James Merritt - Mercy Me
We're in a culture right now that's into nostalgia, and they, we got people wanna go back to the 70's and the 80's and the 90's. It's really kind of a cool thing for me. And there are movies, as you know, that are movies and then there are movies that are classic movies. And then there are movies that are classic nostalgic movies. They're the movies that every now and then, you just want to go back and see it. You've seen every scene, you know most of the lines, but there's just something about the movie that just inspires you. And "The Karate Kid" for me, is one of those movies.
Now, in case you have been a Rip Van Winkle and you don't know what that movie's about, let me just kinda give you, let you know what's going on. So there's a kid that moves into a neighbor's named Daniel LaRusso and good kid, but he meets some kids at school and they start bullying him. And these kids go to a karate school and he has no chance against them, right? And so, they're picking on him. They're beating him up. Well, he meets a man named Mr. Miyagi. He meets Mr. Miyagi. Mr. Miyagi is a karate champion. He finds it out. And so he asked Mr. Miyagi, "Would you help me"? Mr. Miyagi kind of rescued him one night getting beat up. And he said, "Would you, would you teach me karate"? And Mr. Miyagi says, "Yep, show up, the next, you know, tomorrow morning".
So he shows up and he expected to get all these lessons, and Mr. Miyagi gives him two sponges, and he shows him this old beat up car. And he says, "Okay, this is what you're going to do". He said, "First thing you're gonna do, you gotta take the wax off that car". He says, "Why"? He said, "You just do what I tell you. You gotta take the wax off the car". So he goes over and so he's working his, you know, and he starts saying, "No, no, no, no, no, wax on, wax off. Remember, wax on, wax off". He gets through that and then he says, "Okay, now what are you gonna teach me"? He says, "Okay". He gives him a brush. He says, "You gotta paint the fence". "What"? "You gotta paint the fence".
You know, paint. "No, no, no, no, paint the fence". Up, you know what happened. Gotta paint the fence, right? So he's teaching him all this stuff. Well, you know, Daniel's getting ticked off. He's had enough. He said, "This old man's using me. I painted his house, I painted the fence, waxed the, you know, waxed the car, washed the car, all that kind of stuff. What are you gonna do"? And then there's this climactic scene where he is about to quit, he's about to walk off, Miyagi says, "Hey, come here, come here, come here". I love that scene. "Focus, Daniel, focus. Show me wax on, wax off, you know, paint the fence," right? And he says, all of a sudden he realizes he's been teaching him karate.
So now, Daniel's entered into this tournament and he's fighting the actual bullies that had been bullying him. And he starts beating them one by one. So now he's in this match against his nemesis, the biggest bully that he's got. He's already gotta hit him. He's one blow away from winning the match. That's our culture. That's the culture we live in right now. It's the most uncivil culture I've known in all of my life. Sweep the leg. No mercy. You don't believe we live in that? You think I'm being cynical? Get on 85 tomorrow and drive down to work. That's all I gotta tell you. No mercy on Interstate 85. Sweep the leg. No weakness, no mercy. Never pull back, destroy, obliterate your opponent. Refuse to grant mercy. We're living in the most litigious society we've ever lived in. People don't wanna sympathize. They wanna sue. They gonna take you to court over just the least little thing.
And you know what's so interesting? We are so quick for ourselves to say, "Lord, have mercy on me". But we're not real quick to say, "Lord, have mercy on you. Lord, have mercy on others". And then we come to what's called the beatitudes in the gospel of Matthew 5. We've been in the sermon series, we're gonna be in it for a while on the Sermon on the Mount. And we've been looking at these beatitudes, and every one of these beatitudes, Jesus keeps saying things that people go, "Wait a minute. That's not right. That can't be right". Because it's so counter-cultural. It is so counterintuitive. And I don't think Jesus said anything that was more counterintuitive and more counter-cultural to that culture than what He says today. He says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy".
