God’s Mercy

Covenant Life Church

God is Merciful

Lamentations 3:22-23 AMPC
22 It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.

Psalm 136 tells us twenty-six times that the Lord is good and His mercy endures forever.

1 John 1:9 KV
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We need to learn to receive God’s mercy and then be merciful to others.

The to you and through you principle

• God will never expect you to forgive somebody else for more than He’s already forgiven you for. Anything God gives to us, He then expects to go through us.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 AMPC
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement), 4 Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God.

God is the Father of mercy.

All comfort is from God even if it comes through a person.

Legalism vs God’s Mercy

Matthew 12:1-7 AMPC
1 At that [a]particular time Jesus went through the fields of standing grain on the Sabbath; and His disciples were hungry, and they began to pick off the spikes of grain and to eat. 2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, See there! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful and not permitted on the Sabbath. 3 He said to them, Have you not even read what David did when he was hungry, and those who accompanied him— 4 How he went into the house of God and ate the loaves of the showbread—which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for the men who accompanied him, but for the priests only? 6 But I tell you, Something greater and [b]more exalted and more majestic than the temple is here! 7 And if you had only known what this saying means, I desire mercy [readiness to help, to spare, to forgive] rather than sacrifice and sacrificial victims — The mercy of God is always extending a welcome invitation to us to come and receive whatever we need from God even though we do not deserve it. When the Bible says don’t judge, it does not mean don’t recognize or deal with sin. It does mean don’t judge the person.

Matthew 7:1-2 AMPC
1 Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. 2 For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you. Don’t have an opinion where you don’t have a responsibility. You won’t stand before God for anyone else. If we sow judgment, we will reap judgment.

1 Samuel 16:7 ESV
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Hebrews 5:2 AMPC
He is able to exercise gentleness and forbearance toward the ignorant and erring, since he himself also is liable to moral weakness and physical infirmity.

James 2:13 GNT
For God will not show mercy when he judges the person who has not been merciful; but mercy triumphs over judgment.

Mercy is greater than judgment.

We should not be judging other people.

We should not be concerned with someone else’s judgment of us.

“If someone were to tell a lie about me, I wouldn’t even take the time to deny it. I’d just keep walking down the street and say, ‘Praise the Lord.’” – Kenneth E. Hagin

Receiving mercy and extending mercy will bring you peace with yourself, peace with God, and peace with others.

1 Peter 3:10-11 AMPC
10 For let him who wants to enjoy life and see good days [good—whether apparent or not] keep his tongue free from evil and his lips from guile (treachery, deceit). 11 Let him turn away from wickedness and shun it, and let him do right. Let him search for peace (harmony; undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts) and seek it eagerly. [Do not merely desire peaceful relations with God, with your fellowmen, and with yourself, but pursue, go after them!

You have to go after that peace by making changes according to God’s word! Learn to accept yourself and enjoy where you are at on the way to where you are going.

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