Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Just a few announcements here before we see our next song, which will be
427 We Three Kings, 427 if you want to get that ready in your songbooks. Of course, we welcome you to come back on
Thursday for our Bible study at seven o'clock. We're going to be starting a brand new book on Thursday, which is
the book of Genesis. So hope to see you there for that. You see the So Many Times and Teams listed there in the
middle, the list of expecting mothers if you can keep them in prayer. And then we have the stats for salvations and
baptisms for the month of November. We had a great year for salvations and baptisms, over 2300 salvations and 57
micro no 58 baptisms. And so we break we broke our all time record high baptism record there. So praise God for
that. On the right hand side is the upcoming church events. We have our New Year's Day service on Thursday, January
1st, as I mentioned, seven o'clock men's prayer night is on Friday, January 2nd meeting at the building at 7pm. Men want
to encourage you to bring your sons with you to pray. Of course, dinner will be provided. And it'll be here at the
building craft meetup will be on Sunday, January 18th after the evening service. And then we have a music training
coming up on Saturday, January 24. I want to mention a couple things regarding being a family integrated church before
Brother Marcus comes up and leads us in our next song. You know, obviously we're a family integrated church, meaning
that infants and children stay with their parents in the service. We don't offer Sunday school classes. We don't
have nurseries per se. We do have mother baby rooms located throughout the building should your child need some
diversion. So what that means is this and I want to kind of educate our church on this just so you know how this how
this operates because you know, we want our kids to be in the service because we want them to learn how to behave
themselves in the house of God, right? All of our kids need to learn how to sit and pay attention during the preaching to
participate in the singing and so forth. But obviously, they're kids. And so kids sometimes get a little out of hand to
get a little fussy. They start crying. And so I want to give you some tips real quick on how to deal with that. Okay,
because a lot of people don't know they kind of don't know how to measure when to go out of the service when not to. Here's
the thing is that obviously, the mother baby rooms are located throughout the building. There's changing tables,
speakers, and screens so you can still tune into the preaching.
But the goal is to have your kids sit in the service and to pay attention during the preaching of God's Word, right?
It's kind of like the training wheels in there, and it's not meant for permanency, meaning that, you know,
you go in there if your kids get a little fussy, but eventually you need to make your way back in to help them
to be in the service. Now, this is how it works.
Obviously, if your kid is talking in the service, I don't think you should walk out.
I should just, I think you should just tell them not to talk, right? So, you know, if your kids is just, you know,
because sometimes kids are just like, ah, you know, or they'll repeat something that I say, right?
They'll kind of repeat the preaching. That's not bad.
Okay, the bad thing is is that if you don't train them how to behave themselves and say, you know, hey, don't talk during the preaching.
You need to be quiet. You need to pay attention and that's gonna be you're gonna have to do that like a lot of times.
Okay, training is like consistently telling them to do those things, right?
And obviously, we should not expect perfection from our kids either, meaning that they're gonna eventually do something like that.
They're gonna laugh or say something out loud. It doesn't bother me. It doesn't distract me.
Here's the thing though, if the kid is crying though, if your child is just starts crying,
obviously, if you can't control them in the service, meaning if you can't calm them down,
you know, within a minute or so, you should go to the mother-baby room, okay?
And try to make your way there as quick as possible. Obviously, there's one here, and then there's one in the back room,
and if you don't know exactly where they're at, our ushers can help you with that.
But if your kid is crying and they just uncontrollably crying, you need to take them into the mother-baby room.
Now, if your kid in the mother-baby room, if your child starts screaming, okay, we're not talking about crying anymore,
we're talking about weeping and wailing and gnashing in their teeth, okay?
And they're just like, you know, in the mother, first of all, if they do that here, you need to, you know, take them out.
But if they do it in the mother/baby room, you should also take them out of the mother/baby room.
And here's the last resort, I would say just take them outside, calm them down, until they're ready to come back in.
The reason for that is because, you know, obviously we're a family integrated church, meaning we want our kids to learn how to be in the service,
but that requires training on our part, right? We need to teach them not to do those things when they're in church.
And, you know, the moms who are in the mother/baby rooms, they need to listen to the preaching, they're part of the service too,
so you don't want to be a major distraction to them either, therefore you need to take them out not into the foyer when they're screaming.
Now why do you not want to take your kids out into the foyer while they're screaming? I'll tell you why.
Because the foyer, we can hear it all. You might as well just come in here, you know, because it echoes a lot.
So the last resort if your child is screaming is you need to take them outside, calm them down, and when they're ready, come back in.
Here's a way you could avoid that completely, okay? Train them when they're at home, how to sit through the preaching of God's word.
And here's a very simple tip that I want to give to you that will kind of help with that, and that is you should have Bible devotion time at home, okay?
Meaning that there should be a time throughout the week, at least once a week, where you sit down with your family, you sit your kids down, you read the scriptures unto them,
you take blessings, and they need to learn how to sit down and be quiet and learn how to behave themselves for that amount of time.
And the reason you want to do that is because that's training from when they come here, okay?
Now look folks, you need to discipline your children too though, okay?
And if your kid is throwing a major fit in church, you know, obviously there needs to be some form of discipline that is instituted upon your child.
Now don't just discipline them here though, you know, because you want to make it seem as though you discipline your kids. That needs to be done at home as well, okay?
And quite frankly, if you do it at home, you won't need to do it as much when they're here, okay?
A good stern look will often do the trick here if you're disciplining your children enough at home.
That's not to say you're not going to discipline them here because that will happen. I discipline my kids here.
If they misbehave, if they disobey, if they rebel, if they're disrespectful, I will discipline them here.
But quite frankly, most of the discipline that takes place with our children is at home.
And I say that to say this, and don't be offended at this, just take it as an admonition and as instruction.
Some of us need to start disciplining our kids a little more and not allowing them to throw crazy fits.
And I'm not talking about like the little ones. Little kids, little babies, they throw fits.
They're babies. They don't really know any better.
But when they start becoming toddlers and they understand what no means, you know what I mean?
And they just kind of throw a fit and you don't really know what to do.
That's an indication you're probably not disciplining them enough, okay?
We try to do our best to discipline our kids. We don't allow fits in our house, okay?
And if they do throw fits, they get disciplined because they're not just allowed to just, you know,
loudly disagree with us like that and disobey, you understand?
And so, you know, we need to train our children.
It's a blessing to be a part of a family-integrated church, but it comes with some instruction, too, though, okay?
Don't think, "Well, it's family-integrated, so I'm just going to let my kids scream as much as possible
and not do anything about it."
No, you need to do your part, okay?
Because, quite frankly, there's people who want to pay attention to the preaching.
It is distracting, so do us a favor.
If they cry, take them into the mother/baby room.
