Merciful One: The God Who Shows Up Again (Jonah 04)

It is extra awesome if you're sitting by a dude because then they're like, well, it's not for me.

I saw a couple of those going.

Well, I mean, thanks, I guess.

I don't know.

Yeah.

It is so good to see you today.

And happy Mother's Day to everybody who is here today.

So I guess everybody's got a mother.

So happy Mother's Day for that one.

And so uh, if you have your Bibles, you want to open up with me, we are going to be in the final part of our series entitled Merciful One About the Book of Jonah.

And I'm going to give you an opportunity to take a minute to find the book of Jonah because it's kind of hard to find.

I'll go ahead and tell you go to Matthew and hang a left, and you'll be there in just a moment.

While you do that, I want to say if this is your first time joining us, welcome.

We are so glad to see you today.

And it is an honor to worship with you.

Make sure you fill out your connect card and turn it into Welcome Center because we have a free gift for you before you leave today.

And that's whether you're a mother or not.

We've got a free gift for you.

But at the same time as well, I do want to say a really quick thank you to everybody who came out uh yesterday to celebrate uh my graduation.

I was so thankful for all of you very, very much.

And this is how all of you can repay me.

So we can we can we can kind of just this is how you can do it.

First of all, let's never mention it again.

And number two is please don't let double DPB catch on, okay?

It was real funny last week when when uh Pastor Derek mentioned it, but if I could just die right here and now, I would be so very thankful for that.

You're that is the best way to celebrate that, okay?

And then on to the great celebration.

Happy Mother's Day! Can we put our hands together once again to celebrate all of our moms?

Happy Mother's Day.

It is such an honor to celebrate you.

And here's the thing, okay?

Listen, some of you, you're excited, some of you are nervous because you uh have don't know if what you've got planned is good enough, and some of you have just now realized it was Mother's Day.

Listen, we got you, okay?

No, no shade, no judgment.

We've got you.

At the Welcome Center today, if you forgot it was Mother's Day, we have some free Mother's Day cards for you, and you can fill this out and get it to your mom.

Now, we are not responsible for getting it to your mother.

I don't know what the plan is, okay?

If you if the mail probably isn't gonna work for you.

Maybe you put it on a pigeon, I don't know, but it is up to you to get it to your mom.

But we got you today if you need to somehow kind of make it up to your mom, and it's blank, so you can fill it up with how sorry you are that you forgot that it was Mother's Day, all right?

And before we jump into today's message, it's amazing how AI, artificial intelligence, has gotten so smart, right?

It is it has gotten so so intelligent that the other day I was asking it, could you give me a picture of what a perfect mother looks like?

It can do everything else.

And so I asked for a picture of a perfect mother, right?

And so I asked it to do that and it kind of tried a little bit, and then it came up with this image.

And I was like, well, that's not clear.

Well, it was it was getting a little bit better, and it got a little bit better, a little bit better, a little bit better until there it is.

There's happy Mother's Day to my wife.

Yes.

Just let it sizzle, let it sizzle very much.

All of you guys, I am so sorry.

I win.

Okay, yes, absolutely.

It wasn't for that, but happy Mother's Day, and um, let's move on real quick.

Let's go to talk about the book of Jonah.

And we've been talking about this one, and we we kind of use the illustration of an escape room to talk about the book of Jonah.

And the reason why is if you've ever been in an escape room, the whole idea of it is you go into this little room, and your goal is to find a way out of the room before the hour is up.

And I was telling you how one day I went into an escape room with some friends of mine, and we were kind of looking around, and it was this little room, and at some point we found a key, and we didn't know what to do with that key.

We the key did not work to help us get out, and we couldn't figure it out.

And then finally we realized there was actually a door in the wall.

And so when we used the key and we opened the door, it turned out that there was a much bigger room on the other side, and there was all these different uh puzzles and things, and and we realized that there was this little room inside of a huge room, and it was actually so much fun.

And we said that the book of Jonah is a lot like that.

That many of us see the book of Jonah as very, very small.

And we even said this last time, and that is that if all we see is a fish having a bro for dinner, we've missed the beauty of this story.

That would be like staying in that small room.

But hidden within the book of Jonah is a key.

And if we can see that key and we can open up the door, the book of Jonah is so beautiful and it still speaks to us even today.

But we gotta have the right key.

And we've been talking about the idea of there's three possible keys to unlock the book of Jonah, three subjects for it.

Number one, we've got Jonah himself, it's named after him, and so you would think the book of Jonah is about Jonah, but it's really not.

Even though he was the most popular prophet, most likely of his day, probably trained by Elisha, the guy who did more miracles than anybody else in the Old Testament.

And I mean, he is he was really the guy you would think.

Then you've got, you know, the other side, which is Nineveh, the most evil city of the day.

This was a city who used the skulls of their conquered victims as centerpieces for their tables.

These are very bad jokers.

I mean, these these guys need a whole lot of God in their life.

And so it could have been that.

But then, of course, the third possible key to unlock the book of Jonah is God.

And so, you know, since the answer is always Jesus, we realize that actually Jesus, God, is the true hero of the story.

And when we use the key and we look at the book of Jonah through the lens of how can I see God in this more, we see so much more.

And that is this, that this was the key we've been using.

