So, have you ever overfilled something? Have you ever overfilled something? Uh, we had a car and, and I was thinking about this, this morning, we may still have this car. I can't remember exactly which car it is, but we've had a car that when you started pumping gas, it would do that thing that most cars do, right? You get to a certain point and when the, the pump is in there and it gets full, it'll click off automatically, you know, so you don't, you know, have, have gas flying all over the place. Well, we had this car that it would click off, but only after it spit some gas out at you. I mean, it was just determined to do it and I remember one day I, I it, it had been doing it for weeks and I'm just standing there and it did it and I just went really, really, really, why, what, why are you doing this? What's the point in you spitting gas at me right now? And then I looked up and realized there was a guy pumping gas next to me and he looked at me talking to my gas tank and just turned the other way. Uh But the reality is it did, it, it just, it would not stop on time, but maybe for you it's, it's not pumping gas. Maybe you overfill the gravy boat at Thanksgiving, you know. Uh Maybe you overfill the bowl of strawberries at the chocolate fountain at your cousin Eddie's wedding reception. Or, or maybe you overfill your cup of coffee on purpose every morning to get as much caffeine as you possibly can. What if there was something that you could fill up on that would do more than just help your car get from point A to point B something you could fill up on. That would be more than just, you know, surviving Thanksgiving meal with your family more than just making it through the wedding reception, more than just getting enough coffee in you so that you can make it to Carline in the morning. What if there was something that you could fill up on that had the actual power to change things at your home, to change things at work, to change things at school, to change things in this church, in this city, in this community, in this country and even on the other side of the world, I mean, that would at least be worth looking at, right. So, so let's do that. We continue our series Navigating Life where we're unpacking the ingredients for making good, healthy, wise decisions. We, we won't make perfect decisions all the time. But, but how can we feed our hearts and our minds with, with what we need the most to make good decisions. We're going to be looking at the Bible at the book of James and James has been giving us some of the ingredients for making healthy wise decisions, decisions that are good for us and decisions that are good for the people around us. And he gives a kind of two for one ingredient in where we're looking this morning. It's the kind of thing that you want to have in your tank. If you need to make decisions and you don't just want to have it in your tank. You kind of want your tank full up. You wanna overfill your tank with this ingredient. So what is that ingredient? Well, let's find out our message today is turning toward full and we'll be looking at James three verse 17 and James says this, but the wisdom from above amongst all the other ingredients is full of mercy. Wisdom from God. God's wisdom. Wisdom from above is wisdom that requires mercy and not just requires mercy as an ingredient, but it says full. You, you have to be full of mercy. You have to be stuffed with mercy. So, are you stuffed with mercy? Well, what is mercy? Well, you could say that mercy could be being kind to someone being considerate, showing compassion, showing pity. And the movie Rocky three, Rocky Balboa. Played by Sylvester Stallone was fighting. Clubber Lang, played by Mr T. And at one point in the movie, Clubber Lang was being interviewed right before the fight and this is what he said in the interview, I don't hate Balboa, but I pity the fool. Well, well, that phrase became immediately popular. In fact, Mr T actually owns the trademark on, I pity the fool so you can't use it without giving Mr T some retirement money and see how he puts it. Well, about seven years ago, he was in an interview and somebody asked him, well, how did you come up with that phrase? This is what he said. When you pity someone, you're showing them mercy. I didn't start this pity stuff. It was in the Bible. A lot of guys in the Bible were asking for pity and then a lot of them were saying I did a foolish act. So I put them together. Now when you woke up this morning, I'm pretty sure you didn't think you were going to hear theology from Mr T, you know, could be wrong. But I'm, I'm thinking that wasn't crossing your mind. But you know what? He hit the nail on the head. This word that James uses for mercy is a word that means you're, you are showing pity. You are showing kindness to someone that doesn't deserve it. See, when we hear kindness, compassion, pity, we think of, ok. Well, I've got to be kind to the, you know, to the homeless person or the destitute person and we absolutely should be kind to the homeless and destitute the down and outers, so to speak. However, we're also, as my friend, Quincy used to say we're supposed to be kind and mercyful to the up and outers, the people in the middle class world, the upper class world, the blue collar workers, the, the white collar workers, people that do dumb, stupid, foolish, sinful things. People like me and you, this word means that we're supposed to show mercy and pity and kindness to people who do things on purpose and people who have things happen to them that have nothing to do with them. In other words, this mercy from above, it doesn't say, well, it's her own fault. I mean, you've seen how she's been living, it doesn't say well, he brought this