Jonah: The Tragedies of Nope

[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_01]: and the long darkness ends.

[SPEAKER_01]: Good morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: How you guys doing?

[SPEAKER_01]: Awesome, my name is Kyle.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm excited to get to share the word of God with you here this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to go ahead and flip, open the Jonah chapter one.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to be in Jonah chapter one versus four through 16.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if you are like Bible WISKID, you will have no problem finding the book of Jonah.

[SPEAKER_01]: However, if you're still figuring out which books are in the older New Testament, I'm going to encourage you to find the table of contents because the book of Jonah is really small and tucked in there.

[SPEAKER_01]: All right, let's be honest, if you got one of these things, you got the ultimate cheat code.

[SPEAKER_01]: So go ahead and Jonah is in the Old Testament, and that's where we will be this morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as you're getting there, I just want to hit you with this question.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is this, when was it, when was it the last time that God was laying upon your heart something for you to do?

[SPEAKER_01]: or something for you to say, now hold on, I know some of you are never at a loss of words and are maybe go go go go or maybe God said, hey, listen, don't talk, or hey, slow down.

[SPEAKER_01]: Whichever one it was, but God was telling you to clearly do something, say something, and you're like, nope, not happening.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now for some of you that in the room,

[SPEAKER_01]: You're like, well, Kyle, I don't have to play this game, because I'm not a Christian yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, I'm not even sure what I think about God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no, no, you're part of the game, too.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because I know, almost can guarantee you.

[SPEAKER_01]: There have been times in your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe one of your Christian friends shared something with you, and you're like, ooh, that landed.

[SPEAKER_01]: That just made me wonder.

[SPEAKER_01]: Statistics say, even those who would express them

[SPEAKER_01]: that the majority of them actually do pray, just in wondering, well, what could happen, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so no matter who you are in the room, believe or not, we all have moments.

[SPEAKER_01]: We wish you like God's land, something on our hearts to do or to say, and we say, no, nope, not happening.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you're afraid of them what comes next.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe just to feel like it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think some, I think a word we all get in love with is later, because later means I'm getting around to it, easy, just give me a minute.

[SPEAKER_01]: When in reality, sometimes, later just means no, but we're too polite to say it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But we've been putting it off for a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so here's the deal, you know, when it's not to, you know, funny, menial tasks, maybe that someone asks you to do, it's no big deal, it's kind of joke.

[SPEAKER_01]: Go let the dishwasher

[SPEAKER_01]: Bring me my phone, can you do this for me?

[SPEAKER_01]: We can be funny.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when we say no to God, it's rebellion.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes it may feel subtle, but delayed obedience.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's disobedience.

[SPEAKER_01]: And delayed trust is not full surrender.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you and I, if we are not careful no matter what you believe, we can get really

[SPEAKER_01]: really contend with nope.

[SPEAKER_01]: And today we're gonna be talking about what I would call the tragedies of nope that happened in our lives where God is leading us, and we're just like, nah, nah though, I'm not having that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because here's the deal, it's, it's, this is a little why we believe about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: The tragedies that come with us feeling to step into what got out for us, like that's one thing for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: But sometimes the myth that we believe is that our notes are not affecting anybody else.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I will tell you, they probably already are.

[SPEAKER_01]: So as it's kind of you and me up a little bit,

[SPEAKER_01]: There's other people that need, there would be blessed by seeing you respond to obedience and in faithfulness and stepping out there to do that thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's other people that might actually get behind you and they got to bust that, but when we just stayed stock and nope, those things don't really happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: This reminds me years ago, there was a relationship for me that had been broken for well over a decade.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I've been in plenty of moments where I've been more of a contributing factor than not.

[SPEAKER_01]: This was not one where I was.

[SPEAKER_01]: And because I was now a believer at that point in time, the Holy Spirit, like he encourages convicts, he does all sorts of things to point us towards faithfulness.

[SPEAKER_01]: I started getting convicted that I needed to go and pursue this relationship.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even though I wasn't sure where the first place was the start, because I didn't even know where this person lived.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the Holy Spirit kept putting on my heart and there would be times around like, yeah, I'm gonna go do that and then in my flesh and the parts of me that just still want to listen to me and not God, I'd be like, no, I'm not doing that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know how it would go.

