God, Have Mercy

My name is Adrian, one of the pastors here, and I'm very excited because I get to share today's message with you. And if you've never been this your first time or you just have no idea who I am, I just want to do a little introduction about me and my family. This is us just a week ago up at Camp Hammer and we were, I got the privilege to speak to junior hires for that week and so that's just in case. That's me on the right and that's the rest of our family. My wife Jamie, we in just a little less than two weeks will be celebrating 11 years of marriage and thank you. And our five-year-old Ella will be starting kindergarten in just a few weeks here at TLCS, which is blowing my mind, and then there's Penelope who's sick right now, but she just lives life the way she wants to live. That's what she's about. She lives, like if she's happy, she is maximum happy, just loves life. If she's mad, she lets you know, she's mad. And when she's sick, she's so sick. The other day, just two days ago, she had croup, we had to go to the ER late at night and she's doing better, but I'm tired. So if you see us around town or around church or on today or online, anywhere, or you see me sleeping in the grass outside, please pray for our family. We would really appreciate it.

So now you know everything about us. That's us. Today we're continuing our series, "Authentic Real Prayers, Real People." And in this series we're looking at lesser-known prayers, but by people in the Bible, just like you and me. People going through life, real life, life that doesn't give up, life that doesn't relent, life that doesn't take a day off, and there are days that you just want to cry out to God. And so these people do that. Now not all of these prayers are negative or come from a negative place, but you can be assured that they all come from a shared experience. One's an experience that you and I can relate to. And so today's prayer is God have mercy. If you would take your message notes out of your bulletin, we're gonna look at this prayer, God have mercy.

And the interesting thing about this prayer, unlike most of the other prayers, most of the other prayers are prayed by people like a character in the Bible, and you know they're praying this prayer. Now this prayer is different because it comes from a character in a story that Jesus is telling. And you know when Jesus tells a story, if you've grown up in the church or you've been around, these are called parables. And what a parable is, is Jesus using a story to help people of the time, people around him listening, understand a concept or an idea. It's like when you hear a pastor or speaker use some sort of illustration to help you understand something, or maybe a story. Like if you've heard me speak before, you've heard me tell stories about my mom. There's one coming. And the reason they're laughing is my mom is you'll see. She's Korean, that's all you got to know.

But in this story there are two prayers. There are two prayers, but the one from which we get our title is from a man with an issue. He's an outcast. He is a sinner. He feels like God despises him, and he thinks everyone despises him. And this issue that he's dealing with, Jesus wants to address and help the people there understand. And it's an issue I think we all deal with. It's an issue that we all have. I don't know about you, but I like to fit in. Like I don't like going to a place and standing out and you know feeling awkward. Like I can't get into like you know groups of conversations. Like if you ever go to a gathering of people, what happens naturally are these little pockets, little circles of people form and they start talking to each other.

Like if you wait, if you when church is done in a couple hours, when church is done and it's not my fault. No, it's joking. When church is done, you're gonna see people hang out and they're gonna slowly gather together and start talking, right? My problem is I have a hard time entering those conversations because I just don't know how to do that. And no place, there's not a better place to show you how awkward I am or how much I want to fit in then. When I have to take my kids to a birthday party without my wife. Me by myself and I know there, I think there are some people here that have invited my kids to a birthday party. I said, first of all, I want to apologize for my behavior and second of all, from this story, please do not not invite her. She doesn't deserve, you'll see.

So I go to these birthday parties and I just have, I just want to fit in because you get there and there's these circles and this is the thing, if you get there at the beginning of the circle formation, click conversation, you're okay because you were part of it starting. But if you're like me and you're trying to get the kids ready and I can't, like the shoes have literally disappeared and they're like, I can't find pants and this kid is just peeing all over the house and I got to like get him, finally get him in, trying to get him in that car, get one in the car, I can't find the other one, just in Soquel blocking traffic, got to get that, rescue that kid, put him there in the car, get to the party, open the door, we're late, kids go play and now I'm on the battlefield of fitting in.

There's like all these pockets of people and if you go to a birthday party, most of the dads are together talking about stuff and so I'm like, okay, I'm gonna try and I said go and I approach but of course they're talking about stuff that I have, I can't relate to. For some reason, the last two years, guys, all they talk about is beer, like what beer they drink, what beer they make, who likes beer, where beer comes from and I'm like, so I have to now lie about how much I like beer, I'm like, yeah, I love all the beers and I like, I drank like five beers today and they're like, what? And I'm like, yeah, so weird, I'm gonna go over here and I'm gonna eat the food on this table and just stand here and wait for this party to end.

