Jonah: Jonah's Biggest Mistake

[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.

[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Buggin morning church family is so good to be back with you for the last couple of weeks.

[SPEAKER_00]: My family's been on a family trip, not so much vacation, but a family trip.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's an important distinction there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was just two weeks, but it felt like a month.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's so good to be back with you and to hear all the great singing and just awesome to get to worship together this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: A couple, well, no one year ago, we bought a used travel trailer and we've been trying to get our money's worth out of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So for the last couple of weeks, we camped in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska in Kansas City before coming back here.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that was about 93 hours of driving and 4,000 miles of travel and over 50 miles of hiking that we did.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the real champ is my six year old daughter who did all of that with us, all the hiking.

[SPEAKER_00]: We had 114 mile hike that was really tough in the mountains and she did all of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: saw some cool wildlife, which you can see there, some neat waterfalls and amazing sights out in God's creation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was really, really awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: And our kids connected in some neat ways that we hadn't seen before, which was really, really cool wouldn't have happened without a trip like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was

[SPEAKER_00]: really fun.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're on this mountain trail called the Highline Trail, which is a kind of a challenging trail and there are lots of places with some fairly steep drop-offs and steep climbs on the other side.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there was nowhere else to go and this big guy wanted to come right through me.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I just kind of shimmyed off to the side and let him walk and I've got a video of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He kind of walks by, looks right at me, gives me the side eye, trying to decide what he's going to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: I thought he was going to just headbutt me all the sudden.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then he finally made it through.

[SPEAKER_00]: He actually had a buddy too.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's so many more pictures from this trip.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just amazing stuff, incredible views.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's my daughter hiking along, but really, really fun trip.

[SPEAKER_00]: Very thankful and blessed that we could go to do that as a family and some neat sights that we saw along the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, one of the things that we did on this trip and we like to do this on our trips is we will listen to audio books in the car as we're going.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we usually knock out at least a couple of books.

[SPEAKER_00]: called Little Pilgrims Progress, which is a retelling of the classic John Bunyan story.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little more understandable for younger readers.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's really, really, really well done.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we didn't know when we started this thing, how helpful it would end up being to process some of the difficult stuff that has happened this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: It really has been a challenging

[SPEAKER_00]: week.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as Andrew mentioned earlier, we lost an incredible man as far as we're concerned from our perspective in Leo Stoff this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that has been really, really hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, we were praying for him on our drive.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as we were hiking and thinking about him and just hoping and praying for a miracle.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God chose to call him home on Thursday morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that was a really, really difficult news to hear.

[SPEAKER_00]: and challenging for, especially, of course, his wife, K.C.

[SPEAKER_00]: and for Addy and for Molly and everybody that knows and loves Leo.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was a really, really tough, tough one.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's very painful.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's hard to make sense of it all because

[SPEAKER_00]: He was so young and he was taken so suddenly and even though he seemed like he was the picture of perfect health, if you know Leo, you know he's probably the healthiest person in the room and just so conscious of fitness and yet no one knew what was going on in his body with cancer and the impact that that was having on him and little pilgrims progress.

[SPEAKER_00]: is a story about a young person named Christian, who was called Graceless, but he gets a new name Christian, and he starts on this pilgrimage toward the celestial city.

[SPEAKER_00]: Along the way he's joined by a fellow pilgrim named Faithful, and the two become good friends, and they endure trials together in challenges, and you get the sense that these two are gonna be together for a long time as they make their way toward the King's city.

[SPEAKER_00]: They encourage each other, their deep bond, though, makes what happens next really, really heartbreaking for Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because along with their journey, they have to go through this city called Vanity Fair.

[SPEAKER_00]: And while they're there, they're arrested because of their faithfulness to the true King.

[SPEAKER_00]: And faithful continues to be faithful and shares his testimony of how he loves the King and he's going to serve the King and he's on his way to the Celestial City and they end up killing him for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: shocking what seems like a premature loss and it's absolutely heartbreaking for Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the story reveals that Faithful's death was actually his immediate entrance into the Celestial City.

[SPEAKER_00]: The thing that he had been pursuing, the thing that they were both heading toward in the end, the where their pilgrimage was going to end.

[SPEAKER_00]: He actually got an early entrance into it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the story reveals that the shining ones come and carry him straight to the Celestial City, leaving the dust and the danger of the road behind.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's heartbreaking for Christian in that moment, the loss of his friend, but even he realizes that his friends early departure is actually an early entrance into the place of the king.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Christian has strength to continue on his journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: And eventually, he gets a new companion named hopeful.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they continue on, have more adventures together in one day in the future, they cross what's called the dark river, which symbolizes death.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then enter the celestial city where they're reunited with faithful and the king.

