According to the Pattern

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We are to live according to pattern, and one of

the greatest patterns I see of Jesus is his mercy,

which is God is after your heart. He's after your

faith and after your obedience. If we don't have the

three things but have everything else, we have missed it.

God's mercy on Paul's life was a pattern for the

rest of us. No matter how bad we are, God

loves us. Let's read the word of God in Hebrews

eight five to six, who served the copy and shadow

of the heavenly things. As Moses was divinely instructed when

he was about to make the taberinacle. For he said,

see that you make all things according to the pattern.

I'm going to repeat it. See that you make all

things according to the pattern act Church. See that you

make all things according to the pattern shown you on

the mountain. But now he Jesus, has obtained a more

excellent ministry inasmuch as he is also mediator of a

better covenant, which was established on better promises Amen Titus

two seven. Titus two seven says in all things showing

yourself to be a pattern of good works in doctrine,

showing integrity, reverence, incorrupt incorruptibility Titus two seven, Hebrews eight

ten to thirteen. Now Hebrews ten, eight ten to thirteen.

For this is a covenant that I will make with

the House of Israel. After those days, says the Lord.

I will put my laws in their mind and write

them on their hearts, and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people. None of them shall

teach his neighbor, and none of his brother, saying, know

the Lord, for all know me, from the least of

them to the greatest of them. Amen. For I will

be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins, and their

lawless deeds. I will remember no more in that, he says,

a new covenant. He has made the first obsolete. Now

what is becoming obsolete and growing all is ready to

vanish away. So I'm talking about patterns, but I want

to zero in on one particular pattern of the Lord

that we all should take note of and desire to

live by, and that is the pattern of mercy. Wow, mercy.

We are to live according to pattern, and one of

the greatest patterns. I see of Jesus is his mercy, mercy,

and this mercy, according to Hebrews eight ten to thirteen. Right,

don't forget the Bible says in Hebrews eight five to six.

Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant, and that

better covenant with better promises, there is mercy even above law. Wow,

this is what you call mediator of a better covenant.

Before him, the law was it all right, even though

even in the Old Testament it does say that God

is merciful. But law in the Old Testament usually took

first place, and judgment took first place. Judgment according to law.

But when Jesus came, mercy became very evident and forefront,

because all of us needs that. We all need that mercy.

We all know the law. We all probably were not,

probably were under judgment for sure. But he came with mercy.

And he is called the mediator of a better covenant

because mercy is better than law, which has was established

on better promises. Here. For I will be merciful to

the unrighteousness, to the unrighteousness, says Hebrews eight ten to thirteen,

and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember

no more in that he says, a new covenant. So

we're talking about a new covenant now that all has

passed away. And what is the new covenant? The new

covenant is Jesus. The new covenant is not by our righteousness,

by by His righteousness. The new covenant is that, you know,

the blood of the Lamb covers our sins, and we

do not need to work for our salvation because it

has been already done. It is finish. That is the

new covenant, not I but Christ. Amen. That is the

beautiful covenant, not by works but by faith. Amen. All right?

So what is God really after? Even after we have

read all this scripture? I believe he's after our hearts?

He is. It's always about the heart with God. Always

when we talk about giving heart, where your treasure is there?

You're hat well? We also right? God? Rather was it

for Samuel? Men look at the appearance, But God looks

at the heart. Is always the heart. What else is

he looking at? He's looking at our faith? You know.

Look the men who are who are, who are rich,

are giving out of their abundance. But look at this

woman who gave her all two copper coins or two mites.

He saw the faith also the heart, of course, the

heart and the faith, and finding the obedience. He's always

after the obedience. Obedience is still better than sacrifice. These

three things are key and important to God and is

got to be part of our discipleship because if after

we had disciple our people and disciple our Alma bearers,

and they haven't caught these top three things, which is

God is after your heart. He's after your faith and

after your obedience. If we don't have this three things

might have everything else. We have missed it. We've missed it.

So I want to make sure that we put first

things first. Prioritize what God puts into priority. Everybody, Okay, heart,

how is your heart? God tests the hearts right. How

is your faith when it was the last time you

live by faith? How is your obedience? First Timity one sixteen,

First Timity one sixteen. However, for this reason I obtain mercy,

This is Paul writing. I obtain mercy that in me first,

Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern.

There you go again as a pattern to those who

are going to believe on Him for everlasting life. So

mercy is a pattern God's mercy on Paul's life one's

called Saul. God's mercy on Paul's life was a pattern

for the rest of us. No matter how bad we are,

God loves us. No matter how big a mistake we've

ever made, He can forgive us. Paul is saying he's

the chief of sinners, you know, chief of Finnis. I

didn't write that. He wrote that I am the chief

of sinners. And yet the mercy that God showed me

is a pattern for all the rest of you. If

he can do it with me, he can do it

with anyone. Okay, somebody say amen, mercy. Matthew nine twelve

to thirteen. Matthew nine twelve to thirteen. When Jesus heard that,

he said to them, those who are well have no

need of a physician, but those who are sick. But

go and learn what this means. Oh, I love this.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Means. Mercy is even

greater than any sacrifice you can ever make. And I

know a lot of us in this room have made sacrifices.

But if you will show mercy, it will surpass all

the sacrifices you've ever made. I this is God, saying

I desire How many of you would love to give

God what he desires. He's now saying very clearly, I desire.

I desire mercy, no sacrifice, for I did not come

to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. How many

of you understand this? I am sure that all of

you understand it, because all of us were siness, but

we are saved by grace through faith. Look eighteen eleven

to fourteen. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God,

I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortionists,

unjust a doubtress or. Even as this text collector I

fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that

I possess. And the text collector is standing afar Off

would not so much as raised his eyes to Heaven,

but beat his breast, saying, what God, be merciful to

me a sinner. I tell you this man went down

to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone

who exalts himself will be humble, and he who humbles

himself will be exalted. The Pharisee and the text collector.

