In the Shadow of Mercy
by Sam Hodum
November 14, 2021 · Cornerstone Apostolic Church (Chattanooga, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Exodus 21:24-25, Joshua 20, 2 Samuel 3:27, Matthew 5:38-40, 1 John 2:16, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/sam-hodum--in-the-shadow-of-mercy
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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and how who's glad to see pastor somebody you're glad he done he's done withered away to nothing he's lost 500 pounds in a week but i know he doesn't want to see us i mean you know i if he's anything like me when i'm sick i don't want to see anybody right but we're so glad thank you so much pastor for for hanging out with us today for you know gracing us but i want to give honor to you and sister islam thank you guys so much for trusting me today uh it's it it's an humbling it's an humbling responsibility souls hang in the balance every it it's i told you last week scares the jesus out of me and jesus into me it scares me to death but as you're being seated today reach over punch a neighbor a friend i mean tell him hey tell him it's good to see him this past i don't know for about about the past year i've been just not not like every day i say i've been studying but uh i've been i've been in my i don't know when i'm bored trying to fall asleep i don't know i've been doing research on ancient history it's it's a real good if you have sleep sleep apnea or whatever sleep problems not sleep apnea but it's a real good dose for not being able to go to sleep i mean you read about five pages and you're like all right it's time to go but ancient history and in most in in and if you look at ancient history it is please don't tune me out with that i'm not i'm not going into like super ancient history all right but it does start in the middle east uh it it that's that's where civilization starts you have uh you have uh we we read about it throughout the bible we read about genesis and are about the creation throughout genesis and then we read about the flood and then we read about the cities created after the flood but it just it's following a different history so to understand what happened in those cities you have to you have to read just like some of the most boring little pieces of information that you can find because there's not a whole lot uh it just they didn't have the internet so they didn't write as much i don't think i'm not really sure how that went on it took a while to invent writing it took a while to for everybody to to come together and build those things and but when you you did you find you find references to er where abraham left you find references to nineveh we're where we read about the bible and and it starts to build a picture it starts everything starts sweeping together you see the history that the bible's telling of of his people of how he's interacting with his people and human history they just kind of flow together uh and and it weaves in and out and and it backs up one another it's because as a religious book the bible people really have a hard time scholars have a hard time taking it at face value that's what scholars do they don't take things at face value anyway so what can we say about them they but they take they take these these writings and as we discover things we find that you know the bible is telling a true story everything it it backs it up it goes through it's just a it's a good history and a good study and apologetics a good study in understanding history but in that we find that the cultures that started there influenced us today five six thousand years ago some dudes writing down a law that affects us today it does it shaped it shaped human evolution so to speak civil the the evolution of civilizations it shaped how we are our our society is built we we're a society built on judeo-christian values those came from middle east those came from there was a guy named by the name of hammurabi he he had a code of law that he wrote and then when moses wrote and god gave him the ten commandments and then moses wrote his law a lot of those things were just good common sense items that were included they're just about human nature and one of those is it's found in exodus 21 24-25 says an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth a hand for a hand foot for foot burn for burn wound for room stripe for stripe someone pokes you out you poke their eye out if someone punches you in the face you punch them back in the face and it was meant as equality right because if a rich person punched somebody then or poked their eye out then they would just pay them but the law stipulated that no if this rich person pokes my eye out then i get to poke their eye out well as we know right that's human nature somebody hurts me i'm going to hurt them back and i'm going to make sure they don't want to do it again mama bear well yeah right somebody trips your kid whoo better just watch out i don't care if that kid's five years old i'm gonna punt him across the room like wait what wait a minute am i wrong am i right yeah our nature comes out and we we're going to take up somebody kids right we have to teach them to share because what's mine's mine but no our nature and these laws will result in a pretty terrible society you ever heard of the hatfields and mccoy's who knows how that really got started right but we know about it in just in folklore of somebody killed somebody or hurt somebody maybe and then people just started killing back left and right they