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Thankfullness Sermon Series Description This one week sermon on thanksgiving day of 2025 was Pastor Mitchell's first thanksgiving service at Prosper. He preached on Psalm 100. Enter into God’s presence with thanksgiving Thanksgiving Psalm 100 Watch

Infant Baptism At Prosper CRC, we baptize infants because we believe baptism is a sign of God’s covenant, just as circumcision was in the Old Testament. Throughout Scripture, God’s promises extend not just to individuals but to households (Genesis 17:7, Acts 2:39). Just as Israelite children were marked as belonging to God, we believe the children of believers should receive the sign of baptism, recognizing them as part of the covenant community. Baptism doesn’t save—only faith in Christ does—but it is a visible declaration that God claims us as His own. It reminds us that salvation is by grace, not by our own efforts, and that God’s promises extend to the next generation. Jesus welcomed children and declared that the Kingdom of God belongs to them (Luke 18:16), and the early church baptized entire households, suggesting that children were included (Acts 16:15, 33). In baptizing infants, we affirm that God’s grace comes before our response, just as He loved us before we loved Him (1 John 4:19). This practice is not about what we do for God, but about what He has done for us. It’s an invitation for parents and the church to raise these children in the faith, pointing them to Jesus as the only source of salvation. Baptism is not the finish line—it’s the starting point of a life lived in response to God’s grace. Infant Baptism Process To schedule an infant baptism at Prosper CRC, please fill out the form, and a staff member will be in touch with you. Infant Baptism Form

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While creeds/confessions/catechisms are not the Bible, they are helpful resources to help us explain and teach what the Bible says. Prosper CRC holds to what has been called the Three Forms of Unity, the historic Christian creeds of the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort. What We Believe Our Theology Inerrancy We affirm that the whole of Scripture and all its parts, down to the very words of the original, were given by divine inspiration (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ; 2 Peter 1:20-21 ). We affirm that Scripture in its entirety is inerrant, being free from all falsehood, fraud, or deceit (Proverbs 30:5 ; John 10:35 ). We affirm that the Holy Spirit bears witness to the Scriptures, assuring believers of the truthfulness of God's written Word (John 14:26 ; 1 Corinthians 2:12-13 ). We hold to the doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration, meaning that every word of Scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ; 2 Peter 1:20-21 ). The Bible, therefore, is not just true but the highest authority for life and faith, a sacred and awe-inspiring gift from God (Psalm 119:160 ; John 17:17 ). Prosper CRC formally affirms the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978) as a faithful expression of the doctrine of Scripture taught in the Bible and confessed in the Three Forms of Unity. You can read the full statement here. Article The Gospel We believe that human beings are born into sin, fall short of God’s perfect standard (Romans 3:23), and that this sin is deserving of eternal death (Romans 6:23). Central to our faith is the belief that Jesus Christ came to live the perfect life of righteousness that we couldn’t live (2 Corinthians 5:21), die the death for sin that we deserved to die (1 Peter 3:18), and rose to new life so that all who put their faith in Him can have new life as well (Romans 6:4). We believe in penal substitutionary atonement, meaning that Jesus bore our penalty as our substitute to atone for our sin (Isaiah 53:5-6). Article Baptism We believe that Jesus has commanded all those who are His to be baptized with pure water "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). This sacrament signifies our reception into the Church of God, which separates us from all other religions and dedicates us wholly to Him (Galatians 3:27). Yet, we deny that baptism is necessary for salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9; Luke 23:42-43, Romans 3:28, Romans 4:5, Galatians 2:16, Titus 3:5). We believe and confess that Jesus Christ, by His sacrificial death and the shedding of His blood, has fulfilled and abolished the old covenant practice of circumcision, instituting instead the sacrament of baptism (Colossians 2:11-12). Therefore, we believe in the baptism of infants, as it aligns with the biblical precedent of including children in the covenant community, much like the practice of circumcision under the old covenant (Genesis 17:10-12; Acts 2:38-39). Christ's redemptive work extends to the children of believers, and they, too, should receive the sign and sacrament of baptism, affirming that Jesus shed His blood for them as well (Luke 18:15-17; Acts 16:31-33). This practice underscores the continuity of God’s covenant promises, ensuring that our children are marked by the covenant from the earliest moments of their lives (Acts 16:15, 33; 1 Corinthians 7:14). We hold firmly that this sacrament, once administered, is sufficient for the entirety of one's life, symbolizing both our initiation into the faith and God's enduring grace towards us (Ephesians 4:5; Romans 6:3-4). For a fuller treatment of our position on baptism — including why we do not practice rebaptism and how this conviction is rooted in Scripture, the early church, and the Reformed confessions — see our position paper, Rebaptism." Article Sexuality We believe God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman for life and for sex to remain within such a marriage (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4-6). Although there are many temptations in this world, we believe sex outside of such a marriage to be sin (Hebrews 13:4). Those living in sin should turn to Christ with faith and repentance, receive God’s forgiveness, and come to live according to God’s good design (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Acts 3:19). We believe God created man in his own image, male and female in knowledge righteousness and holiness with dominion over the creatures (Genesis 1:27). Reformed We align with the Reformation theology, holding to salvation by grace alone, through Christ alone, by faith alone, to the glory of God alone, and the ultimate authority of Scripture alone (Ephesians 2:8-9; John 14:6; Romans 1:17; 1 Corinthians 10:31; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). We also affirm God's sovereignty over all things in creation and salvation (Romans 8:28-30). We affirm the five points of Calvinism (outlined in the Canons of Dort) (John 6:37; John 10:29; Ephesians 1:4-5). Complementarity We believe God created human beings, male and female, and that God made men and women equal in value yet distinct in role (Genesis 1:27; Galatians 3:28). God has given both men and women extraordinary gifts for ministry but has called men into unique roles of Christ-like leadership in the home and in the church (1 Timothy 2:12; Titus 1:5-9). Specifically — within the church — we believe God calls men exclusively to be pastors and elders (1 Timothy 3:1-7). Within the home, we believe that God calls men to love their wives like Christ loves the church (his bride), and wives are called to submit to their husbands like the church does to Christ (Ephesians 5:22-25). Creation We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His own image as the first humans on earth, from whom all other humans have descended (Genesis 1:26-28; Genesis 2:7, 21-22; 1 Corinthians 15:45). We affirm that Satan tempted Adam and Eve, disobeyed God, and thus brought sin into the world, causing all humanity to be born into sin and in need of a savior (Genesis 3:1-6; Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:22). We affirm the literal, historical existence of Adam and Eve and assert