Running to your neighbor

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Morning, CCW.

Amen.

Amen.

Happy Sunday.

Happy friend day.

By the way, I shared a statistic last week.

86% of people that attend a church start because a friend invited them.

And so thank you for being here, friends.

And I've just uh decided next Sunday is Friend Day.

Just decided.

And the Sunday after that is Friend Day.

And so look, you can invite somebody every week.

And thank you if you're a guest with us.

We are honored that you're here this morning, and so much good ministry happening this weekend, yesterday, as Dave said.

Um it's just an honor, the vision that God put here, and some people that have been in Westover, this area their whole life, right here in Westover.

And seeing that many people come and be on these grounds.

And we've been watching it from the first stage when there was nothing back here.

So God is doing some exciting things.

But I want you to turn your Bible to Jonah chapter one.

I did not plan when we were planning Friend Day to speak on Jonah.

In fact, I made the Connect Group booklets up and didn't add Jonah specifically to this week because I knew I'd be talking to friends and neighbors.

Well, God had other plans because right in Jonah chapter one, there's a fun little couple of verses that talks to this topic.

So, but we're going to compare two passages there, and if you want to keep your place in Luke chapter 10 as well.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

So turn your Bibles there.

The Bible says to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Finish this line for me.

It's a line most of you will know.

Like a good neighbor?

You knew it.

You knew it.

Now I want you to look at some people around you, and I want you to say this.

I want you to do this for me.

High five, somebody next to you, and say, Won't you be my neighbor?

At least two people.

There you go.

Get you warmed up.

Listen, I told you I wasn't allowed to preach.

I was jumping out on a limb, and I even told the people that I invited this.

I said, I'm not allowed to preach if I can't get a neighbor to come.

So I want to say, uh, my neighbors directly across the street from me did come today, so I'm excited that I'm I'm gonna preach.

I'm gonna preach.

Thank y'all.

Thank y'all.

I invited more than that, but one did come.

Okay, one out of ten is what the percentages say.

So, anyhow, Jonah chapter one.

Let's jump in this morning.

Let me pray.

Father, Lord, it is good to be in your house.

And uh, Lord, I echo what Pastor Dave said.

It is good, it is always good.

And I'm thankful for the people of God, the place of God, but most important, we need the person of God to be here with us this morning.

So, God, I pray that your Holy Spirit, Lord, would speak, get me out of the way.

Lord, every person that came in and has something rattled in their mind, Lord, I pray that you would get it out of the way.

And for just a few moments, God, would you speak to our hearts and share with us what we need?

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Look down at verse number five and six.

We've been through this passage for the last two weeks.

And last week we even looked at how Jonah was thrown overboard and ended up in the belly of the fish.

We're gonna carry that on next week and see what happens.

But we did kind of skip there, verse five and six, something interesting.

It says this Then the mariners were afraid, and every man cried out to his God and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten the load.

But Jonah had gone down into the lowest part of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.

So the captain came to him and said to him, Why do you mean, sleeper?

Or what do you mean, sleeper?

Arise, call on your God.

Perhaps your God will consider us so that we may not perish.

The first thing I want you to see this morning is we have to be moved for those who are hurting.

Our motto at the church, if you're visiting today, is loving God and loving people.

By the way, if you visit any church, anywhere, any place, this should be their motto.

Okay?

It's in Matthew, and it's how it's the Great Commission, loving God and loving people.

The essence of church ministry is this that people everywhere are hurting, and they're in need of Christian community, and they're in need of a message of hope, and that is Jesus Christ.

Well, Jonah is asleep, and there is a storm going on.

Letter A this morning is this Jonah slept while men were afraid.

When I was about 16 years old, me and my friend were playing Mario Kart, that ages me, on Super Nintendo.

We were sitting there playing games.

It was almost midnight.

At almost the same time, my friend looks over at me.

I look back at him, and our brains were working on the same wavelength.

At the same time, we looked at each other and said, Donuts.

Same time.

Now, my parents were asleep, so we snuck out the window of my room and we went over to his car.

He would park strategically, not in my driveway.

He would park, I'm not trying to teach you teens anything, okay, by the way.

But he was parked out on the edge of the drive, and we would keep his car in neutral a little bit so that we had beagles outside.

Anybody ever have beagles?

The loudest dogs known to man when they get going anyway.

So we would push the car a little ways, and then at a certain point we would start it up.

So we go out in the Buick Cutlass.

