What Mercy Really Looks Like | Matthew 5:7

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. Good to be back. Thanks for tuning in. It's it's you know what, Jeff tuning in. I don't want to be here today, you don't. I'm just kidding. Remember said that it's good to be here? Yeah, like I don't want to be here A news flash. That was only like thirty minutes ago. Forty minutes ago. Well, yeah for us. Actually no, it's longer than that. Yeah, but no, no, for real, it is always good to be here with you. Thanks for tuning in, And if it's your first time, hopefully you'll be able to go back and watch what eight hundred episodes? Everybody makes bad choices if this is your first time. That's right, that's right. Wait wait wait too long? Yeah exactly, But hopefully we have a lot more in the future. Absolutely, Bible Guys are going away anytime soon. You right. We have almost a thousand episodes. Yeah, so that'd be pretty cool. Yeah, go back and watch them all. Yeah, can you imagine? Men? I wonder how many people just are binging the Bible Guys right now. Yeah, they ain't get enough of that. Forget Stranger Things, right it's the Bible Guys. Listening to nine and some odd episodes of The Bible Guys. That's funny. Hey, well, today we are actually going to dive into a new beatitude in our series about Beatitudes. But before we do, Desiree wants us to play the very classic would you rather? These are so much fun? They are? Okay, I like it because we get to decide. It's sort of like I get to know you, like which one would Christian Jeff rather do? Right? So people know you getting to know all about you or something like that. Yeah, okay, So I'm particularly excited about the first one because I'm not sure if they could peg you on this one. Okay, would you rather rock a mullet or a perm? Yeah? I think I know the answer to that. All through the eighties, which one did you want? Did you want the did you want the perm or did you want the mullet. Let's be clear, in the eighties I had a oh did you have a mullet? Not strong, but it was it was definitely a mullet over the collar. Oh, it's definitely. I remember brushing it up like I would brush it up. So yeah, yeah, I bet you it was. I bet it was that long. Okay, wow, I then over the ears yeah yeah, okay. Yeah I had I definitely had a mullet. Yeah yeah. So it was a business in the front, party in the back. Yep, that's right. So what about you? Well, I wasn't allowed to have a mullet or a perm. Right right, Oh that's why you asked it that way. Yeah, did I want a mullet? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, which one did you? Which one did you rather have? Yeah? I had, I had had the mullet. Did you want a perm? No? You kidding me? I think those were a little earlier. Guys. Guys had those before us. Well, and perms. Perms really weren't that popular in guys. They're still popular ladies, obviously, but they really, they really weren't that popular. Okay, here's another good one. Would you rather be a kid until you turn You never chose one? You never chose me from mullet mullet? Okay, yeah, my grandson has a mullet. Yeah yeah, I know. It's so funny. Would you rather be a kid until you turn fifty or have the appearance of a thirty year old from your first birthday. Oh, and she's meaning not in kid at heart, she's meaning actual gay kid physically physically. You turned fifty, or have the appearance of a thirty old from you. First What depends is your entire of life extended that way? Do you live to be three hundred? I don't know, or or are you just all of a sudden becoming a daughter at fifty and die at the same time. I don't know, because that would be terrible. Well, you go through life in your thirties forties trying to run a business, and you're six look like you're six years old. Well, I don't know. I like the idea looking thirty because now that I'm past thirty, Yeah right, I'd still be looking thirty, right, yeah. Yeah, I'd say, I'd say thirty. Yeah. Is that a good one? I thought about he's an angry Ooh yeah. Yep, so funny Peter Dinklin. Yeah, I think, uh yeah, thirty from the first birthday. There was a show about that Robin Williams was old. He was born like an adult. Look, okay, looking old? Do you remember that? Was that bisonennial man. Maybe oh he was a robot and bono man. I don't know. Huh, you'll think of it or chat, I'll call you yep, right, okay. Would you rather have the same song stuck in your head forever or have the same dream every night? Same song in my head? Her, same dream every night? Well, I guess it depends on the dream. I had a dream last night out. Are boring you, ChRI Yes? That what we were just yawning? Yeah, like the lights question. I had a dream last night that scared the fire at him. Oh yeah, yeah, it was really bad. Like I I dreamt that my house was invaded by spiders to such a degree to where there were so many spiders you couldn't run up and down the stairs and get away from him. Oh wow, like like. Like the but the quantity of them prevented you from running through the stairs. So you know, I lived that in real life, but not in the house. So I took back. My boys were four and two and we went camping in Big Ben National Park, and which is in the bootheel of Texas. If you're thinking about the bottom of Texas along the Rio Grand it's in the bootthill park. It's nine hundred and some thousand acres. It's huge. We were camping up in the mountains and I heard on our tent and I woke up and our entire tent, underneath our rainfly was covered with trantulas, like the whole thing covered translas. So I didn't realize it, but we were there. The transulas migrate in that area, they migrate back and forth, and this was a migration season, and so we were driving down out of the mountains to go. That makes me want to go camping so much more. We were, you know, driving out into the desert. We were going down to the Rio Grande, and we came upon a big migration and it was like a moving blanket across the road, and my tires on my car was slipping. You ran over them. I couldn't get past where I was going. So I just drove through this whole blanket of spiders, like millions of spiders. I'm not talking. It was probably a quarter mile just of a blanket across the road of spiders going across the road. And so you took out hundreds of thousands of spiders. Wow. Well, I was in it before I realized what was going on and then all of a sudden, my tires are slipping. The black ice. