All righty.
Luke chapter 13.
I got to give a few thank yous for the folks that give my wife and I those Resurrection Day cards.
They were very much appreciated.
We read through all of them.
Thank you so much.
And she said, be sure and tell them thank you so I don't have to send out a bunch of thank you cards.
So thank you.
Also, coming up in May, the National Day of Prayer, May 7th.
The first Thursday in May is always the National Day of Prayer.
That will be a week of fasting and prayer for us.
Well, we'll just do Monday through the National Day of Prayer on that Thursday.
Man, does our nation need prayer?
So we'll be doing that.
With that, if you have your Bible, open it to Luke chapter 13.
Jesus is coming off, warning people and telling people to watch and be faithful and all those things.
And he continues in chapter 13.
And the three points that I want to make this morning is be repentant, be patient, and be merciful.
And we're going to see that in our reading this morning.
So I'm just going to start and read through verse 17 in chapter 13 of the gospel.
of Luke. It says there were present at that season, some who told him Jesus about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them,
do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans because they
suffered such things? I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Or those 18 on whom the Tower of Siloam fell and killed them, do you think,
that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you no. But unless you
repent, you will all likewise perish. He also spoke this parable. A certain man had a fig tree
planted in his... Hello? Let me check my battery real quick. He says it's full. I am starting to lose my voice, so
If it gets too bad, I'm just going to say amen.
We'll go have lunch.
Let me go.
Okay.
Also, he spoke this parable.
A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard.
And he came seeking fruit on it and found none.
Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none.
Cut it down.
Why does it use up the ground?
But he answered and said to him, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and fertilize it.
And if it bears fruit well, but if not, after that you can cut it down.
Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.
But when Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her, woman, you are living.
loose from your infirmity.
And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God.
But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath.
And he said to the crowd, there are six days on which men ought to work.
Therefore, come and be healed on them and not on the Sabbath day.
The Lord then answered him and said, hypocrite, why does not each one of you on the
Sabbath day loose his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead it away to water so ought not so ought not this woman
being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has bound think of it for 18 years be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath
and when he said these things all his adversaries were put to shame and all the multitude rejoiced
over all the glorious things that were done by him.
Let's pray.
Lord, thank you for your word.
And the truth's in it, Lord, that really are humbling as we look and see this need that we all have to be a repentant people, Lord, be a patient people, be a merciful people.
You've called us to all these things.
May we fulfill that call, and may we be willing to yield to our God.
And so would you speak to our hearts this morning?
In Jesus' name, amen.
So it starts right off the bat.
It's kind of a bizarre story and not a lot of historicity to it.
It says there were present at that season some who told him about the Galileans
whose blood pilot had mingled with their sacrifices.
And this is kind of bizarre, but it does seem to be consistent with who pilot was.
One commentator says the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
We don't have a record in secular history about this specific incident mentioned here.
But according to the old Scottish preacher William Barclay, he said,
there is a similar incident before the ministry of Jesus where Pilate wanted to build an aqueduct for the pools of Solomon to the city of Jerusalem.
To pay for it, he demanded money from the temple treasury.
money that had been dedicated to God, and this outraged the priests and the people.
And when the Jews sent a delegation to beg for their money back,
Pilate sent into the crowd soldiers dressed as common people,
and at a certain signal, they took out daggers and attacked the people asking for the money.
And so the people were outraged at the fact that Pilot was willing to shed blood at a worship service.
And I don't know how the Lord sees that.
We see quite a bit of that going on in our world, right?
You know, people tell me all the time, Scotty, what are we going to do?
What are we doing about security?
Well, we're Idahoans.
There's a lot of guns in this room.
Now, I do realize that we do have to have a plan,
and there's some things that we definitely can get dialed in.
But the fact is, is there,
was a lack of reverence in Pilate's heart and this doesn't seem to be the incident that
that's talked about here but it shows that Pilate was willing to shed the blood of Galilean Jews
on you know on their way to sacrifice to the Lord and that's consistent with what he did to Jesus
right he wasn't he wasn't concerned enough to
save him, but he, with his authority, he tried to get a skirt around it. You remember what he did?