I talked about this the other week.

It was a boat.

Nothing cool about this car whatsoever.

It had a trunk, could fit, you know, a full family for a picnic lunch.

So we're going down the road.

We're gonna go to Wawa, which is a convenience store, and we're gonna go get our donuts.

So that's what we do.

We said it's literally two minutes down the road.

Could have walked there, and you would never have this story.

But we got in the car, we get to Wawa, get our donuts, everything is right with the world.

On the way back, we're turning down my street, and we're going to come on back to the same place.

For some reason, unknown reason, I still don't know today.

My friend decides to do some burnouts.

He's got his lights off, and he's doing some burnout, which you can just barely do in this car.

And I'm like, what are you doing?

Whatever.

And and we get down the road, next thing you know, you know what lights we saw?

Red and blue lights going like this.

And I'm like, oh, what are you doing?

Well, the cop pulls us over and he's speaking in a microphone or something.

I don't know what they got in there, but he's like, pull over and put your hands where I can see them.

When he does that, my friend had not put his car and parked, and the car moved forward a little bit, wasn't much.

Well, this set the guy off.

And he said, I said, pull over.

He jams it in park.

The guy comes, he rushes over after that and pulls me out of the car and pushes me against, and he's searching me.

Now I'm I'm 16.

I've never had this happen to me before.

I didn't know protocol, okay?

The guy is searching me, okay?

That's all I'm gonna say.

It was a very strange thing.

He's all everywhere, and I had a hat on and he put it back on and it was like sideways, okay?

He's walking back around to my friend to pull him out of the car and begin to search him.

And I'm like, who do they think we are?

What do they think we've done?

And so he gets over to him, he pulls him out, and he starts him.

By this time, another guy shows up, another policeman, and he jumps in and he says, Have they been frisked yet?

I'm like, We have been frisked.

Please.

I go to slightly move my hat back in place because it's crooked while they're doing this.

And the guy goes, Put your hands where I can see them.

I'm like, who in the world do they think we are?

All this is going on.

By now, the the dogs are going off.

The beagles are just going off.

Lights were still going.

All this commotion is happening.

They start searching the car.

He comes back over to my side and he's looking through and he goes like this, what's in the bag?

And I'm like, Do you really want to know?

And I said, There's donuts in the bag.

And he said, Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?

No.

Do you want one?

And finally they let us go.

And all this time, all of this was happening, all these lights, dogs going off.

My parents slept soundly through everything.

This is Jonah.

The sho the ship in verse 4 says was about to be broken up.

Jonah is sound asleep.

Have you ever seen a child cry themselves to sleep?

This is where I kind of picture this.

You're just so overwhelmed, so tired.

And when you cry yourself to sleep, it's like you're gonna sleep good.

You hear people say, I need a good cry, right?

And so Jonah was told, go to Nineveh, and he's on the ship.

The ship was taken a beating.

Listen to me.

Look at what it says there in the scripture says, every man at this moment cries out to his own God.

So not to thee, God, but these mariners are crying out.

They're looking for help.

When we reach the end of ourselves, isn't it interesting?

Even the mariners, when we reach the end of ourselves, the end of our rope, innately, we see that we need a power outside of ourselves.

Ever been there?

Many today, listen to me, church, many people today are at the end of themselves.

They're finding out in this world that politics isn't getting them where they thought it would get them.

They're finding out today that the economy is not providing the answer.

They're finding out today that money is not.

I mean, what is money anymore?

It used to be currency, it's I I don't, digital, crypto.

What is money?

The stock market isn't providing the answers anymore.

Drugs isn't providing answers, sex isn't providing answers, Hollywood is not providing answers.

There's a world in a storm.

And let me tell you about you and me.

We can't be zombie Christians walking through not being filled when people are in the middle of a storm and need help.

Jonah is a prophet with a vital message, and he's sleepwalking while people are needy and scared.

Well, I want you to go and look at this passage that we're gonna compare.

I want you to turn over to Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

We're gonna look at uh verses 29 through 33 to start.

You see, Jonah slept when men were afraid.

This is the story of the good Samaritan in Luke, and the Samaritan letter B, Saul, when a man was assaulted.

Look at what it says.

Starting verse 30.

Then Jesus answered and said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, who was stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side.

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

There's a priest and a Levite that walk by, they see somebody hurt, but they did not see the need.

Listen to me, church.

They they both had sight, but they had no vision.