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah in the middle of the text make crazy in the summer. Wow, that's that is wild, dude. Yeah, I imagine there are majority of people have like goosebumps. Just listen to that. Yeah, I mean so so you don't watch that dream every now. The tenth thing, Yeah, the tenth thing that I want to die just thinking about that. I had a big tent. It was a ten by. My wife would die. By fourteen tent and my entire roof was just all covered. My wife would cease to exist. And you know, in those tents like that, when you have a nice rain fly over top, the whole top of the tent itself is see through, so you can see through it. You know, you take the rain fly off and look at the stars at night. Well, it got cold the night before, so I put the rainfly on, so the thank goodness, you could see. Well, no, they all came up underneath the rainfly, so I could see them on the sea through part the window on the whole twelve foot by foot. Would you have to do? Wait it out? Yeah, they just left. They were going in the morning I went back to sleep. I can't believe you just said that. You watch this stream every night, so you're gonna choose the song every dy, I'm. Gonna choose the song. Yeah, if I could choose my dream, I might choose the dream thing because getting the song stuck in your head forever drive me nuts. Okay? Would you rather live in an amusement park or a zoo? Ooh that's a good one. I mean, I mean you have to think long term here, right, not not just short term. Yeah, So I think long term i'd have to pick a zoo. Me too, Yeah, I think on the short term, it'd be an amusement park, no doubt. I love amusement parks, and I love everything about them. It doesn't even matter what kind of amusement park. It could be the kind of carnival in a parking lot, it could be Cedar Point, it could be all of them. I love every bit of it. But long term, I mean, if I'm gonna live there, I'm gonna say hi to you know, Jojo the Kangaroo. Having an entire complex of pets, yeah, is different than yes, the same rollercoaster every day? Yeah, because you would you would literally get to know every single animal. Yeah. Would you rather go backstage with your favorite band or be an extra on your favorite TV show? Depends on the extra like an extra like having a line. I don't know, extra like like that's me for a millisecond in the background and it's blurred out. Yeah, I don't know. So I have a friend who is an extra in lots of movies and he got to be in a movie with Meryl Streep. Oh nice, Yeah, and he was he was in a couple of scenes. Huh yeah, yeah, yeah, he was a waiter. Wow, they cut his line. He had a line and they cut it. I would say, backstage, well, and again backstage? Does that mean just like meet and greed for ten seconds, taking photo and leaves. She doesn't say, dude, Let's say that both of these are your wildest dream come true, hanging out with them and then they ask you to go out on the bus and hang out, or you get to have a talking part in your favorite TV show, hang out with the entire cast. Of h I honestly would say, I'd have to say, I'm in. I want to be an extra on my favorite TV show. I always thought, so, Yeah, that's what I thought. You'd pick because it lives in infamy. Yeah, it lives forever. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, well good job, man. Yeah, I think I would pick the extra on the TV show too. Yeah yeah, yeah, good. Question, because because the backstage stuff always feels awkward to me. Oh does it? Yeah? Hi, this guy's this guy's exhausted. He just finished his big show. Yeah, he's tired, he's hungry, he wants to go get on the bus. Right, you're like, oh, man, you sang my favorite song. You remember that time? Remember the time you sang that song? It was my Favorite's just so awkward, remember that time you say, remember like like forty minutes ago, Because because everyboy's gonna say the same thing, You're amazing, You're my favorite, right, That's why I paid three hundred. Bucks for this, right right? But yeah, anyways, that's so funny. Yeah, they're probably and they're probably so tired of I mean, like, you know, think about it, if you have super fans, Uh, when when would you really be super interested in a super fan? I mean, Taylor Swift seems to be, but she sort of chooses those right. Every now and now and again, she'll meet with somebody, but other than that. I don't know a single fan that's like, so please tell me. More yeah, you know, yeah yeah. Or you know, or a single artist that would say that to a fan, you know. Right, So I don't know anyways. Yeah, so I choose to be an extra on a TV show. Well, hey, uh, talk about extra Did you know that Jesus didn't just give one or two beatitudes? He gave a whole bunch of extras? Did he really? Are these extras? Are we now moving into the extras? Jeff? He's the leftover. Versus number five. We've already covered the first four. Yea, Now this is number five? Is the leftovers? No, I didn't say leftovers, he said extra extras. It's not the same as leftover. I'll give you grace. Okay, Yes, it's even more of the same good stories, even more so. In uh Matthew, chapter five, the fifth beatitude says, Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. That's it. That's it. Blessed are