Sermon

Guest Pastor Daniel McKee

Salt Church

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  1. Pastor Executive. Question.

  2. From from Lighthouse and he is bringing the word today.

  3. Good morning. Take that cash, baby.

  4. I am Pastor Daniel. I am the executive pastor at

  5. Lighthouse, right down the road not too far from here.

  6. I have the opportunity to speak in a couple churches a year and

  7. I pick Salt Church, both of us to us.

  8. I like, I love John and Natalie Clark.

  9. I think they're phenomenal leaders and followers of Jesus.

  10. And you have a great leadership team here.

  11. This is a great place to to learn how to follow Jesus and to

  12. live a life that is pleasing to the Lord.

  13. So it's my privilege and honor to be here this morning.

  14. I have been married for 21 years to my beautiful bride, Jennifer.

  15. I love her so much, my color, my ride and die.

  16. And so I have two kids. Joy, she turns 18 in this month,

  17. the 24th. That's craziness.

  18. She just bought her first car, which is really cool.

  19. I didn't expect that. I was the cosigner of the car,

  20. and I didn't really expect the delight in my girl's face when I

  21. signed that paper and she drove away like I was like the dad of

  22. the year. And I was like, this is awesome.

  23. You know, I have a boy. He is named Daniel the Second.

  24. I call him D2. He is 10, and he is a hot mess.

  25. Yeah. So joy.

  26. Not much guidance there. D2 A whole lot of guidance

  27. there. It's a he keeps our house wide

  28. open. We have two cats and a dog named

  29. Lolly. And so that's this.

  30. I love everything about Jesus. I will follow Him all the days

  31. of my life. I have no agenda but just to

  32. follow him. Sometimes I wonder why he has

  33. positioned me with in a position to just talk about Him.

  34. I am so overwhelmed with His grace and mercy in my life and

  35. it is my privilege and honor to be here this morning to talk to

  36. you a little bit about. I want you to turn to 1st John

    John 4 chapter mention

  37. Chapter 4, first John chapter 4 and I just as you turn there and

    1 John 4 chapter mention

  38. I see every room filled, I see every city one, I see the glory

  39. of God just overwhelming his people.

  40. I see the Lord just moving in amazing, amazing ways and in

  41. your life, I want you to begin to consider that it's God's plan

  42. that you prosper in every area of your life.

  43. I want you to begin to consider, to imagine for a moment what it

  44. is that the Lord wants to do in your life.

  45. And in Ephesians, it says He's able to do immeasurably more

  46. than we can ask, dream, or imagine the God's love and His

  47. mercy and His grace and his goodness.

  48. He wants to overwhelm you with such things.

  49. And so maybe you find yourself this morning a little

  50. discouraged. Well, can I tell you're in the

  51. right place in the House of the Lord, because it's in his house

  52. that you are reminded of his goodness towards you.

  53. And don't buy into the lie of the enemy for a minute that he

  54. is winning. The enemy has been defeated,

  55. long been defeated. We always win in Christ Jesus.

  56. And so is that perspective that I want you just to remind you.

  57. So I see every church filled. I see every city one.

  58. I see the glory of the Lord just overwhelming his people.

  59. And the next great awakening is just on the horizon.

  60. And so when we focus, I love what Adam said this morning,

  61. such, so practical, but such such great insight is just like,

  62. turn off the noise and focus your attention on the only one

  63. that matters and that's King Jesus.

  64. And when you begin to focus on him, things just begin to align

  65. and you receive that strength from the Lord to be able to

  66. stand in times where everybody is doubting you can stand.

  67. Salt can stand and say we serve a God and he is alive and he is

  68. well. And so I want to talk to you

  69. this morning about uncommon love.

  70. I'm going to land on how to love the unlovable.

  71. All right, something practical for us.

  72. But before I get there, as as I was praying and worship this

  73. morning, I was like, are they ready to hear the challenging

  74. word? And I got the green light.

  75. You're ready to hear how to love the unlovable.

  76. But before we get to learning how to love the unlovable, I

  77. want to read a passage to you in first John chapter 4.

    1 John 4 chapter mention

  78. I'm just going to read it's like 21 is from 7:00 to verse 7 to

  79. 21. I want to remind you of God's

  80. love in your life. You know, in order to love like

  81. Jesus, you first have to realize that you are loved like Jesus.

  82. Does that make sense to you? Like the agape love of God, like

  83. God's love is overwhelming. It's, it's, it's without

  84. condition. And so in order to love the

  85. unlovable, we first have to understand that we are loved

  86. when we were unlovable, right? And, and that's really important

  87. the receiving the love of Jesus in your life, that you can go

  88. out of this facility today and mess up terribly.

  89. And God loves you the same that if you leave this place and you

  90. do really well, it's amazing. God's love is amazing.

  91. And so just trying to understand that, and you can tell in a

  92. believer's life, the ones that have received that love, that

  93. unconditional love, you can tell it's marked.

  94. Their life looks a little different.

  95. And so learning how to receive that love, it's not what I do,

  96. it's what Jesus has already done that that positions me to

  97. receive that love. That's huge.

  98. And if you're in here today and you ever wondered if God loves

  99. you, He is love. It's impossible for Him not to

  100. love you, and so His position is always towards us.

