John Gunter: We are so glad that you're here with us this morning. We have been in a a study, if I can pull it up here in my notes. We've been in a study called God Revealed, and what we're going through in this study is not our what what we think about God because that could be messed up. Right? I used to have a preacher say that, you know, for those people who said, I don't believe in God, his response would be, well, tell me about God.
And most likely, I won't believe in that God either, because a lot of times we have kind of warped vision or understanding of who God is. And so, this study is designed to take us through scripture and to show us exactly how God has revealed himself. And so, in week one, we talked about God is holy. He is set apart, he's different from us, not that we didn't know that, but he is utterly different from us, right, in his holiness, in his the the things that he does. Last week, we talked about that God is just.
That that God is someone who we are imperfect in in the way that we want to provide justice. Right? You understand that? Even in a country we appreciate and enjoy, we understand we are not perfect in carrying out justice. And ultimately, that can change between from situation to situation.
Right? There's a way that I want justice carried out if you do something to my family. Family. There's another way that I want justice carried out if I do something to yours. Yes?
Absolutely. And so, you know, a lot of times that is we we believe motivations are different. You're just an evil person. I made an act I I just had an accident. You are an evil person.
And so we are imperfect, and so last week we studied about how God is ultimately just. And so today, we are talking about kind of a step past God is just. Today, are answering the question, if God is just, why are we, as imperfect people, why are we, as sinners, people who have gone directly against God, why are we not destroyed? And the answer to that is God is merciful. And so most people don't think of themselves necessarily as needing mercy because of what I just talked about.
Because in situation to situation, we we see ourselves in a different light, and so we think about being fair, we think about our effort, we we often even compare ourselves to other people. Right? And we see ourselves as, well, I deserve a chance. I deserve a second chance. I'm I'm ultimately a good person.
I deserve understanding from you. I deserve this. Right? We deserve we might not say it out loud, but we feel like we may deserve some grace in the moment.
John Gunter: You ever said, hey, let's let's I need some
John Gunter: grace in this. And that is, I think, true. But scripture does not begin with what we deserve, does it? It begins with who God is, and we begin today in Exodus chapter 34 verses six and seven that you see on the screen before you. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
We gotta say amen to that. Right? Especially that last part.
John Gunter: Right?
John Gunter: Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Sometimes God gets a weird rap in that in the Old Testament, he was just angry and killed everybody. In the New Testament, it's grace everything. And that's not true if you read the whole old scriptures. Our problem is we've just picked the scriptures we've liked, and we've turned that into a a documentary on the subject.
And so this is Old Testament, by the way, in Exodus. The Lord the Lord the Lord passed before him to proclaim the Lord the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. I need a God who is abounding in steadfast love, who is slow to anger, and he he he is faithful in all he does. Yes? Amen.
That's what I need, and that's who God is is telling us through scripture that he is. And so this is one of those important moments of scripture that stood should stand out to us. This is not someone describing God. It says, this is the Lord saying this. This is who I am.
Do you believe God is faithful to who he is? Yes? Okay. Well, this is God saying, I am a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. This is God telling his people, this is who I am.
He could have said anything. Right? He could have said anything in this moment, and he chose to talk about being merciful, to be gracious, I'm slow to anger, I'm abounding in steadfast love. Now, want you to take just a second to to kind of let that soak in. Because how many times do we get in our own head and we forget all of this about God?
We decide we're gonna tell God who he is. We decide we're gonna tell God, I've done this too many times, there's no way he can love me in this way anymore. We decide to tell God there's a limit to his grace, there's a limit to his love and he should be angry. But God says, this is who I am. And so that's a little bit different than what we may think at times when we get it a little bit messed up.
There's not judgment in this message here. There's not wrath in this message here. Is there a time for judgment? Yes. Is there a time for wrath?
Yes, possibly. But God said, I am slow to that. Giving time, I want you to have that relationship restored. That doesn't mean God ignores sin. That's not what we're saying this morning.
But God is a God of mercy and desiring us, again, to be close to him. In Psalm one zero three and verse eight, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. You think the psalmist picked up on this in Exodus? Yeah. Like that.
Let's write a song about that. Yeah? That is who God is, merciful, gracious, and slow to anger. You think if it shows up a couple of times in scripture that God wants us to know about that? Yes.
