Accessing God's Mercy

So, if you'll stand up with me, let's make a confession together.

Shall we Remember that?

Let's wave our Bible around, make the devil, the Lord happy and the devil mad right.

Say Heavenly Father, I'm grateful for your word.

It brings life to my flesh.

I stand on it.

I'm in need of it.

I study it, I honor it.

I put you first in everything that I do.

I'm grateful for your compassion and your mercy, because your mercy endures forever.

Jesus' name amen.

Well, I just felt impressed to preach a message on the accessing God's mercy.

Accessing God's mercy, and so, hallelujah, accessing God's mercy.

And so I just wanted to tell a quick story of why.

Like you know, it's not any mini mindy moe when we're preparing to preach, and a few months back I was sitting with the young people during Selena's message in the youth.

If you didn't know that, my wife, selena, is the youth pastor, and so it means a lot to us to minister to young people, but she's really the youth pastor.

I just when I kind of switch roles when I go in there, I'm basically working for her, I'm driving her bus, and so I was sitting with a group of young people sixth and seventh graders and she was preaching.

I don't even remember what she was preaching on, but she used the prodigal son as an example, and one of the sixth grader little boy, you know, young boy turns to me and Mr J, why did the dad?

He just could not comprehend the mercy of God.

Why wasn't the dad mad?

And so it got me?

And so here I found myself whispering the rest of the story, you know, because Selena wasn't gonna just stay and camp on that story.

She had already moved on, and so, anyways, I got to go back and explain more about the mercy of God later on, but it really touched my heart, and so I thought that we would talk a little bit about mercy.

And so, to rewind, though, I would like to go back to the beginning of this calendar year, when our pastor began to preach about lifting up the standard.

Anybody remember that series?

We're all here in the beginning of January, and so let's read that out of Isaiah 59, starting in verse 19.

It's gonna be in the new living translation I mean sorry, it's gonna be in the new King James version.

It says so shall they fear the name of the Lord from the West and his glory from the rising of the sun and when the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him or against it, and the NLT Bible says for he will come like a raging flood tide, driven by the breath of the Lord.

So the breath of the Lord sends a standard that stands up against anything that the enemy tries to throw at us, and so it's that standard that has kept my family alive and kept this church in full operation and catapulted our ministry to new levels and really helped rescue my own family, my four and so, and I know that standard is what's helped your family as well.

Amen.

And so you know, if you go back down to verse 21, and it says as for me, says the Lord, this is my covenant with him.

So, two verses later, god's laying this out, and it all relates back to that standard that's driven by the breath of the Lord.

It says my spirit, who is upon you, and my words, which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants.

Descendants, in other words, you have legacy with the word of God.

So the word of God is just as powerful coming out of your mouth as it is coming out of God's mouth.

Well, they meant we know that around here, and so we've been taught that.

But I'm telling you that relates to raising up the standard.

So the standard is sent from heaven, out of the breath of the Lord, but we grab ahold of it, we usher it in and we become the standard.

We are God's standard against the enemy.

And so just this week, some of this was on Facebook, so I'm just gonna be really very general in terms, but we had a family where one of our young people was missing for a few days, and I can tell you the standard is what kept her from harm this standard, and it was the faithfulness of God and the mercy of God, and that was what I started praying as soon as I heard about it.

I started praying the mercy of God, and so, thank God, everything's okay and all as well, hallelujah.

But because of God's mercy, and so God's mercy is part of this standard and I'm telling you it makes such an important.

It means everything in our faith filled life to speak faith filled words.

And so you have to grab ahold of that standard and you must speak that standard.

And that standard is not just for you.

You're leaving a legacy of that standard into your children and your children's children, so that legacy lives on.

And so we must teach our kids and our grandkids how to talk right, how to speak right, how to grab ahold of that standard.

And tonight we're talking about the mercy of God, and so we must teach our kids about the mercy of God and our grandkids.

And so if I talk about parenting tonight, don't tune me out.

I know, man.

I see Tom and Teresa over here.

They have a wonderful family and Teresa has a grandson.

That was a few years ago.

That was just being particularly difficult, and I remember her telling me the story that she just didn't hold anything back.

She went and she met with her grandson and she told him the truth like he had never heard and it was shocking to him.

And so we speak the truth in love, but it's always in love.

And if love is missing from our conversation, if love is missing from our words, then first, corinthians 13 says we're just nothing but really loud clanging symbols that are really annoying.