He says, I washed my hands of this man because he declares him innocent. He says, what evil has he done?
And we talked about that a little bit last week. But we get stuck on things like this, don't we?
When people just die so, what do I want to say? So,
completely innocently, that they, we have this thought that good people are supposed to have
good things happen to them. And bad people are supposed to have bad things happen to them.
We got it all messed up, folks. We're messed up. We're just messed up in our thinking. It's kind of
like the funeral I did for a high school kid back in the late 90s. It might have been 2000.
and I remember walking up and ministering to the mother who had lost this son, she had three sons.
And she looked at me and she said, God took the wrong son.
And I thought, woman, you're messed up.
And people are messed up, right?
We get this, we get stuck in these categories.
And the fact is that Solomon said it better.
time and chance happens to everybody, right? None of us are out of the woods. None of us are
immune for these things. And here, they're outraged at what Pilot did, but then Jesus will be,
Jesus tries to reel them in and put it into perspective. He goes, listen, you think because
Pilate did that to these people that they were worse sinners, like they deserved it, than other people?
He says, I tell you no.
The issue is repent.
That's the issue.
That's the issue for you.
That's the issue for me.
That's the issue for these people that pilot killed.
That's the issue.
You're going to die.
You have to be ready to die.
And that's what the point that Jesus is making.
And then the horrific tragedy of this tower of Silo
falling on these people killed 18. That's a bad day.
I remember the look on the people's faces as they watched the space shuttle explode.
The mom and dad of the gal that was the guest, right, on the space shuttle.
And their faces right before their eyes, their daughter was vaporized.
And I mean, it was just like, it's horrific.
But Jesus said, it's not the issue.
It's not the issue that you're going to die.
Whether tragically, whether you get a long, drawn out death process,
I don't know if I want one of those.
What do you think?
Right?
Blaze of glory is my mode, you know.
Just go out and a blaze of glory.
But Jesus says, no, they weren't worse sinners because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time when the tower fell on.
They weren't worse sinners than you and me because we're all the same, folks.
Nobody has arrived.
No everybody is above anyone else.
Well, maybe our kids are above us because they have more faith than we do, right?
But Jesus says, I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
The Christian life, listen, the Christian life requires that we be people, repentant people.
It's a way we live our lives.
We need to just repent.
It's a daily thing yesterday.
I prepare for this because Connie and I were going back to Gooding now on Saturdays,
and I share this message with them down there.
And I remember sitting down and starting to kind of put all of my notes together and everything and thinking,
Oh, Lord, forgive me for my sins, for they are many.
They are many.
And I probably should have went in and said the same thing to my wife.
Oh, honey.
Forgive me for my sins, for they are many.
And she's been very gracious over the years to forgive me.
I mean, obviously, for two reasons.
one, she hasn't killed me.
And she's still with me, right?
But we know all too well because of our sin, right?
We're not out of the woods yet, and things could fall apart, you know, if one of the other
gets stupid.
So we've just given permission to each other.
You just kill me.
If I get stupid, just kill me.
And then it's final.
But we can.
get stuck on these things and we try to process it through in our mind. You know, I'm just thinking
right now of what's going on in Iran and the threat that Trump made. Do you guys remember
World War II when President, I'm having a blank? Who was after FDR? Truman. Yeah, when President
Truman called for the bomb and how many people he was going to destroy.
with that bomb? There was a guy in our fellowship some years ago and he was he was
in the Marine Corps and they were staging in southern Japan and they were going to make a
campaign from the south to the north. They said the U.S. would have lost a million men.
And you're thinking and Truman was a believer and he called for the
annihilation of over a quarter of a million
people. Many think it was much more than that, but at least that's just like, how could you do that?
How could anyone do that? And yet, when you look back at it, it saved thousands and thousands of
American lives. The issue is repentance. That's the issue. When Jesus started his ministry,
that's what he said. Listen, repent for the kingdom of
heaven is a hand. And you've got to get good at it. I love people that are good or repenting,
right? But so many aren't. They set their jaw, they harden their heart, they stiffen their neck,
and they won't repent. And we're called to be. It's an imperative now, because we know,
we know that we should repent. We know that we should forgive. And Jesus was very absolutely,
adamant about that. Paul in Acts, and I had mentioned this last week, this passage, but I'm going to
read it to you again. It's found in Acts chapter 17, verses 26 through 30. And Paul says,
and he, God, made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth.
