Speaker 1: The Bible says, every believer is a minister. Now we
Speaker 1: all minister in different ways. But anytime you help somebody
Speaker 1: else in Jesus' name, that is called ministry. And as
Speaker 1: they said, the Bible says, there are different kinds of service,
Speaker 1: different kinds of ministries, but there is one ministry that
Speaker 1: we all have in common. And that's what I want
Speaker 1: us to look at this weekend. I call it your
Speaker 1: ministry of mercy. God wants you to be an agent
Speaker 1: of mercy in the world. There's not enough mercy in
Speaker 1: this world. And God wants you to be a provider.
Speaker 1: He wants you to be an agent. He wants you
Speaker 1: to be a purveyor of mercy in the world. Now,
Speaker 1: in the fifth Key to a blessed life, Jesus says
Speaker 1: this Matthew five, verse seven. God blesses those who are merciful,
Speaker 1: for they will be shown mercy. In other words, what
Speaker 1: you give out you're going to get back. What you
Speaker 1: give you're going to get. God blesses those who are merciful,
Speaker 1: for they will be shown mercy. This is the fifth
Speaker 1: key to a blessed life. You got to learn to
Speaker 1: be a minister of mercy. Now, what is mercy. Well,
Speaker 1: usually we think of two things. Usually think of forgiving
Speaker 1: people who don't deserve it, or we think of helping
Speaker 1: people who can't help themselves. And those are two definitions
Speaker 1: of mercy that we typically think of. But mercy, which
Speaker 1: by the way, is a part of God's character, has
Speaker 1: so much more to say and to do in your
Speaker 1: life than simply those two things. Mercy is really like
Speaker 1: a it's like a diamond. It's multifaceted. And this weekend
Speaker 1: I want us to look at seven facets of mercy,
Speaker 1: seven ways that you can transform your relationships, because I
Speaker 1: guarantee you, if you'll learn how to be an agent
Speaker 1: of mercy, it's going to change your work relationships, your marriage,
Speaker 1: your friendships, family relationships, any other relationship you've got if
Speaker 1: you learn how to be an agent of mercy. But
Speaker 1: before we look at how to practice mercy in a relationship,
Speaker 1: I want to just ask the question why, Why in
Speaker 1: the world should I be merciful? So just write these
Speaker 1: four downs. This is kind of a little introduction here.
Speaker 1: And the first reason that we need to show mercy
Speaker 1: is because God has shown me mercy. God has shown
Speaker 1: me mercy. The Bible says that God is merciful. It's
Speaker 1: emphasized all through the Bible. There are literally hundreds and
Speaker 1: hundreds of scripture to talk about God's mercy and his love,
Speaker 1: his compassion, and his grace. Let me show you a
Speaker 1: couple of verses. One is up here on the screen. Ephesians,
Speaker 1: chapter two, verse four or five says this, God's mercy
Speaker 1: is so abundant and his love for us is so
Speaker 1: great that why we were spiritually dead in our disobedience.
Speaker 1: He brought us to life with Christ. It is by
Speaker 1: God's grace you have been saved. God has shown mercy
Speaker 1: to us. Now the point is this, God wants me
Speaker 1: to act in the same way to our other people.
Speaker 1: He wants me to pass on the mercy that I
Speaker 1: received from God. He wants me to pass on. Look
Speaker 1: at the next verse. It's there on your outline, Matthew eighteen.
Speaker 1: Shouldn't you have mercy on others just as I had
Speaker 1: mercy on you. Jesus is telling a story here about
Speaker 1: an unmerciful employee and he owes his boss some money,
Speaker 1: and the boss says, well, I'm gonna show mercy on you.
Speaker 1: Let's just clear your debt and I'm we'll just wipe
Speaker 1: it off and just say we're even. And the guy
Speaker 1: can't believe it because he's been shown such great mercy.
Speaker 1: But then he goes out to some people who owe
Speaker 1: him some money far less money, and he starts grabbing
Speaker 1: him by the throat. He say, pay me here, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have you thrown in prison. When the boss hears
Speaker 1: about it, he goes, what are you doing. I was
Speaker 1: merciful to you, and you're not merciful to the people
Speaker 1: around you. You're a wicked guy, and he throws him
Speaker 1: in prison. God says, if I show mercy to you,
Speaker 1: I expect you to show it to others. God has
Speaker 1: shown me mercy. Second reason, God commands me to be merciful.
Speaker 1: God commands me to be merciful. There's a verse in
Speaker 1: the Bible in Micah. I'm going to show it to
Speaker 1: you up here on the screen. It's again one of
Speaker 1: many verses. God has told you what is good and
Speaker 1: what he requires from you. Okay, so whatever comes next
Speaker 1: is what God says is good and is required of you.
Speaker 1: And here's what's required of you. Three things to do
Speaker 1: what is right with others, to love, being merciful, to
Speaker 1: others and to live humbly in fellowship with God. Now
Speaker 1: leave that up there for a minute. That's if you
Speaker 1: want to summarize what life's all about. God says, this
Speaker 1: is what's required of you. If you're gonna be in
Speaker 1: my family, if you're going to be my child, you
Speaker 1: gotta do what's right with others. You got to love
Speaker 1: being merciful to others, and you got to live humbly
Speaker 1: in fellowship with God. Let me shock you with this
Speaker 1: next statement. God says that being merciful is more important
Speaker 1: than worship. Did you hear that? God says that you
Speaker 1: being merciful to other people is actually more important than worship.
Speaker 1: Hoseiah six, verse six. God says this, I don't want
Speaker 1: your sacrifices. I want you to be merciful. Now what
Speaker 1: is he saying here? He's saying, I don't want your
Speaker 1: acts of worship. I want you to be merciful. This
Speaker 1: is much more important. In fact, this verse Hoseiah chapter six,
Speaker 1: verse six is so important Jesus quotes it two times
Speaker 1: in his ministry in two totally unrelated situations. In debates
Speaker 1: with the Pharisees. This is one of the most important
Speaker 1: verses in the Bible. So look that again. I don't
Speaker 1: want your sacrifices. I want you to be merciful. God
Speaker 1: is saying, I prefer a flexible heart over an inflexible ritual.
Speaker 1: I don't care if you come and saying I praise you,
Speaker 1: I love you, You're great, and all of that. And
Speaker 1: then you go out and you treat people like dirt.
Speaker 1: You treat your your wife or your husband, or your children,
Speaker 1: or your friends, or the people you work with, or
Speaker 1: or people who are working at fast food joints, whatever.
Speaker 1: He says. If you don't treat people with mercy, you've
Speaker 1: missed the whole point. God's shown me mercy, and he
Speaker 1: commands me to be merciful. There's a third reason I
Speaker 1: need to learn what we're gonna look at this weekend,
Speaker 1: and it's because I'm gonna need more mercy in the future.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna need more mercy in the future. You're not
Speaker 1: gonna be perfect between now and when you get to heaven.
Speaker 1: And the Bible tells us that we cannot receive what
Speaker 1: we are unwilling to give. And so in James chapter
Speaker 1: two James two, verse thirteen, the Bible says this you
Speaker 1: must circle that word must. You must show mercy to others,
Speaker 1: or God won't show mercy to you. But here's the
Speaker 1: good news. The person who shows mercy can stand without
Speaker 1: fear at the judgment. Don't you want to be able
Speaker 1: to do that on judgment day? To be able to
Speaker 1: stand without fear on judgment day? It says, the person
Speaker 1: who shows mercy can stand without fear on the judgment day.
Speaker 1: Now there's the fourth reason, and that is showing mercy
Speaker 1: brings or causes happiness. Showing mercy brings happiness, it's really
Speaker 1: the source of happiness. The Bible teaches over and over
Speaker 1: in scripture that the more merciful I am, the happier
Speaker 1: I'm going to be. Remember the beatitudes. The word blessed
Speaker 1: also means happy macarios. He's saying, happy are the merciful.
Speaker 1: If you want to be happy, you need to learn
Speaker 1: this quality. And the more you learn this quality, the
Speaker 1: happier you're gonna be. Look at this verse on the screen.