If Ethan were to come up here and just play the symbols maybe not Ethan, but I don't know if it would be annoying if he did it but it would be pretty annoying.

It would just be loud and get on everybody's nerves.

But we must have love in all of our conversation.

And so, real quick, my foundational scripture for tonight I'll just quote, and then we can dig into the word here in a second.

But Psalms 136, the entire chapter of 136 talks about verse one says oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.

And so it goes on 26 times and 26 verses over and over and over again, saying for his mercy endures forever.

And so our spiritual dad, john Osteen that happened to be his last words before he transitioned to heaven is that his mercy endures forever, and so his mercy is really important.

It should be really a part of everything that we say.

And so when you define, when you go back and you define mercy in the Hebrew and the Old Testament and then in the Greek and the New Testament excuse me you'll see that they're very similar.

They contain a lot of the biblical definition contains.

So mercy is not a fruit of the spirit, but it contains so many definitions of the fruit of the spirit.

And so, like goodness, kindness, faithfulness, so forth.

So really, I would define it after reading that I would define.

This is Jay's definition.

It's a spiritual reaction to a human or fleshly mistake or action.

So you're basically giving someone kindness, you're giving someone faithfulness, you're giving someone goodness who doesn't deserve it.

So they've come to you in a situation, and also that's the way God is giving you mercy.

So mercy and grace people confuse all the time because they are joined, but grace just means the biblical definition of grace, it's just God's ability to do anything, and that's the simple definition of grace.

But mercy, so we don't get what we deserve because he operates in mercy.

So if I was to get what I deserve, we would be up a creek right, but I'm not, because I operate in God's mercy.

And so, anyway, I wanna start off by, before we get to our points, telling this story.

When I was about six years old, seven years old somewhere in there, we were out as a family and I had done something terribly wrong.

I don't know what it was.

I really don't remember what I did wrong.

I just remember that when we were getting home I was gonna get a spanking and I knew my dad was gonna give it, which means that was gonna a really big deal, and so I was really dreading that moment.

And so we got home and we went into the living room, just him and I, and he was no longer mad.

Mad was off, and he was good at that.

My mom was not quite as good at that.

I had a really good ability to make her grit her teeth and sometimes still do, praise the Lord.

But anyways, I have great parents.

I had a great childhood.

I'm so grateful and thankful to God every day.

But I was really just kidding about my mom, but anyways.

So the belt comes off and he bends me over the avocado green chair in the living room and I prepare myself because I know here it comes.

And I didn't see.

But he had rolled up his leg, the his pants passed his knee and he exposed his calf and he took that belt and put it in half and he hit his calf three times, really, really loud, and I heard it.

And when I heard it but I didn't feel it I turned around and I was just shocked and surprised and you would think with one he would stop, but he didn't.

And you would also think that he would just do it a little bit, but he didn't, he just went all out and I'm telling you, the back of his leg was so red I'll never forget it, and he sat me down.

I was crying at that point and he explained to me the mercy of God.

You deserved punishment, but I took it today as a type and shadow of what Jesus did.

I took your punishment today, and then he explained what Jesus did on the cross at Calvary and all about the mercy of God, and so that left a mark on me and I'm here to tell you I was not a perfect child after that, but I really, honestly, I can count on one hand the times that he had to spank me after that, and by the time I was eight and nine years old, I really turned a corner in my life and that marked me.

That moment on marked me to be more obedient to my parents.

And so your kids and your grandkids need to understand the mercy of the Lord.

And so let's read about his mercy, and point number one is his word brings mercy.

So let's read about his word in Hebrews four.

And you may say, jay, I've heard this over and over and over again, we've read this verse time and time again, but hang tight.

I'm reading it out of the amplified classic version Hebrews 4, verse 12, it says for the word that God speaks.

Hebrews 4:12

In other words, this word, right here, it's alive, he's still speaking.

Out of it, amen.

And it's full of power.

It's making that word active, operative, energizing and effective.

And it is sharper than any two edges sword.

That sword is like a dagger.

It's a short sword.

It's got an edge on both sides so that it cuts going up and it cuts going down.

And it says it's penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life, or your soul.

In other words, your soul is your mind, your will, your intellect and spirit.

So it divides your soul and your spirit.

Right, you see that.

And of joints and marrow, of the deepest part of our nature.

