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What This World Needs - Mercy (Matthew 9:9-13)
56 Plays4 years ago
What This World Needs - Mercy (Matthew 9:9-13)
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Sunday Message recorded 30 May 2021
by Stephen Mick
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
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Transcript
Introduction & Big Question
00:00:00
Speaker
Well, thank you for enduring the very polished transition there.
00:00:06
Speaker
All right, well, it is an honor and it's a pleasure to be here. And as you know, it's normally Pastor Victor that stands here and I'm more often there where you are or up in the sound loft looking this way. So
Career Choices & World Needs
00:00:19
Speaker
it's quite an honor to be able to have the chance to tell you and to share with you some of the things that God has been working on my heart. I wanted to start today off with a question.
00:00:32
Speaker
You might say, it's a big question. And the question says, what does the world need? I'm
Urgency & Political Interpretations
00:00:39
Speaker
like, wow, that's a big question.
00:00:41
Speaker
And depending on your point of view, your world view, your life situation, you might have any number of answers to it. For those of you who are recent graduates, you might say, yeah, that's a really good question. I want to know what the world needs, especially what it needs. It's high paying, because I want to pick the right career. Or maybe you're trying to change careers or get a job, and you want to know what are the needs are so you can plug in and get paid to fill them.
00:01:07
Speaker
Or maybe you see it as a pressing question, like, you know what? It's not just a career question, it's a pressing question. The world needs a lot. And what we need, we need now. We
Personal Needs & Reflection
00:01:18
Speaker
need people who are going to take action, they're going to do something, they're going to do the right thing. And it leads many people to really interpret it as a political question.
00:01:28
Speaker
And I don't really want to wait in there. But you know, when you hear, what does the world need? You say, well, I'll tell you what we need. We need to clean house. That's what we need. Or others, you're connected with a cause or a movement or a protest, and you want everybody to know about that. And that's what the world needs from your point of view. But this isn't just a philosophical question. It really is a practical question. And more specifically, it's a personal question.
00:01:58
Speaker
Because what the world needs is really just the summation of what each of us as individuals need. And as we turn our attention to scripture today, we'll see that Jesus gives us insight to one common thing that we all need.
Scriptural Context: Book of Matthew
00:02:18
Speaker
But before we get to the scripture today, we'll be in the book of Matthew.
00:02:22
Speaker
And I'm going to give you a softball here. So you can feel like a Bible scholar. I like questions like this. The book of Matthew was written by a man named. Any guesses? Matthew. Good. See, this is not hard. It's not hard. OK. The book of Matthew was written by Matthew. And we're going to see how Jesus interacts with him in just a second. But I wanted to give you some context before we get there.
00:02:47
Speaker
So leading up to what we're gonna look at, you need to know something about the Jewish people. Now the Jewish people, they still exist. There's
Jewish History & Roman Oppression
00:02:56
Speaker
a nation named Israel, but they started a way back about 4,000 years ago from a man named Abraham who God called, God chose, and God blessed his descendants and from him formed a nation.
00:03:09
Speaker
And this people, they eventually became their own land with their own government and their own kings. And from time to time they served God and from time to time they fell away. Eventually they fell away and rebelled against God more than they served him and God exiled them from the land.
00:03:27
Speaker
And by the time we get to our story today, where we see Jesus, the people of Israel had been exiled from their land for 720 years. And the people of Judah, which has a smaller portion of the overall nation, they had been exiled from their land for about 600 years. But they're still functioning as a nation, as a people with a cultural identity, still as the sons and daughters of Abraham.
Pharisees' Role in Jewish Culture
00:03:52
Speaker
So there you have the Jewish people.
00:03:54
Speaker
And while they were in exile, they had been ruled over by many different nations, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and then the Romans. And that's where we'll find them today. In fact, just a few years before the incident happens that we'll look at, we'll see that Herod the Great had been named King of the Jews.
00:04:15
Speaker
And the people, they were increasingly oppressed by the Romans, who were a totalitarian, a dictatorship over them, demanded high taxes. And we'll get to that in a second. And then there's another group. There are several groups of religious leaders. There are Pharisees and Sadducees and Herodians. And there's the Sanhedrin. And it does get a little complicated. So we won't bother with all of that. But we'll tell you about a particular group called the Pharisees.
