← ArchiveSunday, February 18, 2018DateFebruary 18, 2018Speaker—Text—Passages in this sermonJonah 42:00Exodus 334:34Isaiah 65:36Revelation 226:46Matthew 2316:16Mark 316:22Mark 1116:261 Timothy 218:25Revelation 1933:20Matthew 1637:29TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Transcribed by ESO, translated by — Transcribed by —0:30Transcribed by —1:00Welcome to Jonah Part 5, God's Relentless Grace.1:30Now, before I give you the sermon title, I want to preface this title. None of you came to my mind when I knit this together. Today's message is entitled, Grace for the Grumpy. Grace for the Grumpy. So if you have your scriptures with you, join me in Jonah chapter 4.2:00We will read verses 1 through 11. And I'm reminded as we open up God's word and I hear of the turning of Bibles, what a privilege and joy we have that we can open up God's living and active word. God's word that impacts our life. We're not opening some book. This is not history class. We are expecting God to move in a mighty way this morning because he is faithful and he is true.2:27At the end of this book, we find a prophet displeased, angry, frustrated, and simply fed up with life. And if we're not careful, this is how other people see the church. They look at the church, the world looks at the church, and they find a collection of people who are irritable, frustrated, and hoping for heaven with little hope for today.2:57You say, Pastor, are you sure about that? Oftentimes, pollsters have enough courage and they'll ask people who are far from God, tell us what you think about Christians. And these three things come up over and over. Selfish and not interested in others, self-centered and judgmental, unwilling to develop true friendships.3:23If we're not careful, this is what the world sees, church.3:46Grumpiness. Grumpiness is simply being bad-tempered and irritable. Grumpiness, spiritual grumpiness happens when self-righteousness creeps into our hearts. And so we go to the store and we see, all people see is that face. And we've lost our wonder and amazement at the things of God. Well, what would happen? What would happen this morning if God regenerates in us the joy of his salvation?4:14I want you to quickly listen to three people who have wonder and amazement at God through scriptures. In Exodus, Moses asked God, please show me your glory. In Exodus 33, 18, God responded, I will take my hand away from you and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.4:34This is how glorious God is. Moses is looking at his back as he passes. And the scripture says that when Moses descended from Mount Sinai, he did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with God. Wow. Now, don't tell me Moses was grumpy.5:05Seeing just a glimpse of the back of God. By the way, the power of Jesus Christ to some of my Sunday school class, sorry, life group class. What do we have now because of Christ that one day we will get to see something that Moses never saw because of Christ? We will get to see our father face to face, not face to back, face to face. This is the power of Christ.5:31Hundreds of years later, the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 6 says he saw the Lord high and lifted up. And the train of his robe filled the temple. And Isaiah said, Lord, woe is me for I am undone. I come from a people of unclean lips and I have an unclean lip. After God restores his mouth by a coal from the fire, this is his response.6:01The Lord exclaimed, who will go for us? Whom shall we send? And Isaiah said, here I am. Send me. That is wonder. That is beauty of Christ. Track with me now, a hundred years later, hundreds of years later, at the end of Scripture in Revelation, Apostle John has a revelation from God.6:30How do I know it was a revelation? He wrote a book called Revelation. Not Revelations. Revelation. And this is what it says at the end of this book. The end of Scripture. Revelation 22. John saw and heard these things. And when he heard and saw the Lord, he fell down to worship before the feet of an angel who showed him these things. And the angel responded, do not do this.6:58Don't worship me. The angel simply said, worship God. Worship God. The antidote for spiritual grumpiness is to see the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. Jonah needed that. And if we're honest, some of us need that today. Some of you have walked in here like that cat. But we can walk out of here like Moses with our face shining, beaming, saying, God, I will go for you.7:31God, I will worship you. And with that, let's read Jonah 4, verses 1. Jonah, the grumpy prophet. Jonah, a small prophet in the Old Testament, if you don't know where that is. Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious.7:59And he prayed to the Lord, please, Lord, is this not what I thought while I was still in my own country? This is why I fled towards Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.8:28That is what grumpiness looks like. And the Lord asked, is it right for you to be angry? Is it right for you? Verse 5, Jonah left the city and found a place east of it. He made himself a shelter there and sat down in its shade to see what would happen to the city. The Lord God appointed a plant and it grew over Jonah to provide shade for his head to rescue him from his trouble.8:59Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant. When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant and it withered. And as the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah's head so much so that he almost fainted and wanted to die. And he said, it's better for me to die than to live.9:28Then God asked Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant? Jonah replied, yes, it is, Lord. I'm angry enough to die. So the Lord said, don't miss us. The Lord said to this prophet, you cared so much about this plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow.9:50It appeared in a night and perish in a night. But may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals. Let's pray.10:21Let's pray. Lord, we confess right now that often we are Jonah. Grumpy, irritable, self-centered, and more worried about comfort than your mission in our life. Oh, Lord, forgive us. Forgive us when we worry about a plant and not the souls of others. Lord, diagnose in our lives right now, spiritual grumpiness, self-righteousness.10:46And Lord, help us live for Christ because you have renewed within us the joy of your salvation. Lord, this is our prayer. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Spiritual grumpiness is the fruit of a self-centered heart. It's the fruit of a self-centered heart.11:16And Jonah uniquely gives us some symptoms of self-centeredness. And we'll look at five symptoms of grumpiness today. You wonder what those look like, we'll give you those. Why do symptoms matter? Friday, our oldest son, our only son, we have a son and a daughter, our oldest was sick. Friday night, he ran a small fever, so I took him to the doctor on Friday. Now, let me confess, I primarily took him to the doctor not because I thought he was sick,11:41but because I'm leaving tomorrow for a long trip and I didn't want to get sick. So I've already repented of that wrong motivation. And I said, doctor, I'm bringing my son here. What's wrong with me? I'm a big kid. And the first thing she asked was this, well, tell me his symptoms. And of course, parents, you get this. So I told him, well, he ran a fever last night and I promise he ran a fever this morning.12:10And what was the doctor's response? He doesn't have a fever now. I look at him, I said, you always do this to me. And she went through the symptoms. She said, it's probably viral. It's nothing. He's good. He can go home. He can rest. And I said, thank you, Lord, for just providing whether he was sick and you healed him or Lord, it's running its course. Thank you for that. But symptoms help us diagnose the issue.12:38I said, are you grumpy? Are you spiritually grumpy this morning? So symptom number one, look at verse one. Symptom number one of a grumpy soul is we are, you are inappropriately angry. You're inappropriately angry. Some of you are thinking, how dare you say that? Exactly. Exactly. Literally this verse, verse one, Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. The rote literal translation is this.13:09Jonah, this was an exceedingly great evil to Jonah. Then we step back and think, well, obviously there must have been something horrific to make this prophet mad. Well, look at the previous verse. So this was exceedingly great evil for Jonah. Verse 10 of chapter three. God saw their actions. They had turned from their evil ways. Jonah is evilly angered at the people's evil, but it's not their evil he's mad at.13:39Jonah is angry because they have found forgiveness. And you're thinking, what in the world? What is his problem? Why is he angered at this? But if we're not careful, in the same way, we will be people who are inappropriately angry at life. I believe one of the great tragedies of a self-righteous heart and a tool of the adversary in our lives is that he will get you angry at non-eternal and non-essential issues.14:03We're just angry. We don't know why. Think about this. Look last week at another school shooting. And the first thing that many people were angered about, many followers of Christ, we are tempted to be angered about gun control.14:27Listen to me. Listen to me very carefully. The Second Amendment never saved a soul. And it never sent a soul to hell. Not once. The root of this tragedy is a sinful, rebellious heart. It's wickedness. We should be angered at the wickedness.14:57We should be frustrated and furious that out of those 17 people who died, that many of them might not have known Christ. And right now they are in hell, an eternal damnation away from God because no one shared the glorious hope. And Satan dangles that carrot. He says, you know what? Make it about gun control. Make it about the gun. Don't worry about sin. Don't worry about eternal issues.15:25Worry about temporary. Often we're tempted to be angered about immigration or politics or angered because prayer has been taken out of school. And we're just frustrated. And God says, well, who took it out of your house? Well, God, the government took it out of school. And God says, but Josh, they didn't take it out of your home. You