those who are merciful, They will be shown mercy. Yeah. Well, hey, let's let's talk about it. Okay. So the first thing is good idea. Since we've got a podcast, the first idea. The first idea is, let's talk about what mercy is and what it is not. Okay, right, So mercy is not weakness, right. Mercy is not ignoring sin. It's not sentimental tolerance. Biblically, mercy means compassion and action. Right. So it's it's love that moves towards suffering. It responds to guilt. It's kindness that costs something. In scripture, mercy always involves seeing distress and choosing to act. Wow. Right, So because you know, when it says show mercy on him, it's not referring to an emotion, right, because you can say, you can say like, oh I feel merciful. Well, that's not the same. When Jesus says show love to your neighbor, he's not referring to an emotion of love. He says, love your neighbor means giving him your cloak or you're you know, giving him what is needful for the body. Right. He says, you know, hey, if you see somebody who's daily destitute, in need of food and uh, and then you don't give him those things, The Book of James says, then then how can the love of God be in you? Because when he says love your neighbor, he means love in action. And so when he says blessed to those who are merciful, merciful means mercy in action, right, not those who are filled with the emotion of wanting to be merciful. That's powerful, right, Yeah, I mean that's. That's that's really a very big distinction because now now when you read it and it says blessed to those who are merciful, he's saying blessed to those who act mercifully to those around them. I've always uh, when it comes to God's mercy, at its core, God's mercy is when he chooses not to give us what we do deserve, right, right, And and that is a part of it for us when we're when we extend mercy, we're tempted to measure should we or shouldn't we, right based on whether or not does this person deserve my mercy or not? And God just chooses out of love. Love drives him to mercy, and so he's not taking a consideration whether we deserve it or not. He just extends it, right, And that's a pretty powerful thing. So then if it's if I'm supposed to be. My character is supposed to becoming more and more and more like Jesus. Then that's one of the things, is I stop measuring whether a person deserves mercy and I give it because I'm choosing love in the same way that God has done the same for me. Right, Huh, that's good. When I think of mercy, I'm so sorry I have to interrupt this regularly scheduled program to tell you that there isn't a single time I don't think that I hear the word mercy where I don't think of the end of a movie where the villain gets what he deserves and he's taking his last breath, right, and then he says, what happened to your mercy? And then the guy says, I'm a count, not a saint, and so I will give you. I will buy you lunch tomorrow if you can tell me what movie that came for Annie Crystal. Yes, because I said count. Yes, that's right. It is the kind of money Crystal. He says, mercy for none. I remember that. Yes, I remember that scene. Yes, Jim favorite. It is my favorite of all time, of all time, of all time, because it has everything in us. So I can remember I was nineteen twenty twenty, and I felt like the world was falling down around me. The group of Christians that I was connected to in Bible College had a lot of anger and pretty aggressive and I kind of got caught in it, caught up by it, and then paid the price where their wrath was coming down on me. And I didn't feel like I deserved it. And you know, I'm just kind of reeling. This is that first great crisis as a young adult faith. And I think everybody goes through crisis of faith, and you're deciding in my following manner? Am I following Jesus? And so I lived at the time in northwest Indiana. And now there's an Indiana National Lake shore right there the dunes, and it's a beautiful National park, but back then it wasn't National park yet. So I went up there and there's a sand dune it's a couple hundred feet high called Mount Baldy, and I climbed Mount Baldy and I went out and sat just looking at Lake Michigan, and I had some music with me, and I was just trying to recenter, and I had a Bible with me, and I'm just like flipping through trying to figure out. You ever have one of those times you just don't even know where to read? You know, I'm a Bible college student. I'd already read through the Bible ten times, probably by the time I was twenty years old, but I just didn't know. I couldn't know where to read. And I opened up to Micah chapter six, verse eight, and I started at the beginning of chapter six. But when you get to verse eight, he says, no, oh, man, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you, to do what's right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. So I'm trying to figure out what am I supposed to do, and I'm like praying to God, I don't know what to do with my life. I don't know what to do with this situation. I feel like I'm being persecuted to some extent. But I also know I brought some of this on myself and frustrated, and I just don't feel like I make anybody happy. I remember kind of I was complaining to God about I can't make anybody happy, and then God goes, let me tell you the only thing I really require of you is that you do what's right, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. And that kind of has become a guiding It's almost my north star, that verse. It's one of my north stars when I don't know what else to do, do the right thing, right, walk humbly with God, and show mercy to others. And that's uh. I don't always I don't always master that, but it is interesting that this idea of showing mercy is one of the three things God says, Hey, if you don't know what else to do, just walk humbly with