Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those.

that you share it with God bless you man you can take your seat for a moment how we how we feeling this morning church we excited

To be in the house of God.

Amen.

I see fewer people this morning than than normal.

So if you if you see somebody missing, uh check up on them and and ask them, hey, uh we where were you

Tell him we miss him at church this morning.

Amen.

I'm on assignment this morning, church.

I am on assignment to get as many pre-orders of this church

as possible.

Um so we we uh we we've been asked for like a year for for like official PNEUMA merch and and it's gotten to the point where like everybody's just going off off market and making their own shirts

Um and pulling the logo from the website and making their own shirts.

So we we got we got some official uh PNEUMA merch and um yeah

And this one, this one it uh is specifically made.

I asked my sister Priscilla Priscilla here, she's back there.

She's amazing, she does amazing, amazing work, and she designed this shirt uh specifically for the serve conference.

But I think it's it's

It's a a great shirt that we could you know we can wear anywhere we're at, right?

And on the back it says servant.

So if you want if you want one of these, um we're gonna have

We're gonna have a pre-order table outside.

We also do have a few shirts ready to be sold today, but you just you gotta go there.

We also have another cool one that my brother Mario here is is wearing.

And um

Everybody would everybody would tell me from now on uh from from um every now and then that they wanted a shirt that said si or no.

And I'm like, why?

That's

That's the least spiritual thing that I say, right?

Make make your pastor sound more theologically profound.

Um but people wanted it and so uh Priscilla said God is good, see oh no.

So it sounds a little bit more

Spiritual.

So thank you, bro.

So those two shirts are are available for pre-order.

Um and I like I said last week, if you got like road rage, don't don't wear it.

Uh if you if you're not gonna represent as well.

Um

But I also I wanna I wanna invite you again to our serve conference.

When is that?

Amen.

Good that's awesome, Z, because we've been announcing it for the past six weeks and I'm talking to people and like hey you gonna come to the serve conference and like what

What's that?

It's a conference for uh for for the church.

Amen.

And we always want to be a church that um really disciples believers.

and and and leaders and raises up you know people who are gonna serve their communities in the kingdom of God and so that that's what this is for.

Serve conference we want you to register for it.

Also, I know I I'm I'm I'm

saying this again I know we already said it but our members meeting uh this this Wednesday will be at seven o'clock and we would love to see you there.

We talk about the impact uh that that that the ministry has made.

Um we also go over the finances and and plans for

the future and all that stuff so um if you're interested in that which I hope that you are uh we invite you uh to to that we'll also have some like bandults and stuff like that

Um for the for the ones who only show up for that.

Uh but Amen.

Um so we're gonna see where the sermon goes this morning, all right?

Well the Holy Spirit's gonna he's gonna I mean he always leads, but he's gonna really have to lead this today.

Um I I knew I I

I the sermon has been on my heart for a while now, um, but just kind of putting it together, it was I don't know, for some reason it was just harder for me.

Uh this

This week.

And um I I I didn't plan this verse, but I felt like God was just speaking it over me um during during the Spanish service.

And it's in Luke 22, 23.

It's one verse.

And I'm going to read it real quick and then we'll go to our main text.

But Luke 22, 23, I don't even have it up here.

It says, and Jesus said.

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Alright, so just kind of keep that on your heart for a little bit.

And uh the main uh portion that I want to go to is in Jonah.

Uh Jonah, we'll read chapter three.

I think most of us are pretty familiar with Jonah.

Um God calls this prophet named Jonah.

He goes to preach to this

He calls him to go and preach to Nineveh a message of repentance, but Jonah doesn't do it.

He disobeys the Lord and he he runs away towards Tarshis.

And on his way there, he's um he uh gets on a boat and on the boat they confront a great storm.

It almost costs the lives of everybody on board.

And Jonah basically says, hey man, it's my fault.

Go ahead and throw me off, throw me overboard.

And and your lives will be spared.

And they don't want to do that because they don't want to commit murder.

And so they try to go back to shore, but the storm gets worse.

And so Jonah's like, hey man, I'm telling you, if you want to, if you want to be saved, just throw me overboard

So they throw him overboard, and um God sends a giant fish to swallow Jonah, right?

And for the next three days uh he spends inside this fish.

It's really really odd, but it really is a testament to God's mercy, right?

