Mercy 1—Outrageous Mercy, episode 95

0:00 If you love a prodigal, you can discover, help, and hope for your wilderness journey right here at the When You Love a Prodigal podcast. And also help and hope for your own life journey. Today we are starting a new series, a very important topic. Because God has said it is so high on his list of what matters. In our loved ones lives and in our lives. I'm talking about mercy. We all want mercy, but we often find it challenging to give mercy.

0:42 I hope you will listen with an open mind and open heart. Not long ago, I spent an afternoon in tears. I read the book Forgiven, written by Terry Roberts, the mother of the man who shot and killed five young Amish girls in their schoolhouse, wounded five more, and then he killed himself. An unbelievable story of horror and destruction that sent shockwaves across the country. It made no sense. The shooter, Charlie, was a loved and respected member of the English, that is non-Amish community, in Strasburg in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

1:36 He loved his wife and three young children. His parents and brothers lived nearby. There were no warning signs. How could he do it? Why did he do it? We'll never know why. But even more incomprehensible was the response of the Amish community. They responded with forgiveness. Their faith taught them to trust God and to forgive whatever the offense, the pain, the horror, the devastation they experienced.

2:16 Through their tears, they reached out to Charlie's family, extending compassion and mercy to his wife and his children, his parents, and his brothers. How could they do that? Why would they do that? Because of our God's outrageous mercy. As I read this story filled with compassion and forgiveness, as well as horror and tears, I knew we should consider God's mercy to us, and his challenge to us to be merciful.

2:57 Mercy is one of the foundational qualities of our amazing God. James tells us that the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. So what is mercy? Let me try to help us grasp the reality, the necessity, the impossibility, and the imperative of mercy. Here are some definitions of mercy. A disposition to be kind and forgiving. Compassionate treatment, especially of those under one's power. It's clemency.

3:39 It's refraining from harming or punishing offenders, enemies, persons in one's power. It's kindness in excess of what may be expected or demanded by fairness. It's forbearance and compassion. Compassionate treatment. Having a capacity to forgive or show kindness. Mercy is a concept integral to an understanding of God's dealings with people like you and me. In English translations of the Bible, it comes to expression in phrases such as to be merciful, to have mercy on, or to show mercy toward.

4:27 The corresponding term, which is merciful, an adjective, describes a quality of God, and one that God requires of his people. Did that settle in? It's true of God, he's merciful, and we also are to be merciful. The noun of mercy denotes compassion and love, not just feelings of emotion, but is expressed in tangible ways. God's mercy, unlike human mercy, cannot be exhausted. We run out. We give mercy, and we've given mercy, and we just run out of it, but God doesn't.

5:11 Our God is rich, he's wealthy in mercy. So with that basic understanding of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness, even though it's not deserved, we move to comprehending the wonder and awesomeness of God's mercy to us. From the book of Ephesians chapter 2, we read, But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, grace and mercy often go together, and raised up with him, and he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

6:15 Our God loves us and desires relationship with us, yet we sin and reject and disobey. But our heavenly father, because of his love and compassion, pursues us to pour out his mercy on us, and set us free from the sin that enslaves us. And then, and then he says, we are to do the same. Have compassion, show mercy, forgive our beloved prodigals, as well as other family members, friends, neighbors, and even our enemies.

7:00 As God shows mercy, so should we. Now that's not easy, is it? Considering some of the actions and attitudes of our prodigals. But if the Amish could forgive, show mercy to the one who murdered their children, and then reach out to that man's family with forgiveness, and friendship, we too can grow in to mercy. So what was the last thing that your prodigal did that really exasperated you? Lied to you, stole from you, drove higher intoxicated, moved in with a girlfriend or boyfriend, refused to go to school, wasted all her money, got fired from a job, did something foolish and dangerous.