[SPEAKER_01]: What if it didn't go well?

[SPEAKER_01]: Would that be reopening wounds from over a decade ago?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you're like, even sometimes when those wounds get hit again,

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't like the version of me that I once was and I don't want that person to come back out again.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not, I'm, I'm glad Jesus died for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And every now and then I'm like, man, I need to make sure I'm laying in the him because that version of me can come right back into Jiffy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or, I mean, what if I was to put time and energy and calories into this from my life and it goes nowhere, take it that time back.

[SPEAKER_01]: I could have been doing something else.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll talk about that a little bit later because last week, what we start doing, we looked at the book of Jonah and what we stepped into, was a nope moment in the life of God's prophet of all people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine that, a prophet of God?

[SPEAKER_01]: A guy whose job was to, I mean, it's kind of straightforward.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just, go to where God sends you, say what God says to say,

[SPEAKER_01]: and call the people to the actions that God is calling them to.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then if you're a prophet, I mean, you've really got to trust God because you don't know whether the people are going to respond well.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are they going to come at you?

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, you've got to be solid and anchored in your face with who God is and how God protects his people and even if bad things come, that God's got you anyways.

[SPEAKER_01]: But that's the role of a prophet.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yet, and Jonah knows this, yet when Jonah is told to go to Nineveh,

[SPEAKER_01]: He's just like, no, I'm not having it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so as you can see on the screen, there's this direction that Jonah is called to go.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's in Gaff Hepper, which is the top blue dot there.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's told to go to Nineveh, which is north east by land.

[SPEAKER_01]: A little bit of sea, but you can actually get there by land.

[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, he goes west into the sea, the opposite direction at so many levels.

[SPEAKER_01]: And for some of you, you might be like, well, what's up with that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why do you go this other direction?

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me share with you a few details that we didn't share last week because there were four year olds in the room.

[SPEAKER_01]: The city of Nineveh was a very important city in the Assyrian Empire, and they were not known for being like the most cute and cuddly sorts of people.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if in your mind, you think, oh, Ninevites.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were probably so close to turning to the God of the Old Testament.

[SPEAKER_01]: And all they're probably just almost there.

[SPEAKER_00]: They all they need is a little nudge.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nope.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were, the Assyrians were famous for their brutality and celebrating it, impaling people, skinning people alive, stacking up body parts, not kidding, by the way.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was even in the decor of their palace halls, because they wanted you to understand who was in charge and what it meant to go against them.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I don't share those things to say, oh, well, then hey, we should all give Jonah a pass.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, because it's delayed obedience, which is disobedience.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I think if we're all being honest, we look at the background of a Syria, and we think God is sending us there, and maybe we'd be like, okay, I kind of get a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Jonah should have listened, but yeah, that would be kind of intimidating.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's the situation that we find ourselves in as we jump into this book.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm gonna give you a heads up,

[SPEAKER_01]: Most of what we're reading today is like, whoa, what, what, what, what, what, come on.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is kind of a sad and tragic scene to read about.

[SPEAKER_01]: However, don't miss this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because of who God is in His sovereign power and because of the way in which He moves in subversive ways, God does this thing, despite through and around us, even when we don't want to listen.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so it's a super, now, just encouraging, convicting story to get into.

[SPEAKER_01]: So let's go ahead and jump into it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jonah chapter one, I'm gonna start in verse three.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna read the whole thing through to verse 16 and then we'll kinda come back and unpack it a little bit of the time.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it says this.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: He went down to the port of Jopa

[SPEAKER_01]: He bought a ticket and went on the board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing the Tarshish.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart.

[SPEAKER_01]: Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailor shouted out to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship.

[SPEAKER_01]: All this time, Jonah was asleep down the hold.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the captain went after him.

[SPEAKER_01]: How can you sleep at a time like this, he shouted?

[SPEAKER_01]: Get up and pray to your God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused this terrible storm.

[SPEAKER_01]: When they did this, the lots identify Jonah as the culprit.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why is this awful storm come upon us?

[SPEAKER_01]: They demanded, who are you?

[SPEAKER_01]: What is your line of work?

[SPEAKER_01]: What country are you from?

[SPEAKER_01]: What is your nationality?

[SPEAKER_01]: Jonah answered, I'm a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.

