Shift: Jonah Gets a "Do-Over" | Part 4

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, welcome to part four of Shift.

If you go ahead and uh pull out your, I guess it's a teaching outline and bulletin all kind of all put into one.

It's great to be back.

For those of you that don't know me or weren't here last week, I have the privilege of being Ryan's dad.

That has been my claim to fame.

And uh as I came in, someone looked at me.

He goes, Hey man.

I don't know if you said the hey man, but you're Ryan's dad.

So pull this out, and um I'll try and be the best Ryan's dad I can be.

If you have a pen, pull that out as well.

Because here's what I want you to get.

Um, the title is shift, and about this point in any kind of series, you forget why the title is the title.

And uh this summer will be 50 years since I was personally introduced to Jesus.

Yes, yes, yes, that's amazing.

Uh, that also means I'm older than most all of you, and I've been married 42 years.

And uh, having been living a bit longer than probably most all of you, I can tell you this every major change that ever happens in your life happens because of a shift.

Every big change in a relationship, shift in perspective, shift in career, a shift you relocate.

But we tend to try and tweak our way through life.

I love this title because it's about the book of Jonah, and you would think, you know, this old testament book, but it's about a shift that happens not only in his life, but a shift that happens in people that we would never dream God could change.

I was uh meeting with a young man and his wife recently with my wife, and um they they were in a marriage crisis.

Great people have really walked closely with the Lord, just a very typical time that you have in career and kids and pressure and all the rest.

And they were in a storm.

In fact, much like uh one of those times where, oh God, I need your help.

And he called and we sat down together and we had a good talk with the two of them, and I texted him about two days later, hey, how are you doing?

Because I gave him the name of a counselor that I called.

And like most of us, right?

We have family of origin issues, we have struggles we've been through, and sometimes we need some outside help.

And uh about a week later I said, Well, how did it go?

And did you get a hold of the counselor?

He goes, Well, you know, work got really busy, and you know, the kids are doing this and doing that.

Well, I certainly understand.

And so two weeks later I texted him again and said, Hey, how's it going?

And kind of went out of my way to line him up with this counselor.

And he goes, Oh, you know, we've just been so busy, things are kind of transactional.

So I mean, now we're six, seven weeks out, and um, what I realized, uh, this guy is a lot like me.

You get into a storm, you really want help, there's a big conflict, you cry out to God, and you get a little relief.

And what you realize is you want relief instead of transformation.

Because, see, now the crisis, you know, it's transactional, it's not what it needs to be, but we're kind of getting along and things are sort of okay.

And I just want to tell you, as someone who is a little older than most, uh, this summer I will uh was introduced to Jesus as my personal savior 50 years ago this summer.

And I've been married to that very young woman with the blonde hair for 42 years.

And what I can tell you is over and over and over in my life, when I realized I needed to deal with an issue in me or in my marriage or in my parenting or at work, I've tried to tweak, tweak, tweak, and make little changes.

Can I tell you, it does not work.

You just delay the pain and you don't experience what God wants for you.

I love, uh notice in your notes, if you pull this out and if you happen to have a pen, um at the very top it says, How do you shift to?

And would you would you with the pen underline the more that you were made for?

In week number one, we talked about when we run from God, we shift away, and underline this, are you ready?

From the more that you were made for.

Here's what I want you to know.

I've been doing this for a long time, and the average Christian that I meet, when I sit down and have anything other than a superficial conversation, is not experiencing the more that you were made for.

God didn't just save you to forgive you.

He's got a plan, he's got a purpose, he's got peace, he's got direction, he's got a connection in relationships.

And some of the biggest challenges, I want you to think about the biggest challenge, the biggest thing if you could say, God, take that away or fix it.

Some of the biggest challenges you have in your life right now are actually allowed by God to bring some storms, to receive his mercy so that you can not tweak your life, but shift and experience the more that you're made for.

What we're gonna find is that God is so patient and so merciful, and this is a big pretell.

