Sermons

FILTER BY:

← back to list

Feb 10, 2019

Blessed with Mercy

Passage: Matthew 5:7-9

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: Sermon on the Mount

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: forgiveness, mercy, peacemaking, reconciliation

The Beatitudes up to this point have revealed that 1) I don’t have my own rightness, 2) am in infinite “rightness debt” to God, 3) as I come to him in humility, 4) with a craving for His Rightness, I am completely completed...filled and satisfied by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. BECAUSE of this (as a result of being given Jesus’ righteousness), I realize that we are all in the same need of God’s grace; I am motivated and empowered to extend mercy to others, even when it costs me and it’s “not fair”; and finally, that we are to be agents of peace and reconciliation between one another and with the Lord.

ORDER of Worship

PRELUDE: Breaking Bad - Apologize

CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 103:1-4;22 ESV

READING: 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 ESV

MUSIC: 

  • Holy Holy Holy
  • Praise to the Lord the Almighty
  • Oh Lord My Rock and My Redeemer
  • I Am Who You Say I Am
  • Band: Lead Guitar & Vocals - Randy Johnson, Vocals - Courtney Hagenau,Hannah Moeslein, Guitar & Vocals - Dave Moeslein

PRAYER: Mission of the Church (from The Book of Common Prayer)

ALL: Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to you through the finished work of your Son. Inspire our witness to Him, that all may know and extend the power of Christ’s forgiveness and the hope of His resurrection; who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.  

GRATITUDE: Ephesians 5:18b-20 ESV

MESSAGE: Blessed With Mercy

CENTRAL TEXT: Matthew 5:7,9

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

RESPONSE:  The Peace Prayer (by St. Francis of Assisi)

ALL: Lord, make us an instrument of Thy peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is error, truth;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

Grant that we may not so much seek

To be consoled, as to console;

To be understood, as to understand;

To withhold, as to forgive

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.   

BENEDICTION: 2 Thessalonians 3:16 ESV

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Psalm 51
  • Hosea 6:6
  • Matthew 9:13
  • Matthew 12:7
  • Matthew 18:21-35
  • Luke 1:54, 72
  • Luke 10:25-37
  • Romans 11:30-32
  • James 2:12-13
  • I John 1:4-7
  • Jude 20-23

MEDIA:

2.10.19 Album

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

  1. Quick--how would you define mercy? What is one of the most significant expressions of mercy you’ve been witness to? Or when have you been the recipient of someone’s mercy? How did you respond to it?
  2. How is mercy both related to and yet distinct from, say, grace, or forgiveness, or compassion?
  3. Why might we be hesitant to extend mercy? Is it ever a mercy to withhold mercy? Why or why not?
  4. Is mercy always expressed in the same way? Why or why not? Give examples.
  5. How have we been the recipient of mercy in Jesus? Think long and hard on this one. Why does that matter? How is that meant to shape our sense and expressions of mercy?
  6. Where right now do you need to trust more deeply in the mercies of Jesus?
  7. Where right now might you need to extend mercy? In what form(s)? Why

QUOTES:

  • “The Church lives an authentic life when she professes and proclaims mercy—the most stupendous attribute of the Creator and of the Redeemer—and when she brings people close to the sources of the Savior’s mercy, of which she is the trustee and dispenser.” - Pope Francis
  • “We’re simply not that good at Mercy because we tend to see ourselves as more deserving than the poor and needy…. To the degree that you forget the mercy you have been given, it is easier for you to not give mercy to others. I daily need God’s work of mercy in order to do his work of mercy.” - Paul Tripp
  • “Showing mercy is different from having pity. Pity connotes distance, even looking down upon. When a beggar asks for money and you give him something out of pity, you are not showing mercy. Mercy comes from a compassionate heart; it comes from  a desire to be an equal. Jesus didn’t look down on us. He became one of us and felt deeply with us.” - Henri Nouwen
  • “The greatest power in the universe is the power to absorb all evil and hatred in the world and to destroy it utterly by turning it into self-denying love.  That is not weakness but unconquerable strength.” - John N Oswalt
  • “If we are ever going to be people of mercy, we need bountiful mercy ourselves because what stands in the way of our being a community of mercy is us!” - Paul David Tripp

BOOKS / DOCS

SERMONS / TALKS: