Amen, amen, thank you, worship team, and thank you, church, for those expressions of honor and gratitude this morning, much appreciated. As I'm sure you can imagine, many of my friends are pastors, and we get together and we talk, and I'm frequently asked by pastors, how are you doing? That's what we, you know, try to care for each other, and I usually say, you know what, I'm tired, but I'm not discouraged. The demands over the last 19 months have been high, but the supply has been generous. And so, yeah, I just want to Let you know that, I appreciate your prayers, appreciate your encouragement. This church has been great, and we'll get through all this for sure. And my opinion would be if we have to go through a storm, there's no better boat to be in than this one right here. So appreciate you back, and just on behalf of the pastors and the staff, just wanna express gratitude for your honor and for your thanks this morning. All right, well, if you have your Bibles with you, I would love for you to open them now to Matthew chapter five. I wanna talk to you about something that I really do think could change the world, could change this world anyway. It could rock this world. And if we get this right, if we get it right together, I think it could really open a door of witness and welcome to the world, the likes of which we have never seen in our days. As you probably know by now, we're taking a long, slow walk through the Sermon on the Mount, and we're taking a closer look this morning at the Fifth Beatitude. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Let me read that to you again. Aren't those sweet words? Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. We're gonna take a pretty straightforward approach today. We'll talk about mercy defined, mercy as a test of faith, and then mercy as a witness to the world. Let's begin with mercy as defined. What exactly does the Bible mean when we talk about mercy? Mercy's kind of one of those Christian words, isn't it, we throw out, like glory and grace. You're not a good Christian unless you've already used that word a couple times today, I would think. And right, we throw these words out, but what do they actually mean? I said a couple of weeks ago that meekness is what you'd get if you put patience, gentleness, and trust in a blender. And I think similarly here we could say that mercy is what you'd get if you put forgiveness and compassion. in a blender. And certainly as we begin to work our way through the teachings of Jesus, it becomes clear, those are the main ingredients in this very biblical concept. So let's start with the more obvious of those two. Whatever else it means to be merciful, and we'll get to that, it's certainly, it obviously means to forgive others their debts and trespasses. So flip forward in your Bible, you're in Matthew 5 right now, probably just a couple pages to Matthew 18. Matthew 18, 21 to 35. And by the way, we've got pew Bibles back for you now. So if they're in front of you there, and again, just a reminder, if you do use the pew Bible, just leave it on the seat, we'll take care of it after, make sure it's cleaned and sanitized for the next go around. All right, Matthew 18, 21 to 35. Jesus tells a story there in response to a question from Peter. Verse 21 says, then Peter came up and said to him, Lord, how often, Will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Anyone with a brother has had that prayer to Jesus before, right? Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times? That'll got me through March break probably. As many as seven times, Lord? So now notice that. This parable that we often refer to in our Bibles, probably have the heading in your Bible, the unmerciful servant. This parable was given in response to a question about forgiveness. How forgiving should I be towards those who wrong me? Should I forgive other people as many as seven times? Peter, I'm sure, thought that was very generous. That's the question that Peter asks, and this is the story that Jesus tells by way of response. It serves as kind of a definition and an illustration all rolled into one, all right? Verse 22, Jesus said to him, I do not say to you seven times, but 77 times. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed 10,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had in payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. And when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a few hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, pay what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me and I will pay you. He refused and went out and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt. because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. So, whatever else the Spirible is saying, Clearly, to be merciful is to forgive others their debts and trespasses. So mercy and forgiveness are almost perfect synonyms. They're not quite, but they would be heavily overlapping concepts. But if we wanna get the full picture of what the Bible says about mercy, there's some more for us to see. It means to be forgiving, but it also means to be actively compassionate towards those who are in misery. All right, that's our second thing. Now again, we get this bit of the definition also from a parable. Parables are useful because they give us, again, they give us kind of a definition and an illustration all rolled up into one. This one comes to us from perhaps the most famous of all of Jesus' parables, the parable of the Good Samaritan. You'll find that one in Luke 10, 30 to 37. I'm gonna read it to you, but if you wanna see it in your own Bible, that's fine. You can probably just turn, who knows, maybe 25 pages to the right, and you'll probably run into it. Luke 10, 30 to 37. Here's how this one goes. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. You remember Jerusalem was a city up on a mountain? So if you're going anywhere from Jerusalem, you're going down. Just a little geography note. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance, a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers? He said, the one who showed him mercy. And Jesus said to him, you go and do likewise. So this story is a story that Jesus told in answer to a question from a young lawyer. And after the story, both Jesus and the young lawyer agree that the story has perfectly demonstrated what it means to be merciful. To be merciful in this sense means to move in active compassion toward those who are in misery. And the movement depicted in the story is all the more remarkable because it involves crossing over some significant social boundaries. Samaritans and Jews didn't normally interact, but in mercy, the man, the Samaritan, felt compelled to respond. He crossed over. He incurred some inconvenience, right? He put the man on his own animal. And so that meant he had to walk the rest of the journey himself. He incurred cost. He put him up in a hotel. He poured oil and wine on his wounds. He assumed the costs of his recovery. Put his own money on the line. That's what mercy is. Mercy is costly, inconvenient compassion toward those in desperate need. And in both of those stories, if you listen carefully, as in the very wording of the Fifth Beatitude itself, it appears that in the Bible, mercy functions as a test and indicator of faith. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, it isn't the priest or the Levite that is commended by Jesus, it is the Samaritan. That is Jesus saying that our compassionate actions toward those in misery are a better indicator of our faith than our tribal identity or religious observances. You can be in the right group. You can be on the right team. You can say all the right things. You can perform all kinds of pious religious actions and still not be an authentic person of faith. And that shows up, that is indicated in our failure to show mercy to those in need. See, the same thing in the parable of the unmerciful servant. The lack of mercy on behalf of the servant is condemned by the master in the story, but far more significantly, is condemned by Jesus in the application. I mean, the application Jesus gives to that story is maybe the scariest application at all in the Bible. Listen again to the end of the story. Then his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me, and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. Now, wouldn't it be better if the parable just ended right there? I mean, that's already pretty heavy, but I bet you we could wiggle out from underneath that. But Jesus won't let us wiggle, listen to 35. So also, So also my Heavenly Father will do to every one of you, will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Failure to show mercy results in the forfeiture of mercy. It serves to demonstrate that the initial mercy failed to penetrate the heart of the intended recipient. That's what Jesus is saying here, right? Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive By the way, that's exactly the same thing Jesus said just a little bit later in the Sermon on the Mount when he's teaching on the Lord's Prayer. In Matthew 6, 14 to 15, he says, "'For if you forgive others their trespasses, "'your heavenly Father will also forgive you. "'But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, "'neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.'" It's a little commentary on the Lord's Prayer, right? You probably pray that every day, maybe you do. I do, I'm sure most of you do too. You say these words, forgive us our trespasses, what? As we forgive those who trespass against us. So, is Jesus saying that we earn forgiveness by sinning? forgiving others. Is Jesus saying that we're going to earn mercy on Judgment Day if we show mercy to people in the here and now? Is that what he's saying? No, of course not. Rather, what it seems that Jesus is saying is that our failure to show mercy to others indicates that we have failed to appreciate and appropriate the mercy that was offered to us in Christ. There can be no other explanation. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones says here, if I am not merciful, there's only one explanation. It's marvelous when there's only one explanation, isn't it? We can just deal with that instead of making excuses. If I am not merciful, there's only one explanation. I have never understood the grace and mercy of God. I am outside Christ, I am yet in my sins, and I am unforgiven. That's the only thing it can mean. Why wouldn't you? extend mercy to other people as a blood-bought, born-again, forgiven believer in Jesus Christ. Why wouldn't you? I mean, what would that have to say about you? It would have to say, first of all, that you have dramatically underestimated the scale and significance of your own sin. Wouldn't it have to say that? And we breezed by that. That seems to be the point in the parable of the unmerciful servant. We kind of breezed by that detail in the first telling. Do you remember the sum that the man owed to the master? It's listed in Matthew 18, 24 as 10,000 talents. Sometimes numbers, Bible numbers, don't make much of an impression on us, right? 10,000 talents. We think, well, I'm a reasonably talented person, so I can identify with this story. But actually, it has nothing to do with whether you can sing or dance. A talent in the ancient world was actually just a weight of money, a weight of money. I have a little text note. I bet you you do. Look at your Bible. If you've got Matthew 18, 24, I bet you you have the same text note I have. I've got a little text note in my Bible right by that number, 10,000 talents, that says this. A talent was a monetary unit worth about 20 years wages for a laborer. So that's a big chunk of change. 20 years, that's like a retirement coin. By the way, doesn't that help you out with the story of the widow who lost a coin and she went nuts and basically tore her house down? Because that was 20 years or 10 years of her retirement money. Weights of coin, that's how you stored wealth in those days. Wowzers. One talent was worth 20 years wages for a laborer. So I googled average annual income for a general laborer in Canada and was told that it was around $30,000. I then typed that number into my calculator and attempted to multiply it by 10,000, and my calculator tapped out. Literally, there are not enough digits in my digital display to handle that number, and I think that's exactly the point. It is an unfathomably large number. And the master, in his mercy, forgave it all. Well, how then could the servant go out and find somebody and start choking him and throw him and his whole family into debtor's prison over a couple of denarii? Doesn't make any sense. How could he do that? Why would he do that? Here's the thing, think it through. Why would he do that? He wasn't concerned about that small debt a couple days ago. Why is he concerned about it now? He obviously doesn't believe that the master had truly forgiven him. He thinks the master's gonna come back at him for this money. He wants to have money in his account in case the master changes his mind. Are you tracing that through? He doesn't believe that the master has truly forgiven him. He doesn't believe it, he hasn't received it. The mercy the master extended to him made no permanent impression on his heart. Something similar could be said about the priest and the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan. If they really understood their own brokenness, if they really understood what God had done for them as a people, if they remembered the exodus, wouldn't they act different in this story? The fact that they act the way they do indicates they don't remember the accidents, they don't remember that they were slaves, they don't remember, they're not really saved, they've not really received the mercy that God has been extending to them. They've forgotten what God has done and they're obviously blind to what God is doing right before their eyes in the personal work of Christ. Of course, the same basic standard applies to us. If we can pass by broken and hurting people in this world and look the other way without a pang of conscience or a second thought, then there's clearly something very wrong with us. We must have a view of ourselves that doesn't actually correspond to reality. We must have forgotten who we are and what God has done. We must have forgotten that we were once in bondage. We were once beaten up and discarded on the side of the road. We were roughly handled by our enemies. We were broken, bruised, and beaten, but God had mercy on us. He came in the person of Jesus Christ, he paid our debt, he lifted us up, he bound us up, and he has been working to restore us to our former health and glory, all at great cost and, I think we could argue, inconvenience to himself. He did that for us, and when we fail to do that for others, we call into question whether or not we have really ever understood and appreciated that. That's what Jesus is saying in these stories. When we fail to forgive, others, their offenses against us, when we fail to respond in compassion to the brokenness and helplessness of other people, when our first response is actually to make excuses, right, to talk ourselves out of it, to say, well, I don't want, probably would be unhelpful for me to be merciful to that person. After all, that person made their bed, they gotta sleep in it, right? As if it's only appropriate to give mercy to those who deserve it. But of course, if you only give mercy to people who deserve it, it's not mercy. Thank God that God doesn't only give mercy to people who