Welcome to Bernababble Church. This week Pastor Hopkins takes a break from a series on the book of Romans to take a look at the person and work of the Holy Spirit. If you would, let's stand for the reading of the word of the Lord. We're going to be looking at spiritual gifts, part six, Romans 12, four through eight. And if you would read together with me the word of the Lord, beginning with verse four.

For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth let him do it with simplicity, He that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Let's pray. Father, once again, Lord, we ask for a special work of the Spirit upon our hearts and souls this afternoon. We pray, God, that you might be pleased to open our understanding as we open your word, for we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Let's be seated.

We've been looking at spiritual gifts for several weeks now. And in Romans 12, verse six, we see that every believer has been given spiritual gifts, either a gift or multiple gifts. Every believer has been given a gift or gifts of the Spirit. And as these gifts are differing, according to the grace that's given to each of us, every one of us, as I've said in the past sessions on spiritual gifts, every one of us should be seeking to identify our gift or gifts, to develop our gift or gifts, and to use our gift or gifts for the benefit of Christ's church. And so far we've looked at the gift of prophecy or preaching as it continues in the church today.

We looked at the gift of ministry or service, and we've looked at the gift of teaching, we've looked at the gift of exhortation. And in our last session, we focused exclusively on the gift of giving. So we come this week to the gifts of ruling or leading, and the gift of mercy. And though I intend to look at the gift of ruling or leading before we conclude this series on the gifts of the Spirit, it's the gift of mercy. The gift of mercy that I want us to look at exclusively this afternoon.

And as we go forward, I want to ask everyone in the congregation a question. Have you begun to identify The gift or gifts that God has given you since we began this series on the gifts of the Spirit Have you begun to identify? Your particular gift or gifts and If so, are you seeking to? Fulfill your God-given role in the body of Christ by exercising that gift or those gifts towards others in the body? You know, many people go throughout their entire lives, They'll go throughout their entire lives never feeling as though they were needed by anyone.

They'll go their whole lives feeling like no one's ever needed me, No one needs me. That they're not really needed by anyone. But it's never the case in the body of Christ. You are needed. You are needed.

In this congregation alone, There are our brothers and sisters in Christ who need you. They need you personally. They need you individually, personally, and they need you to be exercising the gift or gifts toward them that God has given you. The gifts of God are deposits. Think of like a bank account where a deposit is made.

The gifts of God are deposits entrusted to the people of God to be used for the glory of God and the benefit of Christ's church. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a parable of a master who entrusts his servants with his goods. And some of the servants take what has been given to them and they put it to good use for their master. But one of them, one of them, goes out and digs a hole in the earth and buries what his master has entrusted him with. Brothers and sisters, don't bury the gift God has given you.

Don't bury the gift God has given you. The church, look around you, the people in this congregation and in the church universal need you. They need you. Don't bury the gift God has given you. And if you're saying to yourself, well, I think I may have buried my gift a long time ago.

I think maybe I buried my gift a long time ago. Understand that it is never too late. It's never too late to find a place to get alone with God in prayer and ask the Lord, help me God, to dig it up and dust it off and start using it for your glory and for the benefit of Christ's church. The gift of mercy is our subject this afternoon. And while every Christian is to practice mercy, some have been given a special gifting in this area.

We're all to practice mercy, but some have been given a special gifting in this area. And our text this afternoon reads, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. And in this context, in the context in which the word mercy is used before us this afternoon, mercy is best defined as, this is a Webster dictionary definition, as pity or compassion manifested towards a person who is in distress. Pity or compassion manifested, shown towards a person who's in distress. That's Noah Webster's third definition of mercy in his 1828 dictionary of the American language.

And again, the context in which the word is used in the passage before us. We're going to look at the primary definition of mercy in a moment, but this is the definition of the word mercy as it is used in the context of the passage that is before us. He that shows mercy with cheerfulness, pity or compassion manifested towards a person who is in distress. Luke 10 37 is the proof text that Webster cites. Have you ever looked at Webster's dictionary?

