180 ~ LESSONS FROM JONAH ~ PART 2

We have Jared Nicholas continue to teach us from the book of

Jonah. Jonah seems to be known for the

big fish or great fish, but it really is about the one true God

who is big and who is great. Let's listen in and see how we

can see similarities between ourselves and Jonah and begin to

draw closer to our God. Welcome back, everyone.

It's good to be back again. It might be the first time

you're seeing me back-to-back, so that's something different

today. So welcome back to Jonah Part 2.

So we'll be getting into, We did chapter one last week.

I will be getting into chapters at 3:00 and 4:00 and skipping to

getting to chapters 3 and four this week.

So let me go ahead and pray, and then we'll get into Scripture.

Family, Father, we as always we come to you with gratitude.

We come to you with gratefulness and thankfulness.

Lord, that you are our God. That you the one true God are

our God and we have the privilege of worshiping you.

Lord thank you for your scripture you have given us.

Thank you for the space you have given us.

Where we can gather in comfort. We can gather in safety and.

We can gather as a community, community to come and worship

your Lord so that, as always, we take the time to remember and

pray for the people that who follow you but do not have the

safety or the comfort to gather. As a community who may not have

Scripture in their hands even though they earnestly seek it,

we ask that you would make a way that you would wherever they are

right now, that you would comfort them.

That you would protect them. That you would show yourself in

their lives, Lord, That that they would understand that they

are surrounded by you. That we ask that we know that

you are the God that is in control.

So we ask that you would change circumstances where they live

that you would bring about change that your Kingdom would

manifest Lord, and that they would be able to.

Gather in safety as a community that they would get Scripture in

their hands if they don't have it.

So, Father, we ask you to orchestrate these things because

you are the one true God who is in control and we believe in

you, and we look to you in faith to accomplish these things for

the Today, as we gather around your Word, as we gather around

your Scripture, we. I ask that that you would give

me the words to speak, that you would give me the.

Boldness to speak the things that you have for us.

And Lord, that the word you have today would convict us, would

sink deep into us, and that it would bear fruit.

Lord, Father, we love you. We ask us all the name of your

son Jesus. Amen.

So as I said earlier, just welcome back to Jonah Part 2.

So last week we dwelled on Jonah Chapter One.

We kind of ended with how we are like Jonah or Jonah is like a

mirror and we see ourselves, but we really are the ones that can

associate with Jonah. We talked about this idea of

Jonah running away as we know that life has lived the best in

God. But we tell ourselves that life

has lived the best in us or through us, and then we go do

our own thing during the. In person service, I kind of had

a phrase as in we know best, or so we say we know best, and then

we go do what we want in a sense.

And then we talked about how in Jonah's case, even when he

thought he knew best, God pursued and God rescued.

We looked at the idea of how the fish was.

Not really. Punishment for disobedience, but

it was rescue from death for Jonah.

So we looked at the ideas and then we kind of really kind of

emphasized on how it is. We know, God knows better, but

there are aspects of our lives where we feel we know better and

go do our own thing. But even in those areas where we

recognize that we can repent and come back, even those areas

where we have gone astray, God pursues and rescues us and

brings us back. So this idea of rescue.

But we we are Jonah in this book and we will see that we are

Jonah not just in chapter one, but throughout the entirety, the

entirety of the book. We are Jonah and but in chapters

3 and 4. We are joining in different ways

than chapter one, similar but also different.

So what I would like to do is I would like to read chapters 3:00

and 4:00 and then we will go back through a few verses at a

time and see what scripture has to say to us today.

So in chapters one we look we just to summarize chapter one

and. To chapter one, Jonah receives a

call from God to go to Nineveh, and he says no thank you.

And he says I know better, so I'm going to do my own thing.

And said he decides to go to Tarsus, which is as far as

Jonah's concerned, the end of the earth for him or the end of

his known earth. And he votes the ship to Ajapa,

he votes the ship to Tarsus, and he's going.

