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There are some things in this Bible that are so unreasonable, no one should believe them–except a Christian.
Bob McPherson

Ah, Lord GOD!  It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm!  Nothing is too hard for you.
Jeremiah 32:17
The English Standard Version

Never should we so abandon ourselves to God as when He seems to have abandoned us.  Let us enjoy light and consolation when it is His pleasure to give it to us, but let us not attach ourselves to His gifts, but to Himself; and when He plunges us into the night of pure faith, let us still press on through the agonizing darkness.
Unknown

One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.
Proverbs 11:24
The English Standard Version

Love is a great teacher.
Augustine of Hippo

Tender Mercy Makers
by Jeff Strite

Romans 12:1-12:8
I once read the true story of a preacher was organizing an evangelistic outreach using small acts of kindness to demonstrate Christ’s love. He phoned several neighborhood grocery stores and Laundromats for permission to do specific services.  On one call, the employee who answered the phone hesitated, then said, “I’ll need to ask the manager, but first, let me make sure I understand: You want to clean up the parking lot, retrieve shopping carts hold umbrellas for customers, and you don’t want anything in return.”
“Yes, that’s right,” the preacher replied.
After a few moments the employee returned to the phone.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “we can’t let you do that because if we let you do it, we’d have to let everyone else do it, too!”
(Ann Jeffries, Kansas City, KS Christian Reader, “Lite Fare.”)
Now, isn’t that odd?  Here’s a church that was willing to show God’s love to a grocery store, and the store won’t let them do it because they’re afraid they’ll have to let other groups do the same thing.
Now why did that store respond like that?  Because NO ONE does stuff like that!  This church was obviously out for something… an ulterior motive. And the grocery store was right. The church did have an ulterior motive – they wanted to reach their world for Christ and the tool they were using was something called “showing mercy.”
Paul writes: “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is… showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.” Romans 12:6 & 8
The first question that came to my mind was: what exactly IS mercy?According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Mercy is:  2 a : a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion (that’s what God does)  3 : compassionate treatment of those in distress (that’s what people do).
Basically, mercy is the act of getting your hands dirty helping others. Mercy is where a person visits the shut-ins, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked. This goes beyond “giving money” to these people. It’s where a person who shows mercy by DOING the act of helping. And they do this act without expecting to be paid to do it.
Now-why should we be merciful?   Well, we should be merciful, because we serve a God who is a “merciful God.”
“Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and MERCY for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;   Deuteronomy 7:9 NKJV
David wrote:
• For the LORD is good; His MERCY is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations. Psalm 100:5
• Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His MERCY endures forever. Psalm 118:29
• AND in the most famous psalm where David tells us “The Lord is my shepherd”, he ends the psalm with these words: “Surely goodness and MERCY shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.” Psalm 23:6
We serve a merciful God. But the verses I quoted only give us a small indication of what His mercy is like. In Ephesians 2:4-7 we hear these powerful words:  “because of his great love for us, God, WHO IS RICH IN MERCY, made us alive with Christ EVEN WHEN WE WERE DEAD in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
When God saved us He showed us His immense and immeasurable mercy.  And we become like God – we grow up to be like Him – when we learn to show His kind of mercy to others.
There’s an example of God’s kind of mercy in Mark 1:40-42. There we’re told that a leper came to Jesus, and knelt before Him and said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.”  Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.”
One preacher commented on this story by saying “The amazing part of this healing is how Jesus did it – Jesus TOUCHED him!”  You didn’t touch lepers. They were unclean! If you touched them, you became unclean and no one wanted that! But Jesus TOUCHED this man.
Philip Yancey tells the story of Dr. Paul Brand who devoted his life to treating leprosy patients in India. In the course of one examination Brand laid his hand on the patient’s shoulder and informed him through a translator of the treatment that lay ahead.  To Dr. Brand’s surprise the man began to shake with muffled sobs.   Brand turned to the translator “Have I said something wrong?”  She questioned the patient and then replied: “No, doctor. He says he is crying because you put your hand around his shoulder. Until you came here no one had touched him for many years.”
(Brian Mavis; sermoncentral)
You see, that is the reality that lies at the very heart of what it means to show mercy.  Mercy is the intentional touching of people who suffer.  It’s the intentional “getting close” to folks who aren’t ordinarily “touched”
