Prodigals & Prophets | Student Pastor Zach Hammond

as you remains standing I want us to do something before we're seated this evening and that is if you look around I see guests that have joined us for our Sunday evening service here at First Apostolic church we welcome you and thank you for being with us here we hope that you make yourself at home but most of all we hope that you feel at home and we want to give you just a big round of applause and welcome here from our family to you thank you for being with us whether you've joined us in person or online this evening thank you for being with us in the house of the Lord it's such a honor and privilege just to be with God's great people to be in the house of the Lord tonight I uh you could be seated I read a story the other day it was a young man he was a terrible student in high school and um this young man he he was barely making it through and he had failed a couple of his freshman classes had to take him again he found himself in his junior year and his mom and his counselor said you got to go take the s.a.t I got any juniors seniors I got to go take sat act one of them T's one of those tests said you got to go take the SAT and he said I I don't think I want to do that you know I can't even really pass the classes they're giving me now I don't necessarily see any reason taking that you know and he gets up on that early Saturday morning throws on his sweatpants and a hoodie and goes down and gets there and he feels like hey wolf I guess you know goes in with the intentions of doing maybe what some of you've done and you're just going to fill in the you know kind of Christmas tree this thing and get on out of here you know and he says uh I might as well if I'm going to be captive here for the next few hours I might as well read through and give this thing a try gets his test scores in the mail a few months later and says that all the teachers here Will kind of giggle it this says that sir you've received received a 1480 on your sat sits out of 1600 points which is shocking he said you know mom's shocked they're celebrating running laps around the neighborhood you know we've done something here we've what happened you know what'd you do he said I just read it and filled it in I didn't didn't know some of the answers but I figured you know give it a shot completely shocked this young man walks in the front office of school the next week and all of a sudden he's having you know he said next next semester you've got opportunities at these scholarships and these grants and these AP classes and this and that and the other and he says okay hey I am somebody you know I'm not the kid sitting in the back passing notes and shooting spitballs I'm the guy that could get a scholarship you know and and all of a sudden he uh graduates the next year with honors and goes on to college becomes a manager of a local business in town and his life was all changed because of that one test however a few years later after becoming this well-known businessman and the 2013 scores he receives a letter he says that uh his mom callsman said I got something to tell you I said that got this letter in the mail from testing agency said they sent out the wrong scores you actually scored a 720 you aren't even eligible for the you know the Hope Scholarship you know they give everybody you know so he believed that he was a 1480 student ultimately he was a 1480 student he just wasn't living like it huh and I believe tonight that we've come into the house of the Lord and the presence of the Lord and I'm perhaps hopefully could stir up I don't know if you feel what's happening in the house or what's happening really within the past few services within the body and within the church but I hope that you could Wade on in maybe you you didn't feel what everybody else was feeling a little bit I go but you could step on in and start living like you are who you say you are tonight but I believe that there's somebody in this place tonight that God's got a calling a purpose A Journey For You maybe even you know it but you need to start living like it it's really all it is it's there you just got to believe in yourself as much as God believes in you and I just believe the Lord he shifted he shifted me big time this afternoon I had some things I wanted to address I love preaching convictional messages it's my favorite thing to do I believe that's lines up with the majority of scripture you know eight out of the Ten Commandments are negative towards the flesh I think that's where it should be all the time you know but every now and then we got to preach some pick me up and so I went in had a great message I even had talked to a few people about it tonight and I was excited about preaching it and I just when in the Lord took me to Jonah chapter 1. and so we won't be preaching what I wanted to preach tonight but John chapter 1. and verse number one and I feel like my voice like this I could put on a good JH Osborne you know uh my brother Perdue the armadillo Jonah chapter 1 and verse number one now the word of the Lord came into Jonah the son of and mataya brother Osborne would know how to pronounce that saying arise go to Nineveh the great City and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me but Jonah rose up to flee under tarshus from the presence of the Lord who went down to Joppa and he found a ship going to tarshus and he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them unto tarshish from the presence of the Lord I want to preach to you for just a few moments tonight when I say a few moments I really don't know how long this will last it just depends on how long my voice will last so some of you are praying that Lord let it go you know in Jesus name Jonah won and we're going to talk about Joan a little bit tonight prodigals and Prophets prodigals and Prophets is our title for tonight could you lay your Bibles down lift your hands to the Lord and let's ask for him to touch us God we thank you so much for your presence that we felt in this place already come on would you lift your voice with me for a moment God I thank you for what we felt thus far I thank you for your presence that's here right now as we begin to speak words to you to communicate with you God you hear us in this place right now that you are in our midst that you are standing here God ready willing and able to extend an arm God you're for your arms are not short God you're you're waiting for someone to ask to seek to knock to step out tonight to say God God I'm ready I'm willing I'm able God I thank you for being here God I thank you for your presence I thank you for freedom I thank you for your word tonight God do what only you can do in this house in Jesus name we pray everybody say amen amen you can be seated Jonah is quite an interesting book a great book to read it's a quick quick uh one you know one chapter one two three and four and you're out of there it's a it's a Fast book to read it's a good one to jump in on but I want to kind of show you something in scripture and this will help kind of set up what we're going to discuss tonight but Jonah chapter one and verse