25th May - Teaching Service - Dave Food - Act with Justice, show mercy

Now I mean paid our hearts and let's pray for

Pastor day. Lord, we thank you for what you have

placed in Pastor Dave's heart. You know that he has

been preparing and he has something to share with us.

Let now your Holy Spirit to guide him through all

words and all knowledge, Lord, so we can be touched

this morning and that the word that you are giving

us would be transforming our lives. Lord, Thank you in

the name of Jesus.

Amen, thank you.

Let's see morning Church. I just want to discharge something.

I don't know it's for somebody in the room or

whether it's for somebody at home, but I just sent

you said to God this morning, God, if you're really there,

would you speak to me. You said to God this morning,

I really need to hear from you. And this is

his response to you. He loves you, He's got a

plan and a purpose for you, and he's going to

do great things. So do not give up because you

cried out. He heard and this is his response. Receive

the blessing of what God has for you. Walking confidence,

even though you don't see the next steps, walking confidence.

So I just want to share that with you because

I just sense that was something that was on the

father's heart. This morning, we're in our series of looking

at we believe and I don't know whether you believe

in justice. Anybody believe in justice? Yes, some people kind of.

We're not sure. What do you mean by that justice stuff?

What do you mean?

But you know what, we can see justice. We have

courts in our lands. There are courts around the world,

and the judge will sit and somebody will come forward

and justice will be meeted out. Do you know I'm

going to show my lack of language here this morning.

I'm going to try and use one or two Hebrew words,

if that's okay with you. So we're going to let

me start in Mike chapter six, verse eight. Probably not

a book you read very often, not when I naturally

turn to.

But one God definitely.

Let need to, and you will find the words justice

and mercy regularly appear in places like Haberkook, Job, Micah, James, Proverbs, Zechariiah,

some of the books we don't naturally turn to.

But let me read Micah six verse eight.

He has shown you, He has shown you, oh man,

what is good? And what does the Lord require of you?

But to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk

humbly with your God. Now, justice begins with God. It

doesn't begin with us. It's not man's justice, it's God's justice.

God is a God of justice, and it begins with him.

If you go back all the way through the laws

of our land and go back further and found the

foundations of law, ultimately you will find scripture. Because we're

a Christian nation, and there are many other nations around

the world that had a Christian foundation, and you will

find there are Christian principles in the laws of our land.

Praise God.

So justice begins with God's heart. It's not a political agenda.

You can really happily easily politicize justice. And it's not

a social cause either. It's not about doing just doing good.

It's rooted in the very character and nature of God.

It's both to be just and to be merciful. You

will find those two words occur again and again and again.

You'll find the better if you go and do a

bit of research. You know, we've got the great tools now,

great tools. Now we can just type things in and

we can ask chat, GPT or something else to go

and find out.

You know, how many times.

Does justice and mercy occur in the same sentence in

the Bible. I'm going to leave that for you to

do in your homework. I'm not gonna I'm going to

not going to give you the answer to that question.

But let's look at some.

Of the Hebrew words here behind mercy and truth. Let's

firstly look at mish fat mishwt. Sorry, I'm p a

w t is the second part of that in terms

of pronunciing mish fort. It's the Hebrew word that transorates

directly justice in campus encompasses fairness, equity, and impartiality. It's

more than just justice. It's more than just justice. And

then you'll find the Hebrew word. Now, let me get

the pronunciation Keed said Keed said, which means the term

for mercy, God's unconditional grace and compassion. So we have

justice and we have mercy, and they come together, they

come together and they're joined together. But you know, I

want to give you a third word that you will

find often appears in job as well.

And this is the one I'm going to really struggle with.

Saidaka said Dhaka, and the Hebrew Hebrew word it often

translated as being just not but being just or being righteous,

emphasizing our relationships so justice can be worked out by

somebody standing up to say the law says this, this

is what is going to happen. But you know what,

I firmly believe that actually, if we would just kd

sadada ked sadaka, if we would just do this, then

actually we wouldn't need quite so much justice. If we

live in good relationship, then we don't need laws quite

so much. But the reason we need laws is because

our relationships are broken. Why do people have what do

they call him pre nuptial agreements? So people choose to

get married, and you will find people have Sometimes people

will be advised to.

Have a pre nuptial agreement. Think about it.

A lawyer has advised you, or someone has advised you

to set down the rules in case what you're just

about to step into breaks down.

It's not a great start, is it.