He has 10, 000, I've heard that it was 10, 000 passages of Scripture in his 1828 dictionary that he uses proof text for defining words, for the definitions of words. In 1828, if you wanted to know what a word meant in English, you had to go to a Christian, you had to go to Webster. But this is his proof text. Luke 10, 37, or 10 in this passage beginning there, is his proof text for supporting this definition. Luke 10, 37 is a place where we read of a man from Samaria, who is moved with pity when he sees this waylaid traveler who's been wounded by thieves.

He's been stripped naked. And he's left half dead on a roadside. It's also the place where we read of a priest and of a Levite. Men among the religious community of Jesus' day, religious elites, and experts in the law of God, who seeing this man, this same man, in distress, passed by on the other side. Ignoring altogether the plight of this poor soul whom they know to be in Desperate need in a situation of distress and it's the place where we see this Samaritan moved with pity for his suffering neighbor, set aside his own plans.

We don't know if it's for a day or for a week, but he sees this man in distress and he sets aside his plans. Whatever he was going to do, he stops. And he goes And he binds up the poor man's wounds. And he sets him on his own mule or horse. We're not told what.

And he takes him to an inn. And he cares for this man using his own money. And he spends from his own funds whatever it takes to restore the man to health again. And it's the place where we hear Jesus say, go thou and do likewise. Go and do what he did.

Go and do what this man did. Go and Go and do. Acts of mercy require going and doing. Moving from where we are to where the need is, to where the suffering is, to where the wound is, and being willing to do whatever is necessary to alleviate the suffering of someone who's in distress or in need and to relieve that need or that suffering. In Isaiah 58, the prophet was setting the children of Israel straight concerning external religion Because though the people were keeping the fast days, they're doing the outward stuff.

We're fasting, we're praying, we're going to church, going to temple. Though they were doing all the outward rituals, external rituals of religion, their hearts weren't in it. And he exposed that their hearts weren't in it. And the way he exposed it was by showing that their actions were evidence that their heart wasn't in it, wasn't truly in the worship of God. And he said, God through him speaks and says, look, this is the kind of fast that I've chosen.

You want to fast? This is the kind of fast that I've chosen, God tells them. To share your bread with the hungry. To bring the poor who don't have homes into your own home, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood who are in need. That's God speaking through Isaiah.

James says the same thing when he says, "'Pure religion and undefiled before God "'and the Father in part is this to visit "'that is care for the fatherless and widows "'in their affliction.'" A note in my Reformation Heritage Bible commentary on this passage says this speaks of, quote, "'The lonely and poor who have no protector, "'the special objects of God's compassion, '" close quote. And brothers and sisters, if they are the special objects of God's compassion, close quote. And brothers and sisters, if they are the special objects of God's compassion, they should be the special objects of our compassion as well. The commentary goes on. This verse is not the sum total of what God requires from us but outward marks of whether or not love has become the principle that has conquered our hearts.

Has love become the principle that has conquered your heart? If so, it's going to be expressed in doing those things and having a heart for those things that God himself has expressed is his heart. The people asked John the Baptist in Luke chapter 3 when they came to him to be baptized, what should we do? That is, what should we do to show that we've truly repented and have genuine faith? In Christ who's to come after you?

John said, if you've got two coats, Give one to one someone who doesn't have a coat. If you have food, do likewise. Very simple. Matthew chapter 25, Jesus says, I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you took me in. I was in need of clothing and you clothed me. I was sick. You didn't pass by on the other side. You looked after me.

I was in prison and you visited me. And so much as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, Jesus said, you've done it unto me. You've done it unto me. In Luke 6 36, Jesus said, be therefore merciful, even as your Father also is merciful. Imitate your Father in heaven, is what Jesus was saying.

Your Father in heaven is merciful. You be merciful, just as Your father in heaven is merciful. You be merciful. Just as your father in heaven is merciful. Imitate him.

In 2 Corinthians 1, 3, he is called the father of mercies and the God of all comfort. In Psalm 68, 5 he is called a father to the fatherless and a defender of widows. And a defender of widows. Psalm 147 three says, he heals the broken in heart and binds up their wounds. Be merciful even as your Father in heaven is also merciful.