Religious Leaders & Jesus
00:04:44
Speaker
So many of you maybe have seen them, seen that word as you've read the New Testament, and you know about them because they always seem to be opposed to Jesus. And in our story today, we actually see that. So that won't be a surprise, but you might not know much more about them. And it turns out that the Pharisees were a group of religious leaders who really did love their nation.
00:05:09
Speaker
They loved God, and they wanted to see the Jewish people maintain their cultural identity and their religious identity even when they weren't a nation. You wonder, how did a people who were a nation remain intact for 700 years without their own government?
Tax Collectors' Perception
00:05:28
Speaker
Well, it was because of people like the Pharisees that helped hold it all together.
00:05:32
Speaker
So they were trying to do a God-honoring thing. The Pharisees also were very deliberate to record scripture, to translate oral tradition stories into writing. And it turns out that the group of the Pharisees is largely responsible for the preservation of the Old Testament and the preservation of the Jewish culture when the temple was destroyed by Rome in 70 AD. So this is the Pharisees, and we're going to intersect them today in our story.
00:06:02
Speaker
And then there's another group called tax collectors. Now, I don't know. Have you had many dealings with the IRS? They're your favorite people, aren't they? Like, when you have nothing else to do, you just pick up the phone and call the 1-800-IRS helpline because you like talking to them. No, me either.
00:06:21
Speaker
Well, tax collectors were even more unwelcome, let's say that, than the current day. And
Jesus' Call to Matthew
00:06:30
Speaker
it turns out that in this time, tax collectors came from all different nationalities, but in particular, it was troubling when they came from the Jewish people to tax the Jewish people. So these people who were tax collectors, they were considered by their community to be traders.
00:06:52
Speaker
And it was more than just traders, right? They actually got like their own grouping. And we'll see today in our passage and the other places in the New Testament, if there was a group of people who were like actively rebelling against God, you know, the Bible calls that sin, rebelling against God. If there was a group of sinners collected in some place and they were, you know, having a rip-roaring time and a tax collector showed up, what you see in the New Testament is it's a group of tax collectors and sinners.
00:07:21
Speaker
It's as if we're saying don't insult the sinners by calling them tax collectors. Tax collectors are their own category. Or don't elevate the tax collectors by simply calling them sinners. They're worse than that. So this was the feeling about people who were the tax collectors, and we're gonna come across one in our story today. And the feeling about them is that they were working to help perpetuate and extend the exile.
00:07:50
Speaker
They were working to continue to fund the government that was keeping them from being their own nation. So tax collectors were seen as rebels, as traders, as oppressors themselves. So here we are, that's the context for you. We've got the Romans, we've got the Jewish people, we have religious leaders, specifically the Pharisees, we have tax collectors, and then Jesus shows up.
Mercy Over Sacrifice
00:08:16
Speaker
So join me, if you will, stand up and we'll read our passage from Matthew chapter nine. And then I'll ask a blessing on our service. Okay, Matthew chapter nine, verses nine through 13, Jesus has just healed a man who had been paralyzed. And that's where we pick up. It says, as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at a tax booth. And he said to him,
00:08:45
Speaker
Follow me. And Matthew rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined a table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners, you see it there, tax collectors and sinners, they came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
00:09:12
Speaker
But when Jesus heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Let's pray.
Scriptural Reflection
00:09:32
Speaker
Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for this moment when you intersect and redirect Matthew's life.
00:09:38
Speaker
And I pray that you would speak to us, help us learn from it. And Lord, as you've challenged us to go and learn, Lord, I pray that we would, that you draw us closer to ourselves, closer to yourself, God. And Lord, that you would change our hearts in Christ's name. Amen. Well, if you've been in the youth group, you know that what I love to do after we read a passage, I always ask the question, okay, what did we just read?
00:10:06
Speaker
because it's easy to read a passage and let it go right past you and not interact with it. So what
Matthew's Transformation
00:10:12
Speaker
we'll do, we'll just spend a couple minutes stepping through the verses, make sure we understand what it was we just heard. All right, we start with verse nine, and it's really amazing, right? You see, there's this guy Matthew, he's sitting at a tax booth, and that makes him, what do you think?