[SPEAKER_01]: The sailors were terrified when they heard this for they had already told them, and for he had already told them that he was running away from the Lord.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, why did you do it, they groned?

[SPEAKER_01]: And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, what should we do so that, what should we do to you to stop the storm?

[SPEAKER_01]: Throw me into the sea, Jonah said, and it will become common again.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.

[SPEAKER_01]: Instead, the sailors wrote even harder to get the ship to the land.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the stormy sea was too violent for them and they couldn't make it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah's God, oh, Lord, they pleaded.

[SPEAKER_01]: Don't make us die for this man's sin.

[SPEAKER_01]: And don't make us responsible for his death.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then the sailors picked up Jonah and threw him into the raging sea in the storm stopped at once.

[SPEAKER_01]: The sailors were awestruck by the Lord's great power and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed vows to serve him.

[SPEAKER_01]: These are God's words.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about you, but as I read through parts of this, my heart just gets, it pains.

[SPEAKER_01]: It pains to see it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because there are so many things happening at once,

[SPEAKER_01]: that don't necessarily have to be happening, but this is what happens when we get stuck in a nope mindset.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the first thing that we share happen in this when Jonah's note mindset is that he subjects himself number one to delusional thinking.

[SPEAKER_01]: A nope posture towards God always makes us make us suspect to a delusional way of thinking.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here's what I mean by this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's out of balance to say like, what in the world is Jonah's thinking?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is he thinking that there is some way, he didn't have a GPS back then?

[SPEAKER_01]: But like, is he thinking there's some way, some coordinates he can go to?

[SPEAKER_01]: We're all of a sudden, God isn't gonna see him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Is he thinking there's some country he can go to?

[SPEAKER_01]: Some ship he can go to?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is there someplace in the ship he can go to?

[SPEAKER_01]: We're all of a sudden, God isn't gonna see him, God isn't gonna bother him anymore?

[SPEAKER_01]: Or God will just be like, you know what?

[SPEAKER_01]: I shouldn't have sent Jonah.

[SPEAKER_01]: should have sent someone else.

[SPEAKER_01]: So because he is just so passionate about Rebellion against me, I will know.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like Jonah knows better.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what Psalm 139 was called and Jonah was growing up probably something different.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Jonah would have known Psalm 139, 7, where David talked about how there's nowhere that we can flee from God's presence.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's nowhere we can go from his present, or there's nowhere we can go from his spirit.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knows our thoughts from afar.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knows our actions.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knows us.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knows everything about us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even the parts about us that are uncomfortable.

[SPEAKER_01]: He knows.

[SPEAKER_01]: Jonah knew this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yet he's fleeing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Forty miles south from Getheper to Jopah, likely a port where he knows he's not gonna see anyone that he knows that will be suspicious of why he's there and he loads on to a boat.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: For his own personal little rebellion now, I have three children and they're all perfectly behaved.

[SPEAKER_01]: because of their mom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, so I have three children.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, they're all at the age now where I can say, hey, let's load up and get ready to go in the car and they're like, sweet, and they get in every time.

[SPEAKER_01]: However, however, there was a point in time when they were younger and they had to ride in the car and their archnimmesis would come into play.

[SPEAKER_01]: Was it always me, it was the five buckle seat belt,

[SPEAKER_01]: All of a sudden, I'm like, oh, man, we got to run errands.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, we got to go to the park.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, we got to go here.

[SPEAKER_01]: There, wherever.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I would have to try to get them in the car.

[SPEAKER_01]: See, and for the most part, for the most part, they were usually pretty chill.

[SPEAKER_01]: They'd go along with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then there were sometimes, where it felt like I was wrestling a baby alligator.

[SPEAKER_01]: And just all sorts of this, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And then eventually, some of you guys know the trick, you take your forearm, you just kind of lightly push it like to their hips.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I heard on them?

[SPEAKER_01]: And then they got like, okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you feel like, like, and you're good to go.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then, oh, what do my kids do?

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe yours never did this.

[SPEAKER_01]: As one last bit of protests against the dad king and all of his empire, they would take off their shoes and their socks.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they would throw them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, think about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: What in your world can you control what that is?

[SPEAKER_01]: Your toilet habits, okay?

[SPEAKER_01]: Leave it there.

[SPEAKER_01]: What you eat?

