Mercy | Elder Terence Atkinson

You're listening to a message to go from axt church.

We hope this message will light up your tea.

This morning. I have a word that I believe God

wants to encourage us with. I was, uh, I got

to tell you this. Uh. Several weeks ago, I'd gone

for dinner with Elder Mabel and uh, we were, you know,

coming out of this uh Indian restaurant. Okay, we had

really nice rabase, you know, really good and up for dinner, right,

And as we were getting to the car, Elder Mabel

looked a head and saw this young puppy, this young

dog foraging for food in a rubbish dump up ahead,

and she felt really very sad. She says, oh, dear,

you know, you got to understand we are not really

animal people. Okay, we're not really known for loving animals.

Having said that, we now have two rescue dogs in

the house that even sleep in her bedroom. Okay. So anyway,

she saw this dog and then I said, well, you know,

if you feel that way, just go and buy some food.

Just go and get it some food. Say, yeah, good idea.

So I waited in the car. She went back into

the restaurant and she got some food. And then she

came out, and I thought she will ask me to

go and give the dog, because you know it is

a strae after all, you don't know what the tree

is going to do. No, she walked directly to the dog,

opened the food. The dog was afraid, sort of ran away.

Then she opened, She put the food down, and she

stepped back, and the dog came and started to eat.

Then she came back to the car and she says,

the dog is eating. I say, yeah, you did a

good thing. You gave food to the dog. She says, yes,

I'm so glad. It like the fried chicken. I said,

you didn't even buy me fried chicken when I was

eating the restaurant. You bought for the dog. So anyway,

what has this got to do with anything. None of

the Lord spoke to me mercy. She was just being

merciful to this animal. And that's the topic of my

message today. Mercy. Mercy. Hey, we are all recipients of mercy,

and some of us may not realize it, but I

hope that this morning you will recognize that as we

have received mercy, we will appropriate that mercy because it

is a divine mercy. So what is mercy? What is mercy? Well,

I looked in Webster's Miriam Dictionary. If we want to

know what something means, you have to look it up.

So I looked it up the dictionary, and I'm going

to give you some of its definitions, and some of

it will make sense. It is a number one a

compassion or four barons or big words compassion or four barons?

What exactly is four barons? It means that it's much

more than tolerate. It is you know, I understand you're

not capable of doing it, so I'll do it. Or

a lot of us we forbear our children. When our

children drivers crazy, we don't kill them. We give them

four barons. We allow it because we understand what they

are kids. So it is shown especially to on offender

or to one's subject, to one's power. How many of

us have had a boss and we go up to

the boss and we say, bossa, syah, I didn't do

the report. I didn't do it. Now, if your boss

shows mercy and is forbearing towards you, he will say, okay,

I tell you what I understand. Some things may have

been not right, but I'm going to give you another opportunity.

Give it to me tomorrow. Can you do that? Sure

you can. That is mercy and forbearans. Some of us, though,

are bosses, Say what's the matter with you? Who is

paying your salary? You do want to do the job.

There's the door. Don't let it knock you on the

way out. That's a boss who does not show mercy.

And it's not forbearing towards you. Isn't that like us?

Who's our boss? God? How many times we've gone to

God and says, sorry, Lord, I missed it? Does he

show us the door? What does he do for barons?

He shows us? Especially to offender it is lenient or

compassionate treatment. Wow, how many of us love lenient and

compassionate treatment? I mean I love lenient and compassionate treatment.

One of the wonders of working for the ministry is

not that you take advantage of the ministry. But you

don't hear them scream to you in vulgar language. You

don't hear them belittle you. Very often you will hear

what's the problem is it? You need help? Do you

not understand something? In some way? I can help you.

That's what happens, and that's lovely. So that's why I

enjoy working for the ministry because it is about getting

things done together. It's about succeeding together. It's not about

pointing fingers at you and bringing you down. It's about

lifting you. Ah. So another definition of mercy begged for mercy,

begging for mercy. It's an imprisonment rather than a death

imposed as penalty for first degree murder. So give you

another eggs. So a person does wrong and instead of

getting the death penalty, the person is forgiven. That is

mercy at authority level. Okay, you beg for mercy. This

is another kind of mercy. Okay. It is also a

blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion.

