CMLC 2024-01-21 Sermon

Now, one of the things I wanted to talk a little bit about is the idea that repentance and belief, they're not two separate things.

Repentance is only able to happen because we believe.

Now, the other day, I was on Facebook Marketplace.

Apparently, Facebook has some people who are kind of like specialists nowadays.

Apparently, Facebook wants to give out everything that exists in the world and it wants to sell me random things if I will believe.

And what I know is that there is a punching bag and Legos.

And I'm like, I need a punching bag because I'm a full-time pastor so I definitely need a punch on me regularly.

And I also need some Legos because, occasionally, whenever families come over, they bring kids with them.

I'm not sure they need to play with them. They need to put them Legos.

So, I was like, okay, let me go this morning and we'll get punching bags.

So, I went ahead and I drove up and it was like sacred.

And I found a place, paid a valid 20 bucks, got a punching bag.

We are a great family.

But I'm hanging it from the outlet. All right, I'm almost the way there.

And so then I keep going.

And it's like, okay, let me get stuff done and then at the end of the day, I'm going to go over and I'm going to pick up the Legos.

So, I'm driving and I check where I'm at and I'm like, oh, great.

It says I'm going to be 10 minutes later than I thought I was going to be.

Great. Jason's time again.

So, I'm like, all right, whatever, let me, I'll message her, I'll let her know what's going on.

I'm turning through the slate, but I'm on my way.

So, I'm getting there and she said, you need to see across from the Walgreens.

And I'm like, okay, I'm going to take this time, but the last few turns started leading me into a subdivision.

I'm like, what is going on? How am I getting into a sub?

And finally, at the very last turn, I realized what had happened.

I had actually typed the address form in the morning instead of the afternoon.

Instead of going to I-10, just a little passage, I had driven all the way back up the cycles.

So, not only was I 10 minutes late because I went to the wrong, but that meant that I needed to drive another 10 minutes

to get back and go and catch up.

And I felt so dumb.

And I said a message I'm like, so have you ever been not gone to the wrong address?

I am coming as fast as I can.

I promise it as immediately as possible.

And at that point, what is it that I did?

Well, me and the guy, per-round.

Now, did I pause and say, excuse me, could you come meet me up there in Cyprus

and take one time out of your day and come meet me or was it wrong?

I don't need those Legos.

It's not a big thing.

Oh, I want those Legos.

But instead, I realized that I had to completely turn around

because I got on the wrong way.

The only way that I could fix it was to turn around and go back.

And that's the thing that I wanted to look at.

He said, when we believe in the direction we were supposed to go,

that's when we turn and start following the right direction.

Now, we talked a little bit about Jonah.

We think of Jonah oftentimes as the big fish who were way older than everything

and they didn't have the patience between animals and fish after they were way older than you now,

so I'm not going to worry about that part of it.

But wisdom, though, is that Jonah isn't just a guy who got swallowed up by some giant creature in the middle of a sea.

He was actually the sense on which he was supposed to go to this place called Nineveh.

Now, Nineveh was a very prosperous, very large city.

It had originally been set up by this person named Jimrod.

Now, I was thought that Jimrod was just what I call my sister when I was a senator.

Very few is an actual person.

But with that, his back-up genesis was first made in Jimrod,

but it had set up several cities.

One of them was Nineveh.

And actually, after the worship of this fertility goddess named Ishar.

Now, with that, is this city became the capital of Syria,

which we end up knowing later on, full of the people of northern Israel into exile.

And they never went back that far from Israel.

Now, in Jonah there, keep in mind is that when you had worship of a god other than Godly,

to that end, there were practices where oftentimes things that God would be very unhappy with,

including the facility practices that were happening at the time.

But even more than that, the fact that they were not willing to worship the luncheon god

was also something that God was very disappointed with.

So he sends Jonah as a go-to-teller.

Well, Jonah is over there.

Now, I don't know if you could still tell that he could swallow it by a giant fish or not.

Maybe he smelled really bad.

He's like, I don't know who this guy is, but let's listen to him so we can go away.

Okay, this is terrible, something.

And with it, though, is he is so sure because God has not dispensied that message,

get home for the people of northern Israel, not just the city of general,

but especially for the king who called everybody to repentance.

We have to change.

Right now.

The thing about this is that it's a great story, but it wasn't just about Nineveh needing to repent.

It was also Jonah needing to repent.

You see, repentance is not just about saying, I'm sorry for doing a bad thing.

It's also about I need to change my heart.

I need to change direction.

I need to change which way I'm going.

Jonah didn't actually care about the people that were in him.

120,000 people.

What did Jonah care about?

He cared about the summer in a plant that grew up behind him and was shady all day.

You cared more about the plant than you do about 100,000 people.

What does it say about you as a person if you can't even demonstrate love 100,000 people anymore?

You see, with that, he said, God is trying to save Jonah.

I need you to change the way that you see yourself and the way that you see me as God.

The reason I'm saying this is because here's the thing about this, is that hating another city has not the way that God calls us to be.

I realize that after last night, he said maybe hating Baltimore for the next however many weeks.

I get it.