[SPEAKER_00]: See, Faithful's early death was not a defeat and it wasn't even so much a life cut short as much as it was a quick and glorious arrival in his true and ultimate home.

[SPEAKER_00]: All the King's Pilgrims are on that journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone who loves the King is on that journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's hard to lose a companion on that journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we can praise God when their journey is over because we know where they are.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes that journey is short or shorter than we expect.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes that journey is long.

[SPEAKER_00]: On Friday, we were able to have the memorial service here for Bill Mueller, who was another faithful servant heavily involved in this church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Leo served in our kids ministry for many years and a lot of you know him from that and bill has served in all sorts of ways in our church for many many years.

[SPEAKER_00]: Decades in this church.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was amazing to hear the stories from his wife and his daughter Wendy and his grandkids as they shared about all of the things that he did and what a fun guy he was, what a absolute Renaissance man he was.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it made me think as I was listening to all of these, how I don't know if Leo and Bill ever knew each other, but in heaven these two would have a lot to talk about.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe they could reconnect and they know a lot of the same people and they could talk about all the amazing things that have happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: in their lifetime.

[SPEAKER_00]: But something that Leo told his wife, Casey, just a few days ago, after he got this diagnosis and he was feeling just awful, just miserable, he said, I don't feel mad at God for this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't want anyone else to feel mad at God for this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is incredible faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can call Leo faithful.

[SPEAKER_00]: And looking from our perspective, we do see what looks like a pilgrimage that's cut short.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, God sees a runner crossing the finish line.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just want to pause for a moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And let's pray for those who have lost loved ones recently.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's pray for Leo's family, for Bill's family, and make sure that we're lifting them up in prayer and supporting and encouraging them in any way.

[SPEAKER_00]: They, whether we can, would you bow your heads with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord Jesus, it's so difficult in these times to even know what words to use.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because our hearts are breaking for the loss and yet we also understand that there is joy and knowing that Leo and Bill are in your presence today and they love you so much.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now they actually get to see you face to face and be with you God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we know that for them, it's a completely different perspective.

[SPEAKER_00]: They don't experience the loss in the morning the way that we do at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: But for those of us who are left behind, and particularly for family members like Nancy and Casey and Addy and Molly and Wendy, we feel for their loss and our heart breaks for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we know that it's appropriate to grieve and it's appropriate to mourn there's time for that.

[SPEAKER_00]: but we also pray that in the middle of all of that, you would help them to remain faithful and to have that hope of reunification one day, that knowledge and joy of knowing that death is not the end.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is more, much more to life.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, real life begins now for those people.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's incredible who have gone before us Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you would bring comfort and peace and grace and that you would help us.

[SPEAKER_00]: to run the race in ways that would cause people to one day say about us while they made a difference for the kingdom and they were faithful on their pilgrimage.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's in the name of Jesus that we pray, amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for praying with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I appreciate that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're just a few months ago, Leo was talking with me downstairs about his job.

[SPEAKER_00]: and about as a personal trainer, how he would have these clients that he would get to work with, and he could have faith conversations and spiritual conversations with people who would never come to church.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was really cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: And without giving me any names, he walked me through some of the clients and the conversations that he was having with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember thinking to myself, man, if everybody viewed their job that way, that would be so cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: If everybody viewed their job as an opportunity to represent Christ in that way,

[SPEAKER_00]: But a lot of times we're scared to show our faith openly aren't we a lot of times We feel like we're not sure if we want people to know where we don't want to bring it up Have you ever have you ever let's be honest together?

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever struggled with being open about your faith with other people anybody?

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody willing to admit that you ever experienced a moment where the Holy Spirit seemed to give you that little nudge and you're like Not right now

[SPEAKER_00]: not a good time, too busy.

[SPEAKER_00]: It feels awkward.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to be open about this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not even saying that you necessarily sit down and share the gospel right away with somebody out of the blue, but just to be open about your faith, they're offering a pray for somebody or praying in public or showing that you have a faith with other people that can just help start a conversation sometimes.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can feel a little bit awkward and it can be something that we don't want to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to actually read the story today of probably the most reluctant witness in biblical history.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because we're going through this series on Jonah.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you've already walked through this with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know that Jonah did not want to share the message God gave to him, but we're going to learn some stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Jonah did not know what he was walking into.

[SPEAKER_00]: He did not understand what God was doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't have the big picture.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what Jonah didn't realize that made it so difficult for him is the exact same thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: that causes so many of us fear and awkwardness and concern when we think about sharing our faith or being open about our faith with other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm gonna admit to you right off the bat, this is a message for people that have already trusted in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if that's not you, listen along because there's gonna be a lot of stuff you're gonna get out of it, including what it looks like to have that relationship and what Jesus wants from us.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this is for those of us who have trusted Christ, to ask the question, are we willing to share that faith with other people?

