In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of God's grace and mercy towards those who are undeserving. He uses the example of the parable of the lost sheep to illustrate how God values and seeks after those who have gone astray. The preacher also highlights the story of Jonah, emphasizing how Jonah's disobedience led to his own troubles. The sermon emphasizes the transformative power of God's word and encourages listeners to allow it to change their thoughts, attitudes, and responses.

Kriyeleison, what is that? Lord have mercy on us. And Christeleison? Christ have mercy on us. Now I found, directly and indirectly, there are 480 references in the Bible that mention this. That kind of tell us how important those words are. Am I right? When something is said so many times, hundreds of opportunities will come in your life, you don't know what to do. We don't know where to go and who to ask opinion about this or that. And that's when you have the choice to recall that promise, the Lord is my shepherd. That means I can let it be. He will lead me tomorrow, 10 years from now, 50 years from now. And then all the promises are there. So it is with the Bible. Bible is a dead book, unless we allow this to enter into our heart. When I was studying in school, like you went to school, teacher teach you A B C D E F G H I J K L M And we will say 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and all that, right? Ok, then later you studied about sun and moon and stars, right? You studied biology, studied about the trees, right? Let me ask you, anyone of you who studied moon, star, sun, animals, have you ever become any one of those items? No, you can study all you want, get 10 PhDs about sun, but you will never become one, you will know about it. So it is with the Bible. You can study and all the information you want to learn and get PhD and all that, whatever, no problem. But that don't mean you fulfill the purpose of God's word. What is the aim of God's word? Ok, here is a good example I tell you, those of you studying in school. When I was studying in my high school, my science teacher took us to the lab and he took a funnel glass and poured sulphuric acid into it. And then another glass, just as clear and pure as the acid, another liquid, but the other liquid happened to be just clean water. They both looked the same from two funnels. But he didn't do this, but I remember him trying to explain what sulphuric acid is. If you put your finger in it, miracle takes place. Your finger is gone with the bones. What happened? Because there is power, there is potency, there is life. It is living. But you put your whole body in the other liquid, nothing happens to you. It just cleans the dirt away. This is the difference between God's word and all other writings, billions and trillions of pages of all kinds of religious books and psychology and history and whatever else. And I keep saying it, I know every time I talk to you one way or another. That is God's word, Hebrews 12 says, it is living and what? Living and dead. Living and? Anybody know? It's active. It is alive. It works. It changes. It is active for what? 2nd Corinthians 3.18 says, the word is living and active for what? To transform us, to change us from the inside out. So here are two people facing the same circumstance. One is so angry, he is like, I am going to kill you, I am going to kill you, you are going to hell. And he is just mad and angry and upset. But the other person just stands there, smiling. And he says, what on earth is wrong? This guy is behaving like a devil that went mad. And this person is just so calm. Well, we don't know the answer until we ask. What happened? This person allowed God's word to change him inside through his thought process and his brain that affected his attitude and response. How? The word of God says, soft answer turneth away wrath. Silence is better than revenge. You see, all of a sudden what happened? His entire being is regulated by a transformed inside. So every time you read God's word, please make sure you hear it, you read it, you study it, you keep on looking for the Holy Spirit to make it personal. That is, it's you, it's me. So having said that, let's look at the portion in Jeremiah. I mean, Jeremiah was an ordinary person, he was no superstar, and you can see that in a minute. Let's look at verse 4. This is God speaking. I just think God is speaking to you. The word of the Lord came to me saying, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Oh, sovereign Lord. I said, I do not know how to speak. I am only a child. Think about that. So, I will appoint you. That is, future tense. I have appointed you. What tense is that? It happened. When did it happen? Before you were formed in the womb. Are you thinking about it? In other words, each one of you, me, before my parents got married. So when God says, before your father and your mother were married, and before they came together in a physical relationship, a human being starts biblically when the sperm and the egg come together. Before that is nothing. So when God says, Jeremiah, I knew you before. Now, how many hours before? How many days before? So, God of grace and mercy. Well, usually, don't you agree, this is how we do it. If you love me, I love you, right? There are people who love someone even though the other person doesn't love them. But usually we do good things for other people because they are related to us, or they are our brother or sister, or we get something out of it. People are really selfish, you know that. Even offering people give to others, poor people. They want to do good works, so get some points from God. And you know that. All of us are selfish. But how does God handle us, handle you? How does God respond to you? Grace is something God gives. He does for the undeserving. That is someone who doesn't deserve it. You know who is