Have you heard this statement, May God have mercy on us?

What did that blind man do? Master, Master, have mercy

on us, have mercy on us. It's strange, isn't it.

He's asking for mercy and the Lord asks, what you want,

Lord that I may receive my side, and God gave

it to them. That's mercy begging for mercy, Divine God's

being involved. That's another definition of mercy. Let's see where

we go. Uh, compassionate treatment to those who are in distress?

Are we compassionate towards the poor people. You see a

beggar walking on the street, you just let them go.

Did I tell you this story about my father and

how we were young. I was young. I was fifteen

years old, and this beggar, this old beggar, was walking

on the road. No, my dad did. He went out.

He held a guy by his put his arm around him,

and led him into the house and seated him at

our dining table. And he told my mom go and

prepare him food. My mom gave food to this old

bigger on the plates that we ate from, with the

spoon and the fog that we ate with, drinking from

the same glasses that we used to drink, sat him

down at the head of the table, fed him, put

money in his hand, held him and walked him out.

You know what, that was mercy, mercy, not because you

need to, but that's just your heart. You know. Sometimes,

elder able myself, we'll be eating in a restaurant and

we'll see an old couple and then, you know what,

love for them just comes into our heart. You know

what we do. We'll just go quietly and we will

pay for their food. And then after that the shopkeeper

will go and say, these people pay for your food.

So they look at us and they say, why would

you do that? Why would you do that for us?

We say, well, you look like people who just need

someone to know we're for you. You look like people

that we can love. You look like our parents, You

look like an older uncle or an aunt, and we

just wanted to bless you no other reason. Compassion. You know,

if we can have compassion like that for people, imagine

what happens where we are concerned. There's another meaning of

compassion in this mercy. Sorry, and this is my definition.

This is not Webster's dictionary. This is my definition. Pity

or empathy in action. You know, if you have pity

and you have empathy but you don't act on it,

it is of absolutely no use. In fact, it's like

saying you're a person with no heart because you can

feel something about a situation and not do anything. Oh,

that's terrible, that's really really terrible. God puts in you

a desire to do something, not because you're supposed to

continue sitting in your seat. You're supposed to do something

about it, you know why, because he uses you to

help somebody else. Do you know that mercy is God's

speedy and compassion and kindness towards us. Praise the Lord

that he is merciful towards us. I mean, we all

deserve a slap, don't you think so? How many of

us think we deserve mercy from the Lord the Lord?

There are a few of you that do. But actually

none of us can stand before God and say we

deserve anything from him, because when you measure the kind

of life that we live versus what God wants for us,

we are deficient in so many ways. Look, this message

is not meant to put you down, trust me, it

will encourage you in the end, all right. But in

order to understand it, we have to discover what mercy

is all about. You know, in Limitations three twenty two

to twenty three, it says, through the Lord's mercies we

are not consumed because his compassion fails. Not how many

us feel that somewhere along the life we should have failed,

We should have not made it, we should have just died.

Even but you know what, where still standing? Were still stand?

We're still standing. Bye by the grace, Bye, by the

grace of God. Yeah, why is that? Because God his

mercies are not consumed means it never fails, as He

never fails. God's mercies never fail. You know they are

new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. When we praise

the Lord, we say, great is your faithfulness. You know

what we are saying. Lord, Thank God, You are merciful

to me. Every morning. I go to this all the time.

Do you know that we are living in some fantastic times?

Let me share with you a little bit. This is

not my notes, but I share with you just to

let you know God's mercy is on us. Scripture says

in Revelations that Gog and Magog will come against his

people in the Middle East. You know who is Gog

and Magog? Do any of you know who Gog and

Magog is? Can I see your ends? Nobody? Okay? Gog

is Russia and Magog is Persia. You know what is

the modern name for Persia? Iraq? And do you know

who the best of friends? Now Russia and Iran. Guess

who gave a threat to God's people? Do not go

after Iran? Who gave the threat? Russia? When did they

give the threat? Two or three days ago? And Scripture

talks about Gog and Magog coming after God's people. Are

you aware? You know how close we are to Jesus return.