And then there's a storm. A very.

Mighty big storm and a great storm.

And through the course of the storm and everything that

happens, Jonah ends up being thrown overboard because he says

this is on me, I'm responsible. Throw me overboard and

everything will be OK. So they throw him overboard and

it does grow calm, and God sends a great fish to swallow up

Jonah. And we talked about the idea

that this fish was not punishment for disobedience, but

rescue from death, as in God's ammo through scriptures, not

punishment, but it's rescued, so he is rescued.

And then chapter 2 is Jonah's prayer to God from within the

belly of the fish. And then at the end he is spit

up or vomited back onto dry land.

So we kind of pick up from there.

So this is Jonah chapter 3 and chapter 4.

Jonah 3 · chapter mention

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.

Go to the great city of Ninova and proclaim to it the message I

give you. Jonah obeyed the word of the

Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large

city. It took three days to go through

it. Jonah began by going a day's

journey into the city, proclaiming 40 more days and

Nineveh will be overthrown. The Ninovites believed God.

The fast was proclaimed in all of them, from the greatest to

the least put on sack clock. When Jonah's warning reached the

king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal

robes, covered himself with sack clock, and sat down in the dust.

This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh by the decree

of the king and his nobles. Do not let people or animals,

herds or flocks taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink,

but let people and animals be covered with saplot.

Let everyone call urgently on God.

Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.

Who knows? God may yet relent and with

compassion turn from his fierce anger, so that we will not

perish when God saw. What they did and how they

turned from their evil ways, that he relented and did not

bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

But to Jonah, this seemed very wrong and he became angry.

He prayed to the Lord. Isn't this what I said, Lord,

when I was still at home, that is what I tried to forestall by

fleeing to Tarsus. I knew that you are a gracious

and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a

God who relents from sending calamity.

Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die

than to live. But the Lord replied, is it

right for you to be angry? Jonah had gone out and sat at a

place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter,

sat in its shade, and waited to see what would happen to the

city. Then the Lord God provided A

leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah, to give shade for

his head to ease his discomfort. And Jonah was very happy about

the plant, but at dawn the next day.

God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it

withered. When the sun rose, God provided

A scorching E wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that

he grew faint. He wanted to die and said it

would be better for me to die than to live.

But God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about

the plant? It is, he said.

And I'm so angry, I wish I were dead.

But the Lord said, you have been concerned about this plant,

though you did not tend it or make it grow.

It sprang up overnight and died overnight.

And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh,

in which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell

their right hand? From their left and also many

atoms. Chapter three starts similar to

chapter one, where Jonah gets the message go to Nineveh.

But his response this time is different.

Rather than I know better, I'm going to go somewhere else.

It's God knows better. OK, let me be obedient.

So he obeys. So we'll look at 3 versus one

through 3. So it's then the word of the

Lord came to Jonah a second time.

Go to the great city of Nineveh. Proclaim to it the message I

give you. Jonah obeyed the word of the

Lord and went to Nineva. Now Nineva was a very large

city. It took three days to go through

it. So again it is same message go

to Nineva this time different response, right?

So he puts it. He, Jonah puts aside his I know

better, chooses to be obedient, and he goes to Nineva.

No, if we assume that the fish threw him up back at Joppa where

he boarded the ship to Tarshish in the 1st place, Joppa to

Nineveh. If he is walking five weeks, OK,

so he's been walking for five weeks and he arrives at Nineveh

and it talks about how a nearby is a great city and took three

days to go through it now. There can be a couple ways we

look at this. Three days to go through it

could possibly mean that. Well, the reason there are a

couple ways is the circumference of Nineveh.

Even though this is a great, great city, it wasn't the

circumference was just I think a couple miles or something or

maybe 3 to 5 kilometers. It's not something that we're

required 5I mean a three day journey to go through the city

or across the city, so. Here, the three days through it,

one could likely mean that Nineveh here is being referred

to as the province of Nineveh, so the city as well as all the

surrounding towns and villages and agricultural land and stuff

like that. So that would have been a much

larger area of land and that could have possibly taken three,

I mean three days to navigate or a different idea is?