on himself. And if we're honest, we, we say that more often than maybe we want to admit. But that's not the, the mercy, the wisdom from above mercy from above fights, the good fight to say in that moment. Can I be kind? Is there a way for me to be kind when I'm in traffic? Is there a way for me to be kind right now and, and to be considerate and, and mercyful? Is there a way when I'm at home in an argument with my spouse? An argument with my parents or an argument with my kids. Is there a way for me to be kind and, and mercyful? Is there a way when, when people bump into us in the hallways at church or at work at school that we can find some ways to be kind instead of just being sarcastic because, you know, most people I know are having a really hard life right now. If you're having an easy life, we would love for you to help us. In other words, being mercyful means kinda an all the time thing. It means being kind and compassionate, showing pity in most of the moments of life. And here's why we don't do it and, and we don't always ok, we, we, we don't always pull off mercy. You know, we, we're not always showing kindness. We don't always give pity. And the reason why is because we're sinful and selfish. We are all of us. You know, we're, we're just sinful and selfish. It just happens. And that's, that's one reason why we don't always show mercy. But another reason we don't always show mercy is sometimes the mercy we need to show is uncomfortable. You see sometimes accountability is mercy. Sometimes tough love is mercy. Sometimes ignoring complaints is mercy and, and those types of mercy, they're usually not the kind of mercy that people are looking for. If a young child is, is reaching up to touch a hot grill, a parent yelling, stop and grabbing their hand. That's, that's mercy. In this world of, of cancel culture, whether it's education or, or politics or, or church or just a sports, pretty much any area of life where now the norm is if someone complains, if someone criticizes, if someone has a different opinion, then everything has to stop at home and government and church and school and work wherever we are. And we have to bow down to the other person's opinion and the other criticism that sometimes if we look at it with wisdom from above, sometimes in that moment, we just say no, no, we don't say it mean we don't say it like an arrogant jerk or jerk it. But sometimes we just say, you know what the answer is. No, but that didn't feel like mercy, right? That I didn't feel like what we think about mercy. So when we say fighting the good fight, what we're saying is sometimes we have to fight the good fight of showing mercy when we don't want to, the other person doesn't deserve it. It's, it's the very nature of biblical God centered wisdom and mercy from above. They don't deserve it. And so we don't wanna give it. It's easier for us to say what's it's their own fault. So showing mercy, sometimes we don't do it because we just don't want to. So we have to fight the good fight of showing mercy. It's not enough for us to say, well, I'm just bad at that. And as Christians, we also can't say, well, I mean, we're not going to do that all the time. Doesn't matter. The call from heaven to the life of a believer. The wisdom from above says fight the good fight and, and show mercy and fight through the selfishness. We also have to fight the good fight of showing mercy because sometimes the mercy we have to show is not the mercy people want. It's not what they're looking for, what they're desiring. But to be clear, showing mercy is not weakness, showing mercy doesn't mean that you're soft or that you're a pushover. In fact, it's the exact opposite. But if we look at how mercy is usually used in the world, we, we see that it's, it's seen as weakness. It's the old karate kid Cobra Kai Mantra, right? Strike first strike hard. No me sweep the leg. Johnny. You know, I mean that's, that's what our culture says. No, no mercy, you know, no mercy. I guess that's ok for a temporary karate match. But it's not wisdom from above it. It's not the ultimate wisdom. It's not the the wisest wisdom because the wisdom from above is full of mercy. It's full of compassion, it's full of pity. It's, it's stuffed with those things. So are you stuffed with mercy? And why should you be? Well, you should be because of what happened for six hours. One Friday. You see when Jesus Christ was crucified it, it wasn't an accident. He was born to be crucified. Jesus wasn't born to, to grow up and grow old and die of old age or cancer or tragic accident in a stable in Bethlehem. He was born and in that moment, he was born to be crucified for the penalty of my sin and your sin. It was always the plan. There was never a different plan and so Jesus absorbed the penalty of sin. He died for all of us in this room, died for everybody in Israel and everybody in Indiana, he died for, for every person, past present and future. He died to make a way for our souls to be satisfied. Why do we work hard? Why do we play hard? Why we love the weekend? Why do we go on vacations? Why do we build things? Why do we fix things? Why do we buy things? Why do we decorate for holidays? Well, we do those things because we've been created. It's like inside of us. We desire beauty majesty, empowering and, and all the things that we think will, will satisfy us. It's, it's why we watch so many superhero movies, right? I mean, it's, it's like, boom. Wow. And there's a good guy and there's a bad guy and everything comes together at the end. You know, we do these things because we have a desire for majesty. We have a desire for beauty. We have a desire to be satisfied deep down inside of us. We want joy, we want happiness, we want to