I'm gonna give you the answer to everything that we're gonna learn.

Week number four is where we're at, is that when our external acts, obedience, do not reflect our internal attitude, heart, we miss the more we're made for.

Let me say that again.

When our external acts, okay, God, I'll apologize, okay, God, I'll do what you told me to do.

Okay, God, I'll get my finances in order.

But you can do external things.

Jonah does it.

Okay, God, I get vomited out on this beach.

You said go tell those Ninevites that there's judgment coming.

Okay, I'll do it.

Often we do external acts to get relief.

My friend came for counseling.

My friend even walked away with a little resource in his hands.

My friend did a couple little things with his wife that at least put the fire out for now.

What he wanted was relief.

What he did was tweak his life.

But he didn't make a shift.

And because he didn't make a shift, the same issues that are unresolved are just gonna keep boiling up, and I got a feeling I'll hear from him sometime soon.

Now, here's the good news.

We're all that way, aren't we?

Jonah was that way.

How does God respond when, you know, it's external, we're not really from the heart?

I love it.

God gives Jonah a redo.

Are you ready?

Uh we're gonna get a short movie in chapter three of Jonah, and the movie has four scenes.

Scene number one is God recommissions Jonah.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time saying, Arise, circle the word arise in your notes.

Go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the proclamation which I'm going to tell you.

I love this.

Jonah rebels, I'm not going to do God's will.

He gets himself in a pretty messy, sticky, dark, yicky situation.

He gets vomited onto the beach, and God says, okay, let's try this again.

Scene number two, Jonah obeys God's command.

So Jonah, circle the word you'll know in just a minute, arrived.

So Jonah arose and he went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord.

Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city.

I won't go into all the background.

Literally, it was the greatest city on the earth.

You heard about it earlier if you were in part one.

I mean, this is a city that, in our words, was about 378 square miles, because it was a walled city that was closer, but much like it was like a metropolis.

Like here, like San Jose is what, a million people?

But I mean, the Bay Area is like 7.88 million people.

They've been digging, archaeologists, for years.

It's like this incredible huge city with hundred-foot walls and you know, wide enough for three or four chariots to go by.

But then there were all these adjoining communities.

I mean, it's huge.

It's the Shanghai, it's the New York City, it's the LA of its day.

Took three days just to walk from one end of the suburbs to the other.

Then Jonah began to go through the city, one day's walk, and he cried out and said, Yet 40 days, and Nineveh will be overthrown.

So he's obeying.

Okay?

He doesn't like them, but he's obeying, and he proclaims, Judgment is coming.

You know, it says he, in even in the first day that he starts walking, there's a response.

Notice that word, he began.

We don't know how long or what he said, or maybe from being inside the fish, maybe he was like his skin was maybe all white or something.

You know, Jesus talked about the sign of Jonah.

There's all kind of speculation.

Here's what we know a disobedient guy chooses to obey and is telling people, not that he doesn't like, he's telling people that he hates, that in 40 days, God's judgment is coming.

So at least he obeys.

Notice people's response.

The people of Nineveh repent.

Then the people of Nineveh, notice, believed in God, the one true God, and they called a fast, and they put on sackcloth, and from the greatest to the least of them.

And when the word reached the king of Nineveh, he, circle it, arose from his throne and laid aside his robe.

Now the reason I wanted you, there's a moment here.

Okay, listen, God speaks to a prophet, he gets up and he acts and he does it.

Second time, God speaks to him and Jonah arises.

Third time, here's a king, he's on his throne.

That's his position of authority.

When he hears judgment is coming, he gets up from his throne.

I'm the king, I'm in control, I've got it all down.

And his message is I'm taking, I'm not the authority now.

He laid aside his robes.

He's taking the prestige, the power.

He was the most powerful person on the earth.

And this is an act of repentance.

This is an act of, I'm going to humble myself before God.

He takes off his outer robes, he covers himself with sackcloth.

And you're going to see that repeated three different times.