  101. Always love all the time. Even when your friends don't

  102. think you should be loved, or even when you get into the bully

  103. grubs and think you don't deserve his love.

  104. That's what makes our relationship with Jesus so

  105. unique. Is that why we were yet sinners?

  106. He died for us. So that love changes everything

  107. and it ought to. And then the second part, and

  108. this is where I'll bring us to in this passage in first John.

  109. This is this, dear friend, do you love the Word?

  110. I know you love the Word, right? Dear friends, let us love one

  111. another, for love comes from God.

  112. Everyone who love, who loves has been born of God and knows God.

  113. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

  114. This is how God showed His love amongst us.

  115. He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might

  116. live through Him. This is love.

  117. I would highlight that, mark it, underline it, memorize it right

  118. here. This is love, not that we loved

  119. God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning

  120. sacrifice for our sin. God chose to love us before we

  121. ever had the opportunity to love Him.

  122. Do you get that? All right?

  123. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we ought to love one

  124. another. No one has ever seen God, But if

  125. we love one another, God lives in US, and His love is made

  126. complete in US. This is how we know that we live

  127. in Him and He lives in US. He has given us His Spirit, and

  128. we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to

  129. be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that

  130. Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.

  131. And so we know and we rely on the love God has for us.

  132. God is love. Say that with me God is love.

  133. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them.

  134. This is how love is made complete amongst us, so that we

  135. will have confidence on the Day of judgment in this world.

  136. We are like Jesus. There is No Fear in love, but

  137. perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with

  138. punishment. The one who fears is not made

  139. perfect in love. That's a great verse.

  140. You should underline that one as well.

  141. When you understand the unconditional love of God, it

  142. literally is the driving force of fear out of your life.

  143. Love drives fear out of our lives.

  144. Anytime we we succumb to fear we it it is.

  145. It is because we don't have a right perspective of God being

  146. loved because that love literally drives out fear in our

  147. lives. That is amazing.

  148. You should say Amen verse 19. We love because he first loved

  149. us. Whoever claims to love God yet

  150. hates a brother or sister is a liar.

  151. For whoever does not love their brother and sister whom they

  152. have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen.

  153. And he has given us this command.

  154. Anyone who loves God must also love their brothers and sisters.

  155. The first thing that we have to realize is we have to understand

  156. and receive the unconditional love of God and that love of God

  157. that we have for God should show up in our relationships with one

  158. another. Now looking at the at the the

  159. condition of the church, we have yet to really understand how do

  160. we love one another? We're having problems loving

  161. people that love Jesus who and we're wondering why we can't

  162. reach the city. Well, here's the reason why is

  163. because we haven't learned how to love one another.

  164. The love God has for you received rightly and justly in

  165. your life, understanding that you didn't earn it, He willingly

  166. gave it to you by laying down his life so that you could

  167. receive His love. It's that love that we share

  168. with one another. And the Scripture says that how

  169. we love one another is is the is, is how the world will know

  170. we have a God that loves them. OK, so #1 receive his love #2

  171. learn how to love one another. All right, That's you passed

  172. both of those tests in the front row today.

  173. I was just reminding you. OK, so how do we love the

  174. unlovable? How do we love the unlovable?

  175. Turn with me to the book of Jonah.

  176. So the book of Jonah is in the Old Testament.

  177. And if you go to Matthew and turn left, you'll get like 9

  178. books really quick. And then you'll, you'll land on

  179. the book of Jonah. Now, is everybody familiar with

  180. the book of Jonah, the story of Jonah?

  181. And so I want us to go to a a Sunday school classic, a

  182. children's church classic story to learn how to love the

  183. unlovable. And if you haven't read the book

  184. of Jonah, I would encourage you today.

  185. It doesn't take you very long, probably 10 minutes to go

  186. through very short chapters. But man, it is packed full of

  187. things for us to understand. And so here's what I tell people

  188. that are looking for the book of Jonah.

  189. Go to your table of contents in the beginning.

  190. All right, Table of contents in my Bible, it's page 1441, 14 for

  191. it, but I have large print. Anybody else have large print?

  192. You have that small print. It's like 720 pages.

  193. You're like, how you is that what's yours?

  194. 700 you got, But you got yeah, look at that in staff.

  195. Sometimes it depends on how young you are.

  196. They'll bring stuff that they print off the printer and it'll

  197. be like in six font. And I'm like, I can't even read

  198. this. I'm like, I'm thinking they're

  199. just trying to pass something. So, you know, they're they do

  200. their reports on 6 font so that I won't read them.

  201. I'm like, dude, I need that at 12 font.

  202. You know when he was. I digress.

  203. Book of Jonah, the book of. So how do we love the unlovable?

  204. If your love only works on lovable people, it's common.

  205. That's awesome. Yeah, that's right.

  206. Amen. So today I want to talk to you

  207. about loving the unlovable, not the easy people, not the

  208. agreeable people, not the people who vote like you, think like

  209. you, talk like you, dress like, you know, the unlovable.

  210. How do we love the unlovable? I don't think there's any better

  211. story to learn how to love the unlovable than the book of

  212. Jonah. Matter of fact, how not to love

  213. the unlovable is how we're going to do it.