One blood. That is, there's one race. It's the human race. Okay.
there's one. That'd be us. Red and yellow, black and white. They are precious in his sight.
Right? He's made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has
determined their pre-appointed times and boundaries of their dwellings. God has done that. Right?
So this verse should tell you there should be no argument about Israel.
so that they should seek the Lord in hope that they may might grope for him and find him,
though he is not far from each one of us, that they would grope.
Right?
That words usually has a bad connotation.
But I'm going to go on.
For in him we live and move and have.
have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.
Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is
like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising.
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked. He overlooked their idolatry. He's, he's
He didn't kill them for what they were doing.
He was merciful.
But now he commands all men everywhere to repent.
That's what he's saying.
So what are you groping for?
Grooping.
It's interesting.
It's used as a Greek verb here that carries the idea of extended exploratory touch.
George King and I used to artificially breed mares.
And you would have to palpate them, right?
That way is where you go up and you blindly try to find where that baby is.
In pre-checking, same with cattle.
They call it palpating.
Palpated cows, palpating horses.
But you're looking for something specific.
I see people all over the world groping for some kind of spiritual significance in their life.
It's kind of wild.
In fact, the Catholic Church has this huge wave of young people joining the Catholic Church.
Right?
Some people just feel like they need that liturgy and that structure, right?
This is what you do.
This is how you look.
We're really good at that in this part of the country.
About how you look.
But we know that God looks at the heart.
More than a casual contact, this groping, it is the deliver.
handling by which one verifies the truth.
Are you seeking the truth?
Are you looking for it?
You're trying to lay hold of it?
In the scripture, the word functions both literally
and when the risen Lord invites the disciples
to handle his body and figuratively,
as when Paul pictures humanity groping for God
in every setting, it underscores tangible certainty rather than abstract speculation.
You can know.
You can know that you're right with God.
You can know that you're going to heaven.
And so many people don't know that.
There are people sitting in this room right now.
You've been groping.
You've been searching.
And you haven't come to the simple fact that it is an unadulterated faith in the
the Lord Jesus Christ, right? And by his grace that you're saved. That's what it is. It's that simple.
I don't have to have a robe on or a hat with phalactries. I don't have to do that. I don't have to do a ritual
every morning, though I do. Right? Every morning I try to read God's word. And I try to acknowledge my God.
otherwise I get going off doing my own thing and having my day and forget about him
how easy that is and Paul quotes
Paul quotes Deuteronomy 3010 in Romans chapter 8
Romans excuse me chapter 10 verse 8
And I got to turn there real quick and read it to you.
Thought I had it. There it is.
It says, but what does it say?
The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart.
That is the word of faith, which we preach, that you come to Jesus by faith.
Not with some, you know, dog and pony show.
what do you need
is it not significant enough to know that God loves you
and he simply has a plan for your life
and that you can nurture a relationship with Jesus
because he goes on and he says right
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus
and you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead
you will be saved
what's wrong with that
why do we got to go after these other things and yet we do especially in the west i was reading this morning
and uh was just struck by it in ecclesiastes chapter six if you got a bible turn there it's ecclesiases
chapter six starting in verse one and i want to read this to you and and see if it doesn't sound familiar
This is some serious groping here.
Verse one, it says,
There is an evil which I have seen under the sun,
and it is common among men,
a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor.
Is that you?
That's most of us, right?
So that he lacks nothing for himself for all he desires.
Yet God does not give him power to eat of it,
but a foreigner consumes it.
This is vanity.
and it is an evil affliction.
If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years
so that the days of his years are many,
but his soul is not satisfied with goodness or intended,
or indeed he has no burial,
I say that a stillborn child is better than he.
For it comes in vanity and departs in darkness,
and its name is covered with darkness.
