The Better Jonah - How We See Christ in Jonah

You're listening to the Christ Our Cornerstone

podcast, a ministry of Christ Our Cornerstone

Church in O 'Neill, Nebraska. I'm Pastor Logan

Merrick, and it's our prayer that this message

strengthens your faith and draws you closer to

Christ. Let's dive in. Good morning. Good to

see you all. Get myself situated here. There

we go. Found the power button. All right. Well,

let's get rocking and rolling. I'm like really

excited to preach this sermon as we continue

through the book of Jonah. So if you would turn

with me to Jonah chapter one, this is your first

time here. Hello, my name is Pastor Logan. I

get the awesome opportunity to shepherd this

local congregation, these awesome people. And

so it's quite a pleasure. As you guys are turning

to the book of Jonah, just let you guys know,

we're gonna, so Jonah is actually divided into

two different acts. And it just, in God's goodness

and sovereignty, he worked it out. I did not

do this. But we will actually end on act one.

And so we're gonna pause for a moment and then

next week we're gonna start Advent. And I have

a sermon series I'm putting together called The

Soul Felt Its Worth. And we're going to just

each week, we're gonna start with the fall. And

we're gonna look at shame and what shame does

to us. And then we will continue on from there.

And then we will have a Christmas Eve service

about five o 'clock on Christmas Eve. And it

will just be a time of reflection and... time

of lifting up Jesus and celebration before we

all go and celebrate together with our families.

So if you get kind of thrown off next week when

you're like, why are we in Genesis and not in

Jonah? That's why, because we're gonna start

Advent. All right. Tell me what we've been learning

thus far. For those who haven't been here, maybe

we'll catch them up. What do we know about Jonah

thus far? And don't let me down, all right? Don't

let me down. Let me know you've been good students

taking notes. What do we know? He was running

from God. Good deal. Who is, what is Jonah about?

Who is it? Who's the main focus of the book of

Jonah? God. Exactly. And people are like, well,

wait a second. His name is Jonah and we're focusing

on Jonah. Yes, but more importantly, it's about

God and God's feelings towards us, the lost,

right? Who is Jonah going to? Well, hello. I'm

talking to Siri. Who's Jonah going to? Ninevites.

Ninevites are his enemy, correct? All right.

Anything else that stands out that we should

unpack quickly? Cannot hide from God, right.

He does it anyway. He's like, yeah, no God, I'm

not gonna do that. I'm actually gonna go the

opposite direction, right? Which we the first

week we had a map and it was Tarsus right is

the farthest place for them It's literally the

end of the map, right? So good and so God kicks

up this storm, right and so last week we talked

about identity because the sailors are like Who

are you? Where are you from? Who are your people

right? We talked about that and he starts out

Saying what cuz Jonah is what what is it? What

is his job? He's a prophet, right? And so does

he start with I am a prophet of God I serve the

most high God does he start there in his answers.

No, he starts where what does he say? I'm a Hebrew

Meaning I am it's my nationality first before

I am a believer in God Which is important because

again that points back to the Ninevites and how

he feels about pagans and so We talked about

identity. Well, now this week, the reason why

I'm really excited about this is you guys should

know by now, because you've heard me say it a

thousand times, in the Old Testament, all of

the Old Testament is what? What is it doing?

It's points to Christ, right? It's a foreshadowing,

all of it. And you should be feeling, as you

read the Old Testament, you're feeling this buildup,

this natural climax in the story so that when

we get to the New Testament, when we get to the

arrival of Jesus, It feels like a big exhale.

He's here, the Savior, the one who's been promised

from such a long time ago. And so Jonah, this

is the part where we see Jonah as the Christ

figure or the one who is the representative of

Christ. But Jesus says, and this is a quote,

he says, I am the true Jonah, all right? I am

greater than Jonah. And he's referring to himself

that he is the true Jonah. And here's how the

title of my sermon is, The Better Jonah, Christ

Our Substitute. So let's go ahead and dive in,

verse 11, chapter one. So they said to him, what

should we do to you so that the sea will calm

down for us? For the sea was getting worse and

worse. He answered them, Pick me up and throw

me into the sea so that it will calm down for

you. For I know that I am to blame for this great

storm that is against you." Now remember last

week, he wasn't going to say anything, right?