Exposing listen to this, I love the amplified here exposing, sifting, analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of our hearts, of the heart, but our hearts.

And so, as you read the Bible, that's why people are so lost and they get off so quickly, like dad was preaching this morning.

When you ignore your Bible reading time.

It is so precious, it is such a serious thing to get inside this word and aim your attention at what God's saying today, because it's fresh, it's powerful and if you miss it for today, like you really don't know.

It's not just affecting you.

You're gonna see somebody later on that needed that word of encouragement that you just read that morning.

Man, that happens to me all the time.

And it's like man, what if I was too busy?

What if I missed it?

And it's not just affecting me, that lack of knowledge, it's affecting your influence and those around you.

Amen and so.

But that's what the word of God does it, it divides it.

It says, okay, that's flesh, that's soulless over there.

We'll cut that off, let that fall.

And hey, this over here, it divides it.

Hey, that's your spirit, that's from God, that dream is from God, that revelation is from me.

That's me speaking to you and you make and your spirit, it's spirit to spirit, and your spirit becomes alive to that revelation and boom, you start walking in that new revelation and your whole life changes.

Right, that's what happens.

So it's quick, it's alive, it's powerful, it's sharp.

That's what's happening.

But it's related to mercy.

We're gonna get there in verse 16,.

Verse 13 says and not a creature exists that is concealed from his sight, but all things are open and exposed, naked and defenseless to the eyes of him, with whom we have to do.

In other words, to the eyes of the Lord, there is no way, zero way, zero possibility under heaven and earth to ever hide anything from the Lord.

You think your motives are hidden.

You know you have bad motives in this one area.

You think it's totally hidden.

You got everybody fooled.

But no, you cannot fool God, you cannot hide from God.

And so my point number two is to allow the word of God to lay you open, to cut you open and so that you realize Selina's been preaching in the youth about being sincere, being authentic, and so we must be authentic with the Lord, and only you know what's going on in your heart, only you understand your motives.

At the end of the day, when it's just you and the Lord, like I said, there's no way to hide anything from him, and so he already knows your deepest thoughts, your deepest dreams, your deepest desires, and so you're to allow all the word to cut on you and to divide.

Hey, that, like I said earlier, that's a fleshly thought.

We're gonna get rid of that.

Hey, that's a fleshly dream.

That dream, that desire, didn't come from the Lord.

I'm gonna grab ahold of his desire for my life, amen.

So that was point number two.

Let's keep going.

Verse 14, in as much, then, as we have a great high priest who has already ascended, passed through to the heavens Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession or our profession of our faith in him.

In other words, confession means to say the same thing as verse 15, for we do not have I'm gonna turn this double negative around ready, for we do have a high priest who is able to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and the liability to the assaults of temptation.

In other words, he knows exactly how you feel, he knows exactly what you're going through, he knows exactly your temptations, he knows exactly what's going on in your flesh, because he's experienced that same thing.

But it says right here he experienced everything that you're experiencing.

He's experienced, yet without sin, amen.

And so point number three know that Jesus identified with our weaknesses so that we can identify with his strength.

See, like I was saying back in the baptism service, we can do nothing on our own, in our own strength, we're worthless, right.

But actually it's when we realize that we are weak and we turn to his strength that glory is given to God.

Right, it's instantaneous.

As soon as you realize that you're not enough and you grab ahold of everything that he is and you plug in to everything that he has for you, man, you're walking in covenant right then, right there, and he begins to show off through you.

You know, he wants those that you have influence with around you to see his glory, to experience his character coming out of you, and so that happens when we grab ahold of his faithfulness.

That happens when we realize our weaknesses and we grab ahold of all of his strength.

Man, he makes us, you know, he makes us rocky.

Bom bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom, bom bom.

All right, anyways.

Finally we get to verse 16.

Let us then.

What do you think the then is there for?

It's there to point back to the previous three verses and the points it says.

Let us then fearlessly in other words, obviously that means without fear, we have no fear to approach the throne of God he's given us full access fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace, the throne of God's unmerited favor to every sinner, that we may receive mercy in time of need, mercy for our failures, mercy for our shortcomings, mercy for that weakness that we just got through talking about in verse 15, and find grace again, god's ability to do anything.

We find that grace to help in good time, in perfect time.

He's a very present help and trouble man if, whatever you're going through, he's right here, right now.

He's a right now God.

