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00:01 Say hello and thank cross words. I'm a Sydney boy. Kingsford.
00:07 See here's my reply. I'm justified now dictified. Sanctified by the blood of the lamb
00:14 word. I couldn't resist that.
00:20 Here's another rap song which you would know if you're my age. One of the first earliest rap songs was done by a guy
00:26 called Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. And the title of the song was
00:31 called the message is a very tragic song. The line goes
00:37 like this. Don't push me. I'm close to the edge. I'm trying not to lose my
00:43 head. It's like a jungle sometimes. It makes me wonder how I keep on going under. You know that. It's a very very
00:49 sad song because it tells you of the world we are in.
00:54 And in in in that particular song, it tells about a guy who just lives on the
01:00 streets and dies. And this morning we talking about that very ironically. We live in a world
01:07 without mercy. And it's quite tragic, isn't it? That uh only last few days second plane goes
01:14 down for Malaysia. So this morning is is ironic that we are going to go through this topic and we really need to reflect
01:21 what it means to have God's mercy in our life. So let me just give you a bit of how we're going to do this. We're going
01:28 to take one beatitude a week from now on and I'll I'll take you through the rest of them so that we can take each
01:35 batitude and take it to heart and see what God is teaching us. And this is a difficult time especially for the
01:42 country. Uh so I pray that we be able to leave today to really understand what it
01:48 means to be really merciful people. So let's come before God in prayer.
01:54 Lord God uh put aside our egos, our needs to glorify ourselves. Put aside
02:01 our self asssurance. Put aside
02:07 the fact that we think we are self- sustaining.
02:12 But not for your mercy, oh Lord, we will be nothing. We're not for the forgiveness
02:19 from the cross, we will be nothing. you know, for the grace
02:24 for undeserving people like us, we be nothing. So Lord, this morning we ask for your spirit to just move in our
02:31 midst, move in a quiet and powerful manner, oh Lord, and convict us to not
02:37 just be hearers of the word, but as Jesus would say, go and do likewise. And
02:43 we say this in Jesus' name. Amen. There is a saying by Jesus called
02:50 straining out nets. In case you don't know, a net is a very very small insect.
02:57 Anyone here? Let's see the scholars in our m know where this is from.
03:03 Anybody? You get it? India. It's a very small insect.
03:09 What what the Jews used to do? We have a Hebrew brother here. In the olden days, the Jews will keep their wine open for
03:18 you to drink. And what happened? Little incest called nets will go in. Now the Pharisees were people very particular
03:25 about cleanliness. And what happened? They used to strain the wine and pick out every little net that went into the
03:33 wine to not spoil the drink. Now Jesus says this later on in Matthew
03:39 to them. He says, "Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees. You hypocrites. You give a tent of your
03:46 spices. Make deal and come in." Meaning you you you you tight very well. You are
03:52 very good in regulations. You follow the law. You do all this and do and all of that. And then he says, "But you have
03:59 neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and
04:06 faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former. You blind guides, you strain out
04:14 a net, but swallow a camel. Now, it's an interesting statement. He
04:20 means this because Jews are not supposed to eat camels. I mean, how do you swallow a camel anyway? It means it
04:26 means you're so good at small little insignificant things, the major things
04:32 in life, you totally bypass. You are so good at picking out nets.
04:37 You can tithe. You can come to church. You can do and don'ts. But important
04:43 things like showing mercy, you do not. That is the point Jesus is saying.
04:51 You know, sometimes uh people look at my wife and they say, "Hey, you are Ann Arnold's wife."
04:57 Actually, that's wrong. Or you next time you should come up to me, are you Yahan's husband?
05:04 I tell you why. Because my wife used to be a full-time worker. I'm not. I'm an architect who
05:12 occasionally preaches up here. But my wife has gone full-time. So, she has made a sacrifice. Her work,
05:19 however, was not of a pastor, was not of a missionary. I'm here to embarrass her. She doesn't know this. But she did work
05:25 among children of special needs. She's been doing it for years. She did work among people who needed mercy. and up to
05:33 today she does work in the Anglican church among children with Down syndromes and uh you know people who are
05:39 mentally challenged. So I'm very proud of my wife. So one day I went up when she was a full-time worker I went up to
05:46 a friend of mine who was studying theology in Sydney of all things in Sydney more theological college to be
05:51 more exact right down in New Town. You Aussie guys will know this. And I said you know what my wife is a
05:57 full-time worker just like you. And he looked me in the eye. He said, "No, she's not. She's a social worker." Wow.
06:05 Okay. So, meaning there's a hierarchy in evangelical circles. If you if you're you're a pastor, you're a missionary,
06:11 what you do, what you you you work among the poor, or you're just a social worker. So, you see, here's the point. Jesus is
06:19 saying, you hypocrite, you blind guys, what is
06:25 the most important matter? What is a weightier matter? The ESB translation
06:31 mercy. Mercy is a very important part of our Christian faith. You cannot preach
06:39 or do the great commission without practicing the greatest love to love
06:45 your Lord God and then out of that to love your neighbor. So this is a very very important part of Christian living.