Speaker 1: The Bible says, if you want to be happy Proverbs
Speaker 1: fourteen twenty one, be kind to those in need. And
Speaker 1: then he says it is a sin to despise anyone,
Speaker 1: and let me show you another one. Proverbs eleven seventeen
Speaker 1: says this, a merciful person helps himself, but the cool
Speaker 1: person hurts himself. So you actually help yourself when you
Speaker 1: are merciful. I love this verse Proverbs eleven seventeen. In
Speaker 1: the Living Bible, it says, your own soul is nourished
Speaker 1: when you show mercy. Your own soul is nourished when
Speaker 1: you show mercy. So these four reasons God shown me mercy.
Speaker 1: He commands me to be merciful. I'll need mercy in
Speaker 1: the future, and it's the key to happiness. Tell me
Speaker 1: that this is an important quality that I need to
Speaker 1: build into my life. All right, today, I want to
Speaker 1: invite you to join me in something that's very close
Speaker 1: to my heart, fulfilling the great commission of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Sharing the good news is the most important thing we
Speaker 1: do when we work together. There's nothing that God cannot
Speaker 1: do to us. When we're unified through daily hope. The
Speaker 1: message of Jesus Christ is now reaching nearly every country
Speaker 1: in the world. That's one hundred and ninety seven nations.
Speaker 1: We're going to even places where it's difficult or dangerous
Speaker 1: or illegal to talk about Christ. Openly. We're sharing the
Speaker 1: certain hope of Jesus and it's changing lives every single day.
Speaker 1: Right now, we have an incredible opportunity. That's why I'm
Speaker 1: saying this to you personally. There's some very generous friends
Speaker 1: that have offered to match every single gift given to
Speaker 1: Daily Hope dollar for dollar. That means whatever you give
Speaker 1: today is going to be doubled in impact. So I'm
Speaker 1: asking you. I want to encourage you to give as
Speaker 1: God leads you today, and I want you to pray
Speaker 1: this prayer, God, what do you want to give through me?
Speaker 1: Not say God, what should I give? Say God? What
Speaker 1: do you want to give through me? That's called giving
Speaker 1: by faith, giving by revelation, and your gift will go
Speaker 1: twice as far to share the certain hope of Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ and make disciples all around the world. God bless you.
Speaker 2: You know when you give a gift to Daily Hope,
Speaker 2: you're helping share the hope of Jesus with people everywhere,
Speaker 2: and right now your gift will be doubled by the
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Speaker 1: All right, let's look at how can I learn this
Speaker 1: quality of mercy in a world that's not very merciful,
Speaker 1: it's pretty unmerciful. How do I fulfill what God calls
Speaker 1: my ministry of mercy? Some of these ways you're quite
Speaker 1: familiar with, but I guarantee you there's a few of
Speaker 1: them that you probably have never even thought of. Oh
Speaker 1: that's a part of mercy, and yes it is too.
Speaker 1: Let's look at them. Number one, be patient with people's quirks.
Speaker 1: Be patient with people's quirks. I'm talking about don't look
Speaker 1: at them right now. They're idiosyncrasies, their peculiarities, their mannerisms,
Speaker 1: their odd behavior, they're irritating habits. You know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about, right, Okay, you show mercy. You you show
Speaker 1: mercy when you don't get irritated and you don't get angry,
Speaker 1: and you don't get uptight with people's personal quirks. And
Speaker 1: we've all got them. You've got them, I've got them,
Speaker 1: and we've all got these little mannerisms and irritating habits.
Speaker 1: A way of speaking and thinking and talking and acting
Speaker 1: when you control your anger and when you refuse to
Speaker 1: get upset by people's quirks, you are showing mercy. It's
Speaker 1: a very practical way. Now I've been married thirty eight years.
Speaker 1: I will have been married thirty nine years before this
Speaker 1: month is over. I want to give you maybe the
Speaker 1: most important marriage advice you'll ever get in your life.
Speaker 1: It's the next verse Ephesians four to two. Be patient
Speaker 1: with each other, making allowances for each other's faults. Why
Speaker 1: because of your love The phrase making allowance, making allowance
Speaker 1: for each other's faults. You see, you married a sinner guys,
Speaker 1: and she married a bigger one. Two imperfect people cannot
Speaker 1: make a perfect marriage. You have faults, your spouse has faults.
