The Math of Mercy - Pastor Naeem Fazal

[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is Naim, and you've reached the Mosaic Church Podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity, and I'd love for you to pay it forward. [00:00:39] Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you. Enjoy. [00:00:57] Well, hello, good morning and welcome, friends. We doing good? You doing good? Awesome. Awesome. Hey, before we get into it, because we're in a series, if you're a guest here, we're in a series called God Bless you. It's a sneezing series, actually. Not really, but we're talking about how God wants us to be the blessing because we were created to be a blessing. All right, let's jump into it. So we. We are. The series is about be Attitudes, the Beatitudes. And we're gonna go to. Yeah, the next one. So the next one in line is this one right here. Let's put it up on the screen for you. It's this. Blessed are the. Help me out. Blessed are the. What? Merciful. For they will be shown. What? Yeah, it's the one that you just get more of if you do it. You know what I'm saying? It's not like the other ones were like, hey, if you're. The kingdom belongs to you. If you're meek. No, no, no. [00:01:44] If you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you'll be filled. No, this one is like, if you. If you. If you are merciful, you'll be given more of that. [00:01:51] It's like, if you want mercy, you better give mercy. What's interesting about mercy, though, is we desperately need it. Have you ever wanted or needed, like, mercy in your life? I'll tell you what. I have several times. But what comes to mind, though, is early on. Early on, when I was a college pastor, okay, I was a college pastor, and I was learning how to preach and learn. I'm still learning how to preach anyways. And so I got invited to this event to Come and speak there. And I was really super excited, okay. I was living in South Carolina, this event was in Georgia. So I take a drive up or down, whatever, sideways, okay. To get there. And I was super excited because this was like one. It was not just one college group. It was like four of them coming together. And I was the main speaker. I was like, this is it, man. This is it. I've hit the big time, okay? So I'm like driving there, super, super excited, and all of a sudden, woo hoo. [00:02:45] Yep. I get stopped. I get stopped by a cop, okay? And then he stops me and I'm like, I'm just like, what? How are you doing this? This is the Lord. I can't. I have a mission. [00:02:55] You just stop. You're in God's way. You know what I'm saying? Anyways, I didn't say that, but I did throw in like, hey, I'm so sorry, I'm actually going. And I told him of the event. [00:03:04] I was like, that'll be helpful. And what I wanted was. I wanted a little bit of what? [00:03:08] Yeah, grace. Oh, mercy. I wanted any of that. I just wanted. I'm like, I hope you understand, this is for Jesus. [00:03:14] I was speeding for Jesus. And he did not. He did not. He gave me a good old. Just a whopping ticket. So I was like, okay, you know what? I put the ticket. I was like, okay, okay. I'm like, you know what? This is not gonna dampen my deal here. I'm good, I'm good. So I go to this event. Okay, Great event. A lot of people, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. What was really ridiculous about the whole experience was is that the podium, the table that I spoke from. You see, back in the day, I used to like, kind of like really look up to this guy named Louis, and he was in charge of like the largest young adult group. Okay. And when I got stage, I noticed that it was Louis table, the one he spoke from. So I'm like, oh my God, this is. I've so made it. I'm like, this is awesome. I'm speaking from the table. And you know, back again, I was in, you know, I was young and I was like, oh, fascinated with the whole thing. So I was like, oh my gosh, it's just amazing. And so I was so pumped about that great event. [00:04:07] And I think I called Ashley and told her, hey, man, I got to speak from Louie's table. I mean, who cares about from the Bible? But still, I was like, I spoke from the. You Know. And she was like, whatever. Okay, so I'm going back. I'm driving back, and I'm, like, so excited about this thing. I'm like, who am I gonna tell this? I can't believe this happened and all that. I was so excited that I didn't realize how fast I was going. [00:04:30] Again. [00:04:31] It happened again. [00:04:33] It happened again. Cop stopped me. Not the same cop stopped me. And he was like, do you know how fast you were going? I'm like. I was. Oh, I. I'm like. In my mind, I'm like, this cannot be happening. This is one trip. This