Merciful One: Mercy and Repentance (Jonah 03)

Thank you so much for being here with us this morning.

If this is your first time here, welcome to Real Life Church.

My name is Derek Spencer.

I get the privilege of being the student pastor here at RLC.

I've gotten the opportunity to be the student pastor for the past seven and a half years here at Real Life Church.

And I thank you.

Thank you.

I never know what to do with uh those claps, but thank you for that.

Um it's uh truly a privilege.

Um, and I love seeing the next generation just come to life and uh have a biblical worldview.

Um I told him that I would do this if he came to church this morning, and I just want to shout out my guy Jacob uh this morning.

Uh he was yeah, don't clap, don't clap.

He should be here.

Uh so um we're gonna get into the word of God this morning.

We're gonna be in Jonah chapter three.

We are gonna be continuing um this series, uh, what we've been doing called Merciful One, uh, the story of Jonah.

And um I get the privilege of speaking this text.

Uh last time I was with you, I spoke over a guy named Epaphroditus, and uh he was only mentioned uh maybe twice in uh Philippians, and that's it in the entire Bible.

And today we're speaking about something specifically that's only mentioned in Jonah.

So I don't know what it is about Pastor Brandon giving me these texts, but we're here for it, and it's gonna be awesome.

And so I'm excited for today.

Uh, before we get into today's message, and as you are looking for uh Jonah chapter three, there is something very important that I need to do before we get into this message.

And there is someone here today that has officially finished not one doctoral degree, but two doctoral degrees.

Can we give it up for our pastor?

He has no idea that I'm doing this, by the way.

And so um I got this picture yesterday.

It was sent to our staff group text, and I was like, you know what?

I think the church would really appreciate it if we came up with a new name for him.

Pastor Brandon, PB's good, um, but I took it to Chat GPT, as any good person would.

Uh some different nicknames of somebody who has earned two doctoral degrees.

And here's a couple that it came up with, okay?

First one is Dr.

Doctor Cannon.

You guys let me know what you guys think.

Double Doc Brandon.

The two-time doc, doc squared, big brain brandon.

That was pretty good.

Two times doc Cannon, and my personal favorite that I've been calling him for weeks, double D, Pastor B.

Aren't you grateful for Pastor Brandon?

Come on, put your hands together for him.

This man has invested his entire life on studying God's word so that we can grow as a community and as a church.

So we thank you for that double D, Pastor B.

We love you so much.

Uh, we are gonna be celebrating Pastor Brandon actually uh this Saturday.

And so if you would like to come and be a part of this celebration, because this man has two doctoral degrees, uh, we are gonna be celebrating him on Saturday from two to four o'clock here at the church.

So if you'd like to be a part of that, please put it on your calendar so we can celebrate uh this amazing, amazing uh accomplishment that he has done.

Um it says on the flyer itself that no gifts, please, cards of affirmations are welcomed.

I did not make this, and so I'm gonna put an addendum here and and just let you guys know on a secret that Pastor Brandon has been working very hard to actually plan a trip to go to Israel.

And so if you would like to make a gift for Pastor Brandon, he would be absolutely honored.

He would never say this from the stage, but he would be absolutely honored if somebody in here wanted to pay for the trip to go to Israel.

And if you can't pay for it, even if you if it's a little donation or even if you don't want to pay anything, you can obviously give words of affirmation to Pastor Brandon.

But that's my little pitch because I'm not coming back up here next week.

I'm the student pastor, I'll be here on Wednesday night.

And so please, please come be a part of this.

This is an amazing opportunity that we get to celebrate Pastor Braden.

Uh, he is very embarrassed, but that's okay.

I'll still be here next week.

Praise the Lord.

We hope, right, right.

We hope, we hope.

All right, well, let's get into Jonah chapter three because I don't want to lose my job.

Okay, so we are in Jonah chapter three.

Um, I'm super excited to be teaching on this text today.

Uh, we've been kind of going through this whole series with this main idea that we can see God's mercy in every single mess.

How many of you have had messes in your life?

Everybody in here.

Some of us are sitting next to the mess right now.

Just kidding, just kidding.

Hopefully you're not.

Maybe you're in a mess with that person right now.

But today, this is what we're going to be talking about.

And we've been going through the idea of kind of like an escape room where you get into an escape room and it feels like a mess and it feels like a puzzle, and you're looking for that key to get out.