Speaker 1: And marriage is the great. Marriage is the union of
Speaker 1: two great forgivers. That's what makes a great marriage. It's
Speaker 1: the union of two great forgivers. Now it says, here,
Speaker 1: make allowance for each other's false because you're loved. The
Speaker 1: number one place you need to learn to show mercy
Speaker 1: is at home. It's at home. Why because you see
Speaker 1: each other's faults far more than anybody else does, and
Speaker 1: you're up close and personal with those faults, and you've
Speaker 1: got to live with them the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: So show mercy. Show mercy, you know, when I used
Speaker 1: to do marriage counseling, I discovered that marriages don't die
Speaker 1: usually because of one big catastrophe. Marriages are buried because
Speaker 1: of a lot of little digs, And they're just little
Speaker 1: nagging and digging and nagging and digging. It says, make
Speaker 1: allowance for each other's faults because of your love. Look
Speaker 1: over this verse on the screen. James two thirteen says,
Speaker 1: the man who makes no allowances for others will find
Speaker 1: none made for him. None made show mercy. The Bible says,
Speaker 1: we show mercy by being patient with each other's quirks,
Speaker 1: our foibles, our weaknesses, are mistakes, all of the things
Speaker 1: that make us make us human. Say I really want
Speaker 1: to do that? How do I How do I get
Speaker 1: more patients with my kids, with my spouse, with my friends?
Speaker 1: How do I get more patient? One word wisdom. The
Speaker 1: wiser you get, the more patient you will be. The
Speaker 1: Bible says this in James chapter three. The wisdom that
Speaker 1: comes from Heaven is pure and peace loving, and gentle
Speaker 1: at all times. Circle all gentle at all times, and
Speaker 1: is willing to yield to others. Wisdom is full of mercy.
Speaker 1: So the wiser you get, the more merciful, you get
Speaker 1: a lot of people who think they're wise. Aren't there, pompous? Pompous?
Speaker 1: You thought I was going to say that worried wisdom
Speaker 1: is full of mercy. Now, notice says there wisdom from
Speaker 1: heaven is peace loving. If you're not peace loving, you're
Speaker 1: not wise. It says, it's gentle at all times. If
Speaker 1: you're easily irritated, you're not wise. It says, it's willing
Speaker 1: to yield. If you're unwilling to yield, you're not wise.
Speaker 1: The miser I become, the more patient and merciful I become,
Speaker 1: the more unbending, the more irritating, the more angry, the
Speaker 1: more I get upset, the more foolish. The Bible says,
Speaker 1: I am. If you're easily irritated, you're not wife. So
Speaker 1: be patient with people's quirks. Number two, the second way
Speaker 1: to practice mercy this week. Help anyone hurting around me,
Speaker 1: Help anyone hurting around me. They're hurting people all around you,
Speaker 1: but too often we're too busy to notice it. If
Speaker 1: you care, you'll be aware. Jesus told the story of
Speaker 1: the Good Samaritan to teach this very point about helping
Speaker 1: the hurting around us is the meaning of mercy. A
Speaker 1: guy came to Jesus one day and he said, Jesus,
Speaker 1: what's the most important command in the Bible? Okay, give
Speaker 1: me the bottom line here. I don't have time to
Speaker 1: read the whole Bible. So what is it that matters most?
Speaker 1: And Jesus said, oh, that's really easy. It's two things.
Speaker 1: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor
Speaker 1: as yourself. That's the whole Bible in a nutshell. Love
Speaker 1: God with all your heart and love your neighbors yourself. Now,
Speaker 1: the guy wants to get out of this, and he's
Speaker 1: kind of weaseling out of us. He says, so love
Speaker 1: your neighbors yourself. Yeah, who's my neighbor? And Jesus says, well,
Speaker 1: let me tell you a story, and he tells the story,
Speaker 1: the famous story of the Good Samaritan, of the man
Speaker 1: who was going down the road to Jericho and he
Speaker 1: is he's robbed, and he's beaten and he's abused, and
Speaker 1: he's left for dead at the side of the road
Speaker 1: and three guys pass by him, and two of them
Speaker 1: do nothing, and the third guy, of another race and
Speaker 1: culture stops and helps him nurses him back to health,
Speaker 1: puts him on his donkey, takes him to a hotel
Speaker 1: or motel, checks in, pays the bill for the guy
Speaker 1: and says that if he has any other bills, when
Speaker 1: I come back by, I'll pay for it. And Jesus
Speaker 1: looks at the guy. He says, who's my neighbors? Who
Speaker 1: do you think was the neighbor? And the man says,
Speaker 1: the guy who showed the most mercy, the guy who
Speaker 1: showed the most mercy. You cannot love your neighbor as
Speaker 1: yourself without being merciful. And we help those around us.