If you're taking notes with us one more time, that the whole idea of Jonah is that we can see God's mercy in every mess.

The amazing beauty of the book of Jonah, that when we use the key of how we can see God's mercy in every mess, it just absolutely opens up this book into so much more than we could have imagined.

In other words, I think if Jonah were to give us, you know, the TLDR, the the Cliff Notes version, he would say that God is overflowing in mercy no matter how many mess we make.

Somebody say, Amen.

Look at your neighbor and say, You need to hear that today.

You didn't do that.

That's fine.

We'll get it'll get better.

Okay, God is overflowing, but but here's the thing.

Well, then what is it we need about mercy?

Here is the best definition I can come up of mercy, and that is that God is meeting us in every mess.

A great definition of mercy is that God doesn't say, fix yourself and then I will come find you, but rather he comes into the middle of every mess that we have and he walks with us through and out of every single mess.

And we've been watching that throughout the different chapters of the book of Jonah.

And so, kind of to give you a recap before we finish it, because this is the this chapter right here, this last one, is the big reveal.

And and so here's here's the idea of what we where we have been, which by the way, I also told you that the way the book of Jonah was written, it was written to be funny.

Like Jonah is probably one of those really hilarious guys that if you ever you ever been around somebody who's not trying to be funny, but they're just hilarious.

You ever been around people who are trying to be funny and are not?

You know, you know, that I am usually the second of the two.

Jonah was the first one.

You just be around him and he was great.

And he wrote this to be funny, saying, Look at all the trouble I got myself in, and God is still good.

And we learned in chapter one, when we look through the eyes of the mercy of God, that God is with us even when we are the mess.

And in chapter one, we realize that most of Jonah's problems are really all on Jonah, because it started with God saying, Jonah, I've got a big idea for you.

I want you to get up and go to the east, to Nineveh, and I want you to prophesy to them that they're gonna be destroyed unless they repent.

And Jonah was like, okay, he got up, but then he went west as far as he could possibly get.

He was on his way to not go to Nineveh.

And just spoiler alert, he didn't get lost.

He was purposely going in the wrong way.

And God in his kindness caused a storm.

And God in his kindness got him kicked off the boat.

They they threw him into the water, and the Bible literally says God arranged a fish to swallow Jonah.

Thank you, God.

Okay, that the he could have called an Uber, he could have done anything else, but he called a fish to swallow Jonah.

And that's how chapter one ends.

And then chapter two, we learned that God's mercy is with us when the journey is a mess.

If you ever want to know a way to really get serious with God, it's when the journey becomes a mess.

It was amazing how Jonah got serious with God when he was in the belly of a fish.

And he was there.

And the Bible said that after, I'm sure he screamed for quite a while, he got serious with God.

And what I love about that is he didn't pray hoping God would hear him.

He prayed right in the middle of his mess, knowing God was hearing him.

And we can see how God is with him even in that mess.

And then chapter three, last week, Pastor Derrick did such a great job talking about the beauty of repentance.

Because in chapter three, the Bible says, because by the way, he did get out of the fish.

God had him, he vomited up on the seashore, which is gross, you know.

And then, and then in chapter three, God again said, Hey Jonah, how about you get up and go to Nineveh?

And Jonah was like, Absolutely, God, I'd be glad to.

No more fishes for me.

And he goes to Nineveh and he walks all the way around the city and he says that in 40 days, judgment is coming upon the city.

And then, like a boss, he walked out.

Just get ready.

And then what was amazing was the response.

These people who did not know God repented.

That not just the king, the people, even the animals.

Fluffy the cat got saved.

I mean, you want to talk about a revival when cats repent?

God's doing something up in that place.

I mean, it was amazing.

Even, even Bertha the cow was in sackcloth and ashes.

It's amazing what God can do, right?

And at the end of the chapter, I mean, this whole nation, thousands of people have repented.

And wouldn't it have been amazing if that's where the book ended?

If the book had ended, we would have saw Jonah as the hero.

Because Jonah obeyed God, went to Nineveh, preached the gospel that judgment is coming unless you repent, and an entire city got saved.

But Jonah's not the hero of the story.

Actually, the whole time, there's been another hero behind the scenes doing amazing things.

Let's read Jonah chapter four and kind of see what's really been going on and kind of the epilogue to this amazing story.

Here we go.

This change of plans greatly upset Jonah.

And he became very angry.

So he complained to the Lord about it.

Imagine this, okay?

Listen to this.

Didn't I say before I left from home that you would do this, Lord?

This is why I ran away to Tarshish.

I knew that you are merciful and compassionate, God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

You are eager to turn back from destroying people.

Just kill me now, Lord.

Such a great guy, you know.

I'd rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.

And the Lord replied, Is it right for you to be angry about this?

Then Jonah went out to the east side of the city and made a shelter to sit under as he waited to see what would happen to the city.

And the Lord arranged a leafy plant to grow there.

And soon it spread its broad leaves over Jonah's head, shading him from the sun.

This eased the discomfort of Jonah, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant.

But God also arranged a worm.

And the next morning at dawn, the worm ate the stem of the plant so that it withered away.

And as the sun grew hot, God also arranged a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah.

And the sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die.

This guy is all about some death in this chapter.

It's going to tell you.