was living by an eye for an eye that was it they were an eye for an eye gandhi martin luther king jr they all they they both said and i'm sure others have said it and eiffer and i will leave the world blind we will we'll wind up with a with just a bunch of toothless eyeless footless burned people hobbling around that's what they had in kentucky but anyway at least it wasn't louisiana this time so but the bible made provision for this type of behavior because that was that was old testament law and an eye for an eye is not a rule of mercy it's a you punch me i punch you it's i'm not taking anything in consideration i'm just getting you back but god he he knew he was like all right they're not ready for everything yet but i'm going to set up something and he set up something called the cities of refuge uh in in joshua now it's referenced in another book of the bible but i can't really pronounce that book of the bible very well so i was like you know i'm just going to use joshua let you all figure that one out and joshua 20. said then the lord said to joshua so say to the people of israel appoint the cities of refuge of which i spoke to you through moses that the man slayer who strikes any person without intent or unknowingly may flee there they shall be free they shall be for you a refuge from the avenger of blood uh jess if you have that map that that i uh if you were able to get that together this map here and if you can see it this was the six cities of refuge that they set out in the promised land one on or three on each side of the jordan river uh they were jewish tradition would have it that they were designed and and and and put in place so that if you were anywhere in israel you could get to them in a day okay so some i i don't know how true or false that is this this tradition and study will is what i found out through that also the tradition says that if that the roads at the crossroads leading to those cities they had a special sign that said refuge this way and the road was well taken care of it was wider than normal it was clear it was flatter than normal so that you could run as fast as possible without worrying about anything else to the place of refuge place a mercy a place of safety and we find there's a there's a man in the bible by the name of abner who he was residing at this one at the very the very south part one the the very furthest one down that one is hebron hebron okay that was where abner was in second samuel we look at and we find that the the geopolitical the politics of the day was kind of it was rough david was king of judah and he was trying to be king of all of israel and saw it just died and abner was saul's general and abner was a man he was a fighting man he was a dude you didn't want to tangle with he he was he was a powerful man and he knew it and he threw his weight around and he made enemies and he done this and finally he decided that he was going to make peace with david all right but but they had all kinds of wars to fight now and he went back and forth in if if you remember joab he was david's general joe he did the dirty work david was over here shaking everybody's hands playing politics and and doing this and joab's over here like killing people he's just like yeah just turn me loose just let me kill people and he he had to be a psychopath right that was his job he was and so joab and abner these two guys were they they were contemporaries they had respect for one another and they started they started this fight and abner abner's guys were losing and so abner's like he's getting he's hitting the road he's going to live to fight another day and joab has a brother named asha hell and asha hell is chasing after him now the bible describes ashley hill as a fast guy like usain bolt and ashley hill were like ken i think right they asha hell the bible describes him like a deer he could run like a deer he was nimble he was quick so abner he's this old general guy he's getting pretty old in age he's running he's like i'm going to fight another day and somebody's chasing him and he's getting winded and somebody's chasing him he's like all right who's chasing me he knows the he knows the best fighters in the land that's his that's who he is that's what he is so he's like are you are you asha hell and he's like yeah he's like all right dude leave me alone he's like i'm not going to kill you i don't want to fight you today i'm i'm leaving and and ashley hell he's a young guy he's like nah i'm going to catch you and i'm going to kill you he's like dude i'm going to kill you you know abner he's like i'm going to kill you if you don't stop and your brother joab i have a lot of respect for him i don't want to how how can i embrace him or how can i show up as his contemporary when i've killed his younger brother and asked the he was like nah and so abner turned around and he and he smote him between the fifth rib or right under the fifth rib and killed him i mean he knew he was going to this dude wasn't cocky he was confident in his abilities he was a warrior and he went on about his way and in in a couple things occurred and then he made peace with david and then it says that in second samuel 3 27 says and when abner returned to hebron now remember this is the city of refuge this is one of those six cities city of mercy city of safety he said when abner returned to hebron joab took him aside into the midst of the gate to speak to with him privately and there he struck him in the stomach so that he died for the blood of asha hell his brother this