But let me just tell you why Jesus said what Jesus said, why it was so, you gotta be kidding me. He is in a Roman culture. They're under Roman denomination. There were Roman soldiers on every street corner. Mercy was not in the Roman vocabulary. The Romans only knew one thing. Conquer, defeat, dominate, take over, sweep the leg. As a matter of fact, one Roman philosopher said that mercy is the disease of the soul. You know why? Romans said, "Mercy's a sign of weakness. Mercy is only given by people who are cowards. They're afraid, they're not real men". No, here's what Romans valued. They valued power and domination and discipline and justice. As a matter of fact, this is really barbaric. But whenever a child was born into a Roman family, that father had the power of life and death over that baby. All he had to do when that baby came outta that mother's womb, if he did this, the baby lived, if he did that, the baby died.
So if a Roman dad wanted to have a son, but instead he had a daughter, all he had to do was this. You know what they'd do that baby? Take the baby to a river and drown the baby. No remorse. No regret, no sorrow. It was either up or down. You say, "Wow, how barbaric". We do the same thing today. We just don't wait till the baby's out of the womb, we do it when the baby's in the womb. Now, if you don't like that, I'm sorry. That makes you mad, that's your problem. 'Cause let me tell you something, sheer mercy alone would never abort an unborn baby. Sheer mercy alone would not abort an unborn baby. So when Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful," everybody in that crowd looked at each other.
The centurion looked at his men, the men looked at the centurion, and they all said something like this, "Wow, that's different". That's why we're calling this series "Get Used to Different," because Jesus was teaching something then that He's still teaching us today, that they need to learn and we still need to learn. And that is, God is a lot more concerned about your inward character than is about your outward conduct. 'Cause we don't understand what God's righteousness is all about. See, we think righteousness comes from the outside in. Jesus said, "No, righteousness comes from the inside out. I'm a lot more concerned with your attitude," Jesus said, "than I am with your action. I'm a lot more concerned with what you are than I am with what you do".
Now, I wanna say this, character and conduct are both important. They're both important. It's not that God's concerned about the one and He's unconcerned about the other, but I want you to hear this carefully. Conduct without character is meaningless. Character without conduct is useless. And so what Jesus is going to be telling us every single week we go through this sermon, here's the same thing. You'll say it over and over in 50 different ways, but here's what Jesus is going to say. And maybe this will wake some of you up and realize what's really going on here. You are not a Christian because you act like one. You act like one because you're a Christian. And that's why people don't understand. And that's why people, they'll look at a Christian who maybe will fall down every then, or they'll fail. They'll look at, "You're just a hypocrite".
We got hypocrites in the church. I'll agree. And by the way, if you say, "I don't like church with the hip, I just don't, do not like church with hypocrites". It's okay. If you ever find one that doesn't have any hypocrites, don't join it because you'll be the first one. Every church has hypocrites. I get that. But what people don't understand is just like the beatitudes say, it's all about your character. It's not just about your conduct. So I'm gonna give you my message in one simple sentence today, just one. Here's what Jesus says. We will extend mercy to others when we have experienced mercy from God. We will extend mercy to others when we've experienced mercy from God.
Now, let me just stop right here and just tell you, boy, I'm really preaching to me today because I have trouble with this beatitude, maybe more than any other beatitude. If you study the beatitudes, you'll be like me. You'll say, now that's the one that gives me trouble. That's the one that gives me trouble. I'm gonna be very honest. Mercy gives me trouble. Mercy's not my gift. My spiritual gift is what I, what we would call prophecy. I don't mean by telling the future, but my spiritual gift is just taking the Word of God and saying, this is what God says. This is what you need to do. I tell my staff sometimes, when it comes to mercy, I'm fresh out. I just don't have a lot of mercy. I just don't. I mean, you know, when people cut me off on the freeway, can I tell you why I act like Jesus when people cut me off on the freeway? 'Cause now I, we're living in a day where if you don't, people may shoot you.
