A Balanced Testimony & Judgement

Over the last few weeks, we've been looking at different aspects of the ministry of mercy.

It's been a little bit like looking at a beautiful diamond that has different facets and different sides to that diamond,

each showing something really very beautiful and each side essential for the whole diamond to be what it is.

And today is no different.

We're going to look at another side of the ministries of mercy that is essential for us to tackle and to understand.

Now, hopefully so far, you have gotten a handle on the fact that as Christians,

we are to be involved in helping the poor, the marginalised, the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, the immigrant.

It's mandated that we do that.

We have seen this by looking at the call of mercy, at the character of mercy.

Last week, we looked at the motivation of mercy.

And yet there's another facet that might have been niggling at you, at your heart and mind, right from the very beginning.

And that is, how do I determine who I help and how do I help them?

Now, I'm pretty sure if I took a survey of everybody here, we would get very, very different answers to that question of who do I help and how do I help?

Now, depending on your family background and your view of helping people, how you've been brought up,

depending on your theology and what you think is the place of evangelism,

whether evangelism was presented as the number one thing that we have to concentrate all efforts on as a church,

depending on your personal views as to whether a person deserves help or doesn't deserve help,

will depend on your personal efforts of how you might show mercy.

All of these will influence how you respond.

I mentioned all of this might be niggling at your heart and mind,

and that is a good thing if it has been,

because both need to be engaged in the area of mercy ministry.

It isn't easy to determine who we help.

Now, we saw in the parable of the Good Samaritan that we need to love our neighbours.

I think that we're getting there.

We put it in front of you all the time that we need to love our neighbours.

But the Samaritan really went way beyond his comfort zone, didn't he?

He actually got his hands dirty, we might say.

He sacrificed time.

He sacrificed his own personal safety, his own money.

He looked after the medical, the social, the financial needs of the chap on the road.

Did he expect to get something in return?

No, he didn't.

Did he place conditions on whether he would help or not help?

No, he didn't.

He saw a need and he had the resources to help that need.

Now, obviously, we might have limitations on what our resources are.

We might not be able to do exactly what the Samaritan did.

But that is no excuse for not helping those in need.

I was brought up with a very negative view about helping the poor and the marginalised.

Only some, this is what I was taught, only some deserved a coin or two into a charity box, but definitely not all.

I was brought up to believe that charity starts at home and that there are many who are in a destitute situation,

but they're there because they chose to be there and so we leave them alone.

The really strange part of all of that in having that upbringing is that our family, my family,

were recipients of the mercy of neighbours.

When my parents, who had gambled money away and had no money to feed four children,

the neighbours actually showed mercy to us by giving us money for bread and for milk.

So there is a weirdness that in my upbringing of don't help but receive it.

Now, Scripture does tell us that we do need to look after our families first.

In 1 Timothy 5, it says,

Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.

But if a widow has children or grandchildren,

they should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family

and so repaying their parents and grandparents for this is pleasing to God.

Might I mention, that's actually what Candida is doing.

So there is a condition in Scripture that we do support our family first.

But the Scripture, there's another condition that Scripture puts on us

and that is that we need to work.

That's a mandate that has been given.

And the fourth commandment says,

Six days shall you labour and then we rest on the seventh day.

There's an expectation that we work.

Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3,

If a man will not work, he shall not eat.

That particular verse is about just continues not to work,

does not have any desire to work.

And he has no incentive to actually make a living for himself.

And the thing is, I mean, I knew a person who failed to work

because he was given a financial allowance.

He was given housing actually also.

He was given housing, very lovely housing.

He was also given financial assistance every week.

And so there was no desire for him to go and work.

Why would you work when you're living in a very plush house

and you're being given an allowance?

There are no bills to pay.

Why would you not work?

This wasn't actually mercy in that scenario.

What it was, was foolishness.

It was foolishness on behalf of the person

who was giving the financial allowance

with no expectation of doing anything, any work.

And it was foolishness on behalf of the person receiving the money

because he was just taking the easy road out.

Now, we can only understand the seeming contradictions in Scripture

about there are some conditions that are given

on how, what people have to do.

And yet we look at the Good Samaritan

and that was totally unconditional.

And so we've got this contradiction that is happening.

But we need to actually look at the grace and the mercy of God

to understand and put those two into some form of balance.

God's mercy to us, we've already said,

was totally unconditional.

We had no desire for God of our own being.

We were enemies of God,

and yet God loved us and reached out to us.

That's what the Romans 3 passage is saying.

There was nothing in our words, in our eyes, in our deeds,

nothing we did deserve God's love.

And yet he still loved us unconditionally.

God's mercy comes to us freely and without condition,

and yet it proceeds, it moves forward with some conditions

because we need to grow.

Once we receive this mercy and love from God,

God is wanting us to grow.