When you read scripture, that's one thing you should pick up on. If something's repeated, ears up. Okay. What is it? God wants you to know this.
And again, how many of you grew up we had a whole series where I talked about a lot of us grew up where this is the book of life and my name is written in it, and God is hovering over it just waiting on John to mess up. Oh, I'll get him today. And that was our warped view of who God was. That God wasn't this merciful and gracious, God was, I'll be that if you're perfect. Yes?
But as soon as you mess up, well, I'm ready. Eraser the biggest fattest eraser. Those big ones that make a lot of mess too. It was just messy, they're I'm gonna get you good. And so we forget, but but scripture is telling us this is who God is.
Don't get it confused. God is gracious. He is merciful. God does not give us what we deserve. You thought about it like that?
Yeah. Thank goodness. God does not give us what we deserve. Sometimes we we feel like if we're gonna work out justice, everyone ought to get what they deserve. Right?
That that's that's view of justice. Do you, as a sinner, want what you deserve? No. Thank you. Lord, help me.
No. Thank you. Yes. Let's say it this morning. I didn't I didn't come to to be fake this morning.
Let's be real about it. I don't want it. And if I'm a Christian and I love my neighbor as myself, as Jesus said you ought to be doing, I don't want that for you either. That's when you get it right. When not only I look at myself and I want grace and mercy here, but I look at you and go, I don't want you to have what you deserve.
I may not even know what you deserve, but I don't want it for you. I know the love of God. I know how much he cares for you. I want that for you just as much as I want it for me, my wife, my two boys, my my family that I love. I want that for you because that is who God is.
He is merciful. He cares about you. In Luke 15, this is known as the story of the the prodigal son, and I'm not gonna go through the whole thing here. But remember, the the son, as Jesus sets it up in this parable, the son is upset. He he wants to go out on his own, and he does so in a way that shames his father.
And he tells his father, basically, I wish you were dead. Go ahead and give me my inheritance now. I I I wish you were dead. My my dad has laughed at times that that my brother, he said, sometimes he'll talk about, you know, end of life stuff, and and my dad will say, sometimes it feels like the buzzards are already around my head. That that's what's happening here.
The son has decided in in the way Jesus tells this parable. The son has decided, I'm going on my own. I'm gonna disrespect my dad. Go ahead and give me what is owed to me and my inheritance, and I'm done. I'm out of here.
See And the sun goes off and he lives in a way that just crushes his life. Some of you may have seen this play out in your own lives. You you wanna tell someone, don't go down this road, and they go down it anyway, and you see their life crumble. But but the son comes to a point in his life where everything kind of hits rock bottom. Verse 17, but when he came to himself, he said, how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger?
I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. And he arose, came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, that speech he worked on in his head beforehand.
I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, bring quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found, and they begin to celebrate. This parable that Jesus is telling here is a parable to tell people what God is like. You get that?
This is not a theoretical what if. This is Jesus using this imagery to tell people exactly what God is like. Now, if we compare that to the way we act, it's a little bit different. Right? Because if somebody shames me and really makes the family look bad and all of that, I'm probably not on the same level as God.
But what we expect or what we think we would do is often very different from the way God acts. Because the son rebels, he leaves, he wastes everything, and notice, he he's worked on the speech because he expects rejection. He wants to make sure the father knows, listen, I have sinned, I'm probably gonna get punished. And didn't he deserve punishment? Didn't he deserve something?
Push back? Maybe distance, you know, I'll keep you at arm's length. But instead, the father as Jesus talks about God the father, the father runs, which was a shameful thing that you didn't do that. You were very straight laced, you you walked with dignity, you did not run. And that's the way that that that Jesus is saying, God throws away all those things that you even hold dear to restore a relationship.
Restore a relationship from someone who has done everything against him. Not, you know, he was doing the best he could, he kinda messed up every once in while. No. He purposefully said, I'm done, and walked away. And upon his turning and walking back, God the father is seen sprinting towards him.
Amen? I got goosebumps talking about that. Come on. We need to wake up in here. God wants to sprint back to
John Gunter: you. Amen? Thank you.