  214. And so here's here's how the book of Jonah kind of starts.

  215. God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh.

  216. Nineveh is 550 miles away from where Jonah is.

  217. And God tells Jonah go to Nineveh and preach judgment.

  218. It would be like God telling me, hey, here's what I need you to

  219. do, son, I need you to go to Boston and I want you to tell

  220. them that judgment is coming. And then I jump on a plane and

  221. go to Vegas. 2500 miles in the opposite direction is where

  222. Jonah goes. He's gotten a specific direction

  223. and he goes exactly in the opposite direction.

  224. New You know how the story goes, right?

  225. Jonah goes in the opposite direction and then what happens?

  226. A storm comes up. He's on a boat and is a storm

  227. comes up and everybody on the boat is freaking out because

  228. this storm is going to sink the boat.

  229. So they start throwing stuff overboard.

  230. They're chucking stuff overboard.

  231. Matter of fact, the sailors are saying, OK, here's what I need

  232. you to do. I don't care what God you serve.

  233. Just start praying to that God. Everybody on this boat pray to

  234. the God that you serve. And they start praying to the

  235. gods they serve. But nothing happens.

  236. Jonah's in the bottom of the boat and he's sleeping, and they

  237. come down there like wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up.

  238. And so then they get together and they cast lots.

  239. All right, I think our weathermen should cast lots.

  240. Don't you think it would be more biblical, wouldn't it?

  241. Anyways, so they cast lots and the lot falls on Jonah.

  242. So the sailors know the reason why this storm is happening is

  243. because of the God of Jonah. So they start saying, Jonah,

  244. what do we do? What do we do?

  245. Who are you? Who do you serve?

  246. Why are we in this situation that we have found ourselves?

  247. And Jonah knows he was supposed to go to Nineveh.

  248. See what happened was God told me to go this way and I went

  249. that way. And the reason why this boat is

  250. about to sink is because I'm not listening to God.

  251. What do we do then? Jonah?

  252. Here's what you do. You got to throw me overboard.

  253. What? So imagine being in these

  254. sailors spot. So you're telling me that the

  255. reason why we're in this storm is because you didn't listen to

  256. your God and your counsel to us is to pick you up and throw you

  257. overboard? So the sailors are like, that's

  258. not wise, my friends. We ain't doing that.

  259. And what happens, the storm intensifies.

  260. They're trying to get to the land and the storm intensifies

  261. to the point where they're just like, we have no other way out

  262. of this. So they pick Jonah up and they

  263. Chuck him overboard. And what happens?

  264. The storm calms down, and then out of the ocean, a fish arises

  265. and swallows up Jonah. Is anybody in here just radical

  266. enough to believe that this story actually did happen?

  267. Yeah. OK.

  268. All right. Good.

  269. I got some of y'all. It's not just a Sunday school

  270. classic. It's not just a children's

  271. church, you know, a fairy tale, literally Jonah.

  272. You can look it up in your history books.

  273. Jonah was a prophet of the Lord. You can he is an actual guy.

  274. So he is gets thrown overboard. The Lords sends a fish to

  275. swallow them up. Now some people say a whale.

  276. I like the whale aspect. OK, it's a whale.

  277. It's a big fish. You ever been to SeaWorld?

  278. Like, you ever seen one of those fishes actually take, like, a

  279. person and they could swallow them?

  280. Yeah. So a fish comes up, swallows

  281. Jonah, and inside this fish, Jonah prays.

  282. One of the most beautiful prayers in all of Scripture.

  283. I'm going to read it to you. This is Jonah in the middle, in

  284. the stomach of a whale. I don't know what day he sings

  285. this, but he says this. In my distress I called to the

  286. Lord, and he answered me from deep in the realm of the dead.

  287. I called for help, and you listen to my cry.

  288. You hurled me into the depths, into the very heart of the Seas,

  289. and the current swirled about me.

  290. All your waves and Breakers swept over me.

  291. I said, I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look

  292. again towards your holy temple. The golfing waters threatened

  293. me, the deep surrounded me, seaweed was wrapped around my

  294. head. That's my favorite part.

  295. To the roots of the mountains. I sank down to the earth

  296. beneath, barred me in forever. But you, Lord, my God, brought

  297. my life up from the pit. And when my life was ebbing

  298. away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you to

  299. your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless

  300. idols turn away from God's love for them.

  301. But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you

  302. what I have vowed I will make good.

  303. I will say salvation comes from the Lord in verse 10.

  304. And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry

  305. land. Now listen, Jonah has this

  306. prayer of repentance, he singing about the salvation of the Lord.

  307. But if you read the book of Jonah, you will soon discover

  308. that Jonah didn't repent. He repents of running, but he

  309. didn't repent of hating. You'll find out really quickly

  310. that the whale changed Joe as Jonah's direction, but it didn't

  311. change his heart. Jonah is worshipping, but he's

  312. withholding. And you can sing in the belly of

  313. a whale and still resent your city.

  314. You can know the language of faith and resist the heart of

  315. God. So in Jonah we see in this story

  316. that he is spiritual in language but stubborn in direction.

  317. He does not want to go to Nineveh because he hates the

  318. people of Nineveh. That's the whole reason why he

  319. didn't go. So we can say the right things.