06:54 So we're going to have four points today. What does it really mean to be merciful? I mean, you don't have to be a
07:01 Christian to be merciful, isn't it? You see a beggar out there, you give some money. Uh you can be a Buddhist and help
07:07 out in the temple. There are a lot of non-Christians who are very merciful.
07:13 So, what's the difference between Christian showing mercy and a non-Christian or a Hindu or a Buddhist
07:18 or a Muslim showing mercy? How do you practice mercy?
07:24 Do we have to show mercy at all times? Isn't it a bit foolish to show mercy at work? You want to succeed in life? You
07:31 need to be brutal and focused. And how does God view our acts of mercy?
07:37 Now mercy is defined in this following manner. If you look at any dictionary,
07:42 there are two sets of it. The first is to those who are perhaps in a lower
07:48 strata than you. They are poorer. They're struggling financially. Your friends are in hospital suffering
07:55 from a disease. The other facet of mercy has got to do with justice. Someone who
08:01 wronged you and he begs for mercy so that you wave the punishment of the law
08:08 upon him. So mercy has that facet upon it. It's got to do with compassion,
08:14 pity, love. So here's the question. Is mercy an act
08:20 of will? meaning do you define it in what you do? So if someone says, you know, you say,
08:28 "Hey, Ano, I'm I'm a merciful person." And then you I say, "Why?" Well, I give money to the poor. I'm a merciful
08:33 person. I I see dogs on the streets. I I pick them up and I I I I care for dogs. It's an act of will. This is Dubai. You
08:41 know, recently Malaysia had this issue about soup kitchens in KL. All want to get banned. Dubai one step more forward.
08:49 They don't have soup kitchens. You have food you can get free. This is Dubai.
08:54 very advanced. Isn't this an act of mercy? Isn't this an act where the poor
08:60 don't have to line up to get food? They can just go there and get food. Isn't this what mercy is? An act of will. But
09:07 this is also Dubai. Dubai is a place where the traffic jams are full of Maserati and Porsches and Lamborghinis.
09:15 Where you can get gold from the vending machine, where you get goldplated
09:20 phones. So when you look at a country where people live like this in such
09:26 opulence, what is this? It doesn't mean anything. I had a friend of mine who
09:32 became very very rich at a young age. I went to church and ask him what do you think God is calling to to your
09:38 ministry? He said God is calling me to give money. Let me tell you anyone tell you that has
09:45 been blinded by the devil. That is an act of guilt. It does
09:50 nothing. Any one of us can walk out there, see a beggar on the street, suddenly feel a
09:56 pang of compassion and give $10. That doesn't make you merciful.
10:02 Merciful is beyond an act. So some people say mercy is an attitude. In one
10:09 of the most famous scenes in the Avengers, the Avengers has some great oneliners. You know, Captain America
10:15 asked this to Iron Man. No, because Iron Man's got this big suit. He got repous. He can fly. So he says, "Big man in a
10:22 suit of armor. Take that away. What are you?" Meaning I take away your armor. I take away your car. I take away your
10:29 money. I take away the fact that you can give money to the poor. I take away the fact that you occasionally do some good
10:35 deeds. What are you? And the point he's saying is that mercy should be an attitude. It should be beyond an act. It
10:43 is in you. You are have to be kind. You have to be compassionate. If it is in
10:50 you, therefore you are merciful. It is a profound statement and a lot of
10:56 people believe that. And Iron Man replies, what am I? A genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.
11:04 It's also very profound because he is saying I can be both a person who is very merciful. I can also be a playboy.
11:13 You see, mercy goes beyond being acts
11:20 acts of mercifulness. Mercy goes beyond having an attitude. Why is that so? And
11:27 this is something we're going to take next week is because the heart is deceitful.
11:33 The person who can be very kind to a poor man out there can also be very
11:41 rotten to his own relatives. The person who can have very compassion,
11:47 very tremendous compassion to his friend who is in hospital suffering from cancer
11:53 can also make terrible jokes about things out there. As you know, when you
11:59 if you look at what's happening and you follow the trail of thoughts with MH17 and you look at some of the emails going
12:06 around, you can see deceitfulness. Singapore, uh, Yahoo put up pictures of the bodies,
12:16 huge outcry, then they took it down. If you go on the net now, you're already getting bad jokes about MH17.
12:23 The heart is deceitful. So here's one moment I want us to pause.
12:29 I just want to ask a question. And the question is this. Do you consider yourself a merciful person? Just take
12:35 one step back. And if you say yes, the next question is why? Is it A because
12:41 you do acts of mercy or is it B because you see yourself as a kind person? You
12:49 see yourself as a compassionate person. You see yourself as a person with pity.
12:56 But I want to tell you the Bible teaches us mercy is beyond these two. And this
13:01 is where mercy as a Christian separates us from mercy of the world. So let me
13:06 give you a take. Mercy is an experience.
