I'd like to continue our study this morning in Romans chapter 12, verses 6 through 8, spiritual gifts. I'm not mistaken this is the 16th message in the series. The gifts are declared here in Romans 12 and 6 to be prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, willing, and showing mercy with cheerfulness. We began a study of showing mercy with cheerfulness last week, and we would like to continue that this morning, and our prayer is that the Lord might be magnified, that we might be drawn closer to Him, be encouraged to use these gifts as we study the gifts, and not just let it be head knowledge, but let it be life-changing lessons that we encounter here in these gifts. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. To show mercy we discussed last week was to have sympathy toward or compassion and pity for the misery of another. To see somebody else and be affected by what you see. When you see somebody else that's in a miserable case, A bad situation to be affected by that, to have some feelings on the inside by that. But mercy went further, you remember, than having just the feelings. It was the manifestation of action that was prompted by those feelings of pity and compassion for the misery of another. And then you would act upon that, and that is truly New Testament mercy. That's God mercy. That's Christ mercy. To see somebody in a pitiful shape and act upon that to help their situation. And it says here that he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness In the Greek language that word translates, cheerfulness, is hilaritos. We get our English word hilarity. Another Greek word, another tense was hilarious, from which we get our English word hilarious. To be hilarious about it, that's pretty exciting. To show mercy and get excited about it with a want to and a feeling of energy and a joyfulness. Actually, as I look up the word in the dictionary, in the Greek dictionary that accompanies the Strong's Concordance, and in other dictionaries, we find that this cheerfulness is a readiness of mind, even a joyousness, that is prompt to do something. A feeling from the mind that would prompt you to do it, and to really do it, and to hurry and do it, and to want to do it, and with a joyousness that you might show mercy to somebody else. Surely we see Jesus in all these gifts, in the gifts of prophecy. We find him to be called the prophet, the priest, and the king. He came to be a prophet. To be a prophet is to be able to speak things that are not understood by the natural understanding. Surely he did that. He was our great example in the prophet. He's our great example in the minister. The one who would come and bow and wash another's feet. The one that said, I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give my life a ransom for many. Surely he's our example as a minister. Surely he's our example as a teacher. The teacher, he was called master. You know what master was? Up until a generation or two ago, back in the old one-room schoolhouse, even in our day, some of our days, that you and another generation past me remember that he was sometimes called the schoolmaster. The master is a teacher. And oftentimes, Jesus was called master. And he went teaching wherever he went. He was the greatest teacher of all time. Exhortation, the gift of exhortation, to be an encourager. That word paraclete, paracleo, surely that is a word about God. It's a word who is God. He's the comforter. He's the greatest comforter of all. And we're told to be encouragers and comforters like him. Again, he is our greatest example. The gift of giving. Has anyone ever given any more than he gave? To give his life, he's God, came from heaven, came into this world to give, and he gives, and he gives, and he gives again. More grace he gives, he gives us more grace, he gives grace and then he gives us more grace, and he just is an abundant giver, far above all that we can imagine. Remember the rule, to rule, was to lead by example, not just to lead, but to lead by a Christian example. And surely the Christ was the great ruler, the one who would lead by his example. And all down through here we see where Christ is our example. And when we come to the last gift, showing mercy, we haven't come to the least of the gifts. I can't really say they get better as we go, but I can't say they get worse. We're not trying to compare which gift is better than another gift. One is just as good as another, but just because we got down to the bottom, God didn't just try to find one to make the seven a complete number and throw in showing mercy. It almost seems like showing mercy. That's not a gift. That is a gift, my friend. That is God. Remember, we talked about last week that God is the God of mercy, motivated by mercy. There was mercy we found in election. There was mercy we found in redemption. We quoted verses last week to prove that mercy prompted election, mercy prompted redemption, mercy prompts regeneration, mercy prompts the final Preservation of the Saints. We proved all that from Scripture. And mercy now calls His God to not leave us here now, but to come to us even now. All of those things we find in Scriptures where mercy is what motivates God to do that. He is a God of mercy. Has He ever shown