Pillars (6)

Give Generously

We are going to be discussing what it is to give generously and wHat God desires us as Christians to give. Because you can give good things and give bad things Or you can spend your time wisely and give God things.

There is a difference in giving and Giving in a Godly manner.

This morning we are going to be talking about giving Mercy. But with Mercy comes Justice and Grace.

Justice= Giving you what you deserve.

Mercy- Not Giving you what you deserve.

Grace= Giving you what you didn’t deserve.

Justice— If you’ve been to the court house you see a lady blindfolded with two scales. Many people believe Justice is allowing the prosecution to put their evidence on one side of the scale and allowing the defense to put their evidence on the other side and see which one outweighs the other.

This isn’t how it works

True Justice is

Putting the prosecution’s evidence and the defenses evidence on one side of the scale and placing Justice or what is right on the other and seeing how it balances out.

Biblically

People believe Justice is Putting all your bad deeds on one side of the scale and putting all your good deeds on the other and hopping the good outweigh the bad so that you can get to heaven.

True biblical Justice is this:

Putting your good and bad deeds on one side of the scale and putting Himself on the other side.

The reality of this is if we are honest we would never enter heaven. All of our goodness cannot tip the scale on God who is Good.

This is where Mercy and grace come into play

1 John 1:9 ESV

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

God’s justice can send us to heaven. How?

Well, God Sent Jesus as our payment. Justice has to be answered For your sin has to be paid, but in God’s Mercy he wipes away you sins and in his grace he allows you to enter heaven.

Mercy is you, with all your baggage on the scale trying to push the scale down just a little bit, but then Jesus steps on the scale with you all of a sudden you hear-it is equal.Confessing our sins allows Jesus to forgive your sins.

So why doesn’t this say Give Grace. Grace is better than Mercy after all Mercy allow you free from the consequence. Grace allow you to be rewarded.

In order to give grace you must first learn to give Mercy.

Psalm 136:1–2 NKJV

1 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. 2 Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever.

26 verses that tells us that God’s Mercy endures forever.

The cultural definition of Mercy- is have compassion on the poor or the guilty.

Understand in God’s eyes we are both.

We are poor in spirit and guilty in sin.

Greek definition of Mercy- To compassionate.

I learned recently that this is a Verb.

Adjective- Is compassionate Like he is a compassionate person.

But the Verb is Compassion ATE

It’s not just having compassion but putting the compassion into action.

So How do we Give Mercy?

I want to show you two verses. When these two verses talk about Mercy it is the only place in the bible this greek word is used.

Matthew 5:7 ESV

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

and

Hebrews 2:17 (ESV)

17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

The greek word for Mercy is:

Eleemon which literally means to be placed in another person’s skin.

Eleemon=To be placed in another person’s skin

Jesus was put into human form so that he could make propititation for the sins of the people. In other words-So he would know what it was to be human so that he could plead for our foriveness.

This may rock some people’s theological world, but it’s in the bible.

That’s why the bible tells us he knows what temptation was because he was tempted in human form. But he didn’t sin.

You can compassion ATE because you got into the person’s skin

To become Merciful you have walk in their shoes—or get into their skin.

How many times do we judge people because we don’t know what’s going on? Have you ever had a foot in your mouth moment?

Someone’s mean to you-you relay one of the million your mamma jokes just to have the person look at you and say-My mamma’s dead.

If you’d only walked in their shoes. Lived in their skin or found out why they were so mean. Maybe you could help that person heal instead of adding salt to the wound.

Giving mercy is simply. being open to seeing the big picture. Realizing you were forgiven for doing stupid stuff so it’s ok to forgive someone for something stupid as well.