00:10:32
Speaker
a tax collector. Okay, well now you know what that means. I gave you some context, so you see tax collector, you hear tax collector, you can think, ooh, traitor, disenfranchised, oppressor of the people, unwanted, don't invite him to graduation, right? Well, Jesus saw him, and it's so amazing what he says.
00:11:00
Speaker
Whereas we might be prone to call Matthew what he is, Jesus looks at him and he doesn't call Matthew what he is, he calls him to what he could become. Follow me. There's a lot of meaning in that term, follow me, especially in that day when there were teachers, rabbis, who would select students to follow them. And that was the call, follow me.
00:11:30
Speaker
It's like getting an admission letter to the college that you wanna go to, getting an acceptance letter, getting a job offer from the company you've applied to. It's a welcoming, it's an invitation, and it's a big deal. And Jesus see this guy who's despised by the community, doesn't call him what he is, but calls him to what he will be, a student, a leader, a world changer.
00:11:58
Speaker
And then Matthew gets up and he follows. And I think that's amazing too. Because I know for me, I'm just sharing honestly with you and probably you would say the same thing for yourself. We intersect people all the time and we see them and we make a judgment about them without even knowing them about whether they'll follow Christ. It's easy to say no for them. They won't follow, so I won't tell them.
00:12:29
Speaker
Oh, you didn't give him the chance. But Jesus gave them the chance. And Matthew was ready for a change. And the change that he needed to make meant he was repenting. He was renouncing his old way of life. He was renouncing his rebellious and traitorous way of life.
Healing & Restoration
00:12:45
Speaker
He was giving that up so that he could follow Jesus, change everything. It's an amazing, it's a miraculous change. And we see it right in front of our eyes with Jesus simply calling him.
00:12:56
Speaker
So Matthew does it. He's ready to repent. He's ready to follow. So the challenge to us, you know, one challenge is how often do you say no for someone? Are you withholding the good news of Christ? Are you withholding the invitation of Christ because you make a decision ahead of time? They're not really interested. Maybe they are.
00:13:16
Speaker
And Jesus didn't make the assumption that Matthew wouldn't be interested. And then we see that the invitation that Jesus makes doesn't stop with Matthew. In fact, there's this ripple effect. Jesus then pursues the people in Matthew's circle of influence, much like he wants to do with you and me, reach not just us, but then our family, our friends, our coworkers, our community.
00:13:41
Speaker
And he goes and he's having this dinner with Matthew, with Matthew's friends, and he's pursuing them. And what specifically is he pursuing? You see it in verse 12 and verse 13. He's pursuing their healing. He's pursuing their restoration. That's the gospel. To pursue people who don't know God, who are in rebellion against God, and to invite them back into a relationship with him.
00:14:10
Speaker
That's what Jesus was all about. And that's the offer he still makes to us because his pursuit of people didn't stop with Matthew's friend. Matthew's friends, it continues through to us. He
Pharisees' Misunderstanding of Mercy
00:14:22
Speaker
still pursues you and me. He still wants to find those who are sick and separated from God and restore them. He still wants to heal his aim, his restoration.
00:14:36
Speaker
And you would think, because I told you, the Pharisees, they're not all bad. They do want people to follow the Lord. They want people to be holy. You would think that they would see this act of amazing restoration and applaud. But in verse 11, what do they do? They object. That's nuts. Why do they object? Why do they challenge? But yet they do, and their question is,
00:15:06
Speaker
Why is he eating with tax collectors and sinners? It's so indignant. But Jesus understands what they're getting at and I love it. I love his response. It's as if Jesus is looking at them and saying, don't y'all understand anything? That's what he's saying. Don't you understand anything? Who needs a doctor?
00:15:34
Speaker
Well, the actual answer is all y'all need a doctor. It's not just the people you object to, it's you also, but we'll get there. That's Jesus saying, but the sick, I mean, at the very least recognize these people need a doctor. I'm trying to heal them and you should applaud it. But they don't, they object to it. And then Jesus, verse 13, this is where we'll camp out for a little while. And Jesus tells them to go and learn something.
00:16:05
Speaker
Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Now sacrifice, the Pharisees knew. That's not what they needed to go learn. They knew the sacrificial system. They knew the offerings that were required and when they were required and why they were required. They didn't need to learn that. The focus of go and learn is mercy.