  320. We can have the the the language of faith and still in our heart

  321. have bitterness towards people. And so here's the question for

  322. you today. Who's your Nineveh, Who's your

  323. Nineveh? Who do you secretly hope God

  324. changes but doesn't bless? Who do you want corrected but

  325. not covered in his mercy? You see, in order to love the

  326. unlovable, we can't run from them.

  327. We have to run towards them and every heart change starts with

  328. prayer. So how do you practically walk

  329. out loving the unlovable? I think you have to start

  330. praying for people that you resent, not about them, but for

  331. them by name every day, refusing to rehearse the offense,

  332. speaking blessing when their name comes up.

  333. Ask God to give you compassion before you offer correction.

  334. Because in order to love the unlovable, we have to begin with

  335. prayer. And then what happens is Jonah

  336. ends up getting spewed up by the whale on the side of a, you

  337. know, in, in land. And then the word of the Lord

  338. comes to Jonah and he says, as he tells Jonah, here's what I

  339. need you to do. I need you to go to Nineveh.

  340. And so Nineveh is the second largest city at the time,

  341. Babylon being first. Nineveh has over 120,000 people

  342. in it. It takes three days to walk

  343. through Nineveh. The Lord tells Jonah.

  344. I want you to say these 8 words. Jonah preaches the shortest

  345. sermon, not ever recorded, but pretty, pretty close.

  346. He's this is what he says. 40 more days and Nineveh will be

  347. overthrown. He's one day in the city.

  348. He just says these 8 words over and over and over again.

  349. There's no altar call, no worship set, no emotional story,

  350. no shock and awe, no great, great illustration.

  351. And what happens when Jonah declares these 8 words?

  352. The whole city repents from the king to the livestock.

  353. One of the greatest revivals ever recorded in history

  354. happened in Nineveh. Because Jonah said these 8

  355. words, 40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.

  356. But Jonah was furious. He was angry that the city

  357. repented. Matter of fact, I looked in the

  358. history books to try to see if I could find the effects of this

  359. revival, one of the greatest revivals it recorded in

  360. scripture. You would think you would be

  361. able to find the effects of this revival that Jonah declares of

  362. these 8 words. And you know what?

  363. You can't find it at all. Matter of fact, Nineveh actually

  364. later on in history ends up destroying part of Israel.

  365. And do you know why? This is what I think?

  366. I think it's because the condition of the prophet's heart

  367. determined the direction of that whole city.

  368. He declared judgment, but when the people responded to said

  369. judgment and relented, and I mean when they repented and God

  370. relented, he was still angry. He wanted judgment, not

  371. restoration. He wanted to be right, but then

  372. not to be reconciled. Why?

  373. Because God loved people. Jonah hated.

  374. Wow, think about that for a second.

  375. You don't have to respond. You can just take this home and

  376. think about it for a couple days.

  377. Do you know that God loves people we hate?

  378. That is crazy to think about. And we can present our cases and

  379. we're right, but are we? You see, these people hated God,

  380. and Jonah knew that. And here's the deal.

  381. God's mercy doesn't run through your preference filter.

  382. It doesn't go according to your algorithm.

  383. God's mercy is so amazing. And that's the tension we find

  384. ourselves in. And it's easy to love people who

  385. look like us, think like us, vote like us, act like us.

  386. We can attend church, we can preach the right sermons, and we

  387. can serve. And then we can secretly hope

  388. people fail. It is just the way it is and and

  389. here looking and look in chapter 4 verse 2, Jonas says this.

  390. He said he prayed to the Lord. Isn't this what I said Lord,

  391. when I was still at home? This is this is what I tried to

  392. forestall by fleeing to Tarsus. I knew that you are a gracious

  393. and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love.

  394. A God who relents from sending calamity.

  395. The reason why Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh is because he

  396. hated them. And the reason why he didn't

  397. want to go is because he knew the very character and nature of

  398. God. He is a prophet of the Lord.

  399. He has declared judgment and seen the compassionate God

  400. relent on coming judgment and he didn't want to go there because

  401. he thought if he said it they had a chance to repent and God

  402. would relent. Uncommon love goes where no one

  403. wants to go. If your love only works on

  404. people that are easy to love, it's common love.

  405. Uncommon love goes to people that you would rather not.

  406. And here's the thing about uncommon love.

  407. Here's the thing about loving the unlovable.

  408. You're not waiting for an apology.

  409. You're not expecting it to it to kindness to be reciprocated in

  410. your life. You love without expecting

  411. anything in return. And so here's my point here.

  412. I think the move of God we pray for is likely going to offend

  413. us. It's going to mess things up.

  414. We pray, we want revival. And then when revival comes to

  415. the doors of our churches, we're going to be like, say what?

  416. Do what you prayed, he answered and pleased.

  417. Let's be careful and not be like Jonah where we're mad at God for

  418. being compassionate and slow to anger so the move of God we pray

  419. for might offend us. And then finally this morning,

  420. shade over souls. I love the ending of Jonah.

  421. The ending of Jonah is so interesting to me and people

  422. rush past it like I was thinking to myself, who?

  423. Let me ask you some some questions and then we'll get to

  424. the last point. Who is the book of Jonah about?

  425. It's about, it's not about Jonah.

  426. You know how the book of Jonah is about God?

  427. The book of Jonah is about God. Do you know who wrote the book

  428. of Jonah? Jonah.