I really love you, dear, but can you just sign

this prenuptial agreement just in case it all goes wrong?

That's the law.

But you know what, if we lived in right relationship,

we would never get to that situation. If we lived

in right how many people have a perfect marriage. I

might by the way, my hand's not up.

I was just.

Because our marriages are not perfect. Because we're human and

we make mistakes, don't we. We say things we didn't

want to say, we don't say things we should have said.

But you know what, if we live in right relationship

and actually some of the laws just disappear in the background.

In fact, we have a better standard than the law

because we choose to go further, because love pushes beyond

just what we believe. In Isaiah one seventeen, it says,

learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend

the fatherless.

Plead for the.

This justice in action is very much about those who

are disenfranchised, who are separated, those who are refugees, those

who are in need, widows, orphans. So mercy is justice

in action. It's not a cold, abstract thing. It moves

us to mercy kaed Sadaka moves us from the law

to a response of our hearts. Zechariath chapter seven, verses

nine and ten says, this is what the Lord Almighty said,

Administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another.

Do not oppress the widow, or the fatherless, or the foreigner,

or the poor, do not plot evil against each other.

Many of the laws.

People will have in place is to stop all these

things happening, or to say what happens when they do.

I wonder sometimes when our hearts get shaped by some

of the news that we see. We see stuff on

the news and immediately we put everything into a box

and said, everybody who speaks that language, or has that

skin color, or comes from that country suddenly has that mindset.

We're very good at generalizations. But you know what, as

soon as you meet someone and build relationship with them,

suddenly all those laws go out of your head because

you've got someone you know. Let me just give you

an example, which I think would ring bells. You'd all

know the Second World War and you would know that

there was a rising up in Germany of the Nazi movement.

So as soon as I use the word Nazi, immediately

in your head you've got an image and a picture

because it's in films, it's in our history. But you

know what, it's very easy, and we have it in

our history that we look at all Germans to say, actually,

they've got their legacy and that heritage. I've got many

German friends, they're good people. But we default to some

of these things. And I don't want to go to

two current trends because it would be very easy to

get very auchy very quickly. But justice requires self examination.

It starts with us. We cannot act justly when we

ignore the sin in our own lives. Selfishness kicks in

repentance precedes renewal, and acting injustice and showing mercy is

built upon the heart of God, who wants to reach

out to the needy and the fatherless and the widow

and the orphan and feed them and comfort them, and

not just deal with their physical needs, but also deal

with their emotional needs.

I once remember, Julia and I.

Used to go to an Anglican church many many years

ago when we first got married, and in the Anglican Church,

they have a tradition of sharing the peace, and you'd

walk around and the vicar would say something like, please

go and share the peace with somebody, and you walk

around and shake hands. Some people would shake hands, some

people would nod, some people would just say the words,

one or two people would hug And I particularly remember

this particular Sunday when there was a young an older

lady in the church and She was about four foot ten.

She was much shorter than me. And I came to

her and I said, the piece of the Lord be

with you, and she said, and her head was down

and I was looking at the top of her head,

and she said, the peace of the Lord be with you.

She mumbled, do you know what?

There was a quickening in my spirit straight away, and

I just said. I didn't say there was anything wrong.

I just said, could we do that again? And would

you look at me? Could we do that again? And

I said so. I looked into her eyes and I said,

the Peace of the Lord be with you. And before

she even tried to respond to me, she burst into tears.

I thought, what have I done? She was going through

religious ritual.

We were going through religious ritual the first time when

we connected in relationship and looked at one another, and

I said, the peace of the Law be with you.

She could then open up and say, Lord, I'm in

a mess. And we got to pray. You know, justice

is not about setting down laws, just is about living right,

life right. Luke Chapter six, verse thirty six says, be merciful,

just as your father is merciful, merciful.

Full of mercy. You know and mercy. Mercy comes with.

Justice, It flows around justice. Mercy flourishes in community. Mercy

should flourish in church. I was in a car drive

across America, and the car had an American past or,

a Belgian pastor myself, and a South African pastor, and

we were chatting away, driving along, and in this particular

state we were in, the speed limit on the freeway

was fifty miles an hour. And we were driving along

and chatting, and the pastor who was driving the car,

suddenly flashing lights behind alarms went off, got pulled over,

and just before he got put just before the flashing lights,

he looked down at his speedo and went whoops because

he'd not been paying attention. He'd been enjoying the conversation

that was going on in the car. Not a good

thing really, But we got pulled over, and the justice

was he should have got a ticket because I think

we were doing sixty five. This was out in the

This wasn't in town or anything. This was a wide, wide,

wide road in the middle of nowhere. But anyway, the

policeman pulled us over. And then, because it was quite

clear that the South African is not an American. He said,

where a gentleman from? And so we explained and he said,

can I see your passports? So we all had to

pull our passports out and had to show who we were.