Now besides the fact that I'm terrible at mingling and chitchat, small talk, I think there's a deeper issue going on inside of me. The reason I feel the way I do, because I, the reason I want to like belong, I want to fit in and I think we all have that. Like if you're here today and maybe you're in junior high or high school or college and you go to school, like all you care about is like, I don't want to be walking in the hallway or be by myself. I want to be with people, I want to fit in, I want to find a group of friends so that I'm not by myself. If at the workplace, even here at church, maybe in your families, kids birthday parties, we have that desire to belong and to fit in.

And this is the thing, I think at the root under that, the root of that is a shared issue that we all have, one common issue. Our central issue that makes us feel that way is sin. I'll explain. Now listen, I'm not talking about like the lie you told today or you know the bad thought you had or whatever, those kinds of sins. I'm talking original sin, I'm talking sin from the beginning, I'm talking sin that we've inherited. I love, there's a pastor Paul Matthews, he was preaching at a church, the village in Texas, and he was preaching about loneliness and he has this great line in his message. He says, "Because Adam chose the pleasures of sin, humanity has inherited the pain of loneliness and the pain of separation for God and others. At its root, loneliness began in the Garden of Eden and we are all children of Eden."

Okay, what's going on here? Well, in the beginning, God creates this perfect place and he then creates his most prized possession, human beings. And these people were totally satisfied. They knew who they were, they were created by God, they didn't care what anybody else thought, they didn't care what they wore, they wore nothing. They were just totally good because they were in relationship with God. They didn't have that emptiness or that loneliness because God's intent for humans is to be in relationship with Him, in union with Him. But when sin came into the world, when Adam and Eve decided to sin, we inherited the sin and it separated us from God. So when sin came into the world, we were left with separation from God. Separation from God. Colossians 1:21 says, "This includes you who are once far away from God. You were His enemies, separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions. It ripped us away." And this is the thing, that original sin affects our eternal outcomes. What happens after you die? You know, Jesus's death, His resurrection, all that has to do with that sin in us. But not only does it affect our eternal outcome, but it affects our days every day. That sin, the implications of that sin affect us every day.

And because we are separated from God, we are left with this longing for belonging. Each of us lacks something we were created to have because of this sin. We were created to have this relationship and so then inside of us we are left with this void, this emptiness, this loneliness. And we have tried to fill that with other things, like people. The reason you see so many broken relationships and divorces and broken marriages and broken hearts is because we try to fill that void, that need in our lives with people and they can never fill it. The reason why you try so hard to fit in, especially those in school, because I remember how that felt, and then you lie to yourself about who you are, you change who you are, you lower your standards just to fit in. You're trying to fill that need.

Or maybe like me when you were younger and I began to understand about God and wanting to know God, I tried to like fill that need myself and I thought, you know, if only I do better things, if only I read the Bible a little more, if I pray some more, if I say nice things, if I stop cussing, if I stop burning things, because I used to like burn things for some reason, I loved burning things, if I stop all that stuff, maybe God will like me, maybe God will forgive me, maybe God will accept me. And throughout history, people have been doing that over and over and over. So in this parable, in this story, Jesus is gonna deal with this issue, this issue of sin and how it leaves us separated from God and leaves us with this deep longing. And he describes two responses to that issue.

We're gonna look at Luke 18. If you have a Bible, you can take that out, either digital or analog paper. And Luke 18, it's the third book in the New Testament. If you don't have a Bible, you'd like to open one, there's one in front of you, or if you're in the front row, one under you. It will be on the screen, it's on the paper, I'm gonna say it out loud, it's everywhere, okay? You're gonna hear it, whether you like it or not. Luke chapter 18, and we're gonna start in verse 10. And now Jesus is gonna start this story with the setup. He's gonna like set up the story, give you the characters and like the place where they're going. Luke 18 tends to this. "Two men went to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other was a despised tax collector." Okay, before we go on, I think there's something important we need to do, because when Jesus is using a parable or a story, he's using it for a specific reason to help specific people understand something.