Sometimes

Uh God will save you from a storm by sending something that doesn't really feel much better than the storm.

But at least it doesn't kill you, right?

And it's meant to teach you something.

And so that's what God does for Jonah.

The fish finally releases him through his mercy, through God's mercy.

And then sometime later, God calls Jonah to go back.

Alright, I want you to go back and do the thing that I told you to do before.

And so Jonah ain't playing around this time.

He he goes

Um but his heart's not really in it, right?

He preaches this message.

It's a very short message saying destruction is coming.

And um

And to Jonah's surprise, they actually repent.

And that's where we pick up.

So chapter 3, if you would stand with me, chapter 3, verse 10.

It says, when God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Chapter 4, verse 1 says, But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.

And he prayed to the Lord and said, Oh Lord, is this not what I said when I was yet in my country?

That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshus, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster.

Therefore, now, O Lord, please take my life.

For it is better for me to die than to live.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I give you this word, my Lord.

I pray that as you have spoken it over me,

You would speak it to our hearts this morning, Father God.

Holy Spirit, I pray that you would be on my lips, that you would take over, Father God, that this would be a word directly, directly from you, Father God.

And I pray that it would bring healing and

And conviction, Father God, and correction and edification, Father, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

You can take your seat.

I want to talk uh about something today that I'm calling the Jonah syndrome.

The Jonah syndrome.

And I was tempted to call it the Jonah Spirit, but I don't want to go that far yet to call it a spirit, even though I do believe that for Jonah, this syndrome did become a spirit.

But the syndrome itself is a little bit different because it comes from a godly place.

The Jonas syndrome comes from a godly place.

It's birthed out of a godly intent.

The book of Jonah, it's not too different than the book of Job.

We were in Job a few weeks ago.

And in Job, the big question is: why do the righteous suffer?

Right?

The righteous are the subject of Job.

Job cannot understand why a good, loving God would withhold mercy from his righteous children.

Can't understand it.

Why do the righteous suffer from so much evil in the world?

Why can't God's mercy just save them from that?

Well, Jonah's big question is kind of in the opposite direction.

In Job, the righteous are the subject, and Jonah the unrighteous are the subject.

Jonah can't understand why a just God would withhold justice to unrighteous people.

Why not send the wrath when they deserve it?

Job says, God, if you're good, be good to me because I'm good.

And Jonah says, God, if they're bad, be bad to them because they're bad.

How many of us uh know that we serve a full spectrum God?

You know what I mean?

He is he's full of grace and he's full of justice.

Now, sometimes for us, we want God to play in one of those sides of the spectrum more than the other, kind of depending on who's involved and what's involved.

When it's us, God give us grace.

When it's our enemies, Lord, get them.

See o no?

I see yes.

That's how it is.

God be don't be kind to my enemies, but be kind to me.

And the reason that I say that the Jonas syndrome begins from a godly place is because for the people of God, you and me, we have a moral compass.

We know what is right, we know what is evil.

We know what God approves of, what we know what he disapproves of, and there's some stuff in the middle that you know we we have to work out every now and then.

We don't always agree, and there's some matter of a personal conviction.

And interpretations, but I'm talking about things that are obviously good and things that are obviously evil.

It's a black and white, and so because of that, we expect God to be conformed to those two lanes.

If it's evil, curse them.

And if they're righteous, bless them.

It's that simple.

But it's not that simple.

And if you read Romans 9, Romans chapter 9 is a very problematic chapter for a lot of Christians.

Go home, read it, and I'll anticipate your questions.

But there's a verse in Romans chapter 9, verse 15, that says this.

It says, For God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

In other words, we don't get to choose who God chooses to have mercy on.

And that's the problem for us sometimes

Because as children of God, when we see, when we see the righteous going through something, we feel for them.

When we see the righteous suffering, we have grace for them.

We have compassion for them.

We want to help them out.

We want to be good to them.

And and yet when we see a person doing some evil things, we feel like their evil needs to be dealt with harshly.

This is this is where we see the Jonas syndrome coming from a godly place.

comes from that innate moral compass that exists in all of us as image bearers of God.

And we as Christians, we see something evil as anti-God.

And when we see something that's anti-God, we do everything in our power to come against it.