is one trip. Okay? I'm already short 250 bucks now. This is what's happening here. And so then I'm like, I didn't. I wanted grace. I want all. I mean, I didn't get mercy then. I was looking for some grace. I was like, could you just. Could you just. Could you just lower the ticket? You know, like, mercy is basically withholding, right? Withholding the consequences or what you deserve, right? It's just withholding, as in, like, it was clear. It's all good. But grace is like, just give me. Just don't. Just be gracious. You know what I'm saying? Just be nice about this. And so I was like, ah. You know, and so I told him what happened. I told him. Listen, I didn't tell him about the fact that I spoke from. You know, and all that. I just said. [00:05:25] I just. I'm so sorry. [00:05:28] Also. Problem is I got a ticket on the way up here. [00:05:34] And to that, I thought he'd be like, oh, come. Yeah, I got you. He was like, so apparently you haven't learned your lesson. [00:05:45] Another ticket. [00:05:47] That was a good conversation with Ashley. I was like, hey, good news. I got paid for this gig. Bad news, I owe people money. [00:05:55] That's the problem. I've never done that. I mean, that's crazy. Crazy. Grace and mercy, man. We need it, don't we? We don't need it. And what's funny about this one in particular is, like, I think we all relate to it. We all relate to the point of where we're just like, okay, I did something. I said something. Something happened. I just want some mercy. Just don't. Can you. Can you. Can I get a redo. Can I get a mulligan for those of you who play golf? Can I just. Can I. Can I. Can I just. Can you just not account. [00:06:19] Can you not put that on my account? Can you. I'm so sorry. I did not mean to. I did not Mean to. We need mercy. And Jesus is saying, hey, if you wanna be a person who is a blessing, then you need to be a person that's full of mercy. You have to give mercy away because you'll actually get as much as you give away. It's the one thing that if you give it away, give it away, give it away, you'll actually get it. And so what mercy is is basically withholding criticism. It's withholding judgment. It's withholding something that other people might deserve. But you're withholding it. You're like. You're being gracious in one sense. But mercy involves us really saying, okay, I just. [00:06:57] We gotta get good at this. And what's interesting also about this passage is this. [00:07:03] Is. This is One Beatitude. Because as it's called, it's one that I should really master here. Let me tell you. Let me explain why, okay? Because so those of you who know me, you're like, okay, your name is Naim. It is. It is Naim. Okay? You're like, what? Your real name is not Naeem? No, it is. It's Naim. But it's like, for the U.S. it's like, you know, or for Immigration or whatever, it's Naim Jon Fazel. Because you guys do three names in the U.S. right? For those of you who are immigrants, you know, three is not enough. [00:07:33] Three is not enough. Okay? Especially my African friends. It's not enough. No, no. We're just getting started. Three. No. So I have five names, okay? So my real name is Naeem John. It's not even Naeem. It's Naeem John. [00:07:45] I don't say it because people make fun of me anyway, so it's Naim John Fazel is my middle name. And Rahim Ali is my last name. It's my family name. And so here's what's interesting. So naim actually means kind, benevolent. [00:07:59] So it's a benevolent. And then John actually means life. So it's a benevolent life. [00:08:05] Fazel means grace, and Rahim Ali means high mercy. [00:08:12] So literally, my name is a blessed life of grace and high mercy. [00:08:18] I know. I know. But I'll tell you, I'm not good at it, though. I'm not good at it. I'm not good at it. No, I'm not. [00:08:26] It's tough. [00:08:28] I'll tell you why it's tough, because some people deserve it. But then how long do you keep doing it? Do you know what I'm saying? Like, how long do you keep giving it to the same person? [00:08:41] It's a great question, right? It's the same. That's why. It's the same question that Peter asked. That's why I like Peter. So Peter asked Jesus, right? So let's look it up. He goes to him, and it's on the screen here. He says, lord, he goes, how often? How often, Right. Should I what? [00:08:56] Forgive someone who has sinned against me? Which is a great question, right? And he goes, seven times. [00:09:03] He says seven times. Because he's Jewish. Seven times is. Seven is the end. It's like the. This is the completion. I am done with you. Kind of like, it's done. It's seven. It's fully done. He's like seven times, right? [00:09:15] And Jesus goes, no, not seven