7:56 Yes, and there are many more possibilities. And we've probably experienced a lot of them. So what was your response? I'll let you name your own. When they did one of those things or something else that really got to you, what was your response? So then, what was the last thing you did that might have frustrated God or saddened him? Probably not the obviously destructive things your prodigal might have done. But God is saddened by many of our choices in response to our loved ones or to other events and circumstances in our lives.

8:41 We often respond with anger or hurtful words or harsh punishments or fear or deceit, lack of kindness or compassion, unloving, impatient. It could be a long list. Our prodigal's things they've done that are hurtful to us could be a long list. But our things we've done toward God, though maybe not as destructive as prodigal sometimes are, they still are hurtful to God and our list could be kind of long. And what would be God's response? Well, I'm going to just read to you from scriptures, three examples of Jesus' response, outrageous responses.

9:32 So there's the woman at the well. Jews always avoided going through Samaria, but Jesus had to go through Samaria. Why? Because he had an appointment to keep with the questionable woman. She'd had five husbands and she was living with a man who wasn't her husband. Jesus knew all this, yet he talked to her. For three reasons he shouldn't have been talking to her. One, she was a Samaritan, two, she was a woman, third, she was a sinner, but he talked to her. The shame of it, his disciples when they came back from getting food to eat for them, they couldn't believe he was talking to this woman.

10:15 He told her what he knew, but he didn't condemn her. He offered her living water and a changed life. Outrageous. Then there's the woman caught in adultery. The Pharisees or whoever caught her, it had surely been a setup, caught her in the act and brought her to Jesus, shaming her. Dragged her from her bed apparently and thrust her at the feet of Jesus. She waited for his condemnation and her own death because the punishment for that was stoning.

11:00 Let him who is without sin, Jesus said, if you have no sin, you can throw the first stone at her. She cringed anticipating the stones that would be coming. But the only sound was the sound of stones dropping to the dirt. Some shuffling feet as each of those who came to stone her, shuffled away. Jesus says to her, has no one accused you or thrown a stone? No, she said, Rabbi, no one has.

11:40 And Jesus said gently, neither do I. Go and send no more. Outrageous again. The thief on the cross. He was an evil man, I'm sure, to have earned crucifixion as punishment for his crimes. Yet even as he is dying, he asks for mercy from Jesus. Jesus could have said, it's too late. You've lived a terrible life. You are only repenting now because you are afraid. But no, Jesus said, today you will be with me in paradise.

12:23 Is that amazing? And you and I, surely we find ourselves crying out to God for mercy, even as David did with his sin with Bathsheba. He says, have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. We are grateful that our God is like the merciful Father in Luke 15. As the prodigal wanderer returned, before he could even speak his repentance, the Father ran to him, threw his arms around him, kissed him, put a cloak and a ring on him, and threw a party to celebrate.

13:12 Our God loves mercy, and he is willing to immerse us in his mercy. In Ephesians 2, we read, But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved, and grace leads to mercy. Yet God is opposed to sin, no doubt about it. And sin generates consequences, some that are the natural result of choices made, and others that we might impose on our loved ones.

13:57 But our primary response should be one that flows out of the love and grace we have received, even as we have been immersed in the mercy of our God. So we should give mercy to our prodigals. We should be less like the Pharisees, dragging the women caught in adultery, and more like the very wronged Father who ran to his prodigal son. So may we live in this truth. James 2.13 says, Mercy triumphs over judgment. So I know some of you are saying, But, but, but, there have to be consequences to actions.

14:42 If you'll hang on listening through the four sessions we're doing on mercy, I think at the end you'll have some good answers for that. But I don't want you to think that mercy isn't required. God loves mercy. And he would like to pour that mercy through you and me, to our loved ones, and to other people who hurt us in some way. So I have a question, actually two questions. So when have you received mercy lately? And is there someone that you need to extend mercy to?

15:26 God's there, it's his mercy. You don't have to make it yourself. It'll flow through you because he's poured it out on you and in you. It's available to give to those that you can give mercy to. God bless you.