Blessed Are the Merciful 050421

[Speaker 1] Church and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home front. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] Father, we are grateful to you. We worship you. We appreciate you. We say thank you for another opportunity and privilege to be in your presence. Thank you for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ on behalf of each and every one of us. We say thank you. Glory be to your name, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. As we sit at your feet to learn of you, Lord, we ask that you will teach us by yourself in the name of Jesus. We ask that, Lord, both the hearers and the speakers will all benefit from hearing your word this evening in the name of Jesus. Preside, oh Lord, take over and let your name be glorified. We pray, Lord, for all our online audience. We ask that, Lord, every benefit of today's meeting will accrue to them in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Happy Easter, everybody. Praise God. [Speaker 3] You're welcome once again to the Christian Discipleship Class of the Family Tent Ministry. And for the past four weeks, we've been looking at what is called the Beatitudes in scripture, that is, a portion of the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus began to teach. We've been able to look at it from where he says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," "Blessed are they that mourn," "Blessed are the meek," and then he said, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness." I would like to open the floor very briefly for brethren who have any message or something they have taken home before I share mine. Something that they have taken home; I've been mostly part of the online audience so far. But something you've taken home from the study so far on the Beatitudes. Anybody? Nobody wants to share today? Okay. I remember that last week we dealt with them that hunger—"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness." I was reading Psalm 11 sometime in the course of the week and in verse 7 of that scripture, it says, "The Lord loves righteousness." It says, "For the Lord is"—I'm reading from the Amplified version—"For the Lord is rigidly righteous. He loves righteous deeds. The upright shall behold his face," or, "He beholds the upright. The upright are before God. The upright are in his presence." It says, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness." Our God is rigidly righteous. He is always righteous. He loves righteous deeds. And as his children, we are blessed when we hunger after that righteousness. We are in a society that does not uphold it. So for me, it was something that is a reminder to say, even though society has bent righteousness in so many ways and it's so difficult—it's almost abnormal to live righteous, but our God loves righteousness. So for me, that was a take home from last week. If God loves something, then I should follow after it. I should hunger for it. I should desire it. Praise the Lord. In today's study, we are looking at Matthew 5:7, but we'll look at verse 1 and just quickly read through from verse 1. [Speaker 4] God blesses those who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, for the whole earth will belong to them. God blesses those who are hungry and thirsty for justice, for they will receive it in full. And then in verse 7 it says, "God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy." [Speaker 3] In reading that scripture in several other versions, I looked at definitions of the word and the word "Blessed" in Amplified. If you have Amplified or any other version of scripture, we can read Matthew 5:7. I learned from one of the studies we were learning and we read Amplified and we had about two versions of Amplified that day. NLT, thank you. [Speaker 5] God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy. [Speaker 3] "God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy." Key words in that scripture are blessed, merciful, and mercy. "Blessed" from the dictionary says happy, to be envied, favored, to enjoy happiness, bliss, fortunate, spiritually prosperous. That is, this merciful person is all of this. The person is going to be happy, is to be envied, is spiritually prosperous. Not just prosperous physically, but has a spiritual buoyance. He's prosperous spiritually, enjoying bliss and fortunate. "Merciful," full of mercy, having excess mercy. Merciful—when you turn it around, it is full of mercy. It's just like Beatitudes that we are looking at. It is attitudes that should be of believers. So when Jesus was talking that day, he was telling us these are the Kingdom attitudes, these are the Kingdom behaviors, these are the Kingdom lifestyle, this is how we should look like. And then he says, "Blessed are you when you are merciful." That is, when you are full of mercy, when you are having mercy, showing mercy, when you are exercising mercy, living in mercy, walking in mercy. "Disposed to pity," that's another definition, "or compassion, sparing, unwilling to punish, unwilling to give pain, compassionate." Some synonyms of merciful: the act of showing mercy, soft, humane, kind, clement. "Mercy," forbearing to inflict harm when provoked, when it is in your power to