Let me say that again.

They both had sight, but they lacked vision.

Lots of people today have sight without vision.

What do you mean, Pastor?

They're distracted.

Plans have gotten in the way of people.

Social media has gotten in the way of a social life.

A social interaction.

We're so busy finding out what our second grade friend had for dinner that we miss an interaction at dinner.

Checking statuses and missing the person right next to us's status.

Busy taking pictures of perfect moments and missing actual moments.

My kids get in the car sometimes and want to take a ride and they'll say, I want an iPad, I want a phone, I want a DS.

They start, the DS is called a switch.

I'm like, I'll give you a switch.

You can get that.

They want something.

And I've said many times, you can ask them, look out your window.

You might see something real.

Listen to somebody next to you.

You might hear something real.

We are so distracted.

We're little fake worlds.

When the real world is out here, it says a man was beaten, he was naked and half dead.

A priest and a Levite went.

Walked right on by.

They walked on by.

We have a big fight right now with distraction.

We have to open our eyes, church, and see.

I had a I used to live on Lake Chelsea Court in the back side of um Chelsea Park.

And when I lived over there, my literal neighbor's name was Mike Jordan.

How about that for a neighbor?

Okay.

Mike Jordan was my neighbor, and he was on the side of the road one day, car broke down, all of it.

He was in the mess over on the side.

And I sort of had my own mess because I was borrowing the Jesus is awesome van.

If you don't know, our church has a motto of Jesus is awesome.

We have a bright yellow cheese wagon called a van, and I was borrowing it, and I rode by and I saw Mike pulled over inside the road.

And you know what I did?

I just kept on going.

Sorry, Mike.

Just kidding, I didn't just keep on going.

Mike was there and he was in great need.

And you know what?

I stopped.

Praise the Lord, I stopped.

Because if he seen the yellow flash go by, yell waving, hey, Jesus awesome Mike.

You know, what would he think about his neighbor?

But I wasn't too busy.

I wasn't too preoccupied.

My neighbor was in need.

Thank God.

I wasn't thinking on something.

Thank God I wasn't scrolling or texting.

Thank God.

He didn't have a testimony of what a poor pastor neighbor he has.

The priest and Levites are example of people like that.

And they say this in the story that in the Old Testament, that they're supposed supposedly examples in the Old Testament of people that were rigid about the law.

And in the story, the priest and the Levite might have thought because the man was dead or hurt in that way, they needed to keep themselves ritually clean.

And so they weren't going to go and be around this death.

Okay?

They needed to keep clean.

This man that's being taught this is a man versed in the law.

And another important note about a priest and a Levite, they hated Samaritans.

And so there's this theme that we're seeing.

There's this theme of hate.

There's this theme of being rigid.

Jonah hated Ninevites.

That's why he's down there sleeping, pouting.

Every single one.

Now I want you to think about God gave him, appointed him to go and do something, and Jonah did not want to do it.

Now, for him to not want to share the gospel, the mercy of God to any man, any woman, any child, think about that.

He didn't want to go to any of them.

Because of their history of bloodthirstiness and the history in Assyria.

Well, the difference in Jonah and the Good Samaritan is this.

One was a good neighbor.

Listen to me.

Good neighbors see and don't sleep.

Say don't sleep.

That takes us to the second thing this morning.

We have to be merciful to the helpless.

The word mercy means this.

In the Greek, it's eelios, that is to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior, to favor or to implore.

Tim Keller wrote this mercy is the impulse that makes us sensitive to hurts or lacks in others and makes us desire to alleviate them.

That's what mercy is.

But Jonah, we see, is silent when men need help.

Letter A, Jonah was silent when men were anxious.

I want you to look back to Jonah chapter 1.

Jonah 1 · chapter mention

Look at verse 5 and 7.

He was silent when men were anxious.

The mariners were afraid, it says, but Jonah had gone down and parts of the ship and he was asleep.

The captain comes down, verse 6, and asks him to wake up, calling his God, verse 7, it says, and they said to one another, Come, let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.

He was sleeping, probably depressed.

He went down to get away.

God gave him this assignment and he just wanted to sleep.

I asked last week, has anybody ever been through something you just felt like, Pastor, I just want to sleep.

I just want to be away from it all.

God gave him this assignment, and he didn't like it because Assyria was full of bloodthirsty, merciless people.

So in verse 7, it says that they cast lots.

They're trying to figure out why this storm is happening.