He's never late and he's right on time For every need appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when you need it.

Amen, we receive his grace, we receive his mercy.

We receive mercy for everything, all of our shortcomings, all of our failures, and so we receive that mercy.

So that's how we receive it by coming boldly to the throne of God.

So that's point number four come boldly to the throne of God.

He's given us full access, but the blood of Jesus gives us full access.

So we don't have to be fearful.

We don't have to be afraid that he's gonna slap us, that he's gonna punish us.

No, we can go right to the throne room of God and receive his mercy in time of need.

Anytime that you trip, anytime that you fall, he's right there.

He's already forgiven you.

All you have to do is confess it.

All you have to do is keep short accounts with God.

There's no reason to go on and on and on for days and days and be.

You know, nothing separates you from God's love, but sin we're gonna talk about that here in a second.

Sin does separate us from the plan of God, and it can separate us from being able to hear from God as well.

And so we don't wanna have anything to do with sin.

And point number five be merciful toward others.

That's how we receive his mercy.

We're gonna read out of James, chapter two.

We're gonna stay in the amplified classic James 212.

I'll let Lee pull that up for us.

And it says so speak and so act as people should, who are to be judged under the law of liberty, the moral instruction given by Christ, especially about love.

So, in other words, we're to act like and to speak like those who will one day be judged.

You know we will be judged by our actions one day.

Right, and so we're to speak and to act like that day's coming, like that day's approaching.

Verse 13,.

For to him who has shown no mercy, the judgment will be merciless.

But mercy, full of glad confidence, exalts victoriously over judgment.

In other words, who does not receive mercy is the one not giving mercy, but the one giving mercy receives mercy.

That's really, really simple If you don't give mercy, you won't receive mercy.

And so I think about like and every.

Lots of us are involved in the political spectrum, now in this church more than ever, and so we get so focused on the agenda that's behind people that sometimes we forget that there's real people behind those agendas, that are just lost, that are just deceived.

And there is a level of deception, though, that you can just go way past and be completely lost, right.

But I'm telling you, you know, we've had several candidates here lately.

Help me out with names.

My mind just went blank.

Yeah, the two county judge, miller and Martinez.

So you have.

You know Miller, as, in my opinion, the views and opinions expressed by Jane Griner are not always those of James Bunrock, pastor John Griner, but anyways, miller is an amazing candidate.

She, just when she was here, did you feel the anointing Like, you felt the connection, and Martinez not so much.

And so, like things have come to the light since they both spoke here, and there's definitely you can see the hand of God.

But I'm telling you, if God opened a door today or tomorrow morning and you've found yourself on a flight leaving Houston, sitting next to Fidel Martinez.

Would you lead with all of his dumb ideas?

What are you thinking?

Or would you lead with the mercy of God?

Would you lead with the gospel and what it meant?

You know things that matter.

Eternity matters.

You know his squarely thinking does matter, I'm you know.

Especially if he were to take that squarely thinking and make it into office, that would be terrible.

That's why we're here, that's why we're fighting, that's why we have a voice, that's why for you to not use that voice as consequences, james, that agree job two weeks ago, preaching that here on a Sunday night.

So I encourage you to listen to that message.

By the way, we had an issue with our audio podcast.

We just have it fixed, so it will be just a matter of a few days and we'll be completely caught up with all of our audio podcasts so you can listen to those again for free.

But I'm telling you, all of our words, like I was saying earlier, should always include, when we're speaking, the truth.

It must be in love, right, and that truth is that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

Right, and so no man comes to the Father except through Jesus.

And so our truth that we speak is centered around Jesus, right, and so that's what we're preaching tonight is the truth.

And so we can't receive mercy unless we're givers of mercy.

And so you know, I was gonna give like a personal example too, one of my extended family members.

In his brain he identifies with the homosexual community, but years ago we used to be really close and we aren't really anymore.

And it's been a little while, a few years since I've seen him, a couple of years since I've seen him.

But I watched him get delivered out of a homosexual lifestyle.

I watched him completely change his life.

I saw the fruit.

I witnessed him talking different, dressing different and just coming completely and getting completely delivered out of that and unfortunately, watched him walk right back into it just a handful of months later.

And that's sad, and sometimes we get so mad at the alphabet soup agenda that again.

You know, when I see him at a family gathering, I come up, I give him a big hug.

I'm not afraid of his quote, unquote lifestyle.