your worst enemy? Your worst enemy, more than you know, more than you believe, more than you want to accept. Your worst enemy is the person you see in the mirror. Your worst enemy, more than you know, is yourself. You say, why I say things like that to you? You study the human behavior, you will find this is true. Mother Teresa's statement, As far as I am concerned, the greatest suffering in the world is to feel alone, unwanted, unloved. The greatest suffering in the world, Mother Teresa says, is to feel unwanted, unloved, rejected. May I add a few more words there? The pain and the agony from the failures, the guilt, the sin, and the fear, misunderstanding. Memories from the past of molestation. Forgiving a hundred times still, the pain will never leave. And we silently say, I wish he was my husband. I wish he was my wife. I wish those kids were mine. I wish I was not born in this home. Are you surprised by those statements? In the Bible you will find several people said that. Cursed be the day that I was born, Job said. And so, usually we think about good things happening to us because we have done well. But here is what I want to tell you the good news. God is a specialist and that is his nature. He cannot change to go after those who have failed. Those who are nobodies. Those who sinned mountains of time. Many times it is like a mountain of burden they carry. People, those who do not qualify. People who were born in terrible circumstances. And he is specially after. Such a God he is. He got a hundred sheep all doing so well. But one morning when he started counting. One, two, three, four. He just find ninety-nine. Then goes back and number again. It says only nine. But he said, what happened to one? He is the one who says, no. That one is more important to me than the ninety-nine. So, he leaves the ninety-nine in the fold. And then he goes after the disobedient. The rebellious. The one that chose to do whatever they want to do. And end up being destroyed. And he goes after until he finds that one. Then, you don't read, he gave it a kick. And a karate chop. And said, you dumb, stupid, little one. Well, one of the classic examples. I find the Bible, I need to wrap it up. Is Johanna. Remember him? I mean, things happens to us. We have no way to control circumstances and events in our life. But in Johanna's case, it was not that. He chose for himself to do the dumb, bad, wrong thing. And now we end up in real trouble. It is like somebody who don't know how to climb the coconut tree. Climb somehow and go to the top of the tree. And now he has no clue how to come down. And the consequence, he is going to fall and die. And Johanna brought all this chaos upon himself. Nobody did it to him. And in the end, he is creating problem for other people. And they are crying out to their gods and all that. Then he get thrown out into the ocean. And then comes grace. A huge fish. And he now has enough space to pray. Think about it. God could have said, Ah, just one Johanna, I got thousand other Johannas. I can always find someone to do this. No. Before Johanna, you were formed in your mother's womb. I knew you. I made the detailed plans for the seasons of your life, which is only good. And I am not going to let your failure, your disobedience, your choosing to do wrong things, stop me from fulfilling my plan of grace and mercy. So when we talk about our God, our God of grace and mercy, please, please, please, may I say, don't say, yeah, that works for someone else. No. Now here is a problem. You can do that. You can do that. But you will delay experiencing the peace and certainty and confidence of this abundant life he talked about. Now here is the thing. You mean to say, I am so mean and bad, I did so many bad things and that don't. So that's not exactly what I said. Where sin abound, grace was abounding much more. Not that we should sin, but the grace of God leads us to repentance. That means somewhere along the way, even when you fail a thousand times and fall back again and again, somehow, somewhere, something happens. This is too much. He's not going to leave me alone. And I want this God. Silence. Dead silence. And all the sudden, all she could hear is just the sound of the stones that have been dropped. And she, with great difficulty, tried to take a gaze of what may be happening. And then she realized, the crowd is gone. And then she sees this figure. Jesus. And the first thing he says, I don't condemn you. I don't think you and I would mind if we read Jesus saying to her, you know what? Oh, I didn't want to say anything to you, just go. And maybe I'll talk to you later after everything is settled and you find the right track. Or if he asks, well, tell me what really happened. I'd just like to know. He only said, I don't think bad of you. Go in peace. And in my colloquial simple language, one more thing he said, by the way, try not to do the wrong thing. You see, this is the difference between the God of the Bible and Christian faith from all other faith. This is the difference between the pure Orthodox faith of the apostles and the church fathers that embraced all humanity as sons and daughters because they believed in the mystery of God's action before the world began and designed for every individual. And they lived their life like that. And if you and I can begin to understand this, then a huge amount of burden that you are carrying unnecessarily of things you wish you did that you didn't do, things you said that you shouldn't have said, and then the list goes on and goes on. Then he's saying, I'm never going to make it. That is right. You are never going to make it. But that is not what God is doing. He says, in spite of all, I'm still working. The product is not yet finished. My purposes are not yet completed. I'm still working. Don't give up. Don't stop. And that, he says to you, don't give up on anyone. More so,