The Book Of Jonah • Part 3 with Greg McEvoy

Welcome to the Southside Church Podcast.

Weekly content that inspires all of us to follow Jesus.

Join us each week for a message from one of our fantastic communicators that provide practical ways to grow our faith, challenge ourselves, and to love others more.

And now, this week's message.

Well, good morning and welcome to Southside on behalf of me.

Glad you're here.

I'm glad to be here.

And uh it's just so fun to get to come back and see what God is doing in and through this place.

Uh, because this place just genuinely is a special place to me, to my wife, to my family.

And so just love being around here.

Uh, it's been a while since I've been here, so I feel like we should do some get to know you stuff, some icebreaker stuff.

Uh, just something you need to know about me before we get going, so you can just have a realistic feel of do I want to lean into what this guy's saying?

Um there's a need, a desire I deeply have.

Uh it drives a lot of what I do.

Um, and it's just I want to feel special.

That's it.

I just want to be so unique, so uh, you know, the rules don't apply to this guy, so special, so important that, you know, just life is different.

I'm treated different, viewed differently.

There's no truer words than what Justin Timberlake said is like, hey, I want to believe that they broke the mold when I came in because God spent a little bit more time on me.

And normally I would be very kind of, uh, should I share that?

That's a lot of information, especially if we've never met.

The truth is, is that I don't think I'm alone.

You may not word it so blatantly as I do, but you want to be special too.

I mean, if you think about it, just listen to the way you kind of talk about your life and your circumstances.

They're always like, you're unique, you're one in a million, you're one, you're the only one that happens to.

Have you ever been um with someone that just bought a car?

And you walk out in the parking lot and they're showing it off, and you're like, oh man, that's an awesome car.

And the story is the same regardless of who bought it.

Oh, you wouldn't believe the deal I got.

Like the dealer was basically paying me to take it off the lot.

I I've yet to see someone with a brand new car go.

It took me to the cleaners.

They just took me back behind the woodshed and just beat me senseless.

And I man, I because we want to feel like we beat the system.

I think that's why people are so excited about job promotions.

It's because they looked at everybody in the job field and they go, you know, of all the people we could give more power and change the rules for, we choose you.

I I genuinely think that uh that that's kind of the reason that some of they say the most magical words you could ever hear is your first name.

I don't think that's true.

I think the most magical words we love to hear as people is like, hey, don't tell anyone but.

And when we feel like we got special information, we're getting special treatment, there's something that rides a little higher in our spirit and in our soul.

I think it's the part that frustrates us about our kids is our kids are trying to be special too, because they're like, mom and dad, you know, you give them like a life principle.

Hey, you reap what you sow, and like that doesn't mean that doesn't, you know, if you don't study, you don't get A's.

I'm not that's not me.

I'm special.

That's why companies marketing, just pay attention to it.

Exclusive offer, join the club, VIP treatment for our favorite members.

It's all around this need or this desire to be somebody, to be different than everybody else.

That's why comparison is such a struggle in our day and age.

It's not because we just see everybody's stuff.

If we just saw everybody's stuff and didn't care to be special, it wouldn't really matter.

But we do want to be special, we want to be different.

And here's the thing is that our desire, and maybe at some level, our need to feel unique, the rules are different, the rules don't apply to us.

Because of you, this is how we're gonna treat you, could be one of the biggest impositions of God doing what he wants to do in your life and ultimately through your life.

Now, if you haven't been around uh this place for a while, uh we're in a series called the Book of Jonah, we're in part three.

Now, everybody, when you say the book of Jonah, everybody knows the big high-end pieces.

Man goes in the water, fish swallows man, man stays in fish, fish vomits man up.

And that's pretty much all we know, whether we're a Jesus person or not.

The truth is, is that the story of Jonah has a lot more pieces to the puzzle of it, but it's just it's not as glamorous, and so it just doesn't get as much press.

And so today we're gonna talk about the unglamorous parts of Jonah.

And here's what I think is sometimes when you walk into a church and I start with, we're talking about a guy who lived in a fish for three days, you're like, I'm out.

It's just, it's not relatable.

But the truth is, I think Jonah's the most unrelatable, relatable story in scripture.

Truly, none of us will live in a fish for three days.

I don't think so.

But when you peel the layers back to what the story is really talking about, man, I see myself in there a lot.

And you may just see yourself in there too.

So, quick recap if you aren't familiar, Jonah's a prophet, which means his job is to tell people what God tells him to tell people.

He is the mouthpiece of God.

And so God looks at his prophet and goes, hey, the thing you're supposed to do, it's upon you.