[SPEAKER_00]: when God gives us that Nudge and gives us that opportunity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jonas struggled with this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though he got this directive from God, you remember that Jonah was a prophet.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he was used to getting messages from God for the people of Israel, but then one day he got that message for their enemies in a Syria, in none of all places that hotbed of wickedness and he did not want to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he boarded that ship to Tarshish, tried to go in the other direction across the Mediterranean Sea, didn't work out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the storm came.

[SPEAKER_00]: God sent to storm.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the sailors got concerned.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if sailors are getting concerned about a storm, it must be a bad storm.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they cast lots.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the lots select Jonah.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jonah says, you got me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's me.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you throw me overboard, God's going to stop the storm.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's exactly what happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: They threw him overboard.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what his plan was.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they threw him overboard.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the storm immediately stopped.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that God sent a big fish.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that term in the original just means a great sea creature.

[SPEAKER_00]: It could have been a big fish that God created for that moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: It could have been a sperm whale, which is actually big enough for this task.

[SPEAKER_00]: But something came in the Mediterranean.

[SPEAKER_00]: See, and by the way, there are lots of sperm whales in the Mediterranean.

[SPEAKER_00]: See, something came and swallowed Jonah.

[SPEAKER_00]: And either way, there still had to be a miracle for him to have oxygen and survive in the belly of that fish or that whale.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Jonah goes down for three days for three nights.

[SPEAKER_00]: He cries out to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He gives maybe not the best apology and confession, but it's enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: to where God says, okay, you promised a fulfill your vows.

[SPEAKER_00]: He causes the fish to spit him up on the shores of the Mediterranean.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jonah starts to make the long journey toward Ninevans.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's where we pick up the story today.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jonah, chapter three, we're going to read this together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Says then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh and deliver the message I have given you.

[SPEAKER_00]: This time, Jonah obeyed the Lord's command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all and on the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds, forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jonah spit up on the shores of the Mediterranean, gets the message a second time from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Finally makes the journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's approaching these grand gates of this impressive city.

[SPEAKER_00]: At that time, it was the city of 120,000 people.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a big city at that time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Took three days to get around because of how intricate and all the different shops and everything and the crowds and everything that would be there all the streets.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was just, this is a big city.

[SPEAKER_00]: at that time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jonah gets there.

[SPEAKER_00]: He approaches this thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's thinking about the people that are inside the people that he does not care for.

[SPEAKER_00]: The people who hurt his people, but he was humbled enough on the boat and humbled enough in the sea that he was willing to deliver God's message.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if we're being honest, Jonah's message to the people of Nineveh is what I would

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a minimum viable product, it's the smallest amount of work we can do and still get the job.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the co-worker you have that does just enough to not get fired.

[SPEAKER_00]: Minimum viable product.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the kid that cleans just enough of their room to get media time.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just enough to get the job done.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what Jonah does here.

[SPEAKER_00]: His heart's not in it.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says it took him three days to walk all over the city.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've got this maze of streets and vendors.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as he's doing it, it says he's shouting at the crowds.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's saying to the crowds, Ode Arbaim, Yom Veninive Nehe Paket, which, as you know, means yet 40 days and Nineveh overthrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's five words, a five word sermon.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yet, 40 days and then of an over-throne.

[SPEAKER_00]: Very simple message.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe some things missing that we would like to see.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like Grace, love, forgiveness, mercy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's very intentional that this is what's recorded for us that he's shouting at the crowds.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not having conversations with the people.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not explaining it to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's just walking around the city for three days, saying, yet, 40 days, and then of an over-throne.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because he's not expecting them to believe this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's actually hoping for disaster.

[SPEAKER_00]: Later on in the story tells us that after he finished this

[SPEAKER_00]: find a spot where he can sit down and relax and watch to see what God will do to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So even after going on and believing in this message, Jonah thinks, okay, now God's really going to bring down the hammer on these people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he thought there's no way they're going to listen to an Israel, right, who they would have looked down on, who's all raggedy and nasty looking after his long journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he even smells like fish still a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he comes around with his five words sermon, yet 40 days and then of a overthrown, a message of judgment, a message of harshness, there's no way they're gonna listen and pay attention to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he goes out and he finds a place, they grab his popcorn and he sits down and he waits for the salt for to come down.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's thinking, okay, God, do your thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I tell you what Jonah did not know what was going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jonah had no idea what was happened behind the scenes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the amazing thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: We wouldn't know this either.

