Our Father

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Father's Day, Sunday morning, the 21st of June, 2026.  If all went well, a recording of the service may be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams for the older services or https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch3115/streams for later services.]

Father’s Day comes but once a year.  A dear friend of mine used to disagree with that.  She’d always say, “Every day is Father’s Day”.  I don’t know what her personal experience might have been in this area, but I figured she was referring to the stereotypical father who would come home from work, plop down in his easy chair, and wait for supper to be set on the table.

There was a time when the fathers went off to work each day while the mothers stayed home and managed the house - doing the cleaning and cooking, looking after the kids, that sort of stuff.  This pretty much began to change even in my youth, when many families needed two incomes to get by.  Nowadays, most mothers and fathers share roles.

Still, though, I’d have to concur that every day is Father’s Day, for there is no better job than being a father.  And it’s a crying shame when a man abandons his family, forsaking his kids and their Mom.

Fortunately for us, we have a good Father who will never abandon us, never forsake us, never give up on us.  He constantly looks after us, sees to all our needs, gives us so much, and wants nothing more than for us to live with Him forever.  His name is God, and while He lives in heaven, His home is with all of us, all the time.  And all He asks of us is to believe in and love His Son, following Him as we go through this life.  He set us apart from the rest of the world for this very purpose.  We are sanctified and blessed.

In the 8th chapter of his letter to the church in Rome, the Apostle Paul stresses the power in being sanctified, in being set apart for God's purpose.  He also speaks to how we should respond to being sanctified.  Please listen and follow along as the Paul tells us how we should now live, in verses 9 through 17 of the 8th chapter of his letter to the Romans, and I’ll be reading from the Contemporary English Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

9 You are no longer ruled by your desires, but by God's Spirit, who lives in you. People who don't have the Spirit of Christ in them don't belong to Him. 10 But Christ lives in you. So you are alive because God has accepted you, even though your bodies must die because of your sins. 11 Yet God raised Jesus to life! God's Spirit now lives in you, and He will raise you to life by His Spirit.

12 My dear friends, we must not live to satisfy our desires. 13 If you do, you will die. But you will live, if by the help of God's Spirit you say “No” to your desires. 14 Only those people who are led by God's Spirit are His children. 15 God's Spirit doesn't make us slaves who are afraid of Him. Instead, we become His children and call Him our Father. 16 God's Spirit makes us sure that we are His children. 17 His Spirit lets us know that together with Christ we will be given what God has promised. We will also share in the glory of Christ, because we have suffered with Him.

--Romans 8:9-17 (CEV)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for adopting us into Your family and calling us Your children.  And thank You for being such a good father, not only seeing to our needs but giving us even more, blessing us every day.  Father, we have all the instructions we need, right here in our bible, telling us how to live righteously.  But we struggle to do the things we know we should do.  Too often we find it difficult to not do the things we know we shouldn’t do.  So we thank You all the more, Father, for forgiving us when we stray and giving us another chance to get things right.  Please prod us to spend more time in our bible.  Remind us of how important it is that we live this life in a righteous manner.  Help us be more like Your Son Jesus each day.  This we pray in the beautiful name of our Lord Jesus.   Amen.

Dr. George Rekers, in the magazine Homemade, notes that,  “A positive and continuous relationship to one's father has been found to be associated with a good self-concept, higher self-esteem, higher self-confidence in personal and social interaction, higher moral maturity, reduced rates of unwed teen pregnancy, greater internal control and higher career aspirations. Fathers who are affectionate, nurturing and actively involved in child-rearing are more likely to have well- adjusted children.”

Our Father in heaven is affectionate, nurturing, and actively involved in our lives.  What is our relationship with Him?  Is it positive and continuous?  Or is it just for an hour or two on Sunday mornings?  Does it weather all storms, or does it give way to doubts when troubles rise?  Let’s make a commitment to work on and strengthen our relationships with our heavenly Father.

Paul starts right out by saying that now that we are sanctified, we are no longer ruled by our desires.  I wish I could be as confident of this as Paul.  I think that even we believers, at times, let our desires get the better of us.  They may not totally rule us, but they sure can take control sometimes.  And I think Paul understood this, too.  After all, he’s the one who, just a little earlier in this letter, said, “I don't understand why I act the way I do. I don't do what I know is right. I do the things I hate.”

