Walking In Mercy

Preached by Rev. Ed Brouwer at The Gathering Place, Osoyoos
Pulpit Series Volume 19 Issue 23 August 18, 2009

I wonder if the reason people do not find comfort in Jesus is because we the church misrepresent our merciful Heavenly Father!

If we preach a hard critical judgmental gospel we do a great injustice regarding the compassionate character of our Heavenly Father!

Question:
1. What does the word Gospel mean?
2. Is the gospel to be preached to every creature?

I fear the church sometimes reflects the Prodigal son’s elder brother’s attitude.

God has graciously provided enough mercy and grace that ALL who have broken hearts and willing minds can receive!

We’re talking about the general call to salvation. Whosoever!

TGP has been called to be a place of refuge made up of true believers known for their God given love for all people.

Some of you may feel that we’ve a long ways to go..... perhaps your right. But, with the Holy Spirit’s help and our dying daily, we will see it to be so!

It’s true - we all can do with some adjustments when it comes to loving others.

Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Some church goers are troubled and little wonder, read Proverbs 11:17 The merciful man does good to his soul: but he that is cruel troubles his flesh.


My dear Friends: God is gracious to whom He will be gracious... He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, and He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion.

I like what II Timothy 2:25-26 says, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will...

The lost are not our enemy! They are prisoners of the devil just like you and I were!

I beg of you search your heart ...... understand that when you segregate your self from the unsaved no matter the reason - you hide the Gospel from them!

II Corinthians 4:3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:

The only people we are to have nothing to do with according to the Word are those of the faith who cause division, or discord. However, by Christ’s own example we can eat with and talk with the unsaved.

Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

I have discovered that a Christian is either faint hearted, broken hearted or hard hearted! I pray God never finds you with the latter condition!
Our lives must reflect the merciful character of our heavenly Father. Our love should be God-like - “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!”

We are told that if your enemy hungers give him bread to eat, because that is what God did for us when were were enemies of the cross. We read that in so doing we heap coals of fire upon their heads. BUT do not be under the wrong motive here.... this is not done to destroy them... it is done to melt the heart so that it can see the mercy of Almighty God!

Bless them that bless you? That’s what the world does, but the merciful heart of God calls you to bless them that curse you - do not render evil for evil!

Give to those that can give back to you? Again that’s what the world does. But you are called to give to every man that asks of you. Giving in the mercifulness of God. Since giving to the poor is seen as an evidence of the Love of God dwelling in us, I wonder what “withholding” proves?

Remember that the Love of God goes out to ALL, even those who hate Him without a cause. “Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also is merciful!”

We get a glimpse of the Father Heart Of God in the story of the Prodigal Son.

The word prodigal has three meanings: yielding, giving in abundance: bountiful.



It is the latter that describes the Prodigal Father…..
- yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion
- he ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
- the father said, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him.
- put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet:
- bring the fatted calf and kill it; and let us eat and be merry:

What emotions must have gone through the father’s heart... my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.

The father suffers over the lose of his son... Yes, the son was in turmoil, and yes he was in pain, but I don’t think it matched the pain of the father’s heart.

“When he was yet a far way off....”
A father’s heart is easily distracted from its duties when he hears his child cry! God is saying some-thing to us today through this parable.

May we be awake enough to hear it!

Consider the reunion... when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him... the son said to his Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no more worthy to be called your son.


But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet. And bring the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:

Did you see the Father’s response ... No angel rejoiced more than did the Father... No angelic being jumped higher than did the heavenly Father! .... in fact the angels rejoiced only because they saw the joy of the Father....

It is so neat to see the father running and smothering his boy in kisses... rather than drowning him in “I told you sos” May be the father was 80 and the son 20, who knows, all I know is that the old man out ran the kid!

What a sight to see the father running down the lane, jumping up on the kid, smothering him in kisses.... (keep in mind where the kid just came from).

Think man! That’s what happened when you came to Jesus!

Let the Father in heaven love on you then you go out and do likewise - make the Father glad!

Micah 6:8 He has shown you, O man, what [is] good; and what the LORD requires of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?