So when he was talking to farmers in the Bible, he told them about like seeds and the ground. He thinks that way specifically, and so we have to understand who is he talking to and what are they thinking? Because now we live 2,000 years later with different, you know, preconceived notions about who these people are and about the time. So we gotta understand who they are. So Luke doesn't tell us where Jesus is or like when this story, he tells the story. So let's just assume it's in Israel. I think that's pretty safe. And it's probably in the afternoons, daylight. And there's a group of people, because there's always a group of people, right? And so who's following Jesus around? Regular Jewish people, maybe some Pharisees. They always follow him around to like cause trouble. His disciples are there, maybe some of his family members, sick people, some people that brought sick people. Basic first century Jewish people. That's like the probably the majority of the people who are following Jesus.

Now why is this important? Well if you're new to the church and new to God and haven't read the Bible before, then you might have an easier time understanding because you have fresh years. But for the rest of us, you've heard the story maybe. You've read the Bible. You grew up in the church. We come think like with like no, like preconceived notions. We have an understanding of who people are and what they've done. And we look at the story and we look at these two characters and we say, "Oh I know who the good guy and the bad guy are." Like let's take the Pharisee. When I think Pharisee, I usually think like jerk, hypocrite, jerk. That's not all the words I could think of. Because some of them were that way. Not all of them. There were some good Pharisees. But some of them were that way, right? But we know that now. But back then, people didn't think Pharisees were jerks or hypocrites. They thought they were the, they were like the best followers of God. If a Jewish person back then said, "How do I follow God? What does that look like? Looks like that guy. That guy's awesome. He, God loves that guy."

The tax collector, I look at the tax collector sympathetically. He's the underdog. You know, he's down and out. But the people there hated the tax collector. You know, I hate a strong word, but that's not, that doesn't even come close to how they felt about him. They hated him. Like look at the word Jesus uses to, like, because he knows what they're thinking. And the other man, then he didn't just say tax, he was like, "Despise, tax." He was like, "Yeah, despise. I hate that guy." Because this is who the tax collector was to them. It wasn't just some guy. It was a fellow Jew, fellow Israelite. And now they are, one, they're collecting taxes, which is not a very popular thing, you know? And then not only are they collecting taxes, but they are doing that for the Roman government. You have to remember, the Roman government, they're, the Jewish people are not fans of Rome. They've come in, taken over, and are oppressing them. You have to really think like World War II era German occupation, early 20th century Japan occupation. This is Rome. And so now these countrymen, they're fellow Jew, they're now working for Rome. They're traitors. And not only that, but they're collecting taxes and taking extra money. So if you owed $10 in taxes, they would take $15, give 10 to Rome, and keep five for themselves. They were stealing from their own people. And then if you had back taxes, they didn't like come and audit you and show me your receipts. They brought a thug and was like, "You better give me that money. I'm tearing this mud." I don't know where, this housemate, well I don't know what they look like back then. "I'm gonna mess you up," is what they said. So they were thieves and they were traitors and they were thugs. So that made them outcasts. Nobody wanted to be around them. Nobody wanted to hang out with them.

That's why when Jesus calls Matthew the disciple, who is a tax collector, Matthew's like, "What? Yeah. Uh, let's have a party at my house tonight." And so he throws this rager and he invites all his friends, which aren't normal people. There are the other outcasts, sinners, probably prostitutes and other thieves or whatever. And the Pharisees are like, "What? Jesus is out of the tax collector's house? Are you crazy?" In just the next chapter of Luke, Luke 19, we have the story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is like the chief tax collector or like the head tax collector. So like head jerk. And Jesus is like, "Oh Zacchaeus, I'm gonna come to your house tonight." They're like, "What? You're gonna go to the tax collector's house? That guy's a jerk. Traitor." They were outcasts.

So in the eyes of the people in this story, the tax collector's a bad guy. The Pharisee is the good guy. Now, Jesus wants to shock these people and that's why he uses these characters. But we have to kind of like, we don't have Pharisees. I mean, maybe we have people we think are Pharisees or tax collectors. But what I want you to think of in today's terms is this. Think of the Pharisee as a person you think is like the best Christian or best sort of that like person who follows after God. Maybe for you it's like one of the pastors here like René or Dan or Mark or maybe it's like Billy Graham or Mother Teresa or the Pope or whatever. You think of that person, that who is, who Jesus wants you to think of as the Pharisee, like the best person. And the tax collector, Jesus wants you to think of the worst person. The person who if your friend hung out with them you'd be like why are you going to their house? And in today like this week maybe it's a liberal or it's a conservative. Maybe it's somebody who's posting articles about how awesome Trump is or maybe it's somebody who's posting articles about how awesome Hillary is. Maybe it's Trump and Hillary themselves or whatever. The person you're like, you're like disgusted by, that is the tax collector.