And in Jonah, we see that God is shown all throughout the book of Jonah as the main key to understand the mess that we often put ourselves into.

I don't know about you, but when I go into escape rooms, um, I think there's a person on the other side of the wall that's always watching, right?

Um, and we go in as a group of, you know, two to six people or whatever, and we come to a question or we're kind of confused about a certain thing, and we're looking for a clue.

And uh, I don't know if this has happened to you, but it's as if when you ask the question, they give you a clue, but then you and your peers in the room are like still really confused.

Has that ever happened to anybody?

And then the person that's on the intercom is like, it's behind you, you idiot.

Like just it's up, down, over, like just do it.

And we're like, oh, that makes sense.

And aren't you thankful that we serve a God that doesn't do that?

He actually still gives us the answers when we still don't understand even the mess, but he's not looking at us as if we're idiots and looking down upon us.

He's actually looking at us with love and mercy in his eyes and every single step along the way.

Another way of putting it too is I've always heard it that every mess is a message and every test is a testimony.

Every mess is a message and every test is a testimony because anything that God or anything that you do to your life, God can turn it for good.

If you're in a mess of life right now, or if you're confused about certain things happening in your life, maybe it's a great opportunity for you to change your perspective, like we've been talking about, and understand that the mess that we are in currently can be for the glory of God.

Or maybe you're in a test right now of life.

Can I tell you, you may have heard this before, but the teacher's always quiet during the test.

And God is trying to use that test that's in your life right now for a testimony so that you can bring God the glory because he deserves it.

Amen, church.

And so this morning we're gonna be talking about that because here's the thing Jonah was in the whale.

And this is a cute story that I've told my kids, and we've shared it on Sunday mornings.

But if I were Jonah in a whale or in a fish, I would be terrified.

Imagine how dark it is in the whale.

Imagine how all the water is sloshing around.

Imagine the fish smell that's taking place in there.

This is not a cute story.

This is terrifying.

And if I were Jonah, who was running away from Nineveh, encountered a God that put me in a fish like this, how much more fear would you have for God rather than for Nineveh?

Right?

We so often look at the circumstance in front of us and think that has more fear in our life rather than the God that we serve.

And so we are now at the turning point of Jonah where he has encountered the fish and he has spit him back out on the land.

And now Jonah has an opportunity to hear from God again.

And that is where we are in the text of Jonah chapter three.

So let's go ahead and get into the text, Jonah chapter three.

It says, Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time, get up and go to the great city of Nineveh and deliver this message I have given you.

This time Jonah obeyed the Lord's command, of course, right?

And went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.

On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds, Forty days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed.

The people of Nineveh believed God's message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.

When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes.

He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes.

Then the king and his nobles sent this decree and throughout the city.

No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all.

People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God.

They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence.

Who can tell?

Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.

And when God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.

Here we are in this scene where a lot of times the mascot of Jonah is the whale, right?

Can I make a proposal for the church and the Christians?

Y'all ready for this?

I think Jonah and the whale is great, but I think it should be Jonah the whale and Bertha the cow moving forward.

When I see scriptures like this, I have categories in my brain where I'm like, okay, bills, relationships, and then there's a category like somewhere random in my brain where it's like interesting Bible verses, and I put them there.

And I'm like, why did they have to dress up Bertha to mourn for what's going on in the city?

So I did an experiment.

And if my dogs were really good, I would have brought a live illustration of this.

Um during COVID, we really prayed for my dogs since we were doing a lot of online services, you know.

Um, and I think we've gotten to the point where they're good.

And this is what we did this past week.

My dogs Marlo and Winston, I had the morn and fast.

No food, no drinks for a week.

They gave their life to Christ.

Can we give it up for Marlowe and Winston getting saved?

Hallelujah.

I think this text is interesting.

Uh, and we'll break it down more.

But when I read text like this on the surface, it's like, what exactly is going on here, right?

This is crazy.

We got Bertha and Marlo and Winston giving their life to Christ now, right?

But in today's text, it won't necessarily be about Marlowe and Winston, but it will be about the mercy and repentance for Jonah and Nineveh and how it's a gift for all of us.

Mercy and repentance.

I was telling Pastor Brandon and I was telling Bree last night, sometimes when I talk about mercy, um, I oftentimes think about the idea of talking to a group of Christians where we're like, yeah, we understand mercy.

Repentance, yeah, we understand repentance, but we truly don't appreciate it until we're in a situation where we need to receive the mercy, right?

