There is a direct correlation between “gratitude” and “generosity.” When we're most grateful for who God is (in his vast awesomeness), when we've realized all God has done for us, it spills over in expressions of rich generosity! This month of November, we've seen spontaneous expressions of gratitude to God.
• First, we want to thank everyone who filled Christmas shoeboxes. Each shoebox is going to start a ripple effect that begins in a young person’s life and in time, will change nations.
• Second, food insecurity is a daily struggle for people even in central Illinois. *This month our church made a cash donation to Central Food Bank. *Our women’s ministry made 298 Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches to help families need. *You may recall that we had a micro-pantry in front of our building. That micro-pantry has been relocated to Lee School, to ensure elementary children have food available evenings, weekends, and over holidays when they are not in school. A steady stream of items have poured into our entryway all week long. You can grab list of items school desires. *We also sponsored a couple of pallets of food to be sent to Jamaica, through Midwest Mission. *On Giving Tuesday you will receive an email about how to support International Disaster Emergency Services (IDES) that is responding to emerging needs in Jamaica. Thank you for being generous!
• 2 Corinthians 9:10-12 says, “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.”
Last, let me talk about December. In December we are partnering with New Hope Myanmar Christian Mission. Our goal is to touch 50 villages (about 15 thousand people) by providing a special Christmas meal to some of the poorest people on earth. We want to challenge every Lakesider to do something. It only takes $1 to feed a child. $300 dollars feeds a whole village. $15,000 covers the whole cause. If more than $15k comes in, we will send an additional gift to help these folks in any way the Christian pastors there see fit. Go to our church page and give to the Special Projects line item. Drop a gift marked “Myanmar” in the giving boxes. *On Christmas Eve we will announce and celebrate the final total!
If you've been part of Lakeside very long, you'll recognize God is doing an awesome and good work among us. Please also remember the Church as we prepare to launch into 2026. Our CORE Fund enables us to do all we’re doing. Help us make 2026 our biggest year of ministry.
*If you are new to Lakeside, your family invited stay after second hour for a catered meal. We'd love to get to know you, and get you connected at Lakeside!
Okay. I fumbled the ball a little bit in these closing chapters of Isaiah. There is so much being said, I could preach hundred different sermons. Last week we talked about how God is “Awesome to Heal.” Isaiah 53:4-5 is God's promise to send his son Jesus into the world to atone for our sins, and heal our wounds. “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Last week is probably one of the most important messages I've shared. Jesus takes upon himself our pain, our afflictions, our suffering, our punishment, our transgressions, our iniquities. Everything needed for us to have peace with God and complete healing has been paid in full by Jesus. And God paid this price while we ourselves were running around in rebellion, like sheep astray. Make no mistake about it, these verses are not about God’s “Justice”. No, these verses are about God's “Mercy.” Last week I might have gotten the horse before the cart, talking about mercy before justice… but let’s talk these twin truths.
Here is something to contemplate. God is incomparably great, and incomparably good. God is incomparably just, and incomparably merciful.
The heart cry of this present generation is for “justice.” At its heart, justice is about basic fairness. Positively, justice means every person gets whatever they’re “entitled” to receive. The laborer is entitled to fair wages. The consumer is entitled to accurate (trustworthy) weights, measures, and scales in the marketplace. The government is due taxes, the King honor, a parent respect, a citizen to follow their conscience and have true freedom. The accused are entitled to their day in court, likewise the victim, is entitled to make their case or plea. A person in danger (especially a widow, the fatherless, or vulnerable person) is entitled to safety. Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”
Something I observed about Americans. We believe in justice, we believe in fairness. We believe people are entitled especially to inalienable rights. The entitlement to life, freedom, the “pursuit" of happiness per one's own goals, well-being and ability, to own property, to believe however one chooses, to seek safety, health, shelter in a lawful manner. The right to protect oneself, even with a gun. All of this is anchored to Scripture and to the Christian God. Everyone is “entitled" “afforded" “due" certain irrevocable rights. This is a vital aspect of justice.
