Knowing God - God is Merciful

God is rich in mercy.

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Need additional guidance. How's that? Over here. I'll repeat. If you pick up, if you're on the right end of that row, if you pick up that little black book and fill it out and pass it down, we'd appreciate that. Also mention if you are new here visiting, we're really happy that you are here. You're in the right place, at least at the moment. We thank God for that. We invite you to come down after the service. Our leaders, ministry leaders, life group leaders, hang around. We'd love to meet you and just welcome you here. Also, I want to point out today is Veterans Day. If you are a veteran, would you stand up? Any veterans, men or women? Thank you. I know we have several also soon. Thank you, sir, for your service. If you have someone in your family who is a veteran, would you stand up? That's awesome. I would applaud you. Thank you so much. My experience is the families frequently suffer far more than the veterans, not always. When I announce we've been pushing for the last two or three weeks a special event we're having, an opportunity to serve a really needy group of people this Tuesday, the 13th. We're going to serve a Thanksgiving dinner starting about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And it's for a group a group called SAFE. It is a non-Christian organization that ministers to the sexually assaulted, trafficked, domestic abuse, children abandonment, people that are in very difficult circumstances. It's a wonderful work that they do. If you brought any items, if you've been contacted before, if you brought any items that you had not turned in yet to Fatima, Susie and I will take those. If you just put them back on that welcome table back there this morning, that would be great. If you still want to get involved, you can do that. We're going to set up, decorate, serve food, clean up, pack up, and give food to go. So it's going to be a neat opportunity. I do want to point out, these guys informed us that church groups, they've never had a religious group involved there because they don't allow any religious activity. So we're the first religious group that's going to go, and we're not going to do any religious activity except the ultimate. We're going to love them. So we're going to go love them. We'll call that the high point of Christian activity. So if you want to get involved with that, please let me know. Let's pray. What a joy to gather with your people. What a joy to be in an assembly of people looking to you, seeking you, acknowledging you in their lives. Maybe full of questions and some confusion, but nonetheless coming to you. And we look to you, our merciful God. I pray this morning, Lord, that as we hear from you by your Spirit, God, by your Holy Spirit, that each one of us would hear clearly what you have to say to us, and that we would walk out here today, being more and more grateful for the mercy you have shown us through Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray. Amen. So we're still on the series Knowing God, been doing this for a couple of months. Some of these attributes are more fun to talk about than others. This one's one of those. Sovereignty probably wasn't all that much fun, sometimes holiness, but I've been asked to address this subject. And I mentioned to the group this morning, I think the reason I was given mercy is because the guys like Nick that make these assignments, they know who really needs it. And they say, this guy, and he's all the mercy he can get, and he's been around a long time, so maybe he could figure this out. So I'm grateful to have that opportunity. I will point out that the Bible references are from the New American Standard. I'm one of the rebellious in our midst. I still stick to that one, so if you get a little confused in the translations, that's where it's coming from. I will also say that I won't give you all the addresses today. I'll use a lot of Bible references. But if you have questions on where that stuff came from, please come see me. I'll be glad to give you the address. And just for starters, it helps to know that God's mercy, what a great subject. God is merciful. The synonym is compassion, and you may be more familiar with that word. We see that word a lot in the scripture, compassion. But for starters, as I considered this message, I was drawn to 2 Corinthians 1.3, which says this blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort. Interesting term, the Father. Mercy comes from him. He's the originator of mercy. It comes from his very nature. It is a manifestation of the heart of God. We see that term used in other places. Jesus refers to Satan in one place and calls him the father of lies. It's his nature to lie. It is original with him. Lying comes from him. Thank God we have a merciful God. And we can see God's intent in this in Isaiah 30, 18. His intent, his attitude toward the sinful, our sins and our misery on this planet. This particular passage says, the Lord longs to be gracious to you. Therefore he waits on high to have compassion on you. His attitude toward you, longing and compassion to meet your needs. And like all of God's character traits, not necessarily all of his attributes, but all of his character traits, just like Jesus, we are called to be like him. We are called to grow to be like him. So we read in Luke 6, 