We rebuke it, we fight against it, we we do offense, we do defense, we preach against, we we pray against, we protect against.

Because if you're evil, you have made yourself an enemy of God, therefore you are my enemy, and the only thing that's coming your way is the wrath of God.

The Jonah syndrome begins from a God

We want justice for those who commit evil.

We want God to destroy every evil institution.

We want God to shake up every person that is living with rebellion inside of them so that they learn that their evil will not go unpunished.

And many of us want God to do it now.

How many of you want God to We want God to be slow to anger when it's us, man, but quick when it's our enemies

God destroy them now.

Take them out now.

Why are you waiting?

What are you waiting for?

King David wrestled with this, man.

And Psalms, he says, God, how long will you forget me?

He made it about Him.

How long are you gonna forgive me?

I'm the good one, I'm the one who's honoring you, I'm the one who is leading your people in your name.

What about my enemies?

How come they're prevailing against me?

How come they're succeeding?

How come they've got power?

How come they've got blessing?

This is how it started for Jonah.

We got to give him a little bit of credit.

We're always, you know, we always we always thought that Jonah was just this guy who just hated people

You know, we just that's that's kind of how he gets preached.

That he's just this hater for no reason, especially to foreigners.

He's depicted as this guy who hates the Ninevehites for no reason, but it's not for no reason.

Jonah didn't run away from preaching to this group of people for no reason.

The city of Nineveh was a a major city in the Assyrian Empire, which was responsible for a lot of

Israel's distress.

Remember, it was the Assyrians who captured the Israelites, the northern kingdom of Israel.

So Nineveh is to Jonah what the Egyptians might have been to Moses.

Why why you know if I'm Jonah, I'm thinking, God, just do what you did to the Egyptians, to the Ninevites.

Just take them out.

Why gotta go preach to them?

Just just take them out.

Send them away.

They're our enemies.

They're oppressing your people, God

So Nineveh doesn't represent some random bad guy who did some random bad things to random people.

No, Nineveh represents the person who did evil to you.

This is personal for Jonah.

I went to preach one time to a room full of prisoners, and I remember

I remember this one guy coming up to me for prayer, and I remember him so well because this was the most wild prayer request I had ever gotten.

He comes up to me.

He says, Pastor, I've I've done some horrible things in my life.

I

Now that one I usually get all the time.

That's like a daily conversation with men.

Pastor

I've done some horrible things.

I cheat on my wife.

I used to be addicted to drugs.

I'm addicted to alcohol right now.

I've done some really bad things.

This guy says, Pastor, I've done some really bad things.

I've murdered like so many people that I can't even count them.

He says, he says, I I've murdered women and I've murdered children while I was working for the drug cartel in Mexico.

And then he says, I need you to pray for me because I struggle to feel any remorse from my actions.

Because I did it so much I became numb to it that I don't even feel shame and I feel like I should feel shame.

He said, Can you pray for me?

I was like

That's a lot.

That was that was I didn't even know how to start my prayer.

Never gotten anything like that.

And you know what I was thinking about this.

Like had I had I watched this man's crimes as he did them.

Or or even heard about what he did like on the news.

I know myself.

I'd been like, that dude deserves to rot in prison.

He killed he killed children.

Give them the death penalty.

I mean that I'm just telling you that's that's I see that on the news.

I'm like bro, uh-uh

He deserves to be in prison.

But I'm talking to him and all of a sudden he became a human to me.

And and it was easy for me to minister to him.

You know why?

Because he didn't harm me.

He didn't do anything to me.

He didn't touch my family.

And so I I felt like I didn't even have grace to give him because he didn't do it to me

But God telling Jonah to go to Nineveh would be equivalent to God telling the surviving family members of the people that this man had killed to go and minister to this man.

That's personal for Jonah.

And so that's why I that's why I say all of this because I want us to understand Jonah a little bit better.

Because we're always dogging on him.

But he's asked to go and deliver a message of grace and a message of mercy to his enemies so that they might repent and be spared of the destruction that he rightfully believes they deserve.

Makes you feel for him, or at least it at least it makes you relate to him.

How many of us can think of some people who could use the wrath of God right now in Jesus' name?

Y'all acting holy.

I know there's more hands.

I know I know y'all had a picture come up in your mind.