[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, my shoes and socks when I'm buckled in, and you're driving the really thing up right with the window, and I'm stuck back here with Cheerios, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's one of the few things they feel like they can control.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so they would just go ahead and have at it, and then they'd feel a little better.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now we say this about children,

[SPEAKER_01]: or teenagers, and isn't it true?

[SPEAKER_01]: We just, we like to have our little protests sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: We like to have our little expression that like I don't have to go along with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, I think, I'll feel better if I don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so metaphorically, so to speak, we all kind of go, we go south to jope sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're like, yeah, I don't wanna go with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going along with this, nope.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not happening.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we convince ourselves into delusional things that don't align with scripture,

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, another Bible said it would be nice, but it's not needed.

[SPEAKER_01]: We know enough to know that this isn't what I should do.

[SPEAKER_01]: This shouldn't be my attitude.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it feels really good to express myself in that way.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so this is where Jonah is at.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the question is, is God just gonna give him a pass?

[SPEAKER_01]: Is God just gonna be like fine?

[SPEAKER_01]: And in two of the greed, God does.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let Jonah decide it's gonna go south, the jopa.

[SPEAKER_01]: Does that I'm getting on the boat?

[SPEAKER_01]: The boat?

[SPEAKER_01]: There it is, boat.

[SPEAKER_01]: Almost became Canadian there.

[SPEAKER_01]: He lets him board and get on.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then God says, okay, I've given you some leeway, you're not getting it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he sends a storm and a storm, so violent, so powerful that even though Jonah is asleep,

[SPEAKER_01]: downstairs.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, I don't think it's because he was having a quiet time about the 23rd song.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord is my shepherd.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I should not want it.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, he's having a meantime stress nap because he's rebelling.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, meantime upstairs, the sailors are throwing cargo overboard, which is financial loss for them.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're freaking out, bear in mind, these are professional sailors.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're not guys that went down to Florida and read it about for a weekend, so they could take some pictures for their Instagram and look really cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, look at me, you're right.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a sailor today, no, you're not.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, these dudes lived on the sea.

[SPEAKER_01]: They smelled like the sea.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're probably pretty goked up from being on the sea.

[SPEAKER_01]: These are dudes like, these is what they did.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if they're freaking out, you should be freaking out.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Jonah's not, because he's downstairs, sleeping.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as we'll look at here in a minute, they're about to get his attention.

[SPEAKER_01]: This God sends this not-so-gental redirection.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now some of you might be thinking, some of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Wait a minute.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you're saying God sent this storm as like divine discipline?

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: What does that mean that any and every time the hardship comes my way that that's the way I'm supposed to see it?

[SPEAKER_01]: No, not necessarily.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are sometimes where we experience hardship just because we live in a broken world and we're a broken person.

[SPEAKER_01]: We live around broken people.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are sometimes we experience hardship and actually God has sovereign the midst of it because he's gonna use the way in which he's gonna lead us to persevere, to preach a message to those who are around us about what it means to have true and genuine faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: It isn't shaken by seasons and situations.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like those things are also true.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there are times in our lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think we need to be really careful about always thinking like we've got it figured out all the time with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard sometimes I think well-meaning Christians say something like, well, I think God did this because of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, you know what, you may be right, but be careful because you might be wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in this instance right here, this storm is being sent by God to redirect Jonas Mindsett.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Jonah for all being honest, he really, really needed a loving dad to come into his life and to say, hey, you know what, I know you don't want to get buckled in here, but this is what we're doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is where we're going.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you want to throw your shoes off fine, but like,

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to the park, whatever.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so the first thing that we see happen, the first tragedy of note, is sometimes we subject ourselves to delusional thinking.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then secondly, what we're going to see happen in verses 6 through 11 is that we also, like when we're having a note mindset, it's not just our thinking that gets screwed up, we also begin to neglect our calling and our purpose.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here's why I say this.

[SPEAKER_01]: There is a series of events that take place that give Jonah opportunities to show that he has been awakened to what is going on.

[SPEAKER_01]: and to turn back to God and to start doing something different.