deserve it, right? But we talk ourselves out of it. And when we do that, it can only mean that we have failed to appreciate the scale of our own sin. We've failed to appreciate the depths of our own depravity. We've failed to appreciate the undeservedness of the mercy that God showed us in Christ. Listen, to refuse to forgive another person who wrongs you. Now, hear that carefully. I'm choosing my words carefully here. To refuse to forgive. Not to find it difficult. To refuse to forgive another person who wrongs you. Or to be unmoved by the misery of the people around you. Not to have questions about how best to care for them. But to be unmoved by the misery of the people around you. requires you to be wrong about you, wrong about Jesus, wrong about the cross, and wrong about the final judgment. In other words, it requires you to be wrong about the substance and essence of the Christian faith. And that's what we mean when we talk about mercy as being the perfect test of faith. Nobody seems to get this better than Lloyd-Jones. He says, our Lord is depicting and delineating the Christian man and the Christian character. He's obviously searching us and testing us, and it is good that we should realize that. If we take the Beatitudes as a whole, it's a kind of general test to which we are being subjected. How are we reacting to these searching tests and probings? Isn't that a good question? How are you reacting? to these searching tests and probings. Are you running away? Are you making excuses? Are you forgetting it as fast as you can? Or are you sitting in it? I'm encouraging you to sit in it. The Apostle Paul encouraged his people to sit in it. He said, examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail to meet the test? Listen, brothers and sisters, if you are reading the Bible honestly and thoroughly, and by the way, if you're not, then you're just putting yourself at risk, right? But if you're reading the Bible honestly and thoroughly, if you're sitting under Bible preaching, and if you're hearing that with a humble heart, then understand this, couple times in your life, a handful of times in your life, God's gonna make you take the test. Handful of times in your life, you're gonna wrestle for an hour, or a week, or a month, or maybe the better part of a year, you're gonna wrestle, wrestle with the question of whether or not you're really saved. That's good. Listen, woe unto the person, woe unto the person who is absolutely sure they're saved because they belong to a church, or because they said a little prayer at camp when they were 15 years old, or because their grandpa was a pastor, or because they love singing songs about Jesus. Woe unto such a person. Jesus himself warned us against that kind of complacency. He said, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you? On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. There are lots of people who think they are Christians, who are fond of Jesus, who have done many works of service in his name, who are not truly saved. Christ is not being formed in them. And they miss it. You never know. That truth, that potentially life-saving, eternity-saving truth never dawns on them. Why? Because they refuse to take the test. They never look inside their hearts, honestly, humbly. They never evaluate their own fruit to see, to really see whether or not Christ is being formed in them. They don't do that. So I'm encouraging you today, do that. Test yourselves, brothers and sisters, to see if Christ is formed in you. And so I'm gonna make a strange request of you this morning. I'm gonna ask that you not come up to me after the service if you're looking for me to talk you out of taking this test, or if you're looking for me to dull the impact of what you see when you look at your life, when you start to take the test. Because I know myself, right? Up here, my job is really easy. Up here in the pulpit, my job is just read to you a story from the Bible and tell you something you probably already know, right? I mean, let's be honest. Anybody here not heard the story of the unforgiving, unmerciful servant before? And maybe a few, maybe a few visitors. You've heard that story before though, right? Anybody here not heard the story of the good Samaritan? Again, there could be a visitor, maybe who hasn't heard that story. But let's be honest, you've heard those stories before, right? We know these stories, but the truth is, as sinners, we put an awful lot of effort into avoiding the obvious implications. That's all my, my job is to read the story and then just to press your nose a little bit into what you already know is there. But the real work, the real business is supposed to be done between you and the Holy Spirit. So don't come up to me after the service, because I know myself. Like I said, the job is real easy up here, but I'll tell you, it's real hard down there. Because down there, you come, and you look at my face, and you start to cry, and I love you, right? So I just want to make you feel better. Ah, I hate that about myself. But it's true. And you're going to say, Pastor, I heard your sermon, and it made me feel like maybe I'm not saved. And it's gonna be hugely tempting for me