Speaker 1: Look at some verses here Privers three twenty seven. Whenever
Speaker 1: you possibly can do good to those who need it,
Speaker 1: you got to look for it now, by the way,
Speaker 1: when you are helping people in need. And there are
Speaker 1: going to be people in your area of life this
Speaker 1: week that God intentionally puts in your life to allow
Speaker 1: you to practice mercy. They're going to have an emotional need,
Speaker 1: They're going to have a physical need, a financial need.
Speaker 1: They may just need an assistance. They may need, you know,
Speaker 1: help you to care for him in some way. God,
Speaker 1: when he's watching you, is not simply watching what you do.
Speaker 1: He's watching your attitude. Look at this verse Romans twelve eight.
Speaker 1: When you do acts of mercy, show mercy with what cheerfulness? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Circle that with cheerfulness. He says, you don't do it
Speaker 1: grinning and bearing it. You don't do it with a
Speaker 1: grudging attitude. I love this verse Romans twelve eight and
Speaker 1: the message paraphrase. Look up here on the screen. It
Speaker 1: says this, if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let
Speaker 1: yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep
Speaker 1: a smile on your face. Mercy is being patient with
Speaker 1: people's quirks, and it's being helpful with people's hurts. Number
Speaker 1: three third way you can show mercy this week. Give
Speaker 1: people a second chance, and everybody needs that. Give people
Speaker 1: a second chance. We forgive the fallen, especially those who
Speaker 1: have hurt you. You need to forgive. Now. That's not normal,
Speaker 1: is it? Normally? When somebody hurts us, we want to
Speaker 1: do one or two things, either get even or be
Speaker 1: write them off. Somebody hurts you, you don't want to
Speaker 1: be giving them a second chance. Your natural inclination. That
Speaker 1: guy hurt me at work, you know, he messed me up.
Speaker 1: He you know, he put me down in front of
Speaker 1: somebody else, whatever, you either want to get back or
Speaker 1: you want to write them off. But here's what the
Speaker 1: Bible says Ephesians four. Don't get bitter or angry or
Speaker 1: use harsh words that hurt each other. Don't yell at
Speaker 1: one another or curse or ever be rude. Instead, be
Speaker 1: kind and merciful and forgive others just as God forgave you.
Speaker 1: Now notice in that verse, Jesus contrast or the Bible
Speaker 1: contrast mercy with six negative responses. You might circle those, okay,
Speaker 1: because he says if you want to help, if you
Speaker 1: want to be merciful, he says, don't get bitter. That's
Speaker 1: number one. Don't get angry, don't use harsh words, don't yell,
Speaker 1: don't curse, and don't be rude. Do you see why
Speaker 1: mercy is so important today? Because that's the way the
Speaker 1: world acts today. That's the world responds with bitterness, harsh words, hurt.
Speaker 1: If you don't believe it, just go on the internet
Speaker 1: and you'll see that there's very, very little mercy on
Speaker 1: the internet. How would you rate yourself on mercy? How
Speaker 1: would you rate yourself bitter, angry, harsh words, you yelled,
Speaker 1: your curse, you get rude, or you always kind and
Speaker 1: merciful forgiving others just as God forgave you. How would
Speaker 1: you rate yourself on this? It's number four. Another way
Speaker 1: to show mercy, do good to those who hurt me.
