Good morning church.
Good morning.
Good morning, good morning. Oh,
God. Someone new on stage this weekend.
If we have not met yet.
My name is Michael,
and my wife and I, and we have two kids.
We have been at flip side for about two months.
right before school started, we joined the team,
and we are so grateful for it.
this weekend, Pascale has the amazing opportunity to visit family in Idaho.
And so I ask this.
Well, first of all, I don't know if it happened,
but if you have his number, please text him right now.
Just pull your phone out, tell him you you miss him.
You're thinking about him.
You're praying for the Vikings.
You're praying for the Raiders.
so I sent him a text. Tell me you're thinking about it.
We're going to see him next week,
and he's going to jump back into judges nine and judges ten.
But as you can see this morning, we're going to take a break from judges.
It's been a great study.
we've we've really been able to see God's mercy on full display.
Right.
We see his faithfulness,
his goodness, his gentleness, his guidance, his correction.
We've seen God just show up over and over and over, even when God's people
are falling away, even when God's people are saying no to him.
And for decades at a time we've seen walking away, right.
We we've talked about how how God delivers them.
And then they kind of flirt with sin
and they fall into to to disobedience, and they're far from God.
And they they spend time there and they and then they enter into a time
or a space of defeat. Right. And they're just there.
They have no hope.
No, there's nothing that can get them out of that space.
And so what do they do? They repent.
They cry out to God. They say, we need you to rescue us.
We need you to guide us.
We need you to to help us.
And what does God do?
He shows up time after time again because we have a faithful God.
As David said he is. He is constant.
He is constantly in pursuit of us, and he is constantly trying
to help us, to correct us, to guide us, to encourage our hearts.
and so,
we're going to spend just a little bit of time
talking about judges, like, I almost want to like a movie trailer preview it.
So there's not two weeks without some time in judges.
but I do want to, kind of echo something Pascal's been saying over and over again.
Remember, it's not just a history lesson, right?
The book of judges.
This is
this is our time to
to apply what we're learning to our own spiritual walk with Jesus.
Right.
It's not just a fun history lesson, although it
is cool to kind of see what happened because we believe this to be true, right?
We believe it to be accurate
and honest and and we believe it to be a guide for us.
But, we don't want to just read it for history, but rather,
how can this enrich our spiritual walk with Jesus?
Before I jump in, I want to ask for prayer real quick.
Heather to call me out I love it.
Last service I kind of said this unannounced,
but my wife and I found out that she is pregnant.
So if you are a prayer like yeah, if you could pray for her, that would be awesome.
we have two boys.
Theo is seven and Jude is two, and so we're going to have a crazy household
either with three boys running around or we'll get a little girl that'll,
maybe even things out a little bit.
And so if you can pray for that, that'd be awesome.
She's about eight weeks, and so there's still a long ways to go.
but. Right.
Judges Pascale initially said, hey, Michael, take nine, I'll take ten.
And then he he came a couple of days. I was like, you know what?
These are kind of they're interesting chapters. Let me.
I want a sandwich nine and ten.
But I told them I want to at least preview it,
at least give us a little bit of thought.
And so remember what we've learned so far.
Gideon has passed, right? He is. He died.
And and Scripture told us he had 70 sons, which is why yield to me, right?
70 kids.
he was walking with God in
some ways, and obviously not in this way, like 70 kids.
and he had wives, he had concubines.
And one of those concubines was from the city of Chicago.
And we hear about them in Genesis 12.
We hear about him with Abraham, with Jacob in the book of Joshua.
We hear of them.
And in some of these instances, it's a place of worship.
It's a place of honor.
It's a place of of of God. You are our God.
We are your people. We want to dedicate ourselves to you.
That happens in Joshua 24.
Actually just the book right before judges.
And then we have a right.
There's power vacuum happens.
Gideon is no longer around, and he wants to take power, right?
He wants to lead.
And and he appeals to the people in shack.
And he says, hey, I am of you.
I was born here.
I was raised here.
Like, do you want my 70 brothers to rule over you?
Or do you want just me?
And then they're like, yeah, that sounds pretty good.
Just you and so they, they said, yeah, they they inspired him.
They gave him a little bit of money, to support his candidacy. And,
and Abimelech was crowned this illegitimate king of God's people.
And I wanted to remind you of that, that sin cycle. Right?
That deliverance would fallen away in despair, disobedience in him,
where we're in this nasty place of of of distance from God.
And then we cry out to him in repentance like I feel like again,
this is an example where where the people are falling away from God, right?
They're not saying, God, who do you have for us next?
This is like a power vacuum where I've been like I says, I am.
Who's next?
I don't know if God is mentioned or God is asked in any way
to be honored and glorified.
So what happens in Joshua 24, whether it's a place of honor in
in check on the place of worship
now in judges nine is is kind of a place of sin and despair.
And so you can see that that fall, we can see that kind of the how things
were so high here and now they're kind of low spot.
But again, just a preview, just a trailer pastor car will jump in and
and tackle nine and ten next week. So read them this week
if you got some time, spend time in in judges nine and ten.
this morning though, we gonna spend time in the book of Jonah.
My desire is actually to survey the entire book.
There's only four chapters, and so we're going to Bible study
it up, we're going to read God's Word, and then we're going to unpack it.
And so I'm going to I'm going to kind of chunk it.