Lamentations chapter 3 we read, His compassion fails not. His compassion fails not. They're new every morning and our compassion should be new every morning also. Be merciful, even as your Father in heaven also is merciful. It Should be our daily practice and our daily delight.

In Micah chapter six and verse eight, the prophet lists three things that the Lord requires of men, one of which is to love mercy. He has shown you, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to walk humbly with God and to love mercy, to love mercy, to love mercy. Who is he who loves mercy? But he who has experienced the mercy of God himself. You know, we weren't born with merciful hearts.

We're not by nature merciful creatures. By nature we're selfish, we're self-centered, We're self-focused, we're self-absorbed, and we're hard-hearted. But when the mercies of heaven are poured out upon us in the grace of regeneration, we're changed. We're born anew. We're made new creatures in Christ Jesus.

Titus 3.5 says, according to his mercy, he saved us. In having experienced divine mercy, those born of God begin to reflect the mercies of God shown them in Christ toward others. We who were to be pitied Now pity others. We pity those who have never known the love of God. We pray for the salvation of their souls, desiring that the love of God that's been shed abroad in our hearts might be shed abroad in their hearts also.

We pity the poor. God does. We pity the poor and we pity the sick. Our hearts begin to reflect the heart of God. We pity the afflicted, the orphan, the widow, the hungry, those without sufficient clothing, the lonely, the downcast, and the brokenhearted.

Reflecting the heart of God. Our desires are changed. When we were once hard-hearted towards others, now our desire is to meet the needs of others, to relieve their suffering and to provide them with comfort. Having experienced the mercies of heaven, we cannot but show mercy toward others. When we consider the mercies of God shown us, all undeserved, all undeserved, all unmerited and poured out on us through Christ, how could we not be merciful towards others?

Listen, a Christian who is not merciful is not a Christian. James 2 13 says, for he shall have judgment without mercy who has shown no mercy. Jesus told the Pharisees, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Now go figure out what that means. Every true believer is marked by a heart of compassion and mercy towards those who are suffering or in need of relief or comfort.

In Matthew chapter five, in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, our Lord says, blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the merciful. Here the blessed of God are marked by Christ as those who show mercy towards others. Blessed are the merciful.

Every true Christian will have a heart of mercy toward those who are suffering around them and in need of relief and comfort. But some have a special giftedness with regards to mercy. Our text from Romans 12 speaks of a spiritual gift, a gift that is God-given. While all Christians have a heart of mercy towards others, some have a special gifting in this area. Maybe you're one of those.

Maybe you're one of those whose gift is mercy. And you are compelled of God. And you are moved by the Spirit of God with a heart filled with pity and compassion toward others who are suffering and in need of relief and comfort that drives you to action beyond what others are willing to put themselves through. You have a gift and you go like beyond the call of duty. Can't help yourself.

I'll put myself through what others refuse to put themselves through, for the love of Christ. These are sensitive to the needs of others in a way that can only be described as a special gift, a divine giftedness. Maybe that describes you this afternoon. Every believer should show mercy, but some have a special gifting in this area. I think this gift of mercy is developed many times through adversity.

Let me tell you what I mean by that. I think that this gift of mercy when it's given to a person in the body of Christ is many times developed through adversity and affliction that's been ordained by God. I think many times God lets us go through things in our lives so that we can feel for others what we would not have felt if we had not suffered the same things ourselves. The experiences that God puts us through, the trials of this life, help us to develop a concern for others who are now going through the same kinds of things. I asked in our last session on giving, has anyone ever gone through financially difficult times in their lives?

You know what it feels like. You know what that brother or sister is going through. Has anyone ever been sick? I mean really sick. You know what that brother or sister is going through.

Has anyone ever been sick? I mean really sick. You know what that brother or sister is going through. You've been there. Have you ever suffered the loss of a loved one?

You know what that person's going through They need your help. They need your comfort You ever suffered the sadness or broken heartedness that comes from a broken or injured relationship Remember what that was like That's what they're going through. They need you. Have mercy. Have mercy on them.