Everybody despises the text collector and loves the Pharisee externally.

The Pharisee had everything right. But I just told you

earlier it's about heart, faith, obedience. Man might exalt you,

but God is the one that has the last say.

And what does he say? He says, I rather you

have mercy and the text collector, who everyone despises, was

accepted by God. I love that, don't you? Everyone can

despise you all, But the most importing is that's God

receive you? Does he accept you? That's most important. God

has the last say, and he's saying that trained, trained

religious leader went home with nothing compared to acknowledged sinner,

maybe worse of his kind in people's eyes, went home justified.

Not in man's eyes, but in God's eyes. Let me

tell you what I what I pray for, because I'm

not sure how long God will give me life to

be with X. But let's just say, you know, my

time is up. I'm no longer here or the Lord

takes me to uh, you know, the nation and the nations,

and you know, you start seeing that, you know, I

can't attend the vision retreat. Mission retreat kind of tend

most of the meetings kind of tend so because I'm

where God needs me to be, and I come back,

you know, once every six months, once once every two years.

My prayer, and this just came about when I was

doing this devotion. My prayer and hope is that acts

will never be pharaceutical and we will never get ourselves

to a place where we become trained religious leaders and

talk more about judgment and standards than mercy. Because the

good thing about studying God's word and becoming really good

at it is that it's the right thing to do,

get deeper into God's word. The bad thing about it

is you are so filled with the knowledge that you

end up being a pharisee. So I want us to

people be people who know the law, but I want

us to be people who are led by love. Don't

deny the law objected, but move in the way that

blesses God's heart. Otherwise we will build another pharisee organization.

And so then there's my prayer. In the days to come,

love will be more needed, mercy will be something very

desperately lacking. And the Lord passed before him and proclaim

Exodus thirty four six to seven. Exodus thirty four, six

to seven, And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed

the Lord, the Lord, God, merciful and gracious. The very

fact that God revealed himself to Moses in Exodus thirty

four six to seven, he revealed himself to Moses, but

not his front. All of us know. He could only

reveal his back because he said to Moses, no one

can see me and live. So he showed his back.

And as he was showing his back, as the glory

of the Lord passed by Moses, God declared his name.

And the very first thing he said about his name

is he is a god who is merciful. And then

he says, abounding in goodness and truth. So he also

has truth. So I don't want you to you know,

it's not either or being people of truth, but he

also being people of mercy, mercy and truth. That's what

Jesus was when we you know, we read about him

in Joint chapter one, Grace and truth. He is a

God of mercy, he carries on to say in Exodus

thirty four sixty seven, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity

and transgression and sin, and then also saying by no

means clearing the guilty, the guilty, the guilty by no

means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers

upon the children and the children's children to the third

and fourth generation. You know, you know how merciful God is.

He keeps mercyful the thousands, but only visits the sin

third and fourth generations. This is how good God is,

how merciful. He doesn't want to remember your sin for

thousands of generations. He only wants to take on third,

fourth generation. That's how merciful. He doesn't want to keep punishing.

He hopes that within one of the generations someone would

turn and break the curse and say, Lord, forgive me

for the generation curse of my grandfather or my great grandfather,

but now let me live a new life, let my

children be blessed by you. You're unsaid, and God is

like he's ready, He's willing, because he only wanted to

take it as far. In fact, he didn't say fourth.

He's it third or fourth, meaning earlier the better. That's

the kind of God we serve. But when he talks

about mercy to thousands thousands, you want to say that

God's unfair. Yes, he is. He is very unfair to

to all of us because punishment. He gives you, little

bit blessing. He gives you a lot. Lot you with me, Lord,

he gives you. But yes, his love triumphs. This is

the kind of good God myself Matthew five to seven.

Blessed are the merciful. Didn't we study this somewhere? You

want to be blessed. Blessed are the merciful, for they

shall obtain mercy. Psalms one, verse one to four, Oh

give thanks to the Lord, for he is good for

his mercy and yours forever. Some one one eight one

to four Verse one, Oh give thanks to the Lord.

Once again, I say, for he is good for his

mercy and yours forever. Let me break it down for you.

Why do we give thanks to the Lord because he

is good? And why is he good because he's mercy

and yours forever. There's three statements in one Oh give

thanks or sometimes people say praise the Lord for he

is good. Why why do you praise the Lord for

he is good for his mercy and yours forever? You

know why God's good because he's mercy and yours forever.

That Israel. Now say his mercy and joys forever. That

the House of Eron now say his mercy endors forever.

That those who fear the Lord now say He's mercy

enduors forever. Hebrew's nine three to five. Hebrew's nine three

to five. And behind the second veil the part of

the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all, which

had the golden censor and the ark of the Covenant

overlaid on all sides with gold in which were the

golden pot and that had the manner Aaron's roared that

budded wow, and the tablets of the Covenant, and above

it were the Cherubim of glory, overshadowing what even in

all his glory, even in the Holy of Holies, that

seat is still called the mercy seat. People can die,

or no, if you're ended only of holies, they put

a rope around the priests so they can pull him

out just in case he dies. And yet the mercy

seat he's not. Didn't he didn't, He didn't call it

the seat of judgment, not on the seed of laws

or you know, even the seed of righteousness. Mercy sed

Then that's who he is, that's his nature. He can't

deny that, no matter how bad your life has been.

He can't deny himself. Of course. That's you know, as

a scripture that speaks about his faithfulness. Even when we

are faithless, he remains faithful. You can also add now mercy.

We won't be here without his mercy. We don't want

to deny the law, which is a fact, but we

want to be directed by mercy, which is the faith.

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ahead for you. God bless m