SUNDAY 7TH JUNE, 2020

MEMORY VERSE: - “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to work humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8)

INTRODUCTION: - Jesus Christ in the beatitudes says, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Matt.5:7).

To receive mercy from God, one must show mercy to others (Luke 6:8). Shakespeare said “The quality of mercy is not strained: it drops as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blast; it blesses him that gives and him that takes: it is mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes the throned monarch better than his crown. His scepter shows the force of temporal power, the attribute to awe and majesty, wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings: But mercy is above this sceptered sway; it is enthroned in the hearts of kings, it is an attribute to God Himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God’s when mercy seasons justice.

1) Mercy From Us To Others : -

It is extremely important to view ourselves and others as desperately in need of God’s mercy.

Two parables in the Bible help us to see this clearly. In one the Lord describes two men with debts – one owing 500 denarii, the other only 50 denarii. But both debts may as well have been five million denarii, because none could pay anything. The only recourse they had was the mercy of the creditor, who, in fact, did forgive them both (Lk.7:41-42). The more we realize that our debt is totally beyond our ability to pay, the more we will value the mercy of God.

Unless we view ourselves this way, we will find ourselves described in the other parable, in which a debtor, who owed his master a phenomenal amount of money, was sentenced to lifetime slavery because he could not pay.

When he asked for more time to pay, he got something even better – MERCY – as the master forgave him his debt.

But the servant didn’t personally value that mercy shown him. Instead, he went to find a man who owed him only a small insignificant fraction of what he owed and was released from. He grabbed the man in the prison because he could not pay. This unmerciful servant is a warning that we should not receive mercy from God and then act in an unmerciful way with others. This parable should touch us deeply, telling us that we should be willing to do without what we could rightfully demand. Both creditors in the parables offered mercy and forgiveness, which meant they chose not to collect what they deserved to have.

But showing mercy sometimes costs something. When we are wronged, we are to show mercy without seeking to carry out justice ourselves. God takes responsibility of maintaining justice (Rom.12:19; 13:3-4). Beyond that, we must be very careful when trying to get something we feel we deserve. A merciful mindset is described in 1Corint.6:7, when Paul asked believers who were suing each other. “Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?

This is difficult to achieve. For example, it is appropriate for me to expect the correct wages from my employer or to seek restitution from a thief who robbed me. How will mercy be expressed in these or other situations? Although God does not ignore these injustices in His Word and wants them to be righted (Corint.4:1; Eph.4:28), He may also indicate to me a way to show mercy, taking note of the needs or weakness of the other party.

Each one of us needs to pay for direction in situations like these – a position which implies we are humble enough to accept that direction if mercy and personal cost will be involved. If we will receive and continue to enjoy the mercy of God, then we must be willing to give mercy to others.

1) How are we expected to view ourselves if we must continue to enjoy the mercy of God?

2) “Showing mercy sometimes costs something”. Explain.