It's so easy for us on this side of scripture to to just, you know, rebuke Jonah for running away from God, running away from his assignment, complaining to God.

But it started as something that would that that was a syndrome that I believe we all carry as believers from time to time.

time.

A syndrome that makes us feel like justice needs to be served to our enemies.

God, give them what they deserve.

Correct them and rebuke them and teach them and and and and and curse them, God.

There has to be consequences for people's actions.

How many of us wish the worst for our enemies?

Come on, you you don't you might not say it, but I I know a lot of you I know how petty some of y'all could be like to to other Christians

And and we say, well, God'll show them.

Ha ha ha.

You might not do the evil laugh, but you think it.

God'll get them.

We we might not pray it, but but we celebrate it when our enemies get what they deserve.

Well that's what they get.

I told them, I told them it was gonna happen.

Some of us got so much hate for our enemies, like it's it's almost as if we're waiting for their demise.

And and this, listen, this is where the syndrome becomes more of a spirit

It becomes a spirit of bitterness that brews in the hearts of God's people who are called to preach repentance and love and grace.

We're the ones who harden our hearts so much that we end up actually falling into sin and God has to deal with us.

Have you ever thought that God might want to use you to heal the person who hurt you?

You ain't thought about that.

No, because you want to defer it to somebody else.

I can't deal with it, God

God wants to use you to heal the person who hurts you because He knows that using you will be the only thing that speaks loudly enough to them that they repent and be spared of God's wrath.

But because you've got your arms crossed and you're saying no, they don't deserve the grace, they don't deserve my grace, their blood will actually be on your hands because you call for justice when God was calling for mercy.

We are not God.

We don't get to tell God where to put His grace and on whom to put mercy.

We don't get to say no none for her because she gossiped about me.

None for him because he cheated on me.

We don't get to say that.

And I see a lot of Christians running to Tarshus.

We got boatloads full of Christians on their way to Tarshus.

And what are they running from?

Listen, they're not just running from their calling.

At the end of the day, Jonah was still a prophet.

They're running away from confronting God's grace for people they don't like.

Isn't that wild?

Jonah was like, you're I I I know what you're gonna do.

You're gonna be good to them.

I don't want to see it

Isn't that crazy?

Like usually it's the opposite.

Oh I don't want to I don't want to see the destruction.

No, some of us are like I don't want to see the grace.

I don't want I don't want to see them blessed.

I don't want to see you be good to them, God.

So God, how about I go to Tarshish and I I just I pray for them over there?

The cop out, man.

Cop out.

I I I I hear that phrase, I'll pray for you more as a as a weapon

Stop stop stabbing people with your words.

There is power in your tongue, even though you think you're saying something spiritual.

We know where it comes from.

Mm-mm, I'll pray for you.

Pray for yourself too, girl.

Man.

But think about it.

Who better?

Who better than a Hebrew man whose people are subjugated and oppressed by these enemies to go and deliver this word and say, God is not pleased with you?

He's not pleased with the way that you've treated his people.

In fact, God promised our forefather Abraham that those who bless, he will bless, and those who curse, he will curse.

He could have said that that's that's the easy part by the way.

That's that's the part that none of us have an issue saying.

God gonna get you.

Just watch.

I got my popcorn popping

I'm just ready for the day of the Lord to come over you fools.

That's the easy part.

The easy part for Jonah was telling them about the justice of God.

This is I see a lot of

Social justice warriors, Christians on social media all the time.

Talking about the you know the day of the Lord that is coming for the evil people.

That's that's good, that's true, but God is a full spectrum God.

And that's that's what Jonah was probably fine doing.

And that's why he says, destruction is coming.

That's his message.

Destruction's coming.

Destruction's coming.

The hard part for Jonah was telling them about the grace of God.

God may want to use you to heal the people who hurt you.

But they need to hear about the grace

That you have experienced.

How many of us have experienced the grace, the goodness, the love, the mercy of God when we should have been dead?

I don't even deserve to hold this microphone, I don't even deserve to read this scripture.

But because God loved me and had grace for me and for some reason called me to him and now I can walk with him daily and be transformed to his image

Everybody deserves that opportunity.

Think about it.

If God has them here alive today, they at least deserve to hear about the goodness of God.

And yet the ones who are called righteous sometimes don't want to deliver that news.

Don't stop at telling them about the wrath of God.