[SPEAKER_01]: But he doesn't take any of the hints for the most part until they're very in.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it starts with him being awake and a captain, I mean, imagine this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, for those of you that wake up and are like, well, shawl, right, you get really scared or you're really groggy, whatever, imagine this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Imagine being woken up by a captain of a ship back then, whose life is the sea.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he is in your face saying, how can you be asleep right now?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, we're dying up here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, we were calling out to our gods.

[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing's happening.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, who's yours?

[SPEAKER_01]: Can you call out to him?

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe he'll have compassion for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe he'll care.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe he'll do something.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in the meantime, as you go up, you look at the rest of the scene as Jonah comes up from below the bottom of the deck.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the scene is tragic.

[SPEAKER_01]: And sad, it's a terrible, terrible tragedy.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't know the living God of Scripture.

[SPEAKER_01]: They don't know the God who is God in all of the universe.

[SPEAKER_01]: They are worshiping false God who cannot save them, do not care for them, but that's what they're crying out to because they don't know any better.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they're losing their minds.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're losing their inventory at which is their income.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're losing their sanity.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they're asking this other guy,

[SPEAKER_01]: If maybe his God gives a rip about what's going on right now and if he will do something, well, in the meantime, he's been downstairs sleeping, that the prophet, who knew God, who knows the God of heaven and earth, the guy who knows the God who saves, the guys who knows the God who is God, is in the bottom of the boat, in rebellion, having a stretch now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so yeah, by the time Jonah gets called up,

[SPEAKER_01]: And the sailors, they've been casting a lot which are like dice, they're like, hey, the lots fall in on you, my friend.

[SPEAKER_01]: And do you notice the questions that they ask him?

[SPEAKER_01]: And say, where are you from?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's your nationality?

[SPEAKER_01]: Serve.

[SPEAKER_01]: What's your occupation?

[SPEAKER_01]: There's questions that Jonah does answer, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: He says he's a Hebrew.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says he worships the Lord, the God of the sea and land that's very ironic to me because he's using the sea to repell against God, I've got to call them to a journey of land to go and to talk to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, listen, I'm a Hebrew.

[SPEAKER_01]: I sort of the Lord who is the God of the sea and the land, he even goes as far as to say that he's the reason that the storm has come.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do you notice what question Jonah didn't answer?

[SPEAKER_01]: They said, what's your occupation?

[SPEAKER_01]: And he didn't give the answer to that one.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I want to be very humble in this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of you may disagree with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's totally fine.

[SPEAKER_01]: You could look at that as just merely an omission.

[SPEAKER_01]: I look at this as a mastery of Hebrew storytelling.

[SPEAKER_01]: Personally, I think we're supposed to see that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think we're supposed to see that Jonah doesn't answer what his occupation is.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why, because he's fleeing from it, he's rebelling against it and his God, yes, I know.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, not to play revision of history for too long here, but just go with me for a minute.

[SPEAKER_01]: If Jonah answers what his role is, what his occupation is, he's a, oh, you're a prophet.

[SPEAKER_01]: What are you, what are you supposed to be doing right now?

[SPEAKER_01]: Where are you supposed to be going?

[SPEAKER_01]: What are you doing here?

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wait, you're the God who you serve.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has compassion and forgiveness for a city like Nine O'Village and those people are wicked.

[SPEAKER_01]: What do you have compassion for us?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, these gods that we cry out to, we don't, they're just the gods we've been raised to know.

[SPEAKER_01]: We don't even sure what we really think about them, and in this particular predicament we're

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that happens.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, could they, would they have been able to hear each other?

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a storm calling on, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: So again, don't want to play revisionist history too much.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I just, I think that's something that we're supposed to catch.

[SPEAKER_01]: But you see, Jonah, he's not looking at any of it this way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because he had punted on his purpose.

[SPEAKER_01]: He had punted on his calling.

[SPEAKER_01]: He had punted on his office.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, because delusional thinking.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was neglecting this calling, and before I move on at this one, say this, delusional thinking, plus neglecting your calling, leads to your heart being detached from God's heart for people.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just does.

[SPEAKER_01]: It becomes detached from you telling them what they need to hear, and for you being the person you need to be in the meantime, when they may not receive it just yet.

[SPEAKER_01]: with God having mercy for him and for his people.

[SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, Jonah was a prophet and the Northern Kingdom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh boy, you want to talk about the kingdom that was wild between the north and the south and north was definitely the spot.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh, you hardly, you don't really hear if any good king is coming on that one.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Jonah's cool with that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when it comes to Jonah's seeing that God has a heart for the nations like he had promised in the book of Genesis through Abraham and that many nations,

[SPEAKER_01]: that will be blessed through him and that God was bringing the nations to himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: The God has a plan that goes beyond Israel that goes out into the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amongst all people.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like Jonah doesn't even, it's not even registering anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: That there are wicked and broken and sinful people like you and me all throughout the code that God is going to save and redeem, but Jonah's heart isn't there.

[SPEAKER_01]: His mind isn't there.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, in a way, this quote from J. Sklar, I'll admit I'm a Homer, he's one of my teachers, I really like him, but he says this, he says, if you were an Israelite who began reading this narrative, thinking of the Israelites as a special people who deserve the Lord's mercy, and the Gentiles as wicked sinners who did not, your world has just been turned upside down.

[SPEAKER_01]: You identify with most in the story, the Israelite prophet is the wicked sinner who experiences God's judgment.

[SPEAKER_01]: While those who you think deserving of judgment, the pagan sailors are shown the Lord's mercy and respond by worshiping Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is meant to humble you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the story does humble us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it does humble us to have hope.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're asking yourself this question, okay, hey, is there redemption in this story?

[SPEAKER_01]: If so, where versus 12 to 14 are a good start, let's not forget, let's give Jonah his flowers to some degree.

[SPEAKER_01]: He does admit that the reason the storm has come is because of him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he does, even in verse 12, go on to say that if they will throw him from the boat, that the storms in the sea will suddenly call.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, some may question Jonah's motive, maybe you do too.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're like, okay, is this Jonah just saying, well, I'm gonna go ahead and forfeit myself to the Lord's justice.

[SPEAKER_01]: I realize him in the wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's one take on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Others have a more optimistic view of Jonah as a humanitarian suddenly.

[SPEAKER_01]: Where they're like, well, no, maybe Jonah's, he's saying, hey, go ahead and throw me in there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let the Lord do is gonna do at least save these sailors.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's a curious thought, considering the way Jonah isn't treating other people at the moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a thought.

[SPEAKER_01]: There are some that say that perhaps he's saying that he would rather die than go forward.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure if that's where I am, it could be doesn't really say, but, or was this Jonah trusting that God would in some way shape or form deliver him and to still land them where he needs to be later?

[SPEAKER_01]: The text doesn't say, but what we do know for sure is that Jonah never asks for the sailors to turn the ship around so that he can go back and do what he's supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: text just doesn't really say that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But in verse 13 and 14, this is interesting, did you notice the sailors response to Jonah when he says to throw me overboard?

[SPEAKER_01]: They're like, no, we're not throwing you overboard.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not going to do you like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says that they start going toward the shore, and it says that they actually start digging in, the Hebrew word is apart.

[SPEAKER_01]: It means like not just rolling, but like it's a word you describe, like you're shovel trying to dig a grave, like you're like you're going after.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're given all they've got to get the ship back to the shore.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because they don't want to treat him in an undignafibed way, and so they're, and then they start crying out to Jonas God, our God.

[SPEAKER_01]: They start crying out to him, asking that he would not place judgment upon them for what they were about to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then did you notice, did you notice what they also said toward the end of verse 14?

[SPEAKER_01]: It says that they acknowledge that God's purposes in this, with the storm, what He's doing,

[SPEAKER_01]: And they don't want to stand in the way of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, it's interesting to think about the journey that these sailors have been on.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I want to really give credence to this.

[SPEAKER_01]: These sailors and the captain have come a long way, haven't they?

[SPEAKER_01]: At one point in time serving gods that were not gods.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now all of a sudden, crying out to the god who is god.

[SPEAKER_01]: And oh, yeah, that's right.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's because Jonah gave a great message.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's because Jonah didn't say what he was supposed to do, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Jonah didn't do any of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: So is the application for this to just go ahead and muck it up?

[SPEAKER_01]: Interesting, God, to be sovereign and subversive and all, but no, that's not the answer at all.

[SPEAKER_01]: The moral of this passage is not to go rebel further because God always fix it.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, the moral of the story is man isn't an incredible that there's hope for rebels like you and me, who say, nope, but God loves us anyways.