A lot of times we look with our eyes at other people around.

Why aren't you doing this?

Why aren't you doing that?

And that same judgment that we're looking upon other people, God is not looking at us the same way.

He's looking at us as mercy for an opportunity to change.

And I think that this is such a great text to look at and reflect on this morning because we have the opportunity every single day to receive his mercies.

It says in Lamentations, His mercies are new every morning.

And we get the opportunity to appreciate the joy that comes with the mercies.

And when we repent of our sins.

That's not a very popular topic to talk about on Sunday mornings nowadays, unfortunately.

But when we repent of our sin, we should see repentance as a gift, not as God is pointing a finger down upon us saying, You need to do better, you should be like this, you're doing like that, you're just like that.

No, repentance is a gift of an opportunity to receive his mercies every single day.

And so this morning, that's where we're gonna be breaking down in our text of how mercy and repentance was shown all throughout in Jonah chapter three, and how we can actually receive the same mercies and also repent the same exact way.

And so last time I was with you, I told you I had like five points.

I ain't gonna tell you this morning.

It's gonna be a surprise, you know.

So you just got to follow along, all right?

So, point number one mercy and repentance brings a second chance.

How many have in here have been how many in here before have been in a mess before and you've never thought that you could actually get yourself out of that mess?

I know I have been, but can I tell you the God that we serve, the heavenly loving Father that we serve, is a God of second chances.

It says in the scriptures, then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time.

He didn't have to speak to Jonah, but he decided to speak to Jonah a second time.

Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh and deliver the message I have given you.

See, when Jonah was told to go to Nineveh, he was probably terrified to go until he had a revelation of who was telling him to go.

And after encountering a fearful situation like the fish, when God says to go a second time, I'm sure Jonah listened quickly because Jonah's fear for God was greater than the fear of man.

So often we find ourselves in situations where we look at the circumstance in front of us and we're terrified to do the thing that God's asked us to do until you realize the storm and the mess was to push you to do the exact thing God's trying to call you to do.

We get ourselves in the way because of the fear that we see of the world rather than the fear that we have for God.

We have more reverence for the things of this world rather than the reverence for the things for God sometimes.

And far too often it's pride that prevents pursuing God's plan every single time.

When we don't have the right fear or understanding of who God is or where he is leading us, we think that we know better.

A better job, better pay, better opportunities.

God, I'm not interested in that because I think I can do better over here.

But when we look at the story of Jonah and Nineveh, this act is prior to the blood of Christ.

And Scripture says, for the wages of sin is death.

So God's plan for Nineveh was to allow them the destruction their sin was causing.

It was so evident in the king's decree that the people would have been destroyed badly.

But Jonah was God's grace to the people of Nineveh.

And imagine what would have happened if he didn't go.

Imagine a lifetime with that kind of blood on your hand.

God's grace to Nineveh was Jonah.

But God's grace to Jonah was the fish.

See, the fish here did not need Jonah.

Jonah needed the fish way more than the fish needed Jonah.

And we oftentimes get ourselves in storms and messes and situations when we ask the question, why, God?

Why would you do this?

But as Pastor Brandon has been breaking down the last couple weeks, instead of asking God in an angry way, but we ask, why?

God, what are you trying to teach me in this moment right here?

What can I learn from this?

What am I missing from this right here?

And every single time, God will continue to push you towards his heart and the desire that he is wanting for your life.

Jonah did not, the whale did not need Jonah, but Jonah needed the fish.

Something else I want to explain to you guys this morning when it comes to the situation of Jonah is that we have to understand that serving God is not an earned position.

No one is qualified for this position.

There is not a checklist when it comes to doing this or doing that, as we should study to show ourselves approved as believers.

But to be serving God, there is no qualification.

God is simply looking for your heart.

There are so many situations and instances in the Bible that show that God is not looking for a qualification, but a heart posture of people that will serve him in every single way.

It says in the scriptures, Jeremiah chapter 17, the human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked.

Jeremiah 17 · chapter mention

Encouraging scripture this morning, right, church?

Who really knows how bad it is?

But I, the Lord, search all the hearts and examine secret motives.

I give all people their due rewards according to what their actions deserve.

Church, what rewards do your actions deserve this morning?

Do you deserve justice?

Do you deserve mercy?

No, we deserve punishment for the things that we've done and the sin that we've committed in our lives.