He was willing to go down with the ship. The

ship is literally falling apart and he's like,

they're all going, what is going on? This is

the most insane storm ever. And he's just like,

and they're like, does anybody have any idea?

Like, what, God, we've upset. Jonah's just sitting

there. So they begin to cast lots, right? And

by casting lots, they're physically, it's pointed

to Jonah. You're the problem, right? So that's

why they're questioning him, right? And so he

says, the sea will calm down. And so then he

goes forward in verse 13, nevertheless, the men

rode hard to get back to dry land. But they couldn't

because the sea was raging against them more

and more. I want you, if you're taking notes,

you have your Bible. I want you to underline

that. I want you to highlight that verse because

we're going to come back to that. That's a key

point in this passage. Hopefully you do have

the scriptures in front of you. It's important

that you see these things. So they called out

to the Lord. Remember, are these pagans? Yeah.

So they call out to the Lord by the way, is that

a capital L? Yes, so what does that mean in Hebrew?

What did they actually say? Do you guys know?

He said Yahweh His actual name not God So this

is important real fast if you're gonna take notes

many times throughout scripture Especially in

the Old Testament. You will see the word God

now Here's what you need to know, because many

people will go, well, yeah, the Hebrew word for

God is Elohim. Yes and no. So what I mean by

that is this. The Hebrew word Elohim just means

spiritual figure. Technically, when you and I

die, from a Hebrew perspective, when you and

I die, we have a soul. And when we die, we become

Elohim. No, we are not God, but we are a spiritual

figure. And so it's important that when you see

Lord capitalized, that is them saying His name

and speaking forth the actual God. They're not

just using God, Elohim, as this kind of umbrella

term. So when you see pagans calling Him out

by name, this is important. And so they say,

Verse 14, so they called out to the Lord, please

Lord Yahweh, don't let us perish because of this

man's life and don't charge us with the innocent

blood. For you Lord Yahweh have done just as

you pleased. Then they picked up Jonah and threw

him into the sea and the sea stopped its raging.

And the men were seized by great fear of the

Lord. And they offered a sacrifice to the Lord.

made vows anyone ever heard of a foxhole conversion

that's what this is a foxhole conversion the

Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah

and Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three

days and three nights now before I start diving

in I want you to tell me what you see in this

text what do you see where do you see If you

know that I'm saying this is the part where Jonah

is the Christ figure, where do you see it? He

was willing to die? He wasn't willing to die,

right? But he gets thrown over, right? Good.

What else? What else do you see where you see

that there's a Christ likeness? Three days in

the fish. By the way, There are many people that

are like, this story could have never happened.

A whale could not swallow a man. Well, first

off, go to SeaWorld and visit Shamu. They can,

all right? Could a man survive that? Meh, if

God wanted him to, but probably not. Sorry, I

keep messing with this. This is driving me crazy

for some reason today. But I tend to think that

it wasn't necessarily a whale. But I think that

God, because if you read in Job, there's this

thing called Leviathan. Leviathan is legitimately

a sea monster. And God says in there, only he

can be the one to control Leviathan, which by

the way, Leviathan in Hebrew means chaos, and

only God can do it. And so he says to Job, he's

like, I'm the only one that can control the chaos,

which I think is a great look at when we talk

about Jonah. But I truly think that something

like Leviathan, this sea monster that only God

can control, it says that God appointed a great

fish. And so if only God can control Leviathan,

I think that God ultimately sent Leviathan because

we know he lives in the water. So I think that

there's a sea monster that ultimately swallowed

him up and is used by God because God controls

him. So that being said, here's my big idea.

Jesus is the better Jonah who laid down his life

for us, demonstrating the ultimate act of love

and substitution that brings us peace in our

storms of life. So that's ultimately where we're

gonna drive home. Let's go to the first point.

You ready Micah? First point, yep. Jonah's reluctant

admission. And so when I say Jonah's reluctant

admission, whenever we sin, whenever we do something

wrong, What is our first tendency? What's that?