13:12 It is an experience. Why? Because it is the response to our understanding and
13:18 experience of God's mercy. You see, for most people out there,
13:24 mercy begins with them. They are in the driver's seat. If I decide that, you
13:29 know what? I I'm I'm going to be kind to people at Ansana Flats. So, I'm going to
13:35 do it. But I'm not going to give a beep to my
13:40 relative who needs money because this fellow really really was very nasty to
13:46 me in my life. It's selective. You see, the origin of mercy doesn't
13:52 come from you. It comes from God. We got to really get that fundamentals
13:60 right. And Jesus will say in Luke 6:36, "Be merciful even as your father is
14:07 merciful." And the context of that is taken in light of loving your enemies.
14:13 Let's give our poster boy this one. Everyone Peter Yed and all the previous speakers been using this poster boy.
14:20 This is the story of the tax collector and the Pharisee. And we all know the
14:26 story. The tax collector brags about his acts of mercy. See God, I give a 10 all
14:31 I have. See God, I'm I've been doing so much good deeds. See God, look at my
14:37 report card. You should get me in. But what does the tax collector does? He
14:43 says, "God, have mercy on me a sinner." That is your beginning point of mercy.
14:51 If you don't start out on that, your mercy is as filthy racks to God. Unless
14:57 we are spiritually broken, we cannot truly be merciful people.
15:03 Unless you get on your knees and you realize you are poor in spirit and
15:11 because of your sin and that is the kind of sin that we see out there that causes two planes to
15:19 crash in four months. When you take a step back, what does Amh17 tells you?
15:24 This world is sinful. All of us are sinful. And when you take a step back and you realize your Holy
15:31 Spirit, you mourn. You mourn not just for what happened in Amish 17, you mourn
15:38 for yourself that we are all sinners. And when you mourn,
15:43 you submit to God in meekness. And when you submit in God in meekness, what
15:49 happens? You hunger not for things to fill your stomach. You don't hunger for
15:55 that nice car out there. You hunger for God and say, "God, fill me with your
16:02 righteousness. I'm a sinner." And then God tells you, "You go out and you be
16:08 merciful." That is the way mercy flows.
16:14 You see, the beatitudes are not meant to be read and split apart.
16:19 This is what we call a a a Greek technique called an inclus where we get
16:25 the word inclusion. The biatitudes are simply about life in the kingdom of God.
16:32 And the church where God reigns is the kingdom of God. The reality of the
16:38 kingdom of God will happen one day when we meet Jesus. But now here in this midst where God
16:46 reigns, this is the kingdom of God. He starts off by telling you, you are
16:51 blessed have been poor in his spirit. It's an attitude. The first four beatitudes are all about you and God.
16:59 You're poor in spirit. You mourn before God. You're meek before God. You hunger
17:05 for God. Out of these four heart and mind attitudes with God, it translates
17:11 itself to the way you behave to others. And you begin to be merciful. You begin
17:18 to be pure. You begin to be peacemakers. And you end up at the end of your
17:24 journey when you're strong and mature, you begin to be able to take persecution. Why? For theirs is the
17:32 kingdom of God. It's a sandwich. It moves that way. John Piper puts it
17:38 better. He says, "Mercy comes from a heart that had first felt a spiritual bankruptcy and has come to grieve over
17:45 his sin and learned to wait meekly for the timing of the Lord and to cry in
17:51 hunger for the work of his mercy to satisfy us with the righteousness we need."
17:58 Helen Robinson says what Jesus is saying in the sermon on the mount and throughout the Bible is that the mercy
18:04 of God is not a theological doctrine to which we give intellectual ascent. They
18:09 are the experiences of a povertystricken spirit filled with mourning, meekness
18:15 and hunger. So as we reflect on MH17,
18:21 the non-Christian will look at it and say this is so terrible. Then after they
18:27 say, "Well, thankfully I'm not on that plane." Then afterwards, he'll make bad
18:32 jokes about it. Then he'll go out for bakut and he'll forget about it.
18:38 And then he'll go out there and see a beggar and give $10.
18:43 The Christian looks at MH17. He gets on his knees and he says, "God,
18:51 this is a broken world. This is such a tragedy. Then he says, "God, I'm a broken man.
18:59 I'm a sinner. Have mercy on me." That is the starting point of how you
19:08 give mercy. We got to really get that. When you get that through, it becomes very powerful
19:14 because it means two other words come out. Love and grace. particularly grace
19:20 because non-Christians don't use this word and you find Ephesians 2:4 it says
19:25 because of his great love for us who is God who is rich in mercy made us alive
19:30 with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions it is by grace you have been saved you notice the three words
19:37 are tied together you cannot practice mercy if you don't understand God's love
19:43 you cannot practice mercy if you don't understand God's grace is very important. Non-Christians do not
19:51 care about God, have no understanding what grace is, but they can be very kind
19:56 to selective people they want to. And Chris Tomlin, wonderful song. I'm
20:03 giving you a hint. This is our closing outer song. Okay, we ask the spirit to move like a flood. His mercy reigns.
20:13 Really powerful unending love. Amazing grace, mercy, love, grace. Here's the
20:22 challenge we have this morning. Is your grace genuine?
20:28 And DA Carson says this, the key is to understanding how grace links with mercy
20:35 because love is something we understand a bit more clearer. And DA Carson says this, grace is a loving response when
20:42 love is undeserved. Mercy is a loving respond prompted by
20:47 the misery and helplessness of the one to whom the love is to be showered.