Scripture says that the kings of the East will march

to face his people in mid least, and then in

revelations it says, and I heard the number, what was

the number? Two hundred million? You know who's the red dragon?

Also the kings of the East? Who China? You know

what President Jipeng said a few months ago, at a

moment's notice, we can send an army off two hundred million. Wow.

Do you think this is coincidence? Then you say, ah,

much from there all the way to the Middle East?

Not possible. Really, have you heard of the Carricorium Highway.

It stretches from China all the way to the Middle East.

But guess what it was stopped by the Euphrates River

or cannot be I cannot match right? You know what

scripture prophesy thousands of years ago that the Euphrates River

will dry up. Let me tell you a couple of

years ago, because of a damn that was built further up,

the Euphrates River is now ry. Where is a road

from China all the way to the Middle East? Does

this sound like things are coming together? You and I

had better believe it. You know, what is God's mercy?

Why do we pray that prayer for the peace of Jerusalem.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, because when

Jerusalem is at peace, so will we. We will also

be at peace, because for Jerusalem not to be at

peace is to signal the end of times God's mercy.

You pray and you believe, say, God, be merciful to

these people, because there are so many more who don't

know you, and God will come true. I want to

read this version this scripture again in the English Standard version,

and I like this one because this is the one

that the songs are always from the state first Love

of the Lord never se says, His mercy is never

will come to it, and they are new every morning

new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. So God, great

is your faithfulness? Have you heard that song before? Sing it?

Every day? Man, praise the Lord for you and for me.

The stead first Love of the Lord is new every morning.

God's mercy to us is reflecting in the works of

the crust of Christ? Are you aware of that? Are

there any here who do not know the Lord as

personal Lord and Savior? Don't put up your hands yet,

because scripture says in John three sixteen, for God so

loved the world. Who is the world? Is it the

ground that we are standing on? No, because if you

think this earth is anything, God has got billions and

billions of planets all over the universe. Do you realize

that some planets in the universe are made entirely of diamond?

The whole planet is diamond? Are you aware? Do you

know that there are even planets that the composition the

whole planet, the composition is as soft as candy floss. Oh,

you gotta know. God's not interested in this earth. What

is His interest? Is interested in the world, meaning you

and I. For God so love you and I that

he gave his only begotten son, that whoever who's whoever

believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Why would a God who hates so sin so much

die for you and me? Because we are sinners through

and through. You know, the olden days they always used

to say we are rotten sinners. But you know that's

the truth, because none of us can stand before God

with our good deeds, because scripture says that our good

deats before God are like what filthy rags. You and

I think we are doing something good. Hey, compared to God,

it doesn't stand up. God's interested to save us by

his good grace, by his love. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

See why do you think that God takes his time

about coming back. It's to give everybody an opportunity to

know him, because the longer he takes to come back,

there is a higher possibility of more people coming to

know Him as Lord and savior. In James two thirteen,

it says, for judgment is without mercy to the one

who has shown no mercy. But mercy triumphs over judgment.

You know we are to be merciful because God is

merciful to us. I mean, how terrible it is. Hey. Look,

as a boss, you're meant to be merciful to your staff.

But merciful to your stuff doesn't mean being blind. It

means you be kind. It means you try to understand,

it means not being taken advantage of or that's also mercy.

I want you to know I respect you enough to

tell you what you're telling me is complete nonsense. You see,

I didn't go shout it. No, I didn't do that.

I said, I respect you enough to tell you the truth.

What you're telling me is nonsense. You didn't do your

work because instead of standing and sitting down to do

your work, what you did you went to watch the

movie Lord of the Rings. How do I know? I

was there, I saw you, But boss, what were you

doing in a lot of the Rings? I own the company.

I can afford to go true not hey, guys, but

you can say never mind. I understand because I wanted

to see it so badly too. But I don't want

you to make this mistake again. Your deadline is your deadline.

Make sure it's done. I want to see it on

my table tomorrow morning. If it's not on my table

by tomorrow morning, then I'm going to have to take

this matter up further. You see what was that? That

is still compassion, That is still mercy. But you know what,

it's not blind mercy, it's kind mercy. I respect you

enough to tell you the truth. I respect each and

every one of you enough to tell you that without

Jesus Man, your life is not the way it should be.

