Well, I don't have to explain to you that we have become in America a cancel culture and It used to be that Christians were known as those who covered I worry that we may be becoming a people who cancel And this is something I think we need to be very careful about because the Bible says love covers a multitude of sins But our culture says screenshots are forever Jesus said I'm neither do I condemn you go and send no more but social media today says one mistake and you're done Christian culture at its best has been a people who create space for repentance and restoration And we have believed that broken people could be redeemed and we practice what the Bible calls mercy And I worry that I'm something shifting a bit in our Christian culture The thing that we have to be careful about in a world like we live in is that the church doesn't start to look more and more Like on the culture rather than like the cross so We live in a world where you keep receipts on one another we live in a world where people are quick to call out And slow to cover and I fear that we've I'm traded exposure for restoration So this is the world in which we read our Attitude number five this morning and that is Matthew chapter five verse seven and it says they're blessed are the merciful For they will be shown mercy. No, no, it's not blessed are the correct. It's not blessed are those who hold people accountable I'm it's not blessed are those who call out sin. It's blessed are the merciful because mercy is not just something that Christians do Mercy is something that Christians are Okay, so I want to say that again because I want to hear it.
Mercy is not something that Christians do Mercy is something that Christians are so these be attitudes. We've seen here these last several weeks are the opening of Jesus's most famous Sermon there are eight things that Jesus begins with and they all go like this blessed are those who and These are character qualities that really define what it means to be a follower of Jesus There are eight character traits that Jesus expects to be in the life of every person who bears the name of Christian They're challenging They turned the beliefs of those who first heard Jesus upside down and they will challenge our beliefs if we read them and really Understand them. I think those of us who have been here would say that we've been challenged by these beatitudes and certainly this one Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy is a challenging one So what I want us to do this morning is just take a look at what does this look like what does mercy look like in real time in real life? So I'm gonna lay it out and I think we're gonna see two things that Really help us understand the character of mercy in the heart of a follower of Jesus.
So let's get started Here's the first thing we see merciful people see what others miss Merciful people see what others miss So I want you to watch something. It's a piece of a popular song from back in the 20th century late 90s Some of you will recognize it and for some of you maybe it's new. It's become a classic and you'll hear it played on You know classic rock stations if you listen to any of that the song is telling three separate stories So in the clip I'm gonna show you we're just gonna watch the first of those stories and then the ending Let's check it out of that song that challenges those who may have really cool perfect lives To realize that there are lots of people in the world who don't have those really cool perfect lives So I think we should acknowledge something it is becoming more and more difficult in our world to have a soft heart I mean the truth is that we have to see and experience so many things that harden our hearts and make us cynical about the world That it's growing more and more challenging to be truly people with the soft heart But what I want to understand this morning is that a hardened heart is incompatible with being a follower of Jesus now This song asks What's it like to be like me, but Jesus has a completely different challenge for us Jesus asked something much deeper can we have a heart for them? Not just can we understand what it's like but can we truly have a heart for people like this one that we just saw now Jesus taught us about what true compassion is once they get a picture of that we read in Matthew chapter 9 In chapter 9 Jesus had all of these people who were coming to him with their struggles with their diseases with their sicknesses and When Jesus looked at the crowd something happened inside of him that should happen inside of us Let's read it.
Matthew chapter 9 verse 36 says when Jesus saw the crowds He had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless like sheep without a shepherd Now what I want to notice here is that Jesus looked out and he saw them and He really saw them now that that may seem simplistic, but I want us to really hear that for a moment Most of us would have just seen people who were slowing them down most of us would have seen an annoyance out there in front of us Most of us would have seen problems to avoid and not people to love And what we see here is that Jesus looked out and he really saw them And when we really see people I mean really see them when we really see them then we have compassion for them Why because this is what it means to have the heart of God in us when God sees pain when God sees brokenness When God sees need in people God is moved with compassion And when the heart of God lives in us as it does for those who have become Christians God spirit lives in us His heart resides in us then we will like Jesus when we really look and when we really see people we will have compassion for them Now, here's how God's mercy works. I'm first you see it. Okay, so you notice someone's struggling And maybe they're hurting maybe they're failing or maybe they're barely hanging on but this is the first step is I've got to see it Sometimes we look right past need sometimes. We don't know how to respond to it Um, sometimes we're just too busy to deal with it But this is what happens when our heart becomes hardened.
We don't even see needs around us anymore So the first step in mercy is you see it and the second step is you feel it the pain of what others are going through actually moves us we feel the pain of other people and then the third step of mercy is you act on it You don't just say hey my thoughts and prayers are with you, but you actually move towards them now Here's the truth that you can't miss today. All right followers of Jesus have the heart of God inside of them God is Merciful and so you are Merciful now if there's a problem with that if there's a disconnect then that's a heart problem that we need to fix Merciful people with the heart of God in them cannot Not see the needs around them Merciful people with the heart of God in them cannot just feel bad for the pain that others are experiencing Merciful people with the heart of God in them must be moved mercy does something mercy engages now We can understand how this would be a tremendous challenge to those who first heard Jesus, right? Because we understand what a tremendous challenge this is to us now Is this natural and normal for us to be merciful? Well for some of you you're naturally inclined more towards compassion and mercy I'm for others of you.