It's not because I'm merciful. It's not because, oh, pastor, how patient, oh no, no, no, no, no, no. I wanna run 'em off the road, but I value my life. But my point is simply this, you've got to work at being merciful. It takes work. And so what Jesus is going to do, He's gonna teach all of us today something we all need to learn. Well, how can I be merciful? How should I be merciful? And why do I need to be merciful? So if you're taking notes, write this down. Number one, Jesus said we should seek mercy. We should seek mercy. Hear what He said again. He said, "Blessed are the merciful".
Now that begs the question, what does that mean? I mean, what does it mean to be merciful? Let me tell you first of all what it doesn't mean. To be merciful doesn't mean that you're weak. It doesn't mean that you're soft. It doesn't mean that you don't believe in justice when justice is demanded. 'Cause let me tell you something, God is a God of justice, and we ought to be grateful that He is. God punishes sin. We ought to be grateful that He does. But the Bible's very clear. God is not just a God of justice, He's also a God of mercy. He's not just a God of mercy, He is a God of grace. In fact, one of the best ways to understand what we mean by mercy is to compare it to those two other qualities, both of which are true of God. That's justice and grace. All right?
We know that God is a just God. We know that God is a gracious God. We know that God is a merciful God. Well, what is the difference? Alright, I've told you this before, but it bears repeating. Justice, justice is when you give people, someone, you give someone what they deserve. Now, let's all be honest, that's our default position. When somebody does us wrong, what's our first thought? Get 'em back. Get even. Make sure they pay for what they did. That's just the way, we're just built that way. The first thing we want for somebody else, we want justice. That's just where we go. It's kind of interesting. We want justice for everybody else, but for us, we want mercy and grace. Isn't that strange how that kind of works out, right? But we want justice, right? Justice is when you give someone what they deserve.
Well, what's grace? It's just the opposite. Grace is when you give someone what they don't deserve, all right? They, you know, this guy did something bad. He doesn't deserve to be forgiven, but I'll do it anyway, right? And grace doesn't come naturally, it comes supernaturally. But now mercy's different. Justice is when you give people what they do deserve. Grace is when you give them what they don't deserve. But mercy is when you don't give someone what they do deserve. And see, here's why justice is easy. Justice doesn't take any effort at all. You do something to me. I do something to you. You hit me. I hit you back. Anybody can do that, but you gotta work at grace. You gotta work at mercy.
Now, don't confuse. Don't confuse mercy and grace. Grace is the source of mercy. If you're full of grace, then you'll be full of mercy. Put it this way, mercy is what grace gives us that we don't deserve. Grace is the fountain, mercy's the river. Grace is the tree, mercy's the fruit. Grace is the giver. Mercy is the gift. So to put it simply, mercy is not giving people what they deserve. And it has to come from a heart of grace. Because if you've got a heart of grace, then you're willing to give someone what they don't deserve and not give them what they do.
So, let me just define mercy for you in one word, we're gonna expand on it. In effect, what mercy is, is sympathy. And we've all heard that word, but we don't really understand it. The word sympathy comes from two Latin words, and it means to feel with. It literally means you get into someone's skin, you get into someone's shoes, and you feel the hurt that they feel, and you're willing to do something about it. And the reason why a lot of us really are not merciful, is we don't wanna put the work in to be merciful. 'Cause I'm gonna say it again. You gotta work at being merciful. You gotta work at being gracious. No work, no effort, no sweat in being just, but here's our problem. The reason why a lot of us are not as merciful as we should be, and we're kind of callous and cold and indifferent to what other people are going through, is because we're so self-absorbed in our own problems.
We've got our own agenda. We've got our own junk going on in our life. We get so caught up in us that we just don't take the time or even make the effort to be merciful. Now I'm gonna give you a classic example. I'm gonna, this is a true story. I guarantee you, I bet you've never heard it, but it's hilarious, but it really does illustrate the point. I'm just, I'm not making this up. When Theodore Roosevelt was the president of the United States, they hosted a big banquet, a big ball, a party for a lot of very important people. Well, the president had a receiving line, and people could go through the line and they would shake hands with the president. Everybody wanted to meet the president. I've been able to meet the president.
