Merciful God

[0:00] Good morning. My name is Law Wong. I am a pastor from Gachen Church across from this building.

[0:14] It is my joy to be here this morning worshiping together with you. When pastor can ask me if I would be available to preach today, I didn't know my newborn baby would be arrive sooner.

[0:36] Unexpectedly, my wife and I just welcomed our third daughter this last Tuesday. Thank you.

[0:49] Apparently, she came sooner than expected. She was supposed to be delivered this coming Wednesday. Of course, there was some chaos in the family, but we make it through with God's mercy and love and his care.

[1:11] Since mom and baby are not quite ready to go out, they are not here with us. Hopefully, they can come and worship here soon.

[1:22] We name her Angela Simsa Roy. Angela is we want her to be a messenger of God.

[1:35] Simsa is a peace. Because right now, back home, we don't have peace. And so, we want to have peace.

[1:48] So, that's why we gave her peace. And Roy is, in our character, we name orderly. So, for example, my La is the third son.

[2:02] And so, her, Roy is a third daughter. So, that's why we gave her Angela Simsa Roy. And that's her name.

[2:14] My sermon title for this morning is Merciful God. I assume all, we all believe that God is merciful.

[2:28] I also assume that some of you may have a question, if God is actually merciful at some point of your life.

[2:41] The Bible says, God is so rich in mercy. And if he, Psalm 145, verse 8 said, The Lord is merciful and compassionate.

[2:55] And Exodus 34, it said, The God of compassion and mercy. I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.

[3:07] There are still many scripture verses that clearly reveal God as merciful. When we look into the Exodus story, we can agree that God was truly merciful in the Exodus journey.

[3:25] Moses and the Israelite people had experienced personally how God was merciful to them. In fact, they knew them, they knew more than any other nation if God was truly mercy.

[3:45] They knew that if God was slow to anger, if God was filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. Throughout the Bible, we can see many accounts that reveal God's character and his nature as merciful.

[4:06] Paul said in Ephesians 2, verses 4 to 5, God is so rich in mercy.

[4:18] He loves us so much that even though we are dead because of our sin, he gives us life when he raised Christ from the dead.

[4:30] The Bible is actually telling a lot about how much God is so rich in mercy and how much he loves us.

[4:46] Through his richness in mercy, he continually saves us, sustains us, and gives us hope and new life for us.

[4:58] I don't know how much the difference between mercy and love, but I know, but I do know, that they carry almost the same meaning in terms of caring and supporting.

[5:17] Canberra Dictionary defines merciful as someone who is willingly to be kind to and forgive people who are in their power.

[5:31] In other words, it is treating people with kindness and forgiveness. When we do that, it has to be of love.

[5:42] I don't think we will be able to show kindness and forgiveness unless we have love. In fact, we are called to love our neighbor as ourselves and to show mercy to those who need it.

[6:02] In our language, Gachin language, showing mercy would be, be kind to the poor.

[6:13] I see some verses in English translation that use the same instead of using, be merciful. Anyhow, it is very important that we take it seriously as we maintain the believer status because our faith and our belief is based on the action of love and mercy.

[6:40] With love, Christ died and resurrected for us. Through the love of Christ, we receive salvation.

[6:54] Why am I talking about merciful God this morning? The first reason is we are called to be like him.

[7:06] Our goal of being believer is always to believe in Christ and to be like him. Of course, we will never become God, but we can be like God in terms of his character and relationship toward his creation.

[7:24] Like merciful God, we want to be merciful to others. The scripture said, If we show mercy to others, we can resemble God whose goodness in his glory.

[7:41] It became an evidence of love to God. 1 John 3, verse 17 said, If someone is no merciful to his brother or sister, how can God's love be in that person?

[8:02] When we love for God, we do not neglect those who need help. We care for each other. We show mercy to others.

[8:16] Jesus Christ is also encouraging us to be merciful. We can see in the psalm on the mount, Jesus said, Matthew 5, verse 7, God bless those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

[8:36] The scripture said, When we show mercy, we can see it in Isaiah 58, verses 7 to 11, When we show mercy, it said, Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.

[9:02] Then you will call, the Lord will answer, Yes, I am here. He will quickly reply, When you, merciful to those who are in trouble, it said, Your light will be shy out of, out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.

[9:30] The Lord will guide you continually and give you water when you are dry, restoring your strength. You will be, you will be like a well water again, like an overflowing spring.

[9:48] That's, that the scripture said that. Psalm 41 said, If you are merciful to, merciful to those who are in need, the Lord will protect and keep them alive.