36, be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. We read in Colossians 3.12, so as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion. And I believe you see it manifest in the fruit of the Spirit in words like patience. Mercy would be including things like patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness, the mercy of God, the very character of God. Probably ought to talk about that definition a little bit. You may have your own thoughts about that. We're talking about God's mercy, what that looks like to us. We've referred several times to A.W. Tozier. I'm going to do that again this morning. His definition is this: the goodness of God confronting human suffering and guilt. The goodness of God confronting human misery and guilt. So I mentioned synonym compassion. It is an outward manifestation of sympathy or pity. So it's not just a feeling, it's not just a moving in your soul. There is an action that results from it. To be actively compassionate, to feel sympathy with the misery of another and take action. To actually suffer with and show kindness toward another. And to refrain from, as Landon prayed, to refrain from punishing offenders and enemies. I appreciate that one. One of the Greek words used, very strong word, and it's only used about mercy and compassion when it's referring to God, and used several times in Jesus' ministry. And it means a strong inner feeling, deep emotional distress, associating another person's suffering in your own heart as though you were suffering likewise. And it moves you to things like verses that say, Jesus wept. I can identify with this one a little bit. Susie and I lost a two-year-old when we were very young, Christians. Accidental drowning. And hopefully you have not experienced that, but you may have suffering in your own life. I can tell you the depth of the pain. I cannot go any deeper. The personal suffering and agony is unexplainable. And this is the word that's used of Jesus as he views the suffering of others. That kind of agony. In fact, typically you get a figure of speeches in Scripture that says, distress in the bowels or in the kidneys or in the intestine, meaning the depth of you. It's just a word picture. Interesting thing about this particular attribute of God, if there wasn't any guilt, if sin had not come in and the results of sin, you would never know that God was merciful. Because you wouldn't need to. There's no need for mercy when there's no guilt, when there's no sin. Isn't that amazing? He's always been merciful, but he would not have had to show that to us had not sin come in. Tozer says it's human misery and sin that call forth the divine mercy. Well, I decided just looking through to get some pictures of stories you may be very familiar with as I was considering this one particular verse to put up there for you, Psalm 145, 8 and 9, says this. The Lord is good to all. His mercies are over all his works. And so as I contemplate, I'm flipping through scripture. Well, there's a lot of examples of this. It turns out from chapter 3 of the Bible in the beginning, when sin came in, you read about mercy on almost every page all the way through Revelation. So it wasn't hard to come up with some stories, but I thought it would be helpful to look at the areas in which you see Jesus as he walked the earth or God apply his mercy to situations. The sick. And how about the hungry? Jesus said, I feel compassion for the people. They have nothing to eat. He took some blows and some fish, giving thanks. They ate and were satisfied. And then the blind, two blind guys by the side of the road, they cry out to Jesus, Lord, have mercy on us. Moved with compassion, Jesus touched them, and they could see immediately. And they see the heart and the action in response. And then there's a leopard who comes to Jesus in the synagogue one day, he falls on his knees. He says, If you're willing, you can make me clean. Moved with compassion. Jesus touched him. I am willing. And immediately he was cleansed. Then there's a great story about a guy that named Legion, demon-possessed, multiple demons. The guy's living in a cemetery in the tombs. He's naked. He is violent. He runs around destroying whoever walks by the road they can't even contain with chains. Jesus casts out the demons. You know the story. They go into the pigs. And then he tells this guy go home to your people, report to them what great things the Lord has done for you. And how he had mercy on you. And he went and he began to proclaim what great things Jesus had done. There's a good message for us. Proclaim the great things that Jesus has done. And then how about the dead? So Jesus comes into a town one day and he comes across a funeral procession. Turns out the guy that died is the son, the only son, of a widow. And the scripture says when the Lord saw her, he felt compassion for her. He touched the coffin, the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. Jesus saying this, pointing out the reason he came, the ultimate reason that Jesus came to this planet, his purpose and his intent was not to heal sicknesses, was not to feed the hungry, was not to clothe the naked, was not to cast out demons, but to save the lost. And we read Matthew 9 that seeing the people, Jesus felt compassion for them. Why? Because they were distressed and dispirited, like sheep without a shepherd. So the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. There's