So we have the picture Jesus is painting and what Jesus does now is he proceeds to flip everyone's conceptions, everyone's perception on its head. He's gonna show how these two people respond very differently to that common issue of sin. He gives us the first response. Number one, I'll do it myself. Luke 18:11–12. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer. I thank you God. Sounds okay. That I'm not like other people. Cheaters, sinners, adulterers. Certainly not like that tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give you a tenth of my income. So this tax collector goes to the temple. These two guys go to the temple, common. The Pharisee walks in confidently and he starts out okay. Thank you God. That's like a normal beginning but then it veers off to this weird like bullet-pointed list of how awesome is the soliloquy about himself.

I don't know, have you ever been like in a circle of prayer, like you know praying with a few people? I've had this experience where I'm praying with people and somebody starts to pray but then their prayer turns into like suggestions for other people or like advice for other people. It's really weird. Like it'll start off, "God thank you so much for this day." And you know God, I just pray for Adrian. God I pray that you help him understand how important it is to exercise and to eat healthily and just to think about his health. God we thank you and I'm like, "Wait what?" Okay, thank you God. There's another person I know who does this, my mom and she's Korean like I said and in just a week, a week from today, we're gonna be flying to Florida to visit our family. We have lots of family in Florida and my mom right now is staying with my brother during the summer to like help watch the kids and we're gonna fly into Fort Lauderdale. We have to drive a few hours and we'll be there next Sunday night.

And I talked to my mom the other day and this is the thing, I know what she's doing right this second. She is preparing food. She is cutting vegetables, she is marinating meat, she is making delicious things that I love. My mouth is watering. She is so good guys. Alright, one more week. We're gonna go there. I mean it's funny because I talked to her the other day and she said, "Oh what's you know what time you guys getting in?" I'm like, "Oh we'll probably get to the house at like 11 at night." She goes, "Okay you want to eat?" I'm like, "No it's 11 and we're gonna have eaten." She's like, "I'll make it." I've been a bigger guy my whole life and she's like, "Oh you need to eat but I'm like it's your fault." Okay, so good. So anyways we're gonna fly there. There's one thing that I know is gonna happen. We're gonna sit at the table. My brother is gonna be there. He's not a Christian and he's gonna look at me and he's gonna, "Adrian you pray." Because when I pray, I pray like a normal length for food. Like if I'm not super hungry, 15 seconds. If I'm really hungry, three seconds, right? And he knows that because if my mom starts praying, forget it. It's gonna take forever and then other things could happen. Awkward things like, like and this is the thing, my mom would normally pray in Korean but if you, if like my wife is there or other people don't speak English, if you happen to be at our table, she would try to pray in English.

And it would sound something like this. She would say, "God, oh God, thank you so much my good boy. My good son. He come California all the way Florida. Long airplanes, so long coming. The two children, wife take care. Everybody maybe cry. He have to drive in long time come. Oh God, thank you my good son. My good boy pastor. So good pastor. Thank you God. God, please, please make my son more handsome. My son, God, please that face, hair. God, please take it out. Huh? Jesus, please take it out. That ugly face hair. Please take it out. She doesn't like the beard. God, I'm so sorry. My other son. This my son Steven. I'm so sorry. He have a tattoo. One tiger, one snake, they fighting. What kind of tattoo snake tiger fighting? Some kind of devil tattoo? My devil son. I'm so sorry. Amen. Let's see. What just happened? She never prayed for the food. Devil's food now.

So anyways, the Pharisee is praying and it starts out well. Thank you God. But then takes this weird turn. Thank you God. And he starts to compare himself. Like I'm not like these terrible people. And then he sees the tax collector nearby and he goes, oh, I'm not like the tax collector. And then he begins this speech about his religiosity. He says, oh, I fast twice a week. Now you have to understand back then you only had to fast by rule once a year. But what the fair, what you'll see the Pharisees do is they add rules on top of the rules. They have a ton of rules already. Like we're going to add more rules and we're going to be the ones that follow them so we can set ourselves apart. So we're way better. So they fast twice a week. And then he says, I give a tenth of my income. And so back then you give a tenth of your money to the temple. But what some historians and commentators say, these Pharisees would give a tenth of like every single thing they would get like food and herbs. And it's like, I have this apple and he would cut like a tenth and like give it and like, what are you doing? Because I'm awesome. I love God. So they were trying to set themselves apart. They were trying to show people how much better they were than them. And they were trying to show God, look how much better I am than these other people.