We try to hide it, right? Where do we see that

take place? In the scriptures. We see it with

David. Who else? Adam and Eve, which we're going

to unpack all of that next week. They hide, right?

They sin. What happens in the Adam and Eve narrative?

And I don't wanna get too much into it because

we're gonna unpack it next week, but what happens

in the Adam and Eve narrative? It starts with

a lie, right? They buy into the lie, then they

begin to, they sin, then what happens? God comes,

right? And they begin to do what? It's like that

blame each other, right? It's like that Spider

-Man meme, right? Where they're both like, eh,

eh, eh, eh. So Eve, by the way, I don't want

to get into this, but God looks to Adam, which

we're going to talk about next week. Adam says

two things. He says, it was who? The woman you

gave me, God. Right? I mean, it's ultimately

your fault, God. Right? But it was also her.

And he was like, wasn't me, it was the talking

snake, right? So they start to blame shift. And

so like Adam and Eve, by the way, Jonah, sounds

kind of like Jonah, right? This wouldn't be happening

if God wouldn't have made me go, you know? And

so he has this reluctant admission. Like Adam

and Eve in the garden, Jonah shows us the human

instinct to hide. to shift blame or to avoid

admitting our part in sin. We are quick to cover

ourselves, whether with excuses, with pride or

shame, because we fear being exposed. Right?

There is nothing worse than whenever you try

to hide your sin and it gets exposed. So, but

Jonah's story gives us a surprising moment. He

finally admits his guilt, right, and he offers

himself to be thrown into the sea so that others

might be saved. We are quick to want to go, oh

wow, look at Jonah, like he's willing to go overboard

into the raging sea in order to save the pagan

sailors. Kinda, but it was very reluctantly.

Yeah, like. We can easily go, wow, look at you,

Jonah. But guess what? They wouldn't have been

in the boat with a raging sea if it hadn't been

for his disobedience, right? So it was the least

he could do. You know what I'm saying? But the

pagans, as we're going to talk about in just

a second, they're actually pretty good dudes

because he says, throw me overboard. And they're

like, row harder, right? But what I find funny,

have you guys ever seen Veggie Tales whenever

they've done the Jonah and the Whale one? The

pirates don't do anything? I laugh every single

time in that movie whenever they put the rubber

ducky around Jonah and they throw him in and

as soon as he lands, it goes from storming to

all of a sudden, and they're all just staring

at Jonah and Jonah's just sitting there floating.

Like that is so funny. That is so stinking funny.

And I'm like, the text says that's what happened,

right? It says that the storm is raging, and

when he's thrown overboard, boom, stillness.

And they're just all like, look at each other

like, did that really happen? Jonah's like, told

you. And so when Jonah admitted guilt because

he had no other choice, right? Jonah admitted

guilt when he had no other choice. Why? Because

what happened? When they cast lots, it fell on

him, right? So then he had to admit. Here's what

I want you to take note of. Micah, put this up

here. I want you to write this down. Huh? Oh,

dang. All right. Cool. Awesome. So Jesus, where

Jonah had no other choice, Jesus willingly stepped

forward. Where Jonah offered himself reluctantly,

Christ offered himself gladly. Where Jonah was

cast into the sea for his own sin, Jesus was

lifted on the cross for hours. Think about that

for just a moment. The sin we so want to cover

up, the sin we hope that no one ever finds out,

the sin you so long to hide, Jesus, the perfect

one, willingly went on a cross and bore that,

openly mocked, spit upon, that sin that you're

hiding. So he openly bore our sin, the guilt

we attempt to hide he took upon himself, unhidden,

unprotected, sacrificially. We have this instinct

to hide and blame, and we see it in ourselves.

But let me give you a modern example of this,

okay? Let me give you a modern example of a scapegoat

and someone trying to hide their sin and someone

who became the fall guy. You guys are pretty

knowledgeable, I'm sure, with this story. Ever

heard of this thing called Watergate? Pretty

pretty low -key story in the news back then What

happened with Watergate? What was the scandal?