As the scripture says, the wages of sin is death.

But because of his mercy, because of his love for you, the rest of the scripture says, but the gift of God is eternal life.

We have to understand this gift, we should not take advantage of it, but we should receive it openly every single day because we didn't deserve this gift.

We deserve punishment.

All God has to use is broken people.

That's all God has to use on this earth right now.

I've never met anybody that's had it all together and perfectly uh fit in everything that they do.

But all God has is broken people.

All throughout the Bible it shows Abraham denied Sarah, was his wife, two separate occasions.

Moses murdered a man and tried covering his sins by burying the body in the desert.

David committed adultery and murdered Uriah.

Peter denied Jesus.

Paul was murdering Christians.

These are all people that we're all very familiar with.

Because this is not just a book of do's and don'ts, but it's examples to show you that people have been messed up from a long time ago, from when we were born.

And God stepped into humanity to do the thing that we couldn't do.

And he bridged the gap from humanity to God.

When we accept Jesus, we receive that eternal life.

Aren't his mercies good?

Isn't it great that you don't have to have it all figured out?

I wish I did, but I don't.

And neither do you.

I've seen this quote a long time ago, and I wanted to share it with you this morning.

I'm not a Christian because I'm strong and I have it all together.

I'm a Christian because I'm weak and I admit I need a savior.

Church, it's okay.

God has the whole world in his hands.

You're not holding anybody up.

You're not even holding your own faith up.

Because when Jonah ran, God sent the fish.

And when you run from your faith, can I tell you God will still meet you there as well?

You can never outrun his love.

You can never outrun his mercies.

You can never get away from his presence because he's always looking for you in every single way in life.

Number two, mercy and repentance not only brings a second chance, but it should bring change.

When you encounter Jesus, you should look like Jesus.

Mercy and repentance brings change.

Says in the scriptures, on the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds, Forty days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed.

And the people of Nineveh believed God's message.

It doesn't say they believed in God, it said they believed God's message.

And from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.

And when the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne, took off his royal robes, and he dressed himself in burlap, and sat on heaps of ashes.

Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city.

Not one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks may eat or drink anything at all.

People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God.

They must turn from their evil ways and stop all the violence.

Who can tell?

Perhaps even yet, God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.

Church, I want to help somebody out this morning when it comes to this.

We're going to look at Jonah, then we're going to look at Nineveh.

But Jonah didn't say anything but what God told him to say.

So often we get into conversations when it comes to our relationship with God and relationship with others, and we think we got to have all the right answers to say all the right things.

Can I tell you, Jonah was prepared to go to Nineveh by what God told him to say, not by your intellect, not by the things that you understand, but by what God tells you to say.

We look for clever words to say or specific things to bring up.

But the bottom line, Jonah didn't say anything except what he was told.

Church, some of us just need to stop talking because it's looking bad on behalf of Jesus.

Right?

We get on the internet and we see people say crazy stuff about God, and I'm like, that doesn't match anywhere in the Bible.

Why are they saying this?

And all of a sudden the world is starting to see a perspective of Jesus that's not even found in his word.

If you want to speak for Jesus, open up his word.

I always heard uh this wasn't in my notes.

There was a quote that said, If you want to read or if you want to hear God's voice, read your Bible.

If you want to hear his voice audibly, read your Bible out loud.

I thought that was pretty good.

See, a clear and simple proclamation of God's word truly brings people to repentance.

Scripture says it's his kindness that brings people to repentance.

The Holy Spirit leads people to salvation.

We are simply just vessels.

That's all that we are.

Another way of saying it is he doesn't need you to complete his will.

He gives us the opportunity to be a part.

He doesn't need us.

He doesn't need us, but he wants us to be a part of the journey the entire way.

Going over to Nineveh now, the king repented and called the city to repent.

And the KJV, this is how I learned it.

It says, with sackcloths and ashes, even the animals.

How many of you ever like read scriptures before and you're trying to memorize new ones and like new um translations?

But it's just like the King James is just stuck in your brain.

This is how I am when it says burlapse in the scripture.

I'm like, nah, it's a sackcloth.

Sackclock for sure.

Um this is kind of what it would look like back in this day.

Um, this is a pretty common thing that would happen all throughout the Old Testament, actually, um, when it comes to different prophets, when it comes to David, and sackcloths and ashes were used in the Old Testament times as a symbol of mourning andor repentance.