Then he describes the second response, the first being, I'll do it myself. And now the second response, I can't do it on my own. Luke 18:13, but the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, oh God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner. Unlike the Pharisee who comes very boldly and he probably just walks right up into the front of the temple and stands in the middle of everybody, this tax collector comes with hesitation because he knows how sinful he is. And not only does he know, but everybody has told him the glares he gets from people. The comments he hears as he passes by. And so he stays away from the crowd. He says he stood at a distance, probably stays in the back. And when he prays, he keeps his eyes down. It's just because he felt so unworthy.

Then it says something interesting. He beats his chest. Now, this is the thing about beating your chest back then. I don't know if anybody beat their chest today, but back then it was very uncommon for a man to beat his chest in that region. Now, women would beat their chests sort of as an outward expression of how they were feeling like this sadness and this despair. And it's funny, not only in that region, but Asia. And I've actually seen people do this. I grew up in a Korean church and when Koreans pray, they pray a lot more loud. If they're praying together, it's not like, okay, let's take turns praying. You pray and you pray. Amen. They're like, you want to pray? Let's pray. Let's do this. One, two, three. Let's do it. And everybody just starts going for it. It's like, ah. And I've seen at these prayer meetings, these people weeping and hitting themselves because they just, getting that feeling out. It's like when you hit the floor. I've been mad. I remember one time, we have a dresser that we can't use anymore because I was like really upset. Sleep training, one of our kids, like, please go to sleep. And they're just like screaming at me. I'm like, oh, and like they're in the room. I punched this dresser anyways. I've since asked for forgiveness, but like it's that sort of like feeling. I've actually seen my mom do it.

Now, you know, it's a funny thing I said in that prayer earlier, but when my brother came home with that tattoo, it was not a good day. I mean, I was eight and my brother, it's like in the eighties. So there was like a, there is a rock with a tiger and a snake like fighting. I was like, dude, it's awesome. But then my mom comes in and sees this plastic thing on his arm. Like, what's that? And she drops to her knees and she's crying and beating her chest. My son's going to hell. She's like freaking out. Remember one time my sister was in the hospital and she was praying and she was beating her chest because she just like needed to get that out. And so now we have this man who normally wouldn't beat his chest, beating his chest. Now you see, you know, you don't see men beat their chest in the Bible except one other place possibly later in Luke at the cross, the scene of the cross. Jesus is on the cross and he is dead. They, you know, stab him on the side or they prove, oh, this guy's gone. And so there are people that were there that were following him that believed in him. And they're like, he's dead? Their world broken. Their ideas crushed. And so they beat their breasts.

So you think about this tax collector. He is, he is at maximum despair. And we have this man, total despair. And he comes to God and he says, God, be merciful to me. Have mercy. Now this is where we see these stories diverge the whitest. This is what makes them so different. Where the Pharisee came and told God, this is how awesome I am. The tax collector admits his helplessness by using this word mercy. Now the word merciful here or in the NIV mercy, the original Greek word for this is halascami. Halascami, which means to be gracious, pardon, atone. Another theological term is propitiate. It isn't just saying, God, don't kill me because I'm so bad. It's God, forgive me of my sins. Take these sins from me. To better understand, there's only this word, this Greek word is only used two times in the whole Bible. Once here in Luke and one other time in Hebrews 2:17. And in that verse in Hebrews, it describes what Jesus did his death on the cross, how through his death we have forgiveness, that he took on our sin for us. And so when Jesus is telling this parable and he uses this specific term, halascami, he is saying not only is this tax collector asking God, forgive me, but God, take my sins from me because I can't do it on my own.

So one basic need, separation from God, a deep longing to responses. The Pharisee tells God, this is why I'm righteous. This is why I have been forgiven. This is why I deserve to be forgiven because of all the good things I had done and that I'm not like these people. And the tax collector saying, God, I know I can't do anything to earn your forgiveness. Please forgive me, please save me, please rescue me. So what is Jesus's message through this parable? Well, there's one more verse, Luke 18:14. I tell you this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God for those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Now this is where people are like, people are tracking like, okay, okay. And then he says this is like, what? The Pharisee isn't justified or justified means like saved or forgiven. The Pharisee goes away and not saved, but the tax collector is forgiven. That makes no sense.