It never was a great city, so he had it had many city gates.

City gates were the place where there were areas of commerce.

That's what people were gathered to trade.

So it was a hub for people to gather.

So if Journal was going to proclaim the message, his

strategy would have been to go proclaim the message at each

city gate. So since there were numerous

city gates he it would have taken him three days likely to

go through all the city gates and hit up all the important

places like the courtyards and stuff so.

You could call, so you could phrase this at It would take him

three days to complete like his task to proclaim to the city.

And so those are the two kind of.

Ideas for three days time. I lean towards the one where

it's going to take three days for him to complete whatever the

Lord has tasked him with. OK, so that's versus one through

3. So looking at verses 4 to 5,

Journey began by going a day's journey into the city,

proclaiming 40 more days and then never will be overthrown.

The nanovites believe God a fast was proclaimed at all of them

from the greatest to the least put on SAP.

So here. We talked about 3 days journey,

but within a day there is a great response.

OK, and there is. This is not some elaborate

message, it's a very short message. 40 more days and the

number will be overthrown. It's about like 8 or 9 words in

English. In Hebrew it was just five

words. One day, 5 words.

And now the city is repenting. So talk about this idea of great

that goes through the book of no Nova.

This is that great response from the city of Nova, Book of Jonah.

This is great response from the city of Nova.

So 5 words as in in English it could be something as short as

you are about to perish and just one day.

Not the three days it took to go or anything.

One day. 5 words and you get this response of repentance from

the netabytes. So it says they believed God,

they chose to fast all of them from the greatest to the least

and they put on saplot. So they are in this mode of

repentance even. Physically because they put on

SAP clock to show that they're repenting and they declare a

fast so they abstaining from food and they are turning to God

so it says they believe God and they're turning So such a great

response from what we're taking three days but only on day one

and five words simple message but great response and it the

response doesn't stop here we'll read versus.

The 6th through Chapter 9, I mean sorry versus 6 through 9,

when when Jonas Warning reached the King of Nineveh, he rose

from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself

with saplot, and sat down in the dust.

This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh by the decree

of the king and his nobles do not let people or animals.

Herds or flocks taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink,

but let people and animals be covered with saffron.

Let everyone call urgently on God.

Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.

Who knows? God may yet relent and with

compassion turn from his fierce anger, so that we will not

perish so. This people have never have

already started this act of repentance.

And then the news reaches the king or the ruler of Nineveh,

and then he decides to join his people in repentance.

Look at this vivid image we get. He comes off his throne, right?

He takes off his royal ropes, puts on sack lot and sits in the

dust, almost as if he's giving up his Kingdom or or king or

kingship and then repenting. And then he makes a

proclamation. And then so we see that the

people chose to fast and put on sack lock.

He goes few more steps further than that.

His decree is do not let people or animals eat or drink

anything. OK, so no one's to eat, no one's

to drink. And everybody puts on sack lock,

so it's not just sufficient for the humans to put on sack lock.

Clothe the animals with sack lock too.

Everyone here in the city. He is going to repent and then

let everyone call urgently on God.

Call on God. Same language we see with the

sailors. Call on your own God, call on

God. They tell Jonah to call on his

God. So here we see people again

calling on God and then he says this let them give up their evil

ways. So let them give up the evil

ways. Sounds pretty generic.

Turn away from the wickedness. But he goes on to say, and their

violence. If think about how we think

about the background, we talked about this the Assyrian empire,

they were known for their violence, they were known for

their cruelty. And we talked about some

examples of how cruel they were to the people they captured, to

the people they conquered and how they delighted in torture,

quite literally and how they reported all that.

So this violence is very particular, seems like.

To Syria, quite literally the word in the original language

kind of says the violence in their hands.

So turn from your evil ways and the violence in your hands.