So yes, we struggle with doing what is right, even though we’ve been sanctified, even though our Father sent His own Spirit to live in us and guide us.  This is how much God loves us, that He sent His Spirit to help us do what is right.  By His Spirit within us, we know we are children of God, and we can call Him Father, Daddy, Abba.

When we read of the birth of our Lord, it’s clear that while Joseph raised Him as his own, he was not Jesus’ real father.  Jesus had no earthly father.  Maybe this is why He tells us we only have one father, and it’s not who most people think.  The Apostle Matthew recorded Jesus telling us who our father is, in verse 9 of the 23rd chapter of his Gospel account, when Jesus said…

9 “Don't call anyone on earth your father. All of you have the same Father in heaven.”

--Matthew 23:9 (CEV)

On Father’s Day, we celebrate and honor our earthly fathers, and it is right that we should do so.  But Jesus is trying to emphasize that by our adoption into the family of God, we all have the same Father now, and it is God, our heavenly Father.  And this is why we pray, “Our Father, Who art in heaven…”.  This, of course, is the start of the model prayer that Jesus gave us.  The Apostle Luke reported this in the first 4 verses of the 11th chapter of his Gospel account…

1 When Jesus had finished praying, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his followers to pray.”

2 So Jesus told them, “Pray in this way:

‘Father, help us

to honor Your name.

Come and set up

Your kingdom.

3 Give us each day

the food we need.

4 Forgive our sins,

as we forgive everyone

who has done wrong to us.

And keep us

from being tempted.’”

--Luke 11:1-4 (CEV)

The Contemporary English Version of our bible has this worded a little differently that the King James Version we may be more used to, but the context is the same.  And they both stress how God, through Jesus, wants us to know we can call Him our Father.

It should be obvious that all of this is to our benefit, in this life and in the next.  I mean, who could possibly have a better father than Almighty God?!?  But it also carries with it a bit of obligation on our part.  Primarily in this regard, Jesus says we should show love just as our Father loves.  The Apostle Matthew recorded Jesus telling us who we should love, and why, in verses 43 through 48 of the 5th chapter of his Gospel account, during Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount…

43 "You have heard people say, 'Love your neighbors and hate your enemies.' 44 But I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you. 45 Then you will be acting like your Father in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And He sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong. 46 If you love only those people who love you, will God reward you for this? Even tax collectors love their friends. 47 If you greet only your friends, what's so great about this? Don't even unbelievers do that? 48 But you must always act like your Father in heaven."

--Matthew 5:43-48 (CEV)

It seems kind of natural for children, especially little boys, to want to do the things their Dads do.  How many of you guys wanted to shave while watching your Dad shaving?  Jesus is telling us to act like our heavenly Dad.

God is impartial.  He makes the sun to rise on the good and the evil.  He sends the rains to those who do good and to those who do wrong.  He pours His love over all the earth.  And He wants all of mankind to be with Him forever.

This is God’s love, our Father’s love.  And this is the love He wants us to show others… even our enemies, even those who hate us, even those who would harm us if they could.  We can show our love by honoring our Father’s wishes and helping others come to know Jesus, so that they can also be with God forever.  So that they can call Him Father, too.

Fathers, let’s enjoy our special day and cherish the ones who made us fathers.  And let’s all celebrate our fathers.  For most of us here today, our Dads only live in our memories, but we can still honor him.

Happy Father’s Day to Dads everywhere, and an extra thank you to those men, like Joseph, who accepted the role of father to a child not their own.  And let’s not forget those mothers who also served as fathers for their children.  Happy Father’s Day to you all!