His mercy any more than when He went to the cross? When He went to the cross, what mercy was in the redemption of sinners when Jesus gave His life, that ransom, when Jesus... You know when the most mercy is shown, I believe? The farther down somebody's got to go to reach somebody else. The more pitiful the case, and the more exalted the one that would show mercy, the bigger gap between those two, the greater mercy has to be shown. It's easier to stoop a little bit than a whole lot. It's easier to drop down and help somebody just barely beneath your level, than to just go down way somewhere deep in the mud and get somebody else. You get dirtier the deeper you go in helping somebody. The more pitiful their case, the more mercy must be shown. And the more exalted the case of the one showing mercy, the more mercy must be shown, the more he must stoop down to reach that one who's in the pitiful condition and show that mercy. What was our condition as pitiful sinners? Full of having a lot to be ashamed of, having a lot to be in need of. There was none righteous, no, not one. There was none that understood. There was none that sought after God. God looked down from heaven, and he saw that there is none that doeth good, no, not one." That's a pitiful case, isn't it? Not anybody worth helping. Everybody needed help, but nobody worth helping. Nobody trying to help themselves. They were a bunch of people not trying to help themselves. Well, that's the way some folks are that need mercy. They're people not trying to help themselves. Now, people not interested in doing any better, quite honestly. The carnal mind is corrupt and doesn't seek God, and God's the enemy of the carnal mind, and receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for the fruit is not of him. And that's the pitiful case of sinners without Christ. Sinners without Christ, before Christ comes into our lives, what kind of shape are we in? Titus chapter 3, verse 3, for we ourselves also were When we were without the nature of God within us, we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hating and hateful and hating one another. The Church of Wrath, even as others, it says it in Ephesians, that way, that's our condition, hateful, hating one another, living in malice and envy, just full of hate and envy, and looking down and bad on everybody, and not looking good toward anybody, and hating everybody, and hating God, and full of hate. But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior got toward man appeared, not by the works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. Now, we were a pitiful lot, hateful and hating one another and hating God. despising everything that's good and loving everything that's evil, none righteous, none doing good, no, not one. And a pitiful lot mankind was. And what about Christ? What was he? What was he in Philippians chapter 2? We have his position. We have his position, where he came from, Philippians 2 and 6. Christ, who being in the form of God, the express image of God, if you've seen the Father, you've seen me. When you've seen Christ, you've seen God. When Christ came down, God came down. who being in the form of God, exactly what God was he was, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He told his followers he was equal with God. He and his father were one. If you've seen me, you've seen the father, he told Philip there in John chapter 14. And being in the form of God, being God himself, he thought it not robbery to claim himself to be God, and so he did. But here's what he did. But he made himself of no reputation took upon him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." That's mercy. That's big mercy. That's the biggest mercy you'll ever find anywhere. That's the best example of mercy you'll ever find anywhere. That's the farther down anybody has ever had to come. He was as high as high could be, and He came down to the depths of pitiful sinners and brought those sinners up from that depth of pit of destruction, brought them up by mercy. He looked upon the miserable state that we were in, had pity and compassion and sympathy upon that state, didn't just notice that condition we were in, but he acted upon it. He came and did something about it. He came farther down than anybody could ever come. He was high and came extremely low. He looked down, he came down, he bowed down, he went down into the grave. And what caused all that? What prompted all that? What motivated him to do that? He's the God of mercy. That's the most mercy that's ever been shown. That's the biggest gap that was ever bridged. Those were the most pitiful people as far as looking upon them and having anything that you could feel good about doing it that would cause you to want to do it, not by works of righteousness, which we had done. It wasn't anything that prompted us. Our case was so pitiful, we weren't lovable. There wasn't anything about us even to like. But he'd stooped that far and came that low and did that for us, showing mercy with cheerfulness. showing mercy with cheerfulness Christ is the greatest example of that in all of history in any place we could look but let's hold off on talking about Christ showing mercy with cheerfulness just a little bit and let's let's