This is the Old Testament Near Eastern way to say, man, I am such big trouble, Pope.

I need God.

And so he takes off the robes, he puts on sackcloth.

And notice then he sits on the ashes.

This is a mental, emotional, and volitional, I have absolutely no hope.

I bring nothing.

Not my throne, not my robes, not my intellect.

If there's not an intervention from this Yahweh God, the creator of all that there is, I'm done.

And then he acts, he issued a proclamation, said, In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and by his nobles, do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing.

Do not let them eat or drink water.

But both man and beast must be covered with saffclock.

He's just saying, We're done.

He's at the end of himself.

And by the way, don't just keep this out there.

Think about what kind of indication happens in you?

What where has God taken you in your life where you've just, you know, this marriage is done.

I can't put up with this kid one more time.

My parents are just, they, they are, they're so unresponsive.

My boss, this, this, this health issue, I'm so done with this.

What you're seeing is a king with great power and a city that you would never dream would be responsive, coming to the end of themselves.

That's a very important place to be.

And then notice after he makes that decree, here's what he tells everyone let men call on God.

Underline the word earnestly.

It's the opposite of Jonah.

Jonah's gone through the motions.

Ryan will teach next week, and what you'll learn is Jonah actually gets hacked off that God forgives him.

That's for another story.

But he says, call on God earnestly, and it's not just words, that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in their hands.

And then the king basically is like this: who knows?

Right?

Who knows?

Perhaps God will turn and relent and withdraw his burning anger so that we will not perish.

Scene number one, Jonah obeys.

Scene number two, Nineveh hears.

Scene number three, they repent.

Scene number four, God responds with mercy.

When God underlined the word Saul, when God saw their deeds, that they had turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which he had declared that he would bring upon them, and he did not do so.

One of the things I jotted in my notes, it's really worth pondering.

God takes no delight in punishing the wicked.

These are the most wicked people historically on the face of the earth.

These are the people that run the sex trade of their day.

This was a group of people that impaled people, that skinned them alive, that would go into whole towns and rape all the women and put a sword through pregnant women.

I mean, atrocious, atrocious.

Just the worst things you can think of.

In view of all of that, God finds no delight in judging the wicked.

His default emotion.

The default emotion of this book and the message is mercy.

He's merciful with a rebellious prophet who knows better.

He's merciful with wicked, wicked people.

Over the years, I've spent a lot of time and a lot of different people with all kinds of backgrounds.

In one season, found myself going uh regularly to maximum security prisons with uh a man who taught me a lot about God.

And uh part of his life was uh every month he would go to maximum security prison and he started dragging his young pastor.

And if you've never been to one of those deals, and you know, these are these are murders and these are rapists, and there's no hope of ever getting out, and the the bars go and then you walk in, and about a nine by nine, it goes shh.

Oh Lord.

But John loved him.

John said, Chip, you need to understand God loves these people.

And we compare and we think their mistakes is far worse than ours, but our our God's heart is for mercy.

And I had the privilege of being with John and watching people that I could have never even imagined wanting to hear about God cry like babies and experience forgiveness for things that they wish they had never done, but they did.

And that's the picture that we have here.

Don't miss the big message from Jonah's life.

Notice the contrast between chapter one and chapter three.

In chapter one, God commands him to go, and response is Jonas flees.

In chapter three, God commands go, and Jonah goes.

In chapter one, God warns the sailors with the storm, and in chapter three, he warns the city through Jonah.

In chapter one, the storm actually stops the moment they respond.

In chapter three, the wickedness stops.

The response is the sailors repent, they start worshiping Yahweh on the boat, and they put their faith in the one true God.

The city responds in repentance in chapter three, and they believe in the one true God.

In chapter one, Jonah ends up in a fish and God delivers him.

And in chapter three, Jonah ends up in a revival and God delivers his enemies.

And don't miss this.

Jonah disobeys in chapter one, and then he cries out for life.

Jonah obeys in chapter three, and I just can't wait till next week because he is such a hypocrite, like I've seen in my own life.