I'm not afraid of the devil and the demons that have deceived him and allowed him to walk in such deception, because greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world, and so I'm not afraid of what it looks like.

Hey, what is that gonna look like?

You come and give him a big hug, I don't care, I treat him like he saved.

The last time I saw him I started quoting scripture and his face, you know, he kind of messed up his face.

He kind of misunderstood my first scripture that I quoted.

I had to go back and say, no, that's anyways Ephesians 6.

I came right out of Ephesians 6.

And so.

But I treat him like he saved because deep down he is saved and I got to watch the fruit of that happen in his life, and so the mercy of God is way more powerful than we can comprehend.

And so I have no idea what happens when it's just him, between him and the Lord, and neither do you.

And so why would I sit here and think about all these crazy, terrible, horrible, disgusting things, that that lifestyle is absolutely disgusting?

But at the same time I know that he's a good person and I've watched him make some good changes here over the last year or two, sacrifices that have helped his family, and so I find the positive.

You know what I'm saying.

You identify with what you can identify with, and when I see him, I'm a witness for who, for what God has done for me and the godly character that's on the inside of me, right, and so I encourage you you would do the same thing, obviously you.

You know I was talking motorcycles with one of our members and his son-in-law is not saved, but he loves motorcycles and I was like, man, you got to hook us up, maybe we can go riding one day, and while he's not saved, well, that doesn't matter to me.

Like you know, he can get saved, and so you never know what's gonna happen on a motorcycle ride.

Amen, hallelujah.

Down to my last point.

It's getting a little bit late.

I was reading the story earlier this week and it just hit me the mercy that Jesus walked through, and so that's my sixth and last point Learn to lead with mercy by looking unto Jesus.

In other words, look at how Jesus led the disciples.

Did he always have mercy?

Even when?

Even when he used the strongest of language, he always spoke in love and he always it was within mercy.

So this is a really good story.

Luke 22, verse 31 through 34.

Luke 22:31–34

I'm gonna stick with the Amplify, but I'll kind of skip things to make it quicker.

And it starts with a double annunciation of God.

He says Simon, simon, listen, satan has asked excessively that all of you be given up to him out of the power and keeping of God that he might, that Satan might sift you like wheat or like grain, all of you.

In other words, he's saying, hey, satan is after you to separate you from my calling and God's plan that he has on your life.

And so we're gonna read the rest of the verses, but real quick, let's just stop and let's think about this for a second.

So Jesus is operating as the Son of man.

In other words, he's in his prayer time, he is prayed.

We're gonna find that out in the next verse.

In his prayer time, he is prayed and the Holy Spirit has shown him something really terrible, something really bad that's about to happen to Peter.

And so he's explaining that to Peter.

And let's read what happens.

But I have prayed verse 32, especially for you, peter that your own faith did he rebuke the demons.

Hey, I've already rebuke the demons.

You're not gonna have any more trouble from here, from this day forth, it's just easy going.

No, he says, but I have prayed especially for you, peter, that your own faith may not fail.

And when you yourself have turned again in other words, turned again back to me go strengthen and go establish your brethren.

In other words, what's coming is gonna be pretty rough, but when you turn back to me, hey, be a witness for me, go back to the other disciples and strengthen and establish them.

And in verse 33, and Simon Peter said unto him Lord, hey, man, I'm ready to go with you to prison and even to death.

Hey, man, I'm with you, I'm with you, bro.

That was just pride, wasn't it?

That was just arrogance, right?

He wasn't listening to the warning, the prophetic warning that Jesus had for him.

He just oh, no, I'm with you.

And Jesus had to tell him no, peter, before a single rooster crows.

This day, this very day, you will three times utterly deny that you even know me, not just once, but three times, man.

And so notice again I just said it the prophetic nature of this prayer.

And I'm praying.

He says, I'm praying specifically for you, that you'll return back to me.

In other words, what's coming has enough power to shake you and to separate.

Hey, satan is coming.

He's trying to separate you from all that I've poured into you.

Why, satan is not omnipotent, he's not all-knowing and he's not omnipresent, he's not everywhere at once.

And so how did he know to pick on Peter?

And it's because Jesus has shown favor to Peter, james and John, right the three like top disciples.

And so you know.

Let's talk about Judas for a second, because Judas just ended up completely and utterly failing right.

But do you think Judas had any less of a chance than Peter?