John Gunter: That is who God is. He runs, he embraces, he restores. The son prepared this speech, but the mercy of God steps in and interrupts. He restores in that moment. The father does not say, you'll have to prove yourself, we'll have to have a probationary period, see if you've changed, see if you can make it back into normal society in the family.
God runs to him and restores him immediately. Bring the best robe, the ring, let's kill the fattened calf, let's do it all. That is who God is. This is what mercy looks like. It is not deserved.
Is there any part of this story that Jesus tells that says, oh, he he made it all right? The son, you know, got back in the good graces. Do you see that anywhere in this? It is not deserved. It is not earned.
God gives his mercy freely. He desires to give it to you. Now, if you know that, how ridiculous is it for us, again, to be sitting there in our lives sometimes, sitting there thinking, there's no way that God would want to forgive me because I've done this too many times. Or I made that mistake, and in in my book, that mistake is too large. God wants to sprint back to you as you come to him.
In Micah seven verses eighteen and nineteen, Who is a God like you? Micah says, who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? This is Old Testament God again. We've forgotten about that. He's not angry all the time, is he?
Who is this guy? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Amen. I don't know how long I'll be at this church, but by the time I leave, I hope this is the loudest congregation I've ever been a part of. I had a buddy that went to a different church growing up, and he said, y'all just sit and listen? I said, yeah, what are gonna do? I don't know how you don't get excited about this.
Maybe we haven't confronted enough of our own sin. I know enough about me that I need this, and this is who God is. This is Micah saying, he does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love. That brings him joy to give his love to you. He will again have compassion on us.
He will tread our iniquities under He's gonna stomp them all out. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. That is who God is. That is why we are here because we praise a God who does that. He loves us, he delights in loving us, and he wants to take all of those things that we have done wrong and throw them into the sea.
Many people live like the prodigal son expecting rejection from God, from other church members. And the end of the prodigal son that we didn't to, that other son was kinda like that, wasn't he? I'm upset that he gets the mercy and grace because I didn't live like that. But we expect rejection. We try to earn back acceptance, and we carry guilt much longer than God has been carrying the thing that has brought us the guilt.
That's who we are. But God's mercy is not a one time thing, here you go, if you mess it up, you're done. You ever done that with a kid? It's your one shot, that's it. That's us.
God does not do that. He doesn't hand you his mercy and say, you know, until you you know, lose that perfection you have right now, you just came out of the waters of baptism where you put your faith in me, you know, if you mess it up, you're done. No. God's mercy continues on day after day. In Lamentations three twenty two and twenty three, this is probably new to most of you, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.
His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Amen. That's what needs to be on our wall.
That's what needs to be on our heart. That needs to be a reminder to us of who God is. That is not just just flowers and rainbows just to make you feel better, that is who God is. These writers are seeing this. They they know that God is this person of love, a love that never ceases.
His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. I like that line right there. Yeah? You opened your eyes this morning and and God said, brand new slate, let's go again, not one time, you mess it up, you're done.
He said, Let's let's run it back.
John Gunter: I don't know what to
John Gunter: do with that. You ought to walk tall walking out of this place today because you serve a God whose mercies never come to an end. Yes. That is who God is. They are new every morning.
Great is your faithfulness. That's what you've got to tell God. You need to yell that. Great is your faithfulness, God. Thank you, God, because this is who you are.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. The the funny thing about this verse is that this was written during a time of destruction where everything had kind of fallen apart, And the writer there is saying, God's mercy is still there. It's not dependent on circumstances. It's not dependent on you being perfect, some kind of performance type thing. God's mercy is always there.
It is new every morning. Yes. In Hebrews four verses fifteen and sixteen, for we do not have a high priest, talking about Jesus, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now, what you should take from this is Jesus knows because he lived the life.
We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize, who doesn't know, who looks at you like, well, I did it. Well, how can't you handle it? We don't have a high priest like that. He knows what you're going through. He is able to sympathize with what you're going through with our weaknesses.
But one who in every respect, he made it. He was tempted not to it. But because of that, let us then with confidence. How many of you need a little boost of confidence today? With confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Because Jesus is advocating for us saying, he's mine. She's mine. I know what she went through. I know those weaknesses. I understand it.