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for giving us fathers.  They protect us, provide for us, and show us how to do things.  Sadly though, Father, not all men who father children are very good fathers.  Please remind all men of the great importance of being a good father to their children, of being a great Dad even to a child not of their own blood.  You are a great Father, and a great example for all men.  You provide for all our needs and then give even more.  You love us even when we are unlovable.  You forgive us even when we refuse to forgive.  Please help us follow Your example of impartial love.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment so that each of us can speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your and our Lord’s commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, thank You for reminding us that we believers are all children of God.  We all have the same Father in heaven.  And He loves us all.  Thank You for showing us that we should act like our heavenly Father with respect to others, and how we should act in our daily walk.  We know that we struggle to love all others, and find it most difficult to love the people who hate us.  Please help us remember that our love should be impartial, just as is God’s love.  Please help us love as You love: selflessly, unconditionally, sacrificially.  Help us show Your love and God’s love as we reach out to others, sharing Your words and Your works, telling them all about You.  Help us carry out the mission You gave us, seeking the lost sheep and leading them to You.

Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Show Kindness

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 14th of June, 2026.  If all went well, a recording of the service may be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams for the older services or https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch3115/streams for later services.]

We know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but then His parents took Him to Egypt to escape the killing of all male children under two years of age that Herod ordered.  When Herod died and they returned to Israel, they settled in Nazareth, in the region of Galilee.  There, the boy grew into a man, often teaching in the synagogues of the region.

In the 4^th chapter of his Gospel account, the Apostle Luke tells us that Jesus left Nazareth after the residents there attempted to put Him to death for His preaching, when He proclaimed that He fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah regarding the Messiah.  He relocated to the city of Capernaum, along the shore of the Sea of Galilee.  It is there that He established and headquartered His ministry.

And when I say it was His headquarters, I mean it is where He and His disciples would return to from their many travels.  For during His ministry, Jesus and His disciples walked all over Israel, even into Samaria, Syria, and Tyre.  They walked everywhere.  Our bible doesn’t say it, but I bet they depended on the kindness of the people they interacted with for help with finances and meals.

 

Once, after one of their journeys of teaching and preaching and healing, they returned to Capernaum where some friends brought a crippled man to Jesus to be healed.  Jesus did this by telling the man his sins were forgiven, to the consternation of the Pharisees who witnessed it.  As Jesus and His disciples were walking back to their meeting house, they passed by a tax collector’s booth.  Please listen and follow along to what happened next, as recorded by the Apostle Matthew in verses 9 through 13 of the 9^th chapter of his Gospel account, and I’ll be reading from the Easy-to-Read Version of our Holy Bible again this morning…

9 When Jesus was leaving, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the place for collecting taxes. Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.” So he got up and followed Jesus.

10 Jesus ate dinner at Matthew’s house. Many tax collectors and others with bad reputations came and ate with Him and His followers. 11 The Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with these people. They asked His followers, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and other sinners?”

12 Jesus heard them say this. So He said to them, “It is the sick people who need a doctor, not those who are healthy. 13 You need to go and learn what this Scripture means: ‘I don’t want animal sacrifices; I want you to show kindness to people.' I did not come to invite good people. I came to invite sinners.”

--Matthew 9:9-13 (ERV)

 

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for marshaling all the events in Jesus’ life and ministry to teach us how we should act and react in similar situations.  Jesus cared about the people and showed how much You care, too.  Father, You want us to be kind to other people, no matter how they might treat us.  But this is hard for us.  Too often our feelings get in the way, our pride gets the better of us.  When someone hurts us, we want to hurt them back.  So we thank You all the more, Father because You forgive us and keep loving us, giving us chance after chance to do better.  Please help us be more faithful in following Your word and showing Your love.  Remind us that it’s our job to love others, to show kindness toward them.  Help us be more like Your Son Jesus in our walk through this life.  This we pray in the beautiful name of our Lord Jesus.   Amen.

 

The little Bits and Pieces magazine once told that,  “Mamie Adams always went to a branch post office in her town because the postal employees there were friendly.  She went there to buy stamps just before Christmas one year and the lines were particularly long.  Someone pointed out that there was no need to wait in line because there was a stamp machine in the lobby.  ‘I know’, said Mamie, ‘but the machine won't ask me about my arthritis.’”

It costs little to show kindness to another, but can bring great reward.  Very often, showing a little kindness can go a long way in winning loyalty.

Today in the Word magazine reported that, “British statesman and financier Cecil Rhodes, whose fortune was used to endow the world-famous Rhodes Scholarships, was a stickler for correct dress - but apparently not at the expense of someone else's feelings.  A young man invited to dine with Rhodes arrived by train and had to go directly to Rhodes's home in his travel-stained clothes.  Once there he was appalled to find the other guests already assembled, wearing full evening dress.  After what seemed a long time Rhodes appeared, in a shabby old blue suit.  Later the young man learned that his host had been dressed in evening clothes, but put on the old suit when he heard of his young guest's dilemma.”