No, they had the same chance.

They had the same opportunities, they spent the same amount of time, basically, with Jesus.

They just made completely different decisions and the mercy of God rescued Peter, amen.

And so that's why, you know, denying him really is a sin, and that's why, giving into that, the devil really was trying to separate him.

And so that's why we have nothing to do with sin.

We don't.

I think Romans five in the message Bible says we don't even run small errands for sin anymore.

And so I just sin is abolished and evil is abolished, and we see it that way, we don't mess around with it, we consider it serious.

And so the devil's not just trying to like my dad says all the time, you know, he's not just trying to steal your parking place or give you a bad hair day.

You know he's out to steal, to kill and to destroy.

He's trying to eradicate you off the earth.

But he's trying to do it through destroying your influence that you have with your family, with your friends, with your coworkers.

He's trying to erase all the good that you've ever done.

He wants to erase your legacy and undo all of the good, like I said, that you've ever done.

That's what he's trying to do.

But Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

That's extra powerful.

When I hit that, anyways, family feud, I'm hitting the bell.

Anyways, have abundant life, have it more abundantly.

And I'm telling you, jesus gave us the victory.

But you know just, you always think about it as Peter.

You know, like what it must have been like to be Peter and we'll get to that in a second.

But I was kind of looking at it like I said my point of just what it's like to be Jesus, what it's like.

You know, you have the prophetic power.

If you're a dad, you have the prophetic power to the Holy Spirit lives on the inside of you and he gives you knowledge of what's coming up and you can see that over your kids.

You can see an evil spirit trying to take over your child and lead him in the wrong direction.

And did you notice that Jesus also identified the source?

So you can identify the source.

We walk in that same.

We have the same power, the same resurrection power.

We have the same Holy Spirit.

We have the same spirit of faith, right, and so working with young people is a lot of fun.

Sometimes, lena and I get to recognize the gifts and the callings on young people kind of ahead of their parents.

Sometimes that's happened a handful of times over the years, and just because you get to see them in a different light, they speak different in front of you than they do in front of their parents, you know.

And so sometimes there's illumination and a direction for a positive.

And I'm telling you, though, as a parent and even as a grandparent, you know God can use you.

The Holy Spirit can show you and illuminate things that are gonna affect your kids and your grandkids, because the devil doesn't play fair, he just doesn't.

And but greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.

We don't have to walk around afraid of what the devil can do, we just have a knowledge of what he's capable of, but we know we're greater.

But in order to, you know, we have to obtain it, we have to walk in it, we have to speak it.

We've got to talk it, we've got to believe it first, but then we've got to speak it.

And so, in order to truly walk in it and so, so we're gonna face tests, we're gonna face trials Again.

Jesus didn't just rebuke the devil completely off of Peter at this moment.

He allowed Peter, he set Peter up really for success, if you think about it, because he left free will in charge and Peter had a choice whether he was gonna deny him or not.

And but do you notice like later on Jesus, after he had risen and he was speaking with Mary, he's like hey, go back and tell the other disciples and Peter that I'm risen.

So like he had a little extra on top for Peter, because I think he had an extra tender spot for Peter.

I don't know about you, but I relate to Peter a lot in my life.

You know just, we're not perfect.

So you have two different Peters and I better wrap it up because it's getting late.

But you know you have Peter before the Holy Ghost and you have Peter after the Holy Ghost.

And how many of you read the book of Acts and realized that Peter, full of the Holy Ghost, is the whole new Peter, right, and that's the life that we get to live because we're full of the Holy Spirit as well.

Amen, and so that is how we obtain God's mercy.

Amen, lift up your hand, receive the word of God tonight.

Father, we're grateful for Jesus that pointed Peter back to your strength and to his faith.

That's connected with you, that's connected to Jesus, the author and the finisher of his faith.

And, lord, we just recognize Jesus as the author and the finisher of our faith as well.

And, lord, we just thank you for allowing your throne to be accessible at all times, right on time, whenever we need it.

We can approach your throne with confidence in boldness and receive mercy and grace and ability, your ability to do anything, and that is the grace or ability that we grab ahold of tonight.

We grab ahold of your faithfulness and we refuse to be merciless.

We refuse to walk without your love and without your mercy being a part of everything that we say and everything that we do.

Because, lord, we're here, walking this earth, in order to give you and bring you maximum glory.

In Jesus' name, amen.