Matthew 5:7 "Blessed are the Merciful"

1:24Mercy. Mercy. Everybody wants it for themselves, but we rarely, if ever, want to give it to others. Our culture loves revenge. We have revenge movies, revenge songs, even revenge dresses. Apparently, that's a thing. We want to see revenge, we want to sing revenge, we even want to wear revenge on our bodies. Pastor John Stott wrote that our culture finds revenge delicious. We have an appetite for it. And our appetite for revenge is one example of what sin has done to us.

2:13Sin has done it to you and to me and to all people, people created in God's image and likeness. But it's not supposed to be that way. We are not supposed to have an appetite for revenge. We're not supposed to find revenge delicious. As we'll see, God is merciful and He calls us to be merciful people. But more than that, God says He will bless merciful people. As we heard in today's Beatitude, Matthew 5:7, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

2:52So this morning I want to help us ask and answer four questions that pertain to mercy. What is mercy? Why do we need mercy? Why is it so hard to be merciful? And how can I become a more merciful person? So let's start off by defining mercy and then considering why it is that we need it. Take a look on the screen at Psalm 103. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

3:30He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. Now notice that when King David describes God in this psalm, he describes him as merciful and gracious. So the first thing that comes to David's mind when he thinks about God is merciful. It's mercy. And that is not wishful thinking. David is not doing what so many people do, which is making up the kind of God that they want to serve.

4:10So lots of people say, here's what I think God is like. And what we mean when we say that is, here is what I want God to be like. But God is who he is. It doesn't matter what we want him to be like. In this psalm, David is not engaged in wishful thinking, making a God in his own image. He's simply saying that God has revealed himself to be merciful. Look on the screen at Exodus 34. Pastor Joshua alluded to this just a few moments ago.

4:48The Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, the Lord the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. So friends, this is God himself passing before Moses and telling him, this is who I am. I am a God who is merciful and gracious, the one true God of the universe. I am slow to anger. I am abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. This is who I am.

5:38So God is merciful. Not because we want him to be or because we need him to be, although both of those things are true. God simply is merciful. And we know that because he has revealed that about himself to us. But what Mercy. Look again at Psalm 103 on the screen. I want you to focus on that third verse, verse 10, where we have this wonderful definition of mercy. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

6:20So, what is mercy? Mercy is not dealing with people according to their sins or repaying them according to their iniquities. In other words, it's not giving them what they deserve for their sin, or it's not receiving what you and I deserve for our sin. Well, what do we deserve for our sin? Death. When Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they broke his command, they ate the fruit that he commanded them not to eat. God said, if you do this, Adam and Eve, you will surely die.

6:58Paul wrote in Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death. And some people hear that, and they think that the punishment doesn't really fit the crime. Like, we all make mistakes, we all mess up from time to time, we should not have to die for our mistakes, right? The problem is that in nearly every case, our sin is not a mistake. It's not an accident. Adam and Eve knew God's command. They knew the consequences for breaking the command. They told the serpent what the consequences were, and yet they chose to do it anyway. And we have all followed in their footsteps, choosing to break God's law.

7:46Paul writes in Romans 2 that God has written his law into our hearts. He's put it into our consciences. That very word, conscience, is con with, and science, knowledge. We do everything we do with the knowledge that it's either right or wrong, good or evil. In modern terms, we might say that God has hardwired that knowledge into us. That from birth we know these things. We know good from evil. We know right from wrong. And so, in almost every case, when we sin, we do it on purpose with the knowledge that what we're doing is wrong.

8:26Because our hearts and our consciences tell us that. It's not a mistake or an accident. It is rebellion against God, the king and the judge of all the universe. And so, what do we do when we sin? We try to make up for it with sacrifice. And one thing that historians and archaeologists will tell you is that as far back as people have studied human civilization, people have always been making sacrifices for their sins. It's almost like we're hardware. Hardwired to understand that when we sin, some kind of sacrifice is necessary to pay for that. I want you to look on the screen at how the prophet Micah asks some of these questions with respect to sacrifice, questions that every person has asked in one form or another.

9:21He says, With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body, for the sin of my soul? In other words, I know that I've sinned, and I feel like I need to make some kind of sacrifice to make up for that sin.