A man was visiting a home for the retarded. For an hour he talked with a young woman named Mary whose body was covered with tumors. He put his arm around her and said, “you really are a beautiful person.”  “Thank you,” she replied. “No one has ever gotten close enough to notice.”
Mercy is getting close to people who hurt… and touching their needs.  This is the kind of mindset that drives those with the gift of mercy.  It’s like 2nd nature to them… they do it instinctively.
These are the kinds of people who instinctively do what Jesus describes in Matthew 25: 35-40 “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’  “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’  “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Now, if you’ll notice Jesus is NOT talking to the folks with the “gift of mercy”.  He’s talking to everybody.  He expects EVERYBODY to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit the sick and imprisoned.  Because He is a God of mercy, He expects His people to be a people of mercy.  He expects ALL of us to find ways to become hands-on when it comes to helping others – to find ways to get our hands dirty. To touch the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned.  Because it’s often ONLY when we TOUCH those who are hurting that we become motivated to help them.
Back in the 1990’s I read the story of a famous Pop Star who had visited a refugee camp in Bangladesh. It was basically a Photo-op to paint him as a compassionate artist.  He said “That 1st morning I must have washed my hands a dozen times. I didn’t want to touch anything, least of all THESE people. Everyone in those camps was covered with sores and scabs.  I was bending down to one little child, mainly for the photographer’s benefit, and trying hard not to get too close. Just then someone accidentally stepped on the child’s fingers and he screamed. As a reflex, I grabbed him… forgetting his dirt and his sores. I remember that warm little body clinging to me — and the crying instantly stopping. In that moment I knew I had much to learn about practical Christian loving.”
(Pop Star Cliff Richard in Reader’s Digest Feb 1990 p. 199)
He touched the child… and it changed his view of that little boy.  And he learned – at that moment – what it is to show MERCY.
Now… what are some practical ways that you can show mercy to people around you?
1. I’ve always been impressed with the folks that help with Habitat for Humanity. They give of their time to build and refurbish houses for those who can’t afford a home, and the home they create is not just a place to live. It’s a NICE place for those in need.
2. Then there are the folks who volunteer at the local Emmaus Center. They provide food, shelter and job training for people who have no place else to go. They are worthy of our praise.
3. Then there are the folks who work for our Food Pantry. Just last week a volunteer came back from a distribution center with 1200 pounds of food. That which we couldn’t use, we sent over to the Emmaus center to help feed the needy there. Every month we help out 50 to 60 needy families in our area.
4. Here in church, Doug Brown has found been doing the ministry of “TOUCH” letters. These are letters that are placed on the back table with post-it notes attached that tell who the letter goes to – people who are shut-in or sick or have other needs. The church is encouraged to write notes of encouragement to these people.  I just visited a lady this week who had received one of these “touch” letters and she told me how pleased she was to know how much people cared for her. In addition, she’d received a number of other cards and notes from people here.
Back at the first church I served I remember visiting a certain woman in the nursing home. It was very disconcerting to visit with her though. She’d suffered a stroke and the entire left side of face and body sagged and was immobile. And, when I visited with her she always cried. If I shared a sad piece of information she cried and if I shared something exciting from the church she cried. It made me uncomfortable sometimes.  One day I came in to visit with her and found her sitting at a small desk with paper and a pen writing something. I asked her what she was writing and she replied that she was writing notes of encouragement back to the members of her church.  Can you imagine that? She refused to allow her stroke and life in a nursing home to quash her desire to minister to the people she cared for at church.
Everyone can show mercy others..,all it takes is deciding to get our hands dirty.  But certain people have the GIFT of mercy.  How would you know if you have this “gift”? Well, someone put together observations they thought would apply to those with the gift of mercy.
• Deeply loyal to friends.
• In fact, they seem to have a need for deep friendships.
• Empathize with hurting people.
• The decisions they make are based on benefits to those in need.
• Deeply sensitive to loved ones.
• Tend to attract people in distress. They’re like a magnet for them.
• Desire to remove hurts from those in need.
• They tend to measure acceptance by the closeness of an individual.
• And oddly, they seem attracted to prophets – prophets are almost polar opposites in their gift.
Weaknesses
• They will tend to take up offenses for friends