number one the Bible says God's God's word comes to Jonah now if you turn the page and it might be good we do this we can do this old school stuff you have your Bible you could turn the page to chapter three and see the exact same thing takes place so Jonah one and one says in the word of the Lord comes to Jonah turn it over chapter three and one says and the word of the Lord came into Jonah a second time okay now look at this Jonah chapter 1 and verse number two there was a message to be conveyed flip the page Jonah chapter 3 and verse number two there is a message to be conveyed Jonah chapter 1 and verse number three there is a response from Jonah Jonah chapter 3 and verse number three there is a response from Jonah now if we go to verse number four there's a word of warning same thing chapter 3 verse number four there's a word of warning we can go on and on verse number five there's a response of the pagans same thing in chapter one as it is in chapter three there's a response of a pagan leader in verse 6 in chapter one and in chapter three how the pagans responded ultimately better than Jonah did in verses 7 8 9 and on and so on okay so we can see here for some reason the Book of Jonah is like chapter one and chapter two and then take two let's try this again scene two we're going to go Jonah 3 and Jonah four that's literally how it's laid out Jonah the pagans and the sea is scene one and Joe Jonah pagans in the city is seen too it's this nice little thing of Jonah's uh Disobedience I guess you could look at it that way many get distracted by the fish you know that's the one thing when you hear Jonah you hear about Jonah and the well the great fish and that's what we're teaching them probably on Sunday school because everybody wants to know about a man got swallowed by a fish but ultimately the rider here don't spend much time on that in fact if it would have been a big moment for him I I don't really know why but it was just pretty powerful pretty amazing thing we can't really describe it in fact a lot of Scholars and philosophers they throw the Book of Jonah out simply because of this they do not emphasize the two scriptures enough two scriptures about the fish to make it actually seem real to them they said if that would have really happened they'd wrote a little bit more about it therefore I don't I think this is fiction for some reason Jonah is a book that gets kind of cast out but anyways he doesn't put much emphasis on this fish however we do agree and understand that it happens but what we see here that uh we get distracted perhaps by some of the things that happens and the writer he again he spends only two verses and he moves on about the fish and and Jonah I think this whole book these four chapters ultimately could be described in one word and that is Mercy Mercy Mercy is something that we need more than ever before in the hour that we live in for everybody to understand or at least attempt to understand Mercy Mercy I found myself lately we're in it's just whether it be a situation with with someone close to me or somebody in a working relationship or whatever the case may be I look back a couple weeks ago I just thinking back through my life I'm like I wonder if if I can think of people that have a odd or have an issue with me or maybe I've extended something to them and tried to make amends or tried to make it right tried my best to say hey we love you we care about you whatever the case may be however you handle the situation whatever had happened whatever it said and you made a mistake but ultimately they're just not okay with it and they've moved on but they've let you know that I just don't really appreciate you I don't really care for you and you know that sort of thing but I I've caught myself trying to think through um and I just say that's a terrible way of thinking well I'm weird okay so you I was just thinking through and I found myself adding them to my prayer list I thought hey you know they they may not have anything against me but the Bible says that even if I can make a list of people that may have something against no matter what I've done no matter what all I've done to try to make this right forgiven them or whatever the case may be pray for them why because Mercy because ultimately everybody has to understand what Mercy is and that's when I feel like this book could be summed up as I and no way do I urge anyone to live foolishly but I encourage Mercy I don't think anybody's going to get to heaven and stand before God and God say Hey you extended brother Perry too much Mercy you were just too merciful you were just too you just thought too good of people you know you just you just get you gave too much rope you thought too good of those Strong Tower students you you really you know you you really should have looked into what they were up to you really should have thought and saw them for who they really were you know you gave them too many chances you yeah I can't believe you still care about them I can't believe you feel like they deserve another chance after all you know what they did you know what they said you know the actions they took you know why they were fired you you know you know what they've done right you know I don't think anybody in this room whatever air on the side of giving out too much Mercy I'd be careful though because it's hard to give it's something that you can keep harbored inside of you and you really act like you are okay with them but ultimately could you even have a full conversation with somebody this is it's quite a task Jonah and he gets a bad rap completely but he was being asked to carry out something in the first place that is absolutely absurd none of the other prophets are asked to do what Joan was asked to do if you look at the background of the Nations we see here Jonah he was a Hebrew prophet who was commanded to leave Israel go to a gentile City Jeremiah Isaiah Amos all of them addressed the Pagan City all of them call them out from a distance then people are crazy they're Wicked they tell you about them but Jonah is the one that God picks and says hey you can talk about him but I want you to go preach to him I don't want you just write about him I don't want you to tell the people that hey that's who we don't want to be I want you to go talk to those people so Jonah this Hebrew prophet he was asked to do what no Prophet had been asked to do would you go here's what Nineveh was Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria one of the most cruelest and vile empires of ancient times this is the the description of Nineveh well known for their torture and dismembering of the enemy they were known to cut off one's arm and one's leg and force the enemy to stand there with one leg and one hand and shake their enemy's hand it's a celebration you might want to go to Nineveh yeah he said they forced captive family members to march with the head of their decapitated loved one around on a pole they skinned them and hang their skin on the walls like you would an animal anybody ever been to one of those houses huh and elephants and giraffes and rhinoceroses and skins of zebras and you know