Go to that person and do whatever you can to help, to meet their needs, to relieve them, to provide comfort. Maybe it was the prayers of someone else that God heard when he brought you through something similar in years gone by. James 5 16 says, pray for one another. It's a command to pray for one another the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man a woman avails much Prayer is is a mercy ministry. It's also a mercy ministry.

I Hope in heaven one day we get to see how it all played out and who it was It was praying for us in our times of affliction or adversity or trials or testing on earth and we never knew it. Maybe you're that one who's the one that God uses in a ministry of prayer, mercy, prayer ministry. And no one ever knows about it until maybe we're in heaven. You were praying for me. You prayed for me.

Ephesians 6 18 tells us to pray with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, that is for all the people of God. And the word supplication means pouring your heart out for them, pouring your heart out for them. Sometimes we can't do anything to help someone we know is suffering in some way, because their situation can't be serviced by a visit or a gift or even a word. Sometimes that's the case. Maybe it's a spiritual need.

Maybe it's a need that only God can fix or tend to. Have you ever been under some special attack by the enemy of our souls in a fierce battle with sin and temptation Then you know what that brother or sister is going through who has divulged that struggle to you in confidence. Pray for him. Pray for her. Pray for that brother or sister as if you were praying for your own soul, your own child.

We need to be praying for others who are going through things God has mercifully brought us through. And we need to remember that it is on our knees before God in private prayer that mountains by faith are cast into the sea. That's the place where it all comes down. My little cabin on the dry creek is hanging right there in front of me on the wall. This is the place, Steve, and don't forget it.

This is the place Where mountains By faith are cast into the sea On your knees in prayer For that person Pray pray Pray and pray in faith God will you do this, please I? Mean, just look up to heaven and say, God, will you do this please? Will you help my brother? Will you help my sister? No one but you, God, can fix it.

We all know of situations where a member of Christ's body is dealing with something that no human effort can solve or relieve, and that no one can solve or relieve it but God. Pray, make a prayer list, put that brother or sister in Christ on that list and cry out to God for them and don't stop until they're relieved. According to 1 John 4.20, one of the marks of a true believer is love toward the members of the family of God. We're to do good to all, we read in our last session, but especially to those of the household of faith. Galatians 6.10.

Again, Every Christian is to show mercy, but some have a special giftedness in this area. But our text says, it goes on, it says, this is the second part of it, that if that's your gift, show mercy with cheerfulness. Do it with cheerfulness. Well, that's hard sometimes. A note in my Bible commentary says, this speaks of visiting the sick and needy with a sweet disposition that doesn't make them feel like a nuisance.

Matthew Henry comments, whatever your gifts are, may be, try to employ them humbly and cheerfully. If your gift is mercy, show mercy to those who are suffering, to those who are in need, to those who are sick, to those who can't help themselves, to those who are looking to you for relief or comfort with cheerfulness, with a cheerful look on your face. Let that person who is suffering see that it is on account of the joy that is in your heart having been given an opportunity to help them that you're doing what you're doing for them. It's all joy. The elderly, you know, many times, and I've seen this, they'll say, I'm sorry, when you're tending to something.

I'm sorry. Mr. Stubblefield used to say it Before he died. Don't be sorry. As they say through the drive-through of Chick-fil-A, it's my pleasure.

Vincent's word study says if your gift is mercy, show mercy with joyful eagerness. This makes the visitor like a sunbeam penetrating into the sick chamber and into the heart of the afflicted. 1599 Geneva Bible Commentary warns that without cheerfulness the one who is attending to the afflicted runs the risk of adding sorrow upon sorrow. They're already in a situation of sorrow, now you just increased it. Albert Barnes back in the 1800s agrees, if anywhere a mild, amiable, cheerful, and patient disposition is needed, it's near a sickbed.

And when ministering to the needs of those who are in affliction, if moroseness, that type of countenance or impatience or fretfulness is discovered in us, it will pain those whom we seek to benefit. It will embitter their feelings and render our services of comparatively little value. The needy and infirm, the feeble and the aged have enough to bear without the impatience and harshness of professed friends. And the example of the Lord Jesus Christ is the brightest, is the brightest which the world has ever furnished. He goes on, though constantly surrounded by the infirm and the afflicted, yet Jesus was always kind.