times. What does he say? [00:09:21] 70 times. What? [00:09:23] 70 times seven. [00:09:25] This is the math of mercy. It doesn't add up. [00:09:29] Mercy doesn't add up. Like. What do you mean? Like 70 times 7? [00:09:34] Like, basically, Jesus saying, forever, every time they need it. And so when he says this, they're confused. Peter's confused. And then he goes into a story, and let me just tell you the story. He makes up a story to illustrate the point. And what he says here, he says, there was a guy who owed this one guy a million dollars. Okay? A million dollars. So the guy who he owed the money to showed up, this master, in one sense, he says, master shows up and he goes, hey, I need you to pay it up. Pay up, Pay up. And he was like, I can't do it. I can't do it. And then he was like, well, you're. You're gonna be. We're gonna get in trouble. I mean, he talks about being sold into slavery, all kinds of things. Jesus is making a point here. And the point is that this guy owed him so much money, but the guy begged for mercy. And the master, the guy, the main guy, he let him off the hook. He let him off the hook, and he can't believe it. He's off the hook. He's like, you don't have to give me a little bit of it. Don't give me, like half a million. No, I erased the debt. It's all gone. So mercy is withholding every. Like, it's taken everything away. [00:10:37] Merciful. Oh, my gosh. Wow. [00:10:40] So Jesus continues the story. He was like, okay. But here's what happens. What happens is this guy who gets all this mercy, who gets his debt wiped out, goes into the streets, finds someone, runs into someone who owes him lot less money, a lot less money, and then gets on him and Tries to put him in prison because he needs the 200 bucks back. [00:11:08] I'm making this up. But basically, that's the idea. It's like he does that. And so Jesus tells the story. And the story is this, guys, the story is that this guy, the master who forgave him the million dollars, he finds out about it and takes the guy and he puts him in prison. [00:11:24] And he says, how is it possible for those of you who've gotten so much mercy that you are not able to give mercy away? And he says, that's the story. [00:11:34] That's how God views mercy. [00:11:36] And so what's interesting about that is that what he's telling us, number one, is that when we have a hard time being merciful, when we're like, you know what? This person does not deserve it. I've given so much of it away. He says, as a blessed people are so merciful because, number one, they understand what true mercy really is and where they got it from. [00:11:58] Where they got it from. [00:12:00] So let me explain a couple of things to you. Number one, when it comes to mercy, mercy is what. What's the word it says? Is what Mirrored. It's not manufactured. Like, you and I did not come up with mercy. [00:12:13] We didn't invent this. We're not like, I gotta come up with my. I gotta get it together. I gotta do this. No, it's just mirrored. Because you were just given a whole lot of mercy when it came to God that God has given us, forgiven us, let us off the hook so many times. I mean, when you think of it, think of some of the stuff that we've gotten ourselves into. Oh, my friends, you know it. And then he would just hold it like, the things that could go wrong has not gone wrong, man. And you're like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe it. God, you're no mercy. And you're like, oh, my gosh, I got. That was close. [00:12:50] That wasn't just close. That was God coming in and giving you mercy. And all he says is, here's what I want you to do. I just want you to mirror it. I just want you to reflect it. [00:13:01] And what's interesting about mercy is in Lamentations, talks about God's mercy. And it says this, it says, it says, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. And his mercies, what never, they never come to end. And this is what's interesting. And they are what they are new every morning. [00:13:21] Great is your faithfulness. [00:13:25] Can we just agree? Okay? I know we're like all kinds of different people and all kinds of different ethnicities here. But can we just agree that there's nothing, there's nothing like fresh baked bread. Can I get an amen? [00:13:39] Right. There isn't. There's like, fresh baked bread is like. [00:13:45] I mean, it's amazing. It's heaven going inside. [00:13:48] I mean, when it stays in there, that's not bad. But I'm saying, it's just. You're like, oh, my gosh, there's nothing like it. And can we just agree too, that there's nothing unsatisfying as stale bread? [00:14:01] Right? It's just the, it's just the words. Now, I, you know, obviously