And because of what he did, not us, because of what he did, we can approach the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need, and I need that. We often think, I've already used up all my chances. I don't know how many chances you give kids in your household. This morning, I told the boys to do things several times that they apparently could not hear. Sometimes, I think it depends on my mood, whether I give one chance or three or whatever, whether I believe they actually didn't hear or what.
But oftentimes, we think of God in the same way that I've used up all my chances, that God's tired of hearing from John. I know I've said enough, I've prayed enough, I've I've apologized enough, that I've said, God, this time is different enough, but God's mercy does not run out. So what do we do with this kind of mercy? What how do we handle this? I think we we find this in Romans chapter 12 verse one.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. So we don't look at God and say, your mercies are endless, your grace is endless, Therefore, I'm gonna live whatever life I wanna live. No. We look at God and we see your mercies are endless, your grace is endless, and I am thankful for that, God. And because of that, I am going to, again, put my faith in you, put my trust in you, and live for you.
By the mercy of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice. And what he says, this is your spiritual worship. This is how you praise God. You wanna know how to praise God? Yes.
It was that singing this morning that was beautiful. But you wanna praise God, you do it with your life. I am offering my life as a spiritual sacrifice to God because of who God is, because I am thankful, because I have put my trust in him, this is how I respond. Mercy can't be something that that that we just receive or we just know about and do nothing with. Mercy has to change the way we live.
Now, are you gonna be perfect? Absolutely not. I made a joke last week that I was probably the closest and I heard about it. And if you weren't here last week, I said, that was a joke. Katie does not like me joking because she's afraid everybody's gonna think I'm serious.
That was absolutely a joke. But it doesn't matter whether you think you're doing well, or you're beating yourself up because you know how many times you've you've sinned this week. God's grace is for you. God's mercy is for you. And if you wanna thank him for that grace and that mercy, your spiritual worship, your worship to him is a sacrifice that I'm going to give you my life, Lord.
This is how I want to live for you. Mercy should lead to humility, gratitude, and transformation, a changed life. How many of you are in a different place spiritually right now? You're in a better place than you have been before. How many of you would say that?
Like, I'm in a good place right now. Does that mean a perfect place? Absolutely not. But our prayer and our goal is closer to each other and closer to God, that we want to continue moving, and God blesses that. God doesn't look and say, well, John, you failed in that.
You you sinned this week trying to move closer to me, you said. His mercies are new every morning that you wake up and again, alright, let's go after it. That he loves us in this way. In Titus three verses four through seven, But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, that hurts some of us, but according to what? His own mercy.
You're not bringing a thing to God saying, here's why I deserve this. You can't do it. You can't do it. You can't recite a speech like the prodigal son saying, I'm so sorry, though you should repent of your sins and say, alright, I've done this. But that doesn't earn anything for you, not because of anything, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior.
Leave and be baptized, and every one of you is gonna receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, God living inside you. God gives you his love, his grace, and mercy. He gives you his spirit and says, go after it. You're not gonna be perfect, but God has the mercy, he has the grace. So when we know about God's grace and mercy, we don't ignore it, we don't abuse it, we decide we're gonna be changed by it.
God is holy, God is just, and God is merciful. This mercy does not mean that sin does not matter. What God being merciful means is that God has chosen to respond to sin in this way of mercy. That what you deserve is not what you get if you decide to live for him. And again, we don't live a life saying, well, I'll just go do whatever.
I decide I want to live for you, God, knowing that's not gonna be perfect, knowing that God knows that, that we don't have a high priest that is confused as to why we would mess up. But we live a life understanding that God loves us in this way. And so so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Amen? This is the promise for you and for me.
You are not waiting this morning for God to become merciful to you. He already is. He wants to give it to you. In the story of the prodigal son, you turn to him and he's sprinting towards you. Amen?
And so, the question is whether you will come to him as you are and experience that mercy right now. We have a time of invitation. We'd love to pray with you. We'd love to, as a church, walk beside you, encourage you along the way, and and share our own struggles and weaknesses. There's a time for that.
If you haven't been baptized into the name of Jesus, why wait another day? Experience the grace and mercy of Christ that never ends from a God who takes delight in pouring out his love for you. Begin that walk with him right now as we stand at this place.