[10:04] He give them prosperity in the land and rescue them from their enemies. The Lord nurse them when they are sick and restore them to hell.

[10:16] And we can see, at Proverbs, chapter 19, verses 17, it said, If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord.

[10:30] He will repay you. Who would have thought of that you can lend something to the Lord? It said, God will repay you.

[10:41] That means, you are helping, the needy will always be rewarding and reply. I'm not sure, have you heard of anyone who broke just for helping and showing mercy to others?

[10:57] I have never heard of it. I have one friend who help all the time when she hear someone in need. Regardless of her mortgage payment, job security, she is the same all the time to the needy people.

[11:16] When she lost her job, another job is ready for her. When she needs help, there are lots of people who are ready to help.

[11:28] Her help is only restored quickly. That's how God takes care. Or that's how God repay us back.

[11:41] Jesus said in Acts chapter 20 verses 35, it said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

[11:54] The blessing comes more when you give. The blessing comes more when you are merciful towards others. It is important that we also forgive others if we would become merciful like God.

[12:12] God is merciful. He forgave numerous times to Israelite in the Bible. The scripture said, if you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly father will forgive you.

[12:28] But if you refuse to forgive others, your father will not forgive your sin. we cannot really be a kind person or mercy one if we still hold the pass.

[12:44] If we still hold the person who sin against you or take advantage of you, it is not easy to forgive someone the thing that happened to our life.

[12:59] The scripture said, if we refuse to forgive others, our father will not forgive our sin. Again, I have never heard of someone who is well off just by not forgiving others.

[13:18] Instead, unforgiving people suffer a lot of negative effect in their life. The attitude of unforgiving is like a poison.

[13:32] Eventually, it kills the relationship with our Lord Jesus. God forgave us even though we don't deserve it.

[13:45] So we too shall forgive others and we are called to become Christ-lized. Another reason is fake without action is dead and useless.

[13:59] We all know that James chapter 2 verses 15 to 17 it says, suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing and you say, goodbye and have a good day, stay warm and eat well, but then you don't give that person any food or clothing.

[14:24] What good does that do? So you see, fake by itself isn't enough unless it's produced good deeds, it is dead and useless.

[14:39] We have talked about being kind to others and forgiving those who need to be forgiven. We know that God is merciful.

[14:50] He is encouraging us to be like him. Fake generally, fake is generally what you know and what you practice.

[15:04] For us as a Christian, action essentially requires in order to grow our spiritual life and in order to have a deeper relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.

[15:19] We need to have a willingness to be kind and forgive others. Our small action can impact others greatly. I asked permission from Joan just now.

[15:34] I remember Joan was telling me her experience in kindness. She said she greeted one family who lived in her neighborhood.

[15:46] She said they were in tears just by her greeting because no one has neither talked or greeted them in the last five years.

[15:59] She said she was the first person. They were shocked when she greeted them. Last Tuesday we didn't know that our new baby would be delivered on that day.

[16:12] we had planned for the whole days but my wife has to go through some assessment since she has some pain.

[16:24] She was there by herself and I was on my way to the airport to pick up her aunt. She was told that the next three to four hours she may be admitted to the operation room.

[16:39] I thought I would make it to the hospital before she was admitted to the operation room. But she was admitted within an hour and my girls and myself were in the airport.

[16:53] She went to the operation by herself. But she was so thankful that there was a nurse who cared for her like her mom.

[17:04] That nurse encouraged other medical personnel to make her feel well care said my wife was there by herself. My wife was so encouraged by her action and her kindness.

[17:20] Over the course of her operation and her stay at the hospital, there were a number of medical personnel who provided medical care to her.

[17:32] But only one stand out for her and she only thankful for that. My point is we don't need money necessary to be kind to others.

[17:50] We just need willingness and consistency to our faith. Someday someone will recognize us as a different person.

[18:01] Hopefully our actions resemble God's mercy and love. Can you think of someone right now who would need your help or mercy?

[18:14] Can you think of someone right now you think you need to forgive if you have won? Could you please show your mercy to those who need it and forgive those who need to be forgiven this week?

[18:30] I would love to hear your experience if you do so. Please don't do it for yourself or for me. Do it for the glory of God who is so rich in mercy and who loves us so much.

[18:49] Let's pray. Mercy for God, you are so rich in mercy and love dearly. Thank you for the message you give us this morning. Pray that you would continually transform our life spiritually to become like you.

[19:05] We want to live for your glory. We love you. Thank you Lord. We pray in the name of your son Jesus name. Amen.