that God was actively and sovereignly involved in creation (Acts 17:24-26; Isaiah 45:12). We believe that God created the world in six days and that He created it good (Exodus 20:11; Genesis 1:31). End-times We believe the millennium began with Jesus Christ's resurrection and will continue until His second coming. This is also called amillennialism. This eschatological view interprets the "thousand years" mentioned in Revelation 20 symbolically rather than literally. During this period, deceased believers reign spiritually with Christ in heaven, awaiting their physical resurrection and the renewal of all things (Revelation 20:4-6). We believe this holds that Satan is bound in a limited sense, having been defeated at the cross, allowing the gospel to spread throughout the nations (Revelation 20:2-3; Matthew 28:18-20). Covenantal Theology We believe that God works through one unified plan of redemption across the whole of Scripture, revealed and administered through his covenants. From the covenant of works given to Adam in the garden (Genesis 2:15–17) to the covenant of grace inaugurated after the fall (Genesis 3:15), every covenant God makes — with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and ultimately in Christ — moves redemptive history toward a single goal: the salvation of God's people through his Son. There are not multiple plans for multiple peoples, but one covenant of grace, differently administered across the ages, finding its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who is "the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8; Westminster Confession 7.6). We confess with the Belgic Confession that "this church has existed from the beginning of the world and will last until the end" (Article 27), and with the Heidelberg Catechism that the Son of God gathers, defends, and preserves his church "from the beginning to the end of the world" (Q&A 54). The people of God are one people — not two peoples on parallel tracks — grafted into one olive tree (Romans 11:17–24), united in one body where the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile has been broken down through the cross (Ephesians 2:14–16). God's immutable character guarantees his immutable promises: "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed" (Malachi 3:6). Because of these convictions, Prosper CRC rejects dispensationalism as an erroneous framework that divides what God has united and obscures the centrality of Christ's finished work. For a full treatment of our position — including the historical origins of dispensationalism, its errors of interpretation, and the Reformed alternative rooted in Scripture and our confessions — see our position paper, Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology. Article Distinctions Three Forms of Unity While creeds/confessions/catechisms are not the Bible, they are helpful resources to help us explain and teach what the Bible says. Prosper CRC holds to what has been called the Three Forms of Unity, the historic Christian creeds of the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort. Belgic Confession Go Heidelberg Catechism Go The Canons of Dort Go

The staff of Prosper CRC. Including Pastor Mitchell Leach. See the more information on the staff. Mission Partners Missionaries Learn More Emily DeRuiter CRU Learn More Josh and Mandy Shaarda Freedom In Christ Learn More Paniba Paniba Learn More Pastor Brad Jones Arise Presbyterian

Join us for Easter at Prosper Christian Reformed Church in Falmouth, MI. Celebrate the resurrection of Jesus with worship, Scripture, and a welcoming community. Never Alone Marriage Conference Easter At Prosper Easter Service Times Sermon Series Sermon Series What We Believe Our Staff Our History Watch Sermon Series Crowned: with Purpose with Praise with Humility with thorns with glory Crowned follows Jesus on the road to Jerusalem and through the events of Holy Week, showing that his kingship is unlike every worldly vision of power. He does not seize a throne by force, flatter the crowds, or preserve himself from suffering. He reigns by obedience. He is praised by the people, rejected by sinners, humbled unto death, and then vindicated by the Father in resurrection glory. This series helps the church see that Easter is not merely the happy ending to a tragic story. It is the public revelation that Jesus truly is King. From his resolute march toward Jerusalem to the empty tomb, every scene reveals a King who rules with purpose, receives praise, embraces humility, bears shame, and triumphs in glory. As we walk through these passages, we are confronted with a searching question: what kind of King do we want? A King who serves our expectations, or the King who saves through sacrifice? Crowned calls us to bow before Jesus as he truly is—the crucified and risen Lord—and to follow him on the path of obedient discipleship. Easter Events Breakout Speakers Name Name Name Name Name Name Frequently Asked Questions What is the theme of the 2025 Marriage Conference? “Never Alone” is the theme for the Peace Church 2025 Marriage Conference. We are never alone; we walk through life with our spouse, with our church, and with our Savior. How do I register? You can register for the 2025 Marriage Conference here . What is the conference schedule? Friday 5:30 PM | Doors open 6:00 PM | Session One & Worship Night 7:30 PM | Resource Shop Opens Saturday 8:00 AM | Check In, Breakfast, and Resource Shop 9:00 AM | Welcome and Worship 9:45 AM | Session Two 10:45 AM | Breakout #1 11:30 AM | Lunch + Resource Shop Open 12:30 PM | Breakout #2 1:30 PM | Session Three 2:30 PM | Q/A Session 3:00 PM | Concluding Worship 4:00 PM | Resource Shop Closes Can I bring my children? Childcare is offered only during the Friday night session. Will meals be provided? Breakfast and lunch will be provided as well as snacks throughout the day. Who can I contact for more information? Contact Nicole Baumann for more information. What if I have a food allergy? You can select your lunch choice in your registration. We will have dairy and gluten free options available! Does this conference celebrate same-sex "marriage"? No. Click here if you'd like to learn more about our biblical views on sexuality. Will we be in the new worship center? Most likely! Will this be live-streamed? No, however we will have the Keynote recordings available for a limited time after the conference to attendees. Can I attend this if I am engaged? Yes! Vision To see the Gospel embraced and passed on for generations of Kingdom impact. Mission At Peace Church, we are Gospel-Centered, Family-Focused, and Kingdom-Minded. Sponsors Sponsors 2024 Conference Messages Maundy Thursday At 6:30 PM "Maundy" comes from the Latin word meaning "mandate. "At the Last Supper, Jesus gave His disciples a simple, yet powerful mandate: to love one another. In this special communion service, we will see how, during the Last Supper, Jesus brings about the great reversal, turning the law into love. We’ll reflect on how Christ fulfills His own commandment through His sacrificial death. Children are welcome to worship in the sanctuary. Easter Sunday At 9:30 AM Easter is the great reversal—when Jesus went from death to life! The Gospel is our promise, and the Resurrection of Jesus is our guarantee that we can have not only salvation but eternal life. As we celebrate Jesus' victory over Satan, sin, and death, you are invited to join us this Easter to hear about and celebrate the Risen King, as we see how the Gospel bring us back to everything good. We will have programming available for kids birth through age 4 Good Friday At 5:30 PM Many would consider it horribly ironic that the day Jesus Christ was crucified is called Good Friday, but it is truly good because Christ's sacrifice makes our salvation not just possible, but secure. On Good Friday, we witness an incredible reversal: When many would see Jesus willingly dying on the cross as a surrender, it was actually an eternal victory over sin when He cries out, “It is finished.” Children are welcome to worship in the sanctuary.