He said, Death is certainly better than living like this, he exclaimed.

And then God said to Jonah, Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?

Yes, Jonah retorted, even angry enough to die.

Then the Lord said, So you feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there.

It came quickly and then died quickly.

But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention Fluffy the cat.

All right.

Shouldn't I feel sorry for such a great city?

Wow.

If you've ever had embarrassed for you goosebumps, that would be the moment.

The great man of God didn't want his message to come true.

And then when God is saying, Jonah, is this not what we're here to do?

No, this is why I ran away.

It's because I didn't want you to do this.

And so we actually find something really bad about Jonah, but we also figure out who the hero of the story has been the whole time.

And if you're taking notes, here's the amazing beauty is that God shines by showing up again in our mess.

And if you're taking analog notes, God shines by showing up again and again and again and again and again in every single mess.

Some of us aren't on God's second chance or God's third chance.

We're on God's like 99th chance, and we're gonna need another one by the end of the day, right?

We need God's chances, but the amazing thing is, is we can't outsend God's grace.

We can't outsen his mercy.

And when we find out how truly messed up Jonah is, it makes the mercy of God even more amazing.

Because look what the what happens.

The Bible says that literally 120,000 people and Fluffy the Cat all got saved, and Jonah is angry.

As a matter of fact, the Hebrew definition for this word, greatly upset, means to boil with anger.

Have you ever been so angry you couldn't even talk?

You're just kind of shaking.

That's what happens for me every time Alabama loses a football game.

I did a lot of that this past year, and so I'm kind of used to it now.

But it's the idea of he was so angry that he was almost shaking.

He was so mad, he became very angry.

And the Lord said, or brother, he said, that's why I ran away to Tarshish.

See, we've been telling you this throughout this series, but up until now, if you're reading this for the first time, you don't know that.

You thought that Jonah was the great man of God who just, you know, maybe he didn't feel up to the task in chapter one, but now you realize it wasn't because he wasn't up to the task, it was because he didn't want God to do this miracle, even to the point that he blames God for being awesome.

He's like, You are merciful and compassionate and filled with unfailing love.

You're eager to turn back from destroying these people.

So his answer was, kill me, kill me now.

And then look at this.

This right here, this is the moment.

I'd rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen, which means Jonah's a jerk.

It just is what it is, but God is the hero of the story.

Literally, he said, I would rather you kill 120,000 people to make me happy.

But before we get like two looking down at Jonah, this also reveals something to us, and that is this you can see the condition of our heart by how we react when God blesses others.

And that's what happened.

Is when he saw that God had mercy, he got mad at God for God's mercy.

And so we see this whole time Jonah wasn't the hero of the story, God was the hero this whole time.

God has been working with a messed up person.

But you know what the amazing thing is?

He kept working and he kept moving with that person.

He didn't give up on Jonah, even though he wasn't dealing with the perfect vessel.

And can I go ahead and tell you the amazing thing is that when we're at our worst, God is at his best.

Let me say it again.

When we are at our worst, God is at our best.

God is not waiting until you get perfect before he wants to do something in and through and with your life.

He wants to use you right now and he heals you along the way.

And as many times as we mess up, is as many times as God will show up again and again and again.

And so what I want to do is I just want to grapple with this question of how does God's mercy shine by showing up again and again and again.

How do we see how God shows up in Jonah's life?

And we can see sometimes how God does the same thing in us that when we're at our worst, God is at his best.

And so we're gonna see the three things that God arranged to come into Jonah's life to kind of get his attention.

I want you to take kind of a personal inventory if you can remember times in your life when God has shown mercy by bringing these three things.

I'm gonna go ahead and warn you, they start off really sweet and they start being less sweet along the way.

But I've had all three of these happen in my life, and I now look at back at it and say, Man, isn't God good?

So look at your neighbor and say, Ain't God good?

I'm so thankful that his mercy was enough to show up when I was in my works.

Here's the first one, and that is God's mercy is so great that he shows up again by arranging seasons of rest.

Praise the Lord.

As good as it gets, right there.

That he actually arranges seasons of rest in our life.

Seasons where he will slow us down either because we are just in a wonderful season or sometimes against our own will.

You ever had a season in your life when you were trying to move forward and God just kind of put the brakes on stuff for a little while?

And we're asking God why, when really what he's doing, we find out later is he was giving us a season of rest.

That's the first thing he did for Jonah.

The Bible says that Jonah went to the outside, the east side of the city, and made a shelter to sit under and wait to see what would happen to the city.

In other words, he pitched a fit.

He literally left the city, went and got himself a seat, and said, Maybe by the end of the 40 days, God will go ahead and destroy them anyway.

So he literally is pitching a fit.

And then it says that the Lord God arranged for a leafy plant to grow there, and as soon as it spread its leaves over Jonah's head, it started shading him from the sun, and this eased his discomfort, and Jonah was very grateful for the plant.

I love this that it says arranged, because that's the same word that the Bible used in chapter one when it said, God arranged for a fish.

So God arranged a fish to get Jonah from a bad place to a good place, and in this situation, God arranged a plant as a vehicle to get Jonah from a bad place to a place where he would listen.

And many times God will show his mercy by being at his best when we're in our worst, by by putting us into a season where we can rest.

Because the good news is God wants us to have seasons of rest.