I need you to go to Nineveh and I need you to tell them to repent, or else I'm wiping them out.

And the Ninevehes were terrible people.

Like they were the war crime type of people.

They were people that wiped out people groups, they were people that tortured in awful ways if you look through history.

They were terrible humans.

And those terrible humans had also tortured and killed a lot of Jonah's countrymen.

Jonah doesn't have a real huge excitement to go to Nineveh.

And he's like, you know what, God, I'm good.

And not only does he not go to Nineveh, he just goes in the opposite direction.

Hops a ship because he's trying to get as far away as humanly possible.

God sends a storm that kind of stops the sailing of the boat.

The people on the boat are panicking and they're like, hey, does anyone know what's happening?

And Jonah goes, Yeah, my bad.

Uh God's God's God asked me to do something, I didn't do it.

So uh this is kind of the outcome of it all.

Like, well, what do we do?

And he's like, throw me overboard.

Jonah hits the water, water goes calm, Jonah sinks to the depths, but God's there.

He meets him with a fish, holds him for three days, vomits him up, and that's where we pick it up today.

This time, Jonah obeyed the Lord's command and went to Nineveh, meaning he got a second shot and he got to go to Nineveh.

A city was so large it took three days to see it all.

On the day that Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds 40 days from now, 40 days, Nineveh will be destroyed.

Jonah gets to just basically walk in and be like, hey, you all are screwing up your life and you're gonna pay for it.

And it keeps going.

The people of Nineveh, though, catch this, they believed God's message.

They didn't take Jonah a crazy man.

They're like, maybe he's right.

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

And when the king, the highest of high, the one who signed off on all the war crimes, all the torturing, all the terrible morality in which Nineveh operated, and when he heard what Jona was saying, he stepped off his throne.

And he took off his royal robes and he dressed himself in burlap and sat on ashes.

It keeps going.

The king and his nobles sent a decree throughout the city.

He goes, No one eats, no one drinks, not even your animals.

Because we got to stop the evil ways, we've got to turn around.

I think this Jonah guy is serious because who could tell?

Who can tell?

Perhaps, and I want you to lock this perhaps in.

We're gonna talk about it towards the end.

Perhaps, even yet, God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.

And when God saw all that they had done, when he saw the turning, the posture, the repentance, when he saw all that, and they put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind.

And he did not carry out the destruction that he had threatened.

Can you imagine this?

Why don't you think about this?

You get a second shot and you become a catalyst of changing entire people group, the lineage of generations that is forever shifted because you win.

I I get excited if I invite someone to church and they come and they don't hate it.

I have a very low standard of how I want God to use me.

This guy changed an entire people group.

And the story would be great if it just ended there.

It didn't, though.

Great.

That's not how the story of Jonah ends.

The writer keeps writing.

It says, the change of plans, they upset Jonah and he became angry.

What?

They did what you said.

They changed their lives.

You're a prophet for crying out loud.

That is what you do.

That is like being a lawyer winning a case that is so you know highly publicized, and you're like, I can't believe I won.

It's what you do.

How could you be angry?

And yet, Jonah was.

And he keeps going.

The story just keeps going.

So he complained to the Lord about it.

God, didn't I say before I even left home you would do this?

That's why I ran away to start.

This is the first time Jonah puts it on his cards on the table.

Most people think he didn't go to Nineveh because he was scared for his own life.

The truth is, is he wasn't scared.

The truth is he thought those people deserved to die and die a painful, nasty death for all they had done.

Jonah wanted to be the executioner.

He didn't go to Nineveh because he was scared for himself.

He went to Nineveh because he was scared they would be spared.

God did not tell you he would do that.

Could you imagine yelling?

I've yelled at God about some things that I'm frustrated with.

I've gotten on him, but you know, at times, have you ever heard people yell just ridiculous things?

This is that moment.

He goes, God, I knew you're merciful, you're compassionate, slow to anger, filled with unfaith.

Could you imagine being, could you imagine being in a fight with your friend and go, I knew you're the kindest, most gentle, amazing person ever.

And that's what I hate about you.

Just feels weird.

God, I knew you're eager to turn back, destroying people.

You know what, God, just kill me now.

You know, if what I said is not gonna happen, just end it.

Really, not the response you'd think from a man who got rescued from the depths, redeemed in another shot.

That's not the response you would expect when you go, hey, repent.

It's not really that great of a story.

But the banter between God and Jonah kept going back and forth.

So Jonah tees off on God for being too good, which is a really weird position to take if you're me, but whatever.

And he says, This God speaks back.

Is it right for you to be angry?