He cries out and says, I want to die.

I would rather die than see my enemies receive the mercy of God.

I think there's a couple big lessons.

One from the Nineveh, and then one from Jonah.

You ready?

Here's the lesson that I at least learned from this passage from the Nineveh.

Receiving God's mercy requires faith, evidenced by repentance.

Verse 5, it says they believed.

In other words, God wants to be merciful to everyone, but it's available, but it's like having an ocean of water and being dying of thirst and going, no, I'm not gonna drink.

I don't need that.

Well, guess what?

It can be available, but you don't get it.

So, in order to receive God's mercy, you have to believe.

And then, second, it's evidenced by repentance.

Did you get those words?

The king says, Everyone must turn away, believe in God earnestly, turn from your wicked ways, turn from your violence.

And then did you notice when God saw their deeds, did you hear those words?

God turned, God relented, God withheld.

See, there's this, there's this whole big theme, this undercurrent about repentance.

So let me just explain what repentance is, and repentance is not.

If you're taking notes, you could write the word repentance.

And what I want to tell you is that genuine repentance, it's a New Testament word, it's meta noia, meta with or change, mine.

And so there's an intellectual part of repentance.

In other words, you intellectually say, I'm going down this path, it's like I'm going down, you know, 101 south, and you realize, oh, this won't lead me.

I'm supposed to be on 101 north.

So you get over the overpass, and then you turn around and you go the other direction.

That's a good picture of repentance.

Well, that's an intellectual thing.

Second, there's an emotional component.

It's not just like Jonah, oh, yeah, I was supposed to talk to them about God.

I don't really want to.

He repented of it in his behavior, but his heart wasn't there.

There's there's a heart, there's an emotion.

Um that's there's a sense of sorrow.

Um, and it's not like faking, oh, I'm really sorry I got caught.

It's a sorrow where you realize you really damage the relationship.

I I will I will just tell you, both in horizontal relationships with people and in my relationship with God, when I finally realize that sin, doing what's wrong, right, is not fundamentally a behavioral issue.

It's fundamentally a relational issue.

Because if it's behavior, like, oh, I'm sorry I did that, you know, I I logged on one more time, I lusted one more time, I lied one more time, I stole one more time, I did work one more time, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I'm really sorry, and play, you know, and then it's like push-repeat.

No, no, no, no.

Repentance is intellectually a change of mind, birthed out of a sense of a relational hurt.

I hurt that person.

It caused a divide between me and my God, and he loves me.

And then there's a volitional part, and the volitional part is your behavior is followed by your mind and your heart.

Um, I was sharing in the earlier service, uh, just kind of came to me on the fly.

Of I was trying to think of a time.

When I when I learned that sin damages a person, and if you get that, how it changes your behavior.

Because is there anybody here that uh don't raise your hand?

This would be like wait, because if everyone was honest, every hand would go up.

Uh so I'll just ask this.

Keep your hands down, please.

Um think think of that thing in your life that you struggle with, and then you try hard, and then you struggle with it, and then you try hard, and you struggle with it, and you try hard, and you know, for some it's anger, for some it's lust, for some it's money, for some it's shopping, for some it's eating, for some it's sex, you know, whatever, right?

We're human.

And but but it's like, you know, it like gets old, like I mean, what what brings about change?

Obviously, it's God's grace and God's power.

And I'll I'll try and make this a shorter story because I told it too long last time.

Um I we were in a in a sea a tough season.

I was in seminary, so I was going to school full-time with a full load.

I was working full-time uh because Teresa needed to be home with our kids, and we had two eight-year-olds and a less than two-year-old who's now a pastor of this church.

And uh, I mean, it was like intense.

I'm up like at 4, 4:30 and studying.

I go to school, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I come home, eat, uh, play with the kids, then work, you know, until 11, get up, the same thing.

It was really intense.

And my one sort of little moment was playing basketball.