I don't know who came to play versus that Texan team for the second half.

I don't know if people with Texan's butts.

Either way, it is not okay for us to decide who Baltimore is.

But this is though, because I realize that it comes down to being able to say,

are we believing in a God of mercy and grace?

Because if we believe that God is one of mercy and grace,

this shouldn't be changing our direction to follow that God.

And even going beyond our Jonah's will.

And let's see what Jesus has come to do in following up after John the baptized and John ends up telling people,

repentance and belief or Messiah is coming.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

When Jesus comes along and starts proclaiming, it's not just that the kingdom of God is near, it's here.

What we are seeing is Jesus coming to change people's direction.

Because it was more than just, did you follow enough of the laws?

You see, after the people of Judah had gone into exile in Babylon and then came back,

they were very careful of making sure that they got all the laws right.

But it was more than just making sure that they got the laws right.

What we were seeing was about the new life that Jesus was embodying, one of hope, of forgiveness, of mercy,

one of demonstrating care for one's neighbor.

More than just trying to make sure that we looked good for the world around us.

As Jesus is going and he's speaking to the Jewish community,

he's also looking toward his ministry to the Gentiles.

And as we discover, many in the Jewish community, not all, but many,

had no interest in reaching out beyond their full walls.

But Jesus was more interested in their attitudes, not just behavior by itself,

but also what it is that they're living out.

And who are we on the inside?

And the repentance is not just stop doing a bad thing.

Preventus is, I need your heart and your soul to change direction.

But just like Jonah going out to an inner life, spiritual repentance,

it was also meant to be repentance for Jonah.

The same thing with Jesus and his apostles.

He wasn't just sending them out to repay repentance.

It was also needed for the apostles themselves.

That's why I always find it interesting that when Jesus goes out to those apostles,

this is not the first time that they met them.

They already know him because of their time with John advertising out on the wilderness.

But here's what's interesting. There they are, they're fishing.

They have just met the Messiah, the one who is coming to change everything,

to bring hope and life and renewal and everything else.

What do they do? What's a Christian?

In their minds, who are they?

In their minds, we're a Christian.

That's what we do, that's who we are. This is our path.

So it's like, okay great, we're really glad that the Messiah is here.

That's awesome, we're really glad John, you really called it.

That's awesome. Okay, we gotta get back to stuff.

We'll catch you later.

And there is Jesus coming out there and saying, follow me.

And not only that, he can't even just get across to this 34 and say,

okay, okay, you see yourselves as fishers, okay, this line.

I need you to be fishers of men.

I need you to realize that I'm changing the direction of your path.

I'm changing what's next.

The old is done and it's time for the new.

Isn't that also what we end up doing, oftentimes, as a church?

So many times, are we spending our time trying to think,

have I just made sure I didn't do any bad things,

and yet our life, our heart, our mind is exactly the same direction

as everybody else around us?

When we see what it is to repent, is that it's meant to be every day with all of us.

See, the Jewish community was spending a lot of time saying,

we are the chosen people of God, and Jesus was saying, yes you are, and so are they.

We are not always humble the way we're supposed to be.

Because each day we get caught up and translated, I go the direction I was supposed to.

Instead of asking what direction did God want me to go in today?

There was one other day that was talking about how they had heard of theirs

that was so successful in life, but no matter how successful he was,

there was always something wrong going inside,

and I wanted to say, how do I help you this my friend?

That he's doing great, he's doing well, he's such a success,

and he said, are you sure that that's the issue,

or could it be that something is actually just bothering him on the inside?

Because that's the part that we often times ignore.

We're so busy getting stuff done, or making sure that we check out for boxes,

and we're also saying, hey, how am I doing on the inside, or are you doing on the inside?

That's what we need to be saying.

The word that we have at the degree is mededoya.

Mededoya, being repent, is not about trying to say, stop sinning.

It's about a change of heart, mind, soul, and life.

How many times is it that someone is trying to communicate to you

that there's something that needs to change?

And someone's trying to do it gently and kindly, and they're like, it is okay,

but I'm just letting you know so that maybe we can work through this and grow through this.

But it's so hard because we're like, well, I'm not those bad people.

That's not the point.

Is that all of us are in that boat?

We're all in the place where today we may be struggling with pride, or resentment, or hurt,

or prejudice, or whatever it may be.

And then what are we doing?

We're just sitting there trying to say, yeah, I'm not one of the bad people.

And then completely, this is what God is trying to do today.

And that's my question to you.

Are we willing to pursue new life as well?

Whatever today is, is also meant to be a new life.

Maybe there's something this last week, or this last month, or however long,

that you've been frustrated or resentful for.

Maybe there is something where you're like, you know what, I can't believe this,

I don't want to listen to this person, I don't want to deal with this issue,

just let me get back to my life, stop bothering me with it.

The question is, is God trying to get your attention because it's time to go to the new version.

So for today, my statement to you is, repent and believe.

Because we believe in a God that cares enough about us right now, that it is a very moment that He is leading you.

But it may be in the direction you're not expecting.

But we repent because we believe that God's direction is the right one.

Thank you.