The Day the Worst City Got the Best News Prosper Christian Reformed Church The Day the Worst City Got the Best News Jonah Mitchell Leach Sunday, November 16, 2025 Audio The Day the Worst City Got the Best News Mitchell Leach 00:00 / 37:45 Sermon Transcript My name is Dandy Kam. I'm one of the elders here. My wife and Mona and I pretty much all grew up in Prosper. We were gone for 20 years, but we've been back for the last five. We've been, thankfully, still here. This morning's scripture reading is Jonah 3. It's on page 921 in your few Bible. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now, Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days' journey in breath. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, Yet 40 days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. ' And the people of Nineveh believe God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself in sackcloth, and sat in ashes. He issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, 'Let neither man nor beast, hard nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. When God saw what they had did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented from the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. Thus is the word of the Lord. Introduction After the American Civil War, many expected harsh punishments to be handed down for Confederate soldiers and leaders. But Abraham Lincoln repeatedly chose mercy. One man sentenced to death for desertion, had a sentence overturned by Lincoln, who said, I'm unwilling for any boy to die who sincerely wants to live rightly. He showed leniency on thousands hoping to heal the country. But his critics hated this. The people in the north cried out that these people don't deserve this, that they were traitors. Lincoln's mercy to them seemed unjust, as mercy often does. But that That's the same question that Jonah will wrestle with in this passage. How can God forgive people like them? Can mercy be just? And that's our big question for today. Is mercy just? Is the act of giving mercy a justified thing? In Jonah, God is showing us what his heart is like. He's showing and exposing Jona's heart and ours. The question is, do we pursue God's or just his benefits? Is the act of mercy an okay thing to do, or is it somehow wrong? Does forgiving people lead to more societal harm? You might think, why in the world would that be a question we'd ask? But It's an important question in our world and our country right now. Justice and mercy seem to be opposed. Those two words are important for us to understand. Justice is getting the thing that we deserve, where mercy is getting something good that we don't. Critics of this will say that giving mercy avoids accountability for offenders. It allows people who have done wrong, leniency, or to walk free from wrongs that they've committed. In America, this is a big thing, whether you're a Democrat or Republican. And it seems to be that certain offenses matter more to which side of the political aisle you're on. We forgive in the way that we vote. There are certain things that each party holds that we can't forgive and certain things that we see that we should forgive. When it comes to legal ramifications, hundreds of articles have been written about this. The idea that mercy or forgiveness is not a good thing for our justice system. An article titled The Limits of Forgiveness. There's a quote that says, There has to be a limit. There has to be a balance between between mercy and justice. What happens when we separate the two of those things? In the Book of Jonah, we see and we understand that the Ninevites are bad people. There's no excusing what they've done. They are evil people. So how can mercy be just? How is it right that God would forgive these people, that he would let them off? Fortunately, the Bible has answers for us. So if you would keep your Bibles open with me to Jonah Chapter 3. Let's see what this has to offer. We'll see these three points. Outline Jonah responds Nineveh repents God relents Context For context, chapters one and two, what we saw is that Jonah gets the word from God, and he revolts against it. He not only flees God, he flees from the presence of God. He gets into a boat and is thrown overboard and is saved by being swallowed by a fish. In chapter 2, Jonah, in the belly of the fish, praise to God, and rustles as he thanks him and still is prideful that he's being saved or that he's being forced to do this. Jonah seems to repent and thanks God for it. And that leads us to this chapter. In this chapter, we will see God, in his sovereign mercy, brings Nineveh to repentance through his word and withheld the judgment that they deserved. Jonah responds Let's look at this first section as Jonah responds, verses one through four. Notice this section starts with familiar language. The word of the Lord came to Jonah. This is how the book starts, how chapter one starts. Again, God sends his word to Jonah. And after realizing that God is the one who saved him, Jonah now does what he was supposed to do in chapter one. It's at this moment in the story that Jonah realizes that he's getting a second chance. He's getting something he doesn't deserve. He's getting God's mercy. Verses three through four, Jonah then goes into this great city. The Hebrew word for this great city is that it was an exceedingly great city. It was a city so big, it was preposterous to God. Some people have been critical of this passage saying that this is why the Bible isn't true, because a city that's three days in journey long, there's no records of finding one this big in the ancient near east. But the word that we understand as journey in this passage is important. Really, it doesn't mean if you started a stopwatch today and stopped it on Tuesday and you kept walking the entire time, that's how long the city was. What he's talking about is the city was three. It was so big, it took three days to properly get through it. Another way to say it would be, it was so big, it required Jonas to spend three days in it, proclaiming what God had told him to say. So what does Jonas say? Jonas says, Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown. I don't know about you guys, but the first time I read this, I thought, this has got to be the worst gospel presentation ever. I mean, essentially, he's saying, 40 days and you're all going to die. No hope, nothing, right? I mean, that's not what I want to hear from the Pope. I like some hope. It seems like this is at least what he's saying. But the truth is that this is communicating what God wanted him to communicate. Biblical prophecy often works this way, warning people about judgment intending to usher them into repentance. If people repent, then God will relent. And that's laid out in Jeremiah 18. It says this, This is God speaking, If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it. And if that nation concerning which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. Now, this isn't God's conditional grace. This isn't God making his grace conditional. But it's like a loving father coming to his child and saying, If you don't stop doing this, I will have to stop you myself. Nineveh understood this and repented. Jonah's sermon to them is short, but it works because the power isn't in the prophet, but in the word of God. Jonah obeys, but he doesn't yet share God's heart. You can do the right thing outwardly and still resist God inwardly. And that's what we see in this next section as Nineveh repents, verses 5 through 9. The people believe the word from God, from God's messenger, and they fast and repent. And then it gets to the king, and he repents. And then he issues a decree or a law that the entire city would have had to follow, that everything must repent, not just people, but the birds, the animals, everything, because the king knows what he's done. Look at verse 8 with me. The king says, Let everyone turn from his evil way, his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hand. Nineveh was an evil nation, an evil city. They knew what was wrong. And now they're being convicted of it. It's like if you have a friend tell you something that you already knew that was maybe going wrong in your life. Or if you go to the doctor, right, and you hear you got a bad diet or you don't exercise enough, and you're sitting there and you go, Yeah, I know that already, but it's nice to Now that a doctor tells me, I have to follow it or whatever lie we tell in our brains, right? Speaking of bad