we had stuff on the walls you imagine walking in they got people Jonah you care to go down there and preach to them no I'd rather not Lord you know uh how about Amos huh Isaiah's he's talked a good bit about him actually wrote a little bit more you know he sent him down there you know Jeremiah you ready but no Jonah he draws the straw to go down to this torturous you know they just said they're Wicked yeah they're Wicked all right they'll skin Your Hide so Jonah oh I can't believe Jonah he he he's running from the Lord yeah he was and he was running from ninevites too you know Jonah gets a bad rap it's just Jonah and this well and the Lord's you know and and he's just this bad guy you know I don't know that any of us necessarily would just been you know extremely excited about going down to Nineveh you know this wasn't like going hey go down to the you know Maryville High School and and teach a Bible study or something this just wasn't the same situation here he's he he's he's he's going to a place where these are the terrorists of the day they and Jonah's thinking hey why do they deserve a chance huh these people are crazy why would God help the enemy children's got a lot of questions going on in fact Nahum the prophet has already prophesied at this moment that God's going to destroy the ninevites before God tells Jonah to go nahun's back here prophesying hey can we swap places can I be back here prophesying that you're going to destroy him instead of being the guy that after the fact says hey if you're going to kill him go ahead and kill him why are you sending me down there huh I think you got John hey this dude this dude he's so confused but it just appears why do I need to go Jonah has not only an issue with the mission Jonah's got an issue with the one sending him at this point because Mercy does not make sense it don't make sense it appears to me in this pair of paralleling paralleling storyline of scripture as I began to read and it was kind of like you know you saw this layout of chapter one and chapter two and then we flipped the the scene it's like all this stuff starts happening over and over again um three and four I'll be I immediately began to think back brother Jacob to Jesus begins to tell a story of a lost sheep and a lost coin and then he gets to a lost son and it seems like that Jesus begins to tell the story and in the back of his mind somewhere he's thinking about a prophet named Jonah who if you really look at it Jonah lives both parts Jonah's the younger brother in chapters one and two and Jonah then he says doesn't work running so I'll become the older brother in chapter 3 and 4. so we see here that Jonah plays out both parts and Jesus tells this story how can I it's it's it's pretty interesting when you begin to parallel and you put the story story side by side and you can do that at a later time in your study but it's it's a great study there but how can you be the one running Jonah and the one staying because if you have no definition and you don't look at anything through the lens of Mercy Jonah runs like the younger brother you have to watch the spirit of the runner you have to be careful he takes his father's inheritance and spoils it Jonah goes and Boards a boat and lets those poor men those Mariners throw everything in their ship overboard the whole reason that they're out there the whole purpose of the journey he punches a ticket gets on lets them chunk all the maybe you've had some people in your life like that they've come into your life and you they realize that they're the problem in your life but they'll let you quit your job and stop doing this and stop doing that and your life's turmoil and everything's going wrong Until you realize that hey you're the problem and you're in my boat and we're going to throw you out huh you have to be careful with the spirit of the runner but Jonah ultimately he's just like the younger brother he don't care he spoils his inheritance he finds himself in the belly of a whale and the younger brother finds himself wearing the pigs pit it's easy to see Jonah in the well it's easy to see the pig pen but what about chapters three and four what about some bitterness that's got hidden inside it's easy to see and it's easy to say in scene one but scene two Jonah this is this this this older brother Jonah I'd like to address for just a few minutes on this Sunday night of this Sunday school story of Jonah and the well we think if we are religious and good pay our dues of being at church perhaps even putting our ties in the plate that God can you know we can somewhat have this mindset that God owes us for honest you say I'd never say that but our actions do huh we kind of somewhat feel like we hold God at this place where he's obligated to answer my prayers because I'm here he's obligated to be my God because I come to church three times a week and I call myself a Christian if we aren't careful we control God or attempt let's say it that way to control God by keeping him and at arm's length but I've asked you tonight I I want to know before you leave here tonight I want you to answer the question are you obeying God but doing it for your own sake Jonah he's he's been swallowed up by a well at this point running from from the the terrorist and Nineveh and if you really look at it the well actually swims him back up to where he was supposed to be spits him back out closer it's like the perfect little you know he rides a boat this way the whale swims back up spits him back up you look at geographically he puts him back up there where he's supposed to be spits him up you don't really have a choice at this point he goes up there and he's obeying God huh for his benefit he's obeying God because I don't want to die I'll take my chances with the skin in guys then the Lord put me in another storm in the belly of a whale right if we're not careful we'll fall into that trap of saying I'm coming and I'm obeying God simply on what I can get out of it I'm not obeying God because I know I and I have his per I have his purpose in my heart or I have his heart or I see things the way he sees it I'm doing it because I want to get something out of it if we're not careful we'll come to church because we like the community and I enjoy this community better than I enjoy any other community and I love Community but that's ultimately not the main goal right I'll come to church pay my tithes because I know that God's blessings will be on but it's not all about me getting right me coming in and doing the proverbial good things so that something good will come back to me that's all Jonah's doing here if we aren't careful we'll find ourselves whether we're playing scene one or scene two there was an inward distancing before there is an outward distancing in other words if it gets in your head and your heart it will eventually get in your mouth and in your feet Jonah goes and he preaches but he's still unhappy trying to control the agenda of God why Mercy he don't see God's mercy towards him much less see it for everybody else I don't understand why you would want to Aid the enemy I don't understand why you would want to do good