And so, like coming home sometimes, I could find a pickup game on an outdoor court, and I get lost, and I would play, and I, you know, didn't have a cell phone.

And if I did have a cell phone, I probably would have not called anyway.

And Teresa, it always happened when she cooked a great meal and her love language is service.

So she served me, and I'd show up late, we'd have an argument, and we just then she would look this way at night, I'd look this way at night, we wouldn't talk to each other for two days, and then we'd pretend it didn't happen.

You know, great conflict resolution.

Uh, we we hadn't been to enough counseling at that point.

And and you know, but what we were I know we were doing some counseling because we were learning these I feel messages about how to uh share your anger without attacking the person, because our lack of that was not good at all.

And so I think she listened more than me, and I came home and uh you know the food's cold.

And here's what you need to understand my rights, my time, I'm working, I'm going to school, I should be able to play as much as I want.

It's my one little thing.

Who cares if it's cold?

I don't get it.

Why is she uptight?

You know, I don't show up at 5 30.

Give me a break, lighten up, loosen up.

This, you know, I'm resentful, I'm angry, and and she is well.

And so I come in, and uh, there's candles on on the table, and kids have already eaten, I'm really late, and and she's really kind, and she says, I put it in the oven, and she, you know, I'm thinking, oh man, I'm in real.

I wonder what's happening here.

So she um she she does that, and and then I eat, and then she she tried one of these I feel messages.

She goes, I I just want you to know that I spent the day cooking this meal because I love you.

And I feel like you don't love me when I spend this time doing this for you, and you seem to not care about me and not even call, and you do it, you know.

And I looked in her eyes, and I'll never forget this.

And I remember thinking, love and being late for supper?

This this this what this doesn't even compute.

What?

I mean, we had a battle.

I'm gonna do my thing, you do your thing, you're this rigid person.

5 30, dinner, dinner, dinner.

Give me a break.

And all of a sudden, I repented.

I repent, I saw it through a new lens.

This wasn't a person loving me saying, I did this for you.

And by the way, what we learned from, you know, your dad was an alcoholic, and I was an alcoholic, and what you've been through, and what I've been through, you're sensitive to rejection.

Every time I do this, I'm dissing you and rejecting you.

And when I looked into her eyes, watered up, I realized, oh my, this isn't about basketball, this isn't about when you eat supper.

Oh, she feels like I don't love her.

I recategorized a new mind map got placed inside my head.

I was pierced to the heart, and I'm sure she might have a mildly different story, but I don't think I was late for dinner more than a handful of times in the next few years.

Because what I what I realized was I love her.

I love her.

I would, I would never willfully do that.

I thought it was about dinner.

Do you get it?

When when you start thinking about that thing that you can't get over, when you start thinking it's it's anger, it's this person, or it's the circumstance, and all that junk, and you realize that when you willfully sin, it's damaging the person, and and worse, it's damaging the heart of God.

When you get that, I will tell you, you'll be motivated to change.

Because it's not like, okay, I crossed the line one more time, and Jesus says there's 1 John 1 9, if I confess my sin, he's faithful and just to forgive me of my sin and cleanse me from unrighteousness.

So I'm really sorry.

Erased again, erased, again, erased.

That's Jonah's stuff.

Repentance brings about transformation because it steeps something in your heart.

Receiving God's mercy requires faith, evidence by repentance, and here's the principle repentance is a prerequisite for progress.

In any area of your life, repentance.

You have to start thinking about it differently.

You have to look at it differently.

You got to get a new set of categories.

It's not your addiction, that's not the issue.

It's not your job, it's not your circumstances, it's not this, it's not that.

Repentance is pausing and saying, God, give me new eyes to see this through your lens.

Allow me to emotionally digest what this is doing to me and other people, and then give me the grace to get on the exit ramp and do a U-turn and get on the Did you hear the song that we sang just before I got up?

I mean, obviously you were in the room, so you heard it, so that wasn't as but did you the little phrase?

I bet we sang it 45 times.

Your way is better.