We'll do chapter one unpack to unpack and so on.
and so while you turn there, we're going to go, Jonah one,
it's towards the latter part of the Old Testament.
just a little bit of background for you.
The last 12 books of the Old Testament are the Minor Prophets, right?
They're not minor because they're insignificant.
They're minor because they're just smaller letters.
Jonah is
five of 12.
He's right in the middle of those minor prophets.
and I would I would venture to say he's probably the most well known.
Right.
Because we read in the text that he was swallowed by a great fish.
Right.
Which is a wild, weird, interesting fact about Jonah's testimony.
His experience.
and, and and even though Jonah.
Right, in my kind of prayer over this, in my research and my unpacking this week,
even though it's a prophetic book, I would say
that it's actually more of a story or a narrative.
It's not about what the prophet says, it's about what the prophet does
or doesn't do.
It's about Jonah's obedience and his disobedience
and how we can kind of sometimes instead of saying, Jonah, I like it.
Insert my own name
and I can find myself in chapter one, or I can find myself in chapter two or 3
or 4 kind of following in the brokenness that we see in Jonah's life.
So it's about his obedience.
It's about his disobedience.
Jonah or Jonah means dove.
Jonah is referenced in Second Kings about 780 BC,
and he's also contemporaries of Amos and Josiah. Right.
Just a little bit of back on the last thing before we jump in.
It is important for for Jonah's walk
is that during this time, the Assyrian empire is on the rise.
All right.
We're going to talk about the people of Nineveh,
which was the capital of the Assyrian Empire.
They were wicked, destructive, hurtful, nasty people.
They were pagan people. They didn't know God, right?
They don't want nothing to do with God.
And Jonah wanted nothing to do with them.
And so this book is kind of like a letter where God is Saint Jonah.
I want to use you to redeem these lost, broken, helpless people.
Right?
They are spiritually dead.
They have no hope aside from me.
And I want to use you in their lives. But Jonah says, you know what?
God is not going to work for me.
And so we're going to unpack that, this morning.
I love how God authors Jonah.
Right.
So it's only four chapters, and the first, first and third chapter,
they talk about Jonah's interaction with pagans.
The first with pagan sailors, and the second with
the pagan city of Nineveh, the people of Nineveh. Okay.
But what's interesting
is like a Freaky Friday situation where the rules have been reversed.
The prophet of God is kind of running from God.
He's distant.
He doesn't want anything to do with God and the pagans.
They humble themselves, they worship God, they find salvation.
And so it's really quite interesting how God authors this book and how he uses
Jonah's disobedience, his brokenness,
to still bring about good in this world.
and I think that he does that with us, too.
I really love it.
And then chapters two and four, their prayers to is
Jonah is stuck in the belly of a fish and he's in a weird space.
And then four is he cried out to God.
He prays to God.
And then chapter four, we see Jonah.
We see a dialog for the first time in Jonah's.
He's actually really mad at God for being so merciful, for extending grace
and mercy and love and kindness and and in first saying, you know what?
They're wicked and evil, but they're worth it.
I'm going to die for them. I'm going to eventually save them.
And God wants to use Jonah to to bring them to repentance, right?
To help them to turn another way.
And Jonah wants nothing to do with it. Right.
Again, Freaky Friday upside down situation.
And it's very interesting.
So this morning I want to read through all of one.
It's probably the longest chapter we're in.
And then we'll do the same with two, three and four.
And with this unpack them a little bit.
So if you every Bible is going to read Jonah one one,
it says the word the Lord.
It came to Jonah, son of Amitai, go to the great city of Nineveh
and preach against it, because it's wickedness has come up before me.
But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.
He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port.
After paying the fare,
he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
So we know what he's doing.
He wants to flee from God wants nothing to do with God.
Then the Lord sent a great wind on the on the sea,
and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.
All the sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his own God,
and they threw cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.
The captain went to him and said, how can you sleep?
Get up. Come on, your God.
Maybe he will take notice of us that we will not perish for seven days.
And the sailors said to each other, come,
let us cast lots to see who is responsible for this calamity.
And they cast lots and a lot fell on Jonah.
So they asked him, tell us who you are.
What? Who was responsible for making all this trouble for us?
What kind of work do you do?
Where do you come from? What is your country?
From what people are you?
And verse nine says, he answered, I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord,
the God of heaven,
who made the sea in the dry land, which is an amazing truth.
But we do not see that in Jonah's lifestyle right?
I don't know how he's worshiping the Lord
or honoring him or have reverence for him.
This terrified them and they asked, what have you done?
For they knew that he was running from the Lord because he already told them so.
The sea was getting rougher and rougher.
So they asked.
They asked Jonah, what should we do to you to make the sea calm down?
John says, pick me up and throw me into the sea,
essentially saying, kill me and it will become calm.
I know that this is my fault, that this great storm has come upon you.
Instead, the men did their best to roll back the land, right?
They they're like, no, we don't want we don't want to kill you.
You're a prophet of God.
And he's doing this like, no, we're not going to kill you.
That's that's that's that's not the plan.
But the sea grew even wider than before.
And then they cried out to the Lord, please, Lord,
do not let us die for making this man or for taking this man's life.
Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man
for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.
They took Jonah and thrown overboard in the raging sea grew calm.
At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord,
and made him right.
It sounds like they found God or they found salvation.