did that. You did that. You know, oh, that Lord would change our hearts and redeem us.15:56Inappropriate anger is a sign of self-righteousness. It's a sign of self-righteousness. How often did Jesus get angry? I asked that question. I looked it up. We see him getting angry at the Pharisees, cleansing the temple right before he's dying in Matthew 23. We see him rebuking Peter in Mark 3.16:22We see him cursing a fig tree because it has no fruit in Mark 11. And there are several other aspects that focus on those people. Never once do we see Jesus getting furious at the culture. He's always furious at the people who know better. Us. And may we not be like Jonah. So here is a test of symptom number one. Do people know more about what angers you or what gives you joy? Do people know what gives you joy or what angers you?16:52We must not, must not get sidetracked to the mission of Jesus Christ. Jonah was angry that these people had found forgiveness. How foolish of him. I just ask you this way. Are you angry, bro? Because often if we're honest, the world knows more about what angers us than what brings us joy.17:20And maybe that's the root of self-righteousness. Symptom number two of a grumpy heart. You no longer find joy in God's plan. You no longer find joy in God's plan. Not to be outdone with the inappropriate anger. Jonah, as most men do, speaks without thinking. So he dialogues with God and gives him the source of his anger. He prays in verse two. Lord, is this not what I told you?17:49I told you you were gracious and slow to anger. And I knew these people would listen. See, the cessation of God's anger here gives opportunity for Jonah's to start. Do you find joy in God's plan? Jonah intimately knew the Lord in God's plan.18:19You say, well, what is God's plan for my life? 1 Timothy 2, the Lord says, this is good and it pleases God, our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. God's plan is that everyone come to the knowledge of the truth. Do you find joy in God's plan and purpose? Jonah is basically asking the question, why even be good?18:47God, why should I be righteous when they can neglect you and then you just offer them forgiveness at this moment and they believe and now they're righteous? Jonah has the big brother mentality in the parable of the two lost sons. Remember, the younger brother goes and spends everything his father's inheritance and he comes back and the father greets him with kindness. And the older brother says, how dare you?19:15Does righteousness make you weary? Are you just tired and say, Lord, I get weary of trying to follow you? Have you ever thought in your mind, well, why are they at church? What are they doing here? Or have you ever thought, you know what? There's just no hope for this person. Or, well, Lord, they're getting what they deserve. Have you ever thought those things?19:45Heaven forbid, have we said those tests? Test number two, do I find joy in the redemptive plan of Christ? Do we find joy in the redemptive plan of Christ? We say, okay, that's enough. Symptom number three, it's going to get worse. Symptom number three, your life turns inward. Your life turns inward. Look at verse one again. Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious.20:14So what is this? This is idolatry. Did you notice the idolatry? God makes Nineveh great and Jonah makes his feelings great. So Jonah has now elevated his feelings to the place of God's greatness and his glory. This is inwardness. Jonah brashly then in verse two, look at what he says. Lord, is this not what I thought while I was still in my own country?20:42Jonah has elevated his word now to God's word. This is self-centeredness. Self-centeredness always leads to a parched soul. If you feel dry today, ask yourself, am I self-centered or savior-centered? Francis Schaeffer said this about Rome. Rome did not fall because of external forces such as the invasion of the barbarians.21:11Rome had no sufficient inward base. The barbarians only completed the breakdown. Rome gradually became a ruin. See, Rome fell because it was inwardly crumbling. How about your life? Are you self-centered and self-focused right now? You say, well, how do we know? How do we know if we are self-centered?21:39Well, how about your giving? What do you give and how do you give? In my life, because we live in America and we are rich. Studies show this week, if you make more than $32,000, you are in the world's top 1% of riches. We are the rich. So the idol that we will constantly battle is money. How are we giving? Are we generous and gracious in the way we give?22:07And if you say, well, I can't afford to do that. That's self-centeredness in my life. How about your time? Are you giving time to others and to God? Are you hoarding that in your life? Are you hoarding that in your life? Spouses, are you living a life that honors and is externally focused on your spouse? Parents, are you being gracious to your kids outwardly? Bosses, are you gracious and thinking of others as you serve the place that God has given you and entrusted you to lead well?22:35Are you serving in the local church? Are you weekly sharing the grace of Christ? Or are you self-centered? Here's