Let's talk about a definition of rest.

A definition of rest is that which restores our soul not simply numbs our mind.

Praise the Lord.

Okay.

That which restores our soul not simply numbs our mind.

That a season that actually heals us, not just keeps us.

And I think that's even amazing because the plant that he was probably under was a castor oil plant.

And it actually can grow up to eight feet really tall.

But the amazing thing about a castor oil plant is it's actually for medical purposes.

It's medicinal.

It's really what it is.

And it's amazing how that you can see this parallel of this was meant to be a healing for Jonah, not just a rest for Jonah.

But the reality of it is that many times we will simply go through seasons where we will try to numb our minds rather than let God restore our soul through different things that we do.

Because it says in 2nd Exaggerations chapter 12, thou shalt not consider doom scrolling rest.

From the unauthorized PB translation.

Okay, yes.

But how many times have you ever done that?

You want to rest.

And so you start doom scrolling, and an hour later you're still not rested.

Now you're more anxious than you were, because now you have gone and really quickly seen that the world is not a perfect place.

And now you've got all that going on.

But the amazing thing is, is that God doesn't just want us to numb, he wants us to rest.

And that's why he realized Jonah needed because the Bible says that the Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

He lets me rest in green meadows, and he leads me beside peaceful streams.

And sometimes I've noticed in my life, I'm so frustrated with God because he's not moving faster, only to realize that he's moving slower so that I will match his pace, not so that he matches mine.

Because there's a season when I need to start slowing down and resting my soul because there's something coming ahead I don't know about yet, and I'm gonna need to be restored by the time I get there.

So sometimes we get so mad at God because he's not moving fast enough, rather than asking God, wait a minute, why are you not moving fast enough?

Maybe it's because you're trying to do something in my life.

And I see three things that God was doing in Jonah's life, I think is still a parallel, and that is true rest that comes from God actually will protect us.

You know one of the worst times to make decisions is when you're in the vulnerable spot of being in a hurry.

Because sometimes when we're in a hurry, we make decisions to fix the moment, not fix the problem.

And that's what we see in this moment is that Jonah's just not in the right frame of mind.

And so it's so instead of bringing judgment on Jonah, God is at his best when we're at our worst, and he actually sits him down so that he can just kind of rest for a moment.

Sometimes God will take us through seasons of rest to protect our hearts, but also to calm us.

One of the amazing things about our culture today is we move so quickly.

I don't know about you, but it seems like almost everybody I meet has at least three, three Red Bulls for breakfast every morning.

You know, we're always just kind of z just kind of going, you know.

And like you ask people, when is the last time your RPMs got below 90?

And they go, What is below 90?

Let's go.

You know, it's kind of I stay above 120.

What's wrong with you?

And sometimes what God will do is He will put us in seasons of waiting so that we calm ourselves so we can hear His voice more clearly.

Another one is that it will energize us that many times we realize that the only true way to notice how empty we are is when the noise goes away.

And then we realize just how much I miss the Lord.

Just how much I miss being close with Him.

And God is not interested in helping us escape our life.

He wants us to be overcomers in our life.

He wants to give us the stamina to do all the things that He's called us to do.

And so many times He'll put us in a season of rest so that we can prepare ourselves for what He has next.

And here's the reason, here's the way He does it, because the Bible said that Jesus even told His disciples to take seasons of rest.

But look at how He did it.

He said that that the apostles returned to Jesus from their ministry tour and He told them all the great things that He that they had done and they had taught.

And Jesus said, That's great.

Let's go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest a while.

The reason why he said this was because there was so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn't even have time to eat.

So they so they left by boat for a quiet place where they could be alone.

Rest, true rest for our soul, doesn't just happen when we do less, but when we're with the Lord.

And one of the things we see happening in Jonah's life is God caused him to slow down because he knew Jonah wasn't in the right frame of mind and he needed him to understand something.

So he put him in a place so he could rest so he could hear.

And one of the things we can see about this is a great place for of rest for our souls can be found when we focus on gratitude.

You notice that when he found that place of rest, it said that he was grateful for what he had done.

I know we live in a culture sometimes where we say, that must be nice, you know, Pastor, I'd love to go, you know, on a vacation, or I'd love to do this, that, and the other.

I don't I don't have the opportunity to do that.

Do you know one of the ways that we can do that is we can have rest in our soul, even at a healthy pace, if we focus on gratitude.

You know, it's it is so hard to be truly grateful and to worry at the same time.

It's so, it's so hard to be grateful and be angry at the same time.

I want to give you a uh give you homework, and that is this if you feel like the pace of your life is just too fast right now, but you're in a pace where you can't really slow down no matter how bad you want to, what if you took just five minutes a day and instead of letting all those things overwhelm you, you found as many things as you could to be grateful.

Can I tell you after five minutes, you would be more rested in your soul than a full night of sleep?

Because as you spend time with the Lord, he begins to actually speak to the wounds and the pains and the hurts and the fears in us, not just numbing them.

And that's what started to happen to Jonah's because he needed Jonah to see something so much better.

And so the first thing is he did is he said, I'm gonna slow you down and I wanna find a place where you can be grateful because I've still got a big idea for you.

And it's amazing that when we are at our worst, God is at his best.