Then in verse 17, it ends with now the Lord provided a huge fish
to swallow up Jonah.
And Jonah was in the belly of the fish.
Three days and three nights.
Interesting opening chapter. Right?
I think we fall into three categories here.
We can fall into one of three categories.
Rather, we can believe that that the book of Jonah is a fable.
It's a story that we can pull element out of.
We can fall into the camp where we believe it's allegorical,
or it's like about God's character, about forgiveness of sins.
It's about God's mercy.
It's about God pursuing us.
Or you can fall into the camp where you believe it's a factual story,
but actually happen is as bizarre as someone being in the belly of a fish.
Is that that that happened.
And this morning, I want to I want to encourage you
to believe that this is factual, right, that this actually happened.
And I want to use the words of Jesus to do so.
Right.
So in Matthew 12, he's uses talking to the Pharisees,
a religious leaders, and he's saying,
you know, they're kind of challenging him
and questioning him, and they don't really have reverence
and respect for Jesus as, as as God's son, Son of Man, the Son of God like.
And so he's talking to him and he says in verse 40 says, For Jonah
was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish.
So the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
So the men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation,
and they were going to condemn it again.
This is the evil, wicked, nasty Ninevites, right?
Jesus says, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah.
And now something greater than Jonah is here.
I think Jesus is referring to an actual event, right?
You don't compare yourself to someone
who is not real in an effort to make yourself right, say I am greater
than as Jesus is saying here, he's referencing his.
His eventual death is three days and three nights
in the belly of of the earth, as Jonah was in the fish, and then at the judgment.
And so the people of the devil will stand and condemn this current
religious generation that is so broken towards me and so sinful and so lost.
Right?
I think, again, referring to a very real people.
And I start here this morning because if we're going to talk
about God's mercy, right,
depending on how we interpret this story,
that's going to vary and depend on how what we can pull out of it.
Right?
If we believe it's just a story, then it's going to be different
and it's going to impact us differently than we believe this actually happened.
Jonah was a real dude like we are, and he was in a belly of a fish
and broken towards God, but God still use him in a really cool way.
And so my, my heart, my hope is that you believe that this is real.
This was a real dude, really walked this earth and God really used him,
to redeem people.
So this morning, right,
we as we, as we process Jonah, we process judges.
We're kind of in that mode. We're going to look at God's mercy.
And so for the sake of togetherness and being one,
this is the definition we're going to work out of, okay.
That the mercy of God is his love, his kindness, and his compassion
towards people, his love, his kindness, and his compassion towards you and me,
toward Jonah, towards the pagan sailors, towards the people of Nineveh.
So this is the definition we're working from.
So whenever I, you know, talk about the mercy of God, kindness,
compassion and love, okay.
And so right when we jump in right off the top, the word the Lord came to John.
I said, go to the people of Nineveh.
Right? So right away we know the wicked.
They're evil, they're destructive, they're brutal,
they're they're they're everything we don't want to be.
And yet God has already extended his mercy to them.
Are you saying, Jonah, go to them.
You see, when a word comes to a prophet,
it's good news for the people of God, right?
And instead hear
God saying, no, I want you to go give good news to someone else,
someone that you dislike. Jonah.
And so two phones where two things are happening, Jonah
or God wants to fix Jonah's broken heart, right?
And the sin that he has, the hatred, the prejudice
he has towards the people of Nineveh,
but he also wants to do a work in the city of them.
Nobody wants to save them.
He wants to redeem them. Right?
These are the ancient Assyrians,
because none of it was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, which is now Iraq.
And again, the ruthless, godless, savage, brutal people.
And you saw them coming to conquer you.
You you did not want to be there, right?
They were they were bad people.
And I think what God is telling us right away here is that
he doesn't quite
look at sin like you and I look at sin.
Right.
Well, we can kind of rank things and judge things and say, I'm a little bit better.
You're a little bit worse because Jonah fell into that trap
where he's like, I know I have sin, God, I know I'm broken.
But the people of Nineveh, you know their sin.
You're going to stand your mercy to them,
right?
Jonah got in this weird trap of, we're comparing and we're ranking sin.
and God is saying, Jonah, they're worth saving.
You do not get a say in who I extend my mercy to know
your role and know that you were created for my purpose and for my good, right?
Not for your own.
That God does extend his mercy, his mercy to the worst of the worst.
His love is his kindness, his compassion.
His grace is forgiveness.
And that's challenging because we there are people
that just get under our skin and they're so different from us.
And they just we don't quite understand how
how God can love them in their brokenness until we get to know God's Word
and we realize
that they have a veil over their eyes and they cannot do anything about it,
they they're spiritually living in darkness and sin.
And it's just
they can't do anything.
If you're spiritually dead, what can you do when you're dead?
Nothing. Right.
And we need people like Jonah.
We need people like this community.
Go out and share this good news and share the gospel
so that God could do a work in someone's life.
And so I think chapter one, as we see Jonah's testimony,
we walk through and see his sin nature.
It's a good time to pause and reflect on our own.
In what ways are you and I running from God?
Are always are we pursuing Tarshish?
In what ways are we distant from God?
This morning?
There are four things I really want to hopefully pull out of the text.
And this is the first one, is that God's mercy is not earned.
God's mercy is not deserved, right?
The people of Nineveh, based off who
they were in their characteristics, they didn't deserve God's mercy.