the third test. Ask your friends. Just ask them, say, look, am I self-centered or am I others-centered? And if you pass a test and ask your enemies, am I self-centered or am I others-centered?23:02This is a sign of a grumpy, self-righteous heart, Jonah. Symptom number four. We're going to keep going here. Look at verse four. The Lord asked, is it right for you to be angry? And you would think at this point, Jonah would say, okay, Lord, you're correct. I have no right to be angry. I repent in dust and ashes.23:32But Jonah does not do that. This is symptom number four, that you justify and make excuses. We justify and make excuses. Are you quick to justify your sin and magnify the sin in other people? I've often found this true in my life. Your sin is always worse than mine. You know, I've never struggled. God's been gracious.24:02I've never struggled with smoking. So it's easy for those that never struggle to find those that are struggling and say, how dare you smoke? But Lord, don't worry about the pride in my life. But worry about that. Are we making excuses in our life? Or are we pointing fingers at others and saying, Lord, look at their sin. Don't look at mine. That's what Jonah was doing. God, did you not see what Nineveh has done? God, did you not see their sin? Are we justifying our sin?24:32You see, owning your sin is the beginning step of repentance. Owning my sin is the beginning step of repentance. Researchers show us how deep our excuses and our sin runs. Anyone in college right now taking a college course? I know a couple of you are. Anyone? I know some of you are. And I just don't want to admit that. But this is what researchers show. Scientific study. Researchers show that grandmothers are 10 times more likely to die before a midterm25:01and 19 times more likely to die before a final. Think about that. Worse, grandmothers of students who are not doing well in the class are at even higher risk. Students who are failing are 50 times more likely to lose grandma than non-failing students. It turns out that the greatest predictor of mortality among senior citizens in our day25:27ends up being their grandchildren's GPAs. Researchers have spent time and have studied that grandparents of kids who are failing in college are 50 times more likely to die before a final. than any other time. What does that tell us? That we are prone to excuses. We're prone to saying to God, it's not me, but it's them.25:57So here's our fourth test. Am I sinning? And when you sin, are you excusing that? Are you saying, God, I know I sinned, but you understand my situation. You understand that it was inherited. It was passed on. Adam and then his sons and then his sons and then my dad and then me. Or God, you know I'm weak here. And Lord, you know I was around friends that influenced me.26:25Are we justifying our sin? How about your serving? Are you making excuses right now why you cannot serve the Lord? Lord, you know my body is just not, I don't have the strength as I used to. God, I don't have the time. But when I do, one day when I have the time, I will serve you. Are we making excuses? Satan will give us thousands and thousands and thousands. Or will we give them to Jesus Christ?26:57Will we give them to Jesus Christ? Symptom number five. Look at verse five and six. Jonah left the city and found a place east of it. He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. And the Lord caused a plant to grow up. And it greatly pleased Jonah. He loved this plant. So, symptom number five.27:25Do you choose comfort over conviction? Do you choose comfort over conviction? You see, some lessons in our life are best learned, not through lecture, but by experience. Some lessons are learned best through experience, not lecture. And it's the same way in Jonah's life. Jonah, without knowing it, had turned inward to the point where he chose his comfort over the conviction of the one true God.27:54And look what happens here in verses five through nine. Jonah is overjoyed because he understands that this miracle is intended to protect him from the son and to ease his distress. But he is not even concerned about the salvation of the Ninevites. He says, well, pastor, what does this have to do with us? John Piper says this about comfort. I want you to lean in and focus on this as I read it.28:23One of the main dangers in being comfortable in our Christianity is that over time, comfort tends to begin to feel like something that God or the world owes us. And what we once called luxury, we now call need is creeping like a kind of gangrene with a smiling face on it that eats the heart of the kingdom, says John Piper.28:43Comfort, what God has given us in luxury, over time, we now think, God, it is a need. And it eats at the heart of the joy of our salvation.29:10Now, let me test this out really quick, and I'm going to make you uncomfortable. That is the point. Why did you sit in the seat that you're sitting in right now? Why did you choose that seat? Was it a choice of comfort? Or did you walk in today thinking, Lord, let me sit in the seat that you would appoint, that way I can share the good news? You know what seat I sat in?29:40The one I sat