for anybody that would be doing so bad and today if we're not careful we want to draw proverbial line so strong that there's hate I'm all about there being a line it says hey there's a difference I'm going to come out from among them but there's no point do I look across and say you don't deserve God at no point do we become so holy and so separated that we don't send out a voice on the other side and say call call come out from among them and be separate go into the highways and the hedges and compel them to coming by because they need the mercy of God just like you did just like I did Mercy Mercy calls as a man to go through a mess he didn't even see it at this point you you you will never understand how God can be merciful to a wicked people you're not going to because we have to see it for ourselves in our world through the lens of mercy God saw me through Mercy I must see others through Mercy we don't completely understand but most of all we don't completely deserve it either it's something it's this over the heading of Jonah the Book of Jonah the mystery of Mercy can Jonah understand it it's one of the only two books in your Bible that ends with a question we don't really know we pray we hope that Jonah answered the question correctly But ultimately it comes down to how do you view God and your brother and your sister huh which seat are you going to sit in when it comes time to look across the aisle what seat are you going to sit in when it comes to look at God are you going to be the one who sits and says God I'm going to judge you based upon what you did for my neighbor I'm going to judge you based upon what you've done in the past that's ultimately what it comes down to are you going to sit in in a seat of Mercy are you going to sit in a seat of judgment huh well you look across the aisle and say God can do it for them because he did it for me I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the goodness of God I'm not better than anybody else here if it wasn't for God then I wouldn't be able to even stand here and feel his presence huh it's all about how you view it's this lens of Mercy Jonah 4 and verse number one this is how the chapter ends and I want to just kind of read through this so we can see here and this is going to take us to where we want to get to this evening but it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry and he prayed unto the Lord and said I pray thee O Lord was not this my saying when I was yet in my country therefore I fled before unto tarshish for I knew that you're a gracious God and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repentance repentance thee of the evil therefore now O Lord take I beseech thee my life from thee for it is better for me to die than to live and this all of a sudden begins to sound like a counseling session then said the Lord thus thou well to be angry huh so Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city and made him uh it's funny to me that he decides to stay in the city made him a booth and sat under the Shadow and he might see what would come would become of the city and the Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come over Jonah and he might be a shadow over his head and deliver him from his grief so Jonah was exceedingly glad for the gourd that's really the only time we see Jonah get glad I mean he never says nothing about Jonah getting glad about the ninevites he don't get glad about being spit up out of the Billy be well he don't get glad he gets glad because the Lord puts some shade over him why it's about Jonah right yeah but God prepared a worm the morning he rose up the next day and smote the gourd and it was withered and it came to pass that when the sun did arise God prepared of the Hemet East Wind and the Sun Beat upon the head of Jonah and he fainted and wished himself to die and said it is better for me to die than to live and God said to Jonah do us thou well to be angry for the gourd he said I do well to be angry even unto death man then saith the Lord thou has pity on the gourd for thou which has not labored neither made it to grow which came up in the night in Paris in the night here he goes this is how it ends and should not I spare Nineveh the great City we're in are more than six four thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and all so much cattle this is the shocking turn everyone reading thought the belly of the fish you know you've you've spit it spit up this man who decided to pray all of a sudden I don't know why he didn't pray the first you know moment he was in there but we feel like this is his change this conversion moment and all of a sudden we find ourselves here again this is again is it's great for us to understand look at God's mercy toward a prophet huh it's easy to see God's mercy when he was running in the belly of a whale and he's he's doing all these great things but here we go he's ministered and God has moved and God's done everything that he's done for the ninevites and he's angry when he steps into the shoes of what can we say it this way the older brother in the parable of the lost son he once again like before God works a miracle and bring forth brings forth a plant to give shade for Jonah while he sits there in anger I don't know about you and maybe you've been in this place I know I've been there before but in a place where I know I look back on it that maybe I wasn't pleasing to God but he still provided for me huh he sits there in anger towards God for extending mercy and God gives him shade it's it's I don't I don't know any other way else to look at this is it's very puzzling but God gives you Mercy even when you're not right it's mind-blowing to me it's like you know he at this point he's he's kind of maybe some of your parents could relate you know it's like you you take them take them out and whoop them you know they it's like you throw them in the belly of a well and put them down in there with a seaweed or whatever and then that don't work so then we're just going to take them by the hand and take them out here and just give them a talking to maybe that'll work you know it's like he's trying every angle he's got with Jonah to try to help him get past this but ultimately Jonah cannot see this isn't fair huh I think if Jonah was in in in you know living in our day and age he would sound like a you know a teenager didn't get their way you know it's not fair brother Hammond I know it ain't Fair life's not fair huh I some people believe that I believe life is fair actually I kind of got you on that one didn't I huh you know why it's fair because ultimately it's unfair to everyone huh at some point in your life somebody got something that belonged to you you worked Harder They didn't they still got it guess what the sun still came up huh and ultimately God positioned you and placed you life's not going to be fair every day the odds are not going to fall in your favor whatever the case may be you may have made a decision years ago that was supposed to play out and it didn't But ultimately if God punishes evil we've got this this whole thing that's bottled up and you know you've got a prophet