Jonah, I believe, is very aware.

But Jonah's like the priest and the Levites.

Storm's going on.

Cast lots, it says.

Jonah doesn't ever enter in and say, guys, I gotta tell you something.

Guys, I need you to know something.

The storm is happening.

It says they have to cast lots.

In other words, they're gonna flip a coin to figure out who's the one that it falls to.

And of course, Jonah pulls the smallest straw, and he's just being quiet, absolutely silent.

The boat was being thrashed, verse 4 says it was about to be broken.

The sailors are afraid, crying out to any God.

Think about this.

What a time for a prophet to have intervened with a message of hope.

What a time for an evangelist to speak up.

Let me tell you about the God who controls this storm.

What a time for a prophet to speak up.

What if he would have called out in that moment on God?

What if he would have confessed his sin before God in that moment?

What if all this would have happened?

It could have changed right there.

They began throwing out cargo.

It cost these sailors much.

They began losing money.

Jonah, just silent, took no action.

You know when Jonah took action?

Listen to me, hear this.

He did not take action until the scared sailors came to him.

Neighbors, let me tell you this.

Hear me, please, church.

There's plenty of hurts in our world.

Everywhere, people in need of things.

There's people in need of a meal.

There's people in need of a visit.

There's people in need of money.

They're in need of counsel.

They're in need of prayer.

What do you have to offer?

Too often the storm is raging and people are waiting to be asked.

Are you okay in that storm over there?

Looks pretty bad.

If you ask me, I'll throw you this life.

Right?

They're about to drown.

The boat is about to break, and people are waiting.

Jonah is fixing his sleep hair, like, wow, what do you guys think about this storm?

This is crazy.

My, my, my, the boat is flooding.

Sounding like Eeyore.

Oh, bother, what a storm.

I was just sleeping my blues away.

And the sailors are like a siren.

Help! Help! Help! Jonah, the prophet of the one true God.

Well, finally.

I guess just throw me over.

That'll probably stop the storm.

He never thinks to call out to God.

Have you ever been to a place so so spiritually dry, church, that it's hard for you even to call out to God?

Maybe some neighbors, some people visiting today.

Have you ever been in a place where you maybe even been out of church?

You just it just got harder and harder and harder.

Well, Jonah's there.

Well, let me take you back to Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Jonah's just tried up.

He's silent while men are anxious.

Let her be.

The Samaritan, although, is sacrificial when a man was abandoned.

Look down now at verse 34 and 35.

Priest and Levite walk on by, distracted, don't care enough.

Whatever it is, verse 34 or 30 end of 33, it says, The Samaritan had compassion.

When you have compassion, by the way, there should be a next verse.

There is a next verse.

Compassion drove him to verse 34.

Something happens when we have compassion.

So he went to him and he bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an end, and he took care of him.

Verse 35.

So he went to him and banded.

I'm sorry, on the next day when he departed, he took out two Teneri, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I'll repay you.

So the Samaritan was sacrificial.

I want you to see the Samaritan's progress here.

Okay.

There's a storm in somebody's life, remember?

He'd been robbed.

It says he'd been stripped of his clothes, he'd been beaten.

Samaritan's progress, the other two, walked on by.

The Samaritan, here's how it went.

He saw.

Hear me, he saw a need.

First, you have to see a need.

And when he saw a need, second thing, he slowed down.

Man, do we have a fast-paced world when we might even see a need, but we're so busy that it's hard to even hit the brakes.

And then, third thing, he slowed down and then he stopped.

He saw it, he slowed, he stopped, and then you know what?

It didn't end right there.

He saw, he slowed, he stopped, he shifted.

And he said, There's the need.

Well, then he shifted and he moved over to that need and then he stayed.

Let me tell you, sometimes what people need in their darkest hour, man, I need somebody just to stay.

You ever been like that?

It's been dark.

It's not that their words help you or that they can fix it.

You just need a human with flesh.

Somebody to stay right there.

And so that's what the Samaritan stayed.

And then finally, he sacrificed.

You know what he did?

He moved towards the hurt.

He moved towards a need.

I found out in many years of teenage ministry.

There's two types of teenagers.

If you have a fundraiser, you're gonna find out you got one or two types of teenagers.

I'm giving you something right here.

There's two types.

There's a teenager and a fundraiser who will stick around and wash the dishes.

There's that type.

And then there's a teenager, whenever something needs to be done, that has to go to the bathroom.