a great Old Testament picture of that in mercy in Exodus 3. Great story you're familiar with of God shows up out in the desert talking to this guy, Moses, out of a burning bush. And he says this to Moses I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I've given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to deliver them. I'm aware of their suffering. So I came down to rescue them. The New Testament picture of that. But there's a great message. This guy is Zacharias. He is John the Baptist's father, and he's prophesying over him. You can read about it in Luke 1. And he says this about his son. You will go on before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of sins. Because of the tender mercies of our God. That translation right there of tender mercies is a deep agony word that I expressed to you earlier on. Because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the sunrise on high will visit us. The sunrise on high. That is the bright morning star you read about in Revelation. Jesus Christ, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. What a great picture. What a great act. And then I would give you a future picture interesting in Jude 21, relative to God's mercy. His mercy is our hope. It's a basis for Christian hope. And the final outcome of God's mercy is eternal life. Check out Jude 21. There's only one chapter, so that's a verse. Jude 21. Keep yourself in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. The completion of your salvation. The enjoyment experience of eternal life in the presence of God. Not merit, but mercy. So most clearly, the picture of God's mercy, the clearest manifestation of God's mercy to a hurting human race is the giving of his son. And it's his merciful heart that brought him to sacrifice his son willingly for our sins. I'll repeat again, it's worth repeating. We would not know of God's mercy had we ever sinned. If we had not sinned, you would not know he's merciful. Does that give you a picture of the significance of mercy? I don't think we can really comprehend God's mercy without comprehending the seriousness of sin. And this is a struggle I've had, getting sin in a right perspective from God's perspective. Understanding the desperate need for our forgiveness. The desperate need to be forgiven of our sins. It's our very nature to have been separated from Him and being an enemy of God. We'll look at that in a minute. To be under divine judgment. Unforgiven sin. Because of these things, sin, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Ephesians 5, 6. But you're not saved by mercy, are we? We're saved by grace. For by grace you've been saved through faith. Here's my concern, and I highlight every time I went through these notes, every time I was thinking about this, do I really have a significant grip on this issue? The seriousness of sin. How significant is it? I lived with it so long. It took me 31 years growing up in a pastor's home. Can't blame that, but being taught the truth, truth shown to me, encouraged to live that truth. It took me 31 years to surrender my life. 31 years. So sin runs real deep and it runs real hard and it's rampant. I'm afraid we get real used to it. We can even get very comfortable with it. The way to work on that is to do what we've been doing in this series is to orient our hearts to focus on God. Look to God. What is He really like? How does He see things? Specifically, how does He see sin? And I would suggest to you the way to get a grip on the true nature of sin is to study His law. Don't have a heart attack. We're not under the law. Study the law, especially the way Jesus describes the law in the New Testament, going to the heart issues of intent, not just actions, but the intent of the heart, the purity of the heart. Because God's law clearly points out his intention, his purposes, and is a revelation of his character. It's who he is. So sin is not hard to figure out. It is a violation of who he is. It's a violation of his very character. Sin. All we you can define your own way if you have your own definitions, but if it's not relative to God and his holiness and his holy law, you're going to have trouble. I will tell you that we read that sin is lawlessness. 1 John 3, 4. Sin is lawlessness. It is disobedience to God's ways, if you don't like the word law. But it is law. God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. He is holy. That's been taught on here before. Another thing that has trouble, I think, in my own heart is understanding purity. Real purity. Perfect purity. No sin. But we get a great picture, I think, of God when we in Isaiah 6, and that has been taught in here before, of when this guy Isaiah is in the presence of God and he hears the seraphim crying, holy, holy, holy. We know the Hebrews used repetition to make emphasis. But I read this story here recently, and I'm sorry I forgot where I read it. I forget real easy these days. I think it was Philip Yancey, but anyway, he tells a story. He's an author, and he tells a story about repetition and how it brings emphasis to things. So he's working in his office, he works at home, and he closed the door, and the house rule was to his kids leave me alone, the door's shut, I'm working. But one day a little girl comes in and uh actually just comes in and says, Daddy, can we play? And his initial thought is uh I'm busy, I'm working, but