here that's sitting here and he's acting like a prodigal and then he's acting like the older son and he just can't figure it all out brother Steph because how can you be merciful and just how can you say you're a God who gives us Ten Commandments to live by but when we break them reach say you you you can try again huh how can these people be torturing be the enemy of God's people and you want me to go preach to them how is it fair how is it right it's the mystery of Mercy God could not be God without being merciful and just it's easy for us to understand the just part it's easy for us to comprehend the Old Testament you didn't do it we feed you the Bears huh you didn't do it you got stoned huh some of you some of you you know and and maybe it's your personality type whatever the case would be you you feel like many times you know maybe you work with people you're like we really should live in the Old Testament you know huh I watched some people on TV I'm like you would have worked better in the Old Testament you know it's like why why you have so many wives you know you know that's confused you know I'm like you're near a new dispensation now you know it's like it was just easy to understand right it's just God says you do it you're good you don't you die huh you don't do it correct you don't get in you don't repent right you don't put it on the altaright brother Erickson you don't do the things right we're going to tie a bell to your ankle when your bell stops ringing we know something didn't go right we're going to drag you out why because God's just that's easy to understand it's just black and white it's just very clear but then all of a sudden there came a thing called Mercy that's been mentioned in the Old Testament but it's not really it's just been something that was sprinkled uh that God said you would sprinkle the blood on this Mercy Seat in the presence in the holy of holies but we really don't understand what it is but then we turn the pages into Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and and when Jesus comes in he begins to give explanation to what God has been acting within in books like Jonah that if you're just reading the Book of Jonah brother Joel you really wouldn't understand because Mercy just don't make sense how how can the people that you want us to fight at one moment you want us to go anoint and pray for the next moment huh the enemy come out from among them but compel them huh Mercy Mercy Mercy Mercy is something that we don't get but it doesn't make sense in a lot of different areas maybe I've addressed this before but you know there's there's all the law of Mercy you you want to get into something that if you're not biblically rooted students this isn't a good this isn't a good Bible study but go Google the law of Mercy you'll get all kind of just philosopher Joe Blow you know he's got his blog on what he thinks Mercy is and you know it's pretty elastic it's pretty messed up just to be honest with you because you've got there ain't no Google ain't right on that one because there's 7 500 definitions of what the law of Mercy is why because it's easy to step in now in our modern especially United States form of Christianity and misuse Mercy everybody wants to sit in Mercy's seat there's people that stand behind podiums thankfully not in our movement but in other movements that misuse this Pulpit by misusing Mercy all under the vein of Mercy God's merciful to me he's using me as a voice to be able to connect ourselves because you you're going to mess up and I've messed up and know God's just God but because Mercy becomes this mystery it becomes misused and it's abused and it becomes all these different definitions ultimately the law of Mercy is something that only can be defined by God and it can only be defined by God in the sense I tell you this it don't have it doesn't have lines like other laws you know the law of gravity law of gravity ultimately they say you Greeks I've never been there maybe I don't probably nobody in here has when you reach that point of the law of gravity all of a sudden it it's gone huh you start floating around in a spaceship and it doesn't work anymore law of physics law of mathematics the law of the land some of you maybe broke that on the way here huh yeah that sign has actually got a little bit of stretch in it they say 10 above that you know why don't you just change it to whatever 10 above is you know huh because you don't really mean it you know but there's a law there's Lines within everything but when it comes to the law of Mercy even within the scripture when he starts defining Mercy he starts saying things like I'll remove it as far as the East is from the West you say you're telling me brother Nolan they can skin folks put heads on poles and March around make you stand one leg and shake hands when your right arms cut off you can act like that you can torture God's creation God's most chosen The Chosen vessels that he wants to inhabit and lead and guide and he's prepared a place where you can do that to him and you're saying God's still going to be merciful to them yeah you don't have any lines the most wicked most vile person you could think of it's not his will that any should perish but that all should come to repentance I'd like to silence one voice in this place tonight and that is if you're online or you're in this room at any at any uh intersection of your life and you sit here thinking and the devil has convinced you that whether it's something everybody knows about or nobody knows about and he's made you feel like that you've gone too far that's the biggest bunch of baloney that you could ever ever fall prey to because God's word tells us over and over and over and over again I don't care what you've done I don't care what you've said I don't care how far you've went God says hey my arm's not short that I cannot reach I'm right here ready and willing and able I don't know how I don't care how long it's been since you prayed I don't care how many bad things you've done how many times you knew it was wrong or you how many times you sit through a service and went through the motions how many times did you backslid and come back how many times it doesn't matter Mercy see I don't understand it I don't either and I don't deserve it but he said everybody gets it how I don't know I don't know brother Johnson I don't know hope to God you know I got a letter the other day unmarked unsigned whatever let's get this big long four-page thing in response to something that I preached hey I put it in the file it's good stuff you know told me I was wrong about a couple things hey it's great if you know how to Define mercy please come tell me huh there's a lot of scriptures on it there's a lot of great stuff in here but I did find this Mercy is where God sits Mercy is where God dwells now it says in the Old Testament inside the Ark of the Covenant the Ten Commandments you know this the The Ten Commandments are inside the Arkham Covenant and if you look at it it's actually the second the second time they were given there this is the full set this is not the ones that that Moses broke this is