I respect you enough to tell you that you need

Jesus in your life in order to be saved. I

respect you enough to tell you the truth. Some of

you may say, yeah, it's okay. Some of you may

say no, I don't believe. It doesn't matter whether you

believe it or not. I respect you enough to tell

you the truth. How many of us don't believe a

lot of things, but just live the way it is?

It's true. How many of us believe that perhaps crossing

the road there's an oput there's a chance that we

may get hit with a car crossing. I mean, we

believe that, But does that stop us? No? We still

do what we want. Praise the Lord. I'm here today.

When that motorbike kid me, I should have died, but

I didn't. Hey, the guy didn't hit me at five

miles per hour. Okay, he hit me at full speed.

I went back to school the very next day. If

that is not God's mercy, I don't know what is. Hey,

God's for us. Scripture says God is for us. Who

can be against us? You know? Matthew nine thirteen says,

but go and learn what this means. I desire mercy

and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call

the righteous, but sinners to repentance. You know, we are

meant to be people who think of others. We are

meant to be people who go out there and shed

You have to share Jesus man. Hey, how many of

you go to homes and you're quite happy with the

homes you go to. Can you see show hands, praise

the Lord? Love it. That's almost all of you. How

many of you run homes in your houses? Okay, that's good.

I'm not gonna ask this next question. Do not put

up your hands. How many of you go around calling

all your neighbors who are not your church members or

church partners to your homes. You know, when elder neighbor

myself got tired of calling our church partners to homes,

you know what we started doing, calling our neighbors to homes,

neighbors who do not know who Jesus is. And as

a result of that, one man accepted the Lord before

he died. So, you know what, God wants us to

share that mercy that he's given us with somebody else.

You keep sharing it with each other. Okay, that's good.

I'm not saying that's bad. But share it with the

ones who don't know. I did not come to call

the righteous. You know, that's what It means I didn't

come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. You know,

we are so interested to keep calling to our homes

those who are already saved. Is that what God wants?

You want to see breakthrough happen? You want to see

can homes start in the same neighborhood, can start calling

the ones who are not saved our homes. Is meant

to look after each and every one of us. I

understand that is true, because there is a place for

that in scripture as well. But it is also meant

to be a beacon to those around who do not

know Jesus mercy. We are encouraged to be merciful as

God is merciful. You know. In Collogons three twelve it says, therefore,

as the elect of God, Holy and Beloved, I love

this one. Listen to this therefore, as the elect of God. Therefore,

as the believer, therefore is the one who knows Jesus Ah,

Holy and beloved. Put on What does it say? What's

the first thing? It says, put on tender mercies Before

it tells us to do anything else. It tells us

to put on tender mercies, Kindness, humility, meekness and long suffering,

the first thing that's on God's heart. It's talking to

us right therefore, as the elect of God. Therefore, those

people who know Jesus, what's the first thing, put on

tender mercies. We're encouraged to be merciful, as God is merciful.

You know. In Collosians three twelve it says this, put

on therefore, as the elect of God, Holy and beloved.

This is from the King James version. And I want

to give you an understanding. Put on tender mercies. You

know what it actually means. What the word actually means,

powels of mercy, bowels of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind,

meekness and long suffering. God wants us to put on

bowels of mercy. What is that? Okay, I'm gonna explain

this word to you. It comes from the word splucon.

Sounds like clingon. Okay. For those of you are start

Trek fans, it's very close to the Klingon language, but

it's not. This is Greek blacklon. The inward parts, the heart,

the liver, the lungs, the emotion.

You know.

Its definition is the inward parts, the heart, the seed

of your feelings. It is telling us to put on

mercies as part of the deepest areas of our being.

That's what God is telling each and every one of us. Mercy.

So if we are hot people, people who only want

things done our way, people who can only see things

down away, what's the first thing that God wants us

to put on tender mercies? Her? You know what it

also means, uh, interestines or intestines. You know the thing

that carries all your food around you know, inside of you.