with my ethnicity, I mean, my mom used to make fresh roti in the morning. Oh, my gosh, it's amazing. By lunchtime, though, it's. [00:14:14] But the next day it's like, just throw it away, Just throw it away. Now, we've invented modern, you know, societies have even invented, you know, preservatives. So we can just preserve everything. Everything is good, right? But there's nothing like it. And so here the writer is saying, let me just explain to you, because that group of people, that time in history, they didn't have preservatives. They relied on the freshness of things. And the freshness of things was the beauty of things. And so the writer here is saying is God's mercy is like God making fresh bread for you every morning. [00:14:53] It's renewed. It's not old mercy, it's new, brand new mercy for you. It's fresh. It's like starting all over again. So if you find yourself going, I'm not quite sure if God, he's given up on me. Oh, my goodness, there is no way. There's no way I could be here. There's no way. I mean, every morning he has fresh, new mercy for you. [00:15:18] And it's that kind of mercy. He says, I'm gonna make it fresh every morning for you. All I need you to do is pass it on. [00:15:26] All I need you to do is pay it forward. All I need you to do is mirror it. Because you're not baking it and you're not manufacturing it. You're mirroring it and you're just giving it away. [00:15:37] Because if you are merciful, you will receive mercy. And that is what a blessed person looks like. A person who in fact is merciful, who gives it away, gives it away. [00:15:53] Luke 6 says this. It says, be merciful, just as your who Father is merciful. Don't judge, he says, don't withhold judgment. He says, don't condemn. Withhold condemnation. Forgive. [00:16:08] And you'll be withhold bitterness. [00:16:12] Like forgive, don't judge, don't condemn. [00:16:17] And what he's also saying here is not just that. He also is pointing to the reality that this story that he tells about how many times you're supposed to forgive, he's really reshaping Peter's view on how to have relationships with people. You see, when Peter asked the question how many times, what he was doing is he was keeping score. How many of us have ever had a relationship where we're keeping score? Anybody? [00:16:46] Anybody? Right? We're keeping score. We're just keeping score. And some of you guys, you've been in relationships that are highly toxic. And you know what it means to be losing as we're keeping score because the game is. We're losing this thing. [00:16:59] And there are some of us that we live our relationships where we're like, you owe me so much. [00:17:05] You owe me so much. And some of us live in the weight of that. We live in the weight of going, I'm never enough. I'm never good enough. I never can't do it. Because the other person in this relationship is like, keeping score. And I just. Well, here's what I want. I just want mercy. Can we just start all over again? [00:17:23] Can we just be like God and start afresh anew every morning kind of thing? Let's just. Whatever happened yesterday, I didn't mean to. I mean, I said it. I said what I said. But can we just. [00:17:34] Can we just do this? [00:17:36] And what he's saying is. He's saying is when it comes to mercy, not just it's mirrored, but mercy does something that really is beautiful for relationships. Let me tell you what mercy does. Not just for relationships with us, but just how we relate to the world. [00:17:57] So here's what we realize. We realize is mercy does this. The second thing mercy does is it breaks the cycle. It breaks the cycle of sin. [00:18:06] Mercy breaks the cycle of sin. Romans 12 says this. It says, do not. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. [00:18:22] Do not be overcome by what evil, but overcome evil with good. [00:18:31] Have you ever played tag before? Anybody played tag before? Everybody's played tag here, okay? Now, growing up in my country, we did not play tag. [00:18:39] We played this thing called kings, okay? Basically, it's a more violent tag. Okay, let me explain, okay? It is. It just is. Okay? So it included a tennis ball and sometimes a cricket ball, but that was very rare because that didn't work well. But Cricket ball. If you guys know anything about cricket ball or baseball, that whole scenario, it's very different from tennis ball. So a tennis ball. What the game was basically, is one tennis ball. Lot of kids and one person is it. And this person is supposed to hit and strike the other kids with the tennis ball. And if you get hit, you're it. [00:19:16] We didn't discover the whole. We could just kind of touch people. No, that wasn't the thing. We