20:52 Grace answers to the undeserving. Mercy answers to the miserable.
20:58 Without grace, when you look at someone, you want to have mercy. You put yourself
21:04 on top of that guy. So if I see a drug addict, I say, "Poor drug addict, I got
21:09 to help you." The sinful part says, "I thank God I'm not a drug addict." When
21:14 you see a beggar, you give money to the beggar. The sinful man says, "I'm better than a beggar." But grace teaches you
21:22 you're both the same. Years ago, I used to do work among the Nepali. Brother Robert is here. Where's Brother Robert?
21:28 Robert, raise your hand. Robert. Ah, Robert and I, we both used to drive vans with Francis. Francis, I think, is in
21:33 the second service. Ah, Francis is here. We were all fellow drivers for the Nepali. And the Nepali in this country,
21:40 let me be brutal, are treated like dogs. Let's call it for what they treated like dogs. They are abused.
21:48 They're your guards. They stand in the rain. They treated like commodities.
21:54 And me, Francis Robert, used to fetch them. And I used to take them to flats which look worse than refugee camps.
22:02 And I used to feel sorry for them. But in reality, I said, "I thank God I'm not like you.
22:09 Then one day these two will tell you this. We saw the Nepali worshiing
22:15 and I tell you when you see the Nepali worshiing it brings tears to your eyes because
22:22 they are so close to God and you then understand a person who has
22:28 nothing has everything. And people like us, middle-class
22:33 Christians who drive nice cars, air con churches, money in the bank,
22:40 we do not understand God's mercy. And that that ministry, I think Robert
22:46 and Francis will tell you this, began to teach me, the Nepali I reached out to in
22:51 many ways were closer to God than I. And I learned one word that day, how to
22:57 respect others. Mercy begins from God because grace is for the undeserving and
23:05 I realized I needed that grace so much more than I think the Nepali. And this
23:11 is what Jesus says in Matthew 9 as he sat at the table in the house. Behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and
23:18 sat down with Jesus and his disciples. And they say, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But
23:24 when we heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick,
23:31 those who are sick, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not
23:37 sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." There are two lessons here. The first is in the story
23:44 I just told you. We all need mercy. Do you know what tax collectors are?
23:50 They're actually very rich. in today's language. They be driving your Mercedes E-Class and S-Class. They
23:56 be living in Putra Heights, but they need mercy. So, here's the
24:03 interesting point. You can be very rich, no illnesses,
24:10 but God has pity on you. That's interesting, isn't it? The second
24:15 is the attitude of the Pharisees. Because they say, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" In
24:22 simple English, they're saying, "You know what? These people, they don't deserve to go to heaven."
24:28 Simple English, they deserve to go to hell. So why are you wasting time with them? So here the first litmus test of
24:35 mercy. Here the first litmus test. The litma test of mercy is this is do you
24:41 ask this question. Who is your neighbor? That means you're wanting to justify
24:47 yourself. In the parable of the good Samaritan, the lawyer, any lawyers here?
24:53 You see, I get sued. The lawyer, expert of the law, asked Jesus because he wanted to justify yourself. Who is my
25:00 neighbor? And Jesus tells him the story of a man who got robbed and stripped naked. The first guy who passes him is a
25:09 religious man. In today's cycle, to this term, you'll be a minister, you'll be a preacher, you'll be a pastor. He does
25:15 nothing. The second is a Levite. Meaning the first two people pass him. You know who I what? Church people.
25:22 That is the point. Church people see the guy on the down there strip naked. He sees the guy out there on the road
25:29 outside empire strip naked. He's going to walk by. And let me be honest, most
25:35 of us will do it. The guy in church will do it because everyone can see. Then we got face. easy but out there we won't do
25:41 it and here the question because Jesus is saying you shouldn't ask who your's neighbor in fact the right way of asking
25:48 is where is your neighbor Tim Keller puts it this way he says mercy is a command from God yet it cannot simply be
25:55 a respond to demand because if you do that is not from the heart it must arise
26:01 from out of hearts made generous and gracious and here again it's the same thing by an understanding and experience
26:09 erience of God's mercy. If you don't experience God mercy, you will ask, "Who
26:15 is my neighbor?" It is the heart of the congregation, the
26:20 church. They must be melted until they ask, "Where is my neighbor?"
26:27 Simple application. You take one step back now and list down who are the people you hate. My in my life there
26:32 there's a there's a list. They could be people who cheated you in business.
26:39 They could be a relative, an ex-husband, an ex-wife,
26:46 friends who backstabbed you. And then God will ask you, "Where is
26:52 your neighbor?" And the sinful side of you will say, "He
26:58 or she is not my neighbor." And when you say that, there is no mercy.
27:06 Mercy begins from God. And mercy reaches out with eyes to everyone, especially
27:13 people we despise. The Pharisee hated the tax collector because the tax
27:18 collector betrayed their race. And we have many people in our list that we don't like. The litmus test is how much
27:26 do we look at them with mercy. So that's the first litmus test. The second litma
27:32 test is this. How far are you willing to go? This is something I saw on CNN. It
27:38 it I never it was very graphic. I never forgot it. And about two years ago,
27:44 there was this 2-year-old boy in China who walked the street and a van ran him
27:51 over. I don't know how many you remember this story. It's very famous, you know.