God. Right, do live as well as you can live righteously and show mercy. Do you know that song Michael six eight? I know the one that Stephen Cutch Chapman did say it. Oh, I can't sing it like that. That's crazy good good, yeah. Yeah. The one I learned was King James version where there's an echo. Right, he has shown thee, he has shown thee. Oh man, Oh yeah, yeah. What is good? And what the Lord of the he goes but to do justly, But to do justly, and to love mercy, and to love mercy, and to comely with my God. That's a good one. Yeah, that's good. Well, that's that's it. I mean, So if you're wondering how important mercy is, when God gives it us a summary and says, here's what I require of you these three things. Yeah, right, mercy's rate dead center. I remember we've talked about that before in the way that the Jewish mindset is as far as teaching, the center concept is where the other two emanate from. So do right and walk humbly with God. It's a mercy thing. That's what's gonna It's those two outsides are going to drive the middle. What's gonna happen here? Hey, I want to read for you a note that I looked up about this verse, and it says mercy as evidence of a transformed heart. And this is just a couple of comments about that. It says the beatitude is not a command, it's actually a description. Jesus is not saying be merciful so God will love you. He's saying, those who belong to the Kingdom of God are merciful. Right, it's an observation. Part of the kingdom, you will be merciful. That's correct. It's one of the fruits that you're gonna be able to tell whether not you're walking with God or you're connected to God. Because you've received mercy, you're gonna extend mercy. That's right, Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it goes on and says mercy does not earn salvation, it actually reveals salvation. A heart that has truly received mercy from God cannot remain hard toward others. If grace has reached you, it will flow through you. This is why Jesus later says forgive and you will be forgiven. And then I thought this next line was a really interesting line. He says forgive and you will be forgiven, not as a transaction, but as a reflection. So he's not saying conditionally you must forgive in order to be forgiven. He's saying, as you are forgiven, you will forgive, right, Yeah, And so that I think that that's really interesting. It's a sign. It's a sign. Yeah, it's a sign that of what's happened on the inside's coming out on the outside. Isn't that really good? Incredibly? In high school, I had a really great pastor from the time I was twelve until I was sixteen, and then I had another really great pastor from sixteen to he did our wedding at twenty one. He was fantastic. Both of them were great. So Rick Fox was my pastor, the second one. And he's a great big guy. He's six foot five, six foot six, probably two hundred and fifty pounds, two sixty pounds, oh tons of muscle. Just a big, strong guy. And he grew up in the coal camps in Man County, West Virginia, and it was wild, wild place, and he was bigger than everybody else. And he was a miner, coal miner. And when he would come out, him and his buddies, his favorite thing to do was to go knock a couple back in the bar on a Friday night and just start a fight because they would just clear the bar out. They just beat everybody up for no reason other in fact, they just did enjoyed it. And here he is, you know, he had all kinds of scars on his knuckles, all this kind of stuff. He loved beating on people. So then because he was a big guy, because he was strong, because he'd liked beating people up, people would use him for that reason. Sometimes, Hey go fix this guy right and back then, you know, Man County, West Virginia didn't have it had like two deputies, you know, there was nobody, and so they enforced all their own law, They enforced all their own consequences, all that kind of stuff, and so he delighted in it. He liked breaking people up. And then Jesus saved me, and then he was that quick to cry. It was the weirdest thing. He's like, I don't know what happened to me, Like I used to be like this tough guy. I want to beat everybody up. And he said, ever since Jesus changed me, I have this compassion and this mercy. And it was almost a frustrating thing to him, just a little bit where it does come from, right, what happened to me? And he said the same thing. He said, you know when when when Jesus changes you, he changes from the inside, but what's on the inside comes out, especially under pressure. Did he move from Mann County to Woman County? But yeah, it was kind of an interesting thing that that. That was his testimony. So he was telling that story. And one of his best friends used to was a Cajun who grew up in the swamps in Louisiana and would spend months at a time on house fishing boats out in the swamp, just filling the cooler with fish, and then Brink come in and sell like that, back and forth. And he was the same way when he was in town. That's what he just beat people up, just for fun, just beat people. And then he also became an enforcer, beat people up, same exact story. And then he said, dude, when Jesus saved me, I was like, what happened to me? And he gave the illustration. He says, like one of the Grinch's heart grew three sizes, right, he said, something, it changed me on the inside where I delighted in it before. And he said, now I'm almost embarrassed to even tell the stories. Yeah, what was I thinking? And God changes you, and mercy is a part of that that if you're wondering, has God ever really come into my life? Did Jesus really change? One of those things is that you're going to desire more mercy for people rather than just pure justice all the time. That's awesome. Yeah, Well, hey, that's our time, so thanks for tuning in. Hopefully we'll see tomorrow on the Bible. Guys,