A little explanation is necessary here. Jesus teaches us that if someone offends us we need to go and find a way to address that. And, if the offender is a Christian they need to come to us and make it right. Once that is done, the conflict is over. HOWEVER, if I am your friend and I take up your “offense”, I become angry or upset at the person who offended you. But if that person makes it right with you, and I don’t find out about it – I’m still offended for you even though you no longer are. That’s the danger of “taking up offenses” for someone else.
• Can become possessive
• May tolerate evil to avoid hurt or danger
• Can fail to be firm
• Tends to lean on emotions rather than reason in making decision
• They can defraud others
• They can react badly to God’s purposes in others’ lives
• May fail to show deference to those in authority
• Tend to cut off insensitive people.
The gift of mercy is a powerful gift. It reflects that we understand the Mercy God has shown to us.
Years ago Bill Hybels made a comment about that thought:   “I would never want to reach out someday with a soft, uncallused hand – a hand never dirtied by serving – and shake the nail-pierced hand of Jesus.”
Now, why would Hybels make that connection? Why would he link the condition of our hands… with the condition of Christ’s hand?  Because it was in that “nail-pierced hand of Jesus” that we obtained OUR Mercy
Mercy is showing love to people that aren’t all that lovely and desirable.
Mercy is showing love to people who are hard to love.
Mercy is showing love to folks who aren’t attractive/popular/fun to be around
But that’s kind of how we must have looked to God when He saved us. You and I must not have looked all that lovely and desirable God when God touched us.
Colossians 1:21 says that at one time you and I “…were alienated from God and were enemies in (our) minds because of (our) evil behavior.”
Ephesians 2:1-2 says we “… were dead in (our) transgressions and sins, in which (we) used to live when (we) followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”
And that “(we) were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.” Ephesians 2:12
We were not all that pretty and desirable to God.  We were enemies and dead in our sins.  But Romans 5:10 comforts us by saying “… if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”
It’s by the nail scarred hands of Jesus that we have received MERCY.
Jesus came down out of heaven. Do you understand the significance of that? He came down to our world and faced the struggles and pains and temptations that you and I encounter every day. He didn’t have to do that! And when He came down, He touched us when we weren’t touchable. And when He touched us He saved us and changed us.
How do we KNOW when we’ve mastered this concept of showing mercy?
We know we’ve mastered it when it doesn’t matter if we get the credit for what we do. Just as long as God gets the credit.
As Jesus said: “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven”
One church youth group understood this and taught their youth minister a powerful lesson.  David Stone (a preacher from Louisville, KY) related how he used to have a special outing for his youth when he was a youth minister. He’d read about Jesus washing His disciples’ feet and then send them out in groups, for a period of 2 hours, with instructions to minister to the people of Louisville, as they think Christ would have.  One group went out and bought ice cream cones and took them to a retirement community where several of their congregation lived and delivered the dripping cones to their door.  Another group went to a self service gas station and pumped gas for the patrons.  Each group returned and then shared what they had done and there was a spirit of joy and excitement as they realized they had done something for others and for God.  One group, however, arrived about 15 minutes late. When asked what they had done, they replied that they had gone to their arch rivals, the Baptist Church (they competed heavily in church basketball and other activities). They asked what they could do, and so they were allowed to sort the children’s library – which took all of 45 minutes.  Then they asked what else they would be allowed to do.   “Well,” replied the Baptist preacher, “we do have a shut-in that needs her yard raked. She’s needed done for some time now, but we haven’t been able to get anybody over to her home.”   So the youth went, raked her yard, shared in a prayer circle at her request and then she said these words: “I am so glad I belong to the Baptist Church, it’s so nice to know that they care so much for me that you kids would come out and help me.”  At that, Stone exclaimed: “Well, you did tell them you were from 1st Christian, didn’t you.”  “No,” they replied, it never occurred to us. We were just so excited about serving God that we forgot all about that.”
And here is how people who have the 7 gifts listed in Romans 12 might react to a person being in the hospital:
1. The Prophet: “What is God trying to tell you through this illness? Is there some sin you have not confessed yet?”
2. The Server: “Here’s a little gift. I brought your mail in, watered your plants and washed your dishes?”
3. Teacher: “I did some research on your illness and I believe I can explain what’s happening.”
4. Encourager: “You were so wise to go see the Doctor when you did. Can you imagine much worse it would have been if you had waited?”
5. Giver: “Do you have any insurance?”
6. Organizer: “You just relax. I’ve assigned your job to 4 others at the office.”
7. Mercy giver: “Do you need another pillow or blanket? More water? Would you like me to put you on the prayer list?”