27:56 It ran a 2-year over. It was hit and run. I remember because I you can actually get it on YouTube. But what's more
28:03 tragic was 18 people passed by you know one ate
28:10 and nobody picked up the boy. 18 people they just walked past him. You
28:17 know you know in the end who fetched the boy to the hospital is ironic.
28:25 A rubbish woman. And by the time it was too late and the
28:31 boy had passed on. It it was it was a tragic story that shocked China to show the apathy of of
28:39 the Chinese people. But here's the question we ask ourselves. Why do people pass by? I'm
28:47 going to give you few answers. The first answer is very obvious is apathy.
28:52 But here's the second one, isn't it? Is risk. You see the the the story of the
28:58 good Samaritan is this. You see a naked guy by the side. You're not going to touch him, man. But you see a guy in
29:03 church who who who needs mercy, go and help him. And of course it helps. Everyone knows and everyone says, "Wow,
29:08 you're such a good man." But help a guy in the spirit, maybe he got disease, you know, maybe it's a scam,
29:16 a lot of things. I'm not going to risk myself. So here's the second thing about real mercy. The first test of mercy is this.
29:24 Who are you prepared to show mercy? And the biblical answer is anyone your
29:31 eyes look at. The second limit test is how far are you willing to go? Or in
29:37 more simple English, are you prepared to put yourself at risk? Because God's respond is there. For God so loved the
29:44 world, he gave his one and only begotten son.
29:51 But for us, we set benchmarks. If it crosses a certain risk factor, we're not
29:56 going to do it. And here's the last one. What do you expect in return? You see the the end of the story, the parable of
30:03 good Samaritans. It's quite interesting because Jesus tells the story to the expert of law. You know, lawyers are very careful what they say. And he lists
30:10 down three person. One's a Levite, one's a priest, and one's a Samaritan. The Samaritan hates hate Jews because
30:16 Samaritan are half cast, you see. And he asked the text, he asked the lawyer who
30:22 showed mercy. And you know what the lawyer said? He said the one that showed mercy.
30:28 Every commentator picked it up. He refused to say the Samaritan.
30:34 He refused to acknowledge the Samaritan. And the term good Samaritan has gone
30:39 down in history to talk about people who do good deeds. The irony is the word
30:44 Samaritan refers to an outcast. The most important I think uh uh
30:52 evidence of mercy which is genuine is simply this. You expect nothing in
30:57 return. Not only you expect nothing in return, you shouldn't be expect you shouldn't be
31:03 surprised if it's going to cost you a lot because it cost a Samaritan a lot.
31:08 He not only picked up the the guy who was bleeding and robbed, he brought him
31:13 to an inn, fed him, gave money, went away, and said, "I'll go come back and
31:19 to see what is how he's going on." Mercy will cost you. And after all that been
31:26 done, you're not going to get anything in return. Not only that, maybe people will spit you in the face. Now, you can
31:32 go through all of that. That's political mercy. So let me just go to another section. Do
31:39 we have to show mercy all the time? And the three areas I want to pick up. The first is discipline. The second justice
31:46 then wisdom. Then we'll wrap up. Now discipline is important thing. You know, imagine your son uh playing or uh he
31:53 he's on Minecraft or Counter Strike or whatever and doesn't study,
31:60 fails his UPS and it comes to you. Have mercy on me.
32:05 Dad, you are a Christians. Have mercy. Have compassion. Mother, you're a
32:11 Christian. It's called a salesman. Are you going to say, "Yes, my son. I
32:18 have mercy on you. Go in peace. You do that, you better talk to the elders or the you did therapy. You got to take out
32:25 a cane and wall up the guy. Am I not right? You be crazy to do that. So mercy
32:32 is not acted in isolation. Here are just a few verses to pick it up. 2
32:38 Thessalonians 3:14. Anyone does not obey or instruct in this letter, take special
32:43 note of him. Do not associate with him in order he may feel ashamed. Yet do not
32:48 regard him as an enemy but warn him as a brother. Sometimes you withhold mercy
32:55 for the sake of his soul, for the sake of his character. So you mustn't take scripture out of context. The beatitudes
33:02 must be read against the larger context of the word of God. And I I would tell
33:08 you this as as as an architect because you know I run a small practice and I and you read business booksh. Blending
33:14 of mercy and discipline has tremendous impact. You know, let me give you example. If you have a company and you
33:21 have discipline, people work hard. But if you like Chinese companies, anytime the guy goes outline, you whack the guy,
33:28 the fellow is not going to be creative. You know, pay me, I do. So there is a
33:33 place to tolerate mistakes in your company because the greatest ideas that come out of business come out of
33:39 mistakes dare to fail. very famous Malaysia book
33:46 not a very good author those of you know the guy who wrote it but he was right bear to fail the founder of Honda said
33:55 this success represents the 1% of your work results from 99% that is called
34:00 failure this has really opened the scales in my own practice so nowadays office have discipline some my guys have
34:07 the stupidest ideas and last night said you idiot they'll pay you to do this
34:12 nowadays Please have mercy because out of 99 one of you get it. Why can't you get it right now? We will win
34:18 the award. So I think this is a tremendous practical application. Discipline blends with mercy. The second
34:26 is justice. Sorry I had to do this guys. I had to do this.