So and he goes on to say, who knows God may relent with

compassion turned. So this phrase who knows here is

not like a I don't know, and that's not or an IDK or like a.

The shrug of the shoulders it's it is a who knows, as in it is a

humble way of saying. It's like a humble filled with

humility. Only God knows or only God can

do this or only God can relate. So it's not a who knows like I

really don't like and I don't know, but it is a who knows, as

in I, the King. I'm going to humble myself and

realize and understand that only God knows, only God can do this.

So it is a it is the King. The king says who knows.

It is him humbling himself before God, acknowledging that

God is the one that knows or only God knows.

Then who knows? God may relent and be

compassionate and turn from his fierce anger.

So the hope is that this act of repentance is met with

compassion and not destruction or anger and.

Burst end when God saw what they did and how they turned from the

evil ways. He relented and did not bring on

them the destruction he had threatened.

So we see God's response. God saw it, and he says that he

how they turned from the evil ways, so that act of repenting

meaning turning away from that, and he relented.

He did not bring the destruction he had threatened.

So God is compassionate towards them.

He does not destroy them. He sees their repentance and in

turn he is compassionate and chooses not to deal out the

destruction that he had threatened.

So now Jonah sees this and chapter 4 verse.

One line is very clear. But to Jonah this seemed very

wrong and he became angry. So what seemed very wrong,

Jonah, the thought that or what seemed wrong was God dealing

with Neva compassionately. He did not want them to be dealt

with compassionately. He wanted them to be destroyed.

He wanted destruction to come. He wanted them to be punished.

However, the way God has dealt with him with compassion seems

utterly wrong to him. So he says, but scripture says

verses one through 3. But to Jonah this seemed very

wrong and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord.

Isn't this what I said? Lord, when I was still at home

that that is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarsh.

I knew you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger

and abounding in love the God who relents from sending

calamity. Now Lord, take away my life, for

it is better for me to die than to live.

Jonah is clearly angry because what he just saw with God's

compassion was wrong to him and his responses.

I am angry. And then he kind of reveals to

us the real reason that he decided to flee, right?

He says this beautiful confession of who are goddess,

Goddess, compassionate, abounding in love, slow to

anger, relents from sending calamity.

And he gives this description of a gracious God.

And then he says, that is why I ran.

I ran so that I could prevent this from happening.

Because I knew you would be compassionate.

I knew you would be gracious. So in Jonah's I know better

phase it was if I fled then I could prevent God from being

compassionate to this people because I know he's going to be

compassionate when they repent. And what that is clearly said,

Jonah knows his God, but he's not happy with what happened.

So this is too much for Jonah to bear.

And then he says I would rather die now, just take my life.

I want to die. When I hear this phrase from

Jonah, I want to die because he's just unhappy and angry.

But things that have gone contrary to what he wanted, he

wanted destruction. Instead, God chose compassion.

And seeing this, he's angry and it's almost like he's a child,

right? Throwing a fit, Throwing a

tantrum. I don't like what's happening,

so I'm going to flail around and say I want to die.

So it is. It's very childlike.

That's the best way. It sounds like a tantrum because

think about it, right? He knows what God is like, OK?

These are the characteristics of God he has relied on as the

prophet of God. These are the characteristics of

God that came true when he needed rescue, right when he was

in the sea, when an option for him was death, God rescued out

of compassion, out of his abounding love, out of his

grace, out of his slow to anger. God rescued him because of the

way he just described God, that he is a compassionate, gracious

God, right? However, when the object of

God's grace was somebody else was in Nineveh, the people he

did not like then that wasn't what he wanted.

He brings up anger and he's throwing a fit and having a

tantrum. So remember, as we're reading

this, we are Jonah, right? Think of the times where because

of God's grace, something went well for us, but also because of

God's grace, something went well for somebody else and we

couldn't handle it. We wanted God to deal with

somebody partially as and give them what they deserve, punish

them, but when he may have dealt with them compassionately, it

was too much for us to handle. I'm certain many of us have had

similar experiences and similar things, so we are joining now

When he says he's angry and I would much rather die than deal

with this. God asks him the question.

