Mercy from A-Z

Last night at Awaken, I taught from Psalm 136. It was the second-to-last message in a series called HeartBlog, a sampling of the book of Psalms in 15 weeks.

Psalm 136 is a unique Psalm – it repeats the phrase “His mercy endures forever” in every single verse (26 of them!). The phrase may seem a little repetitive, until you think about how much mercy you really need. When you grasp the depth of your sin, that phrase will become one of your favorites!

26 uses of the phrase made me think of the 26 letters of the English alphabet. I realized that for every letter I could use to describe sin, there is mercy to cover it.

God’s mercy covers us from A-Z!

Although the Psalmist did not have this in mind as he wrote, it applies to us today. Here’s a sampling of sin and a side dish of mercy to go with each one…

Adultery

His mercy endures forever.

Blasphemy

His mercy endures forever.

Complaining

His mercy endures forever.

Deceit

His mercy endures forever.

Envy

His mercy endures forever.

Fornication

His mercy endures forever.

Gossip

His mercy endures forever.

Hate

His mercy endures forever.

Impure thoughts

His mercy endures forever.

Jealousy

His mercy endures forever.

Kidnapping

His mercy endures forever.

Lust

His mercy endures forever.

Murder

His mercy endures forever.

Neglect

His mercy endures forever.

Offending little ones

His mercy endures forever.

Partiality

His mercy endures forever.

Questioning God

His mercy endures forever.

Resisting the Holy Spirit

His mercy endures forever.

Slander

His mercy endures forever.

Teaching another Gospel

His mercy endures forever.

Unbelief

His mercy endures forever.

Vanity

His mercy endures forever.

Watching evil

His mercy endures forever.

eXtortion

His mercy endures forever.

Yielding to temptation

His mercy endures forever.

Zeal without knowledge

His mercy endures forever.

God HATES sin.

I’m NOT saying that God just winks at our sin, supplies the appropriate amount of mercy to cover it, like Aloe Vera on a sunburn, then moves on. God HATES sin – it put His Son on the cross. However, because Jesus died on the cross, there is mercy to cover every sin.

Repent from your sin from A to Z, recognize that if it weren’t for mercy, you wouldn’t even be alive to repent, then receive mercy with confidence!

Sermon Leftovers #4: Put Yourself First

If you’ve been on an airplane before, you know how it goes. As you sit there with your electronics switched off wondering if they really interfere with airline communication, the charades begin in the front of the plane – the seat belts, the exit doors, then the oxygen masks. I remember when I was young and they would tell the parents to make sure that “in the case of an emergency,” they put their own masks on first, then tend to the children or people who couldn’t do it themselves. That seemed so selfish to me. “I have smaller lungs,” I thought. “I should be the one who gets the mask first.” Then one day it dawned on me. If my mom passes out while trying to put a mask on me, we’re both out of luck.

A similar rule applies to us spiritually. Paul words it well in Acts 20:28 as he addressed the Ephesian pastors…

“Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock…”

It’s simple, but important. Just like those oxygen masks, if we are more focused on taking care of everyone else than ourselves, we’re all in danger. If you pass out, spiritually, you’re of no help to anyone. That’s why it’s important for pastors (and all Christians) to prioritize the Gospel in our lives.

So how do you “take heed to yourselves”? What does that look like?

Set time aside to spend time with the Lord.
Don’t wait until you “have time,” because, let’s be honest, no one ever “has time.” There are a million other things you can do with your time than spend time reading the Word and praying. It’s easy to fill up your spare time, so make sure that you set time aside. Since you don’t “have time,” that means you need to MAKE time.

For me, it works best in the morning. Yes, that does mean I get up about an hour and half before I’d actually need to wake up, but losing a little sleep is worth it to me. Once my day gets going, slowing down for an hour right in the middle is a challenge and I’m not near as focused. I want to give God my best time, so the morning works for me.

If you’re not a morning person, or it just doesn’t work for you, try a different time – during your lunch break, before bed, etc. My wife is really good at setting aside an hour or so every afternoon when the girls are down for a nap. That works for her. Whenever that time is for you, make time to spend with the Lord.