And you know, it's just, it's really a cool thing. And I'll be honest with you, when you meet the president of the United States, you wanna make a good impression. I mean, you don't wanna come off all across like a doofus. I mean, you wanna come across as somebody that's cool and good and nice and kind of knows, you know, kind of self-assured and all that kind of stuff. And you just don't wanna mess up anything. Well, everybody's, you know, everybody's, they're all in line and they're shaking hands with him. And the president just got tired of this, because everybody came up to him. They were saying the same thing. They were smiling the same smile. They were repeating the same words. It was almost as if they all just read the same script.
And Roosevelt figured out pretty soon, they're not talking from their heart, they're just talking with their mouth. They're just trying to impress me. They don't care about what I might be going through. They don't care about anything I've got to say. So, about halfway through greeting these people, he did something, it's outrageous, but it's hilarious. He was so convinced that nobody was listening to anything he said. So convinced nobody cared what he had to say or what might be on his heart. He was so convinced all these people wanna do is just suck up to me and make me like them. He began to do this.
With every guest that would come up and shake his hand. They would say, "Hello, Mr. President". And he would say, "I murdered my grandmother this morning". Every guest that came up, "Good morning, Mr. President". "I murdered my grandmother this morning". Here was the responses he got. One person said, "Wonderful". Another person said, "Keep up the good work". Another person said, "How lovely, Mr. President". Another person said, "Well, of course, you're Teddy Roosevelt". And even, but even Roosevelt was taken aback when one diplomat was standing off to the side. He was listening to what the president said. He was listening to him go over, "I murdered my grandmother today". So when he walked up to the president, he said, "Good morning, Mr. President". The president looked at him and he said, "I murdered my grandmother this morning". The diplomat whispered into his ear and said this, "I'm sure she got what was coming to her".
Now, we need to seek to be merciful. We need to take the focus off of ourselves and put it on others. We need to learn how to be sympathetic and empathetic to the hurting and the hopeless and the helpless. You know, I didn't say this in the first service, since I'm talking to our students over here. I just wonder, I just wonder how many kids you go to school with every day and they don't live in the kind of nice house that you live in. They don't live with good parents like you do. I wonder how many go to school every day, they're beaten, they're abused. Their parents are just rotten role models. They don't get anything like the Bible or Jesus at home. They get no affirmation. They get cussed out.
And we don't even think about it. We don't even wonder, why is that kid so angry all the time? Why is that kid so drawn? Why does he have to draw attention to himself all the time? And I'm not trying to justify bad behavior. That's not my point. But we never even stop and say, I just wonder why? Why don't we just take the time and say, "Hey man, what's wrong with you? What's going on? Hey man, can I be a friend to you"? You have to seek mercy. It's hard. Jesus said something else. We don't just need to seek mercy. Jesus said, we need to show mercy. We should show mercy. Jesus said the way to be blessed. By the way, every time Jesus said, "Blessed are you". What Jesus was saying was, "Hey, the way to be blessed. And oh by the way, when you're blessed, then you can be a blessing to others". He said, "The way to be blessed and the way to bless others is to be merciful".
So now let's get practical. What does it mean to show mercy? What does that mean to be a merciful person? Well, I thought, let me just give you the best illustration I can think of. It's about a hundred feet from here, it's called CarePoint. Some of you work in CarePoint and I appreciate it. Some of you are there Wednesdays and Saturdays and you're giving out the food and you're giving out the clothing. You may or may not know this. I'm not saying this to brag, I'm saying this to brag on them. We are the largest non-profit food and clothing distribution center in this county. We are, we're the largest. When we started this ministry, we started it about 20, almost 20 years ago. When we started this ministry, we didn't have to do it. Nobody came and told us to do it. Nobody asked us to do it. Nobody paid us to do it. Nobody made us do it. We said, you know, these people need mercy.