This is not part of your natural DNA And this is something you have to allow the Holy Spirit to bring out in you and Here's the difference between covering and canceling okay cancel culture sees what you did wrong cover culture Sees what you're going through Cancel culture ask can we expose this cover culture ask how can we help restore this? So the Bible says in first Peter chapter four verse eight love covers a multitude of sins Now that's not saying that we hide evil or enable abuse It's saying that when we look at brokenness in our world when we see a hurting person our instinct should be compassion and not Condemnation now we're living in a world today in which that's reversed We're living in a world where when we see someone who's different who has challenges who's broken Our first instinct is condemnation and not compassion We've got to flip that script because that's not characteristic of a follower of Jesus. We should be driven by compassion So oh someone took my coat. Okay.
Whoo. Yeah, that was that was an illustration. Yeah, okay. Yeah, it's a prop So I brought my coat today, you know we used to you guys any of you remember a esops fables?
Yeah, whoa, okay This could be it's gonna be challenged. So we used to be big on fables. We don't really teach those anymore But there's an esops fable that I wanted to kind of act out for you here this morning It's the debate between the North wind and the Sun and the debate was over who was stronger on the Sun or the North wind And so to settle it they came up with a contest Whoever could make the traveler remove his coat would be declared the winner And so the North wind went first and so he howled and he yelled and he brought down the wind on the traveler and The the more he howled and the more violent the wind became the more the traveler pulled on his jacket and became stubborn in the face of the wind and He never was able to get the traveler to remove his jacket now It was the Sun's time and so the Sun didn't threaten or rage or howl or scream the Sun just shown and And in its patient warmth caused the traveler to loosen its jacket and eventually slide it off And of his own accord set it aside Now it's a simple little illustration like esops fables are that teaches a really important point and that is this Retribution is what the North wind signifies outrage pressure make them pay and The more that retribution bears down on someone the more people cling tightly to their pain in their defenses Now on the contrary the Sun represents mercy and the patient grace and gentleness with which the Sun simply warms Causes people to willingly release what they hold Now the lesson for us. I think is poignant when it comes to Bible principles that is that mercy warms and Rath hardens we live in a wrath driven world today and Christians are called to represent mercy and Compassion and again.
Here's the truth that I want you to walk away from this morning followers of Jesus have the heart of God inside of them and Jesus represents mercy Jesus is filled with mercy and we must be filled with mercy This is the fifth be attitude blessed or the merciful for they will be shown mercy And so the first characteristic of mercy is that merciful merciful people see what others miss real pain real brokenness real Heartache in the world and in others now. Here's the second thing that it means to be merciful merciful people release What others hold merciful people release what others hold so again? I fear Christianity is becoming influenced by this sweep of resentment and retribution. That's overtaking our world even in our present politics now We live in a time where the cultural current is about scorekeeping over forgiveness outrage over grace Where justice is being distorted into Vengeance and all of these are not characteristic of the Jesus life So to remember every slight to rehearse every offense to carry grudges like their badge of honor It's not the Jesus way again blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy So Jesus told a story in Matthew chapter 18 that really should wreck us It's the story of a servant who owed to the king a massive amount of money You know, it's hard to interpret the amount of money in our present day I think suffice it to say that it was amount of money that this servant could not have possibly paid back if he had ten lifetimes It was an amount of money that absolutely was impossible for him to pay back the king And so in the story in the parable the servant begged the king to release him from his burden and amazingly the king granted the servant mercy and forgave his entire debt.
I mean it was canceled Gone not hey, let's set up a payment plan. It was erased all together in the man walked away free But then the story turns dark because this same man who had been shown mercy Who had been forgiven of his entire debt had someone who owed him a few dollars a few dollars And this man who owed him a few dollars begged and pleaded for mercy and instead the servant took him by the throat and demanded that he give him his money or he would throw him in jail and when he couldn't pay him back he did throw him in jail Well when the king heard about this he was understandably furious and brought the servant to him and Reinstituted the debt that he was owed and then we have the punch that Jesus lands in Matthew chapter 18 verse 35 Jesus said this is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you Unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart Now that's powerful stuff right there Forgiveness is one But a very important one of the ways that we express mercy When Jesus gave his model prayer a part of that is Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us now. Why is that part of Jesus's model prayer? Well, it's real simple because that's really hard for us to do it's not human nature to forgive Someone who's sinned against us it's human nature to hang on to that to keep a record to Have a grievance that we keep in our hearts But that's also not the Jesus way and the truth is that Jesus followers can forgive and we must forgive because Bless are the merciful for they will be shown mercy now.