inflict it. That is, you are merciful not because there's nothing you can do about a situation, but you choose—mercy is a choice. It's a choice we make. It's not what the situation deserves most of the time, but it's something we choose to do or be. Even when it's in our power to inflict a judgment or to inflict a penalty, we are able to hold back. That ability to hold back on a rightful penalty for an offense or a situation is what mercy refers to. So it's leniency, compassion, a disposition to be kind, forgiving, wanting to alleviate distress. That is mercy, forgiving. I know that as all of these definitions are coming up, many things will run through your mind and one major thing that will run through my mind is I'm a beneficiary of mercy. If I have beneficiaries of mercy, shout hallelujah. Thank God, so I have witnesses in the house. So this mercy—some scriptural definitions of mercy we see in Matthew 9:13, the earlier part of Matthew 9:13. [Speaker 4] Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. [Speaker 3] God actually gave an instruction. He said, "Go and learn what this means." And that's really the reason why I'm taking time to say what is mercy, the definition of mercy, because God wants us to understand the meaning of mercy. He wants us to understand what he means when he says be merciful. He said, "Go and learn what it means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice." In Amplified here it says, "That is, readiness to help those in trouble and not sacrifice or sacrificial victims." Readiness to help those in trouble. In Message translation, it says, "I'm after mercy, not religion." I'm after mercy, not religion. That is to say, religion can be defined in many ways, but he says not sacrifice. That is, I desire to have mercy. There's no mercy in calling the righteous, but being bothered with the sinner is what is considered mercy. If you read that scripture and it says, "I'm here to invite outsiders, not those who are upright and in right standing with God, but sinners, the erring ones and all those not free from sin." So what it means to show mercy is to go after the sinners. That's another meaning of being merciful: to go after the unsaved, to bother with sinners, to pay attention to sinners. That is being merciful. Praise the Lord. Let's read Matthew 12:7. [Speaker 5] And if you had only known what this saying means: I desire mercy rather than sacrifice and sacrificial victims, you would not have condemned the guiltless. [Speaker 3] Readiness to help, to spare, to forgive. That's another meaning of mercy in that place. As I read this portion, I remember a story that was rife in social media. I think I read it on WhatsApp at a time, where an old woman—there are two versions, one is an old woman, another one is a young child—but they were brought to court for having stolen food. Of course, the person was found guilty. The store owner brought the old woman to court because she stole food from the store. And the judge was bothered to ask, "Woman, let's hear your side of this story. What happened?" And the woman said she has no money, her children are late, she has her grandchildren at home, and they are hungry, and she cannot watch them die. So she stepped out of the house; I think she had attempted to beg and nobody gave her anything, so she entered the store and picked something, and she was caught for picking that thing. It was obvious she was guilty. She pleaded guilty to the court. But the judge that day said, "This is the fine, my judgment: so-so amount is the fine for this woman's penalty, and I hereby charge every person in this court to pay that fine." And then he gave a speech about how it is the failure of society that will make an old woman to go out and steal to feed her grandchildren. And the judge told the store owner who brought the case that you are the first person that will pay the amount of the fine. And when the fine was fully paid, everything that was in excess of the fine amount was handed over to that old woman, and she was set free to go. Now, that is mercy. She had a crime, there was a penalty to be paid, and the judge was in power, he was in place to exact the judgment for that crime, but he chose the path of mercy. We will note that one nature of God we see from scriptures is that God is merciful, for his mercies endureth forever. If we want to open scriptures that have to do with for his mercies endureth forever, we would exhaust our time here reading such scripture. In Luke 1:50, if you are there, you can read for us. Luke 1:50. [Speaker 5] And his mercy is on those who fear him with godly reverence from generation to generation and from age to age. [Speaker 3] His mercy. So, his mercy. In verse 78 of that same scripture, we have, "Because of and through the heart of tender mercy and lovingkindness of our God, a light from on high will dawn upon us and visit us." "Because of and through the heart of tender mercy." God's heart, the nature of his heart, the nature of his heart that you and I know and have come to benefit from is merciful. I don't think there's anybody that has not at one time or the other bent to kneel and said, "Father, have mercy on me." There's nobody. Even the unbelieving sinner outside has at one point in time or the other