You don't have to give me like what happened,

but what ultimately? Did Richard Nixon did he

go to prison? No He was desperate to protect

himself And so when someone had to take the blame

there was a man by the name of Charles Coulson

His loyal counsel He became his fall guy. And

Coulson went to prison carrying a shame that

wasn't fully his. But in prison, God broke Coulson

and Coulson later said, this is a quote from

him, the great paradox of my life is that going

to prison was the best thing that ever happened

to me. Why? Because he finally stopped hiding.

He finally admitted his sin and he finally met

the grace of Jesus. If you've never, by the way,

read any of Coulson's books, They're good. Noah

will tell you they're one of some of the most

boring things he ever had to read in school.

Am I right? Am I right, Noah? No, it's fine.

But Nixon hid, just like Adam hid, just like

Jonah hid. But salvation comes when we stop hiding.

Amen. Here's the thing. When Adam and Eve hid,

who pursued? God. When Jonah hid who pursued?

God And unlike Nixon and unlike us Jesus doesn't

make someone else take the fall He becomes the

fall guy for our sins That aren't his and he

does it willingly That by the way, if you haven't

caught on is the beauty of Jesus That's if you're

already starting to see what I'm trying to untangle

for you. That's why he's a better Jonah Jesus

went, if you look at our verse of the week, if

you read a little bit before that, it says that

while we were still enemies of His, Christ died.

The Ninevites are enemies of His. Do you see

it? Are you seeing it? When we acknowledge our

sin, we are not crushed, we are carried. I want

you to think about that. Your sin should crush

you, but it doesn't because it was crushed. Jesus

was crushed and he carries you. Honest confession

doesn't drive us away from God. It drives us

to the one who already bore everything we're

afraid to admit. Jonah's reluctant admission

points us toward the grace of Christ. The freedom

begins The greater Jonah who offers himself for

the ultimate rescue. Our freedom begins when

we stop hiding and trust the one who has already

stepped into the storm for us. What does the

storm represent? If we have a storm and we have

Jonah, if Jesus is the better Jonah, what does

the storm represent? What does it represent?

What was raging against us? Okay, sin, but we

willingly sin. So what rages against sin? God's

wrath. So the storm is God's wrath, right? By

the way, in case anyone is, might mistake this,

I don't believe that Jonah is an allegorical

only. Like I believe fully that this literally

happened. I believe fully and literally that

this man refused to go to Nineveh and was swallowed

by a massive, massive monster. Let's look at

point number two. Sailors struggle and surrender.

So when we look at Jonah verses 13 and 14, If

you'll go there with me real quick. Nevertheless,

the men rode hard to get back to dry land, but

they couldn't because the sea was raging against

them more and more. The pagan sailors in Jonah

1 behave exactly the way we so often do when

sin becomes exposed. What do I mean by that?

What does that represent? If they're rowing harder,

Jonah told them what to do, and they're like,

can't do that. So that they take they try to

take it into their own hands, right? So what

does that represent? Works Represents works The

storm is raging the she the ship is breaking

apart and instead of looking to God the sailors

grab the oars They do everything and their human

effort can do They lighten the ship They cry

out to false gods. How many times do we hide

and do we go? When God is trying to convict us

of sin, how many of us cry out to false gods?

What do I mean by that? You immediately start

looking to other things to try to take this anxiety

and shame away. Whether it's distracting yourself

on social media, whether it's watching a movie,

whether it's diving in harder into work or trying

to get more money, whatever it is, we start crying

out to false gods. And finally, they row with

everything they have trying to out -muscle a

storm that only God can calm. This is us. When

the storm of sin hits our lives, our first instinct

is not repentance, it's self -rescue. We start

plugging holes, right? We row harder. We try

to manage consequences. Clean ourselves up fix

the situation or pretend it isn't as bad as it

is we lie to ourselves, right? And guess what

we do this for others, too We will lie and Try

to protect others who God is so desperately trying

to get their attention we get in the way Instead

of trying to call them to repentance We make

excuses. You want to know where you see it most?