Also tell them about the hope.

Ah, but Pastor, I I I kind of hope they don't get the mercy.

Y'all laughing, but shoot, that's true.

I've been pastor for a while.

Don't don't don't

play God.

You don't get to administer justice.

We're not judges.

God is our judge.

It's it's it's righteous, listen, it's righteous of us to w to want God to put an end to each

Evil.

It's righteous of us to hate sin.

It's righteous of us to ask you know people to be brought into rebuke and correction.

But don't forget that we serve a full spectrum of God.

And you know, I I I know I was as I was doing the message I kinda realized that this this kind of sounds like a message on forgiveness.

It's

not a message on forgiveness.

How many of us realize that we can we can forgive somebody and still want justice to be served to them?

Like like if if if somebody harms me

Somebody harms my family, not me.

I I'm I'm fine.

Somebody harms my family.

I I may be able to muster up every ounce of godliness in me to forgive you, and that alone will be difficult, but I still want you to go to prison.

Still gonna call a cops on you.

We we we often we often see this in in marriages.

You know, a man might cheat on his wife and and the wife does everything in her power to forgive him.

You choose to stay and not to leave.

Props to you

And you call that grace.

But it's grace with contingencies.

Because there's something inside of you that wants to make him feel everything that you felt.

Maybe not in the same way, but maybe through some backhanded remarks.

Maybe there's a lot of ugliness in the way that you talk to him.

Maybe you keep bringing up the past in every single conversation and he's trying to heal from it.

Because you think that he's got to feel something.

There's got to be a consequence for your actions because if there isn't, that's injustice.

We're playing God.

I don't think Jonah had an issue with the Ninevehes repenting.

I mean he finally goes, he preaches this message, calling them to repent.

They repent.

That's not the part that gets him.

The parts that gets him is when God withholds his wrath against them.

That's the part that Jonah had an issue with.

The word says God relented from destroying them.

God be bad to them because they're bad and you don't like bad.

Don't go easy on them.

Come on, God, you can still forgive and still punish.

Jonah feels like a just God withholding his justice against these people is an injustice to him.

Do you grasp that concept?

I hope I'm making myself clear this morning.

Because sometimes as a people of God, people do something to us.

And it makes us feel like a victim.

And even if we forgive them, we still want God to deal with them.

And if God chooses not to deal with them.

It makes us feel like the the God that we believe was so justful is not just anymore.

And he's being injust to us.

And this is this is the problem that that came in in Jonah's spirit.

He was displeased, he was angry with the Lord.

You know how oftentimes we we focus so much on the mercy of God, the grace of God, and we have to remind ourselves that He's also a just God.

We say that a lot, don't we?

Yes, he's a graceful God, but he's also a just God.

Well, when we flip it and and and we're enraged and we feel like the victims of something.

We often forget that he is a just God, but he's also a merciful God.

And he desires that nobody should perish.

And this is what displeased Jonah.

That's what the Bible says.

It displeased him exceedingly, and he was angry.

This is really where it becomes dangerous.

This is another way that the syndrome becomes

Spirit.

Because now Jonah is angry with the people who did evil against him.

Now he's angry with God.

He's angry with God.

He's angry with the Nineveh.

He's angry with himself.

He even says, this is why I don't want to come.

Because I knew that you would relent in destroying them.

We talked about this type of Christian last week, a miserable Christian.

An angry Christian.

That's what Jonah became, an angry prophet.

There's a lot of Christians walking around angry for the same reason.

Because you don't like how God loves the people you think are undeserving of His love.

You don't like how God showed them grace, show them favor, show them mercy, bless them.

You don't feel like they deserve it.

In fact, maybe you feel like like you're better than they are, and you're not as blessed as they are.

Maybe that's an injustice to you.

God, you see how you see how much I pray?

We both know she don't pray

I mean come on that that that's our pride sometimes.

God I've been a Christian all my life.

This this this kid can't even wipe his spiritual butt

And his ministry is thriving.

And mine is struggling.

We say it, God, you know I'm more holy than they are.

I'm more holy than they are.

I know we we've all had these thoughts.

Maybe we don't say it out loud.

Jonah says the quiet part out loud.

But it is a syndrome that needs to be dealt with when it begins to be.

unhealthy to our spirits.