But if I'm being honest, I don't deserve God's mercy.
We don't deserve it.
We can't earn.
It is something that God freely gives right.
His love, his kindness, and his compassion.
And this week I was reminded of Paul, his example.
Right? He says,
he says, I'm the chief sinner.
I am the worst sinner. Right?
And he says that with confidence, but not not to boast about it, but to say,
God like, I need you every second of every day.
I think where Jonah misses the mark and where you and I can find that
same trap is again, Jonah's looking left and right.
He's looking at these like, horizontal relationships and saying,
yeah, based off my sin. And you're saying you don't deserve it?
You do.
Maybe you know, but but Paul is like
looking to God and saying, God in my brokenness, in my comparison
to your holiness and how good you are, I am the worst sinner.
And in that way, when we look to God and not left and right,
we can extend mercy a little bit easier right now.
Sure, we'll make mistakes after repent,
but we need to follow Paul's example, right of saying, God,
let me compare myself to you and your grace and your goodness
and your holiness, and not left and right to the people around us.
So begin to that trap of they don't deserve it
because based off that standard, they don't, right?
We can't earn it.
We don't deserve it.
But God still gives freely.
And I'm thankful that the Scripture tells us that God wants none
to perish once, none to perish, but all to come to repentance.
And as people that have been redeemed by God,
our eyes have been opened and we have the Holy Spirit
as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.
Someday we need to say, God, use me, I'm available.
Like, what do you want me to do? How do you want me to?
What do you want me to go? I'm available. I'm available.
But you want.
I didn't think so. Right, Jonah?
He didn't think they deserved to be saying he was playing God.
He thought he knew better than God.
I mean, God is clear.
Saying, go to the city of Nineveh.
It's evil. It's wickedness is hurt.
It's destruction. It's violence is come up before me.
Go help correct them. Fix something.
You need someone.
And Jonah was like, nope.
Oh, I'm going.
You want, you want. You ended up going to Tarshish, right?
Which end up being west.
And instead of going to Nineveh, which was east, right or northeast.
And so he's going the exact opposite way.
And actually, as I was kind of deep diving in, unpacking things,
Tarshish would have been like the furthest part of the known world.
Think like Spain, right? Western Europe,
and if we take a look at Isaiah
6619, it actually gives us an insight why Jonah picks Tarshish.
It wasn't random.
It wasn't just I close my eyes on a map.
I'm going to go.
It says, I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive
to the nations, to Tarshish,
the Libyan, Lydian, the Tubal, and Greece of the distant islands. Why?
Because they have not heard my fame and they have not seen my glory.
So Tarshish does not know God's name, his fame, or his glory. Yet
they don't know God yet again, furthest part of the known world at this time.
And so what Jonah saying is, because Tarshish doesn't know
my name, or my fame, or my glory, no God's name, fame or glory.
I'm going to go there because you want I want nothing to do with God.
He didn't want to see God or hear God anymore.
Again, the prophet of God, right?
Living in that same sin cycle we see in judges, right where he is
very much disobedient in this moment.
But yet God chose
or Jonathan chose Tarshish because he wanted nothing to do with God.
He wanted to be away and as far away as he could from him.
But then what does God do?
It says, he sends a great wind, says, no, Jonah,
come on back like God doesn't need, don't need you and me.
You can speak the world into existence, but he wants to use us.
And so right away, mercy shown to Jonah.
I mean only thankful for second and third and fourth
and fifth and sixth chances with God.
And that's what God gives Jonah.
I'll try again. Jonah, I'm going to send a wind.
I'm going to send a star.
I'm going to correct you. I'm going to bring you back to myself.
Not because I need you or because I want to do a work in your heart.
I want to change you.
And. Well, it's interesting as we read,
is that we see that the pagans, sailors who get caught up in Jonathan.
Right.
Jonah's the one running, and they actually have a little humor.
They have a little bit of concern for Jonah.
They said, like, what do we do, man?
We don't want to kill you. God, we don't want this guy's blood on our hands.
Like we don't want that at all. So he tried to roll back even.
It says in verse 13, but the sea grew even rougher.
Right? It was.
The storm was just too much. It was too wild.
It was too out of control.
Even though their sailors and their experts on the sea,
they couldn't do anything about it.
And what's fascinating for me this week is it's I was thinking about this is
I think sometimes God is doing a work in our lives.
He's correcting us. He's guiding us.
Maybe you a little bit of a storm to pull us back.
And what's going on here?
The pagans, sailors, they have the right motivation.
They want to help. They want to rescue. They want to help. They want to like.
Like, let me help rescue you.
Don't let me get you back to dry land.
They're trying to roll back in the day.
They're actually getting in the way of what God is doing in Jonah's life.
God is correcting him. God is pursuing him.
And the pagan sailors with the right motivation are getting in the way.
And you and I can fall into that same trap where we want to help.
We want to rescue, we want to be there for people,
and we're actually getting in the way of what God might be doing in their lives.
Very fascinating.
Right.
and then, yeah, the sailors, they cry out to God,
they're like, we can't do this anymore. We're sorry. God.
And they throw John into this watery grave right?
And I think it's proper to pause.
Like, why didn't the prophet of God, why didn't you just repent,
say, God, I'm sorry. Like I'm messed up.
Let's try it over. Let's do this again.