mighty warrior this man that fought battle after battle after battle was in the shadow of the city of refuge and he stepped outside of it for just a minute and thought he was still safe for just a minute he said i can still see i can still see safety i can still see mercy i can still see grace but i'm gonna i'm gonna take care of this on my own i'm gonna step right over here and take care of this you see there's something that happens to us now when we swell up in ourselves we get a hold of it and we think we can do it we can take care of it we're big enough i'm going to step outside of the mercy of god i'm going to step outside of the grace of god i'm going to take care of this i'll be right back i can do it but i step right outside of the mercy of god i'm in the shadow of mercy and i died david said this he said should abner die as fools die should admir he's a warrior he's a mighty man and he died in the shadow of the city of refuge he didn't even have a sword in his hand he didn't have a fighting chance because he stepped right outside into the shadow hear me for just a minute abner died as a fool he was right there joab couldn't be persecuted because of it he was smart he said come right over here with me buddy i need to talk to you privately i need to take care of this just being you i need to need you and abner being abner died i want to preach to you a minute about the shadow of mercy i want to talk a minute about how we find ourselves standing right here i can see it right here but i'm in a shadow i'm still covered aren't i i still got a little bit of mercy on me don't i no you're in the shadow that's not real mercy why why did abner die a fool why did abner die as a fool because abner got something up in himself he got inflated in his own ego i can do it i can take care of this myself i'll handle this because me and me and joab we're contemporaries i'll handle this i don't need mercy for a minute i'll set it to the side i'll take care of it that pride you see jesus talked about this he said matthew he said an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth you say that he's like but no i say turn the other cheek how hard is that i say when someone sues you for your coat you give them your shirt too how hard is that that base principle of pride john wrote it like this he said there's for all that is in the world desires of the flesh the desires of the eyes and the pride of life it's not from the father but it's from the world you see when we get all up in ourselves we get all up in who we think we are i will repent but let me take care of this first aha will solve this problem but let me let me work it out over here first i'll go to tr how many's heard this i'll go to church with you but i got some things i need to take care of first i don't want anybody to know so let me just let me let me put that off for a minute ah we all do it i'm not worthy i i just don't deserve to do this no you don't you're making it about you it's not about you it's about jesus come on he's designed a place of mercy he's designed a place of grace he's designed a city of refuge for you today he's designed a place for you to come and lay it all down don't you got an opportunity to cover it in the blood you've got an opportunity to make sure jesus has a hold of it you've got an opportunity to delay it at the altar today don't walk out and die in the shadow of mercy don't walk out and die within the grasp of safety don't walk out and leave and carry your sins with you lay it at the altar today jesus can take care of it the shadow of mercies abner was right here he was hid in the shadows of it but mercy was right here pride has many flavors they all make life unpleasant it can be nurturing can be imposing it's okay to feel proud about doing something but being proud is different everything we desire to have to enjoy or to pride ourselves upon this is the pride of life everything from sensual sensualism and self-indulgences to self-conceit and ungodly gratification of fleshly appetites of mental self-satisfaction and egotistical arrogance this is the pride of life all false views of pleasure false views of possession false views of superiority this is the pride of life human egotism is like a mirror in a barber shop everywhere you look it's me it's me pride me me me you ever been asked to do something i can't do it i don't know how i'm scared me me me me that's when we'll die you see to embrace mercy we first got to repent to embrace the love that jesus has for us we first got to repent but repentance does something it makes us humble ourselves to repent we must admit our mistakes to repent we must submit to something to repent we must admit our own humanity to repent we must lay ourselves down to repent we must lay our pride down to repent fill in the blank you see in first corinthians 6 9-11 paul was talking to the church he wasn't talking to this whole city of corinth he wasn't talking to joe schmoe on the street he was talking to the church he was talking to those that he had helped win those that he had helped make a way for those that he had sacrificed blood sweat and tears for and he says or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of god do not be deceived now i don't i want you to hear these these couple verses here says neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor the adulterers nor men who practice homosexually nor homosexuality nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revelers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of god but it says