If they're screaming uncontrollably, then you need to take them outside
until you can calm them down and bring them back in.
If you want to avoid that, start training them this week.
New Year's resolution, amen?
Family devotions every week to train my kids how to just pay attention in the house of God.
That's very important, and so that was a little family time between you and I.
And I'm going to keep making this announcement for the next couple of weeks or so
because there's people here who need to hear that instruction as well who are not here.
And so that's pretty much it.
Make sure you silence your phones aside from your kids.
Silence your phones so as to not be a distraction during the service.
That is it, 427, We Three Kings of Orient are.
Song number 427, We Three Kings of Orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are bearing gifts we traverse afar.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Sing it on that first verse.
We three kings of orient are is our third song.
Amen.
We're in Micah chapter six.
Look down in your Bibles at verse number eight.
It says, "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of
thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."
And the title of my sermon this evening is Love Mercy.
Love Mercy.
I want to exhort you tonight to love mercy, love extending mercy to others.
This is a requirement from God from Micah chapter six.
It tells us to do justly, but also to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.
What does mercy mean?
What is that referring to?
Well, a simple definition of mercy, and I'm sure you've heard this before, is when you
don't get what you deserve, right?
When you don't get what you deserve, obviously we're referring to the punishment.
It's when you don't receive the full punishment of what you deserve for the sin that you've
committed, for the crime that you've committed, for the offense that you've done.
When you receive mercy, it's referring to the fact that you don't receive the full punishment
of that particular offense.
And obviously the counterpart to this would be grace, right?
Getting what you don't deserve.
And you can look at both of these and refer to them in salvation as salvation being by
grace, meaning that we got salvation not because we deserved it, not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, right?
The Bible says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God.
That gift is something that we don't deserve.
We don't merit it based upon our own righteousness because we're not righteous.
There's none that do with good, no, not one.
The Bible says for all have sin and come short of the glory of God, meaning that we do not
deserve to live forever in the presence of God, but God through his grace has extended
salvation unto us.
And when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we receive that grace, right?
We receive the gift by grace, but also salvation can be communicated through mercy, not by
works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.
What does that refer into?
Well, we deserve hell, right?
We deserve eternal damnation, but because we receive salvation, we received what not
only grace, but we didn't get what we deserved, which is hell as well.
Now, the opposite of mercy would be cruelty.
Proverbs chapter 11, you don't have to turn there, verse seven says,
"The merciful man doeth good to his own soul,
but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh."
And this evening, I want to talk about the importance
of being merciful one toward another, being merciful to others,
being merciful in our marriage, being merciful towards our children,
being merciful towards complete strangers.
You know, it's important for us to possess the quality
of just loving mercy, right?
And I'm not just referring to loving the mercy of God.
We all love God's mercy.
We love it when we don't get what we deserve from God.
And quite frankly, all of us can attest to the fact
that maybe we've offended God and we never received
the full punishment of our offense, right?
God was merciful unto us.
He showed his grace.
He extended his mercy, his loving kindness, and we thank God for that.
In fact, you know, it's one of the reasons why we love the Lord
is because he was merciful unto us.
He extended loving kindness and grace unto us.
Well, that's easy to love.
What the Bible is telling us here is that we should love
extending mercy to others, right?
Not just being patient with them, not just being gracious,
but even loving, being merciful to them as well.
Let me read you a couple of verses before we come back to Micah, chapter six.
Matthew, chapter seven, excuse me, Matthew, chapter five.
And verse number seven says, blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.
So in other words, if you want to obtain mercy from God, if you want God to be
merciful to you when you fall short, just make sure you extend mercy to others.
In other words, if you don't extend mercy, don't expect mercy from God.
Luke, chapter six in verse thirty six says, be therefore merciful as your
father also is merciful.
So just as God has extended mercy to you,
he's expecting for you to emulate that and be merciful to others.
James, chapter three and verse seventeen says, but the wisdom that is from above
is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated.
I want you to notice this full of mercy and good fruits without partiality,
without hypocrisy and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them
that make peace.
I want you to notice that it says that we should be full of mercy,
but also without partiality.
Right. In other words, you shouldn't be a respecter of people.
And it's possible to not be partial, but still extend mercy.
And I'll get into that in just a bit.
Point is, we should be full of mercy.
Colossians, chapter three and verse number twelve says this.
Put on, therefore, as the elect of God.
This is referring to that new man that we put on
when we walk in the spirit to not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
It's just put on, therefore, as the elect of God.
Holy and beloved bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind,
meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another.
If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you,
so also do you.
It should be that when we walk in the spirit,
when we walk in the new man, we automatically become merciful people
desiring and loving to extend mercy to others.
We don't want to be cruel.
We don't want to be impatient with others.
We don't want to be the type of people
that just wants to bring the hammer down on someone automatically.
When they offend us, we need to have mercy towards others.
Now, let me explain a couple of things here.
Let me explain what mercy is not.
OK, first of all, let me say this.
Mercy is not doctrinal leniency.
It's leniency towards those who don't understand doctrine.
So it's not doctrinal leniency.
It's like, well, you know, this pastor is teaching false doctrine.
But we need to be merciful towards that person. Wrong.
We need to be merciful to those who are deceived by the false prophet, right?
Because a person who is in a position to preach the word of God should know better.
They should know what the Bible says.
Mercy is not doctrinal leniency.
It's being patient and lenient with those who don't quite understand doctrine.
So when a new person comes to our church and they don't quite understand
the doctrines that you already know, you need to show that person some mercy.
If they have not grown in their faith, they haven't read through the Bible,
they haven't heard Bible preaching.
You need to extend mercy towards them and not expect them to be on par
with where you're at. Extend mercy to them, right?
Doctrinal leniency is not referring to mercy.
Mercy is the leniency that we show towards others when they don't quite
understand what the Bible actually says.
Not only that, but mercy is not tolerating or accepting sin, right?
It's patience with those who struggle with it and a grace period
for those who need to get right with God.
So mercy isn't tolerating sin.
Well, this person's involved in fornication.
You know, I don't want to preach against it.
I don't want to correct this person because I don't want to offend them.
That's not mercy.
Mercy is actually telling them that the sin is wrong
and telling that person that they need to get right with God.
If not, they're going to be thrown out of the church
and giving them a grace period for them to get right with God.
Understand?
We need to make sure that we recognize that mercy is not doctrinal leniency.
It's not the tolerance of sin.
It's patience with those who struggle with it.
Let me just make myself very clear.
You know, we obviously can see in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 5,
that there are certain sins that will get you kicked out of church, right?
Drunkenness, fornication, extortion, idolatry, railing,
you know, things of that nature.
