Humility and God's Mercy - From My Heart to Yours Part 1

As I come back from my summer break this week I want to begin a new series of messages entitled From My Heart to Yours. We'll get back to Genesis maybe one day before I go to be with the Lord but in the meantime this is what the Lord told me that I'm supposed to talk to you about and really it's a very simple series. It's all about as I go through the struggles of life myself and as God speaks to me from the Word of God about those struggles what I want to do is then turn around and come in and speak to you about the very same things that God has spoken to me about. From my heart to yours.

Got it? Okay now this summer I was reading in 1 Kings chapter 3 where God says to King Solomon he said ask what you wish and I will give it to you and so I thought now if the Lord were to appear to me and were to say to me hey Lon ask what you wish and I'll give it to you I thought I wonder what I would ask for and so I started thinking about that and I decided that what I would ask for if the Lord made me this offer more than anything else what I need actually more than anything else is that I need for God to be merciful unto me. I would ask for the mercy of God and so I went through the Bible looking in the Bible and saying God if my greatest need is for the mercy of God then how do I unlock God's mercy on my life how do I unleash God's mercy on my life how do I make God's mercy active in my life and the Bible told me and I want to tell you tonight how we do that because you don't need to be in church to do it you don't need to be at home necessarily in your prayer closet to do it it can be done anywhere at any time from any place by anybody and that's wonderful so this is what our message is about humility and God's mercy are you ready all right here we go we start in Luke chapter 18 verse 10 Jesus said there were two men who went up to the temple to pray one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector and the Pharisee stood and prayed Lord I thank thee that I have not liked other people extortioners unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector over there I fast twice a week and I pay tithes of all I get now man number one in Jesus's story is a Pharisee the Pharisees were like rabbis on steroids and they had boiled the law the Old Testament down to six hundred and thirteen Commandments that they assiduously tried to keep but their self-righteousness their arrogance was beyond belief to mourn over their sinfulness to grieve over their corruption before a holy God was an utterly foreign concept to these guys would you notice the Pharisee never asked God for any mercy because the Pharisee didn't think he needed any mercy and that brings us to man number two in Jesus's story and he is a tax collector now what do we know about tax collectors we know they were Jewish men who went around collecting taxes for the Roman occupation army and they got rich by gouging their fellow Jews with exorbitant taxes the Jewish people hated them but here's what I want you to see don't miss this not only were these two men the Pharisee and the tax collector polar opposites when it came to their standing in society they were also polar opposites when it came to their attitude towards God when it came to how they approached God watch but the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even lift his eyes toward heaven he beat on his breast and just kept saying God please be merciful to me a sinner Wow Wow Wow what what a difference here's the man who is so gripped by his sin so in gripped by his impurity so gripped by the utter corruption that he was before God on the inside a holy God that he the Bible says wouldn't even lift his eyes to heaven here was a man who felt so unworthy before a holy God that the Bible says he stood at a distance here's a man whose grief over his shortcomings caused him so much pain that he beat on his breasts as a sign of anguish and he said Lord I don't come with any good works and he said Lord I don't come with any religious activity and Lord I don't come with any pious deeds like the Pharisee came with I don't have any of that Lord I just come with a humble heart I just come with a broken heart I just come and humble myself before you and say Oh God be merciful to me a sinner do you see the difference everybody got the difference yeah all right what a difference now look what Jesus said Jesus said I tell you this man the tax collector went home justified before God acquitted before God forgiven before God the recipient of the mercy of God and not the Pharisee and why what made the difference between these two men why did the tax collector get mercy and the Pharisee didn't what was the secret that the tax collector knew well Jesus tells us he says for everyone who exalts himself who was the person that exalted himself who was it the Pharisee yeah everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled but he who say the next two words humbles himself who did that who did that the tax collector that person shall be exalted you got it Second Chronicles 34 Josiah was eight years old when he began to rule in Judah and he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord now in his 18th year he sent Shaphan to repair the temple of the Lord and while they were doing the work Hezekiah the priest found a copy of the book of the law of the Lord given through Moses he found a copy of the Torah he found a copy of the first five books of the Bible back in the corner nobody had even seen it in decades watch and then Shaphan brought the book to the king and read it before the king and when the king heard the words of the law he tore his clothing as a