If you want to impact other people’s lives, the Gospel must be impacting you.

So, although it sounds selfish to put yourself first, in the long run, you’re making yourself more available for others by taking care of yourself!

Sermon Leftover #3: Control Your ANGER!!!

Anger is everywhere. Murder. Revenge. Theft. Road rage. They’re all examples of what people do when they’re angry. None of them are good. The Bible speaks a lot about anger and how to act when you find yourself angered. Why talk so much about it? Because when we’re angry, we often do things that we regret (like anything in the list above and many other regretful actions). That’s why when we read Ephesians 4:26 (which is quoting from Psalm 4:4), it may sound a little crazy:

Be angry and do not sin.

Pretty simple right? It’s only 6 words long, but living it out is much more challenging than reading it and understanding it!

I heard someone ask the question this week, “What does it look like to be angry and not sin? How do you do that?” It’s certainly not easy. And yet, I got to teach about a guy last Wednesday at Awaken who I believe embodied Ephesians 4:26. It’s Paul, of course. We finished up Acts 17 last Wednesday, where Paul addresses the philosophers in Athens about their altar dedicated to “The Unknown God.” Acts 17:16-17 gives us a quick peek at what it looks like to “be angry and do not sin.”

16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. 17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.

That word “provoked” in verse 16 means “stirred up” or “angered.” It’s the same word used to describe Paul & Barnabas’ argument at the end of Acts 15 which led to them going their separate ways. It’s not clear who was right and who was wrong in that instance, but Paul definitely did the right thing here in Acts 17.

It’s this simple: Paul did something productive with his anger. He didn’t lash out, beat people up, or cut somebody off in traffic, he talked to them about Jesus. The word “Therefore” in verse 17 tells me that that was his remedy to the problem at hand.

The problem: the city was given over to idols.

The solution: tell them about Jesus.

Not sinning when you get angry involves doing something productive with your anger. Don’t lash out; reach out. Don’t hurt; heal. Don’t fight; fix.

Admittedly, this is much harder to do than to say (or blog about), but it’s certainly something to shoot for and it’s part of our obedience to God’s Word. God doesn’t make rules and set boundaries because He’s God and He can, He does it because He knows that the best possible way we can live our lives is in complete obedience to Him. He has our best in mind. Obey.

What’s the hardest part for you about not sinning when you’re angry?

What are some steps you could take to work on making sure you do something productive with your anger?

Sermon Leftovers #2 – Palm Sunday 2.0

Last night was #3 in our Premeditated series. It’s been an incredible series so far as we’ve looked back at how God was evidently in control of the death of Christ – it was all part of His premeditated plan. Here are some leftovers from last night’s message that I was unable to expound on…

Today is Palm Sunday, but we missed the real Palm Sunday by about 2 millennia. That’s more than just “fashionably late.” The good news, though, for those of us who missed it, is that we all still have a shot at making it to the next one. I call it Palm Sunday 2.0. I say 2.0 because it’s the new and improved edition – a major upgrade from the original. We’ll call this future event “Palm Sunday” although I don’t know for sure what day of the week it will be on (there is a 1 in 7 chance though!) What event am I referring to?

Revelation 7:9-10 – After these things I looked, and behold, ​h​a great multitude which no one could number, ​of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, ​clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ​​“Salvation belongs to our God ​who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

And why 2.0? What’s so much better about this one? Here’s 5 reasons…

1) For starters, we can actually attend this one, since we missed the original one.

2) Jesus won’t be about to die, He’ll have conquered death already.

3) Jerusalem is nice and all, but heaven is A LOT better.

3) We’ll be surrounded by people of all nations, tribes, and tongues, singing the same song. Epic!

4) We won’t have to go to work the next day when the worship service is over – this worship service will NEVER stop. Ever.

5) We’ll really understand what we’re singing – salvation will be complete and we’ll have a complete understanding of the lyrics, “Salvation belongs to our God…”

I hope you enjoy your Palm Sunday celebrations today. What a scene to picture Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling Zechariah 9:9 – a prophecy made over 500 years prior! God is very detail-oriented and completely in control of all that’s going on!

Happy Good Friday (and Happy early Easter!)!