were like, we're gonna hit him, we're gonna stone. I think that's the whole stonings thing, you know, storing stoning. That's just the culture. Anyways, so we would do that. We would do that. You know what's interesting? There would be. Sometimes this will happen. Sometimes people would do this. And I think I've had. It's happened to me. I'm not gonna admit that fully that you get hit so hard, okay, with a tennis ball, that you're like, I don't wanna play this game anymore. [00:19:43] And the best thing to do in that case is you take the ball and walk away. So you. No one plays. No one plays this thing. [00:19:52] I wonder if, like, when it comes to. Because we're all grown up, right? We're all adults now here. I wonder how many of us do this, like, play the tag game, but not the, you know, the nice tag game, the one that we play. The whole, like, striking you and you strike me and you strike back. [00:20:12] You see, I mean, we live in a world like that. And Jesus knew that the humanity wants to play that game. [00:20:22] I don't know if we're wired to do that. Seems like we are. That we're wired for tit and tat, you know, we're wired to, like, repay evil for evil. We're just wired. Like, if you do this to me, I'm going to do this to you. But Jesus is saying, what if you didn't do it? [00:20:38] What if you didn't do it? See, Mercy doesn't play the game. [00:20:43] Mercy says, you did this, and it's my turn to hit you. And I'm going to not. [00:20:48] Cause I'm not gonna play games. [00:20:50] I wonder how many of us, the issue with our relationships is because we have been playing games. [00:20:57] And the game is, you hit me, you say something, you do this, I'll do that. [00:21:02] I deserve that. You owe me this. And it's basically back and forth and back and forth. And what if you withhold? [00:21:11] What if you withheld? What if you took the ball and you're like, we're not gonna play anymore. We're not gonna do this. [00:21:16] What if you applied mercy, which meant you withheld. [00:21:21] You did not strike back with correction. [00:21:25] You're like, what? That's my spiritual gift. [00:21:28] Correction. I do it all the time. [00:21:31] I'm great because I know stuff. Okay, but what if you didn't? [00:21:36] Especially when it comes to your kids. [00:21:39] You withheld criticism. [00:21:42] What? [00:21:43] Come on. [00:21:45] Judgment. [00:21:47] What if we spoke? Like, you could speak shame over a person's actions, but instead you spoke life. [00:21:56] You just changed the game. [00:21:57] I'm just not going to repay the same. [00:21:59] Like, what would that look like? [00:22:02] What would that look like? What if someone confessed something to you instead of giving them the answer or giving them the thing or whatever, what if you allowed the like mercy to be the loudest voice in their minds? And mercy, the sound of mercy, sometimes looks like a soothing whisper of a person who's just present with empathy. [00:22:24] You're just there. [00:22:26] That's mercy. Hey, I'm just gonna listen to you. What if we did that? [00:22:30] What if we just. Yeah, just stopped keeping score. You're like, name, but I'm winning. [00:22:39] Yeah, but what if you did? [00:22:40] Because that breaks the cycle of sin. [00:22:47] What if you stopped speaking? [00:22:50] Like, your identity or what's happened to you or your past speaking, Your past, your fears, your anx, your shame over your kids. [00:23:04] Because if we don't get this right, we'll do it. We'll do it. We'll unknowingly just do it. But if we get good at mercy, man, we change the game not just for ourselves, but we change the game for other people as well. [00:23:22] We just do. [00:23:24] We're allowed to be better people. That's why Jesus says, hey, you wanna be a blessing? You wann the blessing you were created to be. Let me just tell you, if you begin to practice mercy and you give it away as fast as you get it, if you do that, I'm just going to tell you, you're going to create space for you to be more than you could ever hope to be. See, for some of us, we want to live a life that's more fulfilling. We want more satisfaction. We want more love in our lives. We want more acceptance in our lives. We just want more of, of the good things in our life. We want more peace in our lives. And what he's saying here is, if you actually did all these things, if you wanted more, you need to have more mercy. You need to give mercy away. And you're like, ah, yeah, but, yeah, yeah, but if I give it away, I Won't have it. I won't have it. [00:24:16] But mercy is the one thing that just. [00:24:20] Man. Man. The more you give it away, the more you get it. Because the last thing mercy does is that