them and love them, and share the
Speaker 1: good news and show mercy. Jesus says to all these guys,
Speaker 1: go learn the meaning of mercy. When they accuse him
Speaker 1: of guilt by his sad association, then number seven one more,
Speaker 1: and this one's going to surprise you too. Jesus taught
Speaker 1: that to have a ministry of mercy, you must value
Speaker 1: relationships over rules. You must value relationships over rules. Now,
Speaker 1: if you're a rule keeper that just creates all the
Speaker 1: wrong ways, and particularly if you're in the HR department
Speaker 1: and you have policies and procedures, Jesus would say, put
Speaker 1: people before policies, put people's needs before procedures, Put relationships
Speaker 1: before rules and regulations. He would say, choose love over law.
Speaker 1: Let me give you a very important and sightful incident.
Speaker 1: Matthew chapter. By the way, look at this verset up
Speaker 1: on the screen. Romans thirteen ten says love is the
Speaker 1: fulfillment of the law. So if you're doing the loving thing,
Speaker 1: it's genuinely for their benefit, not yours. For their benefit,
Speaker 1: you're doing the right thing. Now look at Matthew chapter twelve.
Speaker 1: Here's another time Jesus has a run in with the
Speaker 1: legalist the Pharisees. Another time, Jesus was talking walking through
Speaker 1: some grain fields on the Sabbath, and his disciples were hungry,
Speaker 1: so they began to pick some grain and eat it.
Speaker 1: Now some Pharisees saw this, these religious leaders, and they protested,
Speaker 1: your disciples are breaking God's laws by harvesting grain on
Speaker 1: the Sabbath. Okay, they're rule keepers. But Jesus said, haven't
Speaker 1: you ever read what King David did when he and
Speaker 1: his soldiers were hungry. He went into the House of God,
Speaker 1: that's the Temple, and there he ate the holy bread,
Speaker 1: the consecrated bread reserved for the priest. Then Jesus says
Speaker 1: to the Pharisees, you would not have judged these innocent
Speaker 1: men talking about his disciples if you knew the real
Speaker 1: meaning of scripture. I want you to be merciful. I
Speaker 1: don't want your sacrifices. There it is again, He quotes
Speaker 1: Hosiah six six for the second time, for I am
Speaker 1: the Lord of the Sabbath, and he's saying, here, I
Speaker 1: put love before the law. I put people before procedures.
Speaker 1: I put relationships before rules and regulation. He says, You
Speaker 1: guys don't get it because you don't understand the meaning
Speaker 1: of mercy. He says, I want you to go and
Speaker 1: read that scripture. If you knew the real meaning of
Speaker 1: the scripture. I don't want your sacrifice, I want your mercy.
Speaker 1: Then you wouldn't have a problem with the disciples picking
Speaker 1: some grain on the Sabbath. They're hungry. Dare you to
Speaker 1: do something very risky this week? Not pitt grant on
Speaker 1: the Sabbath, But I want to dare you to commit
Speaker 1: an act of premeditated mercy with one of these categories.
Speaker 1: Yes there is at tension. Yes there is a tension
Speaker 1: between mercy and personal responsibility. Yes there is. But I
Speaker 1: have personally decided that if I'm going to air, I'm
Speaker 1: going to air on the side of being too gracious,
Speaker 1: too merciful, and too forgiving, Because if you're gonna air.
Speaker 1: That's the side I would rather err on. Does that
Speaker 1: makes sense? Let me see Wait a minute, Rick, can
Speaker 1: you go can't you just go overboard on mercy? Absolutely
Speaker 1: you can. Jesus did. It's called the cross. On the
Speaker 1: cross with arms outstretched, he says, I'm doing this to
Speaker 1: be merciful. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: That is the most over the top example of mercy ever.
Speaker 1: He let them beat him, whip him, scourge him, spit
Speaker 1: on him, put a crown of thorns on him, and
Speaker 1: he never retaliated. He absorbed every one of the blows.
Speaker 1: And then what's his response? Father, forgive them? They don't
Speaker 1: know what they're doing. Like Paul says, I was ignorant
Speaker 1: and unaware of what I was doing. Can you go
Speaker 1: overboard on mercy? Yes, you can. Look at the cross.