[SPEAKER_00]: If it weren't for the things that the Ninevites themselves wrote down.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the information that completes the picture of this isn't actually in the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I would have made the same mistake as Jonah, by the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would have looked at the city of Nineveh, 120,000 strong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Great success, militarily, economically, politically.

[SPEAKER_00]: They look far more successful than any city in Israel at the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is one of the world epicenters of wealth and power and wickedness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jonah's message is cold.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's off-putting.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's harsh.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no love.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no pastoral warmth to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's no way they could actually respond positively to this message, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why would the people in Nineveh suddenly say, oh, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: Crazy Israelite man?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, actually I have been wrong with my entire life.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to change my whole way of thinking now that you mentioned it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those five words really did it for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to turn this whole thing around, in fact, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: Forget all these other gods I've been serving and that my grandparents served and that my great grandparents served.

[SPEAKER_00]: Forget all of that and I'm going to start worshiping the God that you brought in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like why would they do that, was see?

[SPEAKER_00]: God was at work in ways no one could have understood.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jonah came in thinking this was cold call evangelism, but that was not the case.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because God was already preparing the soil for the seeds that Jonah would reluctantly share.

[SPEAKER_00]: the people, they were ready for the message.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, this message was actually the final piece of a puzzle that had been stumping them for a while.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's what made everything they had been experiencing for the last few years make sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I mean by that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Assyrians were really good at keeping records.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then, of a particular had this massive library.

[SPEAKER_00]: At some point in the future, Ninova was destroyed by fire.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the way they kept these records was not on books like you and I have.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was on clay tablets.

[SPEAKER_00]: These were Kineiform tablets.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when the fire happened, it baked thousands, tens of thousands of clay tablets, essentially preserving them under the rubble and the sand.

[SPEAKER_00]: And those were preserved for get this 2,400 years.

[SPEAKER_00]: until they were finally uncovered in the 1800s.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we have their medical books.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have their tax records.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have their government communications.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have their epic of Gilgamesh, which is their version of the flood story.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have the Anuma Elish, which is their version of the creation story.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have their records of rulers and all the important things that happened throughout the different years in their country.

[SPEAKER_00]: And from this we learn that probably about five or six years before Jonah showed up, this is what happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: 765 BC, a great plague in the land.

[SPEAKER_00]: great plague in the land.

[SPEAKER_00]: Plagues reviewed as signs from the gods of displeasure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something is wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anything that bad that happens, it must be a god that's up to it that's behind it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so something is wrong, there is a plague.

[SPEAKER_00]: Two years later, revolt in the city of Asur.

[SPEAKER_00]: So now there's a civil war brewing.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's turmoil in the country.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, they have to stop some of their outside efforts because they have to deal with the fighting that's happening in this own country.

[SPEAKER_00]: That same year, 763 BC, in the month of Semanu,

[SPEAKER_00]: And eclips of the sun took place.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now eclipses were big deals in the ancient world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Big big deals.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the celestial bodies were thought to either be deities or be controlled by deities.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so this was viewed as a major warning.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in eclips of the sun, that was a really big deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this was a big one.

[SPEAKER_00]: NASA has actually gone back and calculated the path of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is the NASA map.

[SPEAKER_00]: Calculating this Eclipse is it appeared over a Syria in 763 BC and if we zoom in, you can see just how close the path of totality, where the sun was completely blocked by the moon, how this, how close this was to then of a just north.

[SPEAKER_00]: of ancient Ninevans.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, some of the people in the outskirts would have seen the totality and everybody would have experienced it in a big way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now does anybody remember the great eclipse of 2024?

[SPEAKER_00]: You remember that here?

[SPEAKER_00]: How many of you travel down to be in the path of totality?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who went south to go experience that Cape Gerardo somewhere down there?

[SPEAKER_00]: We started.

[SPEAKER_00]: We tried.

[SPEAKER_00]: Traffic was so crazy and so backed up and it got closer and closer to the time of the eclipse.

[SPEAKER_00]: People just stopped on the road and traffic stopped moving all together and everybody just got out of their cars and watched it on the side of the highway.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a big deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you were in the path of totality and even where we were, we still experience it got dark.

[SPEAKER_00]: It got cold.

[SPEAKER_00]: It got weird.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was just a strange feeling.

[SPEAKER_00]: This doesn't happen all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're an Assyrian, three thousand years ago, you believe that the sun and the moon in the stars either are deities or are controlled by deities.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're going about your day.

[SPEAKER_00]: The sun is about at a highest point.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost noon.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the back of your mind, we've got these plagues and these revolts and this is not good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something's bad, there's something bad going on and all of a sudden, it gets dark and it gets cold.