mercy makes room for more in your life. [00:24:30] Mercy makes room for more in your life. It just. [00:24:36] Just does. [00:24:38] Ha ha. But we have to do it. We have to do it. And it's. It's tough. It's. It's tough. It's tough. The other day on Wednesday, we had this thing called the table. Some of you guys know about it. Some of you guys have attended it, too. And we've done this once a month, and we're gonna. Next semester, next year, we're going to kick it back on. But we had our last one for the. For the year, and it's. It's in the auditorium here, and we. We break up into tables, and we talk about really, some pretty heavy stuff. We've talked about heaven, hell, and salvation and ponies. No, we didn't. No ponies. But we talked about some serious stuff, and it was really good. It was a lot of. And. And all the conversations that we've had are. Have been really, like, heavy conversations. Cause it's like, I don't know. And we leave going. Not that we got all the answers, but we leave asking the better questions about these subjects. So we've talked about some really cool subjects. Now, I'm always wondering, when we started, I was like, I don't know if people are gonna show up to this thing, but people have. You guys have. And I realize what it is. I'll tell you why. It's because we eat together. That's what it is. Okay? Mosaic is. Yeah, you guys like to eat, and some of you guys like to cook. And we, like, love you. [00:25:50] Yeah, God loves you more. Because you could. No, I'm just saying. No, but we just love it. So there's always a theme. There's always all these things, and people just love to make their stuff. And it's like, oh, my gosh. And we eat together. We literally share a meal together, you know, and we share our meals together. It's really amazing. In fact, last Wednesday, Dee, one of our own. [00:26:14] She knows I love plantains, okay? The sweet ones and the bitter ones, I love them all. But the way she makes them, they're amazing. So she walks in right where everybody's always eating and all that. She walks in a little bit later, but she's got this plate, and she was like, plantains? I was like, yes, yes. And she's like, I made them for you. I was like, oh, that's awesome. And then I got distracted. Okay. So I got distracted because someone pulled me over and, like, okay. And then Dee is gone. I took one, and Dee's gone. I'm like, what's going on? What's going on? And I realized, like, five minutes later, Dee is going to table to table and giving away my plantains. [00:26:50] I go. I go. I'm like, what is. I got offended. This is from me. So I go up to her. I was like, hey, what are you doing? [00:27:00] And there are, like, three left. [00:27:03] I was like, d, what are you doing? She's like, I was just sharing. I was like, these are for me, right? I thought you made them for me. [00:27:09] She's like, nah, I mean, you'll be all right, Naim. I was like, whatever, man. Whatever. I took those three. I was like, no one. No, you're not getting any. No one else is getting any. [00:27:21] It's ridiculous. [00:27:23] I think it's the same when it comes to mercy. [00:27:26] Like, God's like, hey, I give you mercy every day. [00:27:33] I'm so merciful. [00:27:35] And you just think it's for you. [00:27:39] No, it's for the world. [00:27:41] Like, I give you mercy. [00:27:43] It's for the world. It's for your world, your friends, your loved ones. It's for them to share it. [00:27:51] It's not just for you to hoard. No, that's not how it is. [00:27:57] If you give it away, you'll get it, which sounds, I know, counterintuitive. If you scatter it, you'll gather just works like that in God's kingdom. So if you and I want to be a blessing, if we want more mercy in our lives, then we have to give away mercy. [00:28:15] Ephesians 2 says this. Ephesians 2 reminds us. It says, because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were, what we were dead in our transgressions. And then he says. He says, for it is by what? [00:28:37] Grace, man. [00:28:39] Grace and mercy. It's been because of that. You've been saved through faith. [00:28:44] It's not. [00:28:45] It's not of yourselves. It is a what? [00:28:50] It's a gift. [00:28:51] You were given a gift. You didn't earn this thing. [00:28:55] You didn't manufacture it. You don't deserve this thing. [00:28:59] I mean, you were given a gift by God, and it's a gift of God and not by your works. So no one can boast, no one can hoard. He can't hoard. It. [00:29:11] And then he says this, he says, for why, why, why? He says, for we are God's workman handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do what? Good works? He said the reason why he gave you, the reason why God is