Though it has not seen the sun or known anything,
this has more rest than that man.
Even if he lives a thousand years twice,
this really stuck a chord with me because mankind is coming to that place
where he really wants to live forever.
Yeah, but not in this old stinking thing.
I mean, it stinks.
smell it
it's just nasty
no there was just a
article
at one of the
universities that they now
can actually create a body
a headless body
that has a beating heart
that you can make for yourself
in case you can make for yourself
a transplant or a, you know, you get cancer or something. And because it doesn't have a head,
that's okay. So they can harvest organs out of it. It's just weird. The world is getting weird.
Even if he lives a thousand years twice, but has not seen goodness, do not all go to one place.
Yeah. We're all headed there, really.
fast, like breakneck speed. And I'm looking out over this crowd and some of you are way ahead of us.
So the issue is, be ready. Right?
The second thing, first repent, second thing is be patient. You've come to the Lord. You're
grown in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord. I know some people,
people that get saved and they want to teach in seminary the next day.
Oh, I can teach this Bible, man. I'm excited.
Yeah, you're excited, but you don't know nothing.
I heard an excited guy with a cowboy hat on today on Facebook,
telling us why Christian Zionism, he disqualifies it in 60 seconds.
And he's just, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam,
shooting all these scriptures. And I'm just going, yeah, but you just passed about 40
promises that God made to Israel that he's going to fulfill.
ill. Because they take Genesis 12. I don't think they read anything but Genesis 12,
three, that it says God will bless those who bless Israel and curse those, or excuse me,
Abraham. And that's their argument. Oh, God was talking to Abraham. He was talking to Abraham.
And Abraham's descendants. And he said, I will make from you a great nation. And didn't we just read
that he sets boundaries? He establishes nations. He does that. But in Genesis chapter 27,
obviously this guy hasn't read read because you know Jacob he God tells Jacob those who bless you all
bless those who curse you all curse well who's Jacob okay Jacob is Israel this boy don't know he's
hind in from the hole in the ground and he is just spouting it off man he's the most confident
idiot I had ever heard
But we come to Jesus and he saves us,
and then he starts cleaning us up.
And some of you have a sense in your life that God has a calling on your life.
And he does.
And he'll open a door.
And you've got to do your part.
Right?
And so that's where he talks here in verses 6 through 9,
where he says, and he also spoke, a parable. A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard,
and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard,
look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down.
Why does it use up the ground? Wasted space. You know people like that?
Just a waste of flesh. I am that sometimes.
just a waste, not bearing any fruit.
But notice the patience, right?
I love this keeper.
I love this picture.
It just struck me last night as I was reading it for three years.
How many years did Jesus walk on the earth?
It's a three-year ministry.
Were the disciples very fruitful?
No, they were always sticking their foot in their mouth.
Right?
or wanting to be like Elijah.
Remember John and James?
Lord, can we call fire down from heaven and fry these guys?
That would be so cool.
And Jesus gets after him.
He says, you know, not what spirit you are of.
Right?
Did you see the Lord looking down and seeing the disciples going,
hey, son, what's up with your disciples?
There's no, they're a waste of flesh.
Maybe they're the ones that should be fried.
But this keeper is somebody that's patient and gracious.
Oh, no, no, no.
Give me time.
I'll fertilize.
See what the next year brings.
If they maintain this fruitlessness, then chop it down.
What's the fruit like in your life?
I know some people get freaked out.
I don't know if there is any.
Do I have any fruit in my life?
Am I, is he going to chop me down?
Oh, maybe.
That's why it's important to daily.
Jesus said, pick up your cross.
Right.
Every day, you've got to do it.
You don't want to.
I don't want to some days.
Every day pick up your cross,
die to yourself.
Go be like Jesus.
Love, be patient,
be willing to repent,
willing to yield,
be like him. Why? Because judgment is coming. Judgment will come.
And so here is a picture of God's patience, right? The owner yielded. He yielded. Oh, okay. Well, wait.
Isn't that what Paul's talking about? In these times of foolishness, God overlooked all your wickedness.