That's where God is telling us. Let that be a

part and parcel of your life, from the very inside

of you. Put on tender mercies. Do you know? You

and I we get what we gave. We get what

we gave. Look at Matthew five seven. Blessed are the merciful,

for they shall obtain mercy. Hey, guys, you are any

of us brave enough to say we do not need

the mercy of God. We need the mercy of God

for every that we take, the moment we get out

of bed, we do. We need it in our jobs,

we need it in our businesses. We need in the

very air that we breathe, so that we don't fall sick.

So that we don't have ailments so that our children

will be safe. Oh, you need the mercy of God

so your children will be safe. Hey, you and I

can never look after our children better than God can

unless you're gonna have eyes on them twenty four hours

a day. I can imagine you are the CEO of

some big company billions of dollars, and everywhere you go

you carry your child around like that. Okay, now it's

the board meeting. You cannot see any of your board

members because you're looking at your child's face because only

I can look after my child. It's ridiculous, isn't it?

What am I saying? You cannot be looking at your

child twenty four hours a day, every minute of every day.

But guess who can? God can. God can look after

your child every minute of every hour of every day.

And that's the basis that Elder Memble and myself brought

up our kids. We never felt that we could be

the best parents without God's involvement. We never felt that

we could look after our kids better than God could,

which is why we put God into them. And we

never allowed them to take our service away. If we

were in church until two am, so was our kids.

I'm not telling you to do what we did. You

do what God tells you to do. More is given,

most require. This is what God has told us to do.

Elder Mabel was back in church one week after delivery,

delivered on a Sunday. Next Sunday, she was back in church.

You know why, we, Elder Maghbor myself don't believe in

all the pantang pantang, all that I don't know. You know,

confinement this, I mean, you believe that that's up to you.

We don't believe because we believe our God is greater

than that. You know why, from the very beginning, we

wanted God to know we cannot look after our children

better than you can, so that those moments when we

are distracted, God is not and God is looking after them.

I told you when Ashley had dislocated the arm and

we walked into the doctor doctor checkter out, yes, let

me do an X ray to confirm she was one

year old. Crying and screaming. I said, I told all love,

we're not going to let this happen because I do

not want my one year old baby going for X ray.

We laid hands and we prayed in Jesus Name, and the

moment we finished that prayer, we said in Jesus Name, Ashley,

with that damaged arm, reached out and took a toy

from my hand and she started laughing and giggling and

she was so happy and tested a hand. She was

just laughing and giggling, holding the toy and playing, which

she had not done for six hours. She was screaming

for six hours. You know why don't do what we do?

This is where we put God's first because the worship

was important. We needed to worship God. We spent six

hours worshiping the Lord on a Sunday before we took

her for the check up. We're terrible parents, aren't we.

But I'll tell you this, long before that was ready,

she just reached out hand took that toy. I walked

right up to the count and said, there's no need

for any X ray. Thank you very much. She is fine,

and we walked out of the hospital. See exactly what

I'm telling you. The way I said it is exactly

the way I did it. God can look after the children,

and you know what this Ashley and Alana again, Ashley

Ashley playing she's two years old. She falls and she

hits her mouth on the table to the top lip

goes into a teeth, and it's bleeding and bleeding and bleeding,

and she's crying and screaming in pain. And I look

and there's two holes in her in her upper lip.

And she's crying and crying, and you know, cloth is

now full of blood. And Alana got so fed up

of her crying, just walks up to her, lays her

hand and says, in Jesus name be healed. Ashley immediately

stops crying. I seuch a mouth, the holes are gone.

Is it because Ashley prayed Alana prayed? Or is it

because we trust God? Ashley was always Ashley. Ashley was

coughing and wheezing and coughing and weezing. She did that

until she was three years old, really ill with asthma.

Every two three weeks, she's down. You're sick. She's this,

she's always bad fever. That's how she used to breathe.

And my folks were now retired looking after her, coming

her with anybody. One day I said, Lord, this cannot

be elder mable And myself spend the whole night up

just praying, laying hands with her. We stop the medication.

We sponged her down. We did not give her any medication.

You do not do this unless the Lord tells you.