Someone wanting to show his repentant heart would often wear sackcloth, sit in ashes, and put ashes on top of his head.

If someone died, sackcloth.

National disaster, sackcloth.

Sorrow to an individual or a group of people, sackcloth.

Simply put, the sackcloth and ashes were used as an outward sign to one's inward condition.

What this material was like, it was a coarse material, usually made up of black goats' hair, making it quite uncomfortable to wear.

People typically wore sackcloth for seven days, though in cases of severe mourning, it could last up to 30 days or longer, depending on the circumstances.

This was not supposed to be a comfortable thing.

But in our society now, when we see sackcloth, we think silly, but we can't even get uncomfortable to pray on our knees longer than five minutes at times.

We should have a heart posture of understanding that repentance is not comfortable.

We should want to change to look more like Jesus in everything that we do, church.

We should put ourselves in positions to say, God, I have messed up and I have done wrong.

I know this is going to be uncomfortable, but I need to change to get rid of my sin.

I need to flee from my sin.

And Nineveh, the king, made this decree and took it a whole nother step further.

And he took Bertha with the sackcloth.

This was interesting to me because I had to call Pastor Brandon on this a couple times because you know he's got a double doctorate and everything, you know.

I was like, I gotta double check, you know, a couple things.

And uh I couldn't find a ton of commentary on this thought process.

And so we gotta understand that Bertha here, the cattle and the the herds and everything, they were life to them at that point.

Their food, their sacrifices, their resources.

Everything that they did revolved around their cattle, truly.

They wanted to make sure their harvest was good for them.

They wanted to make sure their relationships were good so they could exchange from people.

So we have to understand.

So when the king made this decree, it wasn't just the repentance for them internally, but also outwardly as well.

Individually and community-led that would encourage and challenge them to surrender their money, time, work, and blessings all back to God.

Another way of saying it, it was the repentance of the things seen and the things unseen.

And this is a tough one to talk about because this one is not just God, I've sinned, but it's the second step.

It's God, I've sinned, and I want to change everything about my life.

And so when the king made this decree to make the animals fast and mourn, they were simply saying, from my understanding, they were saying, God, I want to give you back what I consider to be my life.

I want to give you back the resources that you have given me.

I want to give you back the ways that I've been able to exchange with one another.

I want to repent for the way that I've been having relationships when it comes to the resources in every area of my life.

And how often do we do that with our own life?

God, I've messed up.

All of a sudden there's something on our phones that pops up, and we repent of it, but we don't repent of our phone.

We don't surrender our phone, right?

I encourage the students, I I actually said this to our college kids, we gotta pray for our algorithm, church.

The algorithm's out to get us.

Not just for me, but for all of us, because the heart is deceitful, right?

And the things that we desire will continue to stack up along the way.

Church, we gotta surrender everything.

We gotta take the sackcloth off of Bertha and put it on our phones.

We gotta put it on our wallets, we gotta put it on our relationships and say, God, I'm sorry for the things that I've done internally, but I'm also sorry for the things that I've done outwardly as well.

God, I want to give you everything back to you.

So if that means I gotta stop doing this, then I will.

If I gotta stop doing that, I will.

God, if I need to continue to give more, I will.

Because my heart is yours.

And I repent of that.

That was the heart posture of Nineveh.

They didn't want to be destroyed because they're having a new reverence of who God is, and they said, God, I want to give you everything.

I'm sorry for the things inwardly and the things outwardly, the things seen and the things unseen.

Does this make sense, church?

It's not our hearing of God's words that pleases him, it's responding obediently to it.

Anybody can hear God's word, but it's how you respond to it, is what God is truly looking for.

It says in James chapter 1, but don't just listen to God's words.

James 1 · chapter mention

You must do what it says.

Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.

For if you listen to God's word and don't obey it, it's like glancing at your face in the mirror.

You see yourself, walk away and forget what you look like.

But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you have heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

That's what Jonah did.

He looked into the mirror what God was telling him to do, and he went away from it.

And then that second time after the storm and the mess, he was like, Okay, I'm gonna do it this time.

And Nineveh was doing the same thing.

They looked into the mirror instead of walking away, they looked into the heart of God and the mercy that he has for us.

And they said, I'm going to change and do the things because I don't want to be destroyed.

Church, I don't want to be destroyed either.

I want to change so I can look more like God and less like myself.

Last point.

I only got three points this morning, church.

Gotcha.

Gotcha.