And obviously, if a person is unrepentant of that sin,
they need to get excommunicated from the church, right?
Amen?
But here's the thing.
Sometimes you'll have people who struggle with those sins, right?
They know that it's wrong.
They're trying to do their best.
Maybe they have an addiction to alcohol.
They don't want to drink alcohol.
But they kind of fall back into that.
You know, that person is not going to get excommunicated.
That person just needs help because they're struggling with that sin.
What is that?
It's called mercy, right?
This is not a person who's just flagrantly committing that sin.
They're just kind of proud about it.
They're shameless about it.
This is a person who's struggling with that vice and they need help.
They need mercy.
Okay.
So mercy is not doctrinal leniency.
It's not tolerating or accepting sin.
And let me also say this.
Mercy is not never instituting punishment for offenses.
It's being satisfied and compassionate towards those who receive it.
So you know, mercy is not like, well, you know, we should never punish someone for a
particular offense.
No, actually mercy is being satisfied with whatever punishment they receive and compassionate
towards them when they want to get right with God.
Okay.
Very important to note.
Now you're in Micah chapter six.
Let me give you a couple of points regarding loving mercy.
The first thing I want to say here is that mercy and judgment are not mutually exclusive.
Mercy and judgment are not mutually exclusive.
Both of these virtues are to exist at the same time, okay?
To do justly and to love mercy, live in harmony.
Look at Micah six verse eight says, he had showed you a man what is good and what does
the Lord require of them, but to do justly and to love mercy.
You see, sometimes those, there are Christians out there that don't like this kind of preaching.
They don't like the rigid doctrinal stances.
They don't like preaching against sin and they often view themselves as extending mercy
to everyone.
But at the exclusion of executing justice wrong, my friends, you got to have both.
You got to have justice, but you also have to have mercy.
And if you are, you know, excusing sin, first of all, you're not being just and you're also
not being merciful towards those people who are affected by that sin.
You got to have both.
You have to do justly, but you also have to love mercy in order for you to love mercy
and do justly, you have to have the right definition of what mercy is.
So to do justly and to love mercy, live in harmony.
To love mercy is to institute justice on those who are merciless.
You see, when we punish people for a particular offense or crime, we are being merciful towards
those who deserve the justice, right?
Towards those who were affected by the criminal, those who are affected by the offender, that's
a way of extending mercy unto them.
Mercy and judgment are not mutually exclusive.
Go to 1st Samuel chapter 15, if you would, 1st Samuel chapter 15.
Let me give you some examples of people extending mercy instead of doing justice and judgment.
And make no mistake about it, justice and judgment are very important in the eyes of
God.
There are virtues that God has, but there are also virtues that he wants us to have.
And a lot of times, you know, Christians nowadays will condemn people who condemn sin, who condemn
those who are committing sin, right?
First Samuel chapter 15, and they'll often say this, that they're doing that as a way
of extending mercy towards others.
But quite frankly, it's wrong.
Look at first Samuel chapter 15 and verse number two, here's an example.
Verse two says, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel,
how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt.
Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not, but
slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass."
Now let me give you a little bit of context here of what's taking place.
King Saul is the first king of Israel.
And obviously by this point, he's already kind of backsliding, right?
He is getting away from the Lord.
He's doing things that are not pleasing to God, but he still holds that position of being
the king.
So therefore he still has the responsibility to obey God in whatever commandment God gives
to him of how to reign the kingdom of Israel.
He needs to obey in that area.
And it just so happens that in this particular case, he says, "Hey, I want you to go destroy
Amalek and these are the reasons why."
Now look, folks, let's just say right off the bat, God didn't need to explain himself
to Saul.
Anytime God gives us a command, we just ought to do it, right?
But he's explaining to him, "Hey, this is what I want you to do.
This is how I want you to do it.
This is the reason why I'm having you do it."
Okay?
Now what is he saying?
You know, you need to execute justice and judgment upon Amalek for this is right.
Okay?
Now, what should have Saul done?
Obeyed.
Look at verse eight.
So he destroys, you know, he takes over Amalek, but look at verse eight, "And he took Agag,
the king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of
the sword."
You disobey?
No.
Why?
Because God specifically told him to destroy everything.
He didn't say save King Agag alive.
What is Saul doing?
Showing him mercy.
And obviously later on, he ends up blaming the people saying, "Oh, it's the people who
wanted to spare King Agag.
It's the people who wanted to spare all of the livestock.
You disobeyed."
Look at verse nine.
It says, "But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen,
and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy
them, but everything that was vile and refused, that they destroyed utterly."
So he extended mercy when God didn't want him to extend mercy.
He was supposed to execute judgment and justice upon Amalek, but he disobeyed and he sinned
against the Lord.
Okay.
Look at verse 23.
Samuel said, "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying
the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of ramps.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being
king."
So what does God say?
You know, because you were merciful when I told you not to be merciful, therefore you're
fired.
He's taking the kingdom away from Saul and obviously he's going to give it to David.
We see that Saul extended mercy when he was supposed to extend judgment.
But quite frankly, if he just obeyed the Lord in judging Amalek in like manner, he would
have extended mercy towards the victims of Amalek, understand?
Because obviously, you know, King Agag was a very wicked king, that society was extremely
evil, they killed many children, they were complete pagans, and it was right for them
to execute justice upon them.
But King Saul chose not to go to first Kings chapter 20, first Kings chapter 20.
My point being is that mercy and judgment are not mutually exclusive.
They're to live in harmony, one with another.
Don't be the person that says, well, you know, I'm not going to condemn this particular
sin.
I'm just trying to be merciful to know you're actually being a hypocrite.
Know you're being a little compromiser.
Know you're being lenient with sin.
These two ideas are two virtues that God wants you to do at the same exact time.
And yes, you're able to do both at the same time.
Okay.
Look, look at another example of someone extending mercy when they're supposed to extend judgment.
First Kings 20 is a very, actually it's kind of a funny story to begin with.
I think it's funny.
Verse 35 says, "Then a certain man of the sons of the prophets said into his neighbor
in the word of the Lord, 'Smite me, I pray thee,' and the man refused to smite him.
Then said he unto him, 'Because I was not obeyed the voice of the Lord, behold, as soon
as I were departed from me, a lion shall slay thee.
And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him and slew him."
Sometimes you run into these stories in the Old Testament and you're just like, "What
just happened?"
That's crazy.
What?
What happened?
So basically what's taking place here is you have a prophet who is about to use a crazy
illustration to preach against Ahab.
And he goes to this man and he says, "Hey, I want you to punch me in the face."
Okay?
It doesn't really say the face, but we're assuming it's probably somewhere in his face,
right?
He says, "I want you to punch me."
And the guy is just like, "I can't."
