Mercy is More Than Attitude
Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
INTRODUCTION: By definition (from several sources), mercy is defined as showing more kindness and love to a person than they deserve. It is a love determined by the state or condition of the person needing mercy, regardless of whether they are worthy or deserving of mercy. Mercy is a hallmark of kingdom and Christian behavior.
Biblically speaking, mercy is almost entirely in the realm of God. Mercy towards us is an act of God, and peace is what we experience in our hearts because God has been merciful towards and to us.
I THE KEY INGREDIENT FOR MERCY IS A TENDER HEART
A By its very nature mercy implies
1 Generosity
2 Forgiveness
3 Compassion
4 Removal of Wrong
5 Alleviation of Suffering
6 Providing of healing
B Jesus gives us a vivid example of mercy
Luke 10:25-37 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" 27 He answered: "’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’" 28 "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
30 In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ’Look after him,’ he said, ’and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37 The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
1 The Scribe was looking for justification
2 Jesus turns his attention to a situation in the parable of the Good Samaritan
3 Notice who is the neighbor – the Samaritan!
a The Samaritan is the one who crossed cultural lines
b The Samaritan is the one who put aside racial bias
c The Samaritan is the one who expressed compassion and generosity
4 The Priest is not the neighbor
5 The Levite is not the neighbor
6 God does not need priests and Levites, God needs neighbors!
a Luke 19:40 "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."
b God can communicate His intentions from the stones if He has to
7 To be a neighbor is to be a merciful
8 The Samaritan could have done far less than what he did, and fulfilled whatever obligation ha had to this man, but he DID NOT!
a He was not thinking in terms of obligation or justification!
b He was thinking in terms of mercy!
WE NEED TO BE THINKING THIS WAY ALSO! When we are thinking the right way we act not out of justification, but out of generosity.
Being a neighbor is being merciful.
Being a neighbor is an action, not a title.
Being merciful is not acting out of obligation, but out of generosity, concern, and fitting.
UNDERSTAND WHAT WE SEE AS OBLIGATIONS; GOD WANTS US TO SEE AS FITTING.
Lets take a test. In your bulletins there is a paper with some boxes. The boxes are labeled 1 to 4. Now before we get started, you may want to hide your answers.
Box number one – put down how much time you spent watching TV yesterday.
Box number two – put down how much time you spent studying your bible yesterday.
Box number three – apart from being church, Sunday School, or any other church activity, put down how much time did you study your Bible this last week
Box number four – were you more like the priest or the Samaritan with your Bible? Did I do enough to justify myself in my own mind, or was I motivated by something else?
Now we can do this with lots of things
Allow me to digress here for a moment, and speak to our men.
Men, we really fail in this area. We do not read our Bibles like we should, and we do not focus on spiritual things like we should.
Just down the street from us, the Master’s Christian Books Store is closing. It is closing, because it cannot stay in business, obviously! But let me give you a rundown of what its business statistics would be like.
80% of the typical sales of reading material in Christian bookstore is purchased by women.
Of the remaining 20% of sale, 10% or more are purchased by those in full time Christian service.
That means that at best 10% of biblical reading material is purchased by men.
And this kind of statistic runs all through our churches. We let our women and wives lead our Sunday School Classes and youth group. We let mothers and sometimes children be the spiritual leaders in our homes. We are content to involve and obligate ourselves in a variety of things, and then walk by the most important just like the priest and the Levite!
BEING A MERCIFUL PERSON IS SEEING THE NEED, SEEING THE WRONG, AND BEING GENEROUS IN PROVIDING WHAT IS NECESSARY TO HEAL IT.
James 2:13 (NIV) because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
James 2:13 (MSG) For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.
When we speak about the church the obligation is to come and put your time in, but the merciful thing is to reach out to the need with what you know will provide relief
There has been a lot of talk about the downfall of the church, and what are believers going to do about it. Well, we need to act more mercifully.
C Mercy assumes there is a need to be met and the resources to meet the need
1 Does your church have a need – YES!
2 Do you have the resources to meet that need – YES
3 So, what we need to do it get up and do what is fitting for us to do as a believer, and not what makes us feel justified!
D Everyone can be merciful
1 We do not need stuff to be merciful
2 We do not need training to be merciful
3 We do not need an anointing to be merciful
4 We need to ouse the resources God has given to us (whether material, intellectual, or spiritual) and remove the wrong and heal the hurts!
II THE REWARD FOR MERCY
A We emulate God Himself!
Luke 6:36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
1 As a believer, who do we really want to model?
2 As a believer, what is our goal?
a Holy as He is holy
b Immitate Christ
BEING MERCIFUL – IN ALL OF ITS PERMUTATIONS, HELPS US ACCOMPLISH JUST THAT!!!!
B We enter into God’s Kingdom with an inheritance
1 If the first reward answered what we really want to be as a believer, the second reward answers how we really want to enter in to heaven
Matthew 25:34-35 (NIV)
34 "Then the King will say to those on his right, ’Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
2 Mercifulness helps us enter heaven with perminance, not consumables.
III THE WARNING ABOUT MERCY
James 2:13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
A You and I face a judgment as believers, James warns us about HOW we will face that judgment.
B Mercy is victorious over judgment! In other words mercy allows us to be the victor in our time of jedgmrent.
Showing more love or kindness to a person than he or she expects or deserves.
— What The Bible Is All About: Glossary
Mercy is a form of love determined by the state or condition of its objects. Their state is one of suffering and need, while they may be unworthy or ill-deserving
— New Unger’s Bible Dictionary
Compassion for the miserable. Its object is misery. By the atoning sacrifice of Christ a way is open for the exercise of mercy towards the sons of men, in harmony with the demands of truth and righteousness
— Easton’s Illustrated Dictionary
One of Jesus’ famous beatitudes makes the showing of mercy a hallmark of kingdom behavior, accompanied by the promise that those who are merciful will be rewarded by obtaining God’s mercy
— Dictionary of Biblical Imagery