in last week. And the one I sat in two weeks ago. And three weeks ago. You know why? Because it's comfort. It's rote. It's ritual. It's a need. Do not sit in my seat next week. That is my seat. But what if the Lord wanted me to sit back there? Because someone back there has never been here before, and they need someone to sit beside them and encourage them and invite them and love them.30:03Self-centeredness says, Lord, my comfort, my comfort over spiritual conviction. But the beauty of the gospel is this. God does not leave us in our sickness. But He gives us the cure. He gives us the remedy. And some of us who have walked in like a grumpy cat can walk out with our faces shining because we have met God face to face.30:32So let me give us five remedies for the five symptoms of spiritual grumpiness. Number one, remember your need for grace. Let me say it this way. Josh, remember your need for grace. Always keep in our mind and heart and soul that I am deeply depraved and enormously in need of the grace of Christ.31:01Did Nineveh deserve God's grace, church? No. No. Did Jonah deserve God's grace? No. Does St. Clair County deserve God's grace? No. Do I deserve God's grace? No. So that means I desperately am in need of something that I do not deserve.31:30You see, Jonah was singing this song, written by John Newton. I rewrote it this way. Ordinary grace, how bittersweet the sounds, that helped a deserving man like me. I once was lost, but thankfully I found my way out. I had trouble seeing, but now my sight has adjusted. This is how we sing the song sometimes.31:59Lord, I'm thankful I found my way. No, we need to sing every morning, we need to sing this song. Amazing grace. How sweet, God, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch, a non-deserving wretch like me. I am lost, but you have found me. I was blind and you have given me sight. This should be a daily song.32:26This should be a daily song for us. Remember your need for grace. Number two, celebrate and acknowledge spiritual victories. Jonah was experiencing the revival that only God's spirit could bring through this town. From the poorest to the king, they had repented from their sins and turned to the one true God. And Jonah was oblivious to spiritual victories in his life.32:56And I know we would never do the same. But we need to celebrate. Now did Jonah, could he not or did he refuse to see spiritual victories? My prayer for you is that you would see God's spiritual victories in your life. I want to read you one victory. And it comes from Revelation 19. John, at the end of scripture, sees a man riding on a white horse.33:22Listen about this man. He is faithful and true and he judges and makes war with justice. His eyes were like a fiery flame and many crowns were on his head. He had a name written that no one knows except himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of God.33:46The armies that were in heaven followed him on white horses wearing pure white linen. A sword very sharp came from his mouth so that he might strike the nations with it. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God the Almighty. And he has a name written on his robe and on his thigh.34:15King of kings and Lord of lords. This is the victorious crowning parade of Jesus Christ. And God invites us this morning, open our eyes, see spiritual victories in your life. This gives me hope. This gives me joy. This takes my grumpiness away.34:43God is saying, Jonah, open your eyes. Look at the 120,000 people. Don't worry that culture is going to pot. I told you it would happen. Don't worry about this or that. But look at the spiritual victories. And look that one day my son is going to parade from heaven to earth and there will be no fight. When Christ shows up, the war ends. Because he is King of kings and Lord of lords.35:13Celebrate and acknowledge spiritual victories. Number three, never lose your wonder. Never lose your wonder. Francis Bacon once said, the wonder of a single snowflake outweighs the wisdom of a million meteorologists. Just one snowflake. And we sing that song, marvelous grace of our loving Lord.35:39Grace, grace, grace, grace, grace, grace, grace that has pardoned and cleansed from sin. We should not, church, do not lose your wonder and your amazement. You should be like a child waking up on Christmas and running to their stocking and finding these little trinkets from Dollar Tree that were made not in the United States and tomorrow morning they will be destroyed.35:57But they wake up with amazement and wonder. That's how we should worship. The world needs to see that we are peculiar people because we have a wondrous amazement at the grace that is offered in Jesus Christ.36:22They need to see us celebrate the national championship of grace every day. And that we are holding up the crystal ball, right? And saying, this world, this is what you need. His name is Jesus and it's wonderful and I can never get enough. G.K. Chesterton said, the world will never starve for wonders, but only for lack of wonder.36:51They need to see us in amazement at God's grace. Are you in amazement of his redemption? Number four, how can you go from grumpy to gracious? Never