God’s Merciful Patience in Fulfilling His Promise

So as we think about knowing God's power, his character, and his true motive and seeing God's heart towards sinners, Right? Remembering nine the end of nine, not wishing that any should perish but all should reach repentance. Ezekiel thirty three eleven and twelve talking about Israel. God takes no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. I mean, says, my desire is for transformation, for repentance. He continues verse 12. I have no pleasure in the death of anyone declares the Lord. So turn and live. You may need to hear that today. Turn and live. [00:27:18] (40 seconds)  #GodDesiresRepentance

You see, the gospel is not just that the judgment that you deserved was not given to you. The good news of the gospel is that the judgment you deserve and all of the billions of people on this planet was massively poured out on Jesus. Fully poured out on Christ. And we need to warn people that God's patience doesn't last forever. Right? I mean, they might die at any time. Far long before the second coming of Christ, they might die on the way home from church. Sometime this week. God's patience is not forever. [00:32:38] (61 seconds)  #GospelPaidItAll

Because if they don't understand the gospel, we can actually hurt them by allowing them to think that they've become a Christian. But if they can't understand it, and I'm not saying gotta talk about in all the, you know, theological words and terms we know, but something that communicates the holiness of God, their sinfulness, and their need for a savior. Not a helper. We're not up in the cockpit flying this thing. We're cargo. I mean not to the Lord, we're not cargo. We need to preach the gospel truthfully and when we do, we need to include repentance. [00:33:51] (38 seconds)  #ClearGospelRepentance

When our desire turns to demand, it becomes sinful because we bank our expectation on our understanding. We remember from Proverbs three, trust in the Lord with all your hearts. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him. He will direct your paths. And so when we bank our expectation on on our perspective, rather than resting on God's character and his promises, then that desire turned to man actually becomes sinful because we now think that God needs to submit to our demand. [00:17:04] (47 seconds)  #TrustNotUnderstanding

Every day we look back to the cross, we remember what who God is that he had to send his son, that he did give his own son, and that Jesus laid down his life willingly for your sins and for mine. What does that word for mean? To pay the penalty for your sins. The penalty that you deserve to pay. Now hang on pastor. I don't know if I'm on board with all this. I really try to be a good person. Well, that's the problem. [00:25:45] (31 seconds)  #GoodPersonIsntEnough

Not wishing that all should perish but that all should come to repentance. The cross of Christ, friends, is the remembered truth that we need to cling to. It's the remembered truth that anchors us to see God's patience most clearly. Which is why come Advent time, the month before Christmas, we spend four weeks remembering God's Christ's first Advent in order to help us look forward to his second Advent or coming. [00:25:06] (30 seconds)  #RememberTheCross

I want you to imagine with me if you will that you are trapped in a, a war torn country or maybe a city that is surrounded by, an out of control forest fire. And everything is set ablaze and the the sky and the air is filled with smoke. And you hear that a rescue plane is on its way to pull as many people out to safety as possible. And so you begin your dash to the airport where this plane is going to touch down. And along the way, you're telling everybody that you can, hey, come with us. Run to the airport. There's a plane coming to take us all out. [00:00:27] (47 seconds)  #RunToSafety

rearranging your schedule so that you have time to minister to neighbors and family and friends and kids, your classmates. Your classmates need to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ from you. You know why? Because you're their friend. They don't know me. So bring them to church. Yes. We want that. And share the great love of Jesus with them yourself. [00:31:39] (32 seconds)  #MakeTimeForNeighbors