sign of grief as a sign of anguish and he said to Shaphan go inquire of the Lord for me regarding the words of this book we have found for great is the Lord's wrath that will be poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord to do all that is written in this book so they went to see hold of the prophetess and she said to them thus says the Lord indeed I will bring upon this place all the curses that are written in the book of Deuteronomy which was read before the king but she said to the king of Judah Josiah who sent you to me thus says the Lord because your heart was penitent and you next two words humbled yourself before God yay because you next two words humbled yourself before me and tore your clothes and wept before me I will gather you to your grave in peace and your eyes shall not see the evil that I will bring against this place and its people hey Josiah got mercy from God how did he do it he did it the very same way the tax collector did it didn't he what did he do before God he humbled himself 2nd Chronicles chapter 12 verse 1 and when the rule of Rehoboam Solomon's son was established and strong he forsook the Lord and so in the fifth year of his reign because he had been unfaithful to the Lord Shishak the king of Egypt came against Jerusalem with an unnumberable force then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who were gathered together and said thus says the Lord you abandoned me so now I have abandoned you into Shishak's hand and then the princes and the king say the next two words humbled themselves and said indeed the Lord is right and when the Lord saw that they had humbled themselves the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah saying because they have humbled themselves I will not destroy them Rehoboam found mercy from God didn't he how did he find it he humbled himself just like the tax collector just like Josiah folks in fact God treasures humility so much that he even honors it when evil people do it watch 1st Kings 21 for there was no one look at this who sold himself to do what was evil in the Lord's sight like Ahab whom his wife who was was her name Jezebel his wife in sighted all right here we've got what the Bible says is the most evil king of either the northern kingdom or the southern kingdom ever now watch and then Ahab said to Elijah the Prophet have you found me oh my enemy and Elijah says I have found you because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the Lord sight so now the Lord says I will bring evil upon you Ahab I will utterly sweep you away and I will cut off from Ahab every male and I will make your house desolate because of the anger to which you have provoked me and when Ahab heard these words he tore his clothes and he put on sackcloth and he fasted and he lay in sackcloth and then the word of the Lord came to Elijah saying look at this do you see Elijah how Ahab has two words humbled himself before me because he has humbled himself before me I will not bring this evil upon his house in his day folks wherever we go in the Bible we see the same formula and this is the formula that I went into the Bible looking for once I realized what I needed more than anything else was mercy here's the formula humility before God equals mercy from God you got it humility before God equals mercy from God and we see it in Ahab's life we see it in rail bombs life we see it in Josiah's life we saw it in the tax collectors life and I could keep on going but I think the point is made don't you now it's time for us to stop and ask our most important question at this time and I know you haven't done this much all summer so we've got to kind of get back into our rhythm are you all ready everybody ready all right here we go have everybody here we go one two three yeah oh gosh I miss that so what long well remember what I said at the beginning of this message folks I said without a doubt the thing that I need most is I need mercy from God and how do I get it well I get it the same way Ahab got it the same way Jeroboam got it the same way Josiah got it the same way the tax collector got it I get it by humility by coming before an all holy God and dropping on my knees and before I do it anything else I do it by crying out to this God Lord I am here to humble myself before you Lord I am here to admit my impurity I am here to confess my unholiness I am here to mourn over my sin I am here to grieve over the lukewarmness of my heart and the hardness of my heart and how far short I fall every single day of being what I know you want me to be and I am here God to beat on my breast and beg you Oh God please have mercy on me a sinner that's how every prayer every day that you ever pray to God ought to begin because everything else you ask God for if he gives it to you it's an act of mercy you don't deserve it I don't deserve it every other thing that we beg God for is an act of mercy and so that's how we need to start so that the mercy of God is unlocked for the rest of the prayer you with me and you know every great man and woman of God has had this kind of humility Peter said depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man David said I know my transgression and my sin is ever before me Isaiah said woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips st. Francis of Assisi the famous follower of Christ said nowhere is there a more wretched more miserable creature than I and the Apostle Paul said I am the cheapest of sinners and please let me remind you that this kind of humility doesn't come from having a poor self-image that is not what was going on this kind of humility comes from having a deep grasp on the awesome holiness of God and on the awesome unholiness