Your way is better, your way is better, your way is better.

I got a question for you.

Do you believe that or not?

You think resolving anger his way is better?

You think having a healthy relationship with the opposite sex when you're single, his way is better?

Do you really believe that his way is better to manage your finances the way he says?

Do you believe that forgiving someone that his way is better?

Do you honestly believe, like unlike Jonah, that loving and caring and praying for the other political party, the racist on the other end, the person who's navigating the sex trade, a whole new set of lives?

What would it take?

What would it take for the people that down deep you hate?

The person that betrayed you, the person who walked out on you, the person that ripped you off, the man or the woman that's not paying their child support?

What would happen if you repented of, I'm a victim, poor me, or I'm gonna get them back?

And you just keep drinking that poison of unforgiveness, thinking that they're gonna die while you're drinking it.

God says repentance is a prerequisite.

In fact, Jesus' very first message in Mark chapter 1, he's uh he introduces his message when he comes, the king has come.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Now, after John, speaking of John the Baptist, had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, namely, I'm here.

What's the response?

Repent and believe in the gospel.

Change how you think about God, change how you think about there's a kingdom.

The world's kingdom is power, success, looks, sex, money.

When you have more of that, then you can be your little king and you can sit on your little throne and you can call the shots thinking.

And he said, No, no, no, no.

Repent.

That path seems right to men, but it ends in death.

There's a new path with a new king, and he'll give life that's really life.

But you have to repent.

After he had lived a perfect life and taught his disciples and was unfairly in a trial, convicted, beaten, crucified, then rose from the dead, and after walking around for 40 days with over 500 eyewitnesses, he ascended to the right hand of the Father.

And the the church waited because he said, You know, you were walking around with me in Galilee and Judea, and I I taught you everything, but it's gonna get better.

It's gonna get way, way, way better.

Here's what I'm gonna do: I want you guys to hang out in Jerusalem.

And what I'm gonna do is what I promised you.

Remember, remember that last night when we were hanging out, and I took you out to the grapevines and gave you a little story about abiding, and you know, we prayed, and but I said it's better because the Spirit of God's gonna come.

And the Spirit of God will manifest the Father and the Son inside of you.

The moment you turn from your sin, repent, and believe, it will come into your life, and he'll seal you, and he'll live with you forever, and he'll manifest the very personality, the power, and the presence of Jesus.

And so that happens.

It's called Pentecost.

And they're speaking in these other languages, and people from everywhere are hearing this good news about God, and when they get it, they go, Oh, so you mean that guy we killed, the guy that did the miracles, he was really God and he died for us, and there's good news, and we can have eternal life, and there's a whole different path.

That was basically the sermon by Peter.

And here's the response to the sermon, Acts 2, 37, 38.

Now, when they heard this, what I just said, Peter said it way better.

They were pierced to the heart, and they said to Peter, to the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do?

And Peter said to them, underline it in your notes, repent.

Each of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Why?

For the forgiveness of your sins, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

That day, 3,000 people repented.

And especially in that day, baptism over time, and we get the rest of the epistles and letters that describe it, it's this external act.

But especially in those early days, as a person would trust in Jesus, to be baptized wasn't like, oh, you know, this is a nice religious thing, and it's an outward expression of reality.

All that is true.

But when they were like, they got baptized then, because it was like, I've died to my old life, and the moment they got baptized, guess what?

If you've been around any any Muslim believers, we do a lot of work in the Middle East.

When they trust Christ, and then when they're baptized, they have a funeral for whoever did that because you are dead.

You don't longer exist.

This wasn't a repentance, like, oh, I feel really sorry, and I hear I can pray a little prayer.

This is this is life, this is the king.

I'm turning from my sin, and I don't care what the consequence is, my new identity is a follower of Jesus.

And so I would ask you, yes, for your salvation, but what do you need to have a change of mind about that have to do with a change of heart, that's genuine emotional sense of loss of someone you've hurt, and maybe it's the Lord, that will lead to a change of behavior that you say, God, I'm on, I got sackcloth on, I'm sitting on ashes.