[SPEAKER_00]: and the animals all lie down.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because they think it's night time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every animal in the country is down all once.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's going on?

[SPEAKER_00]: And the insects all start to make noise, because they think it's nighttime.

[SPEAKER_00]: So now there's all this noise.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's lunchtime, guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not supposed to happen right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in their mindset, whoa, something big is going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something is wrong here.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a bad omin.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gods are unhappy, they're upset with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this place that was so great and so prosperous, probably in their minds, they were thinking it might be on the stage of collapse.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then it was another revolt, shortly after this, and asked her again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then there were two more revolts in a city called Arafa.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then there was a revolt in a city called Guzana.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then there was another plague.

[SPEAKER_00]: This all happens and then, after this crazy sequence of events, Jonah shows up and probably around 7.59 or 7.58 B.C.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think he understood where these people were at.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think he had a clue.

[SPEAKER_00]: What their frame of mind was like after the previous five years they just had and what they would be thinking.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you remember what the pandemic did to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what a huge impact that left on us.

[SPEAKER_00]: It would have been that kind of a thing that they all are just going through together.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was all in recent memory.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're probably a little concerned and scared in the back of their mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're just going, what is happening here?

[SPEAKER_00]: And are we going to be judged for something of the gods unhappy with us?

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jonah walks into this, probably having no idea how concerned they are, how scared they are, what all this recent history is?

[SPEAKER_00]: All he sees are enemies.

[SPEAKER_00]: He sees people to be judged, not loved.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he yells at them in the streets, yet 40 days, and Nineveh overthrown over and over.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says it, thinking he's fulfilling his mission, hoping that the judgment he is talking about is inevitable.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he goes outside, takes a seat,

[SPEAKER_00]: Watch as the city to see what God will do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are we talking fire?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are we talking sulfur?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's going on here?

[SPEAKER_00]: And the worst thing imaginable happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: Worst thing could ever happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: From Jonah's perspective, look at verse five.

[SPEAKER_00]: The people of Niva believed God's message.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh no.

[SPEAKER_00]: And from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you keep reading in the story, Jonah's dumbfounded by this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's very upset by all of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think in the back of his mind, he's thinking, how could that message?

[SPEAKER_00]: Which was so short and so cut?

[SPEAKER_00]: How could those words make an impact like this?

[SPEAKER_00]: How could these people, how could those people turn to God?

[SPEAKER_00]: How could they ever say, yes to God?

[SPEAKER_00]: Kyle preached a great message a couple of weeks about how Jonah said, nope to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here's Jonah, the prophet of God, say, nope to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the people of the series say, yes to God, or yep to God, whatever the opposite of nope is.

[SPEAKER_00]: This isn't supposed to happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: The these people, how could they do, and I want to suggest to you that we are just like Jonah,

[SPEAKER_00]: probably in more ways than we realize.

[SPEAKER_00]: See, God has given us a mission and God has given us a message.

[SPEAKER_00]: And just like Jonah, we don't always want to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: We talked in week one about the different kind of ships that we get on to avoid what God has called us to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: But today, I want to zero in on one very specific thing and it's really, really the thing that Jonah is dealing with himself and that we deal with as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: because Jonah didn't want to fulfill his mission and God has given a mission to us as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, what's the mission that God has given you?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it includes serving him, faithfully it includes giving it, it includes fulfilling the one and others together, it includes a whole lot of different things, but it also includes a message.

[SPEAKER_00]: The mission that God has given us includes a message.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here's one of the places we get it from Matthew 28 says, therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.

[SPEAKER_00]: How many commands of the new disciples supposed to obey?

[SPEAKER_00]: How many?

[SPEAKER_00]: All of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what did he just command them to do?

[SPEAKER_00]: go and make disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: See, this is supposed to be a self-repeating process.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's supposed to be a cycle where you go and make disciples, who go and make more disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: You share the message about Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: You share your faith with other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: You tell people what He did for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's what we call the great commission.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's supposed to be the cycle of sharing for every believer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't keep it to yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel message came to you on its way to someone else.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not supposed to be the dead end.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's supposed to just keep going.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we ask questions like, how could my simple words have an impact?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or sometimes, how could those people ever believe in God?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I won't even say anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the truth is I think would be surprised.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think we would be surprised to find out one day how God was already at work in ways that we don't even understand because you see our message and the part that we play into it, that's not the bulk of the mission.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is doing things and God is at work in ways that we have this incredible privilege of being a part of it by throwing out some seeds.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we are not the full package.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're just this tiny little piece of it in every day.

[SPEAKER_00]: We walk over ground that God has been tilling and fertilizing and preparing and we are faced with the temptation to keep the seed in our pockets.