And he goes, "Okay, because you disobeyed me, now you're going to get eaten up by the
lion."
It's just like, "Oh man, that's pretty wild, right?"
So that's exactly what happens.
He departs and a lion slays him.
Now look at verse 37.
"Then he found another man and said, 'Smite me, I pray thee.'
And the man smote him, so then in smiting him, smiting he wounded him."
So it's possible that this next guy was like an earshot of what happened.
And he's just like, "Say less," you know?
He's just like, "Bwah!"
But it says that he hit him so bad that he ended up wounding him.
You know, they went bodies and he actually ended up like, you know, actually injuring
the prophet.
And this is the intent of the prophet.
He wanted to be injured.
He wanted to be injured to be the illustration that he's going to present to King Ahab.
But it's also illustrating another principle regarding getting smitten and obeying the
word of the Lord.
Okay.
So this guy, he punches him, he smites him, and he ends up injuring the prophet.
Verse 38 says, so the prophet departed and waited for the king.
By the way, the king referring to King Ahab and disguised himself with ashes upon his
face.
And as the king passed by, he cried into the king and said, thy servant went out in the
midst of the battle and behold, a man turned aside and brought man unto me and said, keep
this man.
If by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life or else thou shall
pay a talent of silver.
So what he's saying is this, he stops the king, he says, Hey, some bad happened.
You know, I was entrusted with a prisoner of war to take care of this guy.
And you know, and we're going to see later on that the guy gets away.
And he says, Hey, don't let this guy get away or else you're going to pay with your life.
Verse 40 or a town of silver verse 40 says, and as they servant was busy here and there,
he was gone and the king of Israel said to him, so shall I judgment be thyself has decided
it.
So in other words, it's just like, okay, then you deserve to die or you need to pay the
town of silver for letting the guy go because you did not oversee the prisoner of war.
Thy life shall be for his life, right?
Or pay a town of silver.
So the reason the prophet had the other man smite him is to look as though he's also part
of the battle or the warfare.
That's why he has ashes upon his head.
He smitten as though he's involved in warfare.
And so, you know, the King Ahab is deceived into thinking, Oh, this guy's a soldier as
part of the war.
He was entrusted to see this prisoner of war and he lost him.
So Ahab is like, Oh, your life should go for his.
Yeah, you're going to die or you need to pay the town of silver.
That's what needs to happen to you.
Verse 41, and he hasted referring to the prophet and took the ashes away from his face.
And the king of Israel discerned that he was, he was of the prophets.
So in other words, as soon as he says that the prophet is just like, you know, he takes
off all the ashes, composes himself and the king's like, Oh man, this is the prophet.
This is not a soldier.
This is not someone who is, you know, fighting in the battle.
I recognize this guy.
He's a prophet.
He says in verse 42 and he said in him, thus say the Lord, because that was let go out
of thy hand, a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for
his life and thy people for his people.
And the king of Israel went to his house heavy in displeased and came to Samaria.
Now what he's referring to is King Ben-Hadad.
God wanted to kill King Ben-Hadad, but Ahab let him go.
Ahab was merciful to King Ben-Hadad.
He let him go free just as the illustration points out.
And what does the prophet say?
Well, now your life shall go for his.
You're going to die in his stead because you chose to be merciful to someone who deserved
and merited justice and judgment because you're just so merciful when in actuality you're
supposed to extend judgment upon that person.
What's the point?
The point is judgment and mercy are not mutually exclusive.
You can have both.
And folks, if God calls a sinner sin, if he says that fornication merits excommunication,
if he says that drunkenness merits excommunication, you can't be merciful to that.
Judgment needs to be extended, right?
If a person is guilty of railing, they don't want to get right with God.
They're completely unrepentant.
They need to be excommunicated from the local New Testament church because judgment needs
to be instituted.
But hold on a second.
If that same person returns repentant, guess what?
We need to extend mercy to them.
Why?
Because we love mercy.
And in fact, you know, we shouldn't necessarily be happy and rejoice when a person is excommunicated.
To a certain degree, it should grieve us.
Unless it's just some complete false prophet reprobate.
That's a different story.
We're talking about someone who's just involved in sin.
They're not willing to get right.
They're just completely involved in vice.
They're entangled therewith.
They don't want to stop fornicating.
They don't want to stop gambling.
They don't want to stop committing these sins.
Well, they need to go.
Why?
Because God wants us to love judgment as well.
And the right judgment is to remove people from the congregation because of unrepentant
sin.
But in like manner, if that individual returns and says, I repent, I want to come back to
the fold, guess what?
We need to extend love towards them and mercy and welcome them back into the fold.
And not hang that over their heads.
You know, if someone was excommunicated from our church because of some offense they were
not willing to get right with you about, and then they get right about it, you should not
hold a grudge against that person.
You know what you should do?
Love mercy.
Love being merciful towards that person.
And what does it mean to love mercy when you're being merciful to someone else?
It means that when they return, it's just business as usual.
Right?
I mean, it's not like, well, well, well, how's it going?
Where have you been?
You know?
Oh, oh, that's right.
You were thrown out, huh?
That's not loving mercy.
Right?
It's just like, oh, well, well, well, man, just 2026, huh?
You finally decided to get right with God.
You know, it should be that you love, you know what mercy does?
It covers a multitude of sin.
It just kind of allows them to kind of live it down, get right with the Lord and just
pick up where you left off.
Right?
That's what it means to love mercy.
It's recognizing we need justice, but never at the exclusion of mercy.
We love mercy, but never at the exclusion of judgment.
Don't be like King Saul or like King Ahab that think that they're extending mercy when
in actuality they're disobeying the Lord.
They're not extending judgment and therefore they were punished for that.
Go to Jonah chapter four, Jonah chapter four.
So those are two examples of people in the Bible who were extending mercy when they were
supposed to extend judgment.
Let's look at an example of someone wishing for justice instead of extending mercy.
You know who's the perfect example of that?
Jonah is, right?
Now we're not going to go through the whole story of Jonah.
Bro was swallowed up by a whale for disobeying God.
He gets vomited out because he actually repents.
God extends mercy to him.
He cries into the Lord.
The fish vomits him out.
And then he finally decides to obey God, go to Nineveh, preach the word of God.
And what happens?
The nation repents.
Praise God, right?
The nation repents.
Even the animals are in sackcloth and ashes.
You know, the king basically declares fasting and mourning for the entire nation.
I mean, the word of God has power.
Now, if you're a Jonah, you think to yourself like, man, I'm so glad that I got right with
God.
Because look at all these people getting right with God too, because I got right with God.
But is that his attitude?
No.
Look at Jonah chapter four and verse two, it says, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly
and he was very angry and he prayed into the Lord and said, I pray thee, O Lord, O Lord,
was not this my saying when I was yet in my country, therefore I fled before unto Tarshish,
for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness
and repent is the of the evil.
Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee my life from me for it is better for me to
die than to live.
Then said the Lord, do us that well to be angry.
So what's wrong with Jonah?
He's like a new year.
You're going to be merciful to them.
What does that mean?
It means he, Jonah wanted God to destroy Nineveh instead of extending mercy.
What did Jonah do?
He wanted to extend judgment.
Oh, great.
Now that I preach, everyone's getting right with God.
Now they're going to survive.
Now God's not going to burn them down.
Now he's not going to destroy them.
No, you should rejoice in the fact that God extended mercy.
Right?
Look, we live in a society.
It's very cool.
It rejoices when people are injured.
It rejoices when people suffer wrongfully.
I mean, social media has caused us to be desensitized to the sufferings of man.
And quite frankly, it doesn't please God.
Why?
Because we obviously want judgment and justice to come upon the wicked if that's decreed
by the Lord.
But at the same token, we should desire for them to be saved.
We should desire for them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to get right with God,
and you know, to get in the Bible, believe in church, to turn to righteousness.
Why?
Because God loves mercy and he wants us to love mercy as well.
Okay?
Do us that well to be angry?
That's the question we need to ask ourselves today, right?
The point that I'm making here is that mercy and judgment are not mutually exclusive.
We should desire both not just mercy at the exclusion of judgment because then that becomes
compromise but not just judgment at the exclusion of mercy because then we become cruel in order
to live a balanced life as a Christian.
We need both in the rightful place.
Go to Proverbs chapter three if you would Proverbs chapter three Proverbs chapter three
point number two regarding loving mercy point number one was mercy and judgment are not
mutually exclusive.
They live in harmony seek to be a just person seek to be a person of judgment but also seek
to love mercy and extend mercy to others point number two is this extend mercy or extending
mercy should I say gives you favor with God and man.
So you know aside from the fact that we're commanded to love mercy a great motivator
to inspire you to love mercy is that it actually gives you favor with God and with man.
Look at Proverbs chapter three verse one my son forget not my law but let thine heart
keep my commandments for length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee.
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee bind them about thy neck and write them upon the
table of thine heart.
Now before I continue reading here I want you to notice that mercy is also coupled with
what truth don't just have mercy and have no truth don't just be an emotionally merciful
person but it's not grounded in what the bible actually says you need to have mercy as well
as truth bound about your neck he says in verse four so shalt thou find favor and good
understanding in the sight of god and man you know people want to be friends with merciful
people people who are patient with them not people who just bring the hammer down on them
not people who just don't extend any form of grace any form of mercy you know who people
like to be around the most in our church the person who's merciful towards them person
who's patient towards them person who extends grace the person who's just super hard on
everyone typically doesn't have the most friends right it's often the individual who extends
mercy and grace that is the byproduct that is the result of not allowing mercy and truth
to forsake you you don't have to turn there Psalm 18 go with me if you would to Matthew
chapter 18 go to Matthew chapter 18 Psalm 18 verse 25 says with the merciful listen
to this thou will show thyself merciful so look folks if you want favor with God be a
merciful person you want God to favor you to bless you to be merciful to you you better
make sure that you are extending mercy hey husband you better make sure that you're merciful
towards your wife your wife falls short she doesn't make you the meal she didn't make
you the sandwich when you told her to do it she didn't cut off the crust she put mayonnaise
she put mustard when you didn't ask for it eat that thing and be merciful she burnt the
steak merciful now obviously you know every once in a while you just got to say honey
this is what is this okay i don't want you to keep making these mistakes so don't salt
it too much i don't want you to keep making so don't don't don't burn the steak but you
know in general that should not be your your consistent disposition constantly getting
on your wife constantly corrected she can never do anything right no be merciful to
her to her shortcomings right and in fact i mean doesn't the bible say for husbands
not to be bitter against their wives isn't that interesting you know it's often we think
oh no it's the wives who are as bitter towards their husbands but the bible says it constructs
the men not to be bitter towards their wives what is the bible telling us it's showing
us that women have a tendency to make their husbands mad sometimes and they can often
if they're not careful hold grudges towards their spouses for whatever reason well here's
a virtue that you need to learn husbands be merciful to them why because according to
the bible they're the weaker vessel okay the weaker vessel they're weaker emotionally they're
weaker physically they're not weaker necessarily mentally but they are weaker in those particular
areas right you know they're not necessarily weaker spiritually but you know physically
and emotionally they are weaker yes you know women are just emotional beings okay men you're
not supposed to be that emotional if you have the emotions of a woman something's wrong
right don't be like your wife okay but you know just recognize that if your wife is being
emotional be merciful towards her don't say hey here's a three point outline and how to
just fix that real quick let me just show you why you why you crying for you got me
you know I mean what's what's the problem here you know I aren't I better to you than
ten sons you know be merciful towards her her shortcomings the fact that maybe she's
struggling we need to extend mercy again not at the exclusion of correction though
and I believe wholeheartedly that men have every right to correct their wives that's
a fact more amen should have been said right there let me say that again men have every
right to correct their wives and all the men said all right don't be scared if you
are blink twice it's true I mean folks we're to wash our wives with the washing of the
word we're supposed to teach our wives what the Bible says and we're supposed to teach
them things about life we're there to protect them you know we want we have their best interest
in mind right but hold on a second we need to be merciful when they don't meet our quote
unquote expectations as well though like oh man I can't believe you didn't pull the laundry
or something don't you know I need this tomorrow you know every once in a while just cut her
some slack just be merciful because quite frankly you're no Abraham either you know
every once in a while just throw your laundry in the dirty bin you know instead of leaving
it everywhere in the house right show some mercy and compassion towards your wife let
me say this you know extend mercy towards your children I'm for disciplining your children
as we were talking about in the announcements and in fact I don't think you're good parents
if you don't discipline your children I think you're horrible parents if you don't physically
discipline your children because the Bible commands us to spank our children that's not
a popular message today because we have such a limp-wristed weak society that doesn't want
to do that to the kids because Gen Z is so you know they're a bunch of wusses or whatever
got to be careful what I say here you know but at the end of the day you know we need
to make sure that as parents we're disciplining our children that's what the Bible actually
says and you know what if Gen Z was disciplined we wouldn't have Gen Z the point that I'm
making here hey we need to discipline our children but you know we also need to extend
mercy towards our children as well right there's been instances where my children disobey
and you know they get their spankings all of them get their spankings they have to get
their spankings because that's what they need right but there's been instances where maybe
my son or my daughter you know merited a spanking and I'll tell them you deserve a major whooping
for this but I'm not going to do it because I'm going to extend mercy towards you just
remember this I'm being merciful towards you you say why did you do that because I
want them to recognize that that's how God is going to treat them as well there's going