God says, but the Lord replied, is it right for you to be angry?

And however this is verse for Jonah does not respond.

God asked is it right for you to be angry?

There is silence. So verses 5 through 8, you want

to say this? Jonah had gone out and sat down

at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter,

sat in its shade, and waited to see what would happen to the

city. Then the Lord God provided A

leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his

head to ease his discomfort. And Jonah was very happy about

the plant. But at dawn the next day, God

provided a worm which chewed the plant so that it withered.

When the sun rose, God provided A scorching E wind, and the sun

blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew pink.

He wanted to die and said it would be better for me to die

than to live. So again, I want to die.

That's how he ends verse 8. Now going back to verse five, it

says so God asked. The question is right to be

angry. Girard doesn't respond and it

says Jonah went out of the city and went to the east side and he

set up a shelter to have some shade from the sun and sat down

to see what would happen to the city.

So as in, he was just angry that God was compassionate, but he's

still like, holding out for hope that they would still be

destroyed. I wonder if he was telling

himself the message was 40 days, so maybe he was going to sit

there for 40 days and see if God changed his mind and destroyed

the city. I'm not sure, but it gives this

idea that he's not satisfied with God's response and he is

gone and he's sitting there and he wants the city to be

destroyed. So he's just gonna wait for it,

that he's gonna wait and see what happens.

He is aware that they are repented.

He is aware that God has relented and has been

compassionate. But it seems that it doesn't

matter right now for them. He wants to go and sit and watch

the fireworks display, which we know is not coming because God

is going to be compassionate. So he wants so much for this

city to be punished and destroyed and so, So while he's

waiting to see what happens to the city, it is hot.

So he built a shelter and look at.

So it says about it talks about God providing God provided the

plant. God provided a worm.

God provided A scorching E wind, just like God provided the great

fish. God is providing these three

things here. OK, so this next part is like an

object lesson from God to Jonah. OK, so God provides this leafy

plant. So leafy must meaning lots of

foliage, lots of cover. He would have been shaded very

well. And then it says Jonah was very

happy about this plant. It might be the only time in the

story that we see that Jonah is happy God provided a plant.

He is in the shade. It's relieved his discomfort and

he is happy. And then overnight a work a worm

comes provided by God, eats the plant, causes it to wither, and

then plant disappears. And then God provides A

scorching wind. And then Jonah is the sun blazed

on his head so that he grew faint.

Maybe heat stroke, I don't know. But he grew faint and he wanted

to die and said it would be better for me to die than to

live. So again, last time when he was

angry, this phrase came right that I would rather die.

Again, we see this phrase here. I would rather die.

So again, there is anger here at what happened to the plant.

That's what his condition is, so anger.

And he says again, I would rather die, almost like throwing

another tantrum. And this time God responds.

So let's reverse this line through the ending.

But God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about

the plant? It is, he said.

And I am so angry, I wish I were dead.

But the Lord said, you have been concerned about this plant,

though you did not tend it or make it crow, make it grow.

It sprang up overnight and died overnight.

And should I not have concern for the great city of Mineva, in

which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell

their right and from their left and also many atoms, So there's

anger. I want to die.

Then God responds to the question, is it right for you to

be angry about the plant? And this time, last time, Jonah

did not respond. This time Jonah responds very

unfathomingly. It is.

It is likely that this phrase, it is in the original language,

is an expletive or a cuss word. It is so whatever word you can

think of, yes, that's what's happening here.

He's like, it is very emphatic. I have every right to be angry.

I am so angry, I wish I were dead.

So that is Jonah's response. God says, do you have a right to

be angry? And his response is yes, I have

every right to be angry. And then God goes on to speak to

him, tells him, you are so concerned with this plant.

You did not plant it, you did not water it, or you did not

cause it to grow. You had nothing to do with it.