[SPEAKER_00]: and not share the joy and the good news that we have in Jesus with other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're more like Jonah than we realize.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we need to learn from his example.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to learn from his example of what not to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to give you four things today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Four things that we can walk away with and say, I'm not going to be like Jonah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to do this instead.

[SPEAKER_00]: Four things that you can write down, you can take whether you can practice this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the first one is something that Jonah missed that caused a lot of his confusion and frustration and that we often miss two and it causes a lot of our fear and anxiety when we go to share with other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is this number one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Understand the journey of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: you need to understand the journey of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now this is something we talked about as a church a year ago in the on mission series.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you want a dig deeper, get on our website, look up the on mission series from last year and you can go through this, but I'll give you a brief overview.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the journey of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see that people don't usually go for being antagonistic to God to be in strong followers of Him in a second.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a process, it takes time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And many people have studied this and there are ways that you can look at this to see, okay, what does this journey usually look like for people?

[SPEAKER_00]: And some people go through the steps faster than others, but it usually starts with something like nowhereness of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then moving to somewhere in this of God, and this is kind of on a scale.

[SPEAKER_00]: So negative 10, negative 9, negative 8, some knowledge of Christianity, then some contact with Christians being aware of the gospel message, the good news about Jesus, being interested in learning more about Jesus, understanding the claims that are made about Jesus in the Bible, understanding the personal implications of the good news that it's actually for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: that accepting some biblical truths, recognizing sin and the need for salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then, right after that, if they make that commitment to trust in Jesus, it's trusting in Jesus and surrounding their life to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the moment of conversion.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we say, I am gonna turn for my old way of life, I'm gonna embrace Jesus and trust what he did for me on the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now I'm a new creation part of God's family.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we grow.

[SPEAKER_00]: We get to one experiences new life in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then a two connecting with the body of Christ, which is the church in three, growing in the basics of the faith and for growing in the Christian disciplines.

[SPEAKER_00]: Five sharing Jesus with other people and on continuing to grow in all of these areas.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now sometimes the steps look a little bit different for different people, but generally speaking, this is the journey of faith that people go through more or less.

[SPEAKER_00]: And some of you may be here today,

[SPEAKER_00]: And you may be somewhere on that journey of faith that the disease at a zero yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may not even be sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: And like I said earlier, this message is really for those who have already trusted in Jesus, but I'm glad you're here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to talk to you about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we can help you move along that journey, we want to help you do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we need to understand this journey of faith as followers of Jesus, because a lot of times, we approach sharing our faith with other people with a mindset that the goal is to take them from a negative 10 to a zero or a one in one conversation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just never how it works.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jonah showed up at Nineveh, thinking these people were a negative 10.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thinking there's no way they're gonna turn to God out of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I'm gonna make the message as simple and short as possible and he got really upset when they actually believed in God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't think it was gonna happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he didn't realize that God already had them at a negative one.

[SPEAKER_00]: God was already moving them on that journey, working in their life to prepare them so that what seems in the story like this radically quick change actually is evidence of God at work already in that place.

[SPEAKER_00]: that it's all on you, to have a conversation, that moves somebody from a negative 10 to a zero or a one or a plus six in one go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do your part, share your faith, be open, but understand the bigger picture of what God is doing and maybe God uses you to start someone in that journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe God uses you to just move them one step closer to faith in Jesus, success.

[SPEAKER_00]: in sharing our faith is not did the person pray a prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Success is not did the person commit their life to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: We celebrate when that happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: What success for you is just did I share because that's obedience.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did I do something that could help them move on that journey of faith?

[SPEAKER_00]: That is success in sharing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just the fact that we are obedient to what God has called us to do and not shrinking away in fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: So understand the journey of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: Number two, look for third places around you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look for third places around you.

[SPEAKER_00]: This struck me because

[SPEAKER_00]: of what Jonah did not do apparently according to the text.

[SPEAKER_00]: The text says that he yells at the crowds, those five words, and it took him a while to go through the city and share that, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's the opposite of what the New Testament evangelists do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, third place is a sociology term.

[SPEAKER_00]: First place refers to your home, second place refers to usually your work, third place refers to the place that people gather.

[SPEAKER_00]: to eat, to talk, to share, to play, to have community life together.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the third place.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now God told Jonah to go to the place where the people were that needed to hear about him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he walked through the streets and yelled at the crowds.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no indication in the text that he sat down for coffee with anybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no indication in the text that he went to a park and had conversation with the moms while their kids were playing.

[SPEAKER_00]: or that he had built any relationships with anybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: He did not expect them to trust in Jesus as a result of this, but we see the complete opposite in the New Testament.