Speaker 1: I am to do good to those who hurt me. See,
Speaker 1: if you really boil it down, mercy is giving people
Speaker 1: what they need, not what they deserve. That's mercy, giving
Speaker 1: people what they need, not what they deserve. Why because
Speaker 1: that's what God does with you. God gives you what
Speaker 1: you need, not what you deserve. If I got what
Speaker 1: I deserve from God, I wouldn't be standing here. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be alive. But the Bible says we give people
Speaker 1: what they need, not what they deserve, and we do
Speaker 1: good to those who are Why should I do good
Speaker 1: to those who hurt me? How many times have you
Speaker 1: heard me say hurt people? Hurt people? Yeah, hurt people
Speaker 1: hurt people. And the people who you want to love
Speaker 1: the least are those who need it the most. The
Speaker 1: most hurtful people are those who need massive doses of
Speaker 1: love and mercy. Let me ask you to just think
Speaker 1: in your mind, who's hurt you the most in life?
Speaker 1: Think about that who hurts you the most in life?
Speaker 1: They need your mercy. Let me ask you this, who's
Speaker 1: hurts you the most recently in life? They need your mercy.
Speaker 1: The Bible says this in Luke chapter six, Jesus says,
Speaker 1: love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to
Speaker 1: them without expecting anything back. Hea witmue, why would I
Speaker 1: want to do that? Well, remember those four reasons we
Speaker 1: went over. God's shown me mercy. He commands me to
Speaker 1: be merciful. I'm gonna need mercy in the future, and
Speaker 1: it's the key to happiness. Anytime you hold on to hurt,
Speaker 1: you're making yourself miserable. You're not hurting them. Love your enemies,
Speaker 1: do good to them, and lend to them without expecting
Speaker 1: get anything back. You see, if somebody hurts you, that
Speaker 1: puts you above them. If you forgive them, if you
Speaker 1: get even, you're just on the same level. You know
Speaker 1: better than they are. If you get even, If you
Speaker 1: do a hurt, you're beneath them. If you get even,
Speaker 1: you get your even. But if you forgive them, you're
Speaker 1: above them. Morally, Love your enemies, do good to them,
Speaker 1: and lend to them without expecting anything back. Your reward
Speaker 1: will be great. There's a motivation, and you will be
Speaker 1: the children of the most high. In other words, you
Speaker 1: get the identity because God is kind to the ungrateful
Speaker 1: and wicked. Is God kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
Speaker 1: Just look at the world. God is kind to the
Speaker 1: ungrateful and wicked, And so he says, so be merciful,
Speaker 1: just as your father is merciful. You know. There's a
Speaker 1: famous story about President Abraham Lincoln's mercy that after the
Speaker 1: Southern States were defeated by the Northern States in the
Speaker 1: Civil War in America one hundred and fifty years ago,
Speaker 1: President Lincoln spoke to a crowd in Washington, d c.
Speaker 1: From the balcony of the White House, and he was
Speaker 1: laying out how his plan for reconstruction. And at the
Speaker 1: end of his speech, a very famous senator from Iowa,
Speaker 1: whose name was James Harlan, shouted out, and what do
Speaker 1: we do with the rebels? What do we do with
Speaker 1: these confederates who had started this whole war in the
Speaker 1: first place. And the unmerciful crowd shouted back, hang them,
Speaker 1: hang them, hang them. And what was interesting, and this
Speaker 1: famous story is that Lincoln's youngest son, Tad, who was
Speaker 1: at eleven at the time, was standing next to him
Speaker 1: and he said, looked up at his daddy. He said, no, Daddy, no, Papa, no,
Speaker 1: not hang them, hang on to them, hang on to them.
Speaker 1: And Lincoln grinned his eleven year old son and he said,
Speaker 1: that's it to Tad's got the answer. We're not going
Speaker 1: to hang them. We're going to hang on to them.
Speaker 1: And that is mercy number five. A fifth way to
Speaker 1: show mercy is to be kind. The Bible says, to
Speaker 1: those who offend me, be kind to those who offend me.
Speaker 1: You have probably noticed that the verbal attacks on Christians
Speaker 1: are going up in our society. Have you noticed this?
Speaker 1: And it's increasing, and people are taking slurs at Christians
Speaker 1: and potshots at Christians and being attacked like never a
Speaker 1: foreign America. And there are a lot of groups pushing
Speaker 1: anti Christian agendas today because we represent a barrier, and
Speaker 1: the barrier is we hold on to what God's truth is,
Speaker 1: and we say sorry, God's truth is God's truth, and
Speaker 1: we just have to follow God's truth. As Peter said,
Speaker 1: we must obey God rather than men.