{"id":34877,"date":"2024-06-10T10:48:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T10:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/mercy-shop\/"},"modified":"2024-06-10T10:48:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T10:48:00","slug":"mercy-shop","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/mercy-shop\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mercy Shop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine an old European city with narrow cobbled streets and storefronts as old as the city itself. One of those weathered storefronts has a sign hanging over the door: The Mercy Shop. There&#39;s no lock on the door because it&#39;s never closed. There&#39;s no cash register because mercy is free.<\/p>\n\n<p>When you ask for mercy, the Owner of the shop takes your measurements, then disap&shy;pears into the back. Good news&mdash;he&#39;s got your size! Mercy is never out of stock, never out of style.<\/p>\n\n<p>As you walk out the door, the Owner of the Mercy Shop smiles, &ldquo;Thanks for coming!&rdquo; With a wink, he says, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll see you tomorrow!&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Possible Preaching Angle:<\/h2>\n\n<p><em>The writer of Lamentations said that God&#39;s mercies are &quot;new every morning&quot; (Lam. 3:23). The Hebrew word for &quot;new&quot; is <\/em>hadas <em>. It doesn&#39;t just mean &quot;new&quot; as in &quot;again and again,&quot; which would be amazing in and of itself. It means &quot;new&quot; as in &quot;different.&quot; It means &quot;never experienced before.&quot; Today&#39;s mercy is different from yesterday&#39;s mercy! Like snowflakes, God&#39;s mercy never crystallizes the same way twice. Every act of mercy is unique.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3455,3649,3921,4009,4010,4069,4084,4141,4329,4400,4460,4461,4782,4787,4802,4825,4877,4896],"tax_ctp_topics":[382],"class_list":["post-34877","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-attributes-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-compassion-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-experiencing-god","tax_ctp_tags-forgiven-sin","tax_ctp_tags-forgiveness","tax_ctp_tags-gods-character","tax_ctp_tags-goodness-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-help-from-god","tax_ctp_tags-knowing-god","tax_ctp_tags-love-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-mercy","tax_ctp_tags-mercy-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-redemption","tax_ctp_tags-regeneration","tax_ctp_tags-renewal","tax_ctp_tags-restoration","tax_ctp_tags-salvation","tax_ctp_tags-second-chance"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Mercy Shop - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/mercy-shop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Mercy Shop - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Imagine an old European city with narrow cobbled streets and storefronts as old as the city itself. 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