[SPEAKER_00]: From the evangelists, from the apostles, from the missionaries, is they're going out, what did they do?

[SPEAKER_00]: They looked for places where the community gathered and they had conversations with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: They discussed things with them, they went to the synagogues.

[SPEAKER_00]: They went to the market places.

[SPEAKER_00]: They went to the lecture halls.

[SPEAKER_00]: They set up shop in the third places where they could actually dialogue with people and share this message with them, not just by yelling at them, but by having conversation and showing that they were real and authentic and having relationships and earning trust.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we can learn from their example.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where do people gather around you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where are the third places in your life in your neighborhood at your workplace?

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's easy for us as Christians, but I'd even think about it to sort of remove ourselves from public life with non-Christians and live kind of an isolated life.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's actually not what God has called us to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we are not supposed to be conformed by the pattern of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are not supposed to adopt any of the wickedness of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we are supposed to reach the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are supposed to be lights in the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're supposed to be ambassadors for Christ, which means we have to talk with those people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one of the best ways to do that is to think about where are these third places where people go to gather, to have community, and do you ever go there without an agenda?

[SPEAKER_00]: You ever go there with some margin to be able to just have conversations and are you willing to meet new people and talk with them?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know for some of you that's supernatural and for some of you it's super not.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so some of you may need the supernatural help of God to do this, but if you're willing, he's going to give you the strength and help to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It can absolutely help to understand the journey of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: And no, okay, it's not my job to convert anybody right here.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's between them and God.

[SPEAKER_00]: But can I help?

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I share some seeds?

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I do something?

[SPEAKER_00]: And when we look for those third places, it makes it easier to have those conversations.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are so many people who say, I follow Jesus, I trust in Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: When's the last time you shared your faith with somebody, count on them?

[SPEAKER_00]: When's the last time you were able to have a spiritual conversation with someone who was not a believer?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, maybe years ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got to look for those third places, just like the apostles did in the New Testament.

[SPEAKER_00]: Churches used to be third places in a lot of communities.

[SPEAKER_00]: Decades ago in this country and in other countries too, churches were often the third places where a lot of community life happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of things revolved around the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: The church was for a long time in many places, the biggest building in the city.

[SPEAKER_00]: It had the steep on it.

[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of times it was right in the middle of the city or right at the end of the city.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody knew that's where we gather for things.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have we have socials there in festivals and fairs and we have bankwits in their basement and and we do things at church is a lot of life that happened in the church and over time a lot of that has gone away secular gathering places have taken taken away from that in in the last several decades.

[SPEAKER_00]: But after the pandemic, a lot of churches are trying to reclaim that role in their communities, and not be just the place that people gather once a week for worship, and then the campus sits largely idle the rest of the week, but saying what if every day of the week, this were a place of life and community and a third place where people could go and gather and do life together, but we can also have spiritual conversations.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love talking with people.

[SPEAKER_00]: when they come into this church for something, and it wasn't a church function.

[SPEAKER_00]: I really enjoy, sometimes we'll have people about and use the corner park over there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And just going over and talking with people, I have in conversations.

[SPEAKER_00]: And most of the time, they have no connection to the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: They haven't been to church in years, some of them have never been to church, never walked inside this church.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I figure if they're willing to come on at church property, it's a pretty short put to get into a spiritual conversation with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can do it too.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you ever drive and buy, you see people out here hanging out, just, it's your church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go out there and talk with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have a conversation with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is the easiest way to get into a spiritual conversation with someone who's not a believer that you can imagine.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a great opportunity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look for those third places that already exist around you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Create third places if you can, so that you can share your faith with people.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's number two.

[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't even said pray for unlikely and unlikable people, because both of those are true here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jonah had nothing but bad wishes for the Ninevites.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't praying for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't saying God help this message be effective.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, I pray that you touch their hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you'd help them to realize their need and their sin and their need for you and help them to see how real you are, how much you love them and care.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was not Jonah.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jonah showed up, gave the message, went outside and said, all right, when's the destruction going to happen?

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's not what we're supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul says this in 1 Timothy 2, he says, I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people, ask God to help them intercede on their behalf.

[SPEAKER_00]: and give thanks for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pray this way for kings, often not very nice people, especially in that day.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all who are in authority, what he knew how to push the buttons, didn't he?

[SPEAKER_00]: Pray for all those in authority.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we can look peaceful and quiet lives, marked by Godliness and dignity.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then the get this, he says, this is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and understand the truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you do a thought experiment with me for a minute?