When I want to speak let me think first.  Is it true?  Is it kind?  Is it necessary?  If not, let it be left unsaid.
Maltbie Babcock

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?  As many as seven times?”  Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”
Matthew 18:21-22
The English Standard Version

If I had a formula for bypassing trouble I would not pass it around.  Trouble creates a capacity to handle it.  I do not say embrace trouble; that’s as bad as treating it as an enemy.  But I do say meet it as a friend, for, you’ll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it.
Oliver W. Holmes

Today is a slender bridge which will bear its own load, but it will collapse if we add tomorrow’s.  In every year there are 365 letters from the king, each with its own message.  What shall we do with the letters?  Open them a day at a time.  Yesterday’s seal is broken; lay that letter reverently away; yesterday’s cross is laid down, never to be born again.  Tomorrow’s letter lies on the table; do not break the seal.  For when tomorrow becomes today, there will stand beside us an unseen Figure; and His hand will be on our brow, and His gaze will be in our eyes, as He says with a loving smile, “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.”  The golden summary of our life is to be this: as to the past, a record of gratitude; as to the present, a record of service; and as to the future, a record of trust.
D. M. Panton

Honor all people.  Love the brotherhood.  Fear God.  Honor the king.
1 Peter 2:17
The New King James Version

The cross that Jesus commands you and me to carry is the cross of submissive obedience to the will of God, even when His will includes suffering and hardship and things we don’t want to do.
Anne Graham Lotz

“And the name of the city henceforth shall be, The LORD is there.”
Ezekiel 48:35
The Revised Standard Version

Our Lord is the Bread of Life.  His proportions are perfect.  There never was too much or too little of anything about Him.  Feed on Him for a well-balanced ration.  All the vitamins and calories are there.
Vance Havner

The prayer is more important sometimes than the answer.
Mark Savage

Now we can come fearlessly right into God’s presence, assured of his glad welcome when we come with Christ and trust in him.
Ephesians 3:12
The Living Bible

Love is superior to all extraordinary gifts.  It is better than the gift of tongues; than the gifts of prophecy and knowledge; and than the gift of miracles.  All outward works of charity without it are worthless.  Love has this superiority, first, because of its inherent excellence; and secondly, because of its perpetuity.
Charles Hodge

Do not be envious of evil men, Nor desire to be with them; For their heart devises violence, And their lips talk of troublemaking.
Proverbs 24:1-2
The New King James Version