Mercy and repentance brings number three, undeserving forgiveness.

Not only does it bring a second chance, not only should it bring change, but it brings an undeserving forgiveness.

Church, we don't deserve to be forgiven, but we serve a God who sees us with love and wants us to change so we can look like Him.

Scripture says when God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.

He will always show compassion to anyone willing to seek him.

Church, are you in a place where you feel like you can be unloved?

You feel like you've messed up, you can't be forgiven for the sin, the sins that you've done.

Can I tell you, we serve a God who wants to show compassion to you.

He gave the warning to Nineveh.

40 days from now, you need to change because if not, you're gonna be destroyed.

Can I tell you, God is always going to give you a warning before destruction happens in your life?

And God always wants to show compassion to you.

God is merciful and patient with us.

It's not his desire that even one should perish.

He will call upon a great storm and use every resource at his hand, even a fish, to see you change your heart.

God is to be loved and to be feared.

His grace is righteous, and so is his judgment.

Church, can I ask you a question this morning?

If none of Nineveh had repented in 40 days, God would have destroyed the city and the people.

Would God be any less just?

Would the story of Jonah be any less?

Can I tell you the prophets show us the characteristics of God?

And we see in the story of Jonah, because oftentimes people talk about how God isn't a God of grace and mercy in the Old Testament.

Right here in the Old Testament, we see his grace and his mercy.

Maybe he would have raised up somebody else to go.

Like the prophet Isaiah said, send me, I'll go.

I hope that's our prayer as well, that in every area we would be vessels so we can make a difference and show the mercy and grace to God, to other people around us, whether it's at a job that we hate or whether it's at a job that we love, that we would be obedient to do what God's calling us to do.

Whether we're in a relationship we're frustrated, frustrated about or not, that we would sit there and say, God, I want to show mercy to this person because you have showed mercy to me.

See, so often we sit here and think mercy isn't important until we are the ones that are needing mercy.

God looks at us with love and he will always show compassion to anyone who seeks him.

The fear of God is to clearly see his hatred for sin.

To love God is to see his mercy for you in spite of the sin he hates.

But real love is in forgiveness.

That's one of the hardest things as individuals we can do is to forgive others.

But that's exactly what God has done for us.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4, it says, But God is so rich in mercy and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.

Ephesians 2:4

It is only by God's grace that you have been saved.

For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.

So God can point us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness towards us, as shown in all of he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

See, God saved you by his grace when you believed.

It wasn't by anything that we did, church.

It was he saved us when we believed in him.

We can't take credit for this.

It is a gift from God.

Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

For we are God's masterpiece.

He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he's planned for us a long time ago.

He's planned something good inside of you from the very beginning, and he wants to see that thing be completed, and he wants to show you mercy, and he will use every resource at his hand to get you to his heart.

He did the same with Jonah, he did it with Nineveh, and church, he can do it with you as well.

The message is the same for us today, church.

God forgave Jonah, God forgave Nineveh, and God can forgive you.

Are you in a place where you feel unforgivable?

Maybe you're not today, but maybe you will be at one point.

And you gotta understand that God sent his son not to point a finger at you, but to save you.

I'm not a Christian because I'm strong and I have it all together, but I'm a Christian because I'm weak and I need a savior.

And that's the kind of God we serve.

He sees in Jonah that he runs and he's weak.

He sees in Nineveh that they're gonna be destroyed and they need a savior.

And he sees in each and every one of us that you need a savior.

We all need a savior, and no matter where you've come in life, whether you're broken right now or you've come broken and you're ashamed of the past in your life.

Can I tell you God wants to use it all for his glory?

Church, I know Christians in my own personal life that have a testimony, that have a message to share, and they're so ashamed to share what God's done in their life because of the person that they were.

Can I tell you, we are overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony?

Have you ever thought maybe you're in a situation of life right now, the place you are with your job, the place you are with your relationships, because God wants to use your testimony to somebody there.

I came across this not too long ago, and it's a uh it's a Japanese bowl.

I don't know if anybody follows Japanese bowls or anything like that.

I wasn't very familiar with Japanese bulls like that.

So uh I thought this was cool though.

It's a uh it's a kinsagi bowl, is what it's called.

In Japan, the art of kinsagi involves repairing broken pottery, lacquered dust that are mixed with powder, gold, or silver.

And instead of hiding the fractures, kinsagi celebrates them.