He doesn't want to keep us in the condition

that he has found us in.

He therefore demands us to cooperate

with the mercy that he's actually given us.

This, you will know, is called sanctification,

if you want a big word to give it.

But we grow day by day to be more and more Christ-like

until Jesus returns.

We never arrive at that position until Jesus returns.

But we are active in that process.

We gather for worship together like we're doing today.

We read our Bible, we pray, we serve,

we encourage each other.

We are very active in moving forward in the process

once we've received love and mercy.

So too it is with showing mercy.

The goal isn't to provide spot relief or stop suffering.

Our real purpose must be to restore the whole person.

Mercy must have the purpose of seeing God's lordship realised

in the lives of those that we help.

Scripture supports this principle of restoration.

In Deuteronomy 15, we read,

If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman,

sells himself to you and serves you six years,

in the seventh year you must let him go.

And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed.

Supply him liberally from your flock,

your threshing floor, threshing floor,

and your winepress.

Give to him as the Lord your God has blessed you.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt

and the Lord your God redeemed you.

That is why I give you this command today.

For us today, we don't have slaves,

but this might mean something like

we provide for those that we are actually helping

or where we are putting our money,

something like counselling or encouragement or education,

or it might be job training,

or it might be grants to start a little business for somebody

so that they can move out of the scenario that they're in.

All these are ways in which we can help and develop the poor.

Our mercy must have as its goal

the rehabilitation of the whole person.

Now, working here at the church office,

we often get people who come asking for money.

Generally speaking, the money is for train tickets,

and so it's just a little bit of money

that people wish to actually collect from us.

Now, over the years, and I've been here a long time now,

over the years, we've done lots of different things.

We have actually given the train ticket money sometimes.

Other times, we've gone down to the station and bought tickets,

and I remember ever so clearly one woman,

I walked down to the station and I bought the ticket,

and she was furious with me that I bought her a train ticket.

So that didn't go down so well, that situation.

And Dave Lawrence, who used to be on our team,

the general manager for St Paul's at one stage,

there was one chap who would regularly come here to St Paul's.

His name was Mark.

And over time, we did give him little bits of money.

And so Dave decided that what would be a really good thing to do

is to spend more time with Mark.

So he would spend time with Mark.

He'd chat to him.

Sometimes he'd read God's word to him.

He prayed with him.

And he said to him, because Mark always said,

I'm wanting to get a job.

And so in the end, Dave decided that what would be a really good idea

is to give him some odd jobs around here, just little jobs.

And then he would give him his train ticket money,

and that would actually be a great thing to do.

It's happened once, and we never saw Mark again.

You see, many people are rebellious against what the Lord wants,

and of their own volition, they will stop asking or stop coming

if we are not giving in the way that they are wanting.

So that's actually very tricky,

but it was the right thing that Dave actually did, I believe,

to try and put worth into this chap who didn't wish for that to happen.

So we must give mercy, and we give it unconditionally.

That is what we keep repeating.

But eventually, we have to call the whole person to Christ.

This might take a long time to do that,

to get to the point where we can share the gospel with somebody.

But it is our aim in showing love to our neighbour.

That must always be the overarching.

Paul actually mentioned it with Anglicare,

that that's the overall arching aim.

You see, if we truly understand the gospel,

we will know that Jesus is going to return,

and there is a heaven, and there is a hell.

And when we die, there is only two choices, heaven or hell.

So if we are actually only giving a Band-Aid solution

to help somebody that is not going to actually speak life words

of salvation and the gospel into a person,

then we are not loving them at all.

Really hard thing.

But we want to actually think of the bigger picture.

More thought needs to go into any situation that we come across.

And that's where our mind has to come into it.

There are times when we may need to stop giving aid.

So it's not an unending task.

We can cut off aid if it is unmerciful to continue.

Sometimes a person needs to feel the full consequences

of his own irresponsible actions, if there are some.

I would call this tough love.

It's more loving to stop than to continue.

Sometimes the mercy needs to be withdrawn,

and we set new guidelines.

Maybe you can talk to, if it's an individual that you're talking to,

talk to a person and try and encourage them

to actually change their position.

Maybe do something that is going to move them

towards changing their position, taking some responsibility.

And until such times they take some responsibility,

that's when you can actually assist again.

But you might continue to meet with them, to pray with them.

You might meet with them and just chat with them

and be a listening ear.

But sometimes withdrawing aid is a good thing

and a right thing to do.

We had a situation of a pastor friend in the Philippines one time

when we were over there on mission,

and the pastor was very poor.

I have to say most pastors in the Philippines are poor.

But he was very poor.

He had children.

He wasn't succeeding in feeding his children,

and yet he was trying to grow a church as well.

So we decided that we would actually send him a bit of money.

Now, $20 to us is not much,

but in the Philippines it's a massive amount of money.