something here it says in such where some of you this ain't me pointing fingers today this is paul talking to the church 2000 years ago every one of us have those scars every one of us has that shame that we wish we could shed so quick and we're so scared that somebody else is going to find out about every one of us has those things that we don't feel worthy of every one of us everyone and such were some of you there's no big sins and little sins there's just sin and it hurts and it stinks and it's awful and it's messy and sometimes we're scared to admit it and sometimes we're ashamed of it but don't lay your pride at the altar today like don't die in the shadow of mercy today god's got something for you he's making a way for you he's pulling for you today now before you stand with me if you would most of you have something taped under your seat so if you can reach around and if now if it's not under your seat there'll be one on on the end okay it's just everyone and as you get it stand up kids help them find some and as you get it would you stand with me katie i think there's one more one your own right there i want you to hold it up in the air look around look around at what everybody's holding up look around at it man you got a prize you got an ipad that's awesome look at it hold it up look at your friends what is it does it have rhyme or reason i hope not because i just found some boxes and tape stuff all right christmas present no we got to take this back up don't take us home with you this everyone hold it up for just a sec look around almost every single person has something and it looks different and you didn't even know it was there you didn't even know what they were sitting on what they were holding back maybe they didn't either until they really started searching for it every one of us every one of us has got something every one of us has got something we got to get rid of every one of us has got something we got to lay down and we don't even know it sometimes until we come to an altar until we lay it i don't know dude we're like oh my lord i didn't even know that was there so i want you to do this everyone's got it and i want you to know that everyone struggles and everyone's got something they don't even know or they're ashamed of it they're scared of but today can we all do that as iran's coming can we all make ourselves as open as possible and lay it in the house of refuge today because i would hate for anyone to step outside those doors and die in the shadow of mercy and die in the shadow oh come on somebody with me today if you don't mind make your way lay it on the altar open up your hearts to jesus today jesus i give it to you jesus i lay it down every one of us has got something every one of us has something we've got to lay down we've got to fight we've got to get rid of our humanity for just a minute and let jesus take over our life jesus i need you today god i need your mercy and grace lord i need your love and your kindness i need your patience on me today jesus it's me for i'm unclean but you're my holy king you're my everything lord i need you today lord do that we all come short we don't fail we all falter it's okay because we got mercy today we got love and kindness we got a god that's so patient with us and so willing to extend mercy that we don't deserve but it ain't about us can we can we can everybody lift up your voice come on jesus i need your mercy today god i need your grace today god i need your love today don't leave here the same way you came don't die in the shadow of mercy don't die in abner you're a warrior god's made that he's called you to be there he's made you that give myself away myself myself give myself away is my life is you don't mind put your hand on somebody's shoulder if it's appropriate because we're not alone in anything god touch my name god we can't do it on our own we surrender to you today god we need you today to move on us god we need you today to have mercy and grace on us jesus jesus thank you so much can we all lift up our hands for just a minute god we need you today we need your mercy today jesus covers in your blood today at your mercy and grace wash us with wisdom with his son lord make us white as snow we surrender forgive us lord bless you bless the flesh and the pride of life god washes us today help us should be covered by your blood and by your grace we'll be sure to give you all the praise all the glory and all the honor i want to thank you so much for your attention to the attentiveness to the word today thank you so much for showing up it's good to be in the house of the lord with somebody i'm telling you it makes all the difference when you look around and you can see an elder that's been seen a thing or two knows a thing or two we're still worshiping jesus it looks and it looks good makes you feel good as an elder to know it's not gonna die with you somebody else is gonna share the gospel someone else is going to worship jesus if you can make sure you talk to somebody about church this week make sure you talk to somebody about jesus this week because that mercy and that grace that you have not everybody has that everybody knows what that feels like to lay something at the altar dude if you can please be in prayer for pastor this week he's recovering take him a minute that's all right we can make sure that we have everything in order here you have to worry about anything except for you seth he'll have to worry about you but if you can give the lord a hand clap of praise you're dismissed in jesus name