It sprang up on its own and died.

And you are so concerned with this thing that you had nothing

to do with. There was no effort from you at

all. It was all on me.

You had nothing to do with this plant, yet you are so concerned

and angry over it. How much more should I be

concerned about this great city of Mineva, in which there are

120,000 people who do not know their right hand from their

left? As in people who are lost,

People who do not know God, the people who are confused, people

who don't know the way, just people do not know their right

hand from their left. How much more should I not be

concerned or how much more should I be concerned about

these people and animals? So God, this book, book of Jonah

ends with this question that God poses to Jonah.

Should I not be concerned? And since we are Jonah, that's

kind of like the question where this scripture ends with us.

Should you or I not be concerned?

So how? How do we look at this?

So what are different ways that we can look at this and take

away from what we have read or what we're kind of unpacked.

So as you know, we are Jonah, right?

So let's have a look at Jonah's response to Ninova.

So. And Jonah wanted Nineveh to be

punished. He knew God would be

compassionate and spare them. However, he wanted them to be

punished. He wanted them to be destroyed.

He wanted them to get what they deserve.

But what God did was he saw that they're repented.

And then he poured out compassion and relented.

But that is not what Journal wanted.

So how do we see ourselves here? I guess the question I'd like to

pose is how do we treat sin in the lives of other people?

OK, Do we act like Jonah or do we kind of act like God when we

see they sin in other people? And whatever its consequences

are may have touched our lives. How do we respond?

Do we say you deserve this or you need to be punished and we

punish them? I'm not saying punishment always

means we beat or something, but there are many ways we punish

people. We we can verbally do that.

We can do very nonverbal ways by just withholding affection,

especially people we're in relationship with.

But there are different ways that we punish them.

So let's think about parenting. We as parents raising children

are very, very, very aware of our children's lives and are

aware of the areas they struggle.

And so when they struggle with sin surfaces, and they make an

unwise choice at that moment, how do we deal with them?

Are we Jonah where it is they only deserve punishment?

They only deserve whatever there is coming to them?

Or do we look at it compassionately?

Do we look at them as this deserving compassion?

So when we look at the sin around us right now, I'm not

trying to convey the idea that God overlooked sin here.

No, He He sent a message for them to repent and he repent and

and they repented and he was compassionate tourism.

I'm talking to us as people who follow Jesus.

How do we view the things that happen around us?

When we see something that we know is not right, is our

immediate response to punish because that's what that person

deserves? Or is our response compassion?

So and how does this work out in our relationships?

When we talk about marriage right and we talk about spouse,

when you feel like your spouse has done something wrong, is

your response punishment because you feel justified?

They've done something wrong and they deserve punishment.

So you do something that we seen as punishment or deal with them

as to this is what they deserve or is our response.

Compassion is our response. We see the struggle and rather

than punishing we are compassionate because we see

that struggle. So I think this kind of works

itself. It kind of works itself out in

pretty much every area of our life.

And one thing to keep in mind when we're talking about this

idea of how we approach people, even when it has to do with

difficult things like sin and how we act in compassion versus

punishment or telling them that they deserve or what is coming

to them. So look at God's question,

right? Should I not have concern for

the great city of whenever that has 120,000 people?

So remember he talked just previously.

He talked about how you did not make it grow.

It sprang up and it died, right? You did not tend it.

You did not make it grow. So he's talking about the plant,

how Jonah had nothing to do with making it grow.

And then he shifts focus to the people of Nineveh.

As in, just like I am the one that made that plan grow, I am

the one that created these people, OK?

The idea that we are all created by the one true God.

These people in Nineveh were image bearers, right?

No matter what wickedness they were caught up in, no matter

what violence or evil ways they followed, they were still

created by God. And they were image bearers.

They bore his image. So I'm talking about myself.

I many times, as I reflect back on my life, kind of forget that

every human is an image bearer irrelative of what they have

done. They bear God's image, I have

many times told myself, or at least functioned in a way where

if you saw me, you would think that.