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to think, who are the Ninevites in your life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are the people that you look at and think there's no way they're ever going to turn to Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: It could be an individual, it could be a category of people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are the people that you look at and go, man, there's not a chance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not going to happen, because that's what Jonah thought about the Ninevites.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, whoever those people are, whether you've got the name in mind, or the category in mind, whatever that is, think about this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those are people who God loves.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those are people who He cares about.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those are people who, if the Bible is true, if what Paul said its Timothy is true, God wants to be saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, they have a role to play in that process.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we have an opportunity to pray for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we get to interact with them to actually share with them our faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: So pray for unlikely people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pray for unlikable people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And number four, use a message of grace and truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: A message of grace and truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jonas message was true, there was no grace to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is absolutely true that we are sinners and we deserve judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is absolutely true that destruction is the destiny for every person who does not follow and trust Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every person has rebelled against their Creator and deserves that punishment.

[SPEAKER_00]: We do.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is true.

[SPEAKER_00]: But.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's also true that God sent His Son to live a perfect life to die as a sacrifice in our place to pay for our sins, so that when we believe in Him and trust in Him, our sins get put on to His account, which He's already paid for, so it gets wiped out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And his righteousness gets put on our accounts.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when God looks at us, he sees us as if we have the righteousness of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he makes us part of his family.

[SPEAKER_00]: We become new creations in him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we get this incredible life with the Holy Spirit and the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit and the hope of eternity.

[SPEAKER_00]: And spending our time in the future and heaven with him, it's this amazing wonderful thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to have both.

[SPEAKER_00]: As you're sharing with people, it's important to have some people are all about the judgment part, in the sin part, and that's true.

[SPEAKER_00]: And some people are all about the love, and the grace, and the mercy, and that's true, but both are true.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so as we share with people, we shouldn't leave out one or the other.

[SPEAKER_00]: We should use a message of both grace and truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wanna wrap up by sharing these four points with you again, and maybe a little bit of different way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to listen to this and think, where is the area that I most need God's help with this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Which of these four is the one that this week?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna take away and say, Lord, would you help me to work on this in my life?

[SPEAKER_00]: Here they are.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't need to be afraid to share Jesus with other people, because God is already at work there because there's a journey of faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is already working.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even if they reject the message or they reject me, that's not my concern.

[SPEAKER_00]: My job is to share and trust that God is at work in ways that I cannot see, number two.

[SPEAKER_00]: We shouldn't hide or run away from where God wants us to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, we should actually go to the places where people are that need him.

[SPEAKER_00]: We should be looking for those third places or creating those third places around us in your neighborhoods, with your neighbors at work.

[SPEAKER_00]: at school wherever it is you have opportunities to connect and have community with people and rub shoulders and build relationships with people who may not know Christ so that you can be a representative of him there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's the area you need to work on this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Number three, we must have loving hearts and be willing to pray for and care about the salvation of people who maybe we don't even care for.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we don't even really like them as a person.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we think they're too far gone.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no chance for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have you ever prayed for them?

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe for some of you, that's your main takeaway today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you hear nothing else, and that's the one thing is, okay, this week, I'm gonna spend some time praying for that person because I don't think they could ever trust in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm gonna spend some time praying for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And number four, we absolutely must bring a message of both grace and truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: The truth of sin and judgment, that is real, but also the truth of the love and the mercy of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need both of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna ask you if you had all bow your heads with me right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just pray for a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: Pray and ask God to help us to do this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Heavenly Father, you are working in ways that we cannot understand or see.

[SPEAKER_00]: And because we don't see it and understand that we have to have faith to trust that you're doing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a part of our faith in you that not only are you working in our lives, but you're working in lives of people around us in ways we don't know or see you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you've given us this opportunity.

[SPEAKER_00]: to share the seeds of good news about Jesus and so often we shrink away from it, Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't seek out the places to do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't pray for the people who need it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't spread the good news about you and we have opportunities to do it because we're scared, we're anxious, it feels awkward.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have so many excuses.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not that different from Jonah, Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we ask for your help.

[SPEAKER_00]: We ask for your boldness, Lord, which your Holy Spirit can vict us now of the places that we need to grow.

[SPEAKER_00]: help it to be different this week in our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bring to mind those names of people we need to pray for.

[SPEAKER_00]: The names of people that will see this week who need to know about you, who need to know that there is joy and there is hope lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever we have memorial services for people that have been strong, followers of you, it actually ends up being this great celebration, and there's so much joy, and that is not the case at every service.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we just don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: or help us to prioritize the things that really matter and to share the good news about you, with the people that need to hear it, and to not allow our own insecurities, or ignorance, or anxiety, keep us from being the disciples that you have called us to be who make more disciples for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We ask for your help, we ask for your wisdom to do this well and with love and with truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.