rich in mercy, the reason why he gave you all these things is that you could step into the good works that God has already prepared in advance for us to do. [00:29:40] So what is he saying? [00:29:42] He's saying, hey, when I chose you, I'm giving you mercy because I'm rich in it. I'm rich in mercy. And I gave it to you. Not because you earned it. I gave it to you before you ever deserved it. [00:29:51] And then I'm just asking you to step into moments where you're like, oh, okay, what will mercy require of me in this moment for us to look at that and go, what would mercy do right now? [00:30:06] What would mercy say right now to this person in traffic? Oh, what would it do? [00:30:15] What would it do when you're just so spent, when you're like, how many times do I need to forgive so and so? Because this is a. If it's seven, it's good because they're about. This is the eighth time, so I can stop. [00:30:29] God says, no, no, no, no. Here's. It's not how it works. You've been given, you've been forgiven a debt of a million dollars. [00:30:38] You've been given. You, you, you. You've gotten more. You're going to get more mercy. Check this out. You're gonna get more mercy that you have time to give away. [00:30:51] You're gonna have so much mercy. [00:30:54] If you spent every second giving it away, it would still be more and more and more. [00:31:01] And what the world needs right now is people of mercy, mercy, who are merciful. [00:31:09] So I want you to have the kind of life that's best described by my name, right? [00:31:17] A blessed, a benevolent life, full of grace. [00:31:23] Full of grace and high mercy. Naim John Fazel, Rahim Ali. [00:31:31] I think God wants you to do the same. He wants you to live a blessed life, full of grace and full of mercy. So this morning, I want to pray for us. Because for some of us, you're like, you know what? I don't know if I deserve God's mercy. [00:31:44] And today I want you to do this. I want you to ask for it. [00:31:50] Because some of you, you've never asked for God's mercy, ask for God's forgiveness. You've never done that. [00:31:57] And others of us, you know, you need to give it away. [00:32:01] And you're thinking of that person and you're like, ah, I just don't want to. [00:32:04] Should have, shouldn't have come to church because now I'm convicted. I need to do that. And you do. You need to do that. So let's pray together. [00:32:13] Lord God, we just thank you so much for your grace and mercy in our lives. [00:32:18] God, for some of us who've never prayed that prayer, who've never prayed, who had never asked God for mercy, God, would you speak to them them right now? [00:32:31] See, there are some of you right now that you're like, you know what? I don't deserve to ask for mercy. I don't deserve to ask for forgiveness because I've asked for it for so, so many times and I just don't know if it, it counts anymore. I don't even know if God's going to take it for face value. I'm not quite sure if he's going to think that I'm sincere because I have done and asked for it so much. I mean, I'm. I have run this credit high. [00:32:59] I pray, God, that you remind that person today that your mercy is renewed every day, freshly baked for us, and that you are so rich in it, it's overflowing from your heart. [00:33:19] So God, I pray that we would with that, knowing that, that some of us today would say, jesus, would you forgive me? [00:33:30] Would you forgive me? [00:33:33] Jesus, would you fill me with your love for some of us, you've never prayed that prayer. You've never stepped across the line of faith. You've never said that. You're like, jesus, would you forgive me? [00:33:49] And today, maybe you need to. [00:33:51] Maybe you need to say, jesus, today I give you my life, everything I am and everything I hope to be, everything, my past and my potential. I give it to you. [00:34:08] Jesus, I'm putting my faith in you. [00:34:14] I'm receiving your love, your grace, your mercy and God for others of us. [00:34:23] Allow us to be so overwhelmed with your mercy that it seems like we're just man, we're just flowing in it, but drowning in it. A sense we're like, there's so much mercy and that, God, that we would do the next act of mercy today that we know we need to do. [00:34:50] Give it to people just like us, people who don't deserve it, but desperately need it. [00:34:58] God, we love you. We thank you, God, as we respond, as we go receive communion. If you as we go, maybe light a candle or go to the cross, God, remind us of all this in Jesus name, let's stand if you can thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina. [00:35:22] For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.