Well, at this point Jaron seems to only believe that people who

followed Jesus are image bearers and everyone else isn't.

As in, I would treat people who followed Christ differently from

people who did not. But that is not the right way to

see people, right? God has created all of us.

We bear His image. So when we see people, it is

important that we see them as God's season, that we see them

as people who bear God's image. Just like I am an image bearer,

every other person is an image bearer, right?

Irrelative of what they are dealing with or what choices

they've made, they are image bearers.

So the challenge to us today is when we see people, do we see as

John at us where people always deserving punishment because

they have made unwise choices, they have sinned?

Or do we see like God where we see that they are image bearers

of the one true God and therefore shouldn't?

Be dealt with compassionately should be that our compassion

should be poured out on them. So I think that is the message

of chapters 3 and four for us today.

That is Jonah's biggest struggle, right?

He saw how great the response of Nanava was.

One day, 5 words and the entire city is repenting from the top,

from the greatest to the least right.

The entire city is decked out and sat, locked, and they're

crying out to God, letting God know that they are repenting.

And then there's acknowledgement in Scripture that they have

turned from their wicked ways, meaning the repentance is true.

They have turned, and God deals with them compassionately.

But in God deals with people compassionately.

It is difficult for us because we are telling ourselves they

need to be dealt with in the way that they deserved, as in they

deserve punishment. But then many times we forget.

These are the same qualities that we rely on God when He is

dealing with us, we want him to be compassionate towards us.

We want him to be gracious towards us.

However, when it's on, when the object of God's grace is

somebody different, we have a tendency to be, we have a

tendency to be like Jonah. So I think this story here

today, Jonah's response and God's response, it's a reminder

to us today to think about how we respond to the people around

us. How we respond to immediate

family to our children. How we respond to our spouses.

How we respond to our parents. How we respond to people we work

eve into the fact. How we respond to the person who

cuts us off while we are driving.

Right. They put themselves before us,

but how? What kind of response should we

deal out to that person that cuts you off?

Is it Jonah's where we are? Like they deserve it.

So they going to get it, or we're going to sulk because they

weren't dealt with partially? Or are we going to pour out

compassion? Are we going to be compassionate

towards this per person? Are we going to see them as the

image bearer that they are and deal with them compassionately?

So that is our challenge today, and that is the challenge I want

to leave it for you to contemplate this week.

How do we relate to the people in our lives especially

especially the people that are close People's whose choices we

see, whose choices affect us, people's whose choices that we

deem are sinful because that and then how we deal with that.

So the challenges is to be compassionate no matter what

happens is to be compassionate. So I'm going to go ahead and and

in prayer. And then, Heavenly Father, we

thank you for your word. We thank you for your scripture.

We thank you that it is, that it is something that you used to

reveal yourself to us. Word thank you that you are

revealed to us through your scripture.

Thank you that we have the privilege of reading it, of

studying it, and thank you that you use it to change us.

So, Lord, that you use it to soften our hearts.

So Lord, that you use it, O Lord, to chisel away at our

hearts of stone, Lord, and to reveal our hearts of flesh.

Lord, we can be so hard hearted sometimes.

Lord, we are a hard hearted people.

But Lord, have compassion on us. You are a good God who is slow

to anger, whose compassion is abounding and loved.

Lord, So we ask that you have compassion on us and you soften

our hearts towards you. You soften our hearts to the

people around us. God, we that you would soften

our hearts to the work that you were doing in all of creation.

As you're reconciling creation back to you, so, Lord, soften

our hearts to who you are. Soften our hearts to have

compassion on the people around us.

By the way, thank you again for being compassionate with us.

Lord, that's I don't want to imagine a life without your

compassion. Thank you for your compassion in

our lives. In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. So, Church, thank you for

joining us. I'm going to end with the bad

action. Okay.

So may the love of the Father, the grace of our Lord Jesus

Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.

So go out and be compassion. Thank you.

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