00:16:34
Speaker
So before we go further, I'll just give you a quick definition. What then is mercy? What is this thing that they're supposed to learn? And I wanna stop and define it because in different Bible studies you'd be a part of, you hear all sorts of definitions. So mercy in its broadest sense is to relieve someone's pain and suffering.
00:16:57
Speaker
It doesn't stop there. It extends and it includes the concept of forgiving and forbearance and leniency as needed, but it's relieving pain and suffering. So you could see it in context like somebody's the victim of a flood or a storm. Well, it's merciful to show up and help them rebuild. Right.
Understanding Mercy
00:17:20
Speaker
Or somebody's a refugee.
00:17:22
Speaker
Like the Coleman's, it's merciful to go and help them as they try to relocate and build a life. Right, so relieving pain and suffering. Or somebody who's in rebellion against God. Well yes, forgiveness becomes a part of it. But there is pain and there is suffering in an active ongoing rebellion against God.
00:17:48
Speaker
and it's merciful to tell people how they can be restored, to tell them there is a physician, and that's mercy. And Jesus wants the Pharisees, he wants the religious leaders to go and learn and study this. So I wanna make a few comments about just this phrase, go and learn. I wanna tell you three things about it. First of all, it's shocking that he would say it.
00:18:14
Speaker
because he's saying it to a group of people who have memorized the Old Testament. And they haven't just memorized it, it's like they have it on active recall. Now, I can stand up here and I can make a lot of references to a lot of scriptures. And in part, some of them, I know they're there. I might not know exactly where.
00:18:40
Speaker
So I get a book and I help with a cross reference where I pull out the iPhone with the Bible app and I can look up words and maybe you do the same thing. These
Challenge to Learn Mercy
00:18:50
Speaker
people had that mastery without those tools. So it's shocking that he would tell them to go learn something. Because from our perspective, it would feel like they knew it all.
00:19:05
Speaker
So there's something here that we need to dive into. Because if Jesus were to say to you or to me, hey, you're doing good, but you need to go learn. Well, that'd be fair. Like, yeah, you're right, I do. Right, but to these people, it's a shocking thing to say. But it's not just shocking, it's a rebuke. Because it's the sort of thing that a master would say to like a first year student,
00:19:36
Speaker
And this happened to me in a way. I was taking a graduate class at NC State electrical engineering. We had a test in it and we thought we had not done that well, but we thought passable. Well, the teacher comes in to the next class and he says, all right guys, I'm gonna give you a do over. And this next time, maybe you should try reading the book.
00:20:03
Speaker
Right, that's what Jesus is saying. Right, here's this thing that just happened between him and Matthew, and him and Matthew's friends, and the Pharisees, they have this response, and Jesus is like, okay, I'll give you a do-over. But this time you need to read the book. It's a rebuke, it's a strong rebuke. Right, how can he say this? Because it's the thing a master would say to a student, but it's because Jesus is the master.
00:20:31
Speaker
and they are the students, and they just don't recognize it yet. And Jesus understands the meaning and the implication and the practice of mercy, the thing he's telling them to go study, and they don't yet.
00:20:46
Speaker
And again, it's easy to like paint all the Pharisees and the religious leaders in this bucket to say, well, they're just bad people and they hated Jesus and they're always opposed to him and that's why, but they're not just that. The Pharisees, they wanted to be holy people and that's a good thing.
Personal Story on Mercy
00:21:04
Speaker
And they wanted to be right. They want their life to be free from error and that's a good thing. A lot of people don't want those things.
00:21:13
Speaker
And then they wanted for the people to be free from error and to be holy. And that's a good thing. So what are they missing? Why is this rebuke warranted? Why? Because Jesus is telling them they need to be rebuked. It's like we probably need to be rebuked also.
00:21:39
Speaker
And when I come to this passage in particular, I'll tell you, it's something that I've been wrestling with now for at least three years. I've preached several times on this passage, never the same sermon twice, because I keep learning for it. And the thing that really got me interested in this passage is I had studied it. And I was thinking, man, we need to be merciful. And I started to think about all these things. And I went on a business trip. I ended up in Baltimore.