An act of kindness when none was really necessary.  A man in Rhodes' position could just as easily have ordered his young guest to go clean up and change.  Instead, he showed kindness by lowering his own image to more closely mirror that of his guest.  Humble kindness is a trait we all should adopt.

 

Jesus healed a man by forgiving his sins and the Pharisees got angry.  He had a meal with some tax collectors and others that were considered sinners, and the Pharisees got angry.  Pretty much anything and everything Jesus did angered the religious leaders.  And they weren’t at all kind in their anger.

We have no record of how the Pharisees reacted to their little scripture lesson that night, but I doubt they took it very well.  These were the leaders of the people in religious matters.  They should have been more than familiar with the scripture Jesus quoted.  By the way, that particular passage comes from the prophet Hosea in the 6^th chapter and 6^th verse of the book bearing his name.  I would think that being told what they should have been aware of and practicing would have embarrassed them and made them mad.  God wanted them to be kind, but they just couldn’t force themselves to do so.

 

The prophet Micah penned his book sometime after Hosea wrote his, and it’s possible that what Hosea spoke from God influenced Micah’s writings.  Please hear how Micah echoed and expanded on Hosea’s words, reminding us of the role of kindness in our everyday dealings, as he wrote in verses 6 through 8 of the 6^th chapter of his book of prophecy bearing his name…

6 What must I bring when I come to meet with the Lord?

What must I do when I bow down to God above?

Should I come to Him with burnt offerings

and a year-old calf?

7 Will the Lord be pleased with a thousand rams

or with ten thousand rivers of oil?

Should I offer Him my first child to pay for my wrongs?

Should I sacrifice my very own child for my sins?

8 Human, the Lord has told you what goodness is.

This is what He wants from you:

Be fair to other people.

Love kindness and loyalty,

and humbly obey your God.

--Micah 6:6-8 (ERV)

 

What is goodness?  What does God expect of us?  He expects us to be fair to other people, to love kindness and loyalty, and to humbly obey Him.  Isn’t this love?  Aren’t being fair and kind and loyal all signs of love?

 

Let’s look at one more way we can show kindness and love.  Please hear the instruction of wise King Solomon as he tells us how we should act in verses 8 & 9 of the 31^st chapter of his Book of Proverbs…

8 Speak up for people who cannot speak for themselves. Help people who are in trouble. 9 Stand up for what you know is right, and judge all people fairly. Protect the rights of the poor and those who need help.

--Proverbs 31:8-9 (ERV)

 

Speak for those who are given no voice.  Help those in trouble.  Stand up for what is right.  Judge fairly.  Protect the rights of the powerless.  Be fair and love kindness.

One translation of Micah’s words says we should do justly and love mercy.  This is what Solomon means.  And all of this is what Jesus commands when He tells us to love others.  Showing kindness is showing love.

Let’s go out there and be kind, be merciful, and be forgiving.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

 

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for loving us and forgiving us even when we disobey Your command.  We know what we’re supposed to do, but too often we just don’t.  You’ve set us apart to believe in and follow Your Son, but we just can’t seem to let go of the world and its ways.  Too often we look and act just like everyone else, with nothing to distinguish us from the non-believers.  Thank You, Father, for having mercy on us, even when we aren’t very merciful, for forgiving us when we are less than forgiving.  Father, we know we are guilty of sin.  We know we disobey You.  Please help us remember how Jesus treated people so that we can follow His example.  Remind us of what You expect of us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment so that each of us can speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your and our Lord’s commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, thank You for freeing us from our sin and offering us eternal life.  Thank You for seeing how thick-headed we are but loving us anyway.  And thank You for showing us how we should act and react with others in our daily walk.  We know we can be a stubborn people, refusing to show kindness when it would be easy to do so, hesitating to forgive someone who really needs forgiveness.  Please help us remember that none of us are perfect, that we all need to be shown kindness at some point or another.  Please help us love as You love: selflessly, unconditionally, sacrificially.  Help us show Your love and God’s love as we reach out to others, sharing Your words and Your works, telling them all about You.  Help us carry out the mission You gave us, seeking the lost sheep and leading them to You.

Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

 

Judge Not!

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 7th of June, 2026.  If all went well, a recording of the service may be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams for the older services or https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch3115/streams for later services.]

I have a guilty pleasure to admit: I really enjoy watching Judge Judy on TV.  Judge Judy Sheindlin is a no-nonsense, wise-cracking judicator of televised cases that are kind of similar to what you’d see in a small claims court.  She has a bailiff and, in the later version, a court recorder and an assistant, who happens to be her granddaughter.  And she really was a family judge before she retired.

It’s amusing and quite pleasing to watch her tear into the foolish people who come before her with claims or defenses that are utterly outlandish.  One of her favorite sayings in such instances is, “Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.”  But she is an entirely impartial judge, listening attentively to both sides, asking succinct, probing questions, and then rendering a well-reasoned and explained verdict, often providing heartfelt counseling to one or both of the parties.  In other words, she does what a judge is supposed to do in matters of human law.

I’ve mentioned before that the Apostle Paul wanted to visit the church in Rome, but never got around to it.  Reading between the lines of his opening letter to the church, it is apparent that this is not one he started.  But he was anxious to go see them, so he opened his letter with an introduction and a prayer.  And then he delivered a powerful lecture on how all people do wrong in the sight of God.

In our scripture reading this morning, Paul continues this message by noting that many people who consider themselves good are also doing wrong.  Please listen and follow along to the Apostle Paul’s directive in the first 11 verses of the 2nd chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, and I’ll be reading from the Easy-to-Read Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 So do you think that you can judge those other people? You are wrong. You too are guilty of sin. You judge them, but you do the same things they do. So when you judge them, you are really condemning yourself. 2 God judges all who do such things, and we know His judgment is right. 3 And since you do the same things as those people you judge, surely you understand that God will punish you too. How could you think you would be able to escape His judgment? 4 God has been kind to you. He has been very patient, waiting for you to change. But you think nothing of His kindness. Maybe you don’t understand that God is kind to you so that you will decide to change your lives.

5 But you are so stubborn! You refuse to change. So you are making your own punishment greater and greater. You will be punished on the day when God will show His anger. On that day everyone will see how right God is to judge people. 6 He will reward or punish everyone for what they have done. 7 Some people live for God’s glory, for honor, and for life that cannot be destroyed. They live for those things by always continuing to do good. God will give eternal life to them. 8 But others are selfish and refuse to follow truth. They follow evil. God will show His anger and punish them. 9 He will give trouble and suffering to everyone who does evil — to the Jews first and also to those who are not Jews. 10 But He will give glory, honor, and peace to everyone who does good — to the Jews first and also to those who are not Jews. 11 God judges everyone the same. It doesn’t matter who they are.

--Romans 2:1-11 (ERV)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for all the instructions for righteous living contained in our bible.  Father, we know we should be more diligent in following those instructions.  And we know we don’t always do so.  So we thank You all the more for still loving us even when we disappoint You.  Please help us be more faithful in following Your word and showing Your love to others.  Remind us that it our job to love others, not to judge them.  Help us be more like Your Son Jesus in our walk through this life.  This we pray in the beautiful name of our Lord Jesus.   Amen.

In his book, Christianity Today, Stephen Brown wrote:  “It was F.B. Meyer, I believe, who once said that when we see a brother or sister in sin, there are two things we do not know:  First, we do not know how hard he or she tried not to sin.  And second, we do not know the power of the forces that assailed him or her.  We also do not know what we would have done in the same circumstances.”

At a pastor's conference in Spokane, WA, Chuck Swindoll told of being at a California Christian camp. The first day there a man approached him and said how greatly he had looked forward to hearing Dr. Swindoll speak and his delight at now finally being able to realize that desire. That evening Swindoll noticed the man sitting near the front. But only a few minutes into the message the man was sound asleep. Swindoll thought to himself that perhaps he was tired after a long day's drive and couldn't help himself. But the same thing happened the next few nights, and Dr. Swindoll found his exasperation with the man growing. On the last night the man's wife came up and apologized for her husband's inattention to the messages. She then explained that he had recently been diagnosed as having terminal cancer and the medication he was taking to ease the pain made him extremely sleepy. But it had been one of his life-long ambitions to hear Dr. Swindoll speak before he died, and now he had fulfilled that goal.