9:59So, what kind of sacrifice, what kind of offering shall I bring before God? An animal or thousands of animals? Thousands of rivers of oil representing all of my wealth? Should I sacrifice one of my own children, the fruit of my body, for the sin of my soul? None of those things will do. Look at Hebrews 10. For it is impossible for the blood of God. Bulls and goats to take away sin. Animals cannot take away sin. Look at Psalm 24. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and all those who dwell therein. Money won't do the trick. God owns everything. Look at Ezekiel 18.

10:52The soul who sins shall die. The Son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the Father, nor the Father suffer for the iniquity of the Son. Child sacrifice won't do. Everyone must pay for their own sin. So, friends, where does that leave us? We've sinned against God and we know it. We are compelled internally to offer some kind of sacrifice for our sin, but animals and money and even our own children will not make up for our sin.

11:25It leaves us in desperate need of God's mercy. Remember Psalm 103? We need God to be merciful to us, to not deal with us according to our sins, to not repay us according to our iniquities. We need God's mercy. If you read the Gospels, you will see that people ask Jesus all kinds of questions throughout his ministry. They made all kinds of statements and requests to him. But the most frequent thing that gets said to Jesus in all of the Gospels is, Lord, have mercy on me.

12:16People say it to him over and over again because these people knew there was nothing that they could do to help themselves. But friends, that's not true of everybody, especially good religious people. People like a lot of us in the room today. Good religious people often have the hardest time seeing and admitting their need for God's mercy. And you see that illustrated in Jesus' parable in Luke 18. Look on the screen. Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt. Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.

13:27Now I want to pause there for just a moment. I want you to notice that this Pharisee was a very good religious person. He is at the temple praying because that was his normal practice. He fasted twice a week. He gave 10% of every dollar that he made. Praying, fasting, giving, this man is committed to practicing his faith. And more than that, he avoids many sinful behaviors. In an era where extortion was common, it was even expected among business people, this man dealt with others justly.

14:14In an era where adultery was common, even expected among married men, he was faithful to his wife. In many ways, this man is a model religious person. But I want you to notice that although he is praying to God, he does not ask God for anything. He does not make a single request of the Lord. And that's because he doesn't believe that he needs anything from God. He doesn't ask for mercy because he doesn't think he needs it. In his mind, he is. Already righteous, certainly more so than the tax collector who showed up at the same time at the temple to pray.

15:08But look at how different the tax collector is in his prayer. Look at the screen. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. The tax collector's prayer was very different than the Pharisees.

15:47You see, he didn't come to the temple to pray because he was convinced that he was already righteous. The tax collector came to the temple to pray because he was convinced that he wasn't righteous, that he needed something from God. The tax collector called himself a sinner, and he cried out to God for mercy. He knew that he needed God not to deal with him according to his sins or repay him according to his iniquities, and so he cried out to God for mercy. And Jesus said that it was this man who went home justified, that is declared righteous in God's eyes, and not the Pharisee.

16:30That's because the Pharisee trusted in himself that he was righteous, while the tax collector understood that God alone is righteous. Friends, on the outside, we may look a lot like the Pharisee. We might be good, religious people who do most of the right things and avoid most of the wrong things. We may appear righteous to others, even to ourselves. But not a one of us is perfectly righteous. And that is what God demands. Nothing short of perfection. All throughout Scripture, we are called to be holy just as God is holy. Jesus says to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. But we aren't. Every one of us has sinned. Every one of us has missed the mark. We've fallen short of God's perfect standard. We are born dead in sin and have been sinning in bigger and smaller ways our entire lives. There's nothing that we can do, no sacrifice that we can offer to make up for our sin.

17:38But there is good news. Look at Ephesians 2. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have. Been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

18:18The good news of the gospel is that you and I need mercy, and God is merciful. In fact, he is rich in mercy, and he poured out his mercy on us in the person of Jesus. Jesus was born to live a life of perfect holiness, to live the obedient life that you and I were called to live but didn't. He came to die in our place for our unrighteousness and to rise again so that by crying out to him in faith, you and I could be justified, declared righteous, just like the tax collector in Jesus' parable.

19:00So, men, women, students, children, have you come today to this place to prove to God or to others or even to yourself that you are righteous? Or have you come this morning because you know that you aren't? And that you are in need of mercy from God. God delights to show mercy, he is rich in it, and that is because he is merciful in his very character. And God pours out his mercy on all who cry out to him for it. Friends, I believe you came today because you do think that you need God's mercy.