diet, why would they fast? Why would these people fast? Fasting in the Old Testament is often more than just a physical expression. It is a physical expression associated with mourning over sin. It's a desire for reconciliation with God. Joel, the Prophet Joel, writes this down writing down God's words. He says, Yet even now declares the Lord, return to me with all your hearts, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relents over disaster. This act of fasting that Nineveh does is an act of mourning and submitting to God, mourning over sin. See, fasting isn't a piece of some magic formula that we have in Christianity. We are not some voodoo where if we do the right rituals and we say the right things, then God will have to act in a certain way. No, fasting isn't the thing that God loves. God doesn't love the fact that we're hungry. That's not where he gets his satisfaction from. What God loves is true repentance. We fast not to make God happy. We fast because we hate the sin we once loved, and we love the God we once hated. Nineveh's fasting isn't about earning mercy. It's about expressing real repentance. And that's exactly what God wanted Noah to see. This moment isn't about Nineveh's sin, it's about God's mercy. This chapter shows us something deeper. It's not a story of a people or a city repenting or being saved or being changed. It's a story of a prophet being confronted. That's why this chapter is in this book. This chapter almost seems like a diversion from the overall story. The overall story is God is redeeming. He's bringing his prophet back to himself, changing his heart so that way he can see the heart of God, that he would desire to pursue his heart. Why do we have this story? It seems like this weird story that almost takes away from that narrative, right? Why do we have a story where it seems like the moral of the story is to be more like Nineveh because they repented? No. This chapter is to contrast Jonah. How many times did Jonah have to hear a word from the Lord? How many times did Nineveh? It would be easy at this point to make this passage, this sermon, about be like the Ninevites. They were the good ones. They heard the word of the Lord and repented. That's not why this story was written down for us. The story isn't to put ourselves anywhere in scripture, to put ourselves in the seat of someone who was obedient. Now, we are the Jonah in this story. We're the righteous ones. We're the ones who sit in church, who think that we're good. This isn't a call to be better. This isn't a call to be like Nineveh. It's a call to be like Jonah, to realize that we have some stuff in our own heart. It's a call to be honest, to ask ourselves, do we pursue God's heart or just his benefits? How many times do we need to hear God's word? We must be people who pursue God's heart. What's striking about the response to this, what's striking about the response to this is the King's attitude towards this message as he repents. Look at verse nine with me. This is what the king says. Who knows God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. Nineveh decides to repent, not knowing for sure whether or not God's going to destroy them or not. God knew what he was going to do. Jonah knew what God was going to do, but Nineveh seemingly didn't know what was going to happen next. Nineveh wanted to do the right thing without knowing what God would do next. Too many of us need sure outcomes before we step out in faith. We say to God, God, I'll only go through this suffering if you get my tax situation better or you get us out of debt, or God, you help me with these relationships that seem to be broken, or you fix our family issues, or you fix my marriage. But if you can't do that, then I don't want to go through this. I'll only be faithful if you can promise something better for me. We take passages like this, like Jeremiah 29: 11. We take this and we apply it to ourselves. We read, For I know the plans I have for you, individual, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare, not for evil, to give you a future and hope. This is a lie that we believe from Satan that everything is going to turn out good for us. You might be sitting here thinking, whoa, this is God's word. How can you say that this is a lie from Satan? Well, I'd ask you this. Has Satan never distorted scripture before in tempting people? That's what we see in the garden. That's what we see with Jesus in the wilderness, Satan using God's word and just manipulating it. This passage is a beautiful passage, but intended for the people of Israel. I can't go too far on this, but this passage was intended for the whole nation of Israel, not an individual person. This passage today should be applied to us as the church, as the global church. God is going to give the church plans for welfare, not for evil, a hope in a future. Future. But for us to read this passage as an individual and to say that God's going to make my life better as long as I'm faithful. That's not always true. We can see that in the Bible. Look at Stephen, the apostle Stephen. What happens to him? Did God have plans for welfare, not for evil, to give him a hope in a future? Stephen was stoned to death. I think his plans were for good for him, but that doesn't mean it's always going to be what we see as good. Our suffering might have good outcomes for us, but it might not. We might end up like Stephen. But regardless of that, it glorifies God. We can't be Christians who only pursue God when it's convenient for us or when the benefits align for us, when the outcomes are sure and it looks good for us. Our faith isn't It's not about what we get out of it. It's not about what I want. It's not about my hearts and desires. It's about pursuing God's heart. Nineveh doesn't know how God will respond, but they turn anyway. That's faith or that's repentance, driven by faith, not driven by outcomes. We don't repent to get heaven. We don't repent to get anything from God. We repent Because we know that our savior, our God, the one who has redeemed us, sin is the opposite of him. The thing that he hates, the one we love most, hates, and we must repent of it. That's why we repent, not because we're promised anything. That's what we see in this last section in verse 10, the pinnacle of this chapter. This is the climax. This is the most important part of this chapter. It's not about the people repenting, but God relenting. We see what God sees. God sees true repentance from the Ninevites and relents. And it might seem for a second on the surface that God told a fib or wasn't telling you the truth. But the truth is that this prophecy was given as a prompt to repent. This was never This was never a sure thing that they were going to be destroyed. This was, again, a loving Father saying, I'm going to put an end to this evil one way or another. See, God eliminates evil in one of two ways. The traditional way that we think about it is Sodom and Gomorrah, God putting an end to destroying his enemies. The other way that God eliminates his enemies is by turning them into friends. Romans 5 says this, But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. Here's the important part. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, how much more shall we be reconciled by his life? When scripture says that God relented, it doesn't mean that he changed his character. It means that he acted in accordance with his mercy. See, mercy and justice are never in conflict for God. They perfectly meet in his heart. And because of this, God relents. When God relents, Jonah will be furious because Jonah wants a God who will only destroy his enemies and not one who delights in mercy. That's the tension of the book. Will Jonah align with the heart of God, or will he align with his own sense of justice? This is who God is. God is a God who relents. Exodus says that God is a God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. This is who God is, not fickle, but faithful to his steadfast love. God doesn't want his people to die. He wants them to live. Jonah himself had already experienced the mercy from God when he was evil towards his own behavior. But the question is, will he be delighted when he sees the Ninevites and what they've experienced, that they've experienced the same thing? That question we'll answer next week, so make sure to come back for that. Shameless plug there. Here we go. That leads us into our main idea. Our main idea is this: trust God who sends his word to awake in repentance. Trust God