choose comfort over the mission of God. Never choose comfort over the mission of God. His disciples asked Jesus and Jesus spoke back to them.37:17And he simply said, if anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself. You might want to circle that in our Bibles. Matthew 16, 24. If anyone wants to follow me, let him find comfort and enjoy himself. No, let him deny himself. Take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life will find it.37:46Some of you have forgotten the mission of God upon your life. And you've chosen comfort over Christ. And it's so easy. I do it all the time. It's so easy to choose comfort. You know why it's so easy for me to choose comfort? Newsflash. I want to be comfortable. That's our nature. I walked in this morning and said, it's hot in here. And my immediate reaction was, we need to turn down the AC. Because I am not comfortable.38:15May that not be our heart spiritually. May we say, God, I will not choose my comfort over your mission. A soldier that does not know his mission is worthless, if not dangerous, in the battlefields. Because others will get hurt by friendly fire. May you not choose comfort over the mission of God. And lastly, how do we go from grumpy to gracious?38:42Weep over those far from Christ. Weep over those far from Christ. The remedy for a grumpy soul is the gospel. And Jonah, these people are coming to faith. The king, several weeks ago, takes off his robe, gets off his throne, and he repents before a holy God. And Jonah does not see it. We need to be weeping. Church, we should fill the pews and the altar every time we meet with tears for those that are far from God.39:11That should be our heart. And that will change our grumpy souls. C.T. Studd said it this way. Some want to live within the sound of a church or a chapel bell. But I, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. Some want to live in the sound of the bells of a church.39:39We say, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell. Have you shared Christ with someone this week? Have you shared? Have you, have you reached out to one who is far from God? These are cures for a grumpy soul. So I simply ask you right now, are you grumpy? I can see it. Some of you are like, nope. No, pastor.40:10No, pastor. Good sermon. Wait, did you, did we suck on lemons? Like what? The world is looking, listen, the world is looking at us. And they are saying, if you have found eternal joy, why is your face stuck in eternal torment? Because the joy in our hearts should overflow from us. And if you are grumpy this morning, will you just simply reclaim your wonder? When we sing a song today of response, will you just hit your knees right where you sit40:41and say, God, I'm sorry. I have lost the amazement of the grace you give me and I have failed you. But Lord, I know that you will meet my sin with kindness. And Lord, do not, do not help me run to shade, but help me run to you, to the shelter of Christ. That is what we need, church. That is what will change this world. God needs people that are running to hell, picking people from the fire.41:11Tell them it's not worth it. It's not worth it. There is joy eternally in Christ. It is not found in what you're doing. It is not found in sin. Because sin will always lead to death and destruction. But Christ, Christ will free us like never before. Will you respond to the gospel and say, God, I'm sorry for being grumpy.41:39May I live differently. Maybe you're here and you have never put your trust in Jesus Christ. Jonah gets it right. Jonah says this. He said, God, I knew that you are gracious and you are a compassionate God. Slow to anger, abounding in love, the one who relents from sending disaster.42:04Maybe you're here right now and you have never experienced this kindness of God. And you've never experienced because you think that God can never love you or forgive you because of your sin. I want you to know that God will not ignore your sin. But he will meet it with kindness. And he poured forth the wrath that was offered and deemed for me on his son, Jesus Christ.42:36If you will trust him right now. You see, God made a path from heaven to earth for sinners such as me. That's why Jesus said that he was the way. He was the life. He was the truth. And so how do we spend time? How do we seek and now search and commune with God? It is only found in the path Jesus Christ has set. Will you by faith trust in Jesus?43:06You say, Pastor, is that it? You don't understand what I've done. You don't understand the sin. And if I just spend time and say, God, I trust you. He will forgive me. Yes. Yes. That he is kind and he is gracious. He is slow to anger and abounded in love. And I invite you as God invites you. What are you waiting for? Let go of your sin and cling to the cross of Christ.43:35God, who sent his only son to take your place, who lived a sinless life that I could not live, who died on the cross because I deserve that. Three days later, he rose again, reminding us that his sacrifice was accepted because he was sinless. And knowing that God will take my sin debt, nail it to the cross and wipe it away. If we have faith in him.44:05Let's pray.