  429. Now, scholars might disagree with that, but do you know what

  430. perspective you have in the book of Jonah?

  431. It's like literally Jonah wrote this because he was in the

  432. middle of a fish for three days and he wrote the book of Jonah.

  433. And so the, the ending is weird. Like if you read the book of

  434. Jonah and read it this afternoon, it won't take you

  435. very long. At the end.

  436. You're trying to figure out, at least I was, I was trying to

  437. figure out how did this thing end, what's going on, what

  438. happened? And so here's the deal, the city

  439. revival. What does Jonah do after the

  440. city repents and God relents, what does he do?

  441. He goes outside of the city, builds a shelter and just wants

  442. to die and he's angry. He builds the shelter and he's

  443. waiting for judgment is what he's waiting for.

  444. He's declared. Have you ever had somebody like

  445. that in your life? You just see God work in their

  446. life and you're like, not them. No way.

  447. He sees a city. I mean the king livestock,

  448. everybody's repentant, want to follow God and Jonah's like, I'm

  449. out of here people. And he goes like, I'm going to

  450. build me a Hut and sit here until God changes his mind and

  451. destroys all you. And you know what the Lord does?

  452. Causes a plant to grow. This plant grows and shades

  453. Jonah. Who?

  454. Wait a second here. What's amazing to me is that we

  455. can be as angry as Jonah and the Lord still takes care of us.

  456. He still shades us. Wow, that is wild to me.

  457. So this plant grows up and shades Jonah and Jonah.

  458. This is awesome. Verse 6, chapter 4.

  459. Then the Lord God provided A leafy plant and made it grow up

  460. over Jonah's head to give him shade.

  461. I was thinking he's a little like me.

  462. Yeah, Everybody, anybody losing their hair, If you're losing

  463. your hair and you spend spend a little bit of time in that bacon

  464. sun, you going? You going to want some shade.

  465. So I think it is really hot and that sun is, is is just being on

  466. his balding head. And then the Lord shades him.

  467. He made it grow up over Jonah to give him shade for his head to

  468. ease his discomfort. Man, I was like, dude, I have

  469. been there man. And Jonah was very happy about

  470. the plant. It's the only time in the whole

  471. book of Jonah where he's happy. What?

  472. He's not happy that he got rescued from a whale?

  473. He's not happy that the sailors repented?

  474. He's not happy that a whole city is in a revival.

  475. You know what Jonah's happy about?

  476. I got some shade for my balding head.

  477. It's wild to me. And then what does God do?

  478. He appoints a worm to destroy the plan.

  479. And Jonah says this. He says it would be better for

  480. me to die than to live. So Jonah goes from happy because

  481. he's got shades and now he's wanting to die because God took

  482. the shade away and God asked him a question.

  483. He says do you have the right to be angry about the plant?

  484. And what does Jonah says in verse 9?

  485. But God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about

  486. the plant? He says it is.

  487. He said I am so angry I wish I was dead.

  488. Jonah cares more about that leaf in that shade than he does the

  489. 120,000 people. He grieves personal discomfort

  490. more than spiritual lostness. The plant isn't the point.

  491. The plant exposed Jonah's heart. Jonah didn't plant it.

  492. He didn't water it. He didn't grow it.

  493. But he loved it. Why?

  494. Because that plant served him. It brought him comfort.

  495. And isn't that what comfort does?

  496. Comfort becomes sacred if we're not careful.

  497. We can care more about preference than we do about

  498. people. We can care more about comfort

  499. than we do about calling. We can care more about shade

  500. than we do for souls. And let's be honest, we're not

  501. the only Joan is not the only one that deals with this.

  502. We deal with this. We deal with this in our

  503. churches. You know when the music hits

  504. just right, When the temperature is exactly the way it's supposed

  505. to be, When the direction benefits our generation, when

  506. decisions align with what we prefer.

  507. We can get surprisingly emotional when those things

  508. change, can't we? And meanwhile, marriages are

  509. falling apart. Meanwhile, there are people far

  510. from God, families being destroyed, teenagers dealing

  511. with suicidal thoughts, anxiety and depression, A whole world

  512. lost. And we're worried about shade

  513. preference. It's real, my friends.

  514. It's real. And that's not condemnation,

  515. that's just reflection. It's just perspective.

  516. It's a call to maturity is what it is.

  517. When you receive the unconditional love of God, you

  518. learn how to love one another. And here's what I say, you know,

  519. sometimes it's not easy to love people, but if you really

  520. understand that they love Jesus, just start there.

  521. You don't have to agree with everything they do.

  522. You don't have to agree with everything they say.

  523. You can say that individual I know has had an encounter with

  524. Jesus and they have had a change of heart.

  525. I will start there and move forward.

  526. And then loving the unlovable will be the next call for us.

  527. So we'd stop tripping over things that in the end of the

  528. day don't really matter as much as that city matters.

  529. You see, God was telling Jonah, you're so worried about this

  530. plant that you didn't create, you didn't water it.

  531. I'm worried about the city full of people that are lost.

  532. You have, you know me, Jonah. You know my character, you know

  533. my nature, you know me. There's a whole city that

  534. doesn't know me. And so here's the deal.

