TESTIMONY OF JESUS (PART 3) Spirit of Hunger & Spirit of Mercy
INTRODUCTION “Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled,” (Matthew 5: 6) God’s word is like food. Food is necessary for survival. Everyone must eat and drink in order to live. The word of God is necessary for eternal life. And to get eternal life we must take in God’s word. To hunger and thirst for something means to have an ardent desire and a vehement craving for it. You have to want to find God. You have to want it with all of your heart
CHRIST FED THE PEOPLE Christ always fed the people. He fed 5,000 people and then let them know that they should not seek after the physical food, but should seek the spiritual, which is his word. John 6:26-27, “Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.�
BREAD OF LIFE And again Christ said in John 6:47-51, “Verily, verily I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.�
THE LORD’S SUPPER When we have the Lord’s Supper, it represents the body and blood of Christ that we must eat and drink in order to be saved. When we read the bible we are eating his word. When we worship God, we are eating at his table. The feast days require us to come together before God. All of our testimonies and teachings are like a banquet with many kinds of delicious food.
FEED ON GOD’S WORD In order to eat God’s word we must truly want it. We must want it more than anything else. When we are truly hungry, our one recurrent thought is for food. When we are thirsty we do everything that we can to get something to drink. Without God we are in a condition of starvation. We must seek for the Lord. Christ said “Seek and ye shall find.” And just like with common food, we cannot eat only one day a week. We must eat every day. Pray without ceasing, worship the Lord, study the scriptures both day and night.
SPIRIT OF MERCY “Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy,” (Matthew 5: 7) The word mercy means compassion or forbearance. God’s mercy is everlasting. His mercy endureth forever. God’s mercy brought forth grace after man sinned and gave us the time and opportunity to be saved. Grace means favor, privilege and pardon. Other things coming from mercy are compassion, which is sympathy of another’s distress with desire to alleviate it, God shows forbearance, patience, and leniency. We are protected, reserved, healed, fed and helped because of mercy. Without mercy there would only be wrath and destruction for the sons of men because we have all sinned.
MERCY FOR ALL Mercy affects everyone and everything, including the wicked. We all breathe, we live, the sun shines and the rain falls, and God gives the sons of men the wisdom and ability to build and subdue the earth, to create medicine, to grow food and to establish governments for the good of all.
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CHRIST AN EXAMPLE When we pray we always asks God to forgive us. In order to be the children of God we must be like Him and we must also forgive others. Christ taught us to be good to others, to show kindness. He taught us how to love our brothers and sisters and how to love our enemies. He told us to turn the other cheek. Christ did not treat others the way they treated him. He treated them the way he would have wanted to be treated and he taught us to do the same. Love and mercy are intertwined and walk hand in hand.
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FORGIVENESS It can be hard to forgive someone who hurts or offends you. Anger and pride gets in the way. Those things can actually lead to hatred. Cutting off anger and pride can cause emotional pain. The pain is the sacrifice to obey the word of God. But the anger and pride itself causes pain as long as it remains. These negative emotions take out a big toll on you. They become a very heavy burden and will hurt you more than the person you are angry at.
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FORGIVENESS It is easier and much better to forgive the person, whether they ask for your forgiveness or not. We show mercy and forgive not because the person deserves it, but because we are the children of God and are like our Father. He shows mercy all the time to people who do not deserve it. We do it because God requires it of us, and we do it because we want Him to forgive us. Remember the debt that we owe God is the blood of Christ, which is far more valuable than any debt that another individual may owe us.
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QUESTIONS? For questions regarding this presentation please contact us via phone at 219.980.8136 or by email at info@householdofisrael.org.
SPECIAL THANKS This presentation is based on a class written by: Evelyn C. Pointer