And we're walking around angry with God and angry with the church and angry with the ministry and angry with our calling.

That's that's where Jonah got to

He said, God, I'm done, man.

Just kill me.

I would rather die.

I don't want to be doing all this gray stuff.

I'm a prophet of doom.

I tell him the fire is coming, you send the fire.

You let me hang in God.

Listen, if you are a minister

And there is a people group or a demographic or culture or a type of person that is off limits to you because you've hardened your heart towards them, you're not ready to minister.

Don't ask me to preach.

Don't or if you want to preach just because you're angry.

Nope.

You ain't ready.

You ain't ready.

There's a lot of people who who want to do ministry to create an outlet for their hate

And so Jonah was, you know, Jonah's heart was already closed off.

And then he goes overboard.

He's like, you know what?

I'm probably gonna escape this through death.

And God's like, nope, I'm gonna send.

You a random miraculous thing that many years later people are gonna question if I even really did it.

A giant fish, and you're gonna survive for three days

God was getting Jonah's attention to let him know no you can't you can't escape this you can't escape this

And so we give Jonah a chance, and then he calls Jonah to go back.

And this time, Jonah's like, fine, I'll go.

But his heart's not in it.

It's in the wrong place.

So he's preaching from anger.

And that's that's that's how a lot of Christians live out their Christianity in anger

And we just want justice for everybody.

We just want hellfire for everybody.

We want God to take everybody out.

Teach them God.

Show them God.

Rebuke them God.

And then when when they take hold of that message of grace and repentance and God starts to be kind to them, it creates a negative spirit in the person who is

Who God called to minister.

Lying devil man.

Jesus came to be the answer to God's wrath.

We know that, right?

To show us that even the Gentiles could obtain salvation in Christ if only they repented and believed.

And I don't I don't know who this word is for, but I just I want to tell you: don't be the reason.

That somebody doesn't know or hear about God's grace.

Don't harden yourself when they become ripe for repentance.

Because there is a day where the people who have hurt you and reviled against you and gossiped about you and laughed about you and laughed because

They hear about you going to church and you praising God and you speaking in tongues.

There is a day where their spirit might become ripe.

There is a day where they might come through those doors and if your heart is hardened they might miss the salvation that God has for them.

Soften your heart.

Soften your heart for your enemies.

Soften your heart for the people who don't like you.

Soften your heart.

Soften your heart.

Soften your heart.

I'm not I'm not I'm not even talking about your brothers, okay?

Yes, soften your heart for them.

Well soften your heart for the people who hate us.

Soften your heart for the Islamic terrorists.

That's real.

I said that, and many of you in your spirit said, Hell no.

Soften your heart.

Soften your heart.

Because there is a day that might come where those evil spirits

That soul it it ripens because they realize that there is nothing in the world that could truly satisfy them.

I still remember, I still remember my cousin walking through those doors.

Suffering from a life lifetime of homosexuality.

I I he walked through those doors and I turned around.

I did a double take.

What is he doing here

The last guy I ever thought would come here.

And we as the church have to be ready to receive them.

Them with open arms and say, I've been expecting you.

I've been expecting you.

God has been waiting for you, and we lead them to Jesus, not to the doors.

We lead them to the altar and we correct them, we deal with their sin.

We tell them what you're doing is wrong, brother.

God doesn't like it, God is not pleased with you.

But let me tell you, there is hope for you because when you surrender everything to Jesus, He will save you and deliver you from His wrath.

But we've got a part to play in that.

Listen, church, we have to learn how to separate, listen, listen, listen, listen.

We have to learn how to separate the sin from the sinner.

Church, hate the sin, men.

Hate the sin.

Don't tolerate it.

Sin is a disease to God's creation.

Sin needs to be cast out.

Demons are not to be dealt with nicely.

Satan is the enemy of God and therefore the enemy of God's people.

This is where the Jonas syndrome is healthy.

It produces an awareness.

A discernment, a caution to give access to people that we shouldn't be giving access to.

It produces protection and commitment to holiness that God calls us to.

Hate the sin, but don't throw out the sinner with the sin.

The sin, listen, the sin needs to be killed, the sinner needs to be saved.

And so many times because of our hurt and because of our hate, we see the sinner as the sin.

And they're not.

They're not.

