As always, you can read the transcript below
Psalm 119: 41-48
41May Your unfailing love come to me, Lord,Your salvation, according to Your promise;42 then I can answer anyone who taunts me,for I trust in Your word.43 Never take Your word of truth from my mouth,for I have put my hope in Your laws.44 I will always obey Your law,for ever and ever.45 I will walk about in freedom,for I have sought out Your precepts.46 I will speak of Your statutes before kingsand will not be put to shame,47 for I delight in Your commands because I love them.48 I reach out for Your commands, which I love,that I may meditate on Your decrees.
Matthew 5:7
“Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.”
188th
Anniversary of Springford Baptist Church
October 4, 2020.
Psalm
119:41-48; Matthew 5:7
BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO SHOW MERCY
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)
Here is a true situation that illustrates mercy:
Years after the death of President Calvin Coolidge, this story came to light. In the early days of his presidency, Coolidge awoke one morning in his hotel room to find someone going through his pockets. He asked the intruder not to take his watch chain because it meant a great deal to him. Coolidge then engaged the would be thief in quiet conversation and discovered that he was a college student who had no money to pay his hotel bill or buy a ticket back to campus. Coolidge counted money out of his wallet which he also persuaded the dazed young man to give back later! He declared it to be a loan and apparently this loan was subsequently paid back.
I am sure that young college student never forgot the mercy that was shown to him. I think it likely that he went on to have several occasions to also show mercy to others.
A very practical example of showing mercy comes in realizing that we may sometimes be the one going the wrong way down an aisle of the grocery or pharmacy. This happened to me this week when I took a friend to Shoppers Drug Mart. I was carefully trying to follow the arrows but at one point ended up going the wrong way. I need to remember this and have mercy for others who sometimes go the wrong way.
As we reflect today on this 188th Anniversary of Springford Baptist Church, we are grateful to our God for His persistent mercy. We can think about all the years that this church has been able to witness to the loving mercy of our God. We can think about how we as individuals have encountered God’s mercy and been inspired to demonstrate mercy to others.
We can hear countless stories of those who have been shown mercy, but it will be our own personal experiences of receiving mercy that will have lasting impact.
Our God is a God of mercy! He does not withhold His love from us when we neglect or forget to notice Him and all that he has done for us.
The
way that Psalm 119:41 describes mercy is “unfailing love.”
Our
Psalm writer prays,
41May Your unfailing love come to me, Lord,Your salvation, according to Your promise;
This person has learned to trust in God’s mercy, God’s unfailing love.
How have you learned to trust in God’s mercy?
How will someone else learn to trust in God’s mercy because you show that person mercy.
How will people in our communities experience God’s mercy through our church and the people connected with our church?
In following a theme of SERVING throughout this year, here we have landed in a pandemic when even seeing each other has been a challenge. Being the church must be so much more than gathering for weekly worship.
When we do come together, we can encourage and challenge each other to be those who show mercy.
Psalm 119
continues:
42 then
I can answer anyone who taunts me,for
I trust in Your word.
Those
who have not experienced or been aware of God’s mercy find it
difficult to understand why we trust in God and depend on His word.
When we have received God’s gift of salvation, we have reason
to believe that mercy is available to us and to others.
Hear these words:
43 Never take Your word of truth from my mouth,for I have put my hope in Your laws.44 I will always obey Your law,for ever and ever.45 I will walk about in freedom,for I have sought out Your precepts.
The central message of Springford Baptist Church over these 188 years has been a message of God’s loving mercy.
When we have received God’s mercy, the outcome is deep and lasting commitment to God. This is life changing!
We have put our hope in
God’s ways. We always want to obey Him, forever and ever. We can
“walk about in freedom” because we have tasted God’s mercy and
it has flavoured everything else in our lives.
46 I
will speak of Your statutes before kingsand
will not be put to shame,47 for
I delight in Your commandsbecause
I love them.48 I
reach out for Your commands, which I love,that
I may meditate on Your decrees.
There is a confidence that comes when we have been recipients of God’s mercy. We delight in God’s ways and reach out to embrace and meditate on God’s commands and His decrees.
If God was harsh and unforgiving, we would not have this same confidence to come to Him just as we are.
Instead we can know with certainty that each time we approach God and look to Him, He will respond to us with His unfailing love, His endless mercy.
Whenever
God’s Word has been proclaimed and lived over these 188 years in
the life of this gathering of believers in Jesus,
there has been
evidence of mercy.
Jesus maintains, “Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.”
Having received God’s mercy and care for us equips us to be people of mercy who keep on being shown mercy.
In LEARNING THE WAY OF BLESSING, knowing God’s mercy and showing God’s mercy is essential!
However many examples of mercy we can recall in our own lives or hear stories of, we can never consider a more compelling example of mercy than what we will recall together this morning, as we participate together in Communion.
God loving our world so much that He was willing to send His only Son Jesus to give His life for us is a powerful story of mercy.
We do not deserve this profound expression of mercy, but out of His infinite love, this is what Jesus did to make us right before God. If we are thinking in exasperation, I don’t want to show mercy to “that person”, we must remember that God has shown us mercy.
We will be blessed and the ministry of serving God together as His church will be blessed if we show the mercy of Jesus every day and at every opportunity!
“BLESSED ARE THE
MERCIFUL FOR THEY WILL BE SHOWN MERCY”!