00:22:06
Speaker
We'll have some friends in North Carolina. We were part of a church plant, so you form very tight connections with people when you're starting a new ministry with them. And one of my friends drove up to come see me, and we're hanging out in Baltimore. We just had, what was it? It was a hamburger with crab meat on top of it. Very good, by the way.
00:22:25
Speaker
and we're hanging out and we're talking and he asks, well, what's God been telling you lately? And we go to Matthew chapter nine and I tell him what I've been learning and I'm opining on all the details of mercy, right? And as we're talking, I mean, I was there seven days. This is the only time somebody came up to us. As I'm talking about how much I know of mercy, a homeless guy comes up to us and he says, hey, can you get me some food?
00:22:54
Speaker
But I was expecting him to ask for money, and he didn't. He asked for food. And because I was in the middle of telling my friend about mercy, do you know what my first reaction was? Like, where's my wallet? I mean, it was. Here I am, I'm talking about mercy. I'm telling my friend how we need to live out mercy, and I'm given the opportunity of my first reactions, the wrong one.
00:23:20
Speaker
Well, we do get past that, and we do engage the fellow in conversation. We start to hear his story, and it's a sad story, I think is mostly true. And we walked over with him, and we got him some food. And then when I come back to the scripture, I realize, you know what, Jesus did it so much better, not surprising.
Challenge to Practice Mercy
00:23:41
Speaker
Right, as I'm in the middle of talking about mercy, Jesus gives me an opportunity to do it.
00:23:49
Speaker
But in this passage, Jesus actually does mercy, and then he talks about it. I'm like, man, I got a lot to learn. And that's the third thing I'll tell you about, him saying go and learn. It's not just shocking, it is. It's not just a rebuke. I mean, it is that and we need it, but it's a demonstration. Jesus demonstrates mercy
00:24:17
Speaker
to Matthew, he's practicing it. And if only the Pharisees had observed more closely, then maybe their hearts would have been broken for the people right around them who were sick and needed a doctor. All right, Jesus is showing us the answer to our question. What does this world need? It's what the needy need. It's mercy.
00:24:46
Speaker
And the Pharisees might say, what the world needs is to be right. What the world needs is to be holy. And Jesus would not disagree with those things. Yes, people do need to be right. And they do need to be holy, but they need something else more and first. We need mercy.
00:25:14
Speaker
Matthew needs mercy. He needs forgiveness and restoration and community that come with mercy. Matthew's friends need mercy down through the ages and we need mercy. And
Mercy's Role in Faith
00:25:26
Speaker
we want mercy for our family, for our friends, our colleagues, our community. And mercy is what the Pharisees should have wanted, but sadly they wanted rightness and conformance first.
00:25:39
Speaker
You see, Matthew was an outcast, but he didn't have to be. The Pharisees should have been pursuing him, but they weren't. They should have taken all that they'd learned, all their book knowledge, and translated it into relentless pursuit of people who needed it. But instead, we see them not doing that. We see in Luke chapter 18, Jesus continuing to try to train and teach even the religious leaders
00:26:07
Speaker
I have that slide for you. In Luke chapter 18, Jesus tells a story about two people who go to the temple to pray. One of them is a Pharisee and the other is a tax collector. And verse 11 is there in bold. Look at what the Pharisee says.
00:26:25
Speaker
Standing by himself, he prayed thusly, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. Could you imagine if during a time of prayer, your head is bowed and you hear down the aisle, down the pew, God, I thank you so much, I am not like him.
00:26:58
Speaker
They knew enough to have mercy, but that wasn't their practice. And if you guys pray like that about me, if you thank God that you're not me, well, just get your silent prayer. The religious leaders, they found out that pointing out differences was easier than practicing mercy.
00:27:21
Speaker
And the act of comparison, though, is about pushing other people down so that we can stand on top of them and be just a little bit better. And then the Pharisees, they also had another root cause problem. They focused on behavior more than they focused on the heart. Behavior is what we see. The heart is what motivates what we see.