That's the two types.

That's the only two.

You got them in your home.

When you start doing the list of stuff, one on some great occasion might say, Mom, is there something else I need to do to help for the party that's coming?

Maybe.

You might pass out because then you need a doctor.

But then there's the other one.

They all of a sudden their bowels are all messed up.

Every time a new dish comes out, oh my.

I'm like, are you these kids hiding in the bathroom again?

Do you move towards the need?

The heart of a Samaritan shows compassion.

He didn't know him.

He saw a person in need, and because of what was in his heart, he moved towards the need.

Before the world began, church, God had a plan for you to impact people in need.

You impact people with three things.

The Bible calls them time, talent, and treasure.

We are conduits of the Holy Spirit with our time, our talents, and treasure to better our neighbor.

Lots of people come to the church, listen to me, lots of people come to church to say, I like this church.

And they'll give a list of why it's good for them.

But let me ask you a question.

Why are you good for it?

Teens, listen.

Are you coming to church because it does something for you?

Or do you say, I need to go to church because there's somebody there that needs me?

If you don't go to church to help someone else, you will find a reason why church is a place that you don't like.

Eventually, you're gonna find that you don't like it.

There's not enough bells and whistles.

You'll get tired of the preaching, the worship is gonna get off.

There's gonna be something that's not gonna impress you anymore.

So if you don't come to help people and reveal your purpose, then you're gonna get bored or tired of it.

Listen to me.

Hear me in the nicest of ways, you're gonna find this that it's not about you.

It's about the person next to you.

I want you to look at the person next to you and say, I need you.

Now look at choice number two and say, I need you too.

But the question is, are you willing to sacrifice?

Look at the way that the Samaritan took care of problems.

He took care of his past problems, he bandaged up his wounds.

He took care of his present problems.

He said, I'm gonna put you on my animal and give you a ride to a place to stay.

He took care of his future problems by leaving some money with the innkeeper and paying his rent.

The difference in these neighbors, Jonah was silent when men were anxious.

The Samaritan was sacrificial, not silent.

He saw a need and he met it.

Anybody here ever had to have a root canal?

Mmm.

Let me tell you, I was on a missions trip.

Worst place in the whole world to need a root canal.

Living on ibuprofen with teenagers.

I'm on a mission trip with teenagers and we're ministering to children worse than teenagers.

Right?

And this is what we're doing.

And I've got a tooth.

It feels like somebody has taken a beehive and took a hammer and smashed the beehive inside of my gums.

And I'm like, I'm living off of whatever medicine I can get my hands on.

Listen to me, nobody likes a dentist.

I wanted to kiss a dentist.

Show me a dentist.

I want their medicine, I want their tools, I want it all in here.

Right?

I was hurting and I needed help.

I could not wait.

I was like, oh, you're the most beautiful dentist.

When I got home, nothing was more beautiful than that dentist's office.

The smells, all of it.

I loved it all.

Please make me bleed.

Do what you gotta do.

It was the best relief, I'm telling you.

This man is in a ditch, beaten, naked.

Are you gonna help?

Listen to me, church.

Your neighbor might not be bleeding naked and half dead, but they have some issues.

Look at your neighbor again and say, You got issues.

Look at him again and say, you know you do.

They may not be beaten, they may not be bleeding, but listen.

I was reading this survey this week about Gen Z and Millennials' biggest issues right now.

Hear this.

Don't miss what I'm saying.

Biggest, four of the biggest issues facing generation now.

One, a mental health crisis.

Number two, bullying.

Three, listen to this social disconnection.

And four, technology addiction.

Now hear me.

Every single one of those, everyone relate to an internal need for community, for people, social disconnection, they need people, technology addiction, they need people.

You're seeing a correlation here.

They need somebody, they need a friend, a neighbor, they need a Samaritan, they need a church.

Well, that was the attitude of the Samaritan.

He saw a need.

It might be able to be captured.

We've got a song I want you to hear a little line from.

1965 hit song, see if you can identify its singer.

It's the only thing that there's just to live.

Anybody know that singer?

For a prize.

No, that's not it.

Jackie DeShannon.

She said, We need love, sweet love.

Listen to me.

Scripture says this way Jesus said, Greater love has no one than this.

Then a man lay down his life for his friends.

In John 15, 13, it says, Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.

Love.

Interesting.

You know what the word for love is in the Greek?

Agape.

That's what the Samaritan did.