look at the difficulty in hilarities that Greek word The difficulty in showing mercy with cheerfulness. Mercy is a strange thing. Mercy is a very unnatural thing to practice. Mercy goes very much against the grain of humanity. Mercy is not easy to do. You don't tend to do mercy with a promptness and a readiness of mind. You don't tend to show mercy with hilarities. It's very difficult to show mercy with cheerfulness. Jesus told them, we talked about last week in Matthew 9, verse 13, I think it was there. He said, go and learn what this means. Go and learn what God meant when he said this. I will have mercy. God had told them in the Old Testament a couple of places we went to where God said, I will have mercy. That's what I want from you. I want mercy. Jesus said, you go find out what this means when God said, I will have mercy. That's what I want. I want you to be merciful, people. That's what I'd have out of you. I would have mercy. In Micah, chapter 6, verse 8. We find one of those places in the Old Testament. It says this, He hath showed thee, O man, what is good. God has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of thee? Here's what the Lord would require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Here's what the Lord would have of you. You go find out what it means when God said, I will have mercy, and then we go and find in the Old Testament where this is what the Lord would have required of thee, that you would love mercy. Love mercy. That, my friend, I do believe, has to include more than loving to receive mercy. Everybody wants to get a free gift. Everybody wants something that they didn't have to work for. Everybody wants a free ride. That's natural to love mercy. It's more than that, though. What God would require, what God would have a desire for us, what God would want us to do is to love the concept of mercy, the idea of mercy. To be so wrapped up in mercy that we truly, as the words of Jesus Christ spoke, could know and get excited about the idea that it is more blessed to give than to receive. To love mercy, to love not just to receive mercy, but to love to Give mercy. To find somebody in a pitiful situation, full of misery, needing a lot of help, and just to love and get excited and be prompted with a joyousness and a readiness of mind to go and grab that person out of the depths and lift them up to a level that they'd never possibly be able to get to by themselves in their pitiful state. To love that opportunity. To love mercy. To show mercy with cheerfulness. with a readiness of mind. The natural mind is not a ready mind to do this. The natural mind is not a ready mind to love, nor especially to love mercy, to have love in action and to practice that. You know what the natural mind tends to love? The natural mind loves justice. That's a whole lot easier to swallow, justice. People get excited about justice. You watch the newscast, and you find when they interview the family after the sentencing portion of the trial, and the criminal got what was coming to him, got a harsh sentence, a heavy sentence put upon him, and what do they ask the family? What do you feel better now? I sure do feel better now. That's just what we needed out of this. We needed some justice out of this thing. We needed him to get what was coming to him and that makes us feel better because we like to see justice. That's a natural way of thinking about things, my friends. He made his bed, let him sleep in it. That's justice. Let him get what's coming to him. That's justice. And we can't think that way of nature. Matter of fact, we whole lot think that way of nature. Our nature is not to like mercy. Don't give mercy. Give him what's coming to him. Is there room for justice? Yes, there is. But there's a mindset that's in carnality that demands justice but would hate to give out mercy. Could you not agree to that? As a matter of fact, it's rather strange to find a merciful character in such a case as we're talking about there, with a vile crime that's been committed, and all of a sudden the sentence has come out. It's a harsh sentence, or maybe a just sentence, an appropriate sentence in a sense, but then they rejoice. Everybody rejoices that was involved, that this man got what was coming to him. My friends, I sure hope I don't get what's coming to me in an eternal sense. What's coming to me is hell, forever and ever a hot, burning hell. There's a part of me that loves the concept of mercy. When I think about my case before God, I love to think about mercy. When I think about somebody else's case, that he deserves what he's getting, there's a hardness in here. It doesn't like to see mercy at that time administered, every time, or sometimes even in any way. I don't like to see the mercy administered, it seems. There's a demand for justice and almost a pushing away of mercy. The carnal mind despises or tends to despise those who are beneath the level of that mind, of that person, of that individual. Represented in Luke chapter 18 when that Pharisee, the Pharisees They weren't a merciful batch of people, they were a rather hard-hearted group, a group not much like Christ. Pharisee looked to heaven and prayed with himself and bragged on himself a while and then looked over at that one who was beneath him and said, God, I think I'm not like that one. That's the carnal mind and the carnal way of thinking. The carnal way of thinking doesn't want to first think about mercy. It doesn't want to put itself in a situation where it has to contemplate these things, where I'd a whole lot rather just not think about them. Proverbs 29, 7, "...the righteous consider it the cause of the poor, but the wicked regard it not to know it." Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Just don't tell me about it. Just don't show me the pitiful people. I don't want to consider them. I don't want to think about them. I don't want to have to deal with anything like that. The righteous considers the poor, but the wicked, they don't want to think about it. So the carnal mind tends to say it wants justice, especially when looking at somebody else. The carnal mind doesn't want to consider the pitiful. If you can avoid it by thinking about something else, that's good. That's a good way to... The carnal mind, when it does think about somebody, it despises that person. Thankful I'm not like that, but by the grace of God we all would be as low as we could be. But yet our mind doesn't think that way. The carnal mind was represented early on in history when Cain said, Am I my brother's keeper? Am I my brother's keeper? Is that my job to keep up with him, to take care of him, to help him, to show mercy to him? I've got a big enough job taking care of myself, thank you very much. There's a different mindset that you sometimes see on occasion. A mindset of the people I've known in my life. A character who represents one who would love mercy. He's passed away now. Paul Stevens, not the Paul Stevens that was the principal here, but the other Paul Stevens that lived in town here. I guess it would have been kind of a degrading thing to have gone through life known as the other Paul Stevens. That's what this man's known as around town. But he was really a man of another spirit. The Bible says Caleb was a man of another spirit. Paul Stevens' daughter was raped and brutally murdered on the streets of Evansville several years ago. The sentence came back and the man was sent to the penitentiary. Justly so. From that point on in Paul Stevens' life, He went to the prisons, and he ministered to the convicts in their pitiful situation. There wasn't much about them I was supposed to invite him to come, but there was a nature in that man, it just seemed, that he was a forgiving man, like his savior. He has told me, and his daughter, his other daughter, has told me that he truly did forgive. And he communicated with that man who killed his daughter. Every once in a while you'd see a feature article in a newspaper around where Paul Stevens had walked down that long hall of execution with the convicted killer who was about to be put in the electric chair, and Paul Stevens was the man he had chosen, that convicted man had chosen Paul to walk with him down that last aisle. Paul Stevens stooped way down. It's been a reminder of his life in that ministry. Showing mercy. And showing mercy with cheerfulness. That's not a natural way of thinking about things. Most would rejoice at justice. Rarely you'll find one with the gift of showing mercy. With a readiness of mind and a joyousness that's prompt to look for opportunities for such things. So we admit openly that to love mercy, to practice mercy with cheerfulness, is not the natural tendency. And there's another level of mercy, I suppose, that we can enter into that's somewhere above the hatred of mercy and the not wanting to think about it, and the despising those who are beneath us, and in I, My Brother's Keeper, that mindset is certainly in the depths of carnality, but then there's another level of mercy A sort of mercy. That's a good mercy. But not exactly what Jesus is talking about here. Not exactly what's talked about in this gift, I don't think. There's a way that we show mercy to our infant children. In the middle of the night, there's a pitiful little creature in there, in the little baby bed, and he or she cries, and it's a disturbance, and there's some self-sacrifice we've got to get up, and first we try to outweigh our spouse and see if she's going to go or if I'm going to have to go this time, and then when... Somebody finally gets up and goes and shows a little mercy and tends to the needs of the child. And that's good. I'm not mocking that, but that's sort of a social level of mercy. That's kind of a natural level, in a sense, in that animals tend to their wee little ones. But now, that doesn't make it wrong to do it. It's the nature of God. He's put in a mother, and hopefully in a father. But a mother groundhog, I just heard a story this week, a fellow was telling me about picking up a couple of baby groundhogs, didn't know mama was anywhere around, and mama came ready to fight, attacking. Even a groundhog will show compassion for the little kids in the family. That doesn't make it bad, that just doesn't make it exactly on the level of mercy that we're talking about here, I don't think. to take care of our elderly and our families. That's a merciful act, and it takes some self-sacrifice, and those are good things. And sometimes we see mercy in our peers and