Pray and let God worry.
Martin Luther

SHARING FROM MY HEART
by Eric Elder
The Ranch

Dear Friends,
Today I’m releasing the most surprising book I’ve ever written. It’s simply a living journal of my walk with Christ, written as it was happening. It’s not a book I was planning to write. In fact, I’m working on three other books right now that are really on my heart to share with people. But this book isn’t any one of them!
This book is literally my daily walk with Christ. In it, I share my heart. I share my goals. I share my questions for God and the answers He is giving me. I share my struggles as I’m going through them, not in hindsight, when everything is neat and tidy and finally makes perfect sense to me.
The surprising thing is that I didn’t even know I was writing a book until two or three weeks ago! I was simply writing from my heart every week or so since the beginning of the year and sharing those writings publicly with you. What’s especially surprising is that somehow, this very personal and intimate method of sharing has touched a chord within many of you in a way that seems to be deeper and more heart-stirring than anything I’ve ever written before.
Your responses to these messages–especially the past few weeks–have made me think that you might like to read these messages again and even share them with your family and friends. I would love for you to do that! I’ve just been re-reading all of my messages from the beginning of the year, and each one speaks to me, even now, in a new and fresh way.
So I’ve put them all together in a book: twenty inspiring messages from my own personal well. You might remember some of them: whether it’s how I went about setting my goals at the beginning of the year and had to recalibrate them part-way through; or how God reminded me to keep my feet forward and my knees bent when I came across the boulders in the river of my life; or how I fell in love–and faced the loneliness that followed when things didn’t go as I had hoped and dreamed.
Through it all, I have found God’s presence in a new and deeper way–a new and fresher experience–culminating in my desire to go even deeper with Him than ever before. I didn’t know how to do it, though. But then I found out! (Hint: it involved a super-scary jump from a very high cliff into a rushing river below, with my tether attached firmly to Jesus. And to my surprise, the same moment I jumped, Jesus jumped too, smiling at me all the way down!)
For those of you who are looking for a sermon in this message today, here it is: sometimes people need to hear about the real you and your real walk with Christ, not necessarily the one that is neat and clean and has been tidied up over the years. They want to know how you live your life on a daily basis. Share it with them! Let them know your joys, your trials, your struggles. Let them know your doubts, your fears. In this way, your faith becomes real to them, and they want to jump in and follow along.
Do you know someone in your life right now who could use a boost in their faith in Christ? Do you know someone who would love, love, love to see what it’s like to follow the Living God and discover the joy and peace that He can bring through everything that comes their way? Do you know someone who could use a touch, deep in their heart, to activate them, liberate them, set them free–not just free from sin, but free to do that which is deepest on their heart, that which is at the core of their being, that which is possibly a barely-tapped but ever-present longing of their heart? (Maybe that someone is you?)
If so, maybe you could get a copy of this book for them and for yourself. Maybe you could be the one who could tip the scales in their lives toward something that they would have never considered on their own. Maybe you can be the bearer of the best news ever, bringing them the words of Life–the good news that Christ wants to walk with them every step of the way of this life and in the life to come.
Please know that I’m not offering these books to make money. I have already shared each of these twenty messages with you over the past eight months freely and without cost. You or anyone else in the world can read them any time by scrolling back through the Sunday Sermons on our website (just look for the ones written by Eric Elder starting in January, 2016).  But I also know that some people really want to hold a book in their hands. Some people really want to download an ebook to take along with them through their days, a book that is easy to read, easy to digest, and contains easy-to-implement ideas to help them grow deeper in their relationship with Christ.
As I said before, maybe that person is you! If so, I hope you’ll get a copy of this book for yourself, too! Let’s go deeper with God together! You can get it from Amazon in either paperback of Kindle editions or in paperback directly from our ministry for a donation of any size. I’ve included the links below.
P.S. if you’ve already read and been touched by the messages in this series, I would be happy to send you a free paperback copy of the book if you’ll just post a 1-2 sentence review on Amazon describing how you’ve been touched by the messages. Just mention in your review that you’ve read the messages online and have been touched by them. Your comments and reviews on Amazon could be the very thing that helps someone else decide to get a copy of the book, thereby touching his or her life as yours has been touched! Thanks so much!)
Here are the links:
Click here to get the paperback from Amazon
Click here to get the Kindle ebook from Amazon
Click here to get the paperback for a donation of any size to our ministry
Click here to write a 1-2 sentence review on Amazon (and get a free paperback in return… just send me an email at eric@theranch.org with a link to your review on Amazon, along with your mailing address anywhere in the world, and I’ll send you a copy! Here’s a link to the messages I’ve shared this year to refresh your memory… just look for all the messages written by Eric Elder in the past 8 months as they’re all in the book!)

Have patience.  There is no time that is not God’s time.
Criswell Freeman

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me.  Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.  But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33
The New Living Translation

Joy is love exalted; peace is love in repose; long-suffering is love enduring; gentleness is love in society; goodness is love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love in school; and temperance is love in training.
D. L. Moody