[SPEAKER_01]: And in God's subversive and sovereign ways, he brings about salvation despite the fact that his people don't always do what they're supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: And don't always have the heart that they're supposed to have because he's God and they're not, and he's good like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's one thing, let's one part of this story.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that we're supposed to get.

[SPEAKER_01]: But what about some other applications for you and for me who are not God?

[SPEAKER_01]: First one is simply this.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you are a person who is here today and you have not yet trusted in Christ as your Savior, or you are a believer, but you've been heading to Job for a while.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you've said, note to God in his ways, and it's not that you're not saved, you're just not living like it at all.

[SPEAKER_01]: First take what is this, stop!

[SPEAKER_01]: Would you please stop?

[SPEAKER_01]: In view of God's mercy, would you stop and see the Lord who is pursuing you and he was bringing about circumstances in situations to get your attention not because he hates you but because he loves you and because sometimes you and I won't listen to any other way until

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just affecting you.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's affecting those who are around you.

[SPEAKER_01]: If there's someone you want to talk to about that today, please come forward after the service.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have people who will pray with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have pastors who will walk alongside you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have a flester and treasurer of mature believers here on staff and not on staff who love to walk with people through what God is doing in their life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Will you stop and see that God who is pursuing you?

[SPEAKER_01]: and turn to him receive mercy.

[SPEAKER_01]: Second is this, ask God to give you his heart for people instead of settling for years.

[SPEAKER_01]: Something I know of you and me is that we have limits.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have people, we have situations where we're just like now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not happening.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what's going to change that is not used to go do better, even though sometimes we just need to let God lead us to do the thing, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's asking for his heart in the situation.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, what's my heart supposed to be about this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Would you tune me in because I am so out of tune right now?

[SPEAKER_01]: Help me to be in tune so that I can see you I need to see.

[SPEAKER_01]: Feel why I need to feel and do I'm supposed to do?

[SPEAKER_01]: even if I don't feel like it right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because listen, if you're a believer, you have the Holy Spirit of God living inside of you.

[SPEAKER_01]: That wars against your flesh and that points you to have the character of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm not gonna do this very application.

[SPEAKER_01]: So here's the deal.

[SPEAKER_01]: If our hearts begin to beat like the way God would have them to and not the way we would settle for, I would tell you this, you will start saying yes.

[SPEAKER_01]: to the things that you've been saying, noctue.

[SPEAKER_01]: And God will provide people in your life to help you do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: To come back to the story, I started with earlier and we'll finish with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: As I was wrestling through what to do next, God and His sovereignty, and in His love had placed a person in my life that had actually been through nearly the same exact thing before his name was shown.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember I was like, Sean, here's how I'm feeling about this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what I'm kind of scared to try to go, reconcile this relationship.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's all the things that go wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: I certainly go, and he's just like, yeah, it's all he get it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, basically, he's like, how about what is God's heart for this person?

[SPEAKER_01]: How can you step into the gap?

[SPEAKER_01]: And then he began to share with me his story.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the way that God had shepherded him and shepherded his heart, shepherded his mind.

[SPEAKER_01]: to lead him into the very difficult thing that he felt like God was calling him to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then Sean and I, we live in two different states by that point in time.

[SPEAKER_01]: God used him as a coach for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: To coach me through all the emotions and the heartache and the resentment that sometimes will well up and how I didn't always like how things were going and guess what?

[SPEAKER_00]: God blessed all of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Any road difference story?

[SPEAKER_01]: So, in closing today, I just want to ask you this, will you, will I, will we as a church, will we ask for God to give us His heart for people, and for saying yes to the things that we say nob to, if we do watch out for it's free.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: May pray for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, we thank you for today.

[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you for your word.

[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you for the way it is ever encouraging.

[SPEAKER_01]: ever piercing and ever feeding us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, today for those who do not know you, perhaps they have spent their entire life crying out to things that they knew, or thought maybe just couldn't save them, but they cried out to them anyways, because that's all that they knew.

[SPEAKER_01]: Today, God, would you be the God that they know?

[SPEAKER_01]: Would they turn to what you've done for us, Jesus?

[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, we thank you that you came and you pursued us when we didn't want to part you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so Lord, for anyone that's here today that doesn't know you is Savior, would they stop running with a turn to you?