We don't show mercy so that will be shown mercy It's it's the opposite we show mercy because we have been shown mercy Mercy changes the heart of a person when we truly understand what it means to have been forgiven When we truly understand the mercy that God has shown on us in Granting us salvation it changes us and we can show mercy and we can forgive now Maybe we need to get in touch with that maybe we need to really understand that but mercy breeds mercy Now I want to get real with you for a second Okay, so as your pastor I want to have a little heart to heart. Okay. We have a relatively new phrase It's popped up. It's been around for tab out a decade.
I tried to do a little research on it this week and There's a little uncertainty about where exactly it came from and when exactly it started But a decade is a pretty safe bet and the term is called church hurt Now it's everywhere now. It's become a part of our vocabulary. In fact, it's a category it's an identity and it's almost a badge and And Here's what I want us to see this idea of church hurts not anything new It's like we like to think that oh we invented this idea of church hurt. You know where church hurts started acts chapter two That's where the first church started and it's pretty simple to see why because what is the church?
Well, it's It's a place filled with sinners like you and me It's a it's a laboratory where God has placed us in order to practice Kingdom values It's a it's a place with broken people hurting people who are trying to find healing and wholeness in Jesus Christ And it's a place where we in real life can practice the kind of values that Jesus Challenged us with here in the beatitudes and that's hard hard to do that. It's hard now This is not a new concept church hurt But turn turning church hurt into an excuse to withhold forgiveness or to turn away from the body of Christ This is new and it's also very dangerous now. I want to hear me. Okay, so I'm close to go to now Okay, some of you know the pain of church hurts and Maybe you were betrayed by gossip or maybe you were excluded when you needed support or you were let down by a trusted leader And and I know we got people right here in this little room for which this is real and this is true And I'm not by any means trying to minimize that or say it's insignificant or I'm not important But we cannot allow the the culture a cancel culture to creep into our church When we carry our wounds like they're the proof of betrayal and never allow Christ to bring healing into our hearts Then we're actually baptizing a culture that is very contrary to the culture of the cross now is it a challenge?
It's a challenge do I understand what I'm saying I understand what I'm saying. I've been doing this for a long time I know church hurts. I've experienced church hurts It's a part of life and it's a part of being in church now. Here's here's the fact it takes hard work To build a healthy church.
It's not just ice cream socials in bunko nights, okay? It's I'm growing character together in Jesus name it's Where we practice? Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy So Jesus doesn't minimize our hurt on the cross Jesus absorbed the deepest kind of betrayal The deepest kind of betrayal and yet he said father forgive them because they don't know what they're doing So the Christians called to forgive not because it's easy not because the other person deserves it But because we've been shown mercy when we didn't deserve it and mercy changes who we are Now Paul said in Colossians chapter 3 verse 12 and 13 Since God shows you to be the holy people he loves you must clothe yourselves with tender-hearted mercy Make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone's anyone who affends you remember the Lord forgave you and you must forgive others So here's the question that I want to leave us with this morning. It's not checklist.
It's a it's an identity question Have you become a merciful person not a person who's nice sometimes not a person who occasionally helps people But are you being shaped into a person who sees what others miss? Are you being shaped into someone who releases what others hold on to a church is a beautiful thing when? It's a functioning community where kingdom values are being demonstrated and portrayed and That's very Against the stream. It's very contrary to what's normal found research has had that in its past And we desperately want as people to be a part of a group like that takes a work in order to build it and sometimes things have to be freshened and Restarted in order to change the culture and change in a culture's hard work And I fear that there are more churches who don't represent this in our world today than that do represent that Because we live in a culture that is fighting so hard against this in so many ways So my challenge to us is that We recover what it means to be a community of mercy My challenge is that let's be the people who cover not the people who cancel Let's be the people who release not the people who retain and so this week I want you to ask the Holy Spirit.
Who am I refusing to see or who am I refusing to release and Then do the hard thing and make the call Write the note Show up do the thing that extends the mercy that you've received in your own hearts because Jesus said blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy Let's pray Father, thank you for these powerful words and words that challenge us words that I'm hit home with us because we're sinful people from whom it's hard to Genuinely really show mercy. It's easy and simple for us God We confess when everything is going our way when everything is as we want it to be a guide Help us to be people who can show mercy where it really is mercy when we're challenged when we've been injured when We are called to account and when we need to be like Jesus in a world where that's really difficult because of our own pain in our own hurts and In the ways that the brokenness has become something on the surface for us So got help us to find healing and help us to find wholeness and help us to find The comfort of your spirit in those places so that when we've experienced mercy we can show mercy For it's in Jesus name we pray