You got to remember the person you were thinking in your mind earlier, who's that Pharisee and who is that tax collector? Jesus is saying to you, if they respond this way, that person, not saved, not forgiven, but the tax collector, the person you despise, the person who you can't stand, that person is forgiven because Jesus in this parable is introducing the new way. People thought they had to earn their way to God and Jesus is saying, no, your good deeds don't work. There's only one way, only one way. And later he would tell them that he was the only way. So what about us? What's the message to all of us in here? What's the message to Adrian or to Mark or to each one of us? The message is this, it doesn't matter if you've come into this room and you feel like the tax collector, you've walked into this building with your eyes down, you're sitting in the back or sitting away from people because you feel terrible about the sins you've committed or the mistakes you've made or your past and you're scared, somebody might find out you've come this morning and you feel like God won't forgive you. But maybe if you just come to this room, something can happen.

Or maybe you're closer to the Pharisee. Maybe like I've done so many times, I've slipped into the trap of believing that I in some way can earn forgiveness and you've worked so hard to be accepted by God. You've worked so hard to be righteous and you've trusted too much in your own deeds, your own good actions. Maybe like me, you've compared yourself to other people and say, well, at least I'm not like that guy. Or at least I'm not like her. Jesus' message is this, is that we are all the same. At our core, we are the same. The person who you think is the best, the closest to God and the person who you despise deep inside, we are the same. We all have the void that we're trying to fill. We all have inherited this brokenness, this curse that entered the world. All of us share that common issue, sin. And what Jesus is saying here is, listen, your good deeds don't mean anything on their own. You can't save yourself. Your good deeds don't bring you closer to God. Isaiah 64:6, we are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.

The bottom line is this. God have mercy, that prayer, that is everyone's prayer. That is the one prayer each one of us needs to pray over and over and over and over because God have mercy. That prayer, you know what that is? It is an acknowledgement, an acknowledgement of God's grace and our need for Jesus. It is an acknowledgement of the fact that without Jesus, his death and his resurrection, we're all lost. It is an acknowledgement that salvation, forgiveness, acceptance, true belonging with God is a work of him and him alone. Two of my favorite verses in the whole Bible, Ephesians 2:8–9 says this. God saved you by his grace when you believed and you can't take credit for this. It is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done. Thank you God. So none of us can boast about it.

So listen, if you're here and maybe like me, you've fallen into the trap of the Pharisee and you've worked so hard to be so good to earn love of God, to earn acceptance and forgiveness and you failed time and time again and you've been left empty. Today pray God have mercy. If you've walked into this building and you feel like the tax collector, despise, despise because of your sins, of your past, despise because of what you've done, despise, you feel despised because of what people have said about you. Today pray God have mercy. And if you've walked into this building today and you've never prayed that prayer, you've never prayed a simple prayer acknowledging that God loves you. He died for you, rose from the dead. That prayer, that initial prayer, God have mercy. If you've never done that, I invite you to do that today. Today you can pray to the God who loves you so much that he sent Jesus, his son, the son of God, who lived the perfect life to go up in the cross innocently and die for all of our sins. Who rose from the dead to give us new life. You can pray to that incredible loving and gracious God today and you can pray God have mercy.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father we thank you so much for your grace. You are incredible. It's hard to believe that you would love us. I thank you that the truth of grace is that none of us deserve your love or your forgiveness. None of us on our own deserve any of that, but God you are gracious and loving. You love each one of us. With your eyes closed if you're here today and you've never prayed that prayer, listen, I just want you to know God loves you. He doesn't look at your past, he doesn't look at your, all the mistakes you've made at your life because to rescue us like this tax collector, he sent Jesus to die, rose from the dead. The Bible says that if we believe in our hearts, Jesus died on the cross, we confess with our mouths that he rose from the dead, we can be saved. It's a simple prayer. God have mercy is a simple prayer you can pray today acknowledging the son of God died for you, rose from the dead and you will be saved. You'll be justified. And that's all it is, simple prayer. So magic is nothing. It's just simple and I encourage you to do that today. I love you, thank you. You are so good. We're just in all of you. In Jesus' name, Amen.