19:57I know I need God's mercy. But that brings us to the next question: if we know that we need God's mercy, why is it so hard to be merciful? Look on the screen at Matthew 18:21. Look at this question that Peter asks Jesus. He says, Lord, how often will my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times? The questions we ask are windows into our hearts, into what we believe. And I think Peter's question here is a window into his heart and helps us understand why Jesus answers his question the way that he does. Now, in the ancient world, most Jewish rabbis agreed that three times, offering forgiveness to someone three times was plenty.

20:58And I think there's probably a lot of us that would agree with. That, right? Three strikes and you're out. So Peter probably thought that he was being super generous, going way above and beyond, suggesting a number that is two and a half almost times what the standard operating procedure in Jewish life was. Seven times. But Jesus says that we shouldn't just forgive someone seven times, but 77 times. Now, very few people could keep track of that many offenses. I might be able to.

21:38But very few people can keep track of that many offenses. And that's the point. Jesus is not saying that the 78th time that someone sins against you, you no longer have to forgive them. No, he's saying we forgive over and over again, losing count in the process. And Jesus illustrates that with one of his most famous parables, the parable of the unforgiving servant. Look at Matthew 18 on the screen. Jesus says, Therefore, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.

22:26Now, more than likely, you have a footnote in your Bible that says a talent is equivalent to 20 years' wages. So, this man, if the average lifespan is 80 years, owes the king 2,500 lifetimes worth of money. You might be like, why would the king lend anyone that much money? That's nuts. Well, friends, this is a parable. Maybe the accounts got mixed up. There was an error in the spreadsheet. Who among us hasn't messed up those formulas? But this is a parable. It's a fictional story used to illustrate a truth. So it's a huge number to make a point. Obviously, the servant cannot repay that enormous sum. So he's going to be sold along with his family to recoup some of that debt. Look what happens next.

23:24So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, have patience with me, and I will pay you everything. And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. Now I want you to notice something. The servant is desperate, but instead of asking for mercy, he asks for more time. Have you ever noticed that before? He wants the opportunity to save himself. And he thinks that if he just had more time, he could do it.

24:06But clearly, with a debt this large, more time is not going to make a difference. He'd have to live 2,500 lifetimes to pay off this debt. And so notice the king does not give the servant what he asks for. He doesn't give him more time. Instead, he has pity on him. That word can also be translated compassion. It's closely related to mercy. The king releases his servant and forgives the entire debt, all 10,000 talents. And you would think that the servant would be transformed by such compassion, such pity, such mercy.

24:48But apparently not. Look at verse 28. But when that same servant came out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him began to choke him, saying, pay what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience with me, and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. Again, you probably have a footnote in your Bible telling you that a denarius was a day's wage for a laborer.

25:26So this second servant, we'll call him Deuce, just to keep him straight. Deuce owes the first servant 100 days' wages, three and a half months. It's not lunch money, but it's also not 2,500 lifetimes. The first servant walks out of the palace, finds Deuce, and not only does he demand to be repaid, he starts choking him. Deuce does exactly what the first servant did. He falls down on his knees and he pleads for more time. And here's the thing: if the first servant had been patient, Deuce actually could have repaid his debt. He would have had to work hard. It might have taken a couple of years, maybe five years, but he could do it. Unlike the first servant's debt, Deuce's debt was manageable. But the first servant won't hear any part of it. He has Deuce thrown in jail until he can pay back all he owes, which, of course, would be never because you can't earn that kind of money in jail. Look at verse 31.

26:41When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on me? Your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you. And in anger, his master delivered him over to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also, my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.

27:18So I want you to remember: Jesus told this parable in response to Peter's question about how many times he had to forgive somebody. We must forgive over and over again as many times as we are asked for forgiveness, just as our Heavenly Father forgives us every single time we ask for it. You see, forgiveness is an act of mercy, because by forgiving them, we are not dealing with them as their sins deserve or repaying them according to their iniquities. We aren't treating them as their sins deserve, just like our Heavenly Father does not treat us as our sins deserve.

28:01The servant in Jesus' parable should have had mercy on his fellow servant for his small debt, because the king had mercy on him for his unpayable debt. And in the exact same way, we should be merciful to those who sin against us because we have received immeasurable mercy from God in spite of our immeasurable sin against him. So that is true, and that's easy enough to say that we should extend mercy because we have received mercy. But extending mercy is very hard to do, isn't it?