the full set which is amazing because you're you're getting some type and Shadow there this is the the law fulfilled not the law broken huh so we understand that the law is broken ultimately the law was a law that was given that could not be kept could it been kept what Jesus would have never come we could just live by that law we'd still be living by the law but man could not keep that law so he came and he lived and he died and he gave us the holy ghost that we could right he fulfilled that law does everybody get that over there so he puts that law and it's not broken it's fulfilled within the ark as a type and a shadow of that it's powerful there and this is something that we need to grasp and I don't want to get too far off on this tonight but he says this is a law that was given to to to to this generation for all generations to come forever he says on Mount Sinai this is powerful in fact you could go back and read it's a great study Thomas Jefferson addresses this and he addresses this law that was given the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai he said it's for all generations because he was having a faction back in that day where people were coming up and saying hey I wasn't there when we signed the Constitution could we redo that do what and you'll hear this on on on you know the crazy stuff you watch on on on YouTube or whatever all kind of Media stuff today well I'm not bound by another man's law yes you huh we're Bound by this law you may not even realize it yet but you will one day because he says every knee will bow and every tongue will confess huh because he is just and he's going to sit on a throne of judgment one day and so we understand that there there's this law that was given so within this this this Ark of the Covenant is this Ten Commandments then there was a golden pot of man or the man it wasn't supposed to really last beyond the Wilderness this is why we feel like it's there they they said don't save the man of the worms or it will will eat it they didn't eat they ultimately didn't eat this one it was in a gold pot and their fathers ate Manna in the wilderness and the Bible says that but you you won't eat Jesus says I am the bread and he said you'll eat of me and I am the true bread and you will not die and so there's some things here Mana ultimately means what is it huh and so we see here that there's some powerful things within this Ark of the Covenant he will try to understand who Jesus is But ultimately he's more today than he was yesterday huh for years he's been he's been doing things and we've been trying to to figure it out ultimately you know science is working to try to figure out what God did thousands of years ago huh he says it they try to figure it out he speaks it they try to he says what is it what what it that's that's the question you almost ask about Mercy what is it it is he says he says I I've been trying to figure out more about Jesus since I was baptized at age seven what is it you don't limit God he says I am that I am I am today what you need me to be and so ultimately this is a powerful thing that's placed down in here it's not bound by time or space or matter and we see that that's a a powerful thing that makes God who he is he says what is it he says I am that I am and then he is Aaron's rod in there which is ultimately just a walking stick and uh this is just telling us that God brings life from dead things he threw the stick down the next day had life grew things he's got these three things within this place and he says that this is where God rests on top of that that Mercy Seat of this box that contained these three elements This Is Where Mercy 12. obviously you see the fullness of the godhead the three things within there the top of the box though you see that there's angel wings and I should have given them a picture that you could look at this and actually see this is covering The Mercy Seat that the priest could go in and mercy would be there so he would not die that's the first time we see brother Tyler of Mercy really depicted if you could go that way go that far with me to see we see her that he goes in and it's ultimately that Mercy is the place where his glory dwells because it allows man to see God's glory even though man was not he wasn't perfect there's nobody in here that's received their Halo there's nobody in here that's made it yet but he sees he says here on the day of atonement Hebrews 9 tells us that he would put blood on The Mercy Seat and ultimately we understand that this is this is really the best picture I could paint for you of Mercy that he would take that blood and he would sprinkle it on The Mercy Seat and then brother Jacob those three things that represented a type and a shadow of Jesus Christ that laid within that box and perhaps that Ten Commandments laying down in there he said God you're supposed to be just now those are the Ten Commandments he says well all I see is the blood huh when he looks down his Mercy is where the blood is at huh he says when I see the blood I will pass over over and over again we see that maybe there was some mercy brother white that was within the Old Testament that wasn't necessarily they were writing it for us but they were showing us throughout the Bible that there were some people that maybe didn't deserve it but God put his hand on them and said hey we're going to preserve you for another day and it goes back to this this this this this this this this amazing thing here we'll see when I see the blood I will pass over and this is where he sits this is where the glory dwells is within Mercy so it is it is of the utmost important that we understand Mercy because that's where God's presence dwells if you don't value the mercy of God we are foolish to think that we can continually house the Holy Ghost the moment that we walk with a moment that we step our feet off of the bed and begin to take a step into a day thinking that we can manage do life whatever it is that you think you're trying to figure out you think you can do it on your own without the goodness and the mercy of God is the day that you cannot house the presence of God why because his presence is Where Mercy is at you have to see your life through the lens of Mercy we have to understand it's a reminder there's it reminds me of two pictures immediately on the Resurrection Day we know that the the Angels were there on both ends when Mary and Martha went looked in stooped down they said they looked in and they saw two angels standing at the head and the feet of where the body of Jesus was laid well you you can you imagine what that looked like huh he was laid ultimately brother Nolan where that Mercy Seat would have been it was drawing a picture for us to be able to see this is the mercy you want a definition of mercy it is Jesus Christ dying for what you did huh it is Jesus taking on my foolishness and my mistakes and my stupid decisions right huh it's it's ultimately everything I've done everything I've messed up everything I should have this is where he says there's there's two angels there's blood he said I'm drawing you a picture of Mercy this is ultimately what