to be times in their life as a Christian where we don't get what we deserve from God and
I want my kids to recognize that's how my dad was there was times when I needed to be
punished I deserve the punishment but but my father extended mercy towards me hey be
merciful towards your kids because they're kids they're kids they need to learn they
need to grow but you know don't so don't err so much on the mercy that you forsake
judgment though and it's just like oh man you know I'm just a merciful type of a parent
I can't spank my kids that just makes me feel bad you're a bad parent you're not going to
deliver your your child from hell if you don't discipline your children you're going to raise
a spoiled little brat who doesn't know how to function in the society can't keep a job
is a reproach to a society because their parents did not spank them prison is filled with people
who weren't spanked it's a fact I'll be and look folks you know I didn't like getting spanked when
I was a kid who does what he likes and look you know you kids are fortunate that we're just talking
about spanking I got I got beaten when I was growing up you know what I mean I don't know
what a spanking was when I when I when I became a Christian I'm like what's a what's a what's a
swap I don't know what a spanking is what is that oh that's when you spank them on the bottom like
oh that's it man that's that's luxury right there but you know what I'm thankful that my mom whooped
me though very thankful for it that's why I'm not a drug addict that's why I'm not in prison that's
why I'm not in gangs that's why possibly one of the reasons why I'm a pastor is because my parents
discipline me and if you grew up not being disciplined by your parents you better make
sure you make it your conviction to discipline your children when you have children so they don't turn
out like you before Christ amen that's an important truth my friends point that I'm making here though
is that you know there's instances where children require discipline but every once in a while you
got to extend some mercy okay and don't be the parent that's always extending mercy though
because judgment and justice has to be executed as well it's commanded by God but it's equally as
commanded to show them mercy especially when you see that maybe they made a mistake you know don't
just whoop your children for spilling milk or something like that like they fall over and just
scrape their knees you're just like I'm gonna give you a whooping for that now that's not mercy they
they fell that's what a toddler does they fall you know oh man our kids are just he's just never
listened yeah he's like two years old he needs to be trained don't just go off on him just because
he's being a child he's learning training needs to be instituted but you have to have some semblance
of mercy as well and look folks the more kids you have the more you realize there's certain
kids that need more spankings than others that's a fact okay there's some kids are just like God's
going to use this kid one day in a big way because he's getting a lot of spankings right his will is
strong her will is strong but let me just say this you know make sure that you don't wound them so
much in their spirit and their attitude because of your lack of mercy okay and let me just throw this
in for good measure you know I personally believe you don't have to do this this is what I do or at
least I try to do as best as I can when I spank my children you know I'm not just like going all
crazy all mad and everything and then I just like we just leave it at that no I try to bring closure
to that judgment meaning that I'll give them a hug I'll sit them on my lap I'll comfort them
and then I'll tell them what they did that was wrong and then I give them kisses I give them hugs
we reconcile right and then he's able he or she is able to move on with their lives. We want to
bring closure you know a lot of us grew up in homes where there was no closure after discipline
right it's just we're whooped and it was just awkward for like a week or so and it's only when
they invited you down for dinner that you knew you guys were cool again or something you know
you can't have that there needs to be some form of closure there needs to be reconciliation there
needs to be mercy extended but keep that in mind this week if that child that's constantly getting
out of hand doesn't obey you're giving them spankings you know every once in a while just
extend mercy and explain why you're extending mercy to them okay and let them know that you are
point that i'm making here is that learn how to practice mercy because god loves it when
you're merciful and you know what he ends up doing he ends up being merciful to you
you screw up you spill milk when you rebel when you disobey you know what god does i'm going to
give you mercy you deserve to be punished you deserve x y and z and god's like i'm not going
to punish you to the fullest extent because i'm going to extend mercy to you and quite frankly
all of us have experienced that one time or another in our lives right we've all experienced
some level of mercy where it's just like god was merciful to me and for that reason i'm not dead
or i'm not whatever you know fill in the blank don't don't tell me your crimes or anything
you know that's for that reason I didn't suffer the main consequences of my
actions because God was merciful to me okay then go be merciful to someone else
the point that I'm making here is that when we're merciful with others
God is merciful with us verse 25 again you don't have to turn there
we're in psalm 18 he says with the merciful thou will show thyself merciful
and with an upright man thou will show thyself upright
with the pure that will show thyself pure and with the
forward thou will show thyself forward do you know why people just out there
you know people just hate god i'll tell you why because they're forward
so they view god as being forward and perverse as well okay
proverbs 14 22 says do they not err that devise
evil but mercy and truth shall be to them that devise
good point number three regarding loving mercy
is loving mercy requires extending mercy when you received mercy let's look at a
parable here in matthew chapter 18 and verse 21 verse 21 says then came peter
to him and said lord how oft shall my brother sin
against me and i forgive him till seven times
now let me explain to you what peter's asking okay when can i just institute
punishment on my brother after he offends me do i have to wait
seven times at the eighth time can i give him a whooping
can i you know fill in the blank here jesus sayeth unto him
i say not unto thee until seven times but until 70
times seven now he's being facetious here
he's basically saying you need to forgive perfectly in other words
don't stop forgiving have a disposition of constantly forgiving your offender
okay and then he he goes into a parable here to
to explain how this looks verse 23 says therefore is the kingdom of heaven
likened unto a certain king which would take account of his servants
when he had begun to reckon one was brought unto him which owed him
10 000 talents but for as much as he had not to pay
his lord commanded him to be sold and his wife
and children and all that he had and payment to be made so this guy
was going to suffer the consequences of his
actions why because he went into debt and he didn't pay it
and the king is just like you're going into slavery
and to being a bond servant your wife and your children
everything that you have this is the consequence of your action the servant
therefore fell down and worshiped him verse 26 saying lord have patience with me
and i will pay thee all so he's just like please you know just
extend some mercy to me be patient with me i'll pay
my debt i'll pay you all as long as you're patient with me
verse 27 says then the lord of that servant
was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him that debt now that's
powerful so let's just say this guy was in debt for like a million dollars
you know there's various opinions as to what the amount was
but there's obviously an amount that this man could not pay and
he was going to suffer some severe consequences he humbled himself
asked the lord for patience and the king said you know what
there's no debt i forgive you it's a clean slate you're forgiven
you don't have to pay me back i mean that's amazing that is an amazing gift
right and obviously the picture there is
salvation all of us have ascended that we could not pay
and we think to ourselves oh please be patient with me i'll pay
i'll pay i'll pay it all i'll keep all of god's commandments i'll go to church
i'll do good works and you know what the lord says i'll just forgive you of all
of that through jesus christ you're forgiven of all your sins
past present and future you know when you get saved you're forgiven of