And he didn't throw Jonah away even if he could have, but he did try to step into Jonah's life.

And I'm so thankful that God doesn't throw us away when we find out we have all these different issues, but instead he works with us because he is so good.

Look at somebody and say, Isn't God good?

He's good because he'll give us rest.

But here's the thing: God doesn't always give us rest.

Also, God goes into arranging seasons of that C word right there.

You know, I've never met somebody who says they like change that truly does.

If you do like change, I would love to talk to you because you know it's it's change that we plan on.

But you can I tell you many times the kind of change that God gives us is not always the kind of change that we planned on.

It's the kind of change that we didn't see coming.

The change that we wanted is good.

The change that God shows us is not always the most fun.

But look what the Bible said.

It said everything was going great.

But then God arranged for Wilma the worm to come along.

And the next morning at dawn, the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered away.

Thank you, Wilma.

Appreciate that, right?

So then if God sends rest because he is at his best and we're at our worst, what is what kind of change does he send?

This is not in your notes, but here's my definition of change, and that is an opportunity for God to push us, I could say kick us outside of that wonderful comfort zone.

There's something amazing about comfort zones, and that is that they are so very comfortable.

But the reality of it is, is that sometimes the only way that we can grow and become everything that God wants us to grow and become and hear his voice is not from inside the comfort zone that God has given us an opportunity to rest in, because in the comfort zone is all the good stuff.

But growth happens when we get stretched, when we get pulled, when we're outside of this comfort zone.

And so Jonah has gone over to this place and he has decided that he is just gonna kind of sit it out, but then God doesn't leave him alone.

He visits him, he gives him a season of rest, but then he wants to start challenging him.

And so he starts to push him outside of his comfort zone.

And in our lives, when used by God, change will remind us.

It reminds us that we're not in control.

It reminds us that God is in control, which is the absolute best thing that we can learn.

That when we realize that God is in control, then we realize that if God has caused this, then God is not lost in this.

That if he has caused this, then he has a plan in this.

I don't have to understand it all.

Because if I'm in charge, I gotta know what's going on.

But if God's in charge, then my job is to take the next step and to trust that he is with me.

The other thing is, is it also will push us.

Sometimes the reason why God will arrange for seasons of change is because he wants to push us out of our comfort zone so that he can do more in our lives.

But can I tell you, I love my comfort zone.

I've got a recliner set up in my comfort zone, I've got a TV set up in my comfort zone, I've got coffee on tap that I can just plug into my arm, you know, in my comfort zone.

I am good.

But the thing is, is we don't grow there.

And so he'll push us.

And then the other thing is that God will expose us in our and change, that we haven't arrived yet.

There's still another step that we can take.

And the reason why God will sometimes challenge us to change because he's at his best and we're at our worst, is because God allows change because he sees more in us than we see in ourselves.

God doesn't take us through seasons of change because we're bad.

It's because he sees better in us and he knows that we can do it.

I think about this in the Old Testament.

So there's this time when Israel, you know, they've been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, right?

And here's the thing: the Bible said that for 40 years their clothes did not run out, their shoes did not wear out, and they got free food every day.

They got this thing called manna.

And the Bible said that every morning manna would just show up when the dew would lift, and they could take it and they could they could turn it into a type of grain, and they would make things that would kind of look like bread and all that.

It tasted like honey.

They had honey, toast, three meals a day, and quail to eat for free for 40 years.

Free clothing allowance, free shoe allowance, and free food for 40 years.

That's amazing.

But here's the thing: that's a comfort zone.

And God knew they can do better.

They can do more.

And so what the Bible said was when they crossed over the Jordan to go into the promised land, God turned off the free food.

And the first is like, God, why?

Why would you do this?

The Bible actually said the very next day, if they crossed the Jordan, they began to eat unleavened bread and roasted grain harvested from the land, and no manna appeared on that day that they first ate from the crops of the land, and it was never seen again.

So from that time on, the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan.

There were no more free food.

Why?

Because they could do better.

God saw more in them.

I saw this just the other day.

I was walking out of my backyard and I noticed that my dog was extremely curious about something, and she's actually scared of everything.

And so I was like, what is she curious about?

And I went and there was a baby bird that was on the ground, and mama was up there in the nest chirping away, probably saying, run, you know, but just chirping away.

And I was like, Mama, what are you doing?

But this is about the time of the year when it's not because she wants her babies to die, it's because she sees the potential in her babies that she does something that we would see is terrible and she kicks them out of the nest.

And this poor baby soared all the way to the ground.

And I and so I didn't touch it.

I just bagged my dog away and said, Come on, baby, you got this.

And before I left, it was still flapping and getting nowhere.

But mama was still telling her, you know, in my mind, I'm like, but mama's saying, hey, listen, flap them both at the same time.

Don't pay attention to the dog, keep going.

It's because the mama saw potential in the bird that it was willing to kick the baby out of the comfort zone.

Here, here's my question for you.

The question I would say is, is it possible that sometimes change comes because God sees more in us than we see in ourselves?

That God will kick us out of our comfort zones, not because he's trying to see us fall or fail, but because he knows we can fly.

Because he knows that there's more in us than we see in ourselves.

And so he will push us into a place where we're uncomfortable so we can see that we were stronger than we ever thought we could be.