[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, for any believers that are here today, that are living in kind of cataclysmic rebellion, would they see your pursuit today?

[SPEAKER_01]: Would they turn to you?

[SPEAKER_01]: And God, for all of us in the room, would we just be the sort of people that you're calling us to be for each other?

[SPEAKER_01]: so that we would reflect your heart and so that we would move from our notes to your essence for your glory and Jesus name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Each month as we come to this table, we hear Jesus say, do this and remember and sub-me.

[SPEAKER_00]: For most of us, remember and sub-something we do to prevent our favorite memories from slipping away.

[SPEAKER_00]: We keep people and events in our hearts by reading old letters or by opening photo albums and just examining them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the remembrance, the kind of remembrance that Jesus has called us to do this morning is something different.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not the kind of remembrance he had on mind when he said, do this and remember it's of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's speaking the language of the Passover.

[SPEAKER_00]: When a Jewish family gathered to share that meal, they didn't simply tell the story of Exodus in a way that you would read in a history book.

[SPEAKER_00]: Has they gathered to take that meal?

[SPEAKER_00]: They said, this bread of affliction are fathers ate when they came out of Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: He said it that way as if they had walked through the Red Sea themselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: So remembering wasn't just merely looking back at someone else's deliverance.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was stepping into it and making it their own.

[SPEAKER_00]: So how do we do that this morning?

[SPEAKER_00]: How do we approach that?

[SPEAKER_00]: It means that this table before us isn't just a pause in the service where we reminisce.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a moment where we actively renew what's true about you in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: As we take hold of the bread, we're not just picturing the broken body of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your reaffirming that his death was for you, specifically, personally, today.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as you take hold of the cup, you're not merely observing a symbol from the distant past, your reaffirming, your place and the new covenant that Jesus blood secured by telling Him again.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am yours and you are mine.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as this whole room, together as we take communion, we're not each just having a private moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We are a family who publicly are declaring in the same breath that Christ's death still holds us, that it still defines who we are until the day that he comes again.

[SPEAKER_00]: So don't just look back this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Step into it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let his body given for you and his blood that's poured out for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: become as real and present as the day you first believed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we have some people here this morning who are newer to first freeze, so I want to provide quick practical directions in terms of how we do this as the trays are past.

[SPEAKER_00]: Take a stack of two cups.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll find the bread in the bottom.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll see the juice on the top.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you need a gluten-free wafer, it'll be in the middle of the tray.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you receive them, hold on to them, just wait until everybody else is served because we like to take the elements together.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as the trays are passed, I encourage you to just pause and take a moment to reflect and to examine yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Scripture tells us in 1 Corinthians 11 that we are to do this before we eat and drink.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a great time to consider where each of us are in our own personal walk with God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where we are into confess whatever sin he brings to mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as we confess, remember this.

[SPEAKER_00]: The same table that calls us to examine ourselves is the same table that promises His forgiveness.

[SPEAKER_00]: First John one nine says that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[SPEAKER_00]: So bring it to him honestly.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's ready to forgive.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a follower of Jesus,

[SPEAKER_00]: We welcome you to take communion with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to be a member at first free.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you don't know Jesus yet, if you haven't trusted him as your savior, we simply encourage you to let the elements pass and just reflect upon who Jesus is and what he has done for you and that he desires to have a relationship with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: First Corinthians 11, verses 23 through 25, tell us this.

1 Corinthians 11:23–25

[SPEAKER_00]: for I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord Jesus on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks He broken and said, this is my body which is for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do this in remembrance of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's take the cup or the bread.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the same way, after supper, he took the cup and said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do this whenever you drink it, and remembrance of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now let's take the cup.

[SPEAKER_00]: And not to look back as if this is a moment in history, Lord, but that presently pause and examine our hearts and think about what you have done for us that the redemption that you provided is alive in our lives that you have redeemed as you have drawn us into a living, existing relationship with you, Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as we take the bread and as we take the couple reminded of that life, today, thank you, Lord Jesus, that you love us so completely, so perfectly that the grace that you have extended to us is complete, Lord, that there is nothing that we can do to cause you to love us more than you already do, Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for this time of reflection.

[SPEAKER_00]: This time to say, Lord, I love you and thank you for saving me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, we pray these things in your precious name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.