4/9/2025: Midweek Lent 5

LORD, HAVE MERCY

It is one of the most common prayers of God’s child. “Lord, have mercy!” Mercy is the withholding of punishment or negative consequences that a guilty person deserves. Thus, when we pray, “Lord, have mercy,” 1) we are acknowledging that we have lived in ways deserving of God’s condemnation and punishment, and 2) we are begging God to not condemn or punish us. How important is that prayer? If you cannot say it with sincerity, you cannot be saved. For if you cannot speak that prayer, you cannot possibly believe you need a Savior. Therefore, God gave us his law, in part, so that we would see our need for mercy. St. Paul writes, “I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law” (Romans 7:7). And God gave us the gospel that we might know he has shown us mercy.

Thus, it is good and right that in this solemn season of Lent, we would review God’s law as revealed in the Ten Commandments and connect it with Christ’s passion. We will how we have shattered all the Commandments and are deserving of punishment. However, will we also see how Jesus took the suffering we deserved upon himself. Seeing both, may the Spirit empower us to pray, “Lord, have mercy!” and confidently believe that in Christ, we have God’s mercy in inexhaustible abundance.

FOR ABUSING YOUR COMMANDMENTS

How does one abuse God’s Commandments? That seems like an easy question. You abuse God’s Commandments by breaking them. However, there is another way to abuse God’s Commandments—by striving to not break them in an effort to win God’s favor and earn our place in heaven. The second abuse is infinitely worse than the first, as it sets aside God’s perfect plan of salvation for a completely different plan that will never work.

Satan often works by turning a blessing into a curse. God intended for his law to serve as a mirror, enabling us to see our sin and thus our need for a Savior. Satan would have us believe the law is more like a ladder, and that with focused effort we can climb our way up to God. This misguided belief leaves us in one of two undesirable places. Either we are overwhelmed with guilt when we realize we cannot climb that ladder, or we are swelling with damnable pride because we think we are near the top rung. We conclude our Lenten series by calling out: “Lord, have mercy, for abusing your commandments!” We rest secure in the gospel truth that since Christ was lifted high on a cross, we don’t need to try and lift ourselves up to God. God’s favor, salvation, an eternity in heaven—these things are already ours! Our attempts to obey the Commandments can therefore flow from gratitude, not desperation.

Our worship follows this pattern.

Midweek 1 ...........For Our Incessant Idolatry

Midweek 2 ...........For Demonstrating Irreverence and Despising Your Rest

Midweek 3 ...........For Treating Others Like Trash, Not Treasure

Midweek 4 ...........For Failing to Live With Integrity

Midweek 5 .........For Abusing Your Commandments

Pastor Adam Mueller preaches on 1 Timothy 6:6-10

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