00:27:47
Speaker
Jesus tells us that we have to be careful with our words because our words flow from our heart. But the Pharisees focused on conformance and external behavior. Again, in Matthew chapter 23, towards the end of his ministry, Jesus is still trying to teach and train and rebuke the Pharisees that they might become the people they could be also. He tells
Parable of the Good Samaritan
00:28:11
Speaker
them verses two through four, and then again in 11,
00:28:16
Speaker
I think we have that for you. I won't read it for you. I'll just skip to the bottom line. He's telling them that what the Pharisees teach are rules. And then they pile on obligations and they essentially make access to God seem impossibly hard and difficult and out of reach. And then they wouldn't even lift a finger to help. They're glad to tell you what you need to know, but not glad to help you do it.
00:28:45
Speaker
Right, so even by this point in Jesus' ministry, they still haven't caught on to what mercy is. And then the rest of that passes through verse 11. Jesus tells him, the greatest among you shall be your servant. The one who knows the most should serve the most. Right, or simplified. Right, and don't miss what Jesus does say here. He says, do actually observe what they tell you. Jesus is not against holiness. He's not against rightness. But he says, don't do it the way they do it.
00:29:15
Speaker
All right, so Jesus is telling us, yes, do be holy, do pursue rightness, do pursue cleanness before God, but do it so you can show mercy, that you can serve others with mercy. Right, and if the Pharisees had allowed themselves to be shocked, to be rebuked, and to learn from Jesus' demonstration, maybe they would have pursued Matthew and his friends. And like those religious people,
00:29:46
Speaker
But sometimes I realize that I myself am more like them than what Jesus said. And maybe if you're honest, you would say sometimes it's easier to focus on behavior and comparison and rules than on the heart. And it reminds me of a song from Casting Crown, Jesus' Friend of Sinners. I'll just read a couple of lines. It says, nobody knows what we're for, only what we're against when we judge the wounded.
00:30:11
Speaker
What if we put down our signs, crossed over the lines, and loved like you did? O Jesus, friend of sinners, open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers. Let our hearts be led by mercy. Help us reach with open hearts and open doors. O Jesus, friend of sinners, and break our hearts for what breaks yours.
00:30:42
Speaker
And mercy is what we should want. In Matthew chapter five is part of one of Jesus' sermons. He tells us something wonderful. He says, blessed are the merciful because they're going to get something. Do you know what he says you're going to get? Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.
00:31:03
Speaker
And in Luke chapter 15, there's an expert in the law and he comes to Jesus and he tries to defend himself, justify himself, and he says, good teacher, what must I do to be saved? And Jesus says, well, you know the law, what does it say? And he goes, well, the law says this, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus says,
Practical Mercy Examples
00:31:23
Speaker
you're right, go do it. But the story doesn't stop there because then the guy seeking to justify himself says, well then, who's my neighbor?
00:31:33
Speaker
And Jesus tells him a story of a man who's on a journey and gets beaten by robbers and left for dead. And then religious people walk beside him and leave him. But a foreigner comes by, sees him, binds his wounds, pays for his care, and nurses him back to health. And Jesus says, which of these was a neighbor? And this expert in the law says, the one who showed mercy.
00:32:02
Speaker
And Jesus says, go and do likewise. Jesus throughout his ministry continues to come back to this passage that he told the Pharisees, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. It's a hallmark of his ministry. It permeates everything that he does. And it needs to permeate what we do. So what would it look like if we were to be people of mercy?
00:32:30
Speaker
Well, I'll start with a couple of things it doesn't look like. Compare and contrast. Mercy doesn't start out by questioning. How exactly did you get here? What was your decision-making process that led you to this point in life? Where exactly are your friends and family and why aren't they helping? Come on, you know you ask those questions? I do too.
00:33:00
Speaker
Oh, Julie and I, we lived in the shadow of the Astrodome right after we were married. So we had to get fuel every time our cars needed it. There was not a single time that I stopped to get gas that I wasn't approached for money, not once. And every single time I said, sure, I'll buy you food. Yes, I'll fill up your car with gas. Where's your car?
00:33:26
Speaker
Your family's over at church. Well, let's go over there. Let's go buy some, right? Nobody, not once did anybody take me up on the offer. So I understand being cynical, but mercy doesn't start there. Mercy starts with how can I help? I'm skipping ahead. And mercy doesn't say, I told you so. Look at you. I told you this was gonna happen. And like, yeah, can you help me? Oh, I can, but just a second, let me finish.
