Showing Mercy Series

PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS: SHOWING MERCY

A. Mercy is a quality that is so needed today.

COMMENT:

We live in a WORLD where it’s so easy to become CALLUSED and INDIFFERENT. We are bombarded daily with news of TRAGEDIES, VIOLENCE, and SUFFERING PEOPLE. Living SANELY in such a WORLD often necessitates developing a certain amount of THICK

SKIN.

However, THICK SKIN and a HARD HEART are often confused with one another. Instead of developing THICK SKIN, many develop a HARD HEART. As a result, you can find HARD, UNFORGIVING people everywhere in our SOCIETY. Consequently, their HARDNESS has made them CYNICAL and MERCILESS.

ILLUSTRATION:

Some years ago in the Dallas area, a young teenage boy was brutally MURDERED by another teenage boy. The whole community was OUTRAGED at such a SENSELESS and VIOLENT crime. But what I remember, living in Bowie, Texas at that time, is an INTERVIEW that was done with the PARENTS of the MURDERED boy. The parents were Christian people. And this REPORTER, as all reporters do, wanted a HARD-HITTING INTERVIEW. It seemed to me that he was really trying to draw out the ANGER of the PARENTS. But that didn’t happen. Here is the STATEMENT that these parents made, as I recall.

“The PAIN of our loss is almost UNBEARABLE. We miss our son terribly. But we thank God that our son is in HEAVEN. We agree that the MURDERER must PAY for his ACTIONS, but we FORGIVE him.”

COMMENT:

Now, I must admit that it’s HARD for me to understand that kind of FORGIVENESS. But it’s even more difficult for non-Christians to COMPREHEND. In fact, after giving that PRESS CONFERENCE, those PARENTS were publicly CRITICIZED for their FORGIVENESS. The COMMUNITY just didn’t UNDERSTAND it. They even questioned the SINCERITY of their LOVE for their SON.

B. The Bible teaches that “God DELIGHTS in showing MERCY”- Micah 7:18b.

1. I’m thrilled about that because Paul said that “We are all sinners who deserve DEATH”- Rom. 6:23.

a. Yet God, through the blood of Jesus, bestows His MERCY on us and gives us ETERNAL LIFE.

b. And because God has been MERCIFUL to us, we, too, are to SHOW MERCY to others.

ILLUSTRATION:

Those Christian parents in Dallas told the young man who MURDERED their SON on the day of his SENTENCING: “We want you to know that we FORGIVE you for taking our SON away from us. And a day will not go by that we won’t be PRAYING for you.” (That’s MERCY!)

2. Jesus- “Blessed (HAPPY) are the MERCIFUL, for they will receive MERCY- Matthew 5:7.

COMMENT:

Those parents in Dallas have an INNER HAPPINESS and PEACE that most will never EXPERIENCE. They understand the MERCY they RECEIVED from God, and they understand the importance of SHOWING MERCY—even to one who is UNMERCIFUL.

3. We are to be MERCIFUL because God is MERCIFUL, even when we don’t DESERVE it.

MESSAGE:

COMMENT:

The word “MERCY” is a unique word. The Latin word for mercy is “misericordia” – “misery of the heart.” The Greek word for mercy means “tenderness, kindness, or good will towards the miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to relieve them.”

“MERCY” is PAIN of the HEART coupled with the desire and action to RELIEVE the HURT of another. It’s not just being SORRY for the HURTING. It’s not just FORGIVING those who WRONG you. But it’s taking the necessary steps to RELIEVE their MISERY.

I. PEOPLE OF MERCY ARE DESPERATELY NEEDED IN THE WORLD

A. SHOWING MERCY to people who are HURTING, people STRUGGLING with SIN, people

SHUNNED by SOCIETY, is simply a way of letting them SEE GOD.

1. MERCIFUL is a quality of God.

a. Jesus- “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful”- Luke 6:36.

b. Paul praises God for being - “The Father of all MERCY . . .”- 2 Corinthians 1:3.

2. Mercy is what God is all ABOUT. And it’s what He wants us to be about.

ILLUSTRATION:

Brennan Manning in his book “A Glimpse of Jesus,” tells a marvelous story about a college freshman, studying to be a PASTOR, ministering in the inner city of Philadelphia for a summer.

The young man RELUCTANTLY made his way off of the BUS and onto the sidewalk of one of the worst looking housing PROJECTS in town. As he entered the huge, dark TENEMENT he was first greeted by a HORRIBLE ODOR. WINDOWS were out. No LIGHTS in the hall. He heard a

BABY crying and hesitantly KNOCKED on the door.

A woman holding a NAKED BABY opened the door slightly. “WHAT DO YOU WANT?!” she snapped. “I’m here to tell you about Jesus.” She CURSED him down the HALL, down the

STEPS, and out to the SIDEWALK. The young man SAT on the CURB and CRIED.

Upon noticing a STORE on the corner, he recalled the BABY had no DIAPERS and that the woman was SMOKING. He bought a box of DISPOSABLE diapers and a pack of CIGARETTES.