Hi
Last Sunday, in Church, I listen to a very Challenging sermon, by an NfI leader Ray Lowe. The essence was a question, are our Church and our lives ‘Rich in Mercy’?
Some of the following is directly from the sermon; some of it is from me, having time to think.
In the book What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Philip Yancey relates the following true story
'A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter – two years old! – to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable – I’m required to report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say to this woman. At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to a church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naïve shock that crossed her face. “Church!” she cried. “Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”
What struck me about my friend’s story is that women much like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift? Evidently the down-and-out, who flocked to Jesus when he lived on earth, no longer feel welcome among his followers. What has happened?'
It means we have to ask some real questions about Church.
How do the streets of our town think about our church?
Are we known as a place where people are welcome?
Do we make sinners feel loved?
Jesus embodied grace, mercy and love. The people of the day called Him “a friend of sinners.” What does it mean to “make the teaching about God attractive”?
In Titus we are to teach people to live lives in “accord with sound doctrine”. It outlines some of the attitudes and behaviours that are consistent with sound doctrine. Love as the ultimate expression of God’s grace has a significant role in our attitudes and behaviours.
We demonstrate that God is gracious to us and we in turn are becoming more like Him every day. When people see this transformation taking place in us, our lives become attractive. In order for us to make the gospel attractive to others we need to understand a few foundational principles.
1) . We must come to grips with the fact that we are sinners. There is nothing so abhorrent to the unsaved as to see Christians who think they are better than others. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The Apostle John says “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8)
2). God’s grace has saved us through faith. As Christians, when we ask God to forgive us, He does. In Hebrews we are reminded that God does not remember our sins or lawless acts when He has forgiven us. (Hebrews 10:17). Grace needs to be our first response to those negative situations in life. When we live in God’s Grace, we make the gospel and doctrine of God attractive.
3). Christians can love the sinner and hate the sin. C.S. Lewis confessed that he had a hard time understanding this idea—until he realized that that is exactly what God did with him everyday.
4). The practice of grace works best in a fully functioning community of believers. We are “not to give up meeting together…but let us encourage one another.” (Hebrews 10:25). To do this means that we encourage each other starting right where we are. Paul goes on to write that we are to “carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ,” (Gal. 6:2
But what is it to Live a life of Mercy?
Warren Wiersbe in Live Like a King! (pp. 105-06) asked "What does it mean to obtain mercy?"
'By extending mercy, we open our hearts to receive mercy; and having received, we can share again and again.
The Christian is surrounded by mercy. When he looks back, he can say, "Surely goodness, and mercy have followed me all the days of my life" (Psalm 23:6). When he looks ahead, he remembers the words of Jude 21--"Looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." As he begins each new day, he can say; "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22-23).
. . . God responds to us on the basis of the heart. "With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; with the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward" (Psalm 18:25-26). . . . When once we begin to cultivate one of the spiritual graces, God always provides more. When we show mercy, He gives mercy; and thus, we have more mercy to show.
When a Christian shows mercy, he experiences liberation. He is set free from grudges that drain the strength and unsettle the mind. . . The most miserable prison in the world is the prison we make for ourselves when we refuse to show mercy. Our thoughts become shackled, our emotions are chained, the will is almost paralyzed. But when we show mercy, all of these bonds are broken, and we enter into a joyful liberty that frees us to share God's love with others. This blessing of freedom is one way that we receive mercy as we show mercy. It is a blessed by-product of obeying God.
. . . How thrilling to go through life sharing God's mercy and not having to judge people to see if they are "worthy" of what we have to offer. We stop looking at the externals and begin to see people through the merciful eyes of Christ. Every Christian we meet is a person in whom Jesus lives; every lost soul we meet is a person for whom Jesus died. In both cases, we have candidates for God's mercy.'
Surely, as a Church and people of Christ we need to be centres of mercy. People who come through our doors need to know that forgiveness, mercy and love will be the greeting they receive.
Instead of building big churchs, with lots of money, we need to focus on the reality that the world needs a people who care and will love them but hate their sin.
A few years ago, i watched a pastor put a burgular alarm on his pentecostal church, it struck me that, here was the church actually trying to keep sinners out. To protect our assets is one thing, but what is the message we are giving to the world.
I think we sometimes lose the reality that, we are saved by grace and if it was not for God's mercy we to would be condemed with the rest. How much more love and grace should we show?
It certainly has challenged me.
Cheers
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