mercy as a problem solving tool

Here's the outline of my lesson in Mercy last night...in case you missed it!

REVIEW

• Mercy is not getting what we deserve, while grace is getting what we don't deserve.
• Mercy is withheld punishment, but not the dissatisfaction of justice. (Exodus 34:6-7; Zech 7:9)
• Mercy is vast but limited (Rom 9:15)
• Mercy that is enforced by God is an opportunity for the people to respond to Him positively: Unbeliever-Repentance; Believer-Recovery (Romans 2:4)
• God's omnipotence will be understood at the end of mercy. (Rom 2:5; Luke 1:50)

THE HEART (KARDIA) OF A CHRISTIAN

• You are what you think, not what you do (Prov 23:7)
• The heart that the Bible is always pertaining to means the part of us where we think, understand and store up standards in life (Rom 2:15)
• Jesus Christ did not die for the regeneration and improvement of our physical bodies, but the clearing of our conscience (Heb 9:14)
• Christianity is a lifestyle of thinking that will eventually lead to our good or poor decisions. (Rom 12:2; Phil 4:8)
• The proper mental attitude of a believer should be patterned with the thinking of Jesus which can be acquired through Bible Doctrine (Phil 2:5; 1 Cor 2:16)

THE MENTAL ATTITUDE OF MERCY

• Before we can actually perform merciful acts, it should first be established in our hearts.
• Mercy is more than just emotional sympathy...it's the realization of God's love towards us (motivational virtue) that burdens us to show compassion (functional virtue) (John 15:9-12; 1 John 4:19)
• Before we can function in God's love, we must first accept the love God has freely given us through the Word of God (1 Cor 2:9; 1 Tim 1:5)
• Impersonal love is the best practice of Mercy for the believer (AGAPE)

1 CORINTHIANS 13 - THE AGAPE LIFESTYLE

¹ If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. ²If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. ^3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

   Love never gives up.
   Love cares more for others than for self.
   Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
   Love doesn't strut,
   Doesn't have a swelled head,
   Doesn't force itself on others,
   Isn't always "me first,"
   Doesn't fly off the handle,
   Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
   Doesn't revel when others grovel,
   Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
   Puts up with anything,
   Trusts God always,
   Always looks for the best,
   Never looks back,
   But keeps going to the end.

^8-10Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

¹¹When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

¹²We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

¹³But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.