But now, now you know.
right so repent in turn and it does take time and we will stumble and we will fall how many people
I've talked to over the years who won't come to Christ because they say I can't measure up well join the
club right what do you mean you can't measure up well I'm going to fail and I'm going to sin duh right
don't we all and it becomes different our sin becomes different my sin today is so much different
was 40 years ago, but it's still sin when I know to do good and I do not do it.
And so God has been patient.
And 2 Timothy, chapter, excuse me, 2nd Peter chapter 3, verses 8 through 10.
He says this, but beloved, do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand.
thousand years of the day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises as some count slackness,
but is long suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to
what? Repentance. God's patient. I love his patience. I'm thankful for his patience.
And so he says, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens
will pass away with great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heath, both the earth and the
works that are in it will be burned up. And so the Lord is patient, but the fact is, it is coming.
It is coming. And so because the Lord has been patient with us, we must also be patient.
Who likes that? Being patient. You should ride with me in a car sometimes.
Now, between the Holy Spirit and my wife, I have gotten a tiny bit better in 40 years.
But this impatience, I want it and I want it now.
Kind of an attitude.
But good things come to those who wait and wait on the Lord.
Dennis reminded me that on Friday we were talking about,
we thought we would get much more done Friday than we did in the first.
framing of the bathrooms, and then they went ahead and worked yesterday and got a good portion done.
But Dennis, he threw out the cliche.
It's almost become a cliche, right?
Lord's timing.
But it is the Lord's timing in spite of us, whether it's laziness or, you know, putting up an unplum wall that you're going to have to tear down or whatever it is, it's the Lord's timing.
He's going to get it all worked out.
Psalm 2714, wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord.
What does that mean?
I don't know.
It means wait on the Lord.
Isaiah 40, verse 31, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings like eagles.
They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint.
And so waiting on the Lord, waiting for the Lord to open a door
and occupying until he comes.
Psalm 377, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way
because of the man who brings wicked schemes to past.
Don't fret about that.
Keep our focus on the Lord.
And watch him grow you in the grace and the knowledge, right?
Now, God being patient with us is a glorious thing.
Us being patient with God is really no sweat because of who he is.
But then he wants us to be patient with others too.
That's a little tougher, right?
How often I've looked at Christians, and in my heart I just want to say, would you please just grow up?
Right? Grow up.
First Leslonians chapter 5, verse 14, says,
Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, hold up the weak, be patient with all.
Then 15 says, verse 15 says, see that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all.
And that's not our bent.
That's a supernatural thing that we talk about when this Christian life, when we can't do it.
No, God's got to help us do that because I don't think we've got that kind of moxie to do what Paul was encouraging there.
Then in Colossians chapter 3, we're encouraged.
It says, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness,
humility, meekness, long suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.
If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, you must also do.
But above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
patiently loving one another. Do we have to? We have to. Yeah. We have to because most of the time we don't want to.
So be repentant, be patient, and last of all, be merciful. We see Jesus with this woman here in verse 10.
It says now as he was teaching in one of the synagogues, behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity.
18 years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.
But when Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her,
woman, you are lursed from your infirmity.
That's merciful.
How many people do you think that Jesus walked by that needed a touch from him but never got it?
Right?
We know the guy probably at the gate beautiful, you know, that after Jesus ascends to heaven,
you know, Peter, James, and John,
They go to the temple and heal this guy.
But the Lord reached out to this woman.
And no doubt, he sees what's ailing her.
And he says, be loosed.
And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight and glorified God.
But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation,
Because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath.
And he said to the crowd,
there are six days on which men ought to work.
Therefore come and be healed on them and not on the Sabbath day.
And the Lord answered and said to him, hypocrite.
Hypocrite, you stinking actor, you two-faced dog.
Does not each one of you on the Sabbath lose his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it away to water?
I had to do this.
It was my job on a ranch I worked on.
We had a stallion that we kept, obviously, away from the mares
through all the winter months, you know, before the breeding season.
And I had to go, he didn't have any water in his pen.
I had to lead him to the creek every single day to water.
And the old saying is true, you can lead a horse to water,
but you can't make him drink.
And it was a labor.
And he's saying, listen, you go water your day.
donkey and your ox and you don't think this woman should be healed and he goes think of it think of it
18 years and you're crying about it being a sabbath day hypocrite hypocrite
so be merciful so be merciful he should be merciful he should
showed us how to be merciful here. He saw a need and he ministered to it. That's how simple it is,
folks. How many needs do you see around you? Even on a daily basis. Right? We just see it all the time.
And it's so simple. And we just want a quick fix sometimes. Sometimes we ministered, and I'm sorry, I'm guilty of this.
Sometimes I minister to people just so they'll go away.
Isn't that terrible?
Is that really mercy?
Or is that hypocrisy in its purest form?
We're merciful because God's been merciful.
Has he been merciful to you?
If you're drawn breath, God's been.
merciful to you. If you're here, you got up this morning. Clay told me, say, yeah, watch the sun come
over the teetons. Any day you can do that. That's a good day. Even though the body's hurting and you're
getting older and things are harder, God's still merciful. And that's what he told Paul, right, in
2nd Corinthians 12.9. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For my strength is made perfect in
weakness. Therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ
may rest upon me. No matter what state I am, Paul said, I'm content. God's mercy is awesome.
So he desires mercy from himself and from us. Because God's merciful to us, he demands.
of others, Matthew chapter 9, two times in Matthew, Jesus talks about this. He says, go and learn
what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance. God loves to show mercy. It's like he's got this bucket and he walks around. Who can
I throw this on? This bucket of mercy. Who can I throw this on? Is that you? And the only way,
the only thing you have to do,
the only thing you have to do to get God's mercy is repent.
Oh, God, forgive me.
We're going to get to that, you know, the two guys that go up to pray
and the one, he beats on his chest and he looks down,
he won't even lift up his eyes.
He says, oh, Lord, forgive me a sinful man.
And Jesus said, that boy went away justified.
go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, right?
Then he says, but if you had known, Matthew chapter 12, 7, if you had known what this means,
I desire mercy and not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the guiltless.
You would not have condemned the gillus.
This man is basically condemning this woman because she's in the Sabbath.
She's there at church on the Sabbath they all bent over.
And Jesus bringing her health is condemned.
So the takeaways from this morning.
Live a life of repentance.
Be patient with yourself, with God, and with others.
Be merciful.
all of God's promises to Israel, I see, are merciful.
They don't deserve it.
Like you and I do.
You and I deserve the mercy of God.
No, we don't deserve the mercy of God.
But he promises that he'll be merciful to those who humble themselves.
A scripture I kind of wanted to close with is in Lamentations, chapter 3, verses 22 and
And it's almost like this.
It doesn't belong in lamentations
because lamentations mean to weep or to wail or to mourn.
But I love this scripture.
It says, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
His mercies never come to an end.
They are new every morning.
Great is your faithfulness.
Guys, listen, we have a great God.
And it all starts with humbling ourselves before him
and let him grow us in patience and in being merciful.
And I love verse 17, how it all ended up.
And it says, and when he had said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame.
And all the multitude rejoice for all the glorious things that were done by him.
Let's all stand, shall we?
Father, thank you for loving us, being merciful to us.
Lord, help us to be a people who have a great habit of repentance.
Lord, just knowing that we so miss the mark.
And yet you're so full of grace and mercy and so patient with us that you're growing us,
even though it's just a little bit at a time.
So help us to be steadfast and immovable in these days, Lord.
It's wild.
The people that I see getting tripped up and, Lord, not pressing in to the Word of God
and putting it up on the pages of their heart.
Lord, that they wouldn't be deceived because in these days it's a crazy world out there.
There's so much information flying around that isn't true, Lord.
You're the way the truth in the life.
May we seek you with all of our hearts.
Bless your people this week.
May we go out and be salt and light in this world and that we would point others to you, Lord,
to find the hope and the abundant life that we've experienced by walking with our Lord Jesus.
So we pray it in Jesus' mighty name.
Amen.
God bless you guys. The prayer team's going to be up here if you need prayer this morning.
Please do that. And have a glorious week.