he felt for some Reason, no, I'm just gonna lay this down for now. I'm gonna go to the park and I'm gonna spend the afternoon with my daughter and have a great time. Next day he gets a note. Dear daddy, I love you so oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh so two pages of O's, so much. And he said, every O added intensity and depth to her love for me. God is holy, holy, holy, holy. Do not look at sin from your viewpoint, you'll always find a way out. Absolutely holy. Another way to look at the consequences of sin and the significance of sin is to look at the price God had to pay. What did he have to do to rescue us? What did he have to do? Well, we know what he did. He sent his son who shed his blood, who gave his life, which we celebrate communion every Sunday. But know this the value of the blood is not in the blood itself. The value of that sacrifice is in the value, it's manifest in the life of the person who shed the blood. And the one who shed his blood is the eternal Son of God. Priceless blood, that's referred to in the scriptures. That's the price that had to be paid for every lie, every every evil thought, every act of pride and all the stuff we suffer from. God is holy. Well, mercy. One to look at Ephesians 5. Here we go through. I'm sorry, Ephesians 2, the first five verses. Uh we've been through this before here, but it's a really good look at a, I'll call it a before and after. A born, what was life like before Christ came into your life? I'll make that assumption, and what the benefit is on him granting mercy to the believer. So I think it'll be up on the screen there, but Ephesians 2, once again, the new American. What were we like, all of us, what were we like before Christ? Our very state, our condition. We'll go verse by verse. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. How's that grab you? Dead. Spiritually dead. That was the condition of every human being at birth and remain so until the mercy of God is applied. Unresponsive, insensitive to, unable to help yourself, with no strength, not even the desire, not even understanding you need help, not even understanding the depth of your problem, being separated from God, the condition of being dead. And why the death? It says dead through trespasses and sin. Because of our sin, because of our disobedience to God, we are separated out from God. No life, the life court having been separated. It's a hopeless condition. I don't know where you're sitting right now, today, but I can remember look back at my life, those first 31 years and struggling after that, and there wasn't anything I could do. I look back now, and there wasn't anything I could do to get myself out of the hole. Psalm 103 refers to that condition as a life in a pit. And I can see that. It's dark all around. There's no way out. Somebody has to reach in or throw you something to get you out. Helpless. And most of the time we don't know it. We don't know the desperate condition of the human soul. A dead man cannot do anything to improve his condition before God. Romans 6 describes that as being a slave to sin. Slave means you are subservient. You have a master. You don't do what you want, you do only what you are led to do. In this case, sin. So to be desperately in need of God and to not even know it, to not even understand that there is a penalty, there is an end result for rebellion against God. And the Lord has made it clear from chapter 2 of the Bible. In the day he told Adam that you decide to go independent from me, in the day you decide to rebel against me, you will surely die. And I can only imagine Adam's thought. There was no death. God did not create death. That's the result of sin. I can only mean Adam, and I was thinking, why didn't he say, what? What are you talking about? Death. Lots of times God does not explain Himself, and you don't have to always understand. All you have to know is who said it and what did he say? So death came in, not in God's design. Death came in. So we learn now that the wages of sin, we read in Roman, the consequences of sin is death. Spiritual death, separation from God. Physical death, which was also not created by God. Do you know what God makes? It is pure and complete and uncorrupted. It doesn't need an upgrade and it never wavers. It's always the same for eternity. But sin came in at death, thus corruption. Give you a little idea about the significance of sin. There's also a second death, I'll mention. For those who step off of this planet into eternity, who have not received the mercy of God, specifically who all have received his mercy, actually, but who have not received his grace, there's a second death. Eternally. It's eternal death. It's called hell. Eternal punishment. Verse 2, Ephesians 2. We are all dead in our trespass and sins in which you formally walked. That's all of us. This is the way you walk. This is the way you lived your life. Look at this description. According to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that's now working in the sons of disobedience. Boy, that's pretty heavy duty. This is the way we lived our life. And I clearly identify with this. I know that the course of my life was not governed by God the way we were created. It was governed by my selfish desires and my evil passions, independent from God. And looking back now, I never would have admitted it then, but looking back now, I can see how the