unites us together this is ultimately what brings the church together the other picture that comes to my mind as he says in the in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on the throne high and lifted up train filled the temple and the Angels Cried one to another holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty the whole earth is full of his glory I don't know this this might be a little bit awkward tonight but let's let's do this can I get Brother Andy can I get a couple mics this might help me out my voice obviously ain't doing it let's uh see we got here let's see brother Nolan you help me let's get stuff three two and three you can do that you give brother Nolan one of those mics and let's give uh let's give brother Joel or you can't run over there brother Joel you care to help me but no one will you stand up but you always stand up if you can imagine foreign the angel of the Lord cries the Bible says one to another let's say that just because I'm standing here and I have the mic let's say I'm the Lord this is perfect um this is what Jonah wanted to be ultimately so um that you're crying it to him but I'm just standing here listening it's like he's a third party listener of you saying God's been good to me if it wasn't for God I don't know where I'd be Joel you care to cry holy holy holy is the Lord you care to yell that over there to him holy holy holy come on Yell it like you mean it come on holy there we go holy holy come on holy holy is the Lord holy holy holy is the Lord holy holy so so ultimately this becomes you'll just stay right there ultimately this becomes like a testimony service all right huh and the Bible says that this is where God dwells God dwells where you see yourself Through The Eyes of mercy and you're telling Joel so why you see him through the eyes of Mercy I see everybody through the goodness and the mercy and the blood of Jesus Christ he says holy holy he says no he's holy oh no no he's been good I wonder if there's anybody in this place that just for a moment you could stand up and let somebody next to you know just how good God has been to you come on could you lift up your voice oh I wish you'd lift up your voice a little bit louder right now come on just tell somebody that same spirit that was here just a moment ago is right here right now in this place this is the place where God says I'll come sit right here if you could see yourself through mercy and you could see everybody else in this room through Mercy I can come dwell there I could come hang out there I could come do something there that you've never seen before that you don't understand that it's incomprehensible oh I feel his presence in this place just just remain standing just remain standing for a moment in a moment I feel led of the Lord I think what we're going to do it we're going to have an altar call and if you need the mercy of the Lord and you feel like that you're so far away from God I I want to rebuke that in the name of Jesus and I believe that God is going to meet you here and God is going to transform your way of thinking and your mindset and renew you and revive you in here in just a moment but I believe tonight is going to break out in an old-fashioned just praying brother for brother and sister for sister I don't know about you maybe you've experienced this before you've been in the church some of you much longer than I have but there's been times in my life where I went over to minister to somebody when I began to pray for them I could hear words come out of their mouth where they begin to pray for me and those are some of the the deepest most sincere moments that you'll have in an altar not necessarily by yourself it's when I begin to pray for brother Jacobs family when I begin to pray for your needs and you begin to pray for mine because that is where the glory of the Lord the presence of God we know we not we may not understand at times brother mayford I may not understand at times why it extends Mercy to this one and he don't to this one and this one gets by with this and this one gets by with that but ultimately I can tell you one thing about mercy and that is when I get in one Accord with my brother and my sister that's that's the epitome of the picture that was drawn for us that that's where God's presence is going to come down and that's where the mercy seat is if I want Mercy I have to show Mercy if I want the goodness of God I've got to show huh The Mercy Seat I'm thankful for The Mercy Seat I'm thankful that the picture was painted clear for us that when he rose from the dead on the third day there's two angels there they call it a dispensation of Grace that's what we live in because when I messed up and I do wrong there's nobody there looking to kill me shouldn't be anyways I'm not looking to destroy you for anything you've done wrong and I hope you're not looking to destroy me for anything I've ever done wrong and I'm so thankful that I live breathe and move in a time where God just says I'll sit in the seat of Mercy but there is coming a day we can talk about all the different things in Revelations Cloud's going to split Trump is going to sound great white horse but he's going to get up off that seat you're going to feel the weight of his glory in a whole new way because he's going to sit down on a throne of judgment and I've thumbed through this Bible and studied it all kind of sort of ways But ultimately my best chances of hearing him say Well done I'm gonna make sure I'm at the house of God and I'll make sure it's a priority I'm gonna make sure that I try to do everything I can to see my family saved but there's something that can get inside of each and every one of us if we're not careful and the moment we think that we've got it figured out and we don't need the mercy of God or we ever think that somebody else don't deserve it you'd never say it but you get that all you get that thought all of a sudden you come to church and you're wondering why they got that opportunity you know who they are you know what they've done you know what they've said you know what they come from you're going to make it Mercy Mercy Mercy I want us to Bow our heads in this place and before we break out of the church and do what we do I want to open up these altars to somebody that the Lord pricked my heart about this afternoon and said I need you to preach about Mercy because there's somebody that don't see themselves the way I see them and they're not living they're not living up to the life that I have for them the calling I have for them and the purpose I have for them if that's you and the Lord's drawing you to an altar of Mercy an altar of repentance would you step out of your seat today come on there's not a soul in here that's going to look at you and think that you are anything less than what you are going to think that hey I've been where you're at I know what you're feeling right now I know that I'm nothing without the grace and the mercy of God I know that I would be the worst of Sinners the chief as Paul said of Sinners if it wasn't for the goodness and the mercy of God Church would you help me pray for a moment before we