That actually during these other seasons, he was preparing us in ways that we didn't realize, but it took a situation where we needed those tools before we realized we had them.

And so, what if when we go through seasons of change, we don't ask God, why would you do this?

Instead, it's God, what are you showing me?

What have you been preparing me for this whole time?

And that's what God was doing to Jonah.

God had a big idea for Jonah.

And so he started off with Jonah at his worst, but God was at his best.

And so instead of judging Jonah and casting him aside, instead he said, Jonah, I see a big idea for you.

So first, I'm gonna give you a season of rest.

Calm down, stop thinking like that, chill out, but then I'm gonna I'm gonna cause you to have to change because I see more in you and I'm gonna show you what you don't see so that you can do everything I've called you to do.

And I'm so thankful that God will send us through seasons of rest, but then at the right time, God will send us through seasons of change because he sees more in us than we see in ourselves.

One more time, look at your neighbor and say, Isn't God good?

God is so good that He will He will put me in seasons of change because He sees more in me and He will put me in seasons of rest, seasons of change, and then He will arrange seasons of the other horrible C word, confrontation.

Horrible seasons of confrontation.

So Jonah is there, and up until this point, we don't know, Jonah.

Why are you so mad?

God has saved 120,000 people, and you are angry.

And you can imagine he's just he just all in his fields.

This is an old testament version of crashing out, right?

He is just completely crashing out, and so he goes and kind of pitches a fit, and while he's there, God says, Okay, rest a while, because I need you to calm down.

And now I want to change you just a little bit, help you to see that that I've actually prepared you for more.

But now I got to tell you something you don't want to hear.

I gotta tell you something uncomfortable, and that is this he says that then he arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah, and the sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die.

The Hebrew word for that means he literally passed out.

Like he was so hot that he passed out.

And then I guess when he came to, God then said again, Jonah, is it right for you to be angry because the plant dies?

Like I need you to hear this, so I want you to really think about it.

Are you right?

Let me give you a definition of confrontation.

That which gets our attention so we can see clearly.

That would get what gets our attention.

Sometimes, because God loves us, he will draw attention to some bad thought patterns, to some sin patterns, to some things that are destroying us and destroying our potential.

Not because he wants to shame us.

In the presence of God, the only shame that you experience is that which you brought with you.

God is not interested in shaming you, he's interested in healing you.

But if you don't know what's causing the pain, you can't find healing.

And so God has done all of this to so he can finally listen.

He said, Are you right?

Are you right?

And then look at what he said.

He said, You feel sorry about that plant, though you did nothing to put it there.

It came up quickly and it died quickly.

Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention Fluffy the Cat.

Let's not forget Fluffy the Cat, right?

Shouldn't I feel sorry for so or feel pity for so great a city?

So, in other words, he's saying, you know that that way that you felt about that plant?

And it's just a plant.

That is how I feel about this city.

And it's like all of a sudden he got it.

Here's the reason why most likely Jonah was like this.

It's not because he was racist, it's not because of whatever else.

Here's the reason why is most likely during the time either it had already come out or something had happened, there were two contemporaries of Jonah, a guy named Amos and a guy named Hosea.

And they both had already prophesied that if Israel did not repent, God was going to send the nation of Assyria to judge Israel.

The capital city of Assyria was Nineveh.

And so Jonah, out of love for his nation, is saying, Well, God, if you'll destroy Assyria, then my nation will be just fine.

So it wasn't just simply that he did not like the Assyrians, which he didn't because they were brutal, but he was also thinking about saving his own nation.

So he wasn't thinking about them as people, he was thinking about them as an enemy.

And so God had to totally take him out of his situation.

And God was at his best when Jonah was at his worst, and he said, Okay, the pity that you had that that poor plant just died like that without any mercy, that's exactly how I feel about your enemy.

Because I don't see them as your enemy, I see them as my creation.

And just like you had pity on that poor plant who just needed a little mercy, that's how I feel.

About 120,000 of my kids who just found me, but they don't know what to do.

And the amazing thing is, is that's the moment, that's the end of the story.

But a miracle happened in that moment because Jonah was finally able to see.

It reminds me of the story of the prodigal son.

I don't know if you know that story very well.

I don't think we call it the right thing.

I think we should actually call it the story of two miracles of mercy because it's an amazing story, but we forget about the second miracle that happened.

If you don't know the story, Jesus tells this parable about a man that had two sons, and one of the sons came to his father one day and he said, Hey, dad, I want my inheritance.

I'm out of here.

It was very disrespectful to do that to your dad, but he did it.

And the father, as a good father, said, Okay, and he gave the son the share, and the son went off and he squandered all the money.

He kept betting on all the sports events and lost all of them.

He just did all the things, he lost everything.

And then at when he's at the very bottom, he remembered that the people that worked for his dad, they were taken care of.

And he said, You know what?

If I go back to my dad, I just I'm just gonna repent before my dad and I'm just gonna work for my dad, and that's all I want.

It's because I know my dad's a good man.

And so he goes to back to his father.

And as he goes back to his father, the father sees his son coming.

And the Bible said he ran to meet his son.

And before he even had a chance to apologize, the dad wraps his arms around him and he's so happy and he says, I'm so sorry, dad.

He said, Hey, don't worry about that.

