ANCHORED
LIFE GROUPS
READING
Ezekiel 16
Luke 6:36
Titus 3:5
Hebrew 4:16
Proverbs 31:8-9
Isaiah 1:17
MEDITATION
Above conservative or liberal, I
want to be a member of the
community of the merciful. If you
have inscribed your name on my
heart, then I should write the
narrative of mercy with my own.
Help me overcome selfishness and
sinful ambition to be liberated to
show mercy to those who need it.
PRAYER
Father you have called me to be
just like you; holy as you are holy.
Therefore I confess without your
help I could never me merciful like
you are merciful. Shine a light on
my heart an expose all that is
unmerciful that I can repent of it.
ACTION 
1) In the church pray, who would
God have you show mercy to?
2) In the world who would God
have you show mercy to?
Faith | Hope | Love
TRUE RELIGION CREATES PRICELESS FELLOWSHIP
California is routinely subjected to drought. Our reservoirs dry up, our yards turn
brown, and our cars get and stay dusty. We pass legislation in response to the forces
of nature that have conspired to parch the land. As if the 200mph jet stream is
obedient to human legislation! These things are outside of the control of man but
there is an even greater crisis which we have absolute control over, I'm not talking
about global warming, wealth inequality, nuclear annihilation ...
The deficit of this one thing is the root cause behind racism, crime, murder, greed, and
selfishness. It's absence motivates the gunman's trigger-finger as well as the lying
politicians tongue. When the tree of this attribute is cut down, the weeds of
conspicuous consumption, unbridled anger, an banal ambition flourish. Human
relationships die in the drought produced in the absence of this single attribute, and
entire cultures thrive or flounder and die because of this one thing. Without this one
attribute there is no fellowship, no church, no ministry...that God will approve of.
I'm talking about the attribute of mercy. Mercy exists because it's part of God's
character. Its the basis of his covenant with Jew and the heart of the Gospel to you. It
can never be exhausted, can always be obtained, and will never fail you in your time
of need. It is the basis of our approach to the world filled with people stumbling in the
darkness. It is not ours to throw stones of judgement, rather we we are to show
compassion, pity, and concern to everyone. Whether they are our enemies or
anonymous strangers is irrelevant. Don't believe this? Was it not God who showed
you mercy while you were still his enemy and a stranger to him? Go therefore and
show mercy as it has been shown to you. You will be a refreshing cloud bringing
mercy to the souls of those who live in a spiritually parched land.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 
1. what are some crazy things you have done to save money because you felt you
didn’t have enough?
2. The hamster wheel of earning, spending, acquiring is so prevalent that if we are not
careful we can fall into consumerism and materialism. Can we define “affluence” from
the Bible? If so how does this differ from affluence as pursued by the world?
3. Are there times we should not help the poor? Why or why not?
4. Pastor Scott likes to say “when we choose to see people for what they could be in
Jesus then we will truly see them” how is this attitude helpful to people prone to
prejudice?
5. Why mercy? Recall a time you were shown mercy, how did it make you feel and
how did it change the circumstance? What are he benefits both to the one showing
mercy and the one receiving mercy?