such as that. Sometimes here a while back somebody was telling me about a situation, I think it was in the school system up here, where somebody had to miss a lot of days, and others had donated some of their sick days or such as that. Sometimes you can have a brotherhood or a fellowship with your peers and such as that, and give something that's yours to somebody. And those are good things, don't get me wrong, But those things can almost be explained away with cultural norms and things that are expected out of us in sort of a thing-that-way. But the mercy, that's godly mercy, is to have the mind of Christ. We've talked about the carnal mind, the mind by nature. To have the mind of Christ. We spoke about Christ and where he was and what he came down to in Philippians, but we actually started in the middle of the sentence there a few minutes ago. When we were in Philippians chapter 2 and it began in verse 6, Jesus being in the form of God, thought he not wrong to be. If we go back one verse, we find this the beginning of the sentence. Let this mind be in you. Let this mind be in you, not the natural mind, the carnal mind, the selfish mind, the mind that doesn't love mercy. But let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought he might rather be equal to God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, was made the likeness of men, humbled himself obedient to the cross." You remember the passage there? He says, let this mind be in you, the same mind that prompted him to come from such a high exalted position to such a low depth of the cross. Let that mind be in you. Let the mind of Christ dwell in you. Romans 12, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, as you understand the mercies of God, I beg you," says Paul, the Holy Spirit speaking to us, says, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, as you understand the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, be ye not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. By the renewing of your mind, that your mind might be renewed and be not the natural mind that rejoices in justice, but the mind of Christ that would rejoice and get excited and be cheerful and love mercy. By the renewing of your mind, as you contemplate the mercies of God, that you might act upon that and perform your reasonable service, that you might be holy, that you might set yourself apart, that you might be a living sacrifice, that you might give yourself to somebody more pitiful than you in such a shape that they'd be a miserable creature but you would acknowledge and see and recognize and have sympathy toward that and sacrifice a portion of your life or a significant portion of your life or your whole life or whatever that your mind would be renewed to be the mind of the cross let this mind be in you which is in Christ that you might love mercy and be cheerful about it Three accounts in the Old Testament. Three accounts in the Bible, actually. One of them I've got on my mind. It's not in the Old Testament. The mindset of seeing the situation and even wishing that you could take the place. David, at the loss of his son Absalom. Absalom was a pitiful excuse for mankind. He was David's son, and when David lost Absalom, we don't find any more pitiful words, I suppose, in all the Bible. Oh Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son. Would to God I had died for you. Oh Absalom, my son. Justice happened that day. Absalom got what was coming to him. Probably could have some more happen to him for all he had done. It would serve him right. Maybe he didn't see it that way. In the long ago Moses was on Mount Sinai after receiving the Ten Commandments from God. And in the midst of that forty days while Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments from God, the children of Israel danced naked before a golden calf they had made. God, knowing what was going on down there, His anger became intense, and He sent Moses off the mountain. And Moses comes off that mountain, and He finds those people down there acting in such a way. God says to Moses, I will destroy those people and I will make a new nation out of you, Moses." Now, that was an opportunity for a natural thinker. For somebody who might have been interested in going ahead in this world and getting up there, hey, I could be the father of many nations. Into the leader of a rebellious nation. Moses didn't think that way at all. He wasn't interested in self. Matter of fact, he appeals to God, said, God, for your own sake, for your own glory, you've delivered them from Egypt, don't let the Egyptians say you couldn't take them to the Promised Land. God, you made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don't go back on that promise. Moses, in a representation of Jesus Christ, a symbolism of Jesus Christ, even a type of Christ right there, he intercedes to God, for your own glory you've got to save them, God. For your promises you've got to save them, God. And finally it said that God repented and said that he would save the people. Later on in that story, We see a man of mercy, Moses. Moses talks to God again. And he said, God, if you could be pleased with these, your people, I'd do whatever it would take. He said, you could mark my name