28:45Why is it so hard to extend mercy? It's because sin hurts. When people lie to us, or steal from us, or cheat us, or cheat on us, it hurts. Sin hurts. So extending mercy to people who hurt us feels like an injustice. It feels like we're saying, what you did to me was really no big deal. It feels like we're saying, I wasn't really hurt by what you did, and so I can overlook it. But that is not the case at all. I mean, think back to Jesus' parable. Was forgiving the servant's debt no big deal? It was a huge deal. You think it didn't hurt the king to forgive a debt that was 2,500 lifetimes worth of money?

29:51It certainly did hurt. You see, when we extend mercy to someone who sinned against us, we are not saying that it was no big deal. We are not saying that it didn't really hurt us. When we extend mercy, we are saying, What you did to me was a big deal. What you did to me really did hurt me. But instead of making you pay the cost, I am going to pay the cost for you. I am going to absorb the cost of your sin instead of making you pay what you owe me.

30:31Sin hurts. And that is why extending mercy to those who sin against us is hard, but it's not an injustice. When a sin is committed, a real price has to be paid, but it is paid by the one who extends mercy to the sinner rather than by the one who sinned. That is why it's so hard to be merciful. It's because sin hurts, and there is a real cost to extending mercy to those who have sinned against us.

31:04And so let's conclude this morning by answering that final question: How can we become merciful people? First, remember your own need for mercy. Remember your own need for mercy. Look on the screen at Titus 3. Paul says, This is the Apostle Paul, one of the holiest people who has ever. Ever lived, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

31:51Friends, if you want to become a merciful person, you've got to take time to think back on the way you were living or on the way that you are currently living your life. Consider God's commands and your own conscience. Think about the long list of things that you should not have done, but did anyway, or the things that you did, or rather that you did not do, that you should have done. All of us have many of those things, a long list of things that we shouldn't have done, and a long list of things that we should have done. This is what we do in public and private confession of sin.

32:36We're saying, God, I was supposed to do or not do these things, and I didn't do it. Or I did it. You think back to Luke 18 in the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Those of us who have been Christians for many years, who, by God's grace, have grown in holiness, we are in some ways in the greatest danger of forgetting our own need for God's. Mercy. I mean, when I first became a Christian, I didn't need anybody to convince me that I was a sinner. The evidence was all over the place. I could see it, and everybody else could see it. And so my prayers sounded a lot like the tax collectors. God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

33:19But the longer I've been a Christian, the more I have been tempted to be like the Pharisee. Coming before God, not because I feel my desperate need of Him and of His mercy, but to bring my track record before Him and say, See God, see all the good things that I've done, see all the bad things that I avoid. And so I wonder if that might be true for you this morning as well. If over the years you've found yourself becoming more like the Pharisee than the tax collector, believing that you don't really need anything from God.

34:01If we want to become more merciful people, we must remember our need for mercy. Second, how do we become more merciful people? Remember the price of God's mercy. Remember the price of God's mercy. As we've talked about this morning, when we sinned against God, we incurred a debt that has to be paid. And as the righteous judge of all the earth, it would be an injustice for God to simply overlook. Look our sin and not do anything about it. So that debt had to be paid. A sacrifice had to be made.

34:39What would that sacrifice be? Look on the screen at Romans 5. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Like other noble men and women in history, Jesus paid the ultimate price, laying down his life for others. But his sacrifice is different because, unlike everyone else, Jesus died for his enemies, for the very people who sinned against him, making his sacrifice necessary in the first place.

35:32And there are a lot of times where we find it hard to extend mercy to other people because it just seems too costly. We think, I'm not willing to pay that price. It seems too expensive. And friends, in those moments, we must remember the costly mercy of Jesus Christ, the sinless, righteous one who paid the ultimate price for our sin. So when you think about the sin, Think on your sin and its cost. Remember Isaiah's words: By his wounds we are healed.

36:09Jesus' wounds were caused by our sinful thoughts, our sinful words, our sinful actions. As Christ bore our sin on the cross, he experienced something he would never experience again and that he had never experienced before, and that was the righteous wrath of God, God forsaking his only son. Our salvation came at a tremendous cost to God. So, if we want to become merciful people, we must remember the price of God's mercy. Third, how do we become more merciful people? Remember that vengeance belongs to God.