My son was dead and he's back to life again, and he's like, kill the fatted calf.

We have him barbecue tonight.

He was so excited.

That's the first miracle.

Well we don't realize it's the second miracle because the Bible said that meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working.

And when he returned home, he asked one of the servants what was going on.

Your brother is back, and your father has killed the fattened calf.

We are celebrating because of his safe return.

The older brother was angry and wouldn't go in.

And his father came out and begged him, but he replied, All these years I have slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to.

And in all that time, you never gave me one young goat to have a barbecue with my friends.

Yet, when this son of yours comes back, you celebrate by killing the fatted calf.

And that's the moment where dad could have just slapped him upside the head and said, What are you doing?

But instead, here's the second miracle.

When his son was at his worst, the father was at his best.

And instead of just hitting him, he said, Wait a minute, dear son, look, you have always stayed by me.

And everything I have is yours.

But we have to celebrate this happy day.

For your brother was dead and has come back to life.

He was lost, but now is found.

The second miracle was the grace that the father had on the son who did not see clearly.

So he confronted him and said, No, this is wrong, son.

I'm thankful, and you're still invited to the party.

It's amazing and it's beautiful that he said, You see your brother as an enemy.

I'm trying to remind you to see him as a brother who is dead, but he's back to life again.

And God will sometimes confront us with not seeing the world because he wants us to change the world.

He wants us to have an impact on the world, but we can't do that if all we see are enemies and villains.

But instead, if we see people that he made to love, then we see that God is not just working in their life, but he's working in ours as well.

As a matter of fact, we're gonna see this this week.

Uh, we're almost through with the book of Genesis.

If you've been reading the Bible with us, we've been going through one chapter at a time.

And Genesis turns out it's a long book.

It is 50 chapters, but we're almost done.

And if you want to join us, you can text RLC Bible to 94,000 because we're gonna start reading the book of Colossians.

And I love how the book of Colossians starts off with this it says, This same God, good news that came to the young uh to you is going out all over the world and is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives.

Just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard it and understood the truth about God's wonderful grace.

In other words, he's saying, God didn't just change your life when you heard it, but he's been changing your life from the day that you first heard it.

And this is the greatest news about God.

Salvation is not just a one-time event.

When we get saved, he saves us from our past, he saves us by giving us a home in heaven in the future, but he saves us every single day by rescuing us again and again and again and again.

And when we're at our worst, God is at his best.

And God continues to work in our life.

And we see that through the story of Jonah.

And so here's the question: what happened to Jonah?

It ended off with God finally opening his eyes to see that these are not people to be hated, but they're people to be loved.

Well, that's actually where the story ends.

It it ends with this open-ended where we're we're just kind of here to grapple with what happened, because we asked the question, well, what did happen to that guy?

And then to say, what would we do?

If God has said, I've got more for you, I've got more mercy for you, what would we do?

Well, we don't know exactly what happened to Jonah, but I've got a pretty good idea.

And that is, I actually have three reasons why I think Jonah went back in the city.

The first one is because he most likely wrote the book of Jonah.

And if he didn't get the lesson, then it would have ended with, I thought God was crazy, and so I went back on home.

That would have, but instead he ended right there.

So I think he got it.

The second reason is because there's actually on the outside of the ancient city of Nineveh, there is a tomb called the tomb of Jonah.

And in Hebrew, it's Nabi Yunas.

And it is a place where, according to history, that's where Jonah was actually buried.

It's just outside in an area called Musa, right outside of Jonah, right outside of Nineveh.

And so it's very possible that Jonah then spent the rest of his life with the people of Nineh of Nineveh.

And so they honored him by giving him a place right beside them.

And modern-day Assyrian Christians still date their worship of Yahweh all the way back to the teachings of Jonah.

So it's possible that when it was over with, Jonah finally got it, and he finally realized, God, this is gonna be hard.

This is gonna be difficult.

I don't know what this means for the future of my own nation, but I see now that you love these people just like you love me, and that you've got more mercy than I can ever imagine.

So, God, if you're with me, here I go.

And very possibly, he went back into the city and he did his best to try to show those 120,000 people what it was to serve the Lord.

And so then my question for you is what will you do when you are when you encounter the grace of God?

Here's a promise for you, and that is this that God is so rich in mercy, that he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.

I don't know what God wants to do in your life, but can I tell you God's mercy is that he shows up again and again and again and again.

And maybe the whole reason why you are here today is so that you can hear somebody tell you God has not given up on you.

Here's the truth that we want to talk about, and that is this that when we come to church on Sunday, man, we look good.

I mean your neighbor looks real good, look better than you do, to be honest with you.

They look good.

We look good.

And here's the thing: when we go out in public, we look good.

But we all know when we get home at night, when nobody else is looking, we're not as perfect as people think we are.

We got issues.

Our issues have issues.

We're sitting beside our biggest issue right now, but we look like we're not issued by them.

No, we do.

Here, you know what you know what the amazing thing is the book of Jonah teaches us that's okay.

God sees every one of your issues, and he didn't leave.

Do you know what the greatest miracle in the book of Jonah to me is?

Jonah ran away from God, but God didn't run away from him.

Jonah ended up in the belly of a fish, and God was right there with him.