Parents with their kids. When your kid, typically

adult kid, but teenage kids, when they mess up,

when they sin, how many times... I've heard this

so many times in youth ministry. It's just boys

being boys. Teenagers supposed to mess up. It's

what we do. Teenagers make mistakes. Yeah, they

do. And sometimes when God is trying to get their

attention and call them to repentance, you hide

it. You make excuses. You get in the way of God

doing the work of a good God. And you become

a parent who's also now in sin. And so we make

excuses. We row harder. But sometimes that instinct

can become dangerous. I'm going to tell you guys

a quick story. I'm going to tell you this story.

I'm not going to share names or where I was at

or anything like that, but just know I was on

staff at a church. And I want to share this in

a way just in case there's somebody in the room

that has experienced the sin of somebody else.

Let me just, I'm going to try to do this with

a lot of grace and compassion, because I don't

want it to be a trigger for someone. But in a

former church that I had served in, there was

a situation involving a young boy that we had.

And when I came on staff at this church, no one

told me about this young man's past, not a single

person. And everyone else was very well aware

of it. Their parents ran a large ministry in

the town as an outreach to the middle schools

and high schools there in that town. And they

were very well known. Well, everyone had just

covered up this boy's abuse of other children

in a very perverted way. And so when he was brought

to justice the first time, it was all thrown

under, you know, hidden because he was so young.

And so what ends up happening is all the adults

lied, all the adults covered up and allowed him

to make excuses for his sin. It was, he's just

a kid. So, but eventually as he got older, we

left and this young boy ended up taking advantage

of two underage girls in a very forceful way.

And once again, the parents tried to cover it

up. They lied. The churches lied. and they allowed

him to, if the first time, if the parents hadn't

and the church hadn't tried to cover it up, but

allowed him for the law to do what it's supposed

to do, he would have already been known. He would

have already been called to repentance, but instead

we cover it up, we hide it, we make excuses,

and we say it's just a boy being a boy. It's

just a boy being a young man who's learning,

and then because of that, you now have more victims.

Do you see how your sin of covering up affects

other people? Those parents, because I spoke

out against what happened, because I was also

being... called out as a minister who tried to

cover things up when I legitimately had no idea

about anything. So when I spoke out against it,

those parents wrote me off, told me that I was

a jerk and blah, blah, blah. They still run a

ministry in town to this day. But thanks be to

the Lord, that young man, because I was just

curious, was ultimately convicted in 2023. But

we cannot row harder for somebody else, especially

if we are parents, especially if we are leaders,

if we are teachers, pastors, ministers. In any

way, if we are a leader knowing that God is dealing

with someone's sin, you cannot just try to row

harder and try to cover it up. Let it come out.

Make sense? All right. As Christians, we, Micah,

you can put this one up. As Christians, we are

especially good at rowing religiously. What do

I mean by that? When God is trying to bring us

to repentance, we don't row with oars, we row

with good deeds. We row with volunteer hours.

We row with Christian vocabulary. We row with

church attendance and service and outward obedience.

hoping that these spiritual emotions will calm

the inward storm. We can hide behind religiosity,

a fake law abiding pride that says, I can fix

this if I just do more, if I act better, if I

impress people enough, if I look holy on the

outside, maybe the storm won't crash into the

inside. It's just another form of self -salvation,

another version of the sailors rowing harder.

Brothers and sisters, I wanna tell you like that,

that only is exhausting. I heard a pastor say

one time, when we become works based, when we

begin to think that in our sin, instead of going

to repentance, the thing where it's already been

done for you and you automatically start going

into a works based, mindset of trying to cover

things up and trying to work your way to God.

He said, congratulations, either you're a Muslim

or you belong to a cult, because that's not Jesus.

That's not Christianity. And that's a good point.

You cannot be good enough. It's beautiful. It's

wonderful news to know that all I have to do

It's come to Jesus and say, forgive me, and he

says it's done, as opposed to you going, I've

got to do. You cannot row your way out of a storm

that God sent to break you of self -reliance.

All the efforts, religious, physical, moral,

it all fails. And in this moment, the only path

forward is surrender. And so just like the sailors

have to do the very thing that they don't want

to do, they stop trying to fix the problems themselves,

they stop protecting Jonah, they stop rowing,

and they obey the hard command of God. They have

to cast Jonah into the sea, a sea that's raging.

And when they finally stop striving and surrender

to God's way, what happens? It's instantly calm.