And so we sent some money over.

I can't remember how much.

And that was specifically for him to look after his family.

And then a little while later we get an email to say,

with the money that you sent, praise God,

I was able to go and get a loan and buy a motorbike

because in the Philippines for a pastor to have a motorbike,

it's very prestigious.

And it looks as if you've arrived, so to speak.

I've been up to buy a motorbike, get a loan, get a motorbike,

but unfortunately I'm unable to pay the repayments.

Can you send some more money so that we can pay,

you know, sort of to pay the repayments?

Well, of course, I got the job of contacting this particular pastor

to say that money was to feed your family

because your first call from God is to actually feed your family,

to look after your family first.

And so the money that we are sending will be stopped

and you need to take that motorbike back to whoever you bought it from

and until such times we know that has happened,

there will be no more support.

Now, that was a tough thing to do, but that was tough love.

That actually had to happen because even then his family were not being cared for.

That is not unusual, I have to say, unfortunately.

Now, the Bible is very, very clear about the different causes of poverty

and we need to get a handle on this so that we don't make a mistake

in making different assumptions.

One cause of poverty is oppression or injustice

and there's lots of Bible verses that go with all of this.

But oppression is any social condition or unfair treatment

that brings or keeps somebody in poverty.

It also includes, oppression includes delaying wages

or giving unjust low wages

or it might be a court or a government system

that is weighted towards the wealthy

and the Australian government is in question at this moment in time

in exactly that sort of thing.

Or it might be high interest loans that are an example of oppression.

Number two, cause is natural disaster or calamity.

Scripture shares many of those things.

It might be crop failures, especially with our farmers.

It might be disabling injuries.

It might be victimisation by criminals.

It might be floods, storms, fires.

All of those sorts of things are natural things

that can come upon a family or a person

and they have had nothing to do with all those things happening.

And the third, poverty can be caused by personal sin.

It might be a life of laziness.

It might be problems with self-discipline.

It might be expensive tastes and luxury seeking

can be a reason for economic trouble.

Now, it's important to see the differences

within these three categories

so that you do not treat all situations the same.

It's equally important to see that many situations

may encounter all three together.

You do not want to be trapped

into thinking that all poor are oppressed

and therefore you don't see the importance

of setting any conditions on caring and showing mercy.

But equally, you don't actually want to think

that all poor are irresponsible

because that's not right either.

If we're to help, then we need to try and understand

what the root cause of any situation is

and discern what is really needed.

What is needed?

Is it food?

Is it money?

Is it counselling?

Is it education?

Various types of aids?

Is it respect?

Is it loving concern?

Or maybe it's just a listening ear.

Now, in community groups this week,

I'll give you a number of case studies

for you to examine

and for you to determine

what type of help would be needed

in these case studies.

And I didn't bring it up,

but in this month's Eternity magazine,

there is a fabulous example

of a woman who was living in a car

and she was shown mercy

and just the transformation in that woman's life.

It's a great article.

So it's out in the atrium if you wish to get it.

What we need to remember in all of this

is that grace is free,

but it's not cheap.

Grace costs Jesus his life.

Grace comes to the undeserving,

you and me and everybody else,

but its goal is to intercept

self-destructive behaviour.

Our love is not mere sentiment.

It is active and it longs to bring about healing

and change in the lives of the recipient

under the kingship of Jesus.

Nothing less will satisfy it.

Matthew 5.16 says,

In the same way,

let your light shine before men

that they may see your good deeds

and praise your Father in heaven.

Mercy has impact.

It melts hearts.

It removes objections.

It forces respect out of those

who are even hostile to the gospel.

By this all men will know

that you are my disciples

if you love one another.

The ministry of mercy

within the Christian community

is perhaps the most startling

display of love for one another

that is seen by the world.

The Roman Emperor Julian

tried in the fourth century

to revive paganism

because paganism was dying

because of the spread of Christianity.

And as part of his plan,

he ordered that hospices,

hospitals for want of another word,

must be established in every town

to help the poor and give relief.

He said,

it is disgraceful

that while impious Galileans,

that is the Christians,

it's disgraceful

that the Christians

support their own poor

and they support ours as well.

All men see

that they lack aid from us,

he says.

So he wanted more hospitals set up.

Christians in the early church,

they were promiscuous.

I never thought I'd say that word in here

and think it was a good thing.

But Christians were promiscuous

with their charity

and the world paid attention.

Can that be said of us today?

Let's return to the comment

about ministry of the word and deed.

It is inappropriate

to ask whether evangelism

or social concern

is more important.

They go together

and should not be divided.

They are both necessary ministries.

Jesus went everywhere teaching and healing.

He came to speak

and to serve.

So the church is gifted

to both speak and to serve.