It's sacrifice.

Real love is not, I mean, there's parts of it that's friendship, there's parts of it that's romance, but real love, agape love, what he's talking about is sacrifice.

What do you do when you see a need?

Last thing this morning is this we have a message of hope.

I was taught in seminary, the gospel in ten words.

Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead.

Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead.

This is the gospel.

This is the message of my life and your life to people.

Christ died for my sins and rose from the dead.

That is hope.

Are you delivering a message of hope?

Well, let me tell you how God works, even in spite of how Jonah was.

There's an indirect message, letter A, that Jonah left with the sailors.

Why don't you go back to verse 10 through 15 and see what happens?

They draw straws, they ask, Who are you?

Where did you come from?

Why is this happening?

He said, I'm a Hebrew, I fear the Lord, the one who made this sea.

Verse 10.

Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said, Why have you done this?

For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he told them.

Then they said to him, What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?

For the sea was growing more tempestuous.

And he said to them, Pick me up and throw me into the sea.

Then the sea will become calm for you.

For I know that this great temptus is because of me.

Now listen to this.

Nevertheless, the men rode hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against him.

Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man's life, and do not charge us with innocent blood.

For you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.

So they picked up Jonah, threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from raging.

Jonah knew.

By the way, parents, are you hearing this?

How we live our life impacts those right around us.

The world we're in might hit them.

By the way, parents, the friends that you allow your kid to ride in a car with, the Bible says you reap what you sow, sometimes you reap in the whirlwind.

Okay.

And so these sailors are becoming a part of Jonah's storm.

The men didn't even want to throw Jonah in.

Jonah did not want to tell them how to fix the problem.

That's where his heart is.

And the lost sailors didn't want to throw Jonah in to fix their problem.

Look at their moral hearts.

It's sad when the world has lost men who are living more kind than saved men.

God's power was seen, though, even in Jonah's sinfulness.

The lost men saw God react to his servant.

Hear this: may it never be said of us that our only contribution is that lost men see us not serving the God which we say we believe and in so doing cause a storm.

That's a lot, I'm gonna say it again.

May it never be said of us that our only contribution is that lost men see us not serving your neighbors, your friends, not serving the God in which we say we believe, and in so doing cause a storm.

If you say you're a Christian, Paul says, walk worthy, act like it.

Well, Jonah was the one in this scenario who was acting hopeless.

He said, Get rid of me.

These men needed the storm to go away.

And instead of Jonah calling out, confessing God, Jonah said, Just get rid of me.

But I want you to know, church, something so awesome about God found in here.

The sailors were more caring.

They didn't want to toss him in, but finally they gave up.

Jonah gave up.

The sailors gave up.

But can I tell you something so exciting?

God never gave up.

He never gave up on Jonah.

In the same vein that he wanted to offer his mercy to the Ninevehes, he wanted to use Jonah.

He saw something in the one man.

He saw something in the one that he didn't see in the 99.

And scripture says God left the crowd and took the disciples over from a revival because there was a man filled with a demon.

And he saw something in the one that he didn't see in the 99.

Sometimes God wants a whole city, like Nineveh, and sometimes he just wants one.

Listen, church, this is my story.

God would not leave me alone.

I tried.

I tried to get away for two years as a teenager.

I tried to run, I'm so glad his feet were faster.

I tried to get away from his grasp, and he just got a hold of me by the nap of the neck, and I was trying to jump overboard, and he said, I don't think so.

Not having it today.

And I tried, but he would not relent.

If you're here today, church, he loves you too much today just to let you go.

He loves you too much today just to be okay with you not coming to church and being a part of community.

He loves you too much today to let you go through this life being elevator music when you can have purpose and passion and live for things that matter.

If you're here, he loves you.

It's interesting in verse 5, the mariners were afraid, and every man cried out to his God.

Look at verse 16.

In verse 16, they watch what happens when they throw Jonah.

Then the men, listen to this, feared the Lord.

They were crying out to every God, any God, give me a fish, God, bird God, sea God, whatever God.

And now the indirect message that Jonah left with these sailors, God's still, Jonah's being thrown overboard into the sea, and God is still using the situation.

He stopped the storm.

Then the men feared God and offered a sacrifice to the Lord and took vows.

They took vows in this moment.

The indirect message, Jonah's God was real.

Jonah was confident if you get rid of me, my God will relent from your storm.

Even in sin, God shows up.

He's real.