Oh yeah, you say, "Well, you know, you serve food and you know, you give clothes to people who probably are here illegally". Yeah, I know that. But legal or illegal, they need mercy. They need us to show 'em mercy. And we did it. And what it is, it is a ministry of mercy because we understand in our church, mercy's not just an attitude, it is an action. So if you wanna know what CarePoint is, I can tell you in three words, it is a ministry of mercy. So let me give you an illustration. When we listen to people pour out their hearts and their hurts, we're on a mission of mercy. When we give people food and clothing, we're on a mission of mercy.
And by the way, we're not just to share the gospel, we are to live the gospel. And you can't just live the gospel without sharing the gospel. But you can't share the gospel without living the gospel. So we try to do both. So a person who's merciful in a nutshell is this. It's a person who doesn't just look at someone and say, "Man, I know you're hurting. I know you're down. I know you're out. I know it's really, things are going kind of tough for you," and just leave. It's the person that says, "You know what? I know you're hurting. I know you need help. I know you're down. Let me see what I can do to help you".
So I wanna tell you a story. Actually, I wanna tell you a story that Jesus told. It may be one of the two most famous stories Jesus ever told in all the stories that He told. And if you don't know the story, at least you'll know what we call the story. We call the story "The Good Samaritan". But I wanna go back and just kind of revisit that story for a minute. Because for those of you don't know the story, let me just refresh your memory. There was a Jewish man who had been beaten up and robbed and left for dead and he's laying by the side of the Jericho Road. I've been down that road many times. And he's laying by the side of the Jericho Road. He's Jewish.
Now, Samaritans were arch enemies of the Jews. Jews hated Samaritans. Samaritans hated Jews. If that doesn't compute, let me put it this way. The Samaritans were the Republicans and the Jews were the Democrats. Alright, that'll help you. I'm not, no political in tone there. I'm just saying, they despised each other. They hated each other. So this Jewish man's beaten up, laying on the side of the road, and this priest walks by. A priest, a Jewish priest. This is one of his guys. This might have been a member of his church. And he sees this guy and he's a bloody, beaten, bruised mess. And he steps aside and goes to the other side of the road. He says, "I'm not gonna fool with that".
And then a Levite comes by. A Levite was kinda like a pastor. And this Levite comes by. And again, he's Jewish. He sees this Jewish man. Maybe he knew him, I don't know. But he sees that blood and he sees the dirt and he sees the broken teeth and he sees the mess. And he says, "I'm not dealing with that". He crosses over to the side of the road. And then the Samaritan comes by and he sees this guy, it's obvious he's Jewish. And nobody would even blame that guy if he said, "I'm not helping that guy, he wouldn't help me. I not gonna help that guy". But he stops, he goes over, gets his hands dirty, gets his clothes bloodied, cleans the man up, picks him up, puts him over his shoulder, takes him to an inn where he can be cared for and nursed back to health. Pays the inn keeper money to do just that, and says, "I will be back, and if he owes any more money that I paid you, I will pay his bill in full".
Okay, great story. We love the story. A wonderful story. But why did Jesus tell the story? Because there was a lawyer who had asked him a question when Jesus said, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself". This man said, "Huh, well who is my neighbor"? And Jesus says, "Okay, I'll tell you a story to let you know who is your neighbor". And so, as he tells the lawyer this story, remember the way the story ended. Remember this? "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied, 'The one who had,'" can y'all see that word? What does it say? Mercy. "'The one who had mercy on him.' Jesus told him, 'You go and do likewise.'"