It's funny how that happens, right? Point number

three. The storm is silenced by sacrifice. The

storm is silenced by sacrifice. The storm in

Jonah isn't mild. The text says that it's raging.

It's tearing apart the ship. It's violent. It's

relentless. And the storm gives us a picture

of something far older and far deeper. The storm

unleashed when sin entered the world. When Adam

and Eve rebelled, the wrath of God, his holy

just opposition to sin began to rage against

humanity. I want you to think about something

for just a moment. I want you to imagine, this

is so difficult, but we know in our minds, but

it's like we don't really reflect on it. I want

you to think about what it must have been like

before sin entered the world. Think about the

fact that there was just work. It was good. Adam

wasn't sore. Right? There's no sweating. It was

just cultivation. Him and Eve getting along,

man. Adam does the dishes without being asked.

Right? If you're a dog person, like I am, there

was no dogs being afraid of you, right Scott,

like my dog? You're like, I'm a dog person. She's

like, no, you're not. You're not a part of my

family. Any animal just coming right up to Adam,

right? But it's hard to imagine a world where

there is no sin. There's no brokenness. There's

no hurt. Like it's so difficult to imagine. No

death. And there's just this peace. this rhythm

that's like breathing between them and the Father

It's not hard to connect with him because he's

there We're holy and he's holy right then in

one simple thing everything becomes broken and

fractured and now everything everything all of

all of life trees Everything is affected. Air,

animals, they're now eating each other. Everything

becomes inward focused, right? Because it's that,

that sin, that inward focus, the brokenness that

begins to rage, God begins to rage against. And

so then as sin is unleashed on the world, when

Adam and Eve rebel, the wrath of God becomes

against humanity. And for generations, sacrifices

of goats and bulls were commanded, not because

they could fully satisfy God's wrath, but because

they pointed forward to the one who would. Could

the blood of goats and bulls truly satisfy? No,

how do we know that? Because one, they had to

continually do it, right? But Hebrews tells us,

it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats

to take away sin. The entire sacrificial system

was God saying, one day a sacrifice will come

that truly brings peace. And in Jonah's story,

we get a glimpse, a shadow of that ultimate sacrifice.

As Jonah is heaved over, the storm instantly

stops. There's no tapering off. There's no gradual

calm. It's immediate peace. A raging storm silenced

by a single sacrifice. This moment is a picture

of Christ. Jonah is thrown overboard because

of his own sin. Christ is lifted up onto the

cross because of ours. In Florida, We we have

storms that I promise you that's it's the craziest

thing if you've never experienced it You can

set the Floridian will tell you you can set your

watch to a Florida storm and I've been in many

times be out at two o 'clock in the afternoon

all of a sudden. It's bright. It's hot as always

sunshine and then all of a sudden out of nowhere

it's like this storm will just it's black it's

disgustingly ominous it's kind of scary and all

of a sudden palm trees are bending over you can't

see two feet in front of your face the storm

is just going all which way there's wind everywhere

and it's just like it feels like a hurricane

and as fast as it comes it'll stop and then all

of a sudden the sun comes out birds start chirping

And the only difference is now it's hotter because

it's more humid. And so it's an interesting thing

if you've never seen a Florida storm, where all

of a sudden this thing is raging. And the window,

if you're inside, it's just beating against a

window. And you're like, man, should we find

somewhere to hide? And all of a sudden, boom,

it's gone. And if you're with a real Floridian

like myself, You know, I've been valet in cars,

and there'll be, you know, guys valet with me

who aren't from Florida. And they'll be like,

what do we do? I'm like, eh, just give it 10

minutes. It'll be done. They're like, no way.

And you look at it and it's done. And that's

exactly what the storm is like. Jonah spins.

He gets thrown in. Boom. It's over. Birds start

chirping. Sun comes out. But Jonah spends three

days in the depths. before God brings him out.

Christ spends three days in the tomb before rising

in victory. And just as the sea went, still the

moment Jonah went under, the wrath of God was

stilled. Okay, I should have totally like proofread

this before I printed it. I don't even have any

idea what I'm trying to say here. No more striving.

How about that? No more trying to appease God.

