Proverbs 20, 28 says, mercy and truth preserve the king and his throne is upholding by mercy. In America, we have an executive branch of the federal government that actually runs the government. And the head of that executive branch is called the chief executive and is also called by the title of president of the United States. In times of war, he assumes the role of commander in chief as well. Now, the president technically is not a king, but he's referred to as the most powerful man on earth in his role as chief executive of the world's most powerful nation. So you might say he's more powerful than any human king who ever reigned on the earth. But whether the title is king, emperor, prime minister, or president, the truth of this proverb applies. And the fact is, this proverb applies to anyone sitting in a position of power and authority. Mercy and truth preserve the king and his throne is upholden by mercy. I believe we can see an example of the consequences of kings not demonstrating mercy and not ruling with honesty and the integrity of truth in the recent overthrow of the now former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. If you're not familiar with this situation, there's been a civil war raging in Syria for more than a decade. Syria includes the city of Damascus, where Saul of Tarsus, who became our Apostle Paul, was heading when confronted by Jesus in Acts chapter 9, by the way. Syria is on the northeast border of Israel, and Al-Assad ruled like a tyrant king for nearly a quarter of a century. His alignment with the anti-Israel terrorist state of Iran, called Persia in the Bible, and his brutal torture of his political opponents caused his support both internally and internationally to continually dwindle. to the point where he lost power. Russia and China tried to stand by him to some extent, but this month of December 2024, Al-Assad was forced to flee to Russia. And now he's trying to explain and excuse his human rights abuse record to gain sympathy within the global community. If Al-Assad didn't hate the Jews, for example, and would have been merciful and honest with the nation of Israel, he could have been helped to stay in power by Israel, because they don't want Syria to be in a state of chaos and instability, and they certainly don't want Syria to fall into the hands of ISIS and Al-Qaeda, which it appears to now be doing. And if Al-Assad would have been humane and merciful toward his political opponents, He would have held much greater support among the nations and the people of those nations, not to mention internally among his own people. The same is true when it comes to Kamala Harris losing to Donald Trump in the 2024 US election. Kamala made her career by abusing her power as attorney general in California. She lost huge chunks of minority voters who either stayed home or switched to vote to Trump because Donald Trump demonstrated a much more sane, just, and merciful use of power. Of course, the Democrat, leftist, Republican progressive operatives pretending to be journalists in the news media won't tell you that on the nightly news or mainstream news sources, but it's true. And why does that matter to us? Beyond election time and voting, it matters to us because the same is true for us. If we are not merciful, God will not be pleased, and we will eventually fall as a result of our own lack of mercy toward others. James 2.13 warns us, saying, For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy. and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. And speaking through the prophet in Zechariah 7, 9, thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, execute true judgment and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother." End quote. Mercy and truth preserve every man. And whatever position we hold, if it's a position of power and authority, you can be a pastor, elder, as husband, father, employer, supervisor, it doesn't matter. We will be upholding by mercy. And it's a commandment from Jesus as he says in Luke 6 36, be ye therefore merciful as your father also is merciful.