Now, everybody. Everybody wake up. Everybody look, everybody look at each other and say, wake up. All right, everybody look, alright, okay. I want you students to hear this. This will be a lesson you'll remember 35, 40 years from now. You gotta go to school. Gotta go to high school, go to college and graduate. You can get out in the real world. When you get out in the real world, you're gonna find three groups of people. Everywhere you go. Doesn't matter where you go. New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro any where you go. Everywhere you go, you always will find the same three groups of people, exactly. They're all in the story. You ready?
First of all, there are people who will beat you up. They're out there, robbers, thieves, bullies, murderers, terrorists, child abusers, sex abusers, sex traffickers, carjackers. They're all out there. They'll lie, they'll cheat. They'll steal, they'll embezzle. They'll bankrupt you. They'll take your credit card. They'll hack into your account. They will beat you up. They're out there. We all know that. But then there's a second class of people. The first class, they'll beat you up. But the second group, they'll pass you up. They may feel sorry for you or they may not feel anything. But anyway, it doesn't matter.
Let me tell you what they're not gonna do. They're not gonna stop the help. They're not gonna give you a helping hand. They're not gonna interrupt their agenda. They're not gonna interrupt their calendar. They're gonna not gonna take a dime out of their wallet. They're not gonna take an hour out of their day. They're not gonna take a day out of their calendar. They've got their own deal going on. And their attitude is, I do not want to get involved. And the world is full of 'em. Let me tell you a story. Some of you may remember this, most of you are not old enough. But in the 1970's, there was a woman in New York City who was walking to her apartment and she was walking in an alleyway between two apartments. And this man attacked her and began to rape her and began to stab her. This woman began to scream at the top of her lungs. This is about about 10 o'clock at night in New York City. She was ultimately raped and stabbed to death.
Now I want you to listen to this. 38 people heard this going on. 38 people. 38 people opened their windows, opened their shades, opened their blinds, and looked down and they saw what was going on. You know what those 38 people did? They shut their windows, closed their blinds, turned the television up and the radio up so they could not hear this woman scream. And they let that woman get raped and stabbed to death and did not one thing about it, 38 people. When the policemen interviewed them and asked them why they didn't do it, they all said exactly the same thing. I didn't want to get involved. There were people, they'll beat you up. And there are people, they will pass you up.
And I hate to say it, but that's where the vast majority of people live today. They say, "Oh, we care, but we don't wanna show mercy". But then thank God, thank God. And you'll find this. And I hope you're one of those. I wanna be one of those. Yeah, there are people that'll beat you up. There are people that'll pass you up. But I wanna tell you, there are people who will pick you up. They'll stop. They'll say, wait a minute, you need help and I'm gonna help you. If you're hurting, they'll give you a listening ear. If you need something and they have it, they'll give it to you. They won't just go the first mile, they'll go the second mile and the third mile and the fourth mile and the fifth mile. If they ask you for something, you're going to give it. If you seek mercy or need mercy, they show mercy.
Now, I know you know all this and oh, you say, "Yeah, you know, I'm right". But let me just, to be be honest now, when we're gonna get really practical, the hardest person to show mercy to, the most difficult person to show mercy to is the person that's hurt you the most. It's the person that left you holding the bag. Maybe there's a single mother in here right now and you're seething, your veins are about to pop out. You're about to have smoke come outta the top of your head. "You don't know what my husband did to me. I put him through college, I put him through medical school, I put him through law school. I had three children. He meets a younger chick, leaves me, and I've been a single mom for 20 years.
I had to work two jobs to take care of my kids, 'cause he didn't pay alimony. He didn't pay child support. And you're telling me to show him mercy. You know what, pastor? You just don't know what I've gone through". No ma'am, I don't. You say, "Well they don't deserve to be forgiven". No ma'am, they don't, but God requires you to do it anyway. And now you say the big question, why? Just tell me why. Before I say that. Let me just warn you of something. I'm not gonna sugarcoat this message. Mercy is a burden that's heavy. If mercy was easy to give, everybody to be merciful, right? Isn't that right, Wayne? If it was easy, everybody'd do it. So why is it so hard to be merciful? 'Cause it's a burden that's so heavy. Can I tell you one burden that's heavier than that? It's a burden called bitterness.