And he said, why are you here? He said, well,

we're here for a conference and we're just seeing the countryside.

And he said, do you know what.

You're a naughty boy, sir, But I'm going to release

you and show you a little bit of mercy on

your way and behave better next time. Yeah, mercy was shown.

I mean he wasn't being stupid. It was breaking the

law absolutely, but mercy was shown. Now, if that had

been downtown Egham or Philadelphia or wherever it was, driving

fifteen sixty five in a fifty limit, you could kill somebody.

But mercy was shown. Mercy flourishes in community. Mercy should

flourish in Eggam. Mercy should flourish in Stains and Ashford

and Egham and Englefield Green as we do community together.

And let me explain a little bit about how I

recommend working on the mercy factor.

How well do you know your neighbors.

It's a bank holiday weekend, many of us will be

out in our gardens doing something.

If the sun will stay out for long.

Enough and we'll we'll have the opportunity to speak to

one or two neighbors. Take a moment just to find

out a little more about your neighbors, get to them,

know them just a little bit better. And for those

who live on campus, I'm not talking about over the

garden fence. Who else lives in your kitchen, who else

shares a kitchen with you, who else lives on the

same corridor as you. Mercy flourishes in community. James two

verse thirteen says judgment without mercy will be shown to

anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Why because mercy confronts sin. Biblical justice calls us to

challenge not just our own personal songs, but institutional wrongs.

Think of Wilberforce. Everybody heard of Wilberforce. Okay, thank you

for your honesty. What did Wilberforce do? He confronted slavery,

He confronted slavery. He stood up in parliament and confronted slavery. Ultimately,

slavery went what it went in British law. There's still

an enormous amount of slavery around today another example of

justice and mercy. Justice confronts systemic sin that sometimes we

feel there are unjust laws. Sometimes we want to appeal

to the judge. That's where mercy can be shown. I'll

confess I have been before a judge. I got a

parking ticket. I'm going to tell you a little bit

of a story. Now, I've got a parking ticket. I

paid for my parking and I put my parking ticket

on my car. I came back to a parking ticket. Now,

I don't know what you think, but I thought, this

is unjust. I'm not breaking any laws. I've done it right.

So I sent my ticket in like you do, like

you're told to, and I got a confirmation back saying, well,

we have pictures to prove that you did not have

your ticket on your dashboard.

And I thought, okay.

Now, I don't know what you're thinking now, but I

was honestly sitting there thinking, okay, this is challenging my integrity. Now, okay,

if I had overrun the time on my ticket, if

for any reason I had, I would just gone okay,

the finest due, I'll pay it quickly because you get

it half price. But injustice stood up inside of me

and I thought, I'm not having this, so I said,

please send me the photos. So they sent me the

photos and they showed me and there was a picture

of my car with no visibility of a ticket.

I was thinking, what's going on here? So I went.

Outside of my car and I put a ticket where

I had the ticket, because of course I hadn't taken

a picture of my ticket on my dashboard when I

parked the car.

You don't do that, do you.

I'll put the ticket there showing everybody's so but I

went outside and stuck the ticket where I thought it

would be, and then I stood back and tried to

take a similar picture to the parking warden, and then

I took a similar picture showing my ticket because I

have a double step dashboard and so you could put

something on the first one and it's hidden by the

second one.

So anyway, I went all the way.

I actually had to sit in front of a judge

and there was somebody there who said, well, we think

he's guilty, and I was saying, sir, I presented all

the information.

I don't even know really why I'm here. I think

I've presented you. After it.

He said, well, here's the thing about justice and mercy.

The gentleman who was defending for the parking company said, well,

the person who posted the ticket is not here today,

but he's a very professional person. And I just had

to look at the judge and say, sir, you know

that I'm a church minister. I mean truth matters to me.

If I got it wrong, I would have told you

straight away. I have demonstrated you. And he said, you

don't need to say anything more, mister Food. He said,

the reality is you've demonstrated how this was possible. I

believe you.

Go And he didn't.