In 1 Peter it says,

if anyone speaks

he should do it

as one speaking

the very words of God.

If anyone serves

he must do it

with the strength God provides

so that in all things

God may be praised

through Jesus Christ.

There are many, many different

there are many different

points of view

when we come to word

and deed ministry.

And all of us

will fit into

one or a couple

of these mixing.

Peter Wagner discerns

that there are five views

concerning whether

you do word or deed

or evangelism

and social concern.

One is

number A

teaches that

the ministry of mercy

and social justice

is the only

legitimate function

of the church.

B

holds that

social concern

is the most

important function

but evangelism

is part of the mission

so we have to do

a bit of that on the side.

C

social concern

and evangelism

go hand in hand

and deed and word

are absolutely

equal

in importance.

D

evangelism

is the

primary function

of the church

and the ministry

of deed

is a ministry

but it's secondary.

So let's put it

to the side.

And E

states flatly

that social concern

is not the job

of the church

at all

in the world.

We carry on

only the ministry

of the word.

Now

all churches

will fit into

one of them

or

they might

mix over

sometimes.

Even we

as individuals

if I really

pushed you

you will have

a view

of which one

you think

is right.

So let me

repeat

it is inappropriate

to ask

whether evangelism

or social concern

is more important.

They constitute

a whole

that should

not be

divided.

Remember

deed ministry

like grace

ministry

is unmerited

favour.

Our motive

for any

ministry

must

always

be love.

Where does

that leave

us then

when thinking

as a church

and as

individuals?

Well

God

commands

both

mercy

ministry

and word

ministry.

They

are not

options

my friends.

Both

evangelism

and mercy

ministry

both

we are

commanded

as individuals

and we are

commanded

as a church

to be involved

in both.

You might

like to

question

if you

are doing

both of

them.

We cannot

get away

with saying

that we

can't afford

to help

the poor

because Paul

says in

Ephesians 4

28

we work

so that we

have something

to share

with those

in need.

Now

our work

and our

pay packet

surprisingly

is not

for us

to plan

holidays

build

houses

and do

extensions

and buy

lovely

material

possessions

first.

That is

not why

we get

a pay

packet.

It's

fascinating

I found

it fascinating

that the

Bible even

addresses this.

It is to

support

our families

first

give to

our local

church

and to

support

the needy

and after

we've done

those three

then luxuries

like holidays

and material

possessions

come into

play.

Now

we just

might need

to adjust

our personal

giving

so that it

is in

better

biblical

priority

because

that's not

Debbie Gould

just speaking

that is

what the

Bible says

the order

of how

money should

be used.

And we

must do

the same

as a

church

with what

we support

in the

way that

we minister.

We must

see that

word and

deed are

inextricably

united and

inseparable.

We must

minister to

the whole

person and

depending on

the situation

at hand

it might

be meeting

needs first

and word

later.

Who knows?

Every

circumstance

must be

treated on

its own

base and

merit and

there is no

set pattern

in how we

do this

and that's

what makes

it so

tricky.

But we

must be

doing it.

You may

need to

reconsider

or do

some

exploring

into the

ministries

that you

might already

be supporting

to see

where they

fit with

deed and

word.

You may

also like

to think

long and

hard as

to what

you support

and how

you support

a need

ministry.

We've

mentioned

before our

mission giving

this month

is for

ropes crossing

and whatever

is over

the $10,000

mark will

go towards

grace ministry

and ESL

ministry.

These

ministries

are desiring

to combine

deed and

word in

different ways

and in

different timing

ministries

are all

about.

It fits

the mandate

that God

has given

us.

And you

might also

be thinking

I cannot

help every

person that

I see

who is in

need.

Well guess

what?

You don't

have to.

God

actually says

go and

preach the

good news

to every

person in

the world.

Do we

do that?

No because

it's impossible

for us to

do that.

But we

can do a

little bit

in how

we show

mercy.

What we

are to

have is

to have

a heart

after mercy

to help

where we

can and

to be

purposeful

in what

we say

and do.

That is

you cannot

feed every

homeless

person that

you might

pass by

on the

street.

But you

might be

able to

help one

of them.

You might

be able to

maybe give

a little bit

of money or

maybe give

a salad

sandwich.

You might

be able to

say hi

one day

and the

next day

make eye

contact.

There may

be a

progression

of how

you help

that person

and who

knows the

Lord might

just open

up a

whole avenue

of something

fantastic

in sharing

about Jesus

with them.

It starts

with a very

small effort.

mercy and

evangelism

are like

smoke and

fire.

Where one

is, the

other must

be near.

Only when

both are

occurring will

actual growth

in the

kingdom of

God occur.

And that

diamond that

we saw

mentioned at

the beginning,

that's when

we'll see the

diamond shining

very, very

brightly.

bless you

all in

your

endeavours.