everything you know the blood of jesus christ doesn't just forgive you of past
sins it's not like it's only allocated for the
really big bad sins you committed in the past
the blood of jesus christ covers all sin it pays the entire debt
in full you know in light of that that should cause us to rejoice to be happy
like wow we're forgiven of so much so this is a
beautiful story here right this guy is forgiven of all this debt
look verse 28 but the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants
which owed him a hundred pence and he laid hands on him
and took him by the throat saying pay me that thou owe us
and his fellow servant fell down at his feet but sought him saying have patience
with me and i will pay thee all and he would
not but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt how wicked
and evil is that so this guy owes him a hundred pence
which we can say maybe it's like ten dollars or something
who's who's willing to be for me to grab him come here christian
i want to grab you by the throat come up here so you know
this guy's just like man i was just forgiven of a million dollars
this is so great i'm debt free now and oh it's money he's like hey buddy you
owe me like ten dollars and the guy's just like forgive me
you know and i just be patient on me and he's just like you better pay me up
right now i mean the king the lord didn't even do that to him grabbing by
the throat even though this guy might you want to get a picture
come on hurry up i'm preaching this guy what is he doing he's being
exceedingly cruel what the guy who owes him ten dollars
and the the idea here is it's like if this guy if the king extended
mercy to you forgave you of all that debt that you could not pay
couldn't you extend the same mercy to the person
who committed a smaller offense than what you did go ahead sit down brother
christian thank you for allowing me to choke you out
and it says that he not only grabbed him by the throat
he cast him into the prison he's just like throw him into prison
he's going to pay the very last i mean this guy was exceeding cruel
and you know very wicked right it says in verse 30 and he would
verse 31 so when his fellow servants saw what was done they were very sorry
and came and told them to their lord all that was done so the servants of the
previous king were just like oh man this is bad
we need to go tell our boss what this guy just did because this guy just
received a great forgiveness of debt and then he trips out he's crashing out
over ten dollars of debt it's absurd right
then his lord after that he had called them said unto him oh thou wicked
servant I forgave thee all the debt because thou desirest me
shouldest not thou also have had compassion on my fellow servant
even as I had pity on thee and his lord was wroth meaning wrathful
and delivered him to the tormentors that he should pay all that was due unto him
so likewise shall my heavenly father do also unto you
if ye from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother
their trespasses now what's the idea here you know if you have bitterness in
your heart towards someone who has bankrupted you emotionally
they have wronged you in some form or way
you know you need to learn how to forgive that person because whatever
offense that person has done towards you
pales in comparison to our offenses towards the lord
i mean we've broken all of god's commandments we've all sinned against
the lord we've all transgressed against god
you know what god expects for us to do in turn forgive others of their debts
right isn't that what the model prayer says you know forgive our debts even as
we forgive others point being here is that you know as
christians we should never harbor bitterness in our hearts
doesn't matter how severe the offense was towards you right
doesn't matter what people did to you and obviously i'm not referring to
criminal things right you know this is let me just say this because
it you know people often wonder about this you know this isn't referring to
like if someone molested you as a child or
something like that that person hath never forgiven us that's what the bible
says and i i believe strongly that we are not
to forgive that which god does not forgive
okay and there's certain people in this world who are predators
and pedophiles who injure innocent people that god will not forgive
and i don't believe god expects you to forgive people like that but obviously
that is a separate category we're referring to just other offenses we're
referring to your mom and your dad who offended you they took away your
xbox or something like that when you're a kid i hate you dad you know
don't hate your father or your mother just because
you know they were strict with you growing up forgive them hey
if your parents punished you unjustly we've all been punished unjustly at one
time or another forgive them for that why because god
forgave you of your sin dead as well every thought every action every word
every sin large or small the lord jesus christ
paid for it all right and so before you start harboring
bitterness in your heart towards the person that hurt you
just remember be kind one to another tender-hearted
forgiving one another listen to this even as god for christ's sake has
forgiven you you need to remember that verse and i'm
not saying forgiveness is easy because it's not
but here's what makes forgiveness easy okay here's what makes forgiveness
possible on your end forgiveness doesn't necessarily
mean that you have to be around that person
all the time forgiveness is just you know i forgive you but this doesn't
mean that we can be friends from here on out
because some people just marry forgiveness but they don't marry your
relationship though right there's people in this world we're
we're commanded to forgive other people but we're not necessarily commanded to
fellowship with everyone you know god commands us to be wise and to
keep the right company around us and if people offend you and they wrong
you and you forgive them but you keep them around
that's your fault you need to exercise biblical wisdom to separate yourself
from people who are like that toxic people or whatever
we and obviously i'm not referring to in the area of marriage you can't get away
from that amen you need to work on that but you know
what this does apply to marriage that you have to forgive one another
you know one of the greatest keys to success in marriage is just learning how
to immediately forgive your spouse when they
sin against you and yes they will sin against you
it's not going to bed not talking to each other
it's not calling your in-laws and talking smack about your spouse
how bad they are and i can't believe he did this i can't believe she did that
it's not bad mounting them it's not rendering evil for evil
cursing for cursing we're to render forgiveness
and quite frankly even if they keep falling short why because we made a
covenant before god that we would do so right for better for
worse and you want sometimes it does get worse
it does get bad but at that point you need to
love mercy and forgive one another okay it's not it's not it's not
easy but you know what it's commanded okay and you know again
forgiveness isn't necessarily reconciliation of a friendship
it's just forgiving that person of that sin debt and moving on with your life
and just remember when you become bitter towards someone
that someone you're bitter towards it does not affect them at all right
i'm bitter towards that person that person is sleeping they're living their
lives your anger your bitterness your clamor
your grudge is only affecting you you are the one who's accumulating
that pain and that sorrow and that bitterness
it's affecting your walk with god it's affecting your spirit
it's affecting your job your relationships it's not affecting the
person that you're bitter at they probably don't even think about it
so it's better to do forgive that person and move on with your life
and let me just say one last thing in that regard just expect people to offend
you throughout your life it's going to happen we live in a sin
filled world people are going to offend you in church you're like oh this is
why i don't go to church oh then you should stop going to the grocery store
you shouldn't you know work at your job you shouldn't you should just lock
yourself up and be an homage person for the rest of your life
because quite frankly any relationships you have in your life
it's bound to come with offenses i'm going to offend you someone in our
church is going to offend you you know what take it as an opportunity to
learn the virtue of loving mercy and forgiving the person who has sinned
against you okay the bible says in james 2 12 so
speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty for he
shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy and mercy
rejoiceth against judgment go with me if you would to
matthew chapter 9 matthew chapter 9 if you would