  535. The move of God we pray for is going to cost you your shade.

  536. Revival is messy. Growth is inconvenient.

  537. Reaching new people changes things.

  538. And don't get into the place where Jonah was, where you can

  539. celebrate growth but resent who it reaches.

  540. So here's a question for you. What is your plan today?

  541. Is it comfort? Is it preference?

  542. Is it your political bent? Is it your image?

  543. If you care more about those things than you do the soul of

  544. an individual that God created, you are out of alignment.

  545. And that's just real. And so in order to love the

  546. unlovable, we need to stop being spiritual in language and

  547. stubborn in direction. We need to realize that the move

  548. of God that Jesus has in store for us is going to look

  549. different, and it might offend us, likely will.

  550. And we need to stop worrying so much about shade and focus more

  551. about souls. Jonah was in the fish for three

  552. days because he ran from his enemies.

  553. Jesus was in the grave three days because he ran towards his

  554. enemies. Jonah sat outside his city

  555. hoping it would burn. Jesus stood over Jerusalem and

  556. wept. Jonah was angry at mercy.

  557. Jesus literally became mercy for us, Jonah said.

  558. I knew you were compassionate and Jesus stretched out his arms

  559. to prove it. Loving the unlovable is not

  560. natural. It's going to take the

  561. supernatural love of Jesus to do that and he has called us to

  562. love those that are unlovable. I was I was thinking how to land

  563. a message like this. It's, it's super challenging and

  564. I hope you reflect on it during this day is like who, who is

  565. your Neba? Who have you been running from

  566. instead of running to? I want you to pay attention to

  567. that. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh.

  568. So don't just go to people that you think you should go to.

  569. Go to people he tells you you go to.

  570. You're resisting the Holy Spirit.

  571. So stop resisting him and then start moving towards that

  572. direction in a simple, practical way.

  573. You can always start by praying for them, not against them,

  574. praying by name. Every time their name comes up,

  575. pray for them and and start moving in that direction.

  576. You know, I was somebody's Nineveh.

  577. Can I just be real with you? I spent the majority of, well,

  578. not the majority now because I'm older now.

  579. The older you get the yeah, you just forget how old you are.

  580. I didn't come to Jesus until I was 24 years old.

  581. And for 24 years, I resisted him.

  582. And I was somebody's Nineveh. There was a, there was a time in

  583. my life where I was atheist. There was many time in my life

  584. where I hated God. I mean, literally, I mean, that

  585. might sound weird that a pastor would say that, but literally I,

  586. I hated God. And I could look the history of

  587. my life. I can look back at it now.

  588. And there were people of God that Jesus sent, and I was

  589. Nineveh. I literally was Nineveh.

  590. And he was sending people to tell me how much Jesus loved me.

  591. And I would look at them and tell them to get away from me.

  592. I don't want to have anything to do with what you're talking

  593. about. Jesus.

  594. Who? Jesus what?

  595. Get. SHH, this is what you're doing.

  596. This is what I want you to do. Shut up.

  597. I don't want to hear about him. Consistently all through my

  598. life, every season, he would send somebody and I remember I

  599. wasn't scared of hell until I came to the Lord, until I had

  600. that moment with Jesus. And I would have people that be

  601. like, look, you can't. I can live any way I want to

  602. tell me how to live. And they would just love and

  603. they would just love and they would just love.

  604. And my hard heart, I didn't even know God was doing it, but my

  605. hard heart that was anti God began to break just a little bit

  606. at a time, a little bit and a little bit and a little bit to

  607. the point where I gave my heart to Him.

  608. Amen. There are nine of us in our

  609. lives and we're expecting that when we share these 8 words that

  610. the Lord gives us that they will just automatically repent and be

  611. like, I love you Jesus. That is not how this thing's

  612. going to work. The unlovable people in your

  613. life that God is calling you to love are likely to respond in a

  614. negative fashion. You're going to have some

  615. expectation on how they should respond.

  616. But again, that's your love being conditional and not

  617. unconditional. But there's a heart in every man

  618. and every woman that God is saying, That's my son, that's my

  619. daughter. You go tell them how much I love

  620. them. You go tell them how much I love

  621. them. You go tell them how much I love

  622. them. You go tell them how much I love

  623. them. Why?

  624. Because God's love is relentless.

  625. God's love never fails. It never stops.

  626. He never thinks. It stops thinking about lost

  627. people. He's always after them.

  628. He's always after them. Anytime you're like, I wonder if

  629. I should share. Yes, you should share his love.

  630. Yes, you should share His love all the time, every day.

  631. Share His love, share His love, share His love.

  632. Why? Because God is love.

  633. And if we're not loving like God, they're not seeing the very

  634. nature and aspect of God. It's love never fails, it will

  635. never stop. And listen, it's like that for

  636. you. It doesn't matter what you do,

  637. He loves you. He's always loved you.

  638. He will always love you. He will always love you, He will

  639. always love you. Well, hey, you don't know what I

  640. did it. He will always love you.