out of your book. Exodus chapter 32, along about verse 33, I think it is. You could mark my name out of your book, God, would make you be merciful to these, your people." What an offer! Again, a type of Christ. Mark me out of your book, but be merciful to these, your nation, your children. And so Jesus was marked out of the book there for a period of time when God turned his back on him, I suppose. Paul Paul looking at the church at Thessalonica, Paul also looking at the church at Corinth, two different places we have. In 1 Thessalonians 2 and 8, Paul said he would give his very soul for the people in that church. In 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 12 and 15, he said he was willing to spend and be spent To give His very all, even to give His soul for those people. Paul is trying to be a hero there and say something impressive. He was a man after Jesus' heart. He was an illustration of one who would give up himself even to whatever it took. There is a mindset in this world, the mind of Christ. It goes beyond the mind of nature. that allows men to act that way, women to act that way, people to be like, in the likeness of Jesus Christ, to act in the way He acted. In all of these situations, though, with David of Absalom, certainly, that's Father's son, Moses and Israel, now that was, surely there was a strong connection, a strong previous connection there with Paul and the churches that he had established and preached at and pastored. Surely there was a strong connection, a strong previous connection that would cause them to have perhaps those extra special feelings of wanting to sacrifice and even give totally of themselves, of their eternal souls to prosper. That's a merciful thing, but there was a strong connection there already. And it's a whole lot easier to do it with that strong connection, my friends. It's a whole lot easier to think that way about your son than it is... I don't have any idea who that guy is. The mind of Christ, remember, that's what we're to have. Not the mind of nature, not the carnal mind. Not just the... Sort of like practicing mercy, like we do with our infant children, but a mind of Christ that goes beyond those things, the mind of Christ... What is the law? Love God with all your strength, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all that in you is, and love your neighbor as yourself. The lawyer asked Jesus, well then, who is my neighbor? Is he just my son? Is he just the people that I lead as a pastor? Is he just those that I've got some strong previous connection toward? Who is my neighbor? There ought to be a loophole where we can get out of this. Oftentimes in God's Word it says to do this for the brethren. All right, I can do it for the brethren. Who is your neighbor? Jesus then told the story of the Good Samaritan. The priest came by, the Levite came by, the man was laying in the ditch on the side of the road. The priest came by, the Levite came by, and they passed him by. And a Samaritan came by. Samaritans weren't very well thought of to start with. They were kind of on the low level themselves. He didn't have to stoop very far. He was already pretty low. He was a Samaritan. But every how long he had to stoop, he stooped. He picked that man up out of the ditch, and he was wounded and near death, it seems. He tended to him, and he doctored him, and he helped him, and he brought him to a place to stay, and he paid his way, and he said, if there's any more when I come back, I'll make up the difference. If the bill runs up too high, then I'll pay the doctor bill, or I'll pay the stay here, or I'll pay the hospital bill, or whatever it takes, I'll do that. And when it was all over, Jesus Asked the man, which one of these? What do you think about the neighbor thing now? The neighbor's anybody who needs you. The neighbor's not somebody you've got a strong previous connection for. The neighbor's the man in the pitiful shape in the ditch. Which one of these loved his neighbor? And the lawyer answered, I suppose the one that showed mercy. Is it just the ones we have a strong previous connection with, like a child, or a son, or a family member, or a church member, or an upstanding person in the community that falls into a bad state of affairs? Matthew 5, verse 43, you have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. Jesus is teaching on the same thing. He's declared later who the neighbor is. He's whoever's in a pitiful shape and needs your help. But you've heard that it's been said that you ought to love your neighbor, but hate your enemy. We're going to draw another line here. Who is my neighbor? Is he just the one I've got a strong connection to? No, he's whoever needs help. Well, what about if he's my enemy that's needing help? Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil, and on the good, and his sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." He shows mercy. He sends rain. He sends the sunshine. That's his mindset, the mindset of Christ. For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? You do even as the publicans, the same. If you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others? Do not even the publicans so? Will everybody not help out their little club they're in and their little group? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Have that mindset. Not just the ones we have that strong previous connection with. But I want to throw something at you right here. If you believe in the sovereign grace of God, if you believe that God can come down and take a pitiful vile sinner out of a corrupt mass of sin and the condition he's in, and raise him up and bring him to glory, if you're a believer in that, then you may have a strong previous connection to your enemy, a previous connection that goes clear back before the foundation of the world when your enemy was chosen by the same God that chose you, perhaps. That one that appears to be so vile and may be so vile and wicked may be a thief that on a cross one day will make a great big turnaround, and you may spend eternity with that bum. You may spend eternity with that pitiful mass of humanity in heaven forever. You may have a strong pre-disconnection that he'd be your brother. And yes, you are your brother's keeper. And yes, we have been commanded to bear one another's burdens. And yes, we have been told to be merciful, even as our Father in heaven is merciful to us. And no, we've not been given permission to pick and choose. Our neighbor is whoever is in a pitiful state, even to the extent that he might have been our previous enemy. And we find him to be in a pitiful state. That's the mind of Christ. We were His previous enemy. The carnal mind is enmity against God. He commended His love towards Him that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. Which mind is in you? Which mind is in me? I think that's why I came to church this morning kind of depressed. I mean, did the song service lift me up a little bit? I had seen myself as I studied these things this morning. that my mindset was far closer to the natural description than it is the mind of Christ. I don't have anything pressing too hard. If one of you all needs some help, I'll try to help you. I'll stoop that low. That's not really very low. We're all in the same club. We're all about on the same level here. You won't take much of my time because you don't need much help usually, just a few minutes here or there. But boy, the stooped way down to find somebody that really does need, really in a pitiful shape. Well, I start thinking they've made their bed. That mindset comes to me instead of what ought to be in me. What's your mindset? What's the mindset of this church? How do we think? Do we love to find that opportunity to really find a pitiful case and do something? We just sort of play mercy games to put up a good facade. At the end of the inner package there in Romans 12 about spiritual gifts, the very next words are, love without dissimilitude, thinks the word. Without hypocrisy is what it means, without some kind of fake love. Let's go back to Christ in closing. Was mercy joyful to Christ? Was mercy an easy road for Him? Was mercy a path of cheerfulness, as we'd use the word? Was it an easy road to travel? In the Garden of Gethsemane, three times He prayed. He begged His followers to pray for Him and with Him, and they fell asleep on Him, and He prayed earnestly. He prayed and sweared as it were great drops of blood, and he said, God, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Is that an example of mercy with cheerfulness? He was about to show mercy. Was he excited about it? Did he have a readiness of mind? He had a readiness of mind. He had a body that dreaded pain. He had a foreknowledge in his mind that he knew what was going to happen to him ahead of time. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Don't tell me what's out there. If it's going to be bad, I want to know it. He knew it. And he knew the well of it, and the completeness of it, and the totality of it. He said, if it be possible. But then he said, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done. Was it joyful for him when he said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Was it joyful for him when he looked at his mother and said to John, Behold thy mother, you have to take care of her now. Was it joyful when he said, I thirst? No. Hebrews 12 and 2. He endured the cross, despising the shame, looking forward to the joy that was set before him. There was a sense of Since I suppose that there was a joy there, it wasn't joyful, it wasn't a fun experience. It's not ever probably a fun experience to sacrifice yourself in whatever level you might do it. But there's an enduring of that with an anticipation of a joy that is set before us. A joy that's been promised by the Father that will be given to those that love mercy and show mercy with cheerfulness. 1 Timothy chapter 6. We'll close by reading a few verses here. Jesus, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame. I do believe in God's Word that we have promises. If we'll attempt to have the mindset of Christ, To attempt to love mercy and look for opportunities to show it. To try to practice love thy neighbor as thyself. To show mercy with cheerfulness. But there's a joy that comes in that. 1 Timothy 6 and 5. Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself. Some will tell you now, now here's what'll happen if you're a god and you'll get gain. Prosperity, that's what God will give you. He'll just fill your pockets with gold and you'll have Cadillacs and you'll have everything. Everything the world could desire you to have. That's what some say godliness is. Godliness gains. But godliness with contentment, God's word says, is great gain. A contentment that can come. A peace. of comfort and gladness of heart on the inside. Godliness with contentment is great gain. But we brought nothing into this world and it's certain we can carry nothing out. Can you take it with you, they say? I don't suppose any of you all have ever seen anybody carry anything with them. Didn't come in with anything, you can't take anything out. But you sure have some pitiful hopes of what you've got while you're here. So having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. Food and clothes, that's all you need. Oh, that's a different way of thinking. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which ground them in destruction and perdition." Those that would have a desire to be rich, and that's what motivates them, and they think that's where contentment will come, and in their game they'll find this. For the love of money, I said this wrong and was corrected, thankfully. I should have already corrected myself on this preaching a couple, three times ago. I said money was the root of all evil. I misquoted it. It's the love of money that's the root of all evil, and it truly is. the desire of the things of this world, and to have and not give to somebody that needs it. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. They've lacked a belief in Jesus Christ and a following Him, and they've pierced themselves through with many sorrows because they love money more than they love Him and His ways." This is pretty straightforward. It's a different philosophy about the world, different to our natural thinking. Different to our middle-class American way of thinking, quite honestly. Let's hoard it up. Let's don't give any away, or just a little giveaway might not hurt. But thou, O man of God, flee these things. If you're a man of God, flee these things. Follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight. It's a fight. It doesn't come easy. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. Lay hold on it. Get a grip on it right now. Take it. It's at hand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses." You've claimed you believe in Jesus. Do you believe in Him enough to follow Him, and to follow His lifestyle and His way? I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrefutable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he shall show, who is the blessed and only potent date, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus is coming back one day, and until he comes back you do not live like him and for him, who only, he's the only one that has immortality. dwelling in the life which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen." Paul, as his manner is, he just gets started on Jesus and he gives us a couple, three good verses there proclaiming His majesty. So then, "...charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in the uncertain riches." But trust in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. Charge them that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, to hand it out. Willing to communicate, that means to share. 1611 language communicate was share. Willing to distribute, willing to share. laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. Now then, our foundation in the time to come might come in two different ways, two different philosophies, two different ways we can lay up a foundation for the time to come. We can have a big old nest egg that's going to be our security. We can trust in that. Jesus said, thieves break through the steel, and moths eat holes in your treasures here. But he that lays up his treasure in heaven, he that loves mercy, there's a joy set before him. Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. What would wait if he did this was to be king of kings, lord of lords, to be exalted on the right hand of God, to go back in power on high, to experience heaven. There's a joy set before us if we love mercy, and with a readiness of mind, show mercy, that we even now can lay hold on eternal life. That's a good foundation for the time to come. That'll get you through more than half a dozen mistakes. Just go ahead and lay hold on heaven now. Godliness with contentment. is great gain. To follow our example, Jesus Christ, to be a living sacrifice, to have a renewing of our minds, to let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, who stooped way down, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal to God, but he took upon himself the passion of men, became a man, was obedient even to the death of the cross, to show mercy. He stooped a long ways down to show mercy, and he endured all that, anticipating the joy that was set before him. If we show mercy, there's a laying hold of eternal life, a contentment that we can have a peace within that we can take hold of today. A joy that is set before us. Choose you this day whom you'll serve, said Joshua. In mercy, God chose you. Will you choose to follow Him and show mercy? Will you fall in love with mercy