Or why did he just tell the dudes like, hey, take me back to Joppa.
Let's go back, take me to the port. You'll be good to go.
I'll figure out my way or even, like, I don't want to go on anyway.
You guys want to go with me?
At least I'll have company. Let's go to Nineveh. Like none of it.
Because Jonah would rather die than obey God.
This is very interesting.
Jonah would rather die than obey God.
I think this shows a sin in disobedience.
It takes us toward a path of death.
Sin and disobedience takes us toward a path of death.
Right?
If we are not careful, you and I like Jonah,
we can have faith in God that lacks true fear and reverence for God.
Jonah knows in his heart he says, I'm a Hebrew.
I worship the God who created the dry land in the seas.
He knows that God is real, but he doesn't know him in his heart.
He doesn't have true respect and true fear and true reverence for God.
He just knows it in his head.
And again, if we're not careful, we can.
We can find ourselves
worshiping a God, following a God saying we know a God and Jesus a Savior,
really kind of distant from him, where he's not a part of our daily walk.
Right? Carl always slaps face and slaps his head and slaps his heart. Right.
We need to know this.
When you know God's characteristics, we need to know.
Know His is his desires for us and who he is and who we are.
Right?
Our role in the grand scheme of things.
And so we don't know God in his head, but not in his heart, right?
Not here. Not in this moment, at least.
And again, I
think as the reader, this is really just a book written for you and me.
It is a mirror of sorts, like right now, where are we?
If we take an inventory, like what does our face look like?
Is it like Jonah's where we know God or we're kind of distant,
or is it like the sailors who are who are new to the faith and are like God?
We we don't really know you, but
we're in fear of you and of you, and we want to bow down and worship
you and sacrifice to you.
As it says in verse 16,
they make vows to God.
And so it's a good inventory.
Time to check in with our own heart. Where is God? Where?
Who is God?
Where are we in the whole relationship?
And I'll end with this for chapter one.
There's so much more we can unpack, though.
I believe, and I love this.
This really takes the weight off our shoulders like it shows God does it all,
even in
Jonah's disobedience, even in his running from God, even when he's doing everything
wrong, God brings about salvation through him to these pagan sailors.
So Jonah didn't do a thing right.
And yet God redeems people in his life.
You and I can sometimes not do anything right.
And God is so big and mighty and powerful and above us and before us and behind us,
that he can redeem people even through our disobedience.
And so how much greater is it
than we want to say yes to God and we're available to God?
But know that this morning God can use us even when we don't have it all together.
We don't have all the answers.
We don't know God's Word perfectly, or have a perfect prayer life,
or serve or tithe or we don't have it all together.
God doesn't need us to have all together.
He just needs us to say yes to him and to be available to
be available.
All right, let's jump into chapter two.
It says again, Jonah stuck is in a weird space.
He says from inside the fish. Jonah, pray to the Lord his God.
He said, in my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me
from deep in the realm of the dead.
I call for help, and you listen to my cry.
You hold me into the depths, into the very heart of the seas.
And the current swirled about me.
All your waves and breakers swept over me.
I said, I have been banished from your sight.
Yet I will look again towards your holy temple.
The engulfing waters threaten me so deep surrounded me.
Seaweed was wrapped around my head to the roots of the mountain.
I sink down the earth beneath.
Barred me in forever.
But you, Lord, my God, brought my life up from the pit.
Verse seven says, when my life was ebbing away,
I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.
Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them.
But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you
what I have vowed I will make good.
I will say salvation comes from the Lord.
And verse ten says, and the Lord commanded the fish
and vomited Jonah onto dry land.
I heard one pastor say this week, as I was just kind of deep diving.
He wishes that Jonah was like a mile off and like this, this, this, this fish
just spit him a mile and he just hit, skidded and landed like,
can you imagine if you were there and you, like, saw
this fish vomit a grown man and be like, all wild a scene ever.
But what I think this shows us is, I mean, nasty, right?
Gross. God's mercy is surprising.
God's mercy is surprising,
even in the small things.
Right?
My wife and I have this conversation all the time.
I'm more half glass full.
She's more half glass empty, right?
I think we can get stuck sometimes
and and we're looking for God's mercy in some big, majestic, massive way
when sometimes these kind of rescue us in the little things
and save us and provide us mercies and the little things.
Sometimes it looks like a great fish right in Jonah's life.
And it's a weird place that's stinky for us and unknown.
And it doesn't feel like God's mercy. It just is.
It's like this can't be God, right?
And yet God use this stinky, smelly, disgusting fish to save.
Join us live!
So sometimes we be mindful that
although it may not look like a mercy initially, it very well could be
right.
It could be not making the team and what that can do
for our character, what that can do to spur us on.
It could be a flat tire,
a frustrating conversation that has to happen, right?
If we're not careful,
we can miss the mercy of God in the daily lives that we live.
Right?
Jonah says it right there. Again, Jonah knows God in his head.
He says it. He says it.
those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them, right?
If we're not intentional, we can miss God's mercy and cling to worthless idols.
Right, Jonah? No, no.
That the belly of this fish that he was stuck at, I love.
It's the gospel message in one verse.
It says in verse nine that the latter part, salvation comes from the Lord.
And we see that we're going to see that in chapter three.
Salvation comes from the Lord, not my strength or my understanding,
or my ability to teach, or my ability to connect.
Salvation comes from the Lord, right?