  641. He will All you don't know about the season I've been.

  642. He will always love you. He will always love you.

  643. He does. He will never stop loving you.

  644. His love is relentless. His love is unconditional.

  645. His love is so powerful for you and I.

  646. His love will win the city, His love will win the city.

  647. His love will restore your marriage.

  648. His love will restore your family.

  649. His love, His love, His love, His love, his love.

  650. It's all about his love. And somebodies in here saying

  651. well what about the truth? Well the truth is this, His love

  652. never fails. That's the truth, That's the

  653. truth, that's the truth. It's the very foundation in

  654. which this thing is all built on.

  655. It's not built on what we could do.

  656. It's built on what he did. And he died because he first

  657. loved you. End of conversation.

  658. Love always wins. It always wins.

  659. And that love, my friends, is what the Church possesses, that

  660. no one else possesses, because everybody else's love is

  661. conditional. His love is unconditional.

  662. Can you stand with me this morning?

  663. Did you get anything out of that?

  664. I will appreciate and. It's in the moments that I have

  665. blown it the most, that God has loved me the most and I didn't

  666. understand it. I went, I think repentance is a

  667. lifestyle and I have found myself in the presence of the

  668. Lord asking for forgiveness in every single time, every single

  669. time I am, I encounter his love and I I don't deserve it.

  670. I don't expect it. And for some reason it surprises

  671. me every time I get to the point of vulnerability with the Lord

  672. saying I don't want you to go there.

  673. I'm uncomfortable. And this is what he says, This

  674. is my son. You are my son whom I love with

  675. you. I am well pleased unconditional

  676. love of God. Matter of fact, I have used the

  677. same thing is the same love the Father shows me.

  678. I show my beautiful kids every time they come into daddy's room

  679. and say Dad, I'm sorry I did something.

  680. The first thing I tell them is I love you so much.

  681. I love you so much. I love you so much.

  682. There's nothing that you can get yourself into that the love of

  683. God can't get you out of. And so maybe you're in here this

  684. morning and you've been trying to work this thing out.

  685. You have been trying to do in your own strength what only

  686. God's love can do in your life. And you've hit that moment and

  687. the Lord has sent me here this morning to tell you that, son

  688. and daughter, He is well pleased with you.

  689. He loves you with an unconditional love.

  690. Matter of fact, it's that love that will lead you to the

  691. greatest change you have in your life.

  692. The most transformational aspects in your life happen from

  693. a revelation of His love. It's not because you do it in

  694. your own strength. It's because you've known what

  695. He has already done that gives you the grace to do what you

  696. can't do in your own strength. It's that love and what I pray

  697. this morning all across this room, all across this room that

  698. we would be reminded of the love that you have for us.

  699. Maybe that's you today. Could you just raise your hand

  700. today? If, if that's you, if you've,

  701. you've just been trying, I just had the sense you have been

  702. pushing towards working. You're working it out in your

  703. own strength. And today you have just you just

  704. you just want to give up. You just want to let go.

  705. If that's you, just raise your hand all across this room.

  706. I see your hand. How many more?

  707. How many more? How many more?

  708. I see that hand, How many more? His love never fails.

  709. His love never fails. His love never fails.

  710. His love never fails towards you.

  711. Lord, we thank you for your love that never fails.

  712. Father, I pray that that love flows from the top of our heads

  713. to the bottom of our toes. Lord, that your love heals and

  714. restores. Lord, I pray for bodies to be

  715. restored. Why?

  716. Just because we encounter your love, just because we are in

  717. your presence, just because we're we are aligned and your

  718. love heals and restores in Jesus mighty name, your unconditional

  719. love. And maybe you're in here this

  720. morning and you've never committed your life to Jesus.

  721. You have a form of godliness. Maybe you've attended services.

  722. You're you're trying to figure out who Jesus is.

  723. But can I tell you God is love? He sent me here this morning to

  724. tell you that he wants you as as, as his son or daughter, that

  725. he wants you. And it's just so simple.

  726. It's so simple but profound. It says that if you would

  727. believe on Jesus that you would be his.

  728. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that

  729. whoever would believe in him would not perish, but would have

  730. everlasting life. God's design, His purpose is so

  731. that he could reconcile you towards Him.

  732. And so maybe today you've been trying to figure this thing out,

  733. and today the Holy Spirit is guiding you to give your heart

  734. to Him. On the count of three, I just

  735. want you to put your hand in the air. 123 all across this room.

  736. Who in here I see your hands. I see your hands, I see those

  737. hands, I see those hands repeat this after me.

  738. All of us all together. Lord Jesus, we love you.

  739. Jesus, I believe that you died for my sins and God raised you

  740. from the dead. And today I commit my life to

  741. you, to follow you, to love you, to serve you well.

  742. I thank you for those that have given their heart to the Lord

  743. this morning, thank you, Jesus. Let's just sit right here for

  744. just a few seconds. For those of you ready to go

  745. after your Nineveh, I'm going to pray just in a few seconds.

  746. And if the Lord hasn't already revealed your Nineveh, he's

  747. going to reveal your Nineveh. And so, Lord, we come to you

  748. this morning as followers of Jesus that have received your

  749. love, have learned how to love one another.