34:33 Of course, as you know this story, this woman of course went into a ridge started to go after this old man this
34:40 week took his very famous German red car steering lock and started to hit his
34:45 windscreen and uh made racist remarks. She has been a butt of internet jokes.
34:51 But this picture I picked up was quite interesting. I thought this was hilarious. You know,
34:57 she's been a butt of many jokes. But this is the point of it. No, the point is the point is this.
35:04 The point is he never did it. Why? Because he responded this way.
35:11 You see, if you read what he said, he said, "Let's forgive and forget."
35:16 Now, here's another thing you to pick up. Everyone knows this parable because it's a parable of forgiveness
35:23 where Peter tries to justify himself and go before Jesus. Do I forgive 70* 7? I
35:28 want to limit to it. And Jesus tells him this story. Most of us know this story. Let me just simply recap. A man owes a
35:36 king a tremendous amount of money. He can't pays him back. The king has compassion on this man, writes off his
35:43 debt. This man, another man owes this guy a small amount of money, but he
35:48 doesn't show that same kind of mercy. Now, what is interesting is this.
35:54 The intention of the parable is about forgiveness. But the story is about mercy.
36:01 Have you noticed they actually two separate things you know because in the story the servant never
36:06 offended the king. He just owed him a lot of money. It's not an offense and he promised to pay him back. Not that he
36:13 could. So here's the thing. If you are unable to forgive people in
36:19 your life, you have no business saying you're a merciful person.
36:24 is selective mercy. If there's anyone in your life you hate, you know,
36:30 you cannot say you're merciful because mercy and forgiveness are tied together.
36:36 They are side by side. That's why it begins with God. But what happens when
36:41 we take another case and this one is the other famous case, the shoe throwing case. Okay, this uh teacher threw a shoe
36:50 at a kid and the kid uh had to be stitched up. The parents have decided to
36:56 take action against the teacher. Now, are they right in doing that? Shouldn't
37:02 you forgive and forget? Now, there are two points to pick up. Number one, the shoe thrower never apologized.
37:08 Number two, the shoe thrower never got disciplined. He just got transferred. You know, in Malaysia, anytime you do
37:13 something wrong, they just transfer you. No. So there are two things to happen. There are three things to pick up.
37:19 Number one is a kid, you know. Number two, the the party who did it was
37:25 unrepentant. Thirdly, the party who did it was not disciplined. And there are two verses we
37:30 need to pick up very very clearly. The first is found in Micah. Micah says this. He showed you, oh man, what is
37:35 good? What does the Lord require you? Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly. Two
37:41 things go hand in hand. to act justly and love mercy. In the context of Micah, justice here is to the oppressed,
37:49 meaning and including kids. So if you let a kid go, let a guy go because
37:55 you're scared of consequences and he throws another shoe on another kid again and you had a chance to stop him, that
38:02 makes you responsible. So be very clear on this. Never read scripture in isolation. Sometimes we
38:08 forgive for the wrong reasons. You can forgive, but discipline still happens
38:14 and justice needs to be met out because anybody who makes a habit of throwing shoes at kids and is not disciplined has
38:21 an anger management problem. And if you're in a position to stop him from doing it and you don't do it, I suggest
38:28 to you it's unbiblical. But here's the caveat. The danger is that you do it because you want to get back at the guy.
38:35 So Jesus tells you, love your enemies. Do good to them. lend to them, then your
38:41 reward will be great, and you'll be sons of the most high because he's kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful
38:47 just as your father is merciful. So justice and mercy go hand in hand. You
38:54 must forgive the offender, love the sinner, but you must hate the sin. And
38:59 if you're in a position to fight for justice, you need to exercise that. But here, let me end with this one. Mercy
39:06 and wisdom. And this is the reason why Chinese people didn't help their 2-year-old boy. Let me read this to you.
39:12 On November 20, 206, an old woman fell to the ground and broke her leg after jostling at a bus stop in Nanjing and
39:19 eastern China city. A young man Pingu who helped her up and escorted her to the hospital. Later, the woman and
39:26 family dragged the man to court. He wrote that the young man should pay 40% of the medical cost. And you read the
39:33 court transcript is incredible. You know what the court says? He says, "There's no way you would be so kind."
39:41 He was really tragic. It's not not normal. So the guy was punished for being extra
39:47 merciful. So they said that if you want, you should just dropped him there. But he stayed there. Wanted to find out
39:53 whether the old man was was okay. He stayed for the whole operation. So the court found that very suspicious. Isn't
39:59 that tragic? But it shows you the sin of man. As Oscar Wild says, no good deed
40:06 goes unpunished. So how do you how do you practically apply this? One of the most famous
40:13 stories about this is an Anabaptist in Holland called Durk Williams and he was
40:18 imprisoned by the Catholic Church for blasphemy. Now Durk Williams managed to escape and as he was escaping he found
40:26 the people who were chasing him had had dropped into the ice and was drowning. So he turned around and saved the people
40:34 who were chasing him. You know what he got as a result of that? He was burned at the stake. Very famous story. Very
40:42 famous story. So here's the thing. I just want to I want to close out a short while. I want to give you a few points.