God, if I could have solved this, I would have solved it way earlier than now.

I'm done, I'm broken.

Hey, whatever it takes.

If I need to go to counseling, I'll go to counseling.

If I need to get in a 12-step group, I'll get in a 12-step group.

If I need to apologize to my boss, I'll apologize to if I need to get a new set of friends, if I need to break up with my boyfriend, if I need whatever.

That's repentance.

Because you sang.

No, you may not mean it, or you may have not digested it.

Your way's better.

Believing in God's goodness is at the core of every change you'll ever make that stops tweaking the little things in your life and causes you to shift.

To shift the alignment of your thoughts, your heart, and your life.

The second lesson is from Jonah.

From Jonah, we learn not about receiving God's grace, but extending God's mercy requires repentance and proclamation.

Remember, Jonah, Jonah, Jonah's life was going this way, away from God, so he he repented, at least in his behavior, not in his heart.

So at least now he goes through the city.

But but he did, that wasn't enough.

He repented and then he proclaimed.

He verbally said, and I'm not sure he said it with a lot of heart, in 40 days, there's judgment.

And this great, merciful God, in fact, Jonah believes that God is so merciful.

The reason he didn't want to go is he was afraid that if he shared about the great God, the Creator, that people actually might respond.

And if they responded, that God is so merciful, he would forgive them.

And he didn't want them forgiven, he wanted them to burn.

But what we learned from him is that God's mercy requires that we repent and then we proclaim.

The apostle Paul put it this way: for I am not, and put a box around the word ashamed.

Because it takes courage where you and I live in this part of the country to not be ashamed.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

For it, the gospel is the dunamis, is the word.

We get our word dynamite.

It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who circle the word, believes.

There's an ocean of grace.

There's thirsty people.

They need to know, someone has to proclaim there's an ocean of grace, there's forgiveness, there's love, there's a king, there's a different way to live.

But you have to receive it, you have to believe.

To the Jew first and also to the Greek.

And one of my favorite verses in all the Bible is the power of God's word.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

I don't even understand it.

There, there is something that you, if you get the words of this book inspired by God, into your head and they make it into your heart, it will remap your brain.

It will change your life.

It will, it will, it's powerful.

It'll reveal things to you.

I remember when I I didn't grow up reading the Bible, and I remember the very first Bible I had, and I remember I put it under my pillow.

I'd been to a camp where I heard the gospel and I'd trusted Christ when I was 18, and I'd read it at night and read it in the morning, and then I hid it under my pillow.

I don't think my parents would have been mad, but it was the era of the Jesus freaks, and I didn't want them to think I was a Jesus freak.

But I remember reading it and thinking, how could anybody know these things about me?

How could they know these private thoughts of lust?

How could they know about all my insecurities?

How they could know about all these things.

And I remember just reading at night and read in the morning and it had different people different ways, but I still remember like two weeks later, I just stopped miraculously cussing.

And I had a terrible, terrible mouth because out of my insecurity, and uh my wife thinks I'm tall, but to me, tall, six, eight and above is tall, and I'm short and middle size is you know, six four, six five, six, six, because that was my those were all my friends, basketball.

And I thought, I'm this skinny little shrimpy, and so I just had my mouth, just I just tried to power up all the time.

And God, as I read his word, he just I didn't know how it worked.

It just went.

Doesn't always happen that way.

But here's the principle the power is in the message, not the messenger.

Some of you are so concerned about sharing with someone or talking with someone or letting them know that, you know, if if you knew for sure someone was getting cancer a year from now that it will be lethal, and if they don't get treatment, they will die a year from now.

Are you gonna go, well, gosh, I don't want to really turn them off.

I'd rather have them die.

I know they got cancer, I know it's I know it's lethal, and I know there's a cure, but I mean, like, who am I to infringe my thoughts about cancer, right?