  750. And Lord, we pray right now for the Spirit of truth, the Holy

  751. Spirit to reveal to us our Nineveh, our city.

  752. Who are we called to love uncommonly?

  753. Who are we called to love that are unlovable?

  754. And Lord, I pray all across this room that seeds of that faith

  755. would seeds would just be released right now in the name

  756. of Jesus. That salt church would be known

  757. as a people that had uncommon love, willing to love the

  758. unlovable. Lord, that we wouldn't be a

  759. church that would, that that would be known for what we stand

  760. for, but we we would be known with about who we stand with nor

  761. all across this room, uncommon love in Jesus name, in Jesus

  762. name, in Jesus name all across this room.

  763. Just allow his presence, his peace.

  764. That's his peace. He is the Prince of Peace.

  765. He's just washing things away. Prince of nothing missing,

  766. nothing broken. The Shalom of God, the Shalom of

  767. God, the peace that surpasses all understanding.

  768. That peace. The Prince of Peace just

  769. overwhelming everybody in this room.

  770. The Prince of Peace. Thank you Jesus for clearing out

  771. stuff, clearing out the clutter, clearing out the noise, Lord

  772. clearing out the clutter and clearing out the noise in Jesus

  773. name, in Jesus name and all God's people said Amen.

  774. God bless you have a great Sunday.

  775. I would say it my choice. Peace out I.

  776. Like it guys, remember we have in Parkfield this week and the

  777. next week we have outside in our house in Gloucester for anybody

  778. who wants to get connected and keep digging into the word.

  779. I'm blessed fellowship for about 5 or 10 minutes and then I'll

  780. ship in and get everything cleaned up.

  781. Yeah, yeah, I did look at it and it is check in.

  782. Is that for? Yeah.

  783. And it's just going to be such a stupid thing if I try and do

  784. that. Yeah, I get that.

  785. I am not. What's check in?

  786. For her thing, our doors open at 4:00 as well.

  787. So it's the same thing. If it's like there's literally

  788. no one there, not that you would necessarily do anything, but I

  789. mean, but like if there's like a million extra seats, I'll be

  790. like, hey, pre jam is like 5 to 630 or 7 or whatever.

  791. So I think you can come home and see the the real people, OK.

  792. My hair time. How did I not even know?

  793. Am I good to start hooking? Already did.

  794. I'm not sure. Oh yeah, I forget.

  795. Chairs are all the things. I never do chairs.

  796. I've never helped. I've never unhooked a chair or

  797. stacked a chair. None.

  798. What the heck is this? Matt made a mess for me.

  799. What you guys got going on today?

  800. We're going to like a wedding venue and so going to look at a

  801. wedding venue. It's like a kind of old

  802. farmhouse on the river. And it's it's all they do is

  803. weddings like, like it'd be a big up for.

  804. Yeah, yeah, I know. That's nice instead of trying

  805. to. Coordinate.

  806. It's a lot. Kayla and I were so broke we had

  807. to do that. Oh.

  808. Snug. None.

  809. OK, next week you shouldn't have a new one.

  810. A sweet new what this it's like one of those, but it's it's like

  811. it'll be like this, but it'll be wider this way and then we'll be

  812. able to put these inside. That'll look clean.

  813. That'll look nice. AJ.

  814. Man, I didn't freaking find the flat.

  815. You know, the same wobbles unless you turn it a certain

  816. way. Oh, was he waiting?

  817. Well, he wasn't like, no, no, he wasn't doing it on purpose.

  818. He's like, push over here. Yeah.

  819. He'd let go. And then it goes.

  820. I just. I felt bad.

  821. You would bother me. Yeah.

  822. Yeah. HOOK Thank you, Elijah, you have

  823. a nice haircut too. Finally looking like a handsome

  824. young man. Bro.

  825. We got a new cake stuff. That's what Matt was saying.

  826. I'm very excited about that. Yeah, my spruggle roll a lot

  827. better than that, too. Yep.

  828. So that'd be awesome. It's hot out here.

  829. I think it's nice. So nice.

  830. I'm actually helping, like unloading stuff.

  831. Oh, I might run into it again. Wiggle room.

  832. OK, so we're done in here. All right, Bob, let's go.

  833. Have a good week. Hello Answer Matt.

  834. I told Alan I should listen if something comes up and you all

  835. need something. And now he's going to have and

  836. she's having this book. Sorry.

  837. What's next? And then the soundboard.

  838. Yeah, easy. The foxiest stuff.

  839. What do you know about modern beatboxing bro?

  840. 30 years old. Hey, listen.

  841. You can have it, have you? We have a we.

  842. Have a best week? None.

  843. Walk a little bit. Thank you.

  844. There. Hey, can I get you guys to go?

  845. You're good, Consul. Keep chasing you.

  846. I'll get all there's done so. I don't know what.

  847. Father, let me know. Video yesterday this partner

  848. wanted they were doing boil. Yeah, they're good.

  849. Yeah. Bugs.

  850. Hi, Don. Hit me up tomorrow.

  851. Oh yeah, yeah, hopefully it comes.

  852. She was like, Oh yeah, I have to put you on the hot list, you

  853. know, decide. Let me know.

  854. Yep. Sounds good.

  855. That's all you guys are playing in there.

  856. They're. Playing right now so.

  857. Oh, really? Yeah.

  858. That's cool. So he should be home in the next

  859. couple hours I got. You I'm say drive back, but I

  860. kind of like hinted tour. I was just like they brought.

  861. Something and like maybe something to put the wood in

  862. Nice.