40:50 Showing mercy will cause you. You have to go in eyes open. That's why
40:57 that's why the cross is central to our faith because the cross shows you the extent of God's love and mercy to us.
41:05 The moment you do that, if it does happen to you, you don't feel so bitter. Now, in the
41:11 case of Doug William, because of his action, it made him a martyr and the reformation moved very heavily
41:19 in Holland because of him. So, you never know. Even though it comes back to bite
41:24 you, God has a plan. But here's the other thing. God is telling you to use your brains. He says in Matthew 10:18,
41:30 "I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves." The
41:37 context of Matthew 10, Jesus is telling the disciples to go out and heal the sick. Healing the sick is an act of
41:44 mercy. Just simple English, go and do mercy, but please use your brains.
41:50 Use your brains. And here is the classic case for the
41:56 church. You know how to make money in this church or not. Let me tell you as a
42:03 preacher. Few months ago, two months ago, I talked about when I started my business and I
42:09 lost a lot of money. God is gracious to me. After that, I had some people come up to me, brother, are you okay? Do you
42:16 need some help? I said, no. They were very kind. I said, wow, I'm out to something. So next I should tell you, you know, I'm
42:23 going through some financial problems. Back to the text. After that, someone says, "Brother Anna,
42:29 do you need some help?" You see, you got to be very careful. They there are
42:35 wolves out there and there wolves in the church. I have a friend who was telling me about
42:40 a pastor, he had his entire house renovated because he just simply went around the church to sing, you know, my
42:45 house leaking after my house needs windows. Another friend of mine, the pastor drives a huge Mercedes and I say,
42:52 "Why should pastor drive big Mercedes?" He got very defensive. The Mercedes was donated to him. Wow. I I'm in the wrong
42:58 line, man. Now, let me be honest. We all know this,
43:03 right? Because it's happened in our church. There will be wolves in our midst. Make
43:09 no mistake of that. They will sit here. They'll observe the church. And for a
43:14 while, they will behave like sheep. Then they size up who among here got money. And on one day when you're
43:22 sitting at Glo Cafe or out there they come and tell you I have a problem. Can
43:29 you loan me money? And on a bad day you write a check.
43:35 Use your brains. Now how do we do it? Let me just end with this. There's a
43:41 structure given in 1 Timothy chapter 5 on widows. I won't go through in details, but Timothy gives you a
43:48 guideline on mercy to widows. Number one, give proper recognition to widows. But here's interesting in verse 9, verse
43:54 11, and verse 16, he caveats it. Some people don't give help. Young people
44:02 don't. You know why? He say they're fickle. A widow with bad character, don't give help. A widow who's got
44:09 family members to help, don't give help. And here's the key line. The key the last line so that the church be not
44:17 burdened and not let the church verse 16b let not the church be burdened with them so that the church can help those
44:23 widows who are really in need. You see
44:28 Christians sometimes can be very softhearted and they don't use their brains. You know you got to really look
44:33 at the council of God in its entirety and you you understand when you do that you're actually not helping. You're
44:39 actually making it worse. That's why mercy begins from God. You you start off
44:45 with mercy of God and then what you're supposed to do is get people to hunger for righteousness. The moment people
44:51 come to church and they don't hunger for righteousness. They hunger to get stuff from you. You are leading them astray.
44:58 And brother take will know this. We had cases people ask us for money and we have said no. And then they come and
45:04 tell us if you don't give me this I'm going to have like that. We say no. Two months later we find it's still around.
45:10 A few months ago, I had a guy ask me for a lot of money. He say he was going to go to court. He say of everything. I
45:17 prayed about it. I said no. He went through it. He didn't go to jail. You see, people will try to pull a fast one
45:23 on you. But always remember this. Our aim is this. We start off by having mercy that comes from God. But we have
45:30 one aim to lead people out of sin. And if in your act of mercy, you actually
45:35 teaching them to say Christians are stupid. No, I can get stuff from Christians. you're actually leading them
45:40 astray, you know. So sometimes use discernment and say no because our aim
45:47 is to lead people to hunger and thirst for righteousness, not an hunger and
45:52 thirst to get stuff. So let me close with this. Let me close with what we
45:58 began. Least we forget. And what does AMH17 teach us? It teach
46:06 us this world is sinful. And if you're not a Christian and you've been with ABC a while, I want to challenge you today.
46:12 Today is the day of salvation. I want to challenge you that today is the day of
46:19 salvation. If you strayed away from the Lord, today is the day of reconciliation.