who sends his word to awake in repentance. We trust God's word, not because this book has some magic pages. It's because what's written on them. This is God's word, the very voice of God. We get to see God's heart in and it. We can trust God's word because we can trust God. God's word never lies because God is God who speaks truth. God's word shows us who God is. God failed to see that the first time. He failed to see that when he received the word of the Lord, that when he was receiving that, he was receiving the very essence of God's heart. But we can trust God and his word. That leads us into our points of application. Our first point is this, Seek God for God and not just the benefits. We cannot be people who worship God, who seek God out of our own selfish gain. We can't be people who build our own kingdom, who seek God in order to add something onto our life. This is why we pray in the Lord's prayer, Lord, your Kingdom come, your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Building towards anything else, building towards anything else on this Earth is not only biblically foolish, but it won't last. The reality is we are not immortal. We will die. And maybe this is an uncomfortable thing for us to think about. And maybe this feels cold, but I want to drive this home. I want you guys to understand this. Our children, our grandchildren, and if we're lucky, our great grandchildren may remember us. But after that, most of the time we'll be forgotten. Say you're one of the outliers, right? You're one of the Napoleon's or Julius Caesar's who is remembered throughout history, right? You go down as one of the George Washington. We're going to be saying that name for the rest of history. In a billion years, the sun will expand and destroy the Earth. If all we're building here is our own Kingdom, if all we're doing is using God to make our lives better, the end result is that nothing's going to be remembered anyway. It's all going to be in vain. We absolutely need to do and obey God's word here and obey God. But it's not about getting something back out of it. It's following God because we love the God we know. We must seek God because it's the only thing that will outlast time itself. We don't add God into our life as some another version of a self-help book. It's not like, God, I've got this problem in my life, and if I try sprinkling a little bit of Jesus on it, then that's going to make everything better. God isn't an add-on to our life. He's either everything or nothing. And that's what we see in this next point of application. It leads us into our next point of application, loving mercy. God is either everything or nothing. If we love him, we have to love everything that he loves. We have to love mercy. Our default for this is that we love mercy for ourselves, and we love justice for everyone else, right? If you talk to a kid, there have been studies that prove this, that children enjoy seeing other children punished, and that might seem like a dark thing. The reality is we don't grow out of this as adults, either. We just get better at masking it. Our default is that we love justice for others, and we love mercy only for ourselves. If we are people who have been set free from sin, we must desire that other people would be set free as well. To pursue God's heart means that we love who he loves, even when that mercy offends our sense of fairness, like it did for Jonah. We must desire that people would be set free from slavery to sin. The reality is that this all sounds so nice. It's easy to get behind confessionally or to say this out loud. It's easy to say this, right? Yeah, we ought to love mercy. This sounds great. But do it. It's much harder. It's easy to admire mercy. It's another thing to love it. In our Christian circles, in our Christian bubbles, we can talk about loving mercy. We can say it's a good virtue. It's a good thing that we ought to love and to do. But doing it means that we have to rub shoulders with people that aren't like us or that might not act like us. It means that we invite people into our church not saying, in order for you to... It's It's great if you come into our church and you start acting like us and you start doing the things that we do. No, it's hard to invite people into our church and say, It's going to be messy. It might not look the same. We might have to change. We might have to accommodate people. It looks like sharing the gospel with people when it's uncomfortable, when it's someone you know, a family member, someone you've worked with for a long time. The fear of, Man, will they think I'm weird for saying this? Will they think that what I'm saying is It's too churchy or too Christian-y or whatever we think, whatever lie that comes into our heart? There's a difference between admiring mercy and loving it, and the difference is action. As we close, the question I want for us to think about is, why could God relent from destroying Nineveh? Let's look at verse 10. When God saw what they did, how they turned from the evil ways, from their evil ways, God relented the disaster that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it. The reason that God could relent from destroying Nineveh wasn't because they repented. It was because on the cross, God saw what Jesus did and how he was innocent of all the evil ways, and yet God delivered him to disaster. He delivered him to destruction. This is why we can trust God. This is Why we can trust God? Because he sent himself to pay the price. In this chapter, he sentiona with his word. Later on, he would send the word made flesh. He proved that we can fully trust him, even when we feel like he's leading us astray. We all love Psalm 23. If you're here on Friday, you heard it in a beautiful sermon, in a beautiful ceremony, in a beautiful funeral. We love this passage that it says, Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. But who's leading us? Go back to the beginning of that. That psalm, The Lord is my shepherd. It's God who leads us through this valley. Are we willing to follow him? Are we prepared for the reality that God may lead you somewhere that makes feel like a lamb being led to the slaughter? Even when the path is dark, even when obedience costs you everything, we can trust the good shepherd because he is the one who leads you through that valley because he's already went through it himself. So what do we do? We turn, we trust, we stop running from God's heart and we run to it as people who have been redeemed. The Lord who sent his word to Nineveh sends his Holy spirit to you today saying, 'Come to me, turn to me, trust me, for I am gracious and merciful. ' Prosper Church, trust God who sends his word to awaken repentance. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for who you are, that you are God who is rich mercy. A God who we can trust because you walk before us. God, I pray right now that you would comfort us. Not all of us are in a good place. Not all of us are in an easy season. God, I pray that we can trust you even in the midst of confusion. God, I pray for the Dick family as they've lost a huge pillar in this family. God, I pray that you would be near and tender with each and every one of them. God, as a community, help us to surround them. Help us to relish in the beautiful moments and the stories that we knew of Caroline's life. God, help us to love them like you've loved us. God, as we respond in worship, God, I pray that we would be changed people, not by the words that I've spoken, but the words that you've spoken through your word in scripture. God, we love you. We love to do your will. So help us do that. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Would you stand and sing as we respond in worship? Before the Throne of God above, I have a I know that while in there, there's a strong and perfect plea, a great high priest who's made his love, whoever lives and please for me. My name is proven on his hands, my name is written on his heart. I know that while in every sense, no tongue can bid me then steep art. No tongue can bid me then steep hard. No tongue can bid me then steep hard. When Satan tells me to despair and tells me of the field within. Upward I look and see him there, who made an end of my sin. Because the sinless savior died, my simple soul is mounted free. For God, the justice satisfied, to look on him and pardon me, to look on him and pardon me. Behold him there, the risen land, my perfect Godless righteousness, the great unchangeable I am, the King of glory and of Grace. For with His self I cannot die. My soul is purchased by His blood. Our life is in with Christ's on high, with Christ my savior and my God. With Christ, my savior and my God. Hear this blessing. May the Lord, who is rich in mercy and abounding in steadfast love, send you out with hearts awakened by his word. Go in the strength of his spirit to the ones he loves, to show mercy and to walk in the freedom of grace. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord. Amen. With the peace of God, our heavenly Father, and the grace of Christ, the risen Son, and the fellowship of God, the spirit, keep our hearts and minds within his call. And to him we praise for his glorious way. From the depths of earth to the heights of hell, we declare the name of the land One slave, Christ eternal, the King of peace. With a peace which has his understanding, and his grace which makes us what we are, and this fellowship of his communion, make us one, spirit and be called. And this fellowship of this communion makes us one in spirit and in heart. And to him we praise for his glorious strength. From the depths of earth to the heights of hell. We declare the name of the land once slain, Christ eternal, the King of He. Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link

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Judgement and Mercy Prosper Christian Reformed Church Judgement and Mercy Come Thou Long Expected Mitchell Leach Sunday, December 14, 2025 Audio Judgement and Mercy Mitchell Leach 00:00 / 56:58 Sermon Transcript While they're being seated, would you please take your Bible and turn with me this morning to Genesis 6. It's right in the beginning of your of your Bible. Genesis 6. We're going to read a few verses, and I'll try to direct you because we're not going to read consistently. We're going to read, skip a few verses, then read and skip a few and go again. So I'll try to help you understand where we're going. Genesis 6, beginning with just verses 5 through 8. Passage of scripture we don't read all that often in scripture, but listen carefully to what God has to say to us this morning. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regreted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. I want to pause there. Does that surprise you at all? So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I'm sorry that I've made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Now, if you will, go with me to verses 13 and 14. And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. Then drop down with me to verse 16 of chapter seven. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded, and the Lord shut him in. Would you pray with me for just a moment? Father God, we give you thanks for your word. Lord, it hurts that you looked at us, human beings, and said, I'm sorry I made them. Father, help us to understand you want a love relationship with us. And then Lord, help us to open our hearts and to literally love you with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength the way you want. Introduction Some stories stay with us because they say something true about us. This morning, one of the stories comes from an unlikely place. It comes from the movie Groundhog Day. I bet you didn't think I was going to say that this morning. Groundhog Day, for the four of you who haven't seen the movie, is a movie starring Bill Murray. He plays a character named Phil Conners, a man trapped in an endless loop. Every morning, he wakes up. It's the same day over and over again. The same mistakes, the same temptation, the same patterns. Nothing he tries can break the cycle. No indulgence, no escape, no effort. It's funny on the surface, but the reality is it's haunting. It teaches us a haunting truth that we can relive the same day thousands of times and still be the same people. We are all like Phil. We need more than just a new day. We need a new heart. And that's exactly the problem that Genesis 6 shows us. Humanity didn't need another opportunity. It didn't need another reset. It didn't need another try better next time. The world had been given a second chance after Eden. And sin simply went with it. And that's the big question that this passage asks us this morning. Big Question Do we just need a second chance? Isn't this what we believe in as Americans in the West? Isn't this what we believe in in second chance? Is the power of second chances? We tell each other that people are basically good, that we're shaped mostly by our environment, and that deep down we're capable of becoming our best selves if we just get a fresh start. If we We have a new year, a new habit, a new relationship, a new school, a new career, a new resolution, we tell ourselves, if I could just start over, I can fix myself. And it sounds hopeful. It even sounds compassionate. And we want to believe that this is true. We see this language all over in our culture saying everyone deserves a second chance. We all just need a clean slate. People change. Give them a chance. Give it time. And it feels It feels right because we want this to be the solution. A second chance is simple. A second chance is manageable. A second chance keeps the problem out there in our circumstances, in the environment in which we're in rather than in here in our hearts. But then real life happens. We get a second chance, a third, a fourth, a fifth, and we keep finding ourselves in the same loop in the same situation. We can resolve to be different people, yet slip back into the same sins. Tim Keller has this quote. It says, If our problem was only our environment, God would have sent a teacher. If our problem was only ignorance, God would have sent a philosopher. But our problem is sin, so God sent a savior. You can change your environment, but temptations still come with you. You can turn the page with the same heart writes the next chapter. Human history had second chance after Eden, and it didn't get better. It got worse. Which brings us to the tension that Genesis 6 confronts head-on. Do we just need a second chance, or do we need something greater? Fortunately, the Bible has answers for us, so keep your Bibles open to Genesis. We're actually going to cover Genesis 6 through 9. We're not going to read the whole thing, but this is the whole story of Noah. And so we're going to see three movements in this story. Outline: We're going to a second chance a second Eden a second fall Let's remember where we're at in this story so far. In Genesis 3, sin entered the world. In Genesis 4, sin spread to a family. Cain murdered his brother Abel. By Genesis 5, sin had taken root in a genealogy in generations of people. And by Genesis 6, sin has infected the entire world. What began with a whisper now roars across the earth. Instead of the seed of the woman crushing the serpent, the seed of the serpent fills the earth with violence, corruption, and pride. This is no longer a broken couple or a broken family or a broken community. This is a broken world, and God sees it. What we will see in this story is as human wickedness multiplies and creation is corrupted, God grieves and brings judgment through flood, yet he preserves his redemptive promise through Noah, the righteous man who walks with God. A Second Chance And that's what we'll see in this first section, a second chance, Judgment and the Ark, chapters 6 and 7. Chapter 5 showed us a genealogy from Cain and a genealogy from Seth leading up into Noah. When we arrived to Noah, the trajectory set by Cain has become full-fold It has fully blossomed and corrupted the world. Look at Genesis 6:5 with me. Genesis 6:5 says this, The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thought of his heart was only evil continually. Humanity had become totally evil, totally wicked. They had become tyrants. That's what the word nephilum means. These people were tyrants, ruling over people in an There were men using women to satisfy their lust instead of seeing them as image bearers. The Earth was filled with wickedness, with selfishness, with pridefulness. That's what we see in Genesis 6:6-7, if you look at that with me. "And the Lord regreted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I've created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them." God's heart is pined by the evil the world has come to love. This is not the fury of an irritated deity. This is the grief of a father whose children chose to love violence than him. Cornelius Planteca has this quote that says, "Sin is not just the breaking of