to say, oh, no, no, no, I'm sure this is about the person sitting beside you, and I'm sure, you know, ah, ah, you're probably okay, ah. Hope I wouldn't do that, but I don't know. So listen, I'm just saying, don't come and ask me that. You can come, we'll pray about just about anything other than that. But what I'm saying, don't come to me to ask me to talk you out of whatever it is the Holy Spirit's doing in your heart today. Just sit in it. You need to sit in it, I'll tell you this. There have been at least three times I can remember in my life where for stretches of time, meaning not minutes, not hours, I'm talking weeks, I'm talking months, I'm talking the better part of a year, I was wrestling with the Lord and I was not 100%, I was not 50, I was not 35% sure that I was saved. Because the Lord had put his finger on something. And I had to wrestle with that inconsistency. I had to wrestle with what that says about me. I had to wrestle with why do I have that blind spot if I am truly saved? And I'm so glad there was no one there to talk me out of those conversations with the Lord. Those conversations saved my life. Maybe you need to have a conversation like that today, because blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. we could end there, and probably some of us will end there, and that's okay. I realize that probably 20% of the people in the room are gonna miss the last section of the sermon, because they're gonna be taking the test, and that's good. That's more than good, that's great. But for the rest of us who've maybe already had that conversation with the Lord, there's one more aspect of this disposition I'd like for us to explore. I'd like to talk for a few minutes about mercy. as witness. Now there's a sense in which all of the Beatitudes have a witnessing function, right? Because if we are really Christians in here, if we are transformed into the very image and likeness of Christ, then the church is going to be attractive. Jesus will talk about that later in the Sermon on the Mount, right after the section of the Beatitudes. He says in Matthew 5, 14 to 16, you are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. So the church is supposed to be attractive. If we live out true Christian character, if we live out the Beatitudes, people are gonna see that and they're gonna come to the church like moths to a flame, like people in a dark world who see a city on a hill, right? The church is supposed to reflect hope, goodness, beauty, in a dark and broken world. So all of the Beatitudes have a witnessing function, but I would argue Given the particular darkness of our culture, this beatitude right here has this potential in spades. If you want to be rightly and truly attractive to the world, brothers and sisters, then let's make this church a place that believes in and practices mercy. Now, to be clear, people always get concerned when we start talking about mercy. Pastor, are you saying we just gotta lower the bar on sin, or you gotta say we just gotta take sin more seriously so that people like the church more? No, no, no, no, no. No, you can take sin seriously and still be a merciful person. Jesus got this, right? And he told his disciples to get it. Luke 17, he said, here it is. If your brother sins, rebuke him. Ah, and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him. Isn't that beautiful? Wouldn't you like to go to a church like that? Brothers and sisters, the church should be a place where sin is confronted, where sin is confessed, where forgiveness is granted, where progress is expected. where the past can be outrun and where a better future is assumed. Wouldn't you like to go to a church like that? Oh man, I would. And I'll tell you, there's a lot of people out in the world I think that would like that too. The world out there is not a merciful place. The world out there is nasty and tribal. They're all about the front runners. They're good to you when you're on top, they're good to you when you're in the in crowd, but boy, you take a misstep, you make a mistake, you say something you shouldn't, and they will be all over you, like feeding time at the zoo. If you doubt that for a second, just go on Twitter and search for Alec Baldwin. Boy, a couple months ago, he was at the top of the mountain, wasn't he, because he was making fun of all the right people? But now, after a huge mistake, the lowest point in his life, people are tearing him to shreds. Some of the jokes that have been made at the expense of this poor man, at his absolute lowest, some of those jokes go beyond the bounds of humanity. And I will say this, if you have forwarded any of them, or liked any of them, or tweeted any of them, please go home immediately and delete them. It's not just celebrity, it's everybody. The modern online world, with its permanent memory and its addiction to outrage, is not a merciful place. It's not a place where you can move on from your mistakes. Don't we tell this to our kids? Shunnelly and I, we have a lot of kids. Whew, I lose track. That's half a dozen or something. I don't know. But you know, they spread out a bit too. So we've got we go from 24 down to 10. I'm looking over for validation of that about to