Don't think that justice is an easy matter to resolve. Early in Acts, when the church was founded, the church appears to be giving to everyone as they have need. But as idealistic as that sounds, we know such generosity had constraints. The church developed lists of widows truly in need, and not in need. Paul issued a rule that if a person would not work (presumably able-bodied) they shall not eat. It's takes tremendous discernment whether at a society, congregational, or even a personal or family level to determine what a person should be entitled to. We have opinions died as deeply blue, and red, and purple about this. **But, in general, we are a people who believe and practice universal justice, positive fairness. I’ve always felt (in regard to needs) a person is entitled to food, water, clothing, safety, and medical attention. Good Samaritan, we don't leave anyone in the gutter.
By the way, Isaiah 58:6-7 how do you see it? Are these verses about justice (what every person is entitled to) or mercy? “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” In the New Testament, we are commanded to do these even for our enemies. And we live in a great country where though red and blue disagree on extent of entitlement, we error in generosity. We can never become a people or nation that denies what every man due.
Isaiah 10:1-2 says, "Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless." But there are dozens more verses in Isaiah, and the New Testament as well.
But, at its heart, justice also means people get what they deserve. In Galatians 6:7-8 says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” Idealistically we say every man shall eat. But what if they will not work? At the core of immorality is when people reap where they haven't sown. A man works under the hot sun to provide for his family, but the thief breaks in and steals. The father has built up his estate, but his prodigal son comes along to demand his share, that he may squander it on his pleasures and wild living. It seems in America we're becoming a society where right isn't rewarded, and wrong isn't punished. Where wrong not only goes unpunished, but in many ways, the wrong doer is rewarded and advantaged.
In Isaiah, God is awesome in Justice. Isaiah paints a picture of a God who ferociously defends the cause of the widow, fatherless, and poor. But the God of Isaiah is also the Lord of Armies. And the Lord of Armies is just as apt to defend the vulnerable as punish or even destroy the wicked. The Lord of Armies destroys wicked Kings and their Kingdoms. Spanning your Old Testament there is a trail of destruction (including corpses) that extends from Pharaoh in Egypt, wicked Canaanites during conquests of Joshua, to Sennacherib in Assyria, Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, Cyrus in Persia and Medes, Alexander the Great in Greece. Emperors in the Roman Empire…. Isaiah 11:3-4 says of King Jesus, "He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth." From the least to the greatest God is Awesome in Justice.
I think it’s true that there is a sense in which all of us want and love justice, but also in which we ‘re terrified by the very thought of it. I want and love justice when justice protects me, benefits me, entitles me, bolsters me, sets my enemies teeth on edge. But isn't there a part of all of us terrified at the thought of God being truly fair and just, maybe punishing us as we deserve? When it comes to punishment, I don't want justice, I don't want what I deserve, in fact what I most want is what I don't deserve, I want MERCY!
Hear the word of the Lord. Psalm 103:1-14, A Psalm of David. David lived before Isaiah. Isaiah perfectly echoes David. “My soul, bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2 My soul, bless the Lord, and do not forget all his benefits. 3 He forgives all your iniquity; he heals all your diseases. 4 He redeems your life from the Pit; he crowns you with faithful love and compassion. 5 He satisfies you with good things; your youth is renewed like the eagle. 6 The Lord executes acts of righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. 7 He revealed his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel. 8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. 9 He will not always accuse us or be angry forever. 10 He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his faithful love toward those who fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. 14 For he knows what we are made of, remembering that we are dust.” Darrin Snow and I have a special way of greeting each other, after one of our small group talks we say to each other, “Hey Worm.” In Psalm 103 its, “Hey Dust.” God knows what I am, what I deserve. He is awesome in his righteousness and justice. But the only way I can stand is by his Awesome Mercy.
Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the greatest theologian and apologist in church history (after apostle Paul, of course) once said, “Justice without Mercy is cruelty…” If we only have justice, we have a one winged airplane that can do nothing but crash and burn. To this statement Aquinas added, “Justice without Mercy is cruelty; Mercy without Justice is dissolution.” Mercy without Justice leads to its own kind of cruelties—lawlessness, chaos, breakdown of truth, order. Jesus came full of grace and truth, but of mercy and justice, full of greatness and goodness.
Matthew 25:31-40. What kind of people does God want us to be? The answer is, God wants us to be merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgement. Mercy is not doing unto others as they deserve, but as God in his grace, did unto us.
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 “ ‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or without clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick, or in prison, and visit you?’
40 “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
To extent we feel benefits of mercy, so shall we be generous. Let's exercise gratitude-driven generosity!