Speaker 1: It's way way way overboard. Maybe you've never accepted God's
Speaker 1: mercy to you, the Bible says and Titus three five.
Speaker 1: It is not by works of righteous as we have done.
Speaker 1: We talked about that last week. According to his mercy,
Speaker 1: he has saved us. The Bible tells us in Hebrews
Speaker 1: four sixteen, let us approach the throne of Grace with confidence,
Speaker 1: for there we will find mercy, mercy and grace to
Speaker 1: help us in our time of need. If you haven't
Speaker 1: accepted the grace and mercy of God, you need to
Speaker 1: do so today. Now I want us to close a
Speaker 1: little bit different way today. I want you to bow
Speaker 1: your heads right now, but I want you to keep
Speaker 1: your eyes open. Okay, So if you'll bow your head
Speaker 1: and keep your eyes open so you can look at
Speaker 1: your message notes. And what I want to do is
Speaker 1: I want to end by asking you to consider some
Speaker 1: personal application questions and then doing something about it in
Speaker 1: these seven areas of how do I be merciful? So
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you a question, and next to
Speaker 1: each of these numbers, I want you to write down
Speaker 1: an initial, just the first initial of a person that
Speaker 1: you're thinking about. Okay, So number one, how do I
Speaker 1: be merciful? Be patient with people's quirks? I want you
Speaker 1: to write down who has irritating quirks that I need
Speaker 1: to be patient with this week? Now, nobody's going to
Speaker 1: see this except you, but you can just write down
Speaker 1: the first letter of their name. Who has irritating quirks
Speaker 1: that I need to be patient with this week? Write
Speaker 1: down a name? Number two, who around me is obviously
Speaker 1: hurting that I could help? This week? Can you write
Speaker 1: down a name? Can you write down an initial? If
Speaker 1: you can't think of anybody who's obviously hurting around it
Speaker 1: means this you're not paying attention. It means you're so
Speaker 1: wrapped up in yourself you can't even see the people
Speaker 1: around you who are hurting. Okay, how about number three?
Speaker 1: The third one? Give people a second chance? Who do
Speaker 1: I need to give a second chance to? This may
Speaker 1: be tough for you, but this is the ministry of mercy.
Speaker 1: Who do I need to give a second chance? To
Speaker 1: write down an initial, first initial of somebody? You can
Speaker 1: use this later on this week. Number four, do good
Speaker 1: to those who hurt me? Who has hurt me? That
Speaker 1: I could do good to? Who has hurt me? That
Speaker 1: I could do good to? Number five. I am to
Speaker 1: be kind to those who offend me. Who offends me?
Speaker 1: Maybe it's a comedian, maybe it's a politician, maybe it's somebody,
Speaker 1: But you can write down a name, maybe somebody close
Speaker 1: to you, who offends me? That I should start praying for?
Speaker 1: Who offends me? That I should start praying for rather
Speaker 1: than just being offended by them. Maybe if you're close enough,
Speaker 1: you could be kind to them. Number six, build bridges
Speaker 1: of love to the unpopular. Who's the outcast? Who's the
Speaker 1: unpopular person that I could build a bridge of love to?
Speaker 1: Who is the outcast or unpopular person I could build
Speaker 1: a bridge of love to at work in my community,
Speaker 1: at the soccer games, here, at church anywhere. And then
Speaker 1: number seven, who is an unbeliever I could invite over
Speaker 1: for dinner in the next two weeks, just like Matthew did.
Speaker 1: Who's an unbeliever that I could invite over for dinner
Speaker 1: in the next couple weeks, then invite them to church. This, friends,
Speaker 1: is your ministry of mercy, Heavenly Father, your word convicts
Speaker 1: all of us. And as I look at these seven things,
Speaker 1: I think of lax and false weaknesses in my own life.
Speaker 1: And I pray that, rather than just hearing the word,
Speaker 1: we would do something about it. Give us the courage
Speaker 1: to be merciful, Give us the courage to this week
Speaker 1: to do radical, premeditated acts of mercy in Jesus' name. Amen,