He was always gentle, he was always mild, and he left before us exactly what the apostle meant when he said, he that showeth mercy, Let him show mercy with cheerfulness. That's just the perfect example. In 1 John 4.17 says, As he is, so are we in the world. That's the way we're to be in the world. Because of the love of God manifested to us and shed abroad in our hearts, we were made like him in love.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ here today, it's because the mercies of heaven have been poured out upon you. Ephesians chapter two, Paul says, you who were dead in sins, you were dead in your sins when God, who is rich in mercy because of the great love wherewith he loved us, made us alive with Christ. If you're a believer here today, you could say with Jacob, as he said in Genesis 32, 10, I'm not worthy of the least of all your mercies But I was shown mercy and all on account of Christ Who bore my sins and the penalty do them? Do me for them in his own body on a cross 2, 000 years ago on a hill called Calvary. And having received mercy, oh God, help me now to show mercy to others.

In gratitude for the mercies of God, help me to be merciful to others. If you've been shown the mercy of God, you can now pardon those who have sinned against you, even when they don't deserve it. Like Stephen, you can cry out to God, don't hold the sin to their charge, even when they're stoning you to death. If you're a recipient of divine mercy, you can now extend a hand in mercy to a fallen or fallen brother or sister in Christ. Like the father in the story of the prodigal, you can welcome home a humbled wayward son with arms wide open and kill the fatted calf for him.

Because you've been shown mercy you can show mercy and provide relief to those in need. You can care for the poor, visit the sick, show mercy to the fatherless and the widow. You can comfort the lonely and the brokenhearted "'and bind up their wombs just like Jesus, "'drawing your strength and your sustenance from Him, "'from the fine to do so.'" We can do all these things through Christ who strengthens us, and we can do all these things, listen to me, even when everyone else is passing by on the other side. Brothers and sisters, every act of mercy is an extension of the mercy shown us by God in Christ. And because of that, God gets all the glory.

He gets all the glory. As we close, Sandra and I just returned from a trip to the UP. How many know what the UP means? Acronym for Upper Peninsula. It's the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and it's the place where Sandra's mother was born and raised and where her great-grandmother, Amelia, and grandfather, and her husband, Jacob, immigrated from Finland back in the 1800s, late 1800s, and it's a place where they raised their 11 children.

Great-grandmother had 11 children and it may well be, may well have been the last, our last trip to the UP because her grandmother's house and her great grandmother's house, which stands side by side in that once thriving iron ore mining town of Ramsey, Michigan, were sold. Houses were sold. And as Sandra was going through the things in her grandmother's house, she came upon this little book that was her grandmother's and maybe her great grandmother's before her. And it was an old Finnish Lutheran hymn book. Dated 1938 and printed, reprinted in 1941.

And on our way home I began to look through the little hymn book, Versa Kyrja, I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it right, and notice that a few of the pages were dog-eared. They've been turned back to mark a particular hymn or song, there were songs and hymns in this book. So they were folded down. And I put, I started looking at those, and I put the finished words from one of them into a translation app on the internet. And I'll close this afternoon with one of the lines and a comment With all my soul I cry out to the Lord.

I Help me in this time. Oh Jesus my helper Open still thy ear and hear my cry and grant me in this way of sorrow my merciful help. We may spend an eternity trying to plumb the depths of the mercies of God's showness in Christ, but we're never gonna reach the ocean floor. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so great is his mercy toward his people. We have flowing from God to us as the hymn which we sang earlier says, streams of mercy never ceasing which call for for songs of loudest praise and as the recipients of such mercy and so great a salvation, let us show mercy to others with cheerfulness and especially to those of the household of faith.

Amen. Let's pray. Father, we want to be merciful, even as you are merciful. We want to reflect the mercies that you have shown us, your son. We who are the recipients of so great a salvation and so great mercy, God, long to reflect that mercy to others in the world and in the body of Christ.

And we need your help. And so we pray that you would make us more like Jesus. And you'd make us more like you. And that we would walk in your footsteps. And bring glory to your name.

And advance the kingdom of your son using everything that you've given us, All the gifts that you've given us, even the gift of mercy for your glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You