I don't even get it.

But Jonah went to, and so Jonah goes to the east side of the city.

He goes, God is like, What is wrong with you?

And Jonah's like, you know what?

Forget it, God.

And he storms off to the east side of the city.

And he sits under uh and he made a shelter to send under.

Check this out.

And he waited to see what would happen to the city.

Jonah is still hoping that God destroys it.

He's like, you know what?

It doesn't look good for what I want to happen, but God may do it.

God may come through.

God may still destroy the city.

So he's sitting there, waiting, praying, crossing his fingers.

Maybe God still will destroy them.

Maybe he'll rain down fire.

Maybe God will wipe out this whole place.

And then there's another interesting twist of the story.

As Jonah's up there, the Lord arranged a leafy plant to grow there.

As soon as it spread its broad leaves over Jonah's head, shading him from the sun, it eased his discomfort.

Jonah's starting to calm down, starting to chill out.

Circumstances are going in his favor, like you.

And he was grateful.

But the next day, God also arranged for a worm.

And at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant and it withered away.

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

And the sun beat down until he grew faint.

And he wished to die.

Death is certainly better than living like this.

For those of you keeping track at home, this is the third time in four chapters Jonah wished he was dead.

Third time Jonah's like, My life's awful.

I can't believe it.

I'd rather be dead.

Then God said to Jonah, Is it right for you to be angry about this plant?

Even enough to die?

God's going, is this a rational reaction?

Do you feel this is normal?

And then the Lord said, You feel sorry for the plant, though you did nothing.

It came quickly and died quickly.

But Nineveh has 120,000 people.

You're focused on this little plant that made you comfortable and uncomfortable.

But 120,000 people.

And their children, and their children's children.

Not even to mention the animals.

Shouldn't you feel sorry for them?

Maybe.

What?

Hold on.

Too many.

Shouldn't you feel sorry for the city?

And that's how the story ends.

It's the end of Jonah.

A man who was redeemed, got what he asked for.

And then he's mad.

Because he wanted to go different.

So unsatisfying.

Like when you look at the story of Jonah, it's just frustrating.

He's frustrating.

And as I was kind of working through like this message, this idea, and I was like, why does it bother me so much when I read Jonah's story?

Why do I get so annoyed?

Why do I get so frustrated with him?

Why do I feel so unsatisfied at the way it ended?

It almost is the way it's written, it's almost like the author died in the middle of the writing.

It was like, shouldn't you care more about Nineveh?

And then he had a heart attack.

Just the way it ends on a cliffhanger.

But I think there's a reason that Jonah bothers me.

Scientists and psychologists call it a thing, psychological projection.

Psychological projection is basically, I'll just read the definition for you.

The behaviors that irritate you most in others are often the exact same things in yourself.

They're the reason that when you look at your kids and their behavior annoys you, it's usually things that, it's usually the kid that you're most like.

Like, why are you so strong-headed?

Why are you so this?

But it tells you why, uh, because you subconsciously suppress that you don't like that about yourself.

You're like, I don't want to face that about me, so I'll just be mad about it in you.

But when these are triggered, when we see it play out, there's an irrational response that's over the top and not in proportion to what you're witnessing.

And here is my frustration with Jonah.

Jonah's me and I'm him because I am way more focused on me than others.

And I would much rather go, Jonah, what is wrong with you than look in a mirror?

A couple years ago, actually it was years and years ago, I was in my early 20s, uh, there was a Christian artist who was just on a meteoric rise.

Everything he wrote ended up in churches across the country.

He was writing anthems for generations at that point.

And on this meteoric rise, releases of CDs, headlining different shows across the country, it comes out that he was having a multi-year affair with someone and stepping out on his marriage.

And he went through years of redemption and repentance, his marriage fell apart, but he pursued God.

And I'll never forget, I was at a conference in which he kind of made a return to a stage.

And I said all the right things and I meant it.

I mean, I was like, I'm so excited to see him because what a story of grace.

It's got to be so cool to see a guy sing about grace who's lived grace.

But if I was honest, he walked out on that stage and invited us all to sing, and I was uncomfortable.

I felt kind of icky about it.

I was like, I don't, I don't know, man.

I don't know if he should be up there.

Ironically enough, two years prior, I was getting opportunities that were outpacing my personal character.

And I was getting to travel and speak to different camps and youth groups, and I was down in Florida doing a camp for a church in Tennessee.

I was just a hired gun speaker and just they come in.

And so the way camps work is you kind of do this build all week long, and you and you uh basically on the last night's kind of your crescendo night, and you just say, Hey, anyone who wants to be baptized, anyone who wants to rededicate, come forward.