Now, we all have had people share things about Jesus in ways that are so repulsive and so come on strong and so judgmental and so just so unlike Jesus.

But I but I think that pendulum has gotten so far that somehow we've forgotten if they don't get a warning, if they don't know about the new king, if they don't know about the new life, you being nice to them is nice.

I mean that's a that's a really, really important start.

But you know, just like man, we're we've become great friends 11 months and 29 days.

I just wish I would have told you about the antidote because you died of cancer.

God wants better for us.

I uh remember learning this the a very hard way.

And uh I was uh a basketball coach at the time, and there was a guy who lived next door who was like the big man on campus, and I'd graduated from school a year or two, and I was coaching and uh leading a little college ministry, and um I'd go up and he was a swimmer, like all American swimmer, but he liked basketball, and I got to know him, and he was like, you know, the most popular, powerful, you know that, you know, that person?

Let me say this.

Is there anyone in your life that intimidates you?

Like they're either like super smart, super beautiful, super powerful, or super something that you just think, you know, like I just I'm really intimidated by him.

So I was obviously very intimidated by this guy, and he was living with his girlfriend right next door and uh off campus.

And so I'm going, I'm doing Bible studies on campus with different guys, and um, you know, boy, watching, you know, young men come to know the Lord, and it was really, really exciting.

And I'll never forget he walked across the yard one day and said, Hey, you, Chip.

Yeah, yeah.

He said, Uh, what's with you, man?

I said, What do you mean what's with me?

Why didn't you tell me?

I said, Tell you what?

He goes, You're kidding me?

Like, you aren't you the guy that's doing the Bible studies and aren't you kind of leading this little ministry in your basketball coach?

I said, Yeah.

So why didn't you tell me?

I said, tell you what?

About Jesus.

I said, why?

He said, Well, you know, my my my girlfriend's folks are really old school and they go to church and they have no idea we're living together, and you know, we're getting kind of serious, and so we went to uh to visit them in separate bedrooms and the whole bit, and and then like you know, they had to get up and we went to this little white church with some little funky country preacher with the with twang and everything, and and he said that Jesus loves you and he's died for your sin and you need to repent and come to Jesus.

And he goes, you know how he said it really, really turned me off.

But I sat there and I realized I'd never heard that in my life, and I just found myself kneeling at the front of that little white country church, and I asked Christ to come into my life, and something big changed because the moment we got back, I turned to my girlfriend and said, I gotta sleep on the couch now.

And she said, Why?

He said, Because I'm a follower of Jesus now, and you can't have it both ways.

He said, So let me just ask you, why didn't you tell me?

And I can't remember what excuse I made.

Today I would say, because I'm a wimpy, ashamed of the gospel, insecure marshmallow of a Christian.

I don't know if I'd say it like that.

You know why I didn't say anything?

In my wildest dreams, I never dreamed that guy would be open to Jesus.

Let alone from a country preacher with a tang who didn't say it nearly as culturally relevant as me.

Let's bow our heads and pray for the people that are on our three by five cards.

Because receiving mercy requires faith and repentance, but extending mercy requires repentance and proclamation.

Lord, as all of us are uh making our way to your throne right now, based solely on the work of the Lord Jesus who blaze the trail and invites us to enter in boldly to the throne of Christ.

I uh I ask that you would give us faith as we pray for those on our card.

I ask that you would prepare them like you did the Nineveh.

I ask that you give us courage and boldness to not be ashamed of your gospel.

And Lord, we don't need to be able to answer all the questions, the powers and the gospel.

Lord, would you help us to love those who timidate us?

Would you help us to love our enemies the way that Jonah loved his enemies very imperfectly?

And still you used him.

Let me give you just a minute to uh speak to your Heavenly Father about anything that you have since you need to repent of personally.

Change your mind, change your heart.

God, would you give us the grace to stop tweaking our life and shift for our good and for your glory?

We'll give you just a moment or two to finish that intercessory time for those people on your card in faith believing.

And then uh Robbie, you'll lead us in worship.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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