00:33:55
Speaker
You see, I told you it was gonna happen. No, no, Mercy doesn't do that. And Mercy doesn't punt. Like, ooh, that's a big problem. That's not my skill set. Right, because we're not called to fix people.
00:34:12
Speaker
That's not what Jesus is talking about with mercy.
Forgiveness in Mercy
00:34:15
Speaker
Yes, we might step in and we might meet physical needs. That could be part of it at some point, but what we're supposed to be doing as we show mercy is we connect with people and we let them know they're not beyond the reach of God's mercy. And when we refuse, when we punt, when we wait for somebody else to observe and hope that they do it, then the person goes unreached and feel more and more despondent that they are out of reach of God's love and God's mercy.
00:34:44
Speaker
So what does mercy do? Well, mercy, it steps in, it engages, it connects, it invites, it offers hope, and it walks alongside. And I'm sure many of you could point to examples where you've done this in your walk with the Lord, where you've lifted somebody up in prayer, where you've walked beside someone who's mourning, where you've taken meals to people who are in need. And surely you have examples from your own walk with the Lord,
00:35:16
Speaker
Right, but in the year that we've been through, right, this stay at home world, this masked up social distance world, it's hard. So my challenge to us today is can we recommit to be people of mercy? Can we think about those times where God has used us to be a conduit of his mercy for somebody else and say, that's gonna be the way I live. That's gonna characterize what I do every day.
00:35:46
Speaker
One thing I ask the youth regularly on Sunday mornings, we go through three things. We do highs and lows, and then I ask them, have you done something for someone? We're trying to get to the heart of mercy in the youth group. Have you done something for someone? Have you lifted them up to the Lord? Have you walked alongside them? So youth, get ready. We're gonna ask it again today. And then another thing that mercy does is mercy forgives.
00:36:17
Speaker
So mercy is not just help, it is help, but it extends into forgiveness and leniency and forbearance. And I've got to ask you, is there somebody you're holding a grudge against? Is there somebody who's hurt you and you haven't let it go? Mercy forgives. Just like Jesus forgives us. When you think about what Jesus has called you to and what he's called me to,
00:36:48
Speaker
He's called us to repent and in turn he forgives. In Psalm 51 verse one, the psalmist has just been through an extremely terrible set of decisions and horrible sins. He's had an affair with somebody and murdered the woman's husband. And his prayer of repentance asks for forgiveness because of God's great mercy. And God gives it to him.
00:37:18
Speaker
Right. Have mercy on me. Oh God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgression. Right.
Limitless Mercy
00:37:29
Speaker
Mercy forgives and God forgives, but do we. And then the last thing I want to tell you about mercy is not only does it connect, engage, invite, walk beside with not only does it forgive, but mercy doesn't have any limits.
00:37:47
Speaker
In Ephesians chapter two, there's this wonderful passage. We're told that we're saved in the first couple of verses. And then we learn we're saved through faith in Christ in the next few verses. And in between, it tells us why. Why are we saved? It's because God is rich in mercy. Ephesians chapter two, verse four. But God being rich in mercy. You get it? God is a mercy trillionaire.
00:38:19
Speaker
Or more, whatever the number is bigger than that, I don't know. Maybe you know. But that's what God is in mercy, and we can't outspend his mercy for us. But let's be honest. I can outspend the mercy you have for me. And you can outspend the mercy I have for you, and we can outspend the mercy we have for each other oftentimes. Right, maybe it's that I just show up and you don't like the way I look and you're done with me.
00:38:47
Speaker
Maybe all I have to do is offend you one time or you offend me one time and we're done with each other. But that's not mercy. Mercy doesn't have limits. God being rich in mercy. But I get it, it's easy to lose heart, it's easy to feel betrayed, but mercy forgives. And see, it's not so with Jesus since he is rich
00:39:16
Speaker
rich, overflowing, abounding in mercy. He doesn't stop. He doesn't quit. He doesn't let go. And oh, that we would learn what it means. That we would go and learn what it means. I desire mercy. That we would become people of mercy. That
Conclusion: Invitation to Practice Mercy
00:39:38
Speaker
we would be rich in mercy ourselves. A mercy requires a regular and a renewed commitment.
00:39:47
Speaker
And as we close, I'm gonna ask you to use this time to respond to Jesus' invitation to receive mercy and to be a person of mercy.