No more endless sacrifices. The storm ends because

the sacrifice is perfect. Next time before you

print this for me, babe, can you just look it

over? My last point. The sailors convert. God

draws people even through reluctance. Jonah does

not want to go to Nineveh. But God isn't going

to waste the storm. It's really, really remarkable

that these pagan sailors who only moments earlier

were crying out to false gods are now calling

on Yahweh, the covenant name of Israel's God.

They offer sacrifices. They make vows. They convert.

In Jonah's reluctance, God draws pagans to himself.

In Jonah's disobedience, God displays his mercy

to unexpected people. You guys remember when

I told you guys the story a few weeks ago about

my buddy who worked with me who was reluctant

to go on the missions trip to Mexico and how

he literally saw miracles happen? And through

those miracles, God not only showed mercy, to

him and showed things to him, but people got

saved. I mean, God uses all of it, all of it.

Even when you are disobedient and completely

reluctant to do what he's telling you to do,

God's like, I'm not wasting this storm, buddy.

God does not waste storms. He does not waste

failures. He does not waste hurts. He doesn't

waste sin patterns or reluctant profits. He can

redeem your story and even use it to draw others

to himself. This is why, brothers and sisters,

your testimony matters. When I actually was writing

this, I thought about, and I'm calling him out

again, but Bob Waldo, every time I'm with him,

we'll talk about his story and how he will just

share. his testimony anywhere and everywhere.

And he has shared it at the rehabilitation centers

in town. He has shared it with young people all

over. He's been, if you talk to him, you know,

he loves motorcycles. Him and Linda have been

up and he's shared to South Dakota, what's the

biking thing? Surges. He's told me stories of

like walking up to Hell's Angels in the middle

of them, like being them and just him being Bob

and telling his story. God uses all of it. Our

broken chapters, our storms, our moments of surrender,

God uses it all. There is a, I tried to find

it, couldn't find it, but I read a book years

ago called Sticky Ministry, and in it, they did

a, they followed a generation of families, and

in it, they noticed that the families, the moms

and dads who shared their testimony with their

kids, the grandparents who shared their testimony

with their kids and their grandkids, if you don't

know, 40 to 50 % of Christian kids raised in

church when they go off to college will stay

with it. The rest will lose their faith. So 40

to 50%. But whenever you share your testimony,

that goes up to 80 to 90 percent will stay with

their faith and continue to raise their kids

in the faith. That's just data telling you that

your testimony matters. So if you've never shared

your testimony, I don't care how broken and messed

up it is. If you need to scrub that thing down

a little bit so we don't have to get all the

details of what grandma used to do. All right.

But share your testimony with your kids and your

grandkids if they've never heard it. If they

have no idea how you came to Christ, you need

to share it. And so your testimony absolutely

matters. And here's a story that I found. It's

called the second knitter. I just, I found it

to be really gracious and kind. I don't know.

So years ago, there was a woman, her name was

Claire. She sat quietly at a church's women's

event, listening to a speaker talk about God's

faithfulness. The speaker shared about her long

battle with infertility, how she had begged God

for a child, how she felt forgotten, how every

baby shower felt like a funeral for her and her

own dream. But she also shared how God met her

in her loneliness, how he reshaped her longing.

and how he eventually gave her peace and hope

even before he answered her prayer. As the women

were packing up, Claire hesitated and then she

walked up to the speaker in tears and she whispered,

I thought I was the only one. Then she said something

that the speaker never forgot. Your story didn't

fix my pain, but it told me that God is still

knitting in the dark even when I can't see his

hands. The speaker later said that in the moment,

it hit her. God had not wasted her suffering,

but her silence would have. You don't know what

your testimony could do for someone. Claire ended

up joining a small group. Later she gave her

life to Christ. And today she has her own ministry

to women walking through infertility. Not because

she read a book, not because she took a class.

because someone told their story. One person's

testimony became another person's lifeline. So

I want to encourage you to share your testimony.

The storm is silenced. And this last note, Michael,

will you put this up there? Should be one more.

Oh, you've already got it. Okay. Trust the one

who calms the waves, not by effort, but by offering

himself. Let's pray.