rules. It is vandalism of Shalom." This is why advent begins in the shadows, because the savior we wait for comes into the world that God himself judged for its violence. The peace that was once in the Garden of Eden is perverted. And because of this, God declares that he will cleanse the Earth. But notice this, that God is not abandoning his promise that he made in Genesis 3. He is purifying the stage on which that promise will unfold. God does not start over completely. He has every right to, he has every right to wipe everyone off the face of the Earth and start over again. But he doesn't. God had promised to bring salvation into mankind through the seed of the woman. And God is a faithful God. That's actually the first time we see this in scripture. God God's faithfulness coming out in a clear and direct way, at least. God's faithfulness to his promise here because he won't go back on his promise. Genesis 6:8-9, it says, "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God, and Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japhoth." Grace appears before obedience. Favor precedes faithfulness. And that's the pattern that we see in scripture. That's why we see this pattern here. Anytime God commands obedience, he saves first. He shows grace first. You look at the Ten Commandments, that's the way that it happens. God saves He saved Israel from the Red Sea, from the Egyptians. He delivered them and then calls them into obedience. So he chooses a family. God chooses a family here. God looked at all the people of the Earth, and he chose Noah. The word in this passage that says found favor is really a word that means that God's heart was moved. Noah didn't earn this. This wasn't something that he did enough good in order to earn God's favor. This is actually the same word that we use throughout the Old Testament and New Testament for grace. This is the first mention of grace. And it's interesting because it's in the context of judgment. Before God saves through a manger, he saves through an ark. I think some of us still think that God loves us because we're better than most or that we're better than these other people. I think it's easy for us, and maybe we don't say that confessionally or we don't say that outwardly. But deep down, I think in everyone's heart, we believe that we're better than them. We're better than those people who don't follow God, or we're better than those people who do this thing. At least I don't do that. Noah reminds us that grace is never earned. It is only received. If you're tired this advent season of trying to clean yourself up for God, this passage invites us to rest in God's grace. This verse doesn't mean that Noah was without sin. When it says that he is righteous or blameless, what that means is that Noah's righteousness was given from God to him because he believed in the promise, that his blamelessness was based on his worship because he walked with God. God had every right to wipe the whole world clean. Sin had pervaded every inch of the world, the perfect world that he had created, and that included Noah. Noah's righteousness is imputed to him. Not a righteousness of his own, but a righteousness of faith, God's righteousness. And so God makes a covenant with Noah. Look at Genesis 6:18 with me. He says, "But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you." This is the first time the word covenant appears. And there is a huge sensation for me to stop and do 15 minutes of talking about a covenant right here because covenant is such a huge part of our faith. But we're going to talk about that in 2026 a lot more. So I'm going to limit myself to this brief explanation. A covenant is more than a legal contract. A covenant is even more It's not even just a promise. It is a promise against your own life. It is a promise marked by blood. It is like a promise, but you have to put a deposit down. And imagine that deposit being your own life. That is what is happening here. God is promising Noah and his family against his life that they will be saved while everyone else dies. What we see here in this story is that the Ark is a type of Christ. It's the only place of safety when judgment comes. We must be found in Christ just as Noah was found in the Ark. But even after the waters recede, we are left asking, Will Will this cleansed world cleanse the human heart? And that's what we see in this next section. The second Eden, a new world, a new covenant in Genesis 8, the whole chapter of 8, and then Genesis 9:1-17. God brings all the animals to Noah, and the flood begins. Everyone boards, and God shuts the door. When he closed the door to the Ark, he sealed the coffin on humanity. And this might offend our modern sensibilities, but we have to remember what's happening. This was justice. This wasn't God punitively punishing people. But this was justice. This was creation had gone so arrived, so wrong, that this was justified. In the Bible, judgment and salvation always travel together in the same waters that destroyed the wicked, the same waters lifted the boat, the Ark, to safety. The same act that shut the doors brought Noah and his family in. That's what we see in Genesis 8:21, Genesis 7:21-23, it says, "And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, bees, and all swarming creatures that sworn on the earth, and all mankind." Everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and the birds of the heaven. Sin had become so violent, so corrosive, so dehumanizing, that God would no longer allow his creation to rot unchecked. This is why in chapter 6, he says, My spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh. His days shall be 120 years. This word abide, that God's spirit would not abide in man forever, really means to strive or contend. Really, what God is saying is, I will not try to negotiate with mankind anymore to try to follow me. They are a lost cause. It is futile. They are flesh. They only want what they want, and what they want is not a relationship with me. And so the water subsides. Noah and all the animals get off the boat. And for a second time in humanity, there's a chance to obey God, to follow him, to follow what he says, and to live by how he defines right and wrong. Moses wants you to hear. Moses is the writer of Genesis. Moses wants you to hear the echoes of Genesis 1 in this. Look with me at this. A world covered by water, wind sent by God, dry land appearing, animals multiplying, man standing as the head of humanity. This is a second Eden, a fresh start, a new creation. Many of us, we love this time of year because It's a chance for us to think about something new. New Year's is right around the corner. There's a lot of new things happening. Kids, we're about to get a lot of new toys. It feels like a great way to start over. In fact, this is probably a time where we even think back about our year. If you have Spotify, you get a Spotify wrapped, you get a chance to look back at your year and think about what your year was. And many of us maybe feel like we have things to run from. The story of Noah shows us that a new start is not enough. We can try to run away, but sin and guilt and shame will always follow. What we need is a redeemer. And that's what this advent season is It's not about a fresh start, but salvation coming in the form of an infant. A washed world is not a new world. Water can cleanse creation, but it cannot cleanse the human hearts. C. S. Lewis says this, "No clever arrangement of bad eggs ever makes a good omelet." And I think that's true here. No matter how hard we try, no matter how many fresh starts we have, we cannot change who we are. So God makes a covenant with Noah as he steps off the boat. In chapter 9, verse 11, he says, I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by waters of the flood, and never again shall I Why shall there be a flood to destroy the earth? So God gives Noah another covenant. And why a covenant here? Because the second Eden will fail for the same reason the first one did. Unless God binds himself to all humanity with grace, humanity will walk away. The truth is Noah is not holding on to God. This covenant shows us that God is holding on to Noah. God is holding on to all humanity. The rainbow that we see here is not a sign of human progress. It's a symbol of divine restraint. God's showing that he will no longer judge the world in this way. For a moment, it feels like Eden is restored. A righteous man, a renewed world, a fresh covenant, a new start. If anyone can crush the head of the serpent, if anyone can get it right, Noah surely has to be the one. But unfortunately, that's not what we see in this next section. A Second Fall The sin that returns. Genesis 9:18-29. Genesis 9:20 says this, Noah began to be a man 'Man' of the soil. He planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. 