we're almost done here let me also say this regarding loving mercy
and that is that loving mercy requires lowering expectations of immediate
virtue i know that's a mouthful but let me explain what i mean here
mercy is not compromised but it is it does mean that you're lowering your
expectations when people don't meet your expectations
right lowering your expectations of someone
behaving exactly how you want them to behave at any given moment
and let's just talk about in the context of church okay you know our goal as a
church is to raise virtuous people people of
righteousness people who love the word of god
people who love souls people who are not offended at preaching
people who love the bible people who love the lord jesus christ
people who love righteousness and judgment and justice
but let me just let me just explain something to you not everyone who comes
through our doors is immediately going to have those things already in their
arsenal you know i don't know if you know this
but not everyone who comes to our church is
is exactly like you which is not going to happen you know i don't know if you
know this but not everyone who comes to these doors
doesn't read the bible all the way through church is not a priority to them
virtue is not even a priority to them you know mercy is
extending mercy requires lowering your expectations
of immediate virtue in other words give people time to grow
give people time to learn righteousness to learn justice to learn what the bible
has to say be merciful to them what if what if
me or someone else in our church just came down hard on you when you first
came to church and we just expected you to be on board right off the bat
look i rejoice when people do that in our church and there's people
we've had people throughout the lifespan of our church that they jump in and
they're just all in from day one praise god for
that but often that can cause people to have an unrealistic expectation of
everyone who comes to these to our church and expect everyone to be that
way oh they have to be in lockstep with me
lockstep with the church lockstep with every single doctrine
well how about we give them some mercy and just wait a little bit for them to
grow in that area right you know and someone in our church
told me they're visiting one of our friend's
churches and they're very new to our church
and you know they're reached through social media they got saved they got
right with god they're soul winning now they're doing great and you know they're
going to one of my friend's churches and they're just explaining like
you know i hope that they get plugged in
and i hope they don't get offended or anything at what the pastor preaches
they're like you know what the pastor's gonna say you know what your friend's
gonna say and i said whatever the pastor says
you just have to have faith that that's what god wants your friends to hear
right i'm not going to tell him what to preach he needs to preach whatever is on
his heart and you need to have faith that whatever
that is that's exactly what god wanted that
person to hear and they said amen you're right
and they said i just know that when i came to our church there's so much that
i have to learn and so much that i was just not doing right
and you guys were very merciful to me some people all right
you know he's like you just gave me time to grow and to learn
and you know that's exactly what we want people to do we need to give people
time to grow be merciful towards others you know if
they're not in lockstep with the way you dress with the way we dress
with the way you think or the way i think give them time to grow
have faith in the preaching of god's word that it will affect them
no we need to tell them right off the bat no give them a couple weeks to hear
the preaching of god's word that the word of god may reform them
and change them and conform them to being a bible-believing christian
give them time to grow and again this is not doctrinal leniency it's leniency
with those who are not up to par as of yet understand
and so loving mercy requires lowering expectations of immediate
virtue look at matthew chapter 9 verse 10 it says "and it came to pass
as jesus sat at meat in the house behold many publicans and sinners
came and sat down with him and his disciples the Pharisees saw they said
unto his disciples why eateth your master republicans and
sinners but when jesus heard that he said unto them
they that behold need not a physician but they that are sick
but go ye and learn what that meaneth i will have mercy and not sacrifice
for i am not come to call the righteous but sinners
to repentance what is he saying you know these are the people who need the truth
right the publicans and the sinners and quite frankly
what did the lord say he said these people will go into the kingdom of god
before you right because the Pharisees weren't even
saved and so the point being here is that the bible teaches us that mercy
by mercy and truth iniquity is purged by the fear of the lord men depart from
evil we need to be merciful and couple it with truth and have faith
that that will purge people from sin and from evil
here's my last point and that is here are some conditions for mercy
or conditions for mercy requires repentance so
it's more for us to be merciful but there needs to be some conditions to that
go go here's the last portion of scripture go to proverbs chapter 28
proverbs chapter 28 here's the last verse and i'm done what i'm
trying to help you to do here is distinguish what true mercy is from
that fake mercy that's being offered out there
churches out there that say oh man we're more merciful than these other
churches that just call out sin and call out the jews and call out this
that and the other they're not loving churches they're
not merciful churches wrong wrong the mercy of god is the mercy that we're
to extend to others but it comes with some conditions
look at proverbs 28 verse 13 says he that covereth his sins
shall not prosper so a person that just covers their sins the bible says
you're not going to be blessed of god you're not going to prosper as a person
if you're covering your sins look what it goes on to say
but whoso confesseth and forsakeeth them shall have mercy the bible says
so how do you obtain mercy by confessing and forsaking
your sin god wants us to extend mercy to the person who wants mercy and how
do we know if a person wants mercy if they confess and forsake their sin
then we extend mercy like i want to get right with god let's do it
you're welcome back let me get a bible in your hand let's go out for a meal
let's hang out let me pray for you right he says the person who confesses and
forsake it forsakes his sin is the person who
will obtain mercy james 5 you don't have to turn there
says this in verse 19 verse 20 let him know that he which converted the sinner
from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall
hide a multitude of sins if you really want to cover the sins of
someone you need to make sure that they're
getting right with God mercy is not like oh let them continue in fornication
let them just continue in adultery let them just continue
in drunkenness and all of this destructive behavior
and i'm just going to still be your friend and still fellowship with you
because i'm just the merciful person no you're not you're a hypocrite the
right kind of mercy is this hey you're not right with God and we
can't hang out until you decide to get right with God and when you
when you decide to confess your sin and forsaken
i'll be there to help you out i'll extend my mercy
and aid you in your journey to get right with the Lord
that's what real mercy is what's the point of the sermon the point of the
sermon is love mercy i know we love judgment i know
we love judgment i know we love justice i don't think we need help in that area
you know one area that we all need help in myself included is to love
mercy as well if for nothing it's for getting mercy from God because we're
merciful because look let's just be honest all of us are going to make
mistakes in 2026 we're going to offend each other in 2026
you know i want God to be merciful to me well in that case
i need to make sure that every opportunity i get
i extend mercy to others as well let's pray father we thank you so much for
your word thank you for the mercy of God for being
merciful unto us Lord and loving lovingly kind and long
suffering towards our shortcomings i pray that you'd help us
also to be reminded this week to be merciful to our spouses to our
children to our employees to our fellow church members and of
course to strangers who don't know any better
i pray that you'd help us to be reminded of these things help us not soon forget
the mercy of God in our lives that in like manner we would reflect that upon a
world who needs it in Jesus name we pray amen
31 is our last song silent night song number 431 131
sing it on that first verse