And that's where you see a lot of kids' lives change in camp world.

And man, I gave my heart to this whole series, and I was preaching, I was just giving it all I had, and I did the altar call and said, Hey, if you need to turn back to Jesus, if you need to repent, if you need to give your life to Jesus, come forward.

And then I stepped to the side, and the pastor who's running the camp stepped to the center to come forward.

And I'm on the side and no one's moving.

I was like, I feel like I did better than that.

I've never heard the voice of God, but I remember it being impressed on my soul.

Why should they come forward if you won't repent?

At the time I was dating a girl and we weren't necessarily saints.

But I was standing up there like I was.

So I walked forward to the guy running the camp, and he leans over like, oh, there's some logistical thing we need to work out.

And so he kind of leans over.

I go, hey, I need to repent and let you know who I really am.

This may shock you.

I didn't get hired by that church at all.

And isn't it ironic that while my story had it made news, no one probably would have cared.

It wouldn't upend the church, it wouldn't have thrown everything off a kilter like the guy with the large platform.

But here's the deal.

I was just as big of a fraud.

He just had a bigger stage.

And it sounded worse to the world.

And here's where I learned.

And I think Jonah does this.

It's just it's just easier to judge others than acknowledge who I really am.

It was easier to be like, what's wrong with you?

And then acknowledge, what's wrong with me?

It's why marriages struggle, is that you got two spouses looking across the aisle going, if you would, if you would, if you would, but marriages change when someone goes, I will go first, and I will own my stuff.

And I will change.

Why?

Because we want to be special.

We want to be different.

We don't want to be the problem.

We want to be the solution.

We want to be the answer.

We want to be the one that all our people are striving for.

And our desire to be special keeps us from looking in the mirror because if we look in the mirror, then we're not that special.

It's called self-righteousness.

That's what the Bible calls it.

And self-righteousness is essentially trying to make yourself more holy than you are.

It's the equivalent.

I was going to do this yesterday.

I almost went to the gas station and bought a lottery ticket, but I was nervous I would win because someone's going to win and it could have been me.

And if I won, I wasn't coming here today.

So I was like, for the sake of the message, I will not buy a ticket.

But had I bought a ticket and walked up on stage and go, I want to show you my ticket.

I got three numbers right.

They're not in order, but I got three numbers right.

Can you believe all those idiots that got zero numbers right?

Or one?

Laughable.

I got three numbers right.

Do you want to touch the ticket?

Do you want to know what it's like to hold this kind of power?

And everybody in this room would be like, what is wrong with you?

You're as big of a loser as the people that got zero right.

Both of you are getting no money unless the lottery system is now a charity.

And Jonah still reeks of fish, but he tells them how bad they are.

Now, here's the thing that in a room like this, I know what we're looking at.

Greg, not all sins the same.

On earth, you're correct.

On earth, there are different fallouts to different decisions.

But we're not talking about earth.

We're talking about a spiritual redemption.

And here's the thing that I need you to understand is that we're quick to judge things that on earth look bad, but look past what we struggle with.

For example, alcoholism.

If it comes out that your neighbor's an alcoholic, we have these thoughts.

How could they choose the bottle over their family?

How could they negate their responsibilities?

How could they do fill in the blanks?

But if you escape through workaholism, well, that's okay.

You gotta provide, right?

I mean, the company's asking a lot from you.

But both of them are just escape from your reality.

I press into this, then I don't have to think about this.

You get a promotion for one, but the other is despicable.

Maybe you got news about someone stepping out on their marriage.

How dare you?

What are you thinking?

Do you know what that's gonna do to your kids?

We're so quick to judge those marriages that fall apart.

Pornography runs rampant in our churches.

Like, well, I mean, everybody that's a struggle for a lot of people, right?

Now, are there different followers?

Yeah.

But your soul is still wrecked.

Maybe if you heard someone at work stab someone in the back for a promotion, like, what's wrong with them?

But when we prop ourselves up by our own self-righteousness, it's all just your ego.

And here's the thing that you've got to understand, and I've got to understand.

Consequences on earth are different, but one misstep destroys your entire righteousness.

And the only way you get it back is if you accept the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus even said in his Sermon on the Mountain, hey, if you even think about it, might as well have done it because your soul's wrecked.

There was a group of theologians that got together and they penned an epistle to their friend named Caroline.

And I think it's one of the more powerful epistles.

It didn't make scripture, but I want to read what they wrote to her.

They said, Caroline, I know you like to thank your sin don't stank.