We did this the whole night we prayed. In the

morning she was fine. Guess what, It has now been

thirty years. She has been well for thirty years. That

was the last time. Better than merciful, they shall obtain

mercy because this is a godly principle and good to

live by. In Luke six, that's having said judge none,

you should not be judge, condemned not, and you shall

not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Hey,

this is what God wants. So in Matthew eight nineteen

twenty says, go therefore, make disciples of all the nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of

the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to

observe all things that I have commanded you in law.

I am with you even to the end of the age. Amen.

When you shared Jesus with somebody else, what are you doing?

You are showing them mercy. That's what God wants us

to do. Don't you see why He's been asking us

to share Jesus with somebody else because He wants mercy

to come from the inside of us and reach somebody else.

Have you ever seen the Great Commission as an act

of mercy? It is. It's an opportunity to do for

others as God has done for us. It's an act

of mercy, you know. It's an opportunity for God to

do for us as we have done for others. So

now we show mercy to somebody else, God will show

us mercy scripture. Do you know? It is an exhibition

of a changed in a man that God is searching for.

How will you know whether you and I have changed?

Have we been? I'm merciful. I know one person ten words,

nine words out of ten, four letter words, seven letter words,

all the kind of words. All right, terrible, terrible, foul

mouthed person screaming at his stuff. Michael League. Okay, here's

my Michael League screaming at the stuff, screaming and screaming

and screaming. But I prayed and say, God, you could

see him many years past, and I found out about

this man. Yess what he had found. The Lord became very,

very successful and gave it all up to become a missionary.

He goes around Southeast Asia with his wife, and they've

got a ministry for children. If you had seen that man,

you never would believe this was possible. But that's how

God can change, an exhibition of a change in a

man that God is searching for. And you know, it

is a way for us to be like our father.

How many of us want to be like a chip

of the old block. We want to be like our father,

our heavenly father. For us to be like our father,

Luke six thirty six says, therefore, be merciful, just as

your father also is merciful. This morning, I got up

to do my morning walks to pray for this service,

and it was raining, so I could not go, but

I prayed anyway. And while I was praying, God said,

there is this song that I want you to do.

I say, Lord, Radio, so yeah, you know, so it

is a It is a song that you know he

asked me to do for you, And it was about

today's message. By the way, but the Lord gave Elder

Mable a dream. And in the dream which he shared

with me, as I was driving her to I was

actually driving her to service, right, And as I was

driving her to service, she told me that she had

this dream and in this dream, there are a lot

of people around, and basically she had died and she

was going through a tunnel. And even as she was

going through this tunnel, she said, she could see the

white light coming and she only had one thought, Lord,

I pray that you accept me. I pray that you

accept ex me. So she asked me, what do you

think this dream meant? I say, well, the Lord probably

wants to encourage you. At least you're going towards wildlight.

You're not going towards You're not going down towards a

red flame. Then she said, but it's quite scary because

the worst thing that can happen is I go before

the Lord and he says, I never knew you. Then

I told her about this song, and I played this

song for her, And this song is about God's mercy

and I want to share this song with you. Now.

This music may not be quite what y are used to, okay,

because many of you may not appreciate country and Western music,

but it's what the Lord asked me to do for you.

And even as I practiced this song, and even as

I went over the song, I was tearing up like

nobody's business because it's it's so mess I'm a singer,

all right. I don't know whether I'll do it right,

but I don't want you to to get so caught

up with the song that I'm doing that you miss

out on the lyrics of what it is saying. And

I hope this song blesses you as much it is

blessed me. And I'll be closing the word with this song.

You can start. I stood in the courtroom. The judge

turned my way. It looks like you're guilty. Now, what

do you say? I spoke up, You're now I have

no defens But that's when Mercy walk in. Mercy walked

in and pleaded my case, call to the stand God

saving grace. The blood was presented and covered massin forgiven.

When Mercy walked in, I stood there and wondering, how

could this be? Someone so guilty has just been set free.

My chains they were broken. I felt born again the

moment that Mercy walked in. Mercy walking and plead my

case and called to a stand of God saving grace.

The blood was presented and.

Covered mass sin.

Forgiven. When Mercy walked the blood was presented.

And covered masin forgiven when Mercy Jesus walked in.

Hellia. Praise you God.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit aschurch dot org. We

are also active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that

this week is going to be a good week. I

hit for you. God bless