And we need to humble ourselves and say, thank you,
God that you do all of it, and that we are just faithful, which are to be faithful.
The last little bit, right as we talk about salvation comes from the Lord.
Again, Jonah knows these important truths about God
is had knowledge for Jonah, though at this point in the game,
not heart knowledge where he is living for God,
where he is chasing after God, it feels like God chasing after him.
And Jonah wants nothing to do with him.
But I'm glad that we have a God who chases after us and pursues us.
So why will that the God who just spoke
this whole thing into existence, who came to earth, who died
on a cross and said, it is finished and rose three days
later like he does it all just as Michael, be faithful.
Don't just let it be head knowledge.
Let it be heart knowledge where I am able to guide your steps day after
day after day.
So chapter two is quick.
Jonah stuck in a weird place,
but now we're going to get to the good stuff here in chapter three it says.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.
It says, go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord, and he went to Nineveh.
But now Nineveh was a very large city.
It took three days to go through it.
Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city, proclaiming,
40 more days and never will be overthrown.
Eight word sermon.
It is saying this over and over throughout the city.
40 more days and none of it will be overthrown.
And then if it's believed, God and a fast was proclaimed,
and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
And when Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh,
he rose from his throne,
took off his real robes, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in the dust.
This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh by decree of the king
and his nobles.
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks taste anything.
Do not let them eat or drink, but let people and animals
be covered with sackcloth.
Let everyone call urgently on God.
Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.
Who knows, God may yet relent and with compassion
turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.
And the chapter ends with this.
In verse
ten it says, When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways,
he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened
did not
bring on them the destruction that they deserved.
So what do we read right, Jonah?
The word comes to him a second time against second chance
to three days journey that says the city's huge right is a massive city.
He's walking through it.
Eight word sermon.
Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Eight words.
And I did process that word overthrown.
Or a couple meetings.
It could it could be communicated.
One destroyed. Right.
We have a just God.
And he says this wickedness, evil needs to be stamped out,
either destroyed or two turned over, right over,
over overthrown, to be turned over, made new, repentant.
And so obviously God's hoping for that.
But Jonah's hoping for the destruction.
He wants them to be blotted out no more.
But here's interesting about the sermon
now he was at eight words, but Jonah doesn't mention sin.
He doesn't mention the Ninevites sin.
He also doesn't mention how to respond to their sin.
They put on sackcloth. They humble themselves. They don't eat.
They don't drink from the King to the lowest.
No animals, no people.
But Jonah doesn't mention sin.
Jonah does not mention how to respond to their sin.
And Jonah does not mention God.
It's such an interesting sermon.
I mean, it says God says proclaim the message I give you.
So either God gave him eight words
to show his glory, that he can redeem an entire city with eight words.
Or Jonah still like grudgingly doing this, right?
He's like, I'm going to kind of do the minimum work.
God, I'm going to give them eight words and we'll see what happens.
And God's like, okay, I can do. I can work with eight words.
I don't need many more than eight.
I mean, it just finished.
Now I need three words right.
But Jonah, he eventually does do it.
He does obey.
and this is maybe the greatest revival ever.
Like they repent, they hear God, and they remember chapter two,
where salvation comes from the Lord alone.
Man that shows the power of God's Word.
Isn't it like eight words?
And he redeemed an entire city?
Hundreds and hundreds of thousands, if not more people.
All right, so we've seen not only the the pagan sailors repent.
Now, we've seen the entire city of Nineveh,
but still not quite there with God's own prophet.
So we can be doing amazing works and we can be seen.
God transform lives, and yet our heart can still be kind of broken towards God.
I think that's what Jonah's communicating to us.
You know, if you were with it was actually just first service.
I said this story in first service two weeks ago.
I was in the back of the room.
Pascale had a
he and I were talking before service and he shouted out to me unexpectedly
and he asked me a question and I kind of like fumbled.
I like got all nervous. I was like, oh, I don't know. I don't know.
But he asked me a question.
He said, hey, we were talking before service
and you mentioned something, and I fumbled the bag.
And but this is what we were talking about,
and this is the truth I think we see in the book of Jonah
that we see in our lives, that God's capacity to forgive is greater
than our capacity to sin against him, that we cannot out sin.
God's grace, his mercy, his love, his forgiveness.
I mean the collective sin
of all the people of Nineveh or this room the world over.
We can't out sin.
We can't out for produce God's grace and his mercy and his love.
I mean,
that should be such a freaking reality for us that when we do make mistakes.
God. I'm sorry. Forgive me. Us repent.
Let's move a different direction and move forward.
Not sit in it, not wallow in it, but say, God, I'm sorry,
not do Jonah's example and say, you know, I'm kind of like,
not really gonna acknowledge I'm gonna do my own thing.
God's capacity to
forgive is greater than our capacity to sin against him.
It's an amazing truth.
I mean, in God's mercy, in his pursuit, in Jonah, he's constantly saying,
Jonah, Michael, everyone turn from sin, turn
from self, and turn towards God and turn towards others.
Turn from sin, turn from self, turn towards God and turn towards others.
I think the miracle that we've seen so far
is not the fish, it's the pagans repenting and the people of the river of painting.
Those are the two miracles in the story.
That's wild.
What God has done with eight words point three this morning is this
is that God's Word is, or rather, his mercy isn't partial, right?