'And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. ' This, admittedly, is a confusing passage, and it is not clear what happens. But it is clear that both Noah and Ham sinned. Moses wants us to see the big point, not the details here. The man who walked with God stumbles. The righteous one falls into shame. The new Adam lies naked in a garden-like setting, just as the first Adam did. Noah goes from the righteous one to the drunk and shameful one, allowing something clearly evil to happen. Just like Adam and Eve, Noah brings sin back into the picture. Do you hear the echoes of the fall? Adam eats the forbidden fruit, Noah abuses the fruit of the vine, Adam's nakedness is exposed. Noah's nakedness is exposed. Adam's son rebels. Noah's son rebels. Martin Luther says this, The sin underneath all our sins is to trust the lie of the serpent, that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ. This message is unmistakable. You can restart the world, but you cannot restart the human heart. Noah Noah looks like he would be the one to crush the head of the snake, but he isn't the one to do it. A clean world with the same old heart is still a broken world. And that's where advent becomes necessary. If all it was was an environment, God could fix the environment. If all it was was our circumstances, God could fix the circumstances. But the problem is us. It's our hearts. It's what we love deep down. So salvation cannot come from inside the ark. Salvation cannot come from inside of us. It has to come from inside of heaven. And that leads us to our Main Idea Judgment can cleanse the Earth, but it cannot change the human heart Only the one who bears judgment for us can bring lasting salvation. We need more. We need something more than a fresh start, more than a do-over, more than a try better next time. And subconsciously, unfortunately, we believe this, that we just need a do-over, even in our relationship with God, even in our salvation. As a former youth pastor, I can say this without a shadow of a doubt. There is an epidemic of people rededicating their lives to Christ. And I don't want to throw shade on people whose hearts are convicted by sin and that there's a desire to get right with God. I think that there is a lot of good in that. The danger in rededicating our hearts to Christ is it puts people in this spiritual limbo of, are they saved? Aren't they saved? I've seen countless times where people feel the conviction at a conference or during a sermon or at a retreat. People understand that their sin is evil, but they maybe grew up in the church, and they don't want to confess that maybe they weren't a Christian or that they had been walking in this way and feeling like They have to admit that maybe they really had something wrong when it came to their salvation. Unfortunately, this is a way... The rededication can be a way to ease our conscience about how we've been living, that we can do this and continue to live the life that we've been living and still keep a Bible verse in our Instagram bio. This might last for a couple of years, but nothing changes. We use rededication or dedicating our lives to Christ as a way to have a fresh start, a do-over. This Christmas story, the Christmas story, isn't one to make you feel better about your sin. The reality is that it's here to judge. It's here to judge you. It's here to judge me. We should feel judged by it. We cannot fix ourselves, even with unlimited do-overs, even if we had a Groundhog Day experience, if we relive the same day over and over. If we don't feel the weight of this in this passage, we've missed the point. Jesus came to fix the Earth, to fix what we couldn't fix, to fix our hearts. I think there are churches, there are pastors, there are Christians who would revolt against what we just talked about. They love to say things like people in the Gospels never felt judged around Jesus. Jesus was so accepting. Jesus was so open to people that he never made people feel judged. And unfortunately, that's just a lack of biblical literacy. That's a lack of seeing what happens in the Gospels. I mean, goodness me, if you were one of the Pharisees, I hope you felt judged by Jesus. If you've read the Gospels, you would have seen that. A few other places in the Gospels where Jesus makes people feel judged around him is: in Peter's confession after the miraculous catch the rich young ruler the disciples after the storm John in Revelation Dietrich Bonhoffer says this, "The coming Becoming of God is not only glad tidings, but first of all, frightening news for everyone who has a conscience." We feel judged by God because of his righteousness, because of who he is. He's perfect. Just being around him would make us feel judged. But the good news is for us that we don't have to stand in that judgment. We do not have to be the people who live in that judgment. The one who was born in the manger came to be condemned in our place. All of God's The wrath fell on the head that Mary held. And because the wrath fell on his head, he could crush the head of the serpent. That leads us into our application. Application Identify one place where you keep giving yourself second chances and replace it with accountability The first point of application is this. Identify one place where you keep giving yourself second chances and replace it with accountability. Instead of saying to yourself, I'll do better next time, pick one area in your life and tell someone, I need help with this. Some practical steps would be telling a spouse, Telling a friend where you're failing. Ask them to check in on you this week and choose a specific time when to talk about it. We can't go through life continuing to walk in the same sin over and over. We have to be willing to say we need more than a second chance. Our second point of application is this. Practice one act of generosity that stretches you this week The world before the flood was filled with people who wanted to exploit it, exploit other people for their own gain. Advent shows us the infinite nature of God's gratitude, of God's generosity, that God himself gave us himself something we needed desperately, but we could have never earned, never deserved. So this week, do this. Give someone something or give to someone who can't repay you back. Buy groceries for a struggling family, leave a gift card anonymously, Tip generously. Fill a need in the church without being asked. Generosity loosens the grip that sin strengthens in our heart. Of sin, and it strengthens our heart towards worship. One thing that we didn't talk about in this story so far is the rainbow. It was a sign that was given to Adam and Eve, is the sign that was given to all of humanity. It points directly towards the manger. When we see a rainbow, we associate it with positive feelings that it's happy, it's a good thing. And yet we forget that the rainbow is a sign of a weapon. That God chose to hang up his bow, to hang up his weapon. The next time that God would judge the world, the judgment wouldn't come down. It wouldn't be facing down. Look at the shape of a rainbow. This time, the next time that God would judge the world, the bow would take aim directly at the heart of heaven. And that's what we see on the cross. God's wrath, God's judgment coming down directly towards his son. Judgment can cleanse the earth, but it cannot change the human heart. Only the one who bears judgment for us can bring lasting salvation. Would you stand with me as we pray and prepare our hearts to respond in worship? Let's stand and pray. Father God, we thank you for who you are. God, you are so good and good to us. God, I pray that as we prepare our hearts for communion, for worship, God, that you would ready us for more than a way just to remember you, but to commune with you to enter into your presence, to identify you so deeply inside of us that we want to consume you. God, because we know that we can only be saved by entering into you, by entering into the Ark like Christ. It's the only place safe from wrath. God, thank you for sparing us. Thank you for saving us. Help us to respond in worship. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp LinkedIn Pinterest Copy link