controlling force was Satan, the God of this world, according to the prince of the power of this. That's the way the world is going. The news headline should not surprise you. The controlling force causing man, along with their own evil passions, to be characterized by disobedience to God. The characteristic of a human being without Jesus Christ is to be disobedient to God. So the fall of man is very significant, going from designed to be in the image of God, made like him, to be in fellowship and communion with him, enjoy him for eternity, corrupted to the core, to the very nature, to the sinful nature. So there's a huge impact. And I say it's summarized pretty well by that last phrase in that verse. The Spirit now working in the sons of disobedience. Sons of disobedience. That means to have the nature of being disobedient. Ephesians 5 says this about the sons of disobedience. The wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. This is a good time to say, praise God for his mercy. And then verse 3 goes on to say, adding to this picture what life was like before the mercy of God impacted you. And it says, Among them, we all too formerly walked, indulging the desires of our flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of God. So we were driven by our own internal evil passions and desires. I identify with this, as I've said several times clearly, that this the motivator of my life was myself. I didn't always say they were evil desires, but they were. It was always about me. And what wraps this thing up for you, I've said it a couple of times, we were by nature. You came into this world by nature. You got the nature of your parents, and your parents' name are Adam and Eve. And when he fell, he fell big. And his nature, rather than a nature of God, which was corrupted, has been passed on from father to father to father to all of us. And so you come into this world with this nature. That is the nature of that human being. Thus we need the mercy of God. So we don't just need to make our behavior better, we don't just need to clean up our act, we don't just need to try and work on purifying our thoughts. We need a new nature. We need new life. And thus the mercy of God. And here we have this verse 4. This is awesome. If you spend too much time in the first three verses, you might get depressed. So sometimes you want to fast forward and go to this. And I will say this, and I don't really mean it to be funny, but this is the biggest butt in the Bible. This but right here is the biggest but in the Bible. If you understand that nature, what you're like before Christ, and then you see, but God, merciful God, but God did something. His heart of compassion, mercy, he did something, but God. Pretty awesome. He intervened because of his great love with which he loved us. He made us alive. We're dead. Do you understand that spiritual death? Dead, spiritually dead. He made those who accept him alive. He made us alive because of his great love. Being rich in mercy, there's our operative word here today. Rich in mercy. That means he's got a bunch of it. It's a good thing. He's got a lot of it, he's got a bunch of it, it's abundant. It's a good thing because, like I said, I need all he's got. I need all he's got. Rich in mercy. Out of the riches of his own nature. He is the answer to our dilemma. He is the answer to our misery. It comes out of his very nature. He is the answer, the solution. Because of his great love with which he loved us. I'd reference you too, and I'll read this real quick, but Psalm 103 is a great psalm. You might want to read this Psalm and meditate on this. I spent a lot of time reading over this and praying over it. I've been praying over our friend Kelsey in the hospital. I want her to hear these words. It just shows the heart of God for us in such a magnificent way. But because of his great love, he has not dealt with us according to our sins. How are we doing? Not rewarded us according to our iniquities. How are we doing? For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us, just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. Out of the heart of God. And then verse 5, Ephesians 2. Sorry, fighting allergies like everybody. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ. I can remember what God was doing, you know, stirring my heart. Back before I surrendered, and I'd really recognize what was happening. But I didn't change anything. I was still living like hell. I was still living in rebellion. I was still living out those evil passions in my heart. Even when I was dead in my sin and transgression. God made me alive together with Christ. Totally without merit, totally without thought and purpose in my own heart, until that final offer was made. The gift of life with Christ made us alive together with Christ. Look through Romans 6, spend some time there, what that means with Christ or in Christ. I would say, in my simple way of thinking, two most important words in the entire Bible are those two words. In Christ. United with him, in union with him, made with him, brought with him. So what the Father sees in his son, he sees in you. Not divinity. I'm talking character here. We tend to think we're divine. Don't go that far. No, like him, seen like him. It's incredible. Union with Christ. And we've studied before in here, talked about John 17, 3. Jesus says, praying to the Father, he says, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Eternal life identified as a living experience with God. Experiencing God, living with Him, in communion. And it is through Jesus Christ that life is made available, the mercy shown in and through Jesus Christ, that the deepest need of human man is met. Without going into a lot of detail, which I probably don't know anyway, as I'm reading through this, or you've ever studied the tabernacle or the temple. There's this really neat piece of furniture, we'll call it, in the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies is the only place God came on earth, the only place. It is the only place he met with man. He came there to meet with man, to meet man's need. The only place. It had to be done just the right way. And in there was this tabernacle, or in this piece of the tabernacle, was a thing called the Ark of the Covenant. And that was the law and some stuff like that, a law which Israel broke. But the lid of that thing made out of solid gold was called the mercy seat. The mercy seat. And that is where the high priest, if he did everything right, if he didn't, he died doing this, approaching the holiness of God. He did everything right. He takes the blood, the sacrificial blood, and he goes into there on this one special day where God would meet him. And he sprinkled that blood on, guess what? The mercy seat. Where God came and met and passed over the sins of Israel. That is a picture that points you forward to books like Hebrews, but to the whole New Testament, where Jesus Christ is the mercy seat. He is the mercy seat. He is where God meets man. He is in him and through him where all the mercies of God are manifest and executed on the heart of man. In him and through him. That's why he said, I'm the way. I'm the only way. I'm the only truth. I'm the only life. Nobody has access to the Father. Nobody has access to the Father except through the mercy seat. Pretty awesome picture, isn't it? So our passage here, Ephesians 2, 5, finishes, by grace you've been saved. Verses 12 and 13 sort of expand on the explanation just very briefly, saying, separate, you were separate from Christ. You were strangers to God's promises. You had no hope. You were without God, but God brought you near by the blood of Christ. In him you have access to the Father. You become a citizen of heaven and a member of God's family. Mercy. Well, so how should we respond to this? I'll just give you one verse here. There's a million of them, but I'll give you one, Romans 12, 1. Says this. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, I urge you by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. The apostle is urging us, because of God's mercies, what mercies? Read the first 11 chapters of that book, specifically the first eight chapters. Read them. The mercies of God. He urges us because of God's mercy what he has done to yield yourself. Present is the word. And it means present and go on presenting your whole self. As body means your whole self to God as a living and a holy sacrifice. Which is only appropriate way to sacrifice to God. To yield your whole self to Him. What are those mercies? The mercies of God. Well, just real quickly, to declare you righteous, to give you a righteous standing before God. The forgiveness of sins. How incredible. To grant you the Holy Spirit, who regenerates in us a new life, who empowers us to resist sin, who conforms us to the image of Jesus Christ, who gives us enlightenment, understanding the scripture, who is our communication with God, who is God, to be a child of God, indwelt by the very nature of the Father, and to be able to live that way, not in perfection. It is a process. I urge you, therefore, by the mercies of God, present your body a living and a holy sacrifice. The only conclusion I would suggest to you, I got from Psalm 119, 15, would be this from your heart. Great are your mercies, O Lord. And I hope, at least for a moment this morning, you are reflecting in the moments we have now in quietness that you reflect on God and what he has done in your life and in your family and in your friends, how he's shown mercy out of a heart that is broken and grieves and suffers in the midst of your suffering, and suffers like you do, but not for the same reason. And has reached out to redeem us. So I have a couple of verses uh I'm suggesting that uh Allison, if you put those up on the screen, as we go into this time of reflection and prayer. Hebrews verse says, Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. Draw near to God with confidence, so that we may receive mercy in time of need. I would suggest to you, you're always in a time of need. And then Luke 8, the attitude to have toward God as we go to prayer. This is actually a tax gatherer in a synagogue. Says he was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner. I pray for us. God be merciful to us, sinners. God help us to know. Help us to listen in this time that we'll quietly reflect upon you, to listen to what your spirit says, to know the beauty of your love and mercy and grace, the absolute holiness of your character, your view of sin and what it cost you, and what it costs us in our life and in others' lives, the destruction, the devastation. And that we will be a people who come humbly, bowing down, seeking forgiveness, and trusting you with our very lives. And we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.