46:26 Because of God's great mercy to us by his son on the cross,
46:31 he has shown us grace. Now, one day you and I will face God. He's not going to
46:37 look at our acts of mercy like a report card. Like Jesus said, he has come for
46:43 the sick, which is all of us, and he respond to us in mercy because blessed
46:48 are the merciful for they will be shown mercy. Let me close with this illustration. Brother Yihing, very good
46:55 at singing old songs. Where's Brother Yihing? Right back. And last, he did a fantastic concert. Brother Yihing, you
47:00 got to do this song next time. Tie a Yellow Ribbon. Maybe Crossbows can do a
47:05 rap version of this. But these lyrics are for all you young uneducated people. This is where all the great songs are.
47:12 You know, you the song is great. Let me tell you what the song is. The song is about a guy who was in prison.
47:19 And he felt he didn't have the grace, he didn't have the mercy or the love of the
47:24 person who was waiting for him. And he says this on the last day where he's getting out of prison. He says, "I'm
47:30 coming home. I've done my time. Now I got to know what is and isn't mine. If
47:35 you receive my letter telling you I'll soon be free, then you know just what to do if you still want me. So he's not
47:44 sure that his family still wants him. He's coming out of prison. He has paid
47:50 the price for his sins. And what does he ask? He says this. Just tie a yellow
47:55 ribbon around the old oak tree. It's been way too long. Do you still want me?
48:02 If I don't see a ribbon around the old oak tree, I'll just stay on the bus.
48:08 Forget about us. Put the blame on me. It's a very beautiful song. He just
48:14 asked for one thing because he's filled with guilt. He's he he he needs mercy
48:20 and he say look if I come to town and I just see one yellow ribbon I know family
48:28 you have accepted me and all the oldies know how the song ends right as he came
48:33 up to the town he saw this and the whole
48:38 dang bus is cheering and I can't believe I see a 100 yellow ribbons tied around
48:45 the old oak tree I'm coming home. I'm glad you waited for me.
48:51 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Can I ask the worship team to come up? I want us
48:58 to internalize this as we think of AMH once. No, put it back on. Put it back on.
49:04 Put up my slide. We're going to sing one song, but uh
49:13 let me just end with this verse for us. Because of his great love for us, God
49:20 who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ. Even when we are dead in transgressions, is by grace you've been
49:26 saved. We're going to sing this song. And this is the verse I want us to take to heart because when we sing, you can
49:32 mount it or you can sing it with your spirit. And I want to encourage us to sing with the spirit as we ask God's
49:38 anointing to fall on this place. And like a flood, his mercy reigns. Unending
49:45 love. Amazing grace. Let us open word of prayer as the worship team just uh
49:50 prepares. Can I have some piano? Lord, we just come before you now in prayer. Oh Lord, as we ask for your
49:56 spirit to just move in our midst, we thank you Lord for your love shown on
50:03 the cross, the forgiveness of sins that we have. Oh Lord, as we look upon this world, a world of sin, oh Lord,
50:10 we are broken in our spirit. Teach us, oh Lord, to move and mourn, not just for
50:15 Amish 17, but to mourn for the sin of man and to mourn for our own sinful nature, oh Lord. Teach us to humbly come
50:22 before the cross, come before your throne, oh Lord, and to hunger for you. Hunger, oh Lord, for your righteousness,
50:29 for your righteousness that will fill us. And by that, oh Lord, teach us to show mercy. For oh Lord, one day we will
50:36 come home and we know there will be a 100,000
50:43 yellow ribbons waiting for us. We will come home, oh Lord. And while we
50:49 come home to the kingdom of God, while we are still here in our journey, oh Lord, teach us to be merciful as God,
50:57 you yourself are merciful. Like a flood, his mercy reigns.
51:04 Unending love, amazing grace. Shall we rise, oh church? Shall we sing this with conviction?
51:10 Shall we sing this with our spirit? Shall we sing this with the Lord just moving in us?
51:23 Great. How sweet the sound
51:33 like me. I once
51:39 was but now I see.
51:47 time. But now I see
51:58 was praise that my heart
52:04 to give and grace my gifts
52:10 me. How precious
52:16 days that grace again.
52:29 My chains are gone. I'll be set free.
52:38 You're my savior and ransom.
52:43 And like the flood like a fly
52:49 is mercy way unending.
52:56 Amazing grace.
53:05 The Lord has brought through to me.
53:13 His word my hope secure.
53:22 He will my shield and forune
53:30 as long as I am yours.
53:36 My chains are set free.
53:44 My eyes has ransomed me.
53:52 And I go in the receiving
53:60 unending love. Amazing. My chains are gone.
54:07 My chains are gone. My chains are gone. I be set free.
54:16 God my savior has ransomed me
54:23 and like a flood his mercy rains
54:31 unending love. Amazing
54:37 grace. And like a flood and like a flood
54:45 his mercy rings. Unending
54:52 love. Amazing.
54:58 Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy.
55:04 I'd like to invite Pastor Rama now for the benediction.
55:23 Mercy comes from mercy and it was first shown to us by God.
55:33 Now receive the benediction. But you, dear friends,
55:39 build yourself up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.
55:46 Keep yourself in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
55:53 to bring you eternal love. Amen. Please be seated. After your silent meditation,
55:59 the service is over. Should there be anyone in need of prayers, would you like to come forward, please? Thank you.