Jonah walked through the city of all of his enemies and declared vengeance and judgment on that city, and God was right there walking step in step.

And then when Jonah finally revealed his heart, I don't want you to save them.

God didn't step away, he stepped in even closer.

And he said, I'm gonna put you through a season of rest because you're you're you're crashing out right now, Jonah.

It's gonna cause you to have to change because I see more in you than you see in yourself, and I'm gonna confront you.

It's time to take a step forward.

I'm with you.

I don't know what God's asking you to do today.

All I know is God is with you.

He's never gonna leave, he's never gonna walk away.

If God will be with Jonah in the belly of a fish, he will be with you at work tomorrow.

If God will be with Jonah, when he literally said, I would rather you kill 120,000 people so I can have it my way.

I'm just being honest, God, God's lean in.

And when you say, God, I don't know what I believe anymore.

God, I don't know if you're faithful or not.

I thought you were gonna go this way, but instead you went that way.

God, if if if you were real, then why is this happening?

You know, God doesn't get offended, he doesn't get angry, he steps in even closer.

And when we're at our worst, God is at his best.

I don't know what that means for you today.

All I know is is that God is longing for you to bring your worst to him so he can show you his best.

And in just a moment, we're gonna have an opportunity to do that.

In just a moment, we're gonna pray together.

The band is gonna lead us to a final song of worship, and you're gonna have an opportunity to bring to God your worst so he can show you his best.

I don't know what that means for you.

Maybe you're in here today and you don't have a relationship with Jesus, and so your worst is real bad.

Well, the good news is you don't owe us any of that.

You can give it all to Jesus.

You don't have to tell us about that, tell it to Jesus.

The amazing thing is he already knows and he's still leaning in for you right now.

Inside your worship guide, on the back of the connect card we talked about is the plan of salvation.

And if your worst is that you don't know Jesus, he's already smiling at you and he says, You ain't got nothing that I can't forgive.

Run to me.

And in just a moment, we begin to worship the Lord.

Your next best act of worship is to take this connect card and join us at the prayer table and say, I want to know Jesus.

Because in this moment, maybe you're confronted with your sin and that you don't know him, but he's got enough salvation for all of it.

And the plan of salvation and the prayer of salvation is on the back of this card, and we want to walk with you as you enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Maybe you're in here today and you know Jesus, but you're going through a difficult season right now.

You're asking questions you've never asked before.

You've got you've got things going on in your mind you've never had before.

Nobody else knows.

Everybody else thinks that you're the greatest prophet in the history of Israel, but on the inside, you are breaking down.

Can I tell you?

God knows, and he's not offended by your honest words.

But when you are at your worst, God is at his best.

I want to encourage you, just like Jonah, give it to God as raw and as unfiltered as you can.

God, I don't understand.

And he's not gonna run away, he's gonna lean in and say, I know, but I still love you, I still see more in you, I still want to heal every broken place in your life.

If you've got enough courage to bring it, he's got enough grace to forgive it and to give you a joy like never before.

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, God, that you are with us and that you are for us in every way.

God, I am so thankful that in this moment right now, there's no telling the many different miracles that you are wanting to do in our hearts.

Maybe, God, for some of us in this place, someone has believed the lie that they've done too much, that they've gone too far, that you could never forgive this time.

But God, they've been able to hear your word that says that when Jonah was at his worst, you showed just how great you are.

And then at this moment, God, they feel hope for the first time in a long time.

But the enemy wants to lie to them.

He wants to say that it won't work, it won't last, it's not real.

That's a lie of the enemy, and we bind it in Jesus' name.

And we ask you, Holy Spirit, let your voice be the loudest voice they hear right now that says, Come to me.

I'm not gonna ever give up on you.

You can run, but I can run faster.

Come to me.

I pray you'll give them the courage, God, to step out of their seat in just a moment to come to you and experience the love of God that they've never known before.

God, I pray for maybe somebody in here today that they know you, but they're hurting.

They're in a difficult place, they're in a difficult season, and they don't feel like they're at their best, they feel like they're at their worst.

I pray, God, that when you will help us realize that when we're at our worst, that's when you're at your best.

And that God, as we worship you, we'll get honest with you.

We'll pour out our soul and our longing to you to realize that when we pour out all of that, you pour in your love, you pour in your grace and your goodness.

You truly are the merciful one.

And we worship you in this place today.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you stand with me all over the house this morning?

The band is gonna lead us in a song of worship.

And I don't know what next step you need to take.

Maybe in just a moment, today's the day of salvation for you, and I'm so proud of you.

I want to ask you, don't let the enemy distract you, don't let him defeat you in this moment.

But as soon as the music starts, I want you to join us at the prayer table.

We want to be with you as you walk into the presence of God.

Maybe you're in here and you're just hurting, just struggling.

Maybe it's because of Mother's Day, maybe there's just a lot of different conflicting emotions going on in you today, or maybe it's got something else.

Can I tell you, God's got more grace than you have sin or you have pain?

All you've got to do is bring it to him.

There's been times in my life and I didn't even have the words.

All I knew to do is just raise my hand and say, God, just know my heart.

If that's what you've got today, that's enough.

But if you'll bring it to him, God wants to work a miracle in your life today.

So let's take the next few moments, let's worship the Lord and just celebrate who he is today.