Listen to me, in dark times, when you feel far from him, he's not any less real.

He's real today in your life.

They cried to all these other gods, and now they cry out to the God of Jonah.

God shows himself, even in a servant who's not doing a good job.

That takes us to letter B.

I want you to turn back to Luke.

The direct message Jesus left to the Samaritan.

Look down at verse 27, just giving some context, background.

Jesus is having a conversation with a lawyer.

Verse 27, so he answers and said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

He's asking, What's the most important commands?

Or how am I able to inherit eternal life?

And he says to him, verse 28, You have answered rightly, do this and you will live.

But the lawyer, verse 29, wanting to justify himself, says to Jesus, Well, who is my neighbor?

Go down to verse 36.

After he gives this parable of the Good Samaritan and says the man had bandaged his wounds, he put him on his animal, took him to an end, verse 36.

He says, So which of these three do you think was a neighbor to him who fell among thieves?

And he said, He who showed mercy.

Then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise.

The direct message from Jesus is this He says, Go and do likewise.

Be a person of mercy.

Listen, I want you to know something that I think.

I believe that we are not in the story the Samaritan.

I think where we fall in that story, I think we're the innkeepers, those charged by the willing Jesus to be caretakers as we look after and speak up for those who have been victimized, all sorts of hurt or poverty, manifestations of evil.

I think Jesus in the story is the good Samaritan, the one that went after when nobody else would.

But listen to me, Scripture says this to us, 2 Corinthians 3 18.

But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord.

In the story, we have the chance to be the most like Jesus.

He is our example.

1 John 3.2 says, We are children of God.

Has not yet revealed to us what we shall be, but we know when he is revealed, we shall be like him.

Church, are you hearing me?

I think we're the innkeepers there to help people, to give mercy, to share, to help better them, to continue that.

I think Jesus comes and does the saving, and he uses his bloodshed to cleanse them of all of their sin, their past, present, and future problem.

And then he says, Let me give you to one of my bodies.

Let me give you to one of my local New Testament churches so that they can see this thing through with you.

Jesus saves, and we disciple.

Jude 22 says, and now some have compassion, making a difference.

Making a difference with what?

It's about people.

You will know your neighbor, you will serve your family, you will serve your church, your community.

I believe the church is the end.

So why does the message of mercy matter so much to God?

Because Jesus is his good Samaritan.

He sent Jesus.

And I believe that heaven and hell are not a fairy tale.

God loved Jonah so much that his son Jesus died on a sinner, on a cross for a sinner like Jonah.

And he died on a cross for sinners like Ninevehes.

He died on a cross for people like you and for me.

What he saw in the one, there is no doubt he saw something.

But I believe he also saw in the hundred thousand people in the Ninevites that there was something in them too.

You see, God is slow to anger and quick to mercy.

He's relentless with his love.

I want to share to you in closing.

There's a book, maybe you read it growing up, called David Copperfield.

And I had to read this in school.

And David Copperfield in the story, there's a father figure named Mr.

Pigity.

And Mr.

Piggetty is so excited when his niece and nephew are moved into his estate.

He's a retired, aging fisherman.

He adopts them in.

And he desires, as she gets older, to see her marry a fine young man.

But Emily, as some do, has her own ideas.

And she's taken by a handsome, fast-talking young man named Steerforth.

He promises her the whole world and she runs away with him.

Well, as life was turned, Steerforth never had any intention of keeping Emily in his life.

He had never any intention of marrying her, and so he leaves her.

And she has no further recourse but to take herself to the streets, selling herself just to be able to eat, just to be able to live.

Word gets back to Mr.

Piggity, her grief-stricken uncle.

And he's sick at the idea that his beautiful niece is living in this way.

And so Mr.

Piggity takes every penny and he leaves and searches all throughout the world for his niece.

He determines that if it takes the rest of his life, he does not care.

And so in the book, he visits every dark and seedy street corner.

His love for Emily is completely unaffected by anything that she has done.

He cannot stand, listen to me, he cannot stand for her to be lost.

He can't stand it.

Think about your own child.

He can't stand the thought of her being somewhere without love.

So he searches for years and years, and finally, finally in the book, he finds her.

And Emily cannot believe what she sees.

She sees his face and tears well up for both.

And full of joy, Mr.

Pigity, so full of joy of what he's found.

He says, I'm happier than I've ever been because my child who was lost has now been found.

Come home.

Come home.

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