cried for mercy, believing that God is a merciful God. It's a saying, because his nature that every person knows is of mercy. And if we look through scriptures, we discover that God is at heart a merciful God. An understanding of the heart of God will show us that he is the source of mercy. He is the one that taught us to know what mercy is. In the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned, he said you would die, but they didn't die instantly. God made certain provisions for them despite having placed a penalty. And he made provisions on and on and on through history up until the death and resurrection of Jesus. There's no bigger story of mercy than what mankind has benefited right from creation. I'm going this way to look at "Blessed are the merciful" because we can't understand mercy if we don't understand the heart that taught us mercy. Mercy is something we learned of God. It's the exact nature of God himself. It is in his nature to be merciful. Praise the Lord. In Psalm 62:12, one thing I noticed in the Beatitudes is that it says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. They shall be shown mercy." It's like saying if you sow mercy, you will reap mercy. And Psalm 62:12 agrees with this. James 2:13. James 2:13 says, "For to him who has shown no mercy, the judgment will be merciless. But mercy exalts victoriously over judgment." [Speaker 5] Also to you, oh Lord, belongs mercy and lovingkindness, for you render to every man according to his work. [Speaker 3] God owns mercy. Mercy is God's own prerogative. And then he says a man will reap what he sows. And that is the exact principle that Jesus was sharing with us when he said, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." God has taught us his pattern in his dealing with us as human beings. As we go through scripture in his dealing with man, we see him as a God of mercy. And Jesus, in saying that "Blessed are the merciful," was saying, "Blessed are you when you are like God." He's saying, "Blessed are you when you are like me." We are beneficiaries of mercy, and this can be seen from scriptures all through, but particularly I want us to look at Titus 3:5. 1 Peter 1:3. We have evidence to show them that we are beneficiaries of mercy. He saved us because of his mercy. [Speaker 5] He saved us not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but because of his own pity and mercy, by the cleansing of the new birth, regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. [Speaker 3] Hallelujah. So God saved us. He just took pity on us. He just had mercy on us. It's just in him to be merciful. And it's that mercy that brought me and you here. It is that—when the Yoruba say, "Mo ri anu gba"—it is that "Mo ri anu gba" that separates a believer from an unbeliever. "A ri anu gba." If the mercy of God had not shown an eye of mercy to us, then we are no better than any unbeliever on the street. So the benefit of sonship we have today is a result of mercy. We are primarily beneficiaries of mercy, of accessing God's mercy. God shows mercy. It's his nature to be merciful. I don't want us to forget that, and that's why I'm saying it in many several different ways. Please let's read 1 Peter 1:3. It says, "Praised, honored, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. By his boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." By God's boundless mercy. Boundless mercy. If you read other versions of scripture, you will see where it says great mercy. In another version, you will see where it says abundant mercy. I don't know if we have any other version that has anything apart from these three; those were the three that I noticed. But boundless, great, and abundant. God's mercy is boundless, it's limitless. And I'm trying to show us the importance that God places on mercy now. God places great importance on mercy. Of course, we have read Matthew 9:13 where he says, "I desire mercy and not sacrifice. I wish you would understand what it means to be merciful." He said, "I wish you are wise to know mercy, to understand mercy." He said, "If you only knew what this meant." Let's look at Matthew 23:23. [Speaker 4] Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone. [Speaker 3] Praise God. Jesus did not say don't pay tithe. He wasn't saying any of those things, but he's saying you are bothered with paying tithe when you have not shown mercy. That's what he was saying there. He's saying you are bothered with paying tithe, you are bothered with religious activities when you have not shown mercy. That is to—he's telling us that mercy to him is of higher priority. That's what I see from that scripture, that mercy has great importance to God. Showing mercy is of great importance to God. So when he says, "Blessed are the merciful," he's teaching us a key attitude, a key lifestyle of members of God's kingdom. That don't get so busy with religion at the expense of these attitudes. Search for these attitudes in yourself as an individual before you go out and be all religious. It would be very wrong for us in this generation, having seen the examples of the Pharisees, to now continue in the way of the Pharisees. God places great importance on mercy. Let's see that in Micah 6:8. In Micah 6:8 it says, "He has shown you, oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." That's the same thing Jesus said in that scripture in Matthew 23:23. What God requires is not your—brother, are you still in Matthew 23:23? Please. [Speaker 4] Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone. [Speaker 3] Praise the Lord. They were careful to pay tithe of everything. If somebody gave them a gift of sweets, a pack of sweets, they would remove mint and cumin. They were careful to pay their 10 bags or one bag to church or the tabernacle or synagogue then. But to God, that was not as important as showing mercy. And when Micah would say it, he says, "What does God require of you? To do justly, to be fair." That's "They that hunger and thirst after righteousness." That's the same background. And then he says, "To love kindness and mercy, to show mercy." God places great importance on mercy. And in Lamentations 3:22, the Bible talks about it is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed. It's of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed. Because his tender compassions fail not. I want us to just look briefly at several manifestations of mercy. I know we are already discussing manifestations of mercy one way or the other as we've been talking, from Adam down through to Easter that we are still celebrating now. we see mercy in many forms. I just want to point some out so that we look at them together. They are innumerable. We can't exhaust them. Let's look at Psalm 119:64. Somebody can also open Genesis 32:10. If you look at Psalm 136, you'll see an account by David of the mercy of God. Psalm 119:64. [Speaker 4] The earth, oh Lord, is full of your mercy and lovingkindness; teach me your statutes. [Speaker 3] Genesis 32:10. [Speaker 4] I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. [Speaker 3] Praise the Lord. Jacob benefited from God's mercy. Jacob was a beneficiary and he knew it. He knew that he was a beneficiary of mercy. Psalm 119:64: "The earth, oh Lord, is full of your mercy and lovingkindness; teach me your statutes." That is to say, if we look at the earth right from creation, we see the story of mercy. Look at Adam and Eve, you see the story of mercy. Mercy kept them so they had children. If he had killed them, if he had killed them in the garden and decided I want to create another one, he would still be God, and his agenda would still go on. But mercy kept them, allowed them to be fruitful. They had Cain and Abel. Abel did as human beings know how to do; Cain did as human beings know how to do, killed his brother. And then God judged him. And even in judging him, you could see Cain negotiating the terms of his own judgment despite what he had done. And God was merciful to him; he placed a mark on him so nobody would kill Cain. Up until the sin was so much for God, and yet he showed mercy. He kept another—he kept one family. And then it just—that man exists at all is a testimony to the mercy of God. That we exist at all is a testimony to the mercy of God. Mankind has benefited from God's mercy a lot. If you look at Genesis 19:19, you see that Lot benefited from mercy when Sodom and Gomorrah was to be destroyed. God had mercy on him. If you read down in that same chapter, Genesis 19:29, it says because of Abraham. Lot benefited from mercy from God because of Abraham. Because of Abraham. So God's mercy to us can even transfer to members of our household, transfer to our generation. And then if you look at Matthew 9:27, 12:7. Let's just look at Matthew chapter 9 together. In verse 27, you see where Jesus was on earth already, the ultimate show of God's mercy. And then he was passing one day and blind men came to him shouting, "Have mercy, have pity on us, son of David!" How did he have pity? How did he have mercy? He opened their eyes. When I talk about manifestations of mercy, what are those things that God does by which we know that we have benefited from mercy? In the case of Jacob, he said I went out with only my staff and I came in a host. That is mercy. So when we grow up as young people and you don't know who you will marry, you don't know how you will marry, you don't know the job you will get, you don't know all those things, and you suddenly grow up and you see yourself and you have become something—evidence of mercy. If you look back, you know that many that you were moving together, some have died. There's this Yoruba song that came to my mind: "Opolopo lo ti ku, opolopo lo ti segbe, opolopo aye ti sora daradara o." Why are me and you here? Why can we stand? Because we benefited from the mercy of God. Noah, what was mercy in Noah's life, the manifestation of God's mercy? God gave him an instruction, he obeyed the instruction, God helped him. Do you know the feat that that man accomplished? Me, I don't understand how he did it. Technology was not as it is now. Even with the technology we have now, how did—if God gives me that instruction, me and my husband, me, how are we going to do it? It's not the chicken house; I don't think we can do it. But it's of mercy that God can still do it like this, do it like this, do it like this, and it was done. And he was led, he was directed, he was helped to accomplish. Every ability to accomplish that we have is evidence of mercy. It's evidence of mercy. And