Devotions

Every time you show mercy, every time you are kind and gracious to another believer, you are giving comfort. 

A man from our church stopped me after a recent service and said, “Brother Wilkerson, let me tell you why I attend this church. My ninety-year-old mother just recently passed away. For the past four years, she was bedridden, and I took care of her. At the church I used to attend, I had to leave Sunday service early to go and tend to her. After a while, the pastor got tired of it, and before the whole congregation, he told me, ‘If you’re going to go, go now, before I start to preach.’” 

Then the man said, “Here at Times Square Church, no one has ever said a word to me about leaving early. That may seem like a small thing to you, but to me, it’s a very big thing. I have not had to explain to anyone here that I was going to leave early to get home and take care of my mother." 

Mercy must be shown in ordinary, day-to-day things. Sometimes, mercy can be as simple as a smile that conveys understanding or an arm around someone’s shoulder. It can be as simple as a sympathetic countenance or a word to someone who is hurting. 

You can never offer mercy if you are constantly thinking of yourself. How can you offer comfort to others when you have not yet learned to draw comfort in God’s mercy to you? 

Scripture teaches, “Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation” (2 Corinthians 1:4-6, NKJV). 

Merciful Christians are the Lord’s comforters. They can show and speak mercy and lovingkindness because they have experienced the incredible comfort of God’s mercy. 

I remember being a young evangelist preaching at a crusade before 5,000 people in Los Angeles. At least 2,000 of those people were Christian hippies. They had just been born again and were brought out of the hippie culture. Many of these young people lay sprawled before me on the floor, barefoot with long hair and wearing tattered clothes. 

That night, I was dressed in a spiffy blue blazer with a sharp tie, the latest bell-bottom slacks and shiny shoes. When I took the stage, I started railing on those kids. I said, “Some of you look awful. Put on some decent clothes and get a haircut before you come back tomorrow night!” 

After the service, I was met backstage by a delegation of those long-haired, hippie Christians. One of them ran his fingers down my fashionable coat collar and said, “What a beautiful suit!” He looked up at me then and said, “Brother David, we couldn’t see Jesus tonight.”

“Why not?” I asked. 

“Your clothes got in the way,” he replied. 

I had considered them to be too dressed down, and they had considered me to be too dressed up. Those kids were not making fun of me. They were sincere. They wept as they told me, “We believe you’re a man of God, but you’re missing something.”

I know now that I lacked mercy. I never railed on that subject again. God taught me a hard lesson, one I prayed to remain in my heart. 

Many Christians think it is enough to be pure and sanctified. They think that is the number one issue and that all they need to do is abstain from evil, come out from the world and remain clean. As long as they don’t smoke, drink, fornicate or commit adultery, they think they are pure. 

No one has preached stronger messages on holiness and purity over the years than I have; but according to James, purity is merely the first matter of concern: “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17, NKJV).

Beloved, yes, we are to be clean first, but mercy, grace and kindness are to follow. 

Jesus told a parable about a servant who had been forgiven a great debt (see Matthew 18:23-35). This man found grace and mercy with his master, but then he took that grace and mercy for granted. Immediately after the servant was forgiven, he went out and began to choke a man who owed him a small, insignificant amount, demanding, “Pay me what you owe!” When the debtor asked the man for mercy, he refused and had the debtor jailed. 

Why was this man so judgmental? Why did he lack mercy? It was because he did not consider his own unworthiness. He did not understand how hopeless and exceedingly sinful his own life was. He did not appreciate the danger he had been in, how close to death he had been before he had been shown mercy. 

When the master found out what the ungrateful man had done to the other debtor, he had him thrown into jail for life. 

While I was working on this message, the Lord stopped me and said, “David, forget your message right now. I want to talk to you about your judgmental spirit, your lack of mercy.” 

I thought, “Me, Lord? I am one of the most merciful preachers in America.” However, the Lord began to review all the things I had said to young preachers, things I had blurted out sharply. He reminded me of all the insensitive things I said to people who had failed, those whom I had given up on. 

That session absolutely wiped me out. I wept before the Lord. When I asked God how this could be, he answered, “You have forgotten what I did for you, the incredible mercy I showed to you. How many times did I dig you out of something that could have destroyed you? You wouldn’t be here without my mercy.” 

Beloved, before you can offer mercy to someone else, you must look at the pit where you would be without God’s mercy and forgiveness. Only then can you say, “Oh, God, I know what you did for me, and you can do the same for my friend who is in sin. At one time, I was just as wicked in your sight. I cannot judge this friend because you showed mercy and forgiveness to me.”

What is the mission of the church? To answer that question, we must examine Jesus Christ’s mission on earth. When we understand his mission, we will know how to guide the mission of the church. 

Jesus’s mission was the same as his Father’s. He came, spoke, and preached. He taught, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38, ESV). 

He also said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him” (John 8:28-29).

Jesus’s mission was directed by the Father working through him. The Father gave Jesus all glory, power, and authority, which he then gave to the world. 

Today, the greatest need of the church is to let what we receive from Christ go out to the world beyond us. God gives it to us and we receive it, but oftentimes we stop there. God wants to continue to pour out more of his blessing on the church, and he will do so as long as we continue to give it away. We receive, and then we give, and then we receive more, and we give more. 

Sometimes, God’s blessings are interrupted because we just want to receive and not give. Whenever this happens, the church’s mission stops looking like Jesus’s. 

Jesus came to earth with God’s mission in his heart. He preached the good news, set captives free, delivered those bound, and healed the sick. Jesus still proclaims the year of liberty to those in bondage, and this is the mission of the church! 

Many times, people read verses like the following with a certain kind of interpretation that I believe is mistaken. “Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture“ (Psalm 100:3, ESV). You’ve probably heard that we’re compared to sheep because sheep are dumb, but I don’t think God is calling us dumb. That said, sheep cannot save themselves from bears or lions, the same way that we cannot save ourselves from the law of God. We are guilty and helpless under the law before God. 

Why does this matter? Let’s take the story of David and Goliath as an example. I hear pastors come to this story, and they say things like “You’re a giant-slayer! God has called you to be world-changer!” 

Can I tell you that there is only one giant-slayer, and his name is Jesus?

There are Pentecostal preachers who will say stuff like “The devil’s in the phonebooth, dialing 911 right now!” Well, maybe he is, but it isn’t because of any of us walked through the door. It’s because Christ is living in us. The devil does not fear us, but he fears the Holy Spirit who lives in us. 

No matter what we’re facing or how well we’re walking in faith, we still need the one and only giant-slayer. I believe that the story of David and Goliath is a picture of Jesus destroying the power of sin and the grave. Christ has defeated the devil and every demonic attempt to destroy your soul. 

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:28-30).

When David slew Goliath, all the Israelite men who were ready to run suddenly had hope and a shout of victory in their hearts. The same is true for us at the empty tomb. As soon as Jesus came out of that grave, we all were given a shout of victory. Not because we were strong enough. No, our victory comes from Christ.

^{John Bailey is the Vice President of World Challenge Inc. and the Founding Pastor of The Springs Church in Jacksonville, Florida. John has been serving the Lord in pastoral ministry for 35 years, ministering the gospel in over 50 nations, particularly as a pastor and evangelist in Cork, Ireland.}