Sermons About Mercy
Who Gets the "Leftovers"?
Jesus reaches out, beyond the nation of Jews, beyond the religious, beyond the law-abiding, beyond the proper, and preaches love your neighbor as yourself. He extends “loving neighbor” to include love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matt. 5:44)—to include tax collectors and even the despised Samaritans—to include us, no matter our sins or our failings. No one is a leftover in God’s eyes. Everyone is loved. Everyone is special. We’re all chosen people. Jesus carries forward the promise God made again and again: to take care of the needy, no matter who they are or what their need is, for all are children of God, and Jesus does love all of us. Jesus' humanity gives us hope that our own humanity can rise to the level of his—that we can learn God’s will and grow in understanding and in the ability to surrender to God’s will—that what we are today is only a beginning for what we can become. In these ways, God’s realm will keep expanding, through us, just as God’s mercy keeps extending out and out and out, so that none are left out or left-over, except those who choose not to come in. “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy” for us all. Thanks be to God!
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A New and Improved Life
We are all on a journey in life. From where we have been, to where we are now, and to where God wants us to be. It's a journey filled with grace and mercy, and it starts with understanding and accepting the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ.
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Positioning Our Hearts
1) Unexpected kindness 2) Do you see the woman? (Luke 7:36-50) 3) Mud or masterpiece? 4) No perfect people allowed. 5) Mercy begins with us!
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Gospel of John: Your Not Too Stinky for Jesus (John 11:28-44)
in this final messianic sign, Jesus shows both his compassion and authority in weeping over the death of Lazarus and resurrecting him after he has been dead four days. Jesus enters our sorrow, grieves with us and gives us life. Even if we think we are too dead, too stinky, too dirty.
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Blessed are the Peacemakers (Matthew 5:9)
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a call to repentance. Apart from genuine repentance there is no true knowledge of God and no participation in the Kingdom of God. Repentance and the Kingdom of Heaven go hand in hand (3:2; 4:17; 5:3 “Blessed are … the kingdom of heaven.”) “Blessedness” refers to one who is in a right relationship with God; which in turn produces joy, happiness, contentment. Issue not how to enter the kingdom (repent), but assurance/evidence that one is in fact in the kingdom. The 1st century audience of Jesus, those listening to the sound of His voice, were a people steeped in a religious system that was spiritually bankrupt; it was a religious structure that focused almost entirely upon externals - what they do - as a means of being right with God and bringing down His blessing. Therefore, the beatitudes, would have come as a shocker; because the shoot right past the externals and deal directly with the heart. It is not the proud who are blessed, but the “poor in spirit”; it is not the morally superior, but those who mourn over their sin, are meek, and have a true inner “hunger and thirst for righteousness”; who are merciful, and pure in heart. Here in our verse this morning 5:9, He moves it to the next level: "Blessed are the peacemakers, because they shall be called sons of God."
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