God has compassion.
Who is going to have compassion on towards ruthless people?
That people that we don't think deserve it because God does not hold back.
He loves all he died for all.
He extends his mercy to all his love, his kindness and his compassion.
And we need to be
careful not to fall into the same trap and have spiritually dead lives.
rather be dead than to see people that we just don't get along with.
Or maybe we, when we categorize as we hate in this world,
they're just so different or so broken or so different from us.
We we can't fall in that same trap as Jonah,
where we don't want to see God do a work in their lives.
I was talking with the high schoolers a couple Wednesdays ago about this.
We're going through the sermon on the Mount, right?
So with the Beatitudes, these blessed statements, these promises from God.
And then we get into, like the meat of what it means to follow you.
This is tough. Like we're salt or light.
I mean, he equates murder with hate and idolatry with just lust.
And it's like they're really challenging text, so challenging.
But we get to a point where the challenge of that night was,
I know we we struggle to get to a point where we can, like, love
someone that we hate, but maybe we can just pray for their soul.
Maybe we can just say God to do a work in their lives because I can't.
I don't know what to do with them.
We're so different. I just don't like them.
They don't like me.
But I want to pray for their soul
and genuinely hope that God doesn't work in their lives.
Because if we can, God can transform them.
And that's going to make that that relationship a little bit easier.
So maybe we can start processing.
Who do we need to pray for? Who's sold?
We need to pray for who's who's broken and living in sin.
And just in discussing that, we can pray for with a genuine heart,
because if we're not careful, we see this with Jonah, we can be blind
to God's mercy where he can receive it really well, but struggle to give it out.
I struggle to extend it.
Love, kindness, compassion.
Right?
Jonah's example is a great one of what not to do.
but let's finish up with chapter four.
It says this.
It says, but to Jonah, this seemed very wrong.
And he became angry.
He prayed to the Lord, isn't this what I said, Lord?
When I was still at home?
That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish.
I knew, I know that you were a gracious and compassionate God, slow to be,
slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
So he's trying to justify why he didn't want to go to Tarshish.
But now the Lord.
he says, now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me
to die than to live like he wants nothing to do with the situation.
And then the Lord, he responds.
He says, is it right for you to be angry?
Jonah, where were you when I created this thing?
I'm your dust.
Is it right for you to be angry?
And Jonah doesn't even respond.
He just moves on.
It says in verse five, Jonah had gone out and sat down at a death,
a place east of the city.
There he made himself a shelter.
He sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.
He wanted them to repent of their repentance.
He wanted it to be destroyed.
And then it
says in verse six, then the Lord God provided a leafy plant.
This is comical, right?
And he made it grow up over Jonah to give him shade for his head
to eat, his discomfort.
So even in Jonah's brokenness, guys like, I'm going to provide comfort.
Jonah, you need this right now, right?
It's like being hungry or something.
He's like, I'm going to feed you a little bit.
Let's see if you can cool down right.
Plant for his had comfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant.
Like the first time Dawn has been happy in the book.
Not all the repenting that's happening on a ship.
God's mercy being shown, but at the plant that provides shade for his head.
But it says at dawn the next
day, God also provided a worm which chewed the plant and withered it.
When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind,
and the sun blares on Jonah's head so that he grew faint.
Jonah again echoes what he already said.
He wanted to die, and said it would be better for me to die than to live.
But God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant?
Jonah said, it is.
And I'm so angry, I wish I were dead right?
If we don't see God's mercy here in Jonah's life, he's like,
I want nothing to do with you, God, I want nothing, I want nothing, no,
nothing. I want to die, I want to I want to die right?
But verse ten says, what the Lord says.
You've been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it
or make it grow.
It sprang up overnight and died overnight.
And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh,
in which there were more than 120,000 people
who cannot tell the right hand from their left, and also many animals.
And that's where it ends.
We don't even get an answer to it.
And I think that's intentional by God, because it is a question for us to write.
This is the first conversation between Jonah and God.
And God is going to show Jonah mercy again and again and again.
Right?
He's going to show mercy with the shade.
and again, I think it highlights that God's like, mercy is up to me.
And, Jonah, I will provide you the shade, but I also can take it away.
Right. I'm in control here.
I mean, it's just mercy is on display, enjoying his life.
He's asked for dust two, three, four times.
And then I love the reference to 120,000 people who don't know
the right hand from their left, as I was like going through some, some,
study Bibles and commentaries, there was, there was that really cool
presentation of this, this verse where it's talking about 120,000 people
who are just spiritually dead or living in darkness.
They don't know right from left, but also it could be acknowledging
how the size of the city, 120,000 children
who don't know the right hand from their left,
which I think hits me and I don't know any parents in the room like he's like,
Jonah, should I not have mercy on 120,000 children?
Not even on these children, Jonah, who are lost and in need of of hope.
I mean, I know my biggest prayer for my two boys is eternity.
I want you to trinity with them.
I want them to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.
And this hundred and 20,000 like hits me. I'm my God.
The hurt, the just, the frustration Jonah
has to be living in right now has got to be so overwhelming for him.
Not even 120,000 children to find repentance.
I mean, we
see Jonah's arrogance to the way he's just talking to God.
We see his prejudice.
And what I think we ultimately see in chapter four
is Jonah's pursuing comfort over obedience.
Comfort.