It's easy to judge someone when we don't agree with them.  It's easy to judge someone when we don’t like their actions or words, when they make us angry.  It's easy to jump to conclusions when we're unaware of their circumstances.  We should probably be careful not to hurt ourselves when we make that jump.

Paul opens our passage this morning with the rather sarcastic question, "So do you think that you can judge those other people?"  When he says "those other people", he means all the sinners he discussed in the first chapter, all those who disobeyed and rebelled against God.  In other words, all human beings.  In the third chapter, Paul will clearly and specifically state that all people sin - all people.  But he also addresses this here, when he points out that, "You too are guilty of sin."  Which, of course, refers to anyone reading or hearing his words, including us today.  We are guilty of the same things we judge other people of, in one way or another.  We have an expression for that: it's the pot calling the kettle black.

OK, so no, we're not murderers.  But Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, said that getting mad at someone is the same as murdering them.  Who among us has never been angry with someone else?  We need to remember that any sin is disobedience to God's word, and we have all been disobedient at some time or another.

Then there's the scary statement: God judges all people who disobey Him, and that includes us as well.  If we weren't so stubborn, we could change and be obedient if we truly realized how good and kind God is to us, how quickly He is willing to forgive us and give us another chance to do right.  Nonetheless, we will be judged, we will be punished just as will those who we judge.  For God judges everyone the same.  It doesn't matter who they are.

Now Paul was merely reinforcing what Jesus had already said about judging other.  Please hear what Jesus had to say about this in what we call His Sermon on the Plain, as saved for us by the Apostle Luke in verses 36 through 38 of the 6th chapter of his Gospel account…

36 “Give love and mercy the same as your Father gives love and mercy.

37 “Don’t judge others, and God will not judge you. Don’t condemn others, and you will not be condemned. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give to others, and you will receive. You will be given much. It will be poured into your hands — more than you can hold. You will be given so much that it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you.”

--Luke 6:36-38 (ERV)

If God didn't love us and have mercy on us, we would die in our sin and suffer eternal damnation and torment.  But He does love us, and He showed His love by sending His Son to redeem us.  And all we have to do is repent and follow Jesus.

If we don't judge others, God will not judge us.  If we don't condemn others for what we see as their sinful ways, God won't condemn us for our sinful ways.  If we forgive others, we will be forgiven.

The things is, we don't need to judge or condemn anyone else.  Jesus says they judge themselves, then condemn themselves by their own actions and words.  We just need to forgive others and show mercy.  For what we give will be given us, what we show will be shown us, and more.

Don't judge, don't condemn, just forgive.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for loving us and having mercy on us, even when we sin.  We have this bad habit of judging others for the things they do, when we do the same things ourselves.  We jump to conclusions without giving the benefit of a doubt.  And then we wonder why You don’t punish them right there on the spot.  Thank You, Father, for having mercy on us, even when we aren’t very merciful, for forgiving us when we are less than forgiving.  Father, we know we are guilty of sin.  We know we disobey You.  Please help us remember that any time we point a finger at someone else, there are four other fingers of our own hand pointing right at us.  Help us be more merciful in our dealings with others, less judgmental, more forgiving.  Remind us of what You expect of us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment so that each of us can speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your and our Lord’s commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, thank You for taking our sin upon Yourself.  Thank You for seeing our disobedience but loving us anyway.  And thank You for offering us Living Water and eternal life if we only believe in and follow You.  But Lord, we can be a stubborn people, refusing to show mercy to all, hesitating to forgive.  Sometimes we jump to conclusions, giving no benefit of a doubt.  Please help us remember that we have our own sins to deal with so we don’t need to worry about the sins of anyone else.  Please help us love as You love: selflessly, unconditionally, sacrificially.  Help us show Your love and God’s love as we reach out to others, sharing Your words and Your works, telling them all about You.  Help us carry out the mission You gave us, seeking the lost sheep and leading them to You.

Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.