There is no heavier burden than bitterness. Can I tell you why? The more you carry bitterness, the heavier it gets. The more you carry bitterness, the harder it is to carry. Because let me tell you two things about bitterness. Number one, bitterness is hurtful. It hurts your relationship with God, because whatever it's true about you is this. If you're not right with somebody else and you've not tried to make it right, you're not right with God. "But I, you don't know". I don't have to know. "Well, you don't know". I don't need, if there's someone you're not right with and you've not tried to make it right, then you're not right with God. It's hurtful, but it's also hateful, because when you refuse to show mercy, you're really showing you've never experienced mercy.
So I'm gonna make a statement now. I'm gonna tell you, it's gonna be hard to swallow. I'll just go ahead and tell you, you're not gonna like it at first, but just please think about it. Do you know why you should always be willing to give mercy to the people who have hurt you the most, that least deserve it? Now buckle your seatbelt. Because I don't care how badly they have mistreated you. I know I'm not supposed to be on the camera, but I don't care. I don't care how badly they have mistreated you, they have not mistreated you as badly as you mistreated with Jesus. I don't care how bad they've hurt you. They've not hurt you like you've hurt Jesus. And yet, the very one who had every right to say, would've been right to say it. Ha, I'm not showing you mercy, is the very one that has.
So until somebody mistreats you, worse than you mistreat Jesus. I don't want to hear this, and God doesn't want to hear, "But Lord, they don't deserve it". God says, "I know they don't, but neither did you". And once you have experienced mercy, then you say, now I want to extend mercy. That's what I wanna do. Because the only cure for bitterness at the end of the day is mercy. And yeah, I've been where you are in my own life. Some of you know my story, some of you don't. Most of you don't and I don't want you to know it. But I had to do some things in my life to show mercy when I had to. I hadn't done anything wrong. I still don't believe I've done anything wrong. But it doesn't matter.
So we have to seek mercy. We have to show mercy. But the question comes, "Well, what's in it for me"? Great question. Jesus knew you'd ask that question. So here's what Jesus said, you ready? When we seek mercy and when we show mercy, he says, we will share mercy. We'll receive it. Here's what He said. "Blessed are the merciful". Now watch this. "For they will be shown mercy".
Now, I want you to think about this right now. This will wake some of you up. You say, "Boy, pastor, I'm just, I'm just not a merciful person. I just, I just can't do it"! Maybe the reason is this, you can't share what you don't have. You can't give what you've never experienced. So maybe your problem is you never really experienced the mercy of God. Because if you're not a merciful person, it may be because you've never really experienced the mercy of God. Because let me just, let me just help you on one thing about mercy.
Do you understand that you're sitting here right now in this room and do you understand that you're breathing right now in this room? Do you understand that your heart is beating right now in this room for one reason only? It's not because you take vitamins. It's not because you work out in the gym. It's not because you eat cardboard. The reason why you're here right now breathing is because of the mercy of God that's new every morning. That's why you're here. Every morning we experience the mercy of God. Let me prove it to you. I'm gonna ask you a trick question. I want you to imagine. If God wanted you to quit living right now, what would He do?
Now here's what your, here's your answer. "Oh, I know what He'd do. He would take my life from me". It's not what He would do. If God wanted you to die right now, He wouldn't take your life from you, He would just quit giving your life to you. That breath you're breathing right now, God gave you that breath. You can hear me right now. You can see me right now, because God's merciful enough to let you see me and merciful enough to let you hear me. 'Cause all God's gotta do right now is put His hands in His pocket, turn His back, and we're all dead. So it's just His mercy. All because of His mercy.