I'm looking at Abraham. "Leave your father's house, go here, go here, go here," and he did it. And you will have a child and God did it. And Sarah will have a child and she laughed in the kitchen where she was. And mercy did not slap her mouth and say, "Is it me that I am talking to that you are laughing, believing that it cannot happen?" God's mercy has—it's so overwhelming if you want to look at it. Look at Hagar and Ishmael. When Hagar thought this child would die—don't look at Ishmael of today—imagine that slave girl who happened upon the household of Master Abraham and Mrs. Sarah. She was a servant, she was innocent so to speak. My madam said make I go meet oga, I go meet oga. It turned to picking. She was sent out at the point when Sarah said let her go. And in the midst of letting her go, God looked at them and said I have seen the child. "See water." The God who sees me. God has been merciful. I don't know how I can contain—I know I can't contain the mercy of God, but I'm trying to drive us to see the encompassity, if there's any English like that, how large, how wide, how great when we say "Blessed are the merciful." How do we begin to measure up in being merciful with this example that we have of mercy? Praise the Lord. In scripture, we also see that God uses others to extend his mercy to us. You see examples like Ezra and Nehemiah; they were slaves. But God in—let's read Ezra 7:28. Chapter 9:9. [Speaker 4] And has extended mercy unto me before the king and his counselors, and before all the king's mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me. [Speaker 3] Praise the Lord. He received mercy before the kings of the earth. He received mercy. He received mercy before the kings of the earth. God gives us mercy. He doesn't just extend mercy to us by himself; he opens mercy doors roundabout us. In Ezra 9:9, it says, "For we are bondmen, yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but has extended mercy and steadfast love to us before the kings of Persia, to give us some reviving, to set up the house of our God, to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem." These people hungered—back to the Beatitude before this—"Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." People like Ezra and Nehemiah, they had hunger to fulfill and do things to please God, and God extended—Bible says he extended mercy to them. So God uses other men, uses circumstances and situations. Nehemiah also had that same testimony. God showed Joseph mercy. Joseph, did he not receive mercy? He received mercy. David is also a beneficiary of mercy. And David is a key beneficiary of mercy because he gave us an example. For David and for Joseph, there was a clear example, pattern, that I saw. Joseph obtained mercy and he was able to extend mercy because he understood that he was a beneficiary of mercy such that when his brothers came he said, "I've forgiven you. You just did it to fulfill the purpose of God." He found it easy to extend mercy. David also found it easy to extend mercy when he had become king. He sought and said, "Who is of the house of Saul?" Do you remember that God withdrew mercy from Saul to give David? That's another place we're going to, that there can be a withdrawal of mercy. God withdrew mercy from Saul to give David. David was not unmindful of the fact that he had obtained mercy. He extended mercy. And this is the example that Jesus wants us to follow. He says, "Blessed are they that are merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." In understanding that we are beneficiaries of mercy, we begin to—I think it is that understanding that will enable us to extend mercy. Without having that understanding that we are beneficiaries of mercy, we can't truly extend mercy. If you see yourself as a beneficiary of mercy, if I see myself as a beneficiary of mercy, I will extend mercy without reservations. I'll extend mercy without reservations. Praise the Lord. Only people who understand that they are beneficiaries of mercy can be merciful. Only people who understand that they are beneficiaries of mercy can be merciful. This—the kind of mercy that Jesus is talking about, the mercy that is in the nature of God. It is only men and women that have understood themselves as beneficiaries of mercy that can extend it. Let's read Daniel chapter 4:27. [Speaker 4] Wherefore, oh king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility. [Speaker 3] Nebuchadnezzar was advised to show mercy. He was advised to show mercy so that he can obtain mercy. This is back to the law of sowing and reaping. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." The implication which we also read in Micah is those that don't show mercy will not receive mercy. So when we pray for mercy, we should be aware of and be sure that we have shown mercy, that we are showing mercy. Because it's like sowing and reaping. If you don't sow mercy, don't expect mercy. That's the implication. If you want to reverse Jesus' statement: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Cursed are the unmerciful, for they will see no mercy. That's the implication. Cursed are the unmerciful, for they will see no mercy. The cry for mercy resounds through scriptures. It's a dire need of the human soul. The human soul is in need of it and God gives it like water. As much as humanity and mankind needed mercy, so much did God extend mercy. If you read scriptures like Psalm 51:1, Psalm 79:8, Psalm 123, read through scriptures, you see cry for mercy. Israel will sin, they will come back again, "Have mercy on us," and God will say, "I forgive you." Our ability to forgive—God taught us. That's the example that God gave us. Our ability to forgive. God taught us. That's the example that God gave us. A heart that understands how much of a beneficiary of mercy that we are will not find it hard to forgive. It will be impossible to harbor unforgiveness in our heart if we understand how much we have benefited from the mercy of God. It's by mercy that we are forgiven. It's by mercy that we have been born again. So what is that thing? Because if we want to imagine what is the thing another person will do to me that I won't be able to forgive, there are many. But when we look at it vis-a-vis how much mercy we have obtained, we will not have a choice. Mercy compels us to be merciful in reality, except we lose sight of mercy. In Psalm 89:1, David sang, "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known his faithfulness." If we keep the mercies of God ready in our heart and we sing of it continually, we will not find it hard to be merciful. If we keep it in our consciousness that we have obtained mercy, we will not find it hard to be merciful. Every man, every person who has ever received a divine intervention would require or necessitate that that man must first obtain mercy. If a man has ever received any form of divine intervention in his or her life—either you had a near-death experience, an accident that almost took your life and it did not; you needed admission and you got it; you've ever prayed any prayer—even the worst of sinners pray in their thick times of life. They will cry out to the unknown God, according to Paul. They will cry out and this unknown God will answer in mercy. Every human being has benefited from mercy. And for us to extend that same mercy, to show mercy, Bible says, "Blessed are the merciful," that is, blessed are they who show mercy, for they will obtain mercy. We desire to obtain mercy; can we be merciful? In Psalm 107:43, the Bible talks about the wise diligently considering the mercy of God. Diligently consider it. Put your heart to it. It's important. What do we do when mercy is withdrawn? When mercy is withdrawn, can mercy be withdrawn? Brethren, is it possible for God to withdraw mercy? How will such a life be? A life that experienced the withdrawal of God's mercy. Can you imagine it? Remove all the mercies of God from your life. How will it be? Empty. We wouldn't even exist. If you remove the mercy of God—something happened recently, this thing they call 'ata' in Yoruba. Someone said they were 'so eyan l'ata.' I've heard of it in passing, but I've never paid attention to it before. But I saw it close hand recently because it happened to a colleague of mine. And I was explaining the thing the way I saw it to my husband, and then he said, "Ah, it has happened to him before," and he showed me the scar. He said when he was in JSS 3, it happened to him. He said if they show you 'ata,' they want to kill you. You will die unless God intervene. So, sir, your life will not be empty if we withdraw the mercy of God; you will not be alive. But for the mercy of God, that 'ata' would have killed you in JSS 3. If we begin to look at several experiences of our lives, who will exist in this room but for mercy? If mercy is withdrawn, will I exist? Will you exist? There's none of us here if mercy is withdrawn. I wanted to cross. I remember that day; I can't forget that day. I was on my way to the airport and I wanted to cross at—I wanted to join another vehicle anyway, and the car that passed by me was less than an inch away from me. So for me, but for mercy, that car would have taken me to heaven direct. One-way traffic. So it is mercy, mercy that keeps us and it is that mercy that we are called to partake of. We are called to extend. I don't know what scenarios surround each and every one of our lives, but I know that we cannot but find opportunities to be merciful because God, innumerably in my own life alone, has found too much opportunity to be merciful. So me, I shall obtain mercy. Brethren, too many opportunities to be merciful. Praise the Lord. When there is no mercy shown, no mercy is reaped. So when we say the law of sowing and reaping as applied in the case of mercy is an important thing because if we withdraw mercy from society, society will not receive mercy from God. And that's what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah. The only person that benefited from the mercy of God in Sodom and Gomorrah—a seed of mercy has been sown on his behalf. Praise the Lord. A seed of mercy has been sown on his behalf for him to reap in the case of Lot and Abraham. So by implication in society, if mercy ceases to exist, men will cease to receive mercy. And that's why there is so much cry in our streets. How many people are still merciful, even believers? How many of us are still truly merciful? And in saying this, I'm not innocent. There have been times where I know that, "Ah, Funmi, you could have done better," in one situation or the other. But I want to draw to our understanding that it is only because of mercy that we are preserved. Our society is only—good things will only happen, mercy will only come when we continue to show mercy. So when we say, "Father, have mercy on Nigeria," Nigerians, are we sowing mercy? Because in praying as believers, there's no time we come before God and say, "Father, have mercy on Nigeria." And are Nigerians sowing mercy that God will look at and allow us to reap mercy? Me and you as Nigerians, are we sowing mercy? Let's think about it. Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy. Are we being merciful, even in our churches? Are we being merciful? Praise the Lord. God's requirement. He said I require mercy and not sacrifice. Jude 21 and 22 says, "Guard and keep yourselves in the love of God. Expect and patiently wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ which will bring you unto eternal life. And refute so as to convict some who dispute with you, and on some have mercy who waver and doubt." Expect mercy. And it says have mercy. As you expect mercy, you must extend mercy. Are you extending mercy? That's a question for us this evening. Are you extending mercy? If it is by the mercy you are extending, how much mercy will you truly receive? If God will count how you are being merciful, how much mercy will you obtain? How much mercy will you be shown? In Romans 12:8, it shows us the attitude with which God expects us to show this mercy. There's an attitude expected in showing mercy. It says, "He who exhorts, to his exhortation. He who contributes, let him do it with simplicity and liberally. He who gives aid and superintends, with zeal and singleness of mind. He who does acts of mercy, with genuine cheerfulness and joyful eagerness." We don't extend mercy grudgingly. Mercy is not to be extended grudgingly. God did not extend mercy to me and you grudgingly. He didn't send Jesus with a caveat, with a "but o, a won to ni gba Jesu yi o." No. When he sent Jesus, he sent Jesus for the whole world. He did not send him for the Jews alone. He made provision for me and you as far away from it as we were. So God's expectation of us in showing mercy is that we show it genuinely, cheerfully, joyfully, with eagerness. We should be eager to show mercy. We should be eager to be kind, to be considerate, to be compassionate, to be lenient. We should be joyful to do so. That is the attitude of showing mercy. As I round up this evening, I remember the story of Solomon, before whom two mothers appeared. One of them had slept on her own child overnight and the child had died. And she picked up the child of the other woman and said this one is my child. And they came before Solomon. And Solomon, as a king that is to be just, he used the trick of mercy to know who the mother is. He said, "Kill the child." Kill the child. How are we being merciful? As we go on in life, Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." In understanding that we are beneficiaries of mercy, we begin to—how do we begin to measure up in being merciful with this example that we have of mercy? Praise the Lord. [Speaker 2] Dear Lord, we are grateful to you for your words to us again this evening. You made it clear to us that until we understand the heart of him that shows mercy, we will not understand mercy. And Lord, you showed us severally how you have extended mercy to us and your demand on us that we should show mercy unto others. Lord, we are asking by your power that you will enable us to be willing to show mercy to others in the name of Jesus. We are praying, oh Lord, that you will release the grace upon us to be eager to show mercy, to be joyful to show mercy, to be so, so quick to show mercy to men around us because that's what you did in the name of Jesus. Especially at a season like this that you are showing us, you are reminding us how you showed mercy. You went to the extent of going to the cross. We are asking the Lord this same attitude will be born in us in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for your daughter that you have used tonight. We are asking you, Lord, since she has obtained mercy, give her the grace to extend mercy so quickly in the name of Jesus. Let it be part of her life and attitude in the name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for hearing us pray. As we go, we pray your presence will go with us, your presence will abide with us, and we will bask in your presence. In Jesus' precious name, we pray. Amen. [Speaker 1] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in reaching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission heat. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class every Monday, 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles Club every first Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Marriage forum every second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; Family life seminars; regular school outreaches; and every day counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the First Bridge, Ile-Iwe community opposite Very Joy filling station along Iju-Ishaga road, Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are: 080-3386-1136, 070-3361-3848. God bless you.