Say, sin no more book, go go and don't get

another parking ticket. And I have got parking tickets since

because I've done other things. But the point is there

was a sense where I walked out thinking justice has

been served and mercy has been shown. Proverbs three thirty one,

verses eight and nine. Speak up for those who cannot

speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute,

Speak up and judge fairly, defend the rights of the

poor and needy. You know, we have Juliette right now,

who's out in Uganda and ginger Uganda in an orphanage

in Uganda, looking after twenty one plus children who are orphans,

and she even right now, she said, I've got a

week left.

She shared this as a prenuge. She said, I've got a.

Week left to go and there's so much I need

to do. Please pray, Lord, would you accelerate time. Would

you bring the gifts that she needs. Would you release

the connections to local authorities that she needs so that

she can stand up for the orphans in Ginger Uganda

even as she's there. I've told you this before, but

it's relevant here. I'd go into London from time to time,

and if you go into London, you'll often find people

who are sitting begging in different places and locations. And

I was walking across the footbridge from Waterloo over towards

Charing Cross and there was somebody sitting there and I

had time, and so rather than put some money, I

don't always put money in, just to be honest, I

don't always put money in, but this particular day, I

just felt a prompt to the Lord, and instead of

putting money in, I sat down next to him. And

I sat down next to him on the floor. So

this isn't comfortable. Sitting on concrete is not a comfortable things.

Sitting on concrete for hours is painful. I'd only sat

down for five minutes. So I'm just side by side

chatting to him as people are walking past, saying how

do you find yourself here? And he'd had he'd lost

his job, and he'd found himself on the street, and

then he found himself drinking a bit too much. I said,

do you know what, raight? And I had time in

this moment, so I said, do you know what, Rather

than just give you some money, I'd love to take

you to a place of your choice, McDonald's or whichever

place you want, and buy whatever you want. And so

he said, I quite like McDonald's. Can we go to McDonald's.

So he went across as a McDonald's just be on

Charing Cross, went in there and went up to the

front and he said, I'll just have a cheeseburger and

chips and a coffee please. I said, you can have

what you want. He said, can I have two cheeseburgers?

I said, of course you can. I said, do you

want a quarter pounder? And do you know what? He

ate two quarter pounders and two double chips. He was

obviously so hungry. But you know what, his expectation of

me showing a bit of mercy was just one cheesebow,

one chips. His expectation was just a little do you

know what. I believe God has so much for more

for us. If we would just act generously sometimes and

show mercy, then actually God has more for us. So

let's speak up for those when we have the opportunity.

And then, finally, last scripture Matthew twenty three, Verse twenty three,

woe to you teachers and laws of the Pharisee, you hypocrites.

You have a tenth of your spices meant mint, dill,

and cumin, but you have neglected the more important matters

of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have

practiced the latter without neglecting the former. Justice comes to

a focus at the foot of the cross. It's all

about justice and mercy meet perfectly at the foot of

the cross. The Gospel compels us to pursue justice not

just as an end in itself, but as a response

to God's grace. So I'm not going to try and

pronounce them again in Hebrew, but those three words maybe

you wrote them down, maybe you'd like to just consider

them again. So it's not just justice and mercy, but

the lifestyle of justice. And so I'm going to return

to the scripture that I started with. We'll read it

firstly from the message, and it says this, but he

has already made it plain how to live, what to do.

What God is looking for in men and women. It's

quite simple. Do what he's fair and just to your neighbor.

Be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don't take

yourself too seriously, take God seriously.

So let's just read this verse.

Again back in New King James, and it's the memory

verse for today. So you're practicing already. Let's read this together.

He has shown you, oh man, what is good and

what does the Lord require of you? But to do justly,

to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Let us pray, Father, I thank you the Lord.

You show us the way.

Jesus showed us so so so many times. The woman

who was about to be stoned in adultery, and he said,

let him who's without sin cast the first stone, and

they all walked away. Father God, help us to act

in mercy, Help us to see justice for others who

cannot voice their own need for justice. Help us to

go the extra mile, help us to give the extra bit.

Help us to give.

Wisdom, time, and insight to those around us who maybe

don't have the same. And so, Father, help us to

be people who welcome the refugee, who welcome all nations

to r CF and beyond, who touch all nations, Lord,

even as we touch the rest of the world, And

help us to be welcome us both to our neighbors,

to our friends, but to the stranger as well.

In Jesus' name, Amen, Thank you, Dave Well