of you and me that's where it comes from and the more we get into God's Word and learn who God really is and the more we are on our knees letting God show us who we really are then this kind of humility grows and will develop inside of us now I said at the beginning of the message that what I need most is for God to be merciful to me but I didn't tell you why why is that well the reason why that is is that I am such a horribly self-destructive person that I desperately need God's mercy in my personal life so that I don't implode from my own self-destructive this and my heart becomes cold towards God so quickly and hard towards God so quickly and rebellious towards God so quickly that I desperately need the mercy of God every moment of every day to keep my heart where it belongs and I'm such a selfish man that I desperately need God's mercy in my marriage and I have such a seriously disabled and medically fragile daughter that I desperately need God's mercy for this little girl and I have a son who's been away from the Lord and I desperately need God's mercy for that boy and for my grandchildren and I have a spiritual enemy who is trying with everything he's got to get me to end my ministry career in disgrace to end it in a way that'll bring reproach on the name of Christ and reproach on the gospel of Christ and how I desperately need God's mercy so that doesn't happen and I say such sinful things and I think such sinful things and I do such sinful things that I need God's mercy I judge other people in such harsh ways that I am desperate for mercy folks I need God's mercy can any of you guys identify with what I'm talking about amen well so what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna come down onto the floor down in front here and I'm gonna get on my knees and I'm gonna humble myself before the Lord and I'm gonna beg God to have mercy on me and to have mercy on my son and that mercy on my daughter and to have mercy on my other children and to have mercy on my grandchildren and to have mercy on my marriage and to have mercy on my foolishness and to have mercy on my arrogance and to have mercy on my stupidity and the messes I get myself in and I want to invite you to come down and join me right here at every campus right down in front and I don't care how far away you may be we'll wait for you don't worry listen folks if you have a child away from the Lord I urge you to come humble yourself before God and pray you're the mercy of God on that child if you have trouble in your marriage I urge you grab your partner's hand if they're here today and if they're not come by yourself and humble yourself before God and cry out for mercy on your marriage if you yourself are away from the Lord or have never come to him I urge you to come down here and humble yourself and ask God to have mercy on you and your sin if you have gotten yourself in a mess because of your own foolishness I urge you to come down here and say oh God I'm in this mess because of me but here I am humbling myself before you and saying oh God please have mercy on me and if you are facing an illness or you've got aging parents and they need God's mercy folks I'm urging you to come down and let's humble ourselves before God and pray the mercy of God down on ourselves and on these people I'll be down here I hope you'll join me you you praise the Lord for all of you down here folks there's still some more of you that need to come join us we don't care go back up the aisles that's why we got that's why we got aisles please have a tender heart to God this is a moment for you and God if you need his mercy let's come ask him for it and remember humility before God will always equal mercy from God come on down and join us now Oh, Lord Jesus, I ask you to forgive me, Lord, for not being the man that I should be. Lord, I ask you to forgive me for my selfishness and not being the husband that I should be. Lord, I ask you to forgive me for how impure and sinful I am, for how quickly my heart runs away from you every day, Lord, and how quickly it gets cold and indifferent to you. Lord, I ask you to forgive me that I can't do better after 45 years of walking with you, that I do such a bad job. And, Lord, I ask you for mercy on me for all the messes I get myself into and my big mouth and my evil heart, and, Lord, there I am having to cry out like Peter walking on the waves. Save me, Lord. Lord, I pray for all the people down here. If you can agree with me, can you say amen?

Amen. Lord, we pray for children who are away from you, and our hearts are a heartbreak. We pray for parents, brothers and sisters who are lost, and, Lord, our hearts are broken for them. We pray for aging parents, oh, God, they need your mercy. We pray, Lord Jesus, for our marriages. We need your mercy, Lord, to forgive each other and be able to keep going.

Lord, we pray for children with disabilities, like my daughter Jill, and ask you to cover these children, oh, God, with your mercy. Amen. Amen. Lord, we just need an outpouring of mercy, and so please, God, as we humble ourselves before you and we admit to you, Lord, what we are, like the tax collector, Lord, honor our willingness to do this by pouring out mercy on us, and, Lord, help us not do it today at church, but help us do it every day, every day. Amen? Amen. Lord, we need you more than we need anything, and we need your mercy. Oh, God, thank you for everyone who's down here. Encourage our hearts tonight that whenever we are like this, we will stand up and have a greeting from the mercy of God. So, Lord Jesus, lift our hearts as we lay ourselves before you, and we pray these things in Jesus' name, and what did all God's people say? Amen. Amen. You