be satisfied. But no matter how much we enjoy the things in this world, no matter how much we travel, no matter how many vacations we take, no matter how much great food we eat, no matter how wonderfully we decorate for a holiday. There is nothing in this world that will ultimately satisfy our souls. We can't be satisfied. The only way that we can be ultimately satisfied is found in one word and that word, the safe six, the only way we can truly be ultimately satisfied, deeply in the deepest part of who we are is to know that we are safe. And the most ultimate safety is to be right this guy that that's the most ultimate safety. It's the only safety that lasts when every nation and every country and every planet crumbles. It's, it's safety with God that never changes. It is perfect. It is guaranteed through Jesus. It never ends. So how can a person be right with God? About 30 years after Jesus was crucified. We have this interesting story and it's a story that that Paul was, was writing out for a church in a place called Ephesus. And he was trying to paint the picture of the story of what it means to be dead in Christ and what it means to be alive in Christ, what it means to be right with God and what it means to be not right with God. And the language he uses is, is some of the most beautiful language in the Bible. This is what Paul wrote. Ephesians chapter two and you were dead in your offenses, your sins, your trespasses your transgressions and you were by nature, Children of wrath just to the rest. But God being rich in mercy, what we don't deserve but God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us. Even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, in our sin made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have been saved. Baptism this morning was a celebrating the moment when Janet and Lucy and Jamison and trace were no longer dead but alive in Christ. This is what God does because of His great love, but he doesn't just make us alive. Verse six of Ephesians two and raised us up with him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that in the ages to come, not the next five years, not the next 10 years, but 10,000 years from today. What will be happening in your life? If you are in Christ? The Bible says that God will be showing you the boundless riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, that is safety, that cannot be touched. Then Paul goes on for by grace, you have been saved through faith and this is not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not a result of work so that no 1 may boast. The only way, the only way to be truly, emotionally, spiritually, deeply, ultimately safe is to be made alive together with Christ by grace. We are saved through faith that is safety. And how does it happen? Listen again to what Paul said that God being rich in mercy made us alive together with Christ. It's the rich mercy of God that makes all of this happen. It's not because I'm a pretty decent kid who had decent parents and they took me to church and I was an ok athlete and made decent grades and, and I like my team and I was kind to my friends and I washed my car every week. No, that's, that's not why I'm right with God. I'm not right with God because I'm an American. I'm not right with God because I'm a South Carolinian. I'm not right with God because I'm a baptist. I'm right with God because he made a dead kid alive. That that's what the gospel does. And if you're a Christian, that's your story. It is not of yourself. It is of the grace and mercy and power and authority of God and that mercy. When we receive that mercy, you know what we do, we show mercy not perfectly because none of us are perfect. But when we've received the mercy of God, when we realize we're safe, we're saved and safe. Then, then we'll show the mercy that we've received. I, I mean, s think safe, safe, no matter what safe, no matter what's happening in Israel, safe, no matter what's happening in Indiana. Safe, no matter what happens at work or home or school or the, or the hospital or in the voting booth safe, no matter what, that's what it means to be in Christ Jesus, that's what it means to be made alive in Jesus. And all of that happens because of the rich mercy, the rich compassion, the rich pity of God. God pitied the fools, all of us and he sent Jesus to change the story. But what does that have to do with the crucifixion of Jesus? And what does that have to do with making decisions? What, what does the crucifixion of Jesus have to do with us making decisions in life? Well, it's because the cross wasn't an accident. The mercy of God wasn't an accident. It was always the plan. It was always the plan, every single millisecond, it was always the plan from the cross knowing that every single millisecond of what was going on was predetermined by the grace and mercy of God. What did Jesus say? Luke 23 34 father, forgive them for, they do not know what they were doing. Jesus showed mercy to his murderers. And if we're honest, we don't like it. We like it with Jesus. It's cute and fun. Religion. Oh, well, that's, I'm glad Jesus was mercyful to his murderers. But that guy just cut me off in traffic. I ain't being mercyful to him. You know, my boss just made me make the work the weekend. I, I'm not being mercyful to him. My spouse is driving me up the wall. I'm, I'm not being mercyful to them. My kids are pushing me over the edge. I'm not, I'm not being mercyful to them. My parents won't let me do anything. I'm not being mercyful to them. That that's how we think and it's ok for us to be honest with that. But we also have to be honest with this. If we're following Jesus, we can't say that's ok. We can't, we, we have to say it's sin