Lessons From The Tent
SECTION 3 In this section I would like to point out some of the amazing concepts of the kingdom that make it unlike any government, culture, kingdom or religion that has ever existed. Once again we will have to apply faith and believing to these special characteristics that make the kingdom so unique, because as you will see there is nothing like the invisible kingdom of God in this world. LESSON 33 The uniqueness of the kingdom – The requirement of mercy Bible References: * Matthew 5:7 (1) * Galatians 5:17 (2) * James 1:17 (3) * Romans 8:29/Ephesians 3:19 (4) * Romans 2:4 (5) Good morning and welcome to another Lesson From The Tent. For today’s lesson I must start by telling you, I love hiking and backpacking through the mountain ranges of western America. The quietness while walking through extraordinary scenery allows the wonder and beauty of God’s creation to be experienced in ways that the busyness of normal life cannot give me. And every time I have hiked through the mountains there will always be a place where I come to a fork in the trail. The rest of my journey will be determined by which path I then decide to take. If I choose the wrong one, it may take me miles away from my intended destination. But, if I choose the correct one, the trail will take me exactly where I need to go. In today’s lesson we have come to a real fork in our journey of life in the kingdom. One path will bring actions of kindness to us from the hand of God while the other path won’t. Two roads, with two very different outcomes. But the path we choose will be determined by the four preceding attitudes. Each of these is connected to the one before it which makes our fork in the road choice much easier. Let me explain what I mean. Our realization of how God sees us will determine the depth of our mourning for our poor in spirit condition. If we mourn correctly, the comfort we receive from the Spirit of God will naturally cause us to surrender in gentleness and joyously welcome all He wants to do in our lives. If we have truly surrendered to the reign of God, we will naturally hunger and thirst after righteousness because His Spirit will be working to recreate us into the image of His righteous Son. And it is here where the fork in our journey through life in the kingdom becomes a choice concerning which way we will go. Listen to what Jesus said about this next attitude. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (1) And this is the fork in the journey we are on in the kingdom. If we choose not to be merciful to those around us, then we can be assured that no mercy will be extended to us from God. If we choose the other path and go through life giving mercy, God says we will receive His mercy. Two paths to travel on in His kingdom that take us in different directions which will greatly alter the course of our life. We need to understand what mercy is before we consider the road before us. The original word for mercy is about withholding punishment for sinful actions. For example, God has forewarned us that those who sin will receive the punishment of hell after they die and leave this earth. While living here, God extends mercy to everyone by putting off His judicial punishment allowing everyone the chance to become poor in spirit and be rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. A truly poor in spirit person realizes they have received an incredible gift of mercy from God. And if we want to continue to receive His mercy as we travel this road of life in the kingdom, God requires us to give mercy to those who don’t deserve it. We regularly need God’s mercy because we continue to sin. Our flesh does not want God’s Spirit to rule in our lives so we resist His will and even fight against it at times. (2) And when we do God does not kick us out of His kingdom. The merciful propitiation of Christ has saved and redeemed us forever. So, what happens when we are not merciful to those who treat us badly, or tell lies about us, persecute us, insult us, and hurt us by their actions? If we choose the unmerciful path, God may withhold His merciful acts of kindness that He gives us every day. The Bible says all good things come to us from God (3) and think about this - would you really want that to stop? God continually lavishes His grace and kindness on us. But if we choose to not give mercy to someone who has wronged us, He will withhold His deeds of kindness from us. Now why would a merciful God do this? He does this because He wants His favored ones to be changed into the image of His Son. (4) God knows if He ignored our lack of mercy and continued giving good things to us, we would never work on changing our behavior. And He loves us far too much to allow us to continue living our blindly ignorant unmerciful way of life. That is why He withholds His actions of kindness toward us when we are not merciful. How then should we respond to those who hurt us? We should respond exactly how God does to us – by doing acts of kindness to those who don’t deserve it. And remember, the Bible says it is the kindness of God that leads us to change the way we think for the better. (5) By being kind to someone who doesn’t deserve it we work together with God to help them change the way they think about His merciful salvation. What a tremendous privilege it is that we get to participate with God and give the same mercy we receive from Him to those undeserving fallen people around us. And as we do we help them see the unique character of God’s mercy. This is our fork in life where we get to choose to demonstrate the kindness of God to the undeserving domain of darkness world. And where else will blindly ignorant sinners ever learn about the kindness of God if His followers don’t show them? What a privilege this is to be God’s heart of mercy to a mixed up, blindly ignorant world. Well, that’s it for today and once again there is just one thing – happy are those who give mercy because they will receive undeserved actions of kindness from God Himself. ------- Guitar by Cole Criske 2020 All rights reserved * For great coffee order Cole's coffee here: https://colescoffeeco.com/ [https://colescoffeeco.com/] ------- Produced by Dereck Bradley Contact us at mike@lessonsfromthetent.com [mike@lessonsfromthetent.com]
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