36:54Remember that vengeance belongs to God. After Adam and Eve sinned against God, the human heart was bent towards vengeance. Their son, Cain, who invented fratricide, starts a family. And I want you to look at what his great-great-great-great-great-grandson has to say. His name is Lamech. Lamech said to his wives, Adda and Zillah, hear my voice. You wives of Lamech, listen to what I say. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain's revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech's is 77fold.

37:37I would have loved to see their faces. Lamech, though, is bent on revenge, on settling accounts himself. He boasts that he will take vengeance and that he will give worse than he got. There is no room in Lamech's life for leaving vengeance to the Lord. But look at what Paul tells us as Christians in Romans 12. He says, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

38:16You see, friends, we can leave vengeance to God because in God's universe, no sin goes unpunished. Every sin is paid for, either by Jesus on the cross or by sinners in hell. So what that means is we can show mercy to every Christian because their sin against us was paid for by Jesus on the cross. God's wrath and vengeance were poured out on Jesus instead of that Christian who sinned against us. And we can show mercy to non-Christians because Because if they do not repent and believe in Jesus, they must pay for their own sins, and there is nothing worse that we could do to them than what God will do to them. We can leave vengeance in the hands of the Lord. So, friends, do you have an appetite for revenge? Do you find it delicious? Is there a person in your life or people in your life that you are repaying or hoping to repay for something that they did to you?

39:32You know, being a vengeful person does not have to take the form of murderous thoughts and actions, it can take the form of the silent treatment, the cold shoulder, removing the hand of fellowship from other Christians, avoiding people, hoping or working for the downfall of your coworkers or your boss or your classmates. You can't be a merciful person as long as you're like Lamech, bent on carrying out revenge yourself. If we want to become merciful people, we must remember the vengeance belongs to God.

40:14And then, fourth and finally, how do we become more merciful people? Remember the poor. Remember the poor. We've talked a lot today about God extending mercy to sinners and extending mercy to those who sin against us. But we cannot forget that there are many commands in Scripture to extend mercy to the materially poor, to those people who are suffering physically from the consequences of their own sin or the consequences of simply living in a sinful world. Look at Proverbs 21: Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.

40:57Friends, this is very important. Many Americans believe that every poor person is simply lazy or irresponsible, but that's just not true. Some people are living in poverty because of the decisions of others, or because of illness, or injury, or challenging circumstances. And if you flip that coin over, other people are not living in poverty, not because they are responsible, hardworking individuals, but because they're a part of a wealthy family who supports their irresponsible, lazy lifestyle. Everything we have comes from the Lord. So when we give to the poor, we are simply using the resources that God has entrusted to us to care for people who, for one reason or another, cannot adequately care for themselves. Now, the way that you and I care for the poor and extend mercy to them will probably look different because we all have different ideas. About who most needs our help and what would be the most helpful thing to do. This is why we have so many debates in politics. This is why there are so many debates in the church about the best way to extend mercy. But what we can't do is close our ears to the cry of the poor. We have to extend mercy to them. And so I encourage you to find some way to do that. If you are unclear on how do I get involved with extending mercy to the poor, start by going to our Connect room, the next room over at the back wall, and pull down some resources about our missions efforts, our local missions efforts, and the partnerships that we have with Hope Pregnancy Center, Aggie Land Pregnancy Center, The Bridge, Working Among the Homeless.

42:49Ask our missions team or a Connect team member today, how can I get involved with one of those kinds of ministries? Sponsor a compassion child. When you get groceries this week, put a couple bottles of water in your cart, some snacks. Find some clothes that maybe you don't wear, they don't fit right anymore, whatever it would be. Grab an old Bible, put all that stuff in a bag in your car so when you come across a person in need, you have something tangible to offer them.

43:22Whatever it is, however you decide to get involved is great, but if we want to become merciful people, we've got to remember the poor. And so, friends, every one of us is in need of mercy. We need God and others not to deal with us according to our sins or to repay us according to our iniquities. Thankfully, God is merciful and He calls us to be merciful as well, promising to bless those who are merciful. So, whether you find yourself in need of mercy this morning or needing to extend mercy to someone else, I want to encourage you to fix your eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. Because when mercy seems too hard, when it seems too costly, you can remember these words about Jesus from Hebrews 4.

44:16For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Let's pray. Father, this morning we ask for your help to see ourselves rightly.

45:14Yes, like Peter, as people who need to extend mercy to others, but long before that, and much more than that, we are people who need to receive mercy from you. And so we pray that on the basis of your great mercy, you would make us and help us become more merciful people. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.