Viewing the breakage as part of the object's history and adding to its unique beauty.

And when you shine light upon these bulls, you know what the thing that actually sticks out is?

It's not the bull, it's the gold.

And when Christ, you accept the mercy and the repent, and when you repent of your sins and God puts your pieces together, can I show you that the light of Jesus wants to shine through you?

And oftentimes we think that they're gonna see our mistakes, they're gonna see our flaws.

Can I tell you, when I see this, I think that's the point.

Because we all have mistakes, we all have flaws, we all have things that have happened in our life that we're not proud of.

But when God takes our pieces together and the light shines upon us, it's not them that they it's not us that they see, but it's Christ in us that they see.

It's the beauty of the brokenness that when we fall, God picks us up every single time.

That we're just broken pieces in the hands of greatness, that God is the ultimate potter, and we are just the clay church.

Repentance is a gift, nobody deserves his mercies.

And far too often we look at repentance as it's a lesser thing or shame on you type of thing.

We get the privilege to repent of our sins every single day that we can turn back to him and say, God, make me more like you and less like me.

That we would strive for that in every area of our life and say, God, I'm sorry, I thought I could do it better.

May you lead me and I'll follow, not vice versa.

God, in every area of my life, you be the Lord.

May I sacrifice everything, God, that I would mourn over my sins and say, God, I want your heart to look, I want my heart to look like your heart, God, that we would appreciate the gift that repentance truly is.

Because God is not looking for perfection, He is simply looking for obedience.

Is God calling you to obey this morning, church?

I don't know what God's calling you to do.

I know what God's calling me to do, and that's to obey.

But I don't want to obey.

You're just gonna keep going through the same cycle over and over.

If not, trust me.

God gave everything, and you know what God's looking for from you?

Everything.

It hurts, it's uncomfortable.

It's how it should be, honestly.

But his mercies are new every morning, and he meets us right where we are, and he doesn't want you to fix yourself on your own.

He actually comes and helps you be more like him and less like ourselves.

You don't got to come to this altar or come to God on your own, thinking that you gotta have yourself put all together and cleaned up and everything.

No, you come to God just as you are, and God will clean you up right where you are.

He will teach you how to live a holy life.

Getting connected to the church will teach you how to live a holy life.

Moving with people in life that are looking for God in every area of their life, community will help you live a godly life.

That's why we do what we do.

Because it's not about us, church.

It's about Jesus.

And God is simply just looking for a heart that will be obedient for his will and less like ourselves.

Let's pray this morning, church.

Dear God, thank you so much for this morning.

Thank you for the opportunity to experience your mercies and experience the opportunity to repent.

Anytime we find ourselves in a mess, God, we can come to you and know that you're right there waiting for us, God, and you're gonna show compassion and love for us every single time.

Maybe there's people in here right now that aren't feeling the sense of, well, I've sinned and messed up, but maybe it's the simple fact of we see sin and people messing up all around us, and that we ought to have the heart to say, God, this is where I am.

I want to show mercy to other people around me.

God, teach us to love like you do, teach us to show compassion like you do, teach us to show mercy like you do.

God, may we surrender our heart to you in every area of our life, God, the things seen and the things unseen.

Thank you for the second chances you give us, God.

We would not be here today without those second chances, maybe those third or fourth chances, God, but you meet us right where we are and you never give up on us, and we are grateful for that, God.

So, Lord, we thank you for what you're doing.

Continue to change us to look more like you in every single way.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Can we stand on our feet, church?

We're gonna sing one more song this morning called Gratitude.

Man, this is just a perfect song for this because maybe you're in here today and you don't feel like you're in a place of sin, but maybe you're in a place of just experiencing his mercies.

Can I tell you, just lift your hands up this morning, church?

Give him all the praise that he deserves because his mercies are new every single day.

Maybe you're in here right now and you're like, I've messed up so bad.

I truly need his mercies and I need to repent.

Can I tell you these altars are ready for you?

It's gonna feel uncomfortable to get up out of your seat.

Ain't nobody looking at you except for the fact that they're excited for you if you need to come to these altars.

If you need somebody to pray with and you just don't even know the words to say, and you just found yourself in a mess this morning and you need encouragement.

Man, we got prayer warriors working.

waiting to pray with you this morning so that they can pray with you and encourage you.

But let's not waste any more time and let's give God all the praise that he deserves because he's worthy of it.

Amen, church.

Let's worship.