doesn't mean we're going to be perfect tomorrow. But, but we have to say it's a sin because the wisdom from above says, be mercyful, show mercy, show pity, show compassion. The rich mercy of God is the only way for us to see safety. So when Jesus said, forgive them, father, what Jesus was doing was he was speaking because he understood he was safe because he actually was and is the mercy of God. The mercy of God is most perfectly seen in the person of Jesus Christ. So the rich mercy of God in Jesus is the only way to truly be safe. And if we've received that mercy, we will show that mercy again. Is that easy to do. No. Uh uh go ahead. Just who, who are those one or two people in your life right now, you're having a hard time showing mercy to. We all got them. We do it. It's, it's not easy, but we all have at least one, maybe two that it's, it's just hard to show mercy and pity and compassion. It's not easy, but it's wise and it's wisdom from above. We said earlier, this is a kind of a two in one ingredient. So what's the second part? Listen to verse 17. But the wisdom from above is full of mercy and good fruits. That word good here just means that it's beneficial to other people that, that there is something in the, the picture of true wisdom that looks for ways to help other people that they're fighting the good fight of, of being considered, of being kind and helping other people, whether they deserve it or not. This kind of echoes back to what James says one chapter before this in James 2 14. He says this, what use is it? My brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but he has no words in others. What uses it for us to say? Well, yeah, I'm a Christian. I follow Jesus Christ, but there's no mercy like it's, it's not seen. The wisdom of above says, well, if you've received mercy, you'll, you'll show mercy. The fruit of mercy will be seen in your life. It may not be, you know, perfect fruit that shines all the time. But it, but it's there like it's there. So again, are you full of mercy? Are you stuffed with mercy? If so it, it'll show, you know, there'll, there'll be some, some siding of, of mercy in our lives if we're truly following Jesus and, and I think if we would basically read through the gospels, we would see if there is no mercy in our life. It seems that we're not following Jesus. That doesn't mean we're perfect because we're not, we're, we're not always going to show mercy in the moments that we have. But, but if we've received the mercy of God and, and again, let's just be super real about this. If we've received the mercy of God that came through the blood of Jesus, can we really be OK? Saying I'm not that mercyful. I, I don't show mercy very well. It's the blood of Jesus, but the blood of Jesus, see, we deserve justice and we don't like saying this. We don't like hearing it, but we deserve justice and justice because our hearts are a little too proud to hear. Even after we're in Christ, justice is not only are we dead in our sins before we become Christians, but justice is we deserve to die in our sin. That's justice. But if you're a follower of Jesus, Christ, Jesus received your justice, he absorbed the justice and you receive mercy in turn. So if you've received that mercy, that means you get mercy. That means you got mercy. That means mercy will keep you safe and mercy will lead you home. And if that's true, then show mercy. We, we, we should be people who are full and stuffed of mercy. You know why? Because we need to be full and stuffed with mercy because we're not prone to show it very often. One day, a religious lawyer came up to Jesus and he said, well, what do I have to do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, well, how does God's law read to you? And the lawyer said, well, it reads like this, that you're supposed to love God first and most with, with all of your heart and soul and mind and strength and, and love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself. And Jesus affirmed him, he says, that's the right answer, but it wasn't the right answer for the lawyer. He didn't like it. So he had to take it a step further. Well, Jesus, who, who's my neighbor so love God? Ok. But love my neigh well, who's my neighbor? And Jesus told him a parable told him a story. He said, there was a man who was, who was beaten and left for dead on the side of the road by some robbers. And there were two religious people that walked by le let's just, let's just you know, make this a little real force. There was two members of Holland Avenue Baptist Church that walked by and they just looked at him and kept walking. They, they didn't, they didn't stop and help and then just to keep it local for us, then you know, some crazy whack liberal from California walked by and, and they stopped and spent time and energy and money helping that man caring for that man. And Jesus said, which of the three people do you think showed mercy? And the lawyer said the last, the last person in the store, they, they showed mercy. And Jesus said, OK, go and do that. Go and go and be mercyful. Go, go do that with your life. Is the fruit of mercy seen in our lives. It is the, the fruit of knowing that we've received mercy from God. Is it, is it seen in our lives? And, and maybe to put it another way, if you were to interview the people in your life, if you interview your spouse, interview your kids, interview the people that you work with. The, the people that you hang out with on the weekends, the people you go to church with whoever it may be. If you were to interview the people that are around your life, the most would they say you're the kind of person that creates misery or relieves misery? Are you the kind of person that, that, that gives