Now mercy's a choice. 'Cause when you stand before God, you're gonna get justice. You're gonna get mercy. And if you understand what you are without God, you don't want justice. I have talked to some people, so arrogant, so proud. I've talked to people about Christ. "I don't need Jesus. I've lived a good life. I've gone to church. I've not robbed banks. I've not killed people". I've had people say to me, "When I stand before God, I just want justice". And I've never failed to say this. I'll say, "Well, I have some good news and I got some bad news. The good news is you're going to get what you want. The bad news is you're not gonna want what you got". 'Cause I'm gonna tell you right now, this pastor, when I stand before God, I have no desire for His justice. I'd just like a little mercy, just mercy. Mercy 'll do. Mercy is fine. Mercy is all I want.
And see, you won't understand that if you don't understand who you are and who God is. I read about a politician that he wants, doing everything he could win this election. And he wanted to get the best picture he could for posters and billboards around the city. He wanted to look his very best. So he goes to this photographer, somebody recommended a photographer to him. So he goes to this photographer and he says, "Listen, I want you to take my picture". Well, the man had two problems. Number one, he just wasn't good looking. He just wasn't. And number two, he just wasn't really photogenic. Right? And those are two bad combinations. But this photographer he went to, he was a straight up guy. He didn't airbrush things and all that stuff. He just took your picture.
So when the politician got the pictures, he was so upset. He called the photographer. He says, "Where are you"? He says, "I'm in my office". He says, "I'm coming to see you right now". He was hot. So he walks into this photographer's office and he throws those pictures down on the desk. He says, "This is terrible". He says, "What do you mean"? He said, "Those pictures don't do me justice". The photographer didn't even flinch. He said, "Sir, to be very honest, with a face like yours, you don't need justice, you need mercy". I got news for you. I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, you need mercy. Everybody, everybody needs mercy. We all need to receive God's mercy. We all need to reciprocate God's mercy.
So let me tell you a little history story, actually happened, we'll be done. There was a mother who went to visit Napoleon, the king, the ruler of France, because her son had been sentenced to death. It was his second offense, and justice demanded his death. He deserves to die. But this mother goes to Napoleon and she pleads for the life of her son. And after he heard her plea, Napoleon looked at the mother and he said, "Ma'am, I'm sorry, but justice demands that your son should die". She said, "Yes Sire, I understand that, but I didn't come to ask for justice, I came to ask for mercy". Napoleon looked at the woman and he said, "But ma'am, he doesn't deserve mercy".
And the mother looked at Napoleon and said, "Sir, it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy's all I'm asking. And I'm asking for a mom, as a mom with a broken heart that just is asking you to show her son mercy". When she said that Napoleon turned his back, 'cause he did not want the mother to see the tears coming down his cheeks. He turned back around and he looked at his mother and he said, "Not for his sake, but for your sake, I will show him mercy". One day we're gonna stand before God. We can look at God and say, "Lord, I know I deserve justice, but would You show me mercy"? And God's gonna look at those of us who know Jesus and He's gonna say, "Well, you know, because I'm a holy God who is perfect and you're a sinful human being that's not, you deserve justice, but I'm gonna show you mercy. Not because of you, because of what My Son did for you on the cross. I'm gonna show you mercy".
So let's leave here today, different, dare to be different. When the rest of the world's throwing rocks, curse words, fits of anger, bitterness and ranker, let's seek mercy, let's show mercy. And then forever we will share the mercy of God that never ends. So my question is, who in this room right now has never experienced the mercy of God? Who in this room has never even admitted, I need mercy? Who in this room would admit today, I get it now, I understand, I'll never get to heaven no matter how good I am if I've not experienced the mercy of God, I'll never make it? How many of you would say, I get it, I understand? I am a terrible, rotten, sinful human being without Jesus. I need mercy. And I just wonder, who in this room would say:
Lord Jesus, be merciful to me a sinner. I need Your grace. I need Your forgiveness. I don't want Your justice. I believe You died for my sins. I believe God raised You from the dead. I believe You're alive right now. Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Save me. Forgive me of my sins.