open up these oh there's a deep move of God about to take place in this room right now God's about to mend somebody God's about to tell I feel his presence right now oh Church before we all move come on let these come that's making a declaration to the devil that's making a declaration in the eyes of God that I I want to I want to receive your mercy God I want to receive your hand that's going to reach down and pull me up out of the muck and the mire of my own deception of my own deceiving deceivableness of my mind to think that I'm not worthy of your goodness God I've come to hide God God not worthy God but you said that I have access to the throne God through repentance God that you would take it God and I don't understand it but Mercy's for me tonight mercies for you tonight mercies for anybody that wants to say God I want you to Lord to Reign Over my life right now in the name of Jesus foreign I don't deserve it but it's here I don't deserve it but it's here for you tonight you don't deserve it we don't deserve it but God's Mercy is new today oh it's new right now it's new right now I wish all across this place right now those that are praying around the front continue to pray but it's your walk across the aisle find somebody and lay your hands on them and I wish you'd face them just like the angels of the Ark I wish you'd face them and begin to pray over their family pray over their job pray over their life pray over what they're dealing with pray over everything else with all I pray right now over every man in this place I pray over every young man in this place I pray that the Holy Ghost would guide you would lead you would order your steps for every father I pray that he would give you an anointing to raise your children to order your steps to guide your home right now I pray over you in the name of Jesus hell can't have your home hold that oh I feel his glory sitting down right now I feel him coming down in this place oh I wish nobody'd be praying alone right now somebody finds somebody reached your hand over God's Mercy's here foreign that's what we felt earlier but it's gonna go a little bit deeper right now come on we'll go a little bit further right now come on pray for him God I pray a hedge over every college student I pray a hedge over every College student's mind right now in the name of Jesus God I pray God that you would God keep them together foreign foreign foreign thank you foreign thank you I see shatter you see hope I see broken but you see beautiful Lord your helping me to adore the story I see shadow foreign Lord your help in me you're helping me to clean things there's nothing too dirty you can't make Worthy Wash Me In nurse there's nothing to turn can't make Worthy you washed me in Mars I am clean what was Joy destiny you're restoring me sweet Mercy by e thank you who wants me in Mercy to wash me in Mercy foreign never mind I am Mercy please you wash me in Mercy that you can make Worthy Wash Me In Your Mercy Lord please hold us nothing to dirt but you can't make worthy of all washed me in your heart never any Mercy there's nothing to do you can make Worthy Wash Me In Your Mercy come on could you lift your hands all across this place right now come on would you go with us as a church come on would you lift your hands come on step into what God is doing right now come on just lean into what God's doing in this place right now from the very beginning of this service come on if you have the Holy Ghost let the Lord just stir that gift up within you right now come on speak that out right now uh foreign voices Jesus if you'd help me for a moment I'd like to speak to those that are not here tonight it's the way I felt impressed to end and we're done praying we can be dismissed unless Pastor Erickson has anything he wants to address but begin to study work my way through what the Lord would deliver tonight it's beginning to go through and send text messages former students people who I knew no God is a provider seen God put shade over them when they weren't doing right seeing God protect them and I want to pray for them right now Through The Eyes of Mercy maybe you've got a lost loved one maybe Mom and Dad you've got a prodigal but I want to pray for him right now because in no way will we ever reach them thinking that they're not reachable or they don't deserve Mercy he said well I would never say that but in our actions do we have we given up on them huh is your co-worker they deserve Mercy is your boss do they deserve Mercy do they deserve to experience what you've experienced I think if we could tap into this one little view of life we'd see a great harvest of souls Within our community places that we work so we should bind together with me for a moment and let's pray for those that are not here through Mercy tonight God I pray right now in the name of Jesus for every prodigal every young man every young lady has graduated from this Academy their parents stand here tonight God I pray God that you would wake him up God if you've got to put them in the belly of a whale whatever you got to do God I pray that you would wake him up oh God God that they would feel your mercy drawing them however in whatever way oh God I pray God they deserve God whatever that you see fit God I know that you're just I know that there's a law God but I know that there's Mercy for everybody God and I pray right now in the name of Jesus God that we'd see a Revival and a harvest of souls God that have walked away God I pray over every single person watching online God every person that'll experience an encounter with somebody that's in this room right now this week God that they would feel the power of your glory that rests between Mercy okay God the Harvest is great God but let us be laborers of Mercy let us be laborers of Mercy God I pray that you would help us Jesus name say that name in Jesus name amen and amen thank you for enduring my voice tonight I apologize but I do want to encourage you as you go from here that I believe when you pray things happen I believe this week that somehow some way it might be to the internet it might be your workplace it might be you shopping at Kroger and somebody striking up a conversation with you in the aisle but I believe that there's going to be somebody that sees that you're looking at them different than you have in the past that you're walking through and you're looking at saying that person deserves the same God that I deserve because when you start walking around like that and you look at people through the lens of the way God looks at them all of a sudden hey where do you you go to church anywhere huh conversations come to mind that normally you would have just passed that person by why because of Mercy if you did it for me he can go for anybody next Sunday morning I wonder I know it's and I know it's family weekend I wonder if we can pack this place out just because why I think they deserve it too Mercy it's the sinner it's the core of everything we are everything we do appreciate you God bless you shake hands with somebody and tell them you love them on your way out tonight I pray God's blessings over you this week