No matter what they did, no matter how lost they are, no matter how much you hate the sin that dwells in them, God says, vengeance belongs to me.

You don't worry about the vengeance part.

You don't worry about the justice part.

I'll take care of that.

Let me take care of what I'm gonna take care of

But I'm gonna give mercy to whom I'm gonna give mercy to.

I will have compassion for whoever I want to have compassion because I am the Lord.

Therefore, have enough compassion, church, with the sinner to let them know that they don't have to be a slave to their sin.

Let them know that there is a Father in heaven who loves them, who will prepare a room for them in his kingdom, who will wipe away every thing that they've done, where every sin they've committed will be cast out to the depths of

Of the ocean flower.

Let them know that Jesus took their sin on that cross and suffered for their sake.

They don't have to suffer the rough wrath of God if they only repent.

God may be using you to bring healing to the people who hurt you.

But we have to call, we have to call them to the grace of God.

I want you to stand with me and I want to go back now to that verse in Luke.

Jesus says, Father, forgive them.

For they know not what they do.

Look, I I said that this isn't a message on forgiveness, and it's not.

The part that I want to focus on here

Is where Jesus says, you still with me, right?

The part that I want you to pay attention to is where Jesus says, they don't know what they're doing.

When I read that honestly, I think to myself, how is it that the people who plotted to kill Jesus

How is it that the people who were witnessing that were standing there to witness his death to mock him?

How is it that the Romans who were professional killers didn't know what they were doing?

They knew what they were doing.

The Assyrians, they knew what they were doing in subjugating Israel to them.

The people who gossiped about you, stole from you, lied to you, cheated on you, betrayed you, God, they knew what they were doing.

And and and this is really easy to hear in a sermon, it's really hard to apply in life.

Because you are going to tell yourself they knew full well what they were doing.

But I want you to I want you to understand something.

This this single verse speaks so highly of the grace that our all-knowing God of the universe.

Displayed for the people who in our minds knew exactly what they're doing.

He says they don't know what they're doing.

They don't know it.

Why don't they know it?

Because sin has a way of blinding us.

Our evil hearts have a way of leading us towards evil.

It's natural for us, the Bible says that our hearts are deceitful and only want to do wicked.

So maybe they know what they're doing in their natural state.

But God is looking at who they can be.

Jesus is looking at what they can be, at who they can be.

Forgive them because they don't know your grace yet.

Forgive them because they don't have a relationship with your spirit yet.

Forgive them because one day, as they walk with you, they will know you more.

They will know you more.

The closer you walk with Jesus, the more you walk with Jesus, the more you know of Him.

And so, my my my challenge to you is for the people who hurt you, the people who hate you, the people who hate us as believers, have grace, have mercy for them.

Because they don't know what they're doing.

They don't know what they're saying.

We fight the devil.

We fight the devil.

And we fight for souls.

We fight the devil, we fight for souls.

I want to empty.

I want to empty

Hill.

I want Satan to be the only fool there at his own party.

I want I want nobody, nobody of this generation to to to go to hell.

We fight the devil, but we fight for the souls.

I'm gonna read this last verse

And then I'm gonna call you up to the altars.

Romans 9, 22 through 24.

I just I just I'm gonna leave it here and I'm probably not gonna offer any commentary on it afterwards.

But this is what it says in the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power.

You hear that?

Even though he's got the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction.

And he does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy.

Who he prepared in advance for glory.

And we are among those whom he selected.

Both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

Heavenly Father

God, I pray that you're you would soften our hearts this morning for this world

Who persecutes your people?

This world, my God, who only wants evil for us.

This evil world, my God, that has worked hard to silence the voice of godliness in our society.

Lord, I pray, Father God, that we would not bow down.

I pray, Father God, that we would continue to fight and rebuke the evil and the enemy and the spirits that want to make their way into these doors.

But I pray in Jesus' name

That you would soften our hearts for the people that who you have reserved salvation for

Lord, I pray that we would show mercy to those that need it, just as you have showed us.

I pray that we would love, my God, the way that you do.

See people the way that you do.

And through this you would be glorified.

In Jesus' name.

I want to invite you this morning to the altars.

If you need prayer, if you need to release something, if you need to surrender something this morning, if you need God to soften your heart, the altars are open

As we sing that song.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.org.

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Thanks again and God bless.