Keys: Part 5

Keys to the Good Life
Part 5
Have Mercy


We continue with the series Keys to the Good Life. We have to use the keys altogether. We must use all of them. The only way to live in and retain the good life is from the inside out. The good life comes to you – it will come to those who attract it. The good life will find you when it sees you are a suitable place for it to live.

To review, God blesses those who are poor in spirit. Don’t play God. We have to reject self-reliance and recognize that we don’t control everything. God blesses those who mourn. We have to know that it is hopeless by ourselves. But, God promises that we will be comforted. We have to be real. God blesses those who are meek, i.e., those who are humble and who trust him. Meekness means that we have to give up getting our own way. God blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. He promises that you will be saturated.

God blesses those who are caring, i.e., thoughtful, kind and gentle (Matthew 5:7). “Merciful” means to have compassion or to suffer with. Mercy is strictly a covenant term. It means: I will withhold what you deserve, i.e. death and punishment. You don’t have what you haven’t received.

The only way to show mercy is to imitate God (Ephesians 5:1, 2). We are supposed to show mercy to other people unto God. God’s forgiveness always comes after the execution of the penalty. No one gets away with anything (Galatians 3:24, 25). Everyone is unto the law until they come to Christ.

We have to forgive by faith, looking at Christ (Ephesians 4:32). We have to forgive others the way God forgave us. It is useless not to forgive someone who God forgives (John 8:1-11). We ought to show the same mercy to others that God has shown us (Colossians 3:13). How does God forgive us? He sees Christ in us. We also have to do it for other people. God also totally and completely forgives us. We have to do the same for others. We have to exercise our will to not remember anymore. Because I am forgiven, I should extend the same mercy to others (Proverb 11:17).

Keys: Part 4

Keys to the Good Life
Part 4
Satisfy Yourself with God

What does the good life look like? Is it houses, cars, yachts, clothes, or vacations? How about health, peace with God, prosperity or purpose? Most don’t’ have the first clue of what the good life really is. The only way you’re going to live the good life is by being part of the Family of God and receiving the keys legitimately. In this message, we’ve covered 3 parts of those who are blessed:
1. stop playing God;
2. be real and mourn the state of your true condition
3. are meek, submitting to God

Try satisfying yourself in God. God can’t make the good life happen for you until you completely trust Him. Only then can God become 100% obligated to what happens to you.

1. God blesses those who crave to be right with Him. Craving will become more focused.
“Hunger and thirst” = the awareness of the craving to be right with God, and to do right by Him.
To be “filled” is to be saturated. Every person on the face of this planet was born with the craving to know God. You cannot ignore the senses of hunger or thirst and live. Consequently, those who live by ignoring God cannot survive. These physical warning sensors were given to preserve your life. If you’ve ever been truly hungry, you cannot turn it off! The senses of hunger or thirst occur several times every single day. Same thing spiritually; you don’t eat only once. People who don’t know they’re hungry or thirsty -- physically or spiritually -- are sick.
Psalm 42:1, 2 – there are those “religiously minded” who attempt to stay close to God by filling up on the equivalent of water. The relationship is what God seeks, not what He can provide or what He has. You can only be satisfied by having Him. God’s righteousness (exchange for Law, commandment, or Word) is for your protection against the thief trying to destroy you. God must be faithful to His Word. How can you blame God when He gave you choice? Looking at the reverse of Matthew 5:6: “Cursed are those full of self-righteousness, for they are wasting their energy.”

2. Satisfaction comes from knowing the difference between physical and spiritual cravings. Knowing the difference will cause you to be satisfied.
Isaiah 55: 1-3 – the Bible is clear, you can only deceive yourself. God wants to know if you will own up to the truth. God wants to know why you choose to spend money eating “junk food” or the equivalent of empty calories.
Matthew 4:4 – Jesus tells us that man cannot live by eating alone. A good meal is not what you need right now. Have you made the Word of God your priority? Use your hunger and thirst to be saturated with the Word. The Word of God always produces faith, which comes by hearing. Faith always produces all of God’s provision (Hebrews 6:11), spirit, soul and body.

3. God only expects us to believe in Jesus. Christ needs your loyalty, allegiance and dedication as theonly objective.
John 6:26-29, 35 – the disciples sought Jesus after He fed the masses with fish and bread. But their objective was wrong. Jesus warned them against seeking Him not because they believed He was the Son of God, but for the stuff He could provide. Are you seeking Jesus’ presence or His presents?