He was happy with a leafy plant.
It wasn't happy when the people Nineveh repented.
It wasn't happy when the pagans repented.
He wasn't happy when God saved him with in the belly.
The fishermen cried out to God but didn't quite repent.
He wasn't happy when he was walking through this massive city.
He's not happy now.
He was because he's choosing.
He's choosing comfort over obedience.
You know, when sometimes we fall into that same trap,
it's like, I know I should give, I know I should help, I know I should pursue,
I know I should do this or that, and yet
we don't because we choose comfort, right?
We say, maybe next time or I can help then.
Or let me pray about it.
Let me talk about it right where God's like, let me do a work in your life.
You know, I shared the first service in a four months.
I was a teacher in Hanford.
and funny enough, one of my students was in the room from last year.
It was like, really random timing.
I was like, why are you here?
You live in Hanford.
But it was awesome. And it was here.
but I mean, like summers off and it paid, okay.
And I was like, this sounds good. And change is hard and difficult.
And but then Pastor Carl reached out and I was like, let's talk.
Like, it'd be so fun to be a youth pastor again and process that.
And and I'm glad that I didn't let comfort get in the way.
Not that I do this perfectly, because I do not, I do not, I love comfort,
but God is really just saying to Jonah, to you
and me, like, it's okay to be a little uncomfortable.
I mean, I can do a work when you're a little uncomfortable,
I want obedience, I want your heart.
I want you to say yes to me.
And our fourth point this morning is,
is God's mercy knows no bounds.
I mean, it never runs out.
It's it's it's extended forever and forever, friend.
Forever.
Hebrews 416 says, let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence.
You and I can approach God's throne of grace,
love, kindness, mercy with confidence, so that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help us in our time of need.
We don't have to have it all together.
We can approach God with confidence like Jonah is a mirror.
Sometimes we're in chapter one.
We are running from God.
Sometimes we are in chapter two, and we are in a stuck,
weird place and we have to cry out to God sometimes.
We're in chapter three
where we are doing God's work, but kind of with a broken heart.
And sometimes we're in chapter four where we're choosing comfort over obedience.
It's a great story to just to sit in and have an honest conversation of,
where am I at when it comes to my relationship with God?
Right.
I think, I hope that by seeing Jonathan
seeing his testimony, it'll help us to recognize our own.
Have Paul's posture say thank you, Lord. Forgive me Lord.
We can extend grace a little bit easier this next week.
I think the point of this book is nothing to do with Jonah.
It's this idea that are we okay with God loving our enemies
like the people we genuinely just, Nope.
Like, are we okay with him loving them?
And I hope the answer is yes.
Because remember, at one point we were all God's enemies, right?
There's no way between us. God, it's it's we are for God.
We are against God until we open our eyes, until he redeemed us.
We were against God.
I mean,
we have a God who came to earth, and in our brokenness, we killed him.
Right in our anger, in our hate him.
We killed him right?
And yet God still pursues us.
And yet his mercies are still new every day.
I mean, aren't we glad that God loves his enemies because he was once us?
It was once us.
And this morning I went in with this scripture.
It's Colossians 116.
I feel like it gives us the proper perspective to enter this next week.
hopefully this next season of God is like re-energize, like God, I'm for you.
I'm with you.
It says, for in him, in God all things were created.
Things in heaven and on earth, visible,
invisible, thrones, powers, rulers, authority.
So it's really nothing happened on this earth without God allowing it to happen.
It's just the reality.
God's will is going to happen.
But I love the latter part.
This applies to us in such a cool way.
All things have been created through him and for him.
You and I have been created through him, but for him,
not for self, not for Jonah's example.
Right?
We've been called and created to to say, God, what do you need?
Yes, like I'll go, I'll try.
And if I fail, forgive me.
Equip me, help me.
Let me do it. Let's try again. Right.
That's I'll think about that this week. Pray about that.
This week.
I who do you who sold you need to pray for?
I know it's hard to get there with the person, but.
But who?
So can you pray for? Say God do a work in their lives.
I've been created for you and through you, through you and for you.
How can I just be more like you and be your hands and your feet?
Jesus, how can I?
How can I sit in your word and let it guide my path?
This week?
So think about that, pray about that.
And don't forget jump back into judges nine and judges ten as Pastor
Carl will be with this next week to unpack that.
Okay, let me pray for us.
And then we're going to sing one more song this morning.
God, I thank you for your grace
and your mercy and your love and your goodness.
I thank you for everyone that's in this room.
Lord, I thank you for an opportunity to repent, for me to say yes to you.
God, I thank you that that you pursue us.
God, I thank you that your mercies are new every day.
I thank you that you're.
I thank you
that your grace abounds, that we can't out sin the forgiveness of the cross.
Lord.
And I pray for everyone in this room, Lord,
that we would find the courage and the strength to say yes to you,
to not pursue comfort, but to pursue obedience,
to not pursue self, but to pursue your will for our lives.
And when we make a mistake, God help us to genuinely repent
and have head and heart knowledge of your goodness. God,
Lord, I thank you for this church and what you're doing through it.
I pray that that as a church we would focus
solely on you, on your word
and your desires to use us in the ranchos and in the Valley and in this world.
Lord, please, Lord, forgive us.
Help us on to to find a renewed spirit, to worship you every single day.
Lord, praise in your name, Jesus. Amen.