mercy or expects mercy. You know, the idea of mercy is not real popular right now, mostly because I think it's poorly defined in our minds because the scene is, is weak and now you're just giving to people, which again is not. If so then, you know, God gave to a lot of people. So mercy is not weakness. It's not, it's not soft, it's not powerless, it's actually powerful and, and it may not be a popular thing right now across the other side of the world or, or in our government or in our homes or wherever we may be, the, this notion of, of showing mercy may not be real popular, but it's wisdom and it's wisdom from above and we could do a little bit of math since we're not seeing a whole lot of mercy. How's it going for us? Ho how's not showing mercy working out in DC? How's not showing mercy working out in, in our families and, and in churches and in other places, I saw a quote this week that said mercy just might make America great. But I can tell you all this other stuff that's going on, it won't. So as Christians, we need to be really, really wise about which bandwagons we jump on because ultimately, we have one bandwagon and that bandwagon rules the world with truth and grace and has created safety for us for all eternity. So we can trust the wisdom of God. It may not feel good in the moment. We, we will fight against it and we may try to explain it away, but it is wisdom from above. So are we full of mercy? Are we stuffed with mercy? Eric Raymond had a great wife, a wonderful son, pretty decent job in the Air force. But he said he was not happy like he just, he felt desperately unhappy. This is what he said. I wish life would end. But I was so scared to die. You know, I meet a lot of people of all ages and backgrounds. And I would say 10 years ago, I didn't hear that a whole lot. But 10 years later, I, I hear a lot people that are just like man, I, nothing I do is enough. I just, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just, I'm just spinning my wheels and believers going, I just, I'd rather be with Jesus. That's noble. It's not wrong. But, but this is a very real feeling. I wish life would end. But I was so scared to die. And then he said this, the persistent guilt of sin was to say the least unbearable. I was miserable. So he understood sin as a non-christian. He he got it. And I just say that to point out the atheist understands sin. They're just suppressing the reality of it. We, we all understand sin. And then one day a guy named John started talking to Eric at work and he started talking to him about Jesus and he had a little pocket Bible and they started looking at some passages that day and, and he gave the little pocket Bible to Eric and Eric. He, he began to see this, this picture of what he needed. He, he knew that his sin was great that he was a sinner in need of mercy, in need of something he didn't deserve in need of the compassion and the kindness and the pity of God. And he knew he couldn't find that in other people. He knew he needed God's mercy, that only God's mercy was going to work. And he turned from his sin and, and turned to Jesus begin to follow Jesus and his wife Christy. She wasn't a Christian either and, and he went home and when he walked in, he said, hey, I, I've got a big announcement and so Christy comes running out from the other room. What, what is it, what, what's going on, what's going on? And he said, you know, looking back, I'm sure she probably thought, oh man, II, I just got an Air Force promotion or we're getting transferred to Hawaii. Yes, this is great. Come on, tell me and Eric looked at her and he said this, did you know that Jesus died to take away all of my sin? And he said, she looked really disappointed and kind of underwhelming said, yeah, I mean, everybody knows that, but Eric said, I wouldn't let her go. He said, so I just, I just kept saying it. Did, did you know that Jesus died to take away all of my sin sweetie? Did you know that Jesus died to take away all of my sin? Did you know that Jesus died to take away all of my sin? And he said, over time by God's grace, Christy started repeating that with him and she started following Jesus as well. 10 years later on an October day, just like this, Eric was reading his Bible and he came across first Peter chapter one verse three, which says this blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy, what we don't deserve has caused us to be born again. And Eric said it was like he was hearing it for the first time. 10 years later, he became overwhelmed that God's mercy had found him. That God's mercy had had changed him. And he said 10 years later that that truth was still strong and powerful and beautiful and majestic. And he said this, his mercy is great because my sin is great. And Jesus Christ, my savior is indeed great. The mercy of God is great through Jesus Christ. It's great. So have you received that rich, deep, wonderful, great mercy of God? If we have, then let us show mercy, we, we won't do it perfectly. But let's take a shot at it. Because of the blood of Jesus. Let's let's take a shot at. It won't be easy, but it is wise. It is wisdom from above. So for all the decisions you face this week and you face next month and you face for the next 10 years of life. Don't let go, don't, don't let go. Keep, keep holding on to the truth of the gospel. Keep being utterly amazed at the mercy of God and receive that mercy and show mercy. I think Eric's question. It is fantastic. Did you know that Jesus died to take away all your sins? Do you need to go hold your spouse and say that you need to go hold your kids and say that you gotta hold your parents and say that. Did you know that Jesus Christ died to take away all of your sin? That's worse.