turn 24 down to 10. And it's a spread. But you know, what's interesting, so we have basically been parenting in the first wave of this whole internet social media world. Our daughter Madison was like the first generation of kids to have smartphones in high school. I think she got her, if I don't get this wrong too, it doesn't matter, it's just a detail, but I think she got her first smartphone in grade 10 or 11 or something, and very limited capacities and whatnot. But now all the little ones, not our little ones, but I'm saying almost every little one in the world now has a smartphone connected to the internet. And so what are we doing as parents, right? We're trying to help them figure this out, but the truth is we're trying to figure this out. But one of the things I'm always saying to the kids is, understand this, it's a different world now. Boy, I tell you, if there were screenshots of all the stupid things I did in high school, I can tell you this, you'd not have given me a fruit basket this morning. There'd be no fruit for Uncle Paul. Goodness gracious. Yeah, I'm glad my, I won't even say I'm glad my mom's losing her memory, because you're not losing your memory, you've just always looked at me through the lens of love. Even my mom is starting to forget some of the stupid things I did in high school, which is so wonderful. Can I tell the story, Mom? It's a good story, and it's a good story. The other day, I was driving Max to a soccer game and had Grandma with us, and I was telling Max about one of the stupidest things I did in high school. It was stupid, it was sinful, it was wrong, it was inappropriate. I can't even share it as an illustration. And Mom, bless her heart, she said, oh no, you never did anything like that in high school. I said, I for sure did. And she said, no you didn't. You were a good boy in high school. I was like, Mom, bless your heart. Bless your heart. Everybody needs somebody in their life who refuses to see any sin in them. Bless your heart. But boy, it's not like that anymore for our kids coming up, is it? You make a mistake in high school, you'll be talking about it at a job interview when you're 27. Right? What do we tell our kids? We say, just be aware, everything you put on the internet, everything you put on social media is there forever. And people will be screenshotting things that you send or say so that even if you change your mind, right, even if you send something at eight o'clock and then the Holy Spirit convicts you and you think, no, no, no, that was stupid, I'm gonna go back and erase, too late. It has been screenshotted, it has been saved, it has been passed around, you're already being mocked. The world out there has never been a less merciful and forgiving place than it is right now. So let's create a witness of distinction. Brothers and sisters, given how bad the world is out there at this, if we could just be a little bit good in here, we'd set the world on fire. The world out there loves catching people at their worst. They screenshot your angry, hasty outbursts so that they can share it even after you've tried to take it down. By the way, P.S., Christian, don't ever screenshot anything. Give room for people in your life to change their minds. The world's not gonna do that for you. So let's do it here. Let's be the complete opposite of that. Let's be the church, oh, listen to this, where love covers over a multitude of sins. Let's be the church where when something says or does or posts something foolish, rash, ignorant, or ill-considered, we send them a private message suggesting a better way. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine how glorious that church will look and feel to millennials burned out by social media and cancel culture in five to 10 years? Oh man, that church will look like heaven. So let's build that church. By the grace of God, let's build that church. Let's start today. Let's make this church a place where it's easy to be a failure. Let's make this church a place where you don't have to lie about being a person in process. Let's make this church a place where you can truly outlive and outrun your past. Let's make this church an image and reflection of Jesus, the ultimate display and manifestation of mercy. He forgave us our sins, so let's never withhold forgiveness from any other. He was gentle with our weakness, so let's never be brutal toward people at their lowest. He was active in compassion, so let's never be indifferent toward those in misery. Brothers and sisters, let's be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. This is what saved people do. This is the Jesus way. I'll tell you, this is the hope of the world. And this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, how thankful we are for the work of Jesus, yes, but also for the word of Jesus that saves us from the worst parts of ourselves, that points out a better way, that reminds us of who we were meant to be, and that through the work of the Holy Spirit begins to shape and transform us in the very image and likeness of Christ. Let us be that. Let us be the fragrance of life among those who are perishing. Let this be the work of the Spirit in us, we ask in Jesus' name.