But lean a little bit closer and find that roses really smell like whoop, whoop, whoop, Andre 3000 and big boy.

And isn't that so true about the church?

My stuff's not that bad.

My stuff's not that awful.

How dare them.

That's why Paul was the most prolific catalyst of life change because he led with, I'm the chief of sinners.

Try to outdo me in your story of how bad things are, and I will beat you.

And it was that humility that made the gospel approachable.

Not a, hey, get your stuff together and then you can come to Jesus.

So, what do we even do with the story of Jonah?

And here it is, here's the action.

Confess who you really are to someone.

We're all big about God, I screwed up, God, I did this, da-da-da-da-da-da.

That's safe.

But when you look in the eyes and go, hey, I need you to know the person behind the tidy life I've built.

You start getting a real clear picture of who you really are and how much grace that you really need.

I get a real clear picture of who I am and how much grace I need.

And maybe, maybe you're like, I don't have anyone in my life.

Then hire a counselor.

They're held to silence anyways.

But you need to have someone in your life that knows who you are, the real you.

Because when it comes out of your mouth, the real you, your thoughts, your intentions, not just the actions, starts getting really real.

How much you need God's grace.

Remember that part about the king saying, perhaps, and Jonah?

I think that's one of the saddest states.

Because Jonah goes, hey, you're gonna get destroyed.

And the king's guessing and he's trying, he's trying to do all this stuff to turn back to God.

And he goes, Hey, let's try this, let's try this, let's try this, and perhaps, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe God will have mercy on me.

Could you only imagine if Jonah walked in and goes, Ninevites, God sees what you're doing, and you better repent or he will wipe you out.

But here's what I promise you the God I serve, the God I am talking about, will go to great lengths to redeem and restore you as a people group.

Well, how do you know?

Oh, I was in the depths of the ocean, and God met me there.

And he rescued me and he held me and he redeemed me and he gave me another shot.

I don't think the king is saying, perhaps God will.

Because Jonah is saying, He's done it for me, he can do it for you.

And here's the truth you need to catch, and I need to catch when we finish the book of Jonah is that when I'm honest about my need for grace, it's way easier to extend grace to others.

When I'm honest with how much God had to go to great lengths to save me, to meet me in the depths, man, it's so much easier to look someone across the table and go, He can do it for you too.

Because I'm the chief of sinners, just like Paul.

And when I know who I am and how much redemption I needed, how much grace I needed, makes really clear that God's grace can work for you too.

And it's really easy to dole it out.

As I started wrapping my head around this message for the day, I read a book called Dark Journey, Deep Grace by a man named Roy Radcliffe.

Roy Radcliffe's a minister out of Minnesota.

You don't need to know his name, you've probably never heard of his name, but you know the name that the book's about.

Roy Radcliffe became famous for a stretch in time because he was the pastor charged with baptizing Jeffrey Dahmer.

And the story of Dark Journey, Deep Grace is a story about the seven months, the baptism in the seven months of Bible study with, he called him Jeff, before his end in prison.

And it was about the societal kind of backlash when people heard that this serial killer was awful.

He accepted Jesus and he's gonna be baptized.

And here's the powerful part.

There was a statement in the book that someone reached out to Roy Radcliffe and they said, if Jeffrey Dahmer's in heaven, I don't want to go.

Because I want to feel special.

Not that I'm broken like that.

And here's the part that's hard to wrestle with.

In the book, early in the book, it lists all of his crimes, and they were way more egregious than I even remembered.

It lists all of his crimes.

And two things have to be, or one of two things have to be true in that moment for you to wrestle with as a Christian.

Number one, either he gave his life to Christ, and God's grace isn't as big as we talk about.

There is a limit to God's grace.

And if that is your belief, that's fine.

But here's the problem: how do you know you didn't make it over the limit?

Or, number two, you needed and I needed the same amount of grace as one of the most horrific serial killers in modern day history.

And that one's a tougher pill to swallow.

That one sits a little rougher.

Because either God's grace isn't big enough or you your life's more messed up than you want to admit.

But when we confess and when we say, This is who I am, this is what God rescued me from.

And it just becomes a lot easier to extend grace when we take in how much grace we really needed.

And so here's what I want to offer you today.

No fanfare, no nothing.

We're gonna dismiss in just a second.

If there's something you just want to get off your chest, Jake's gonna be down here, I'll be down here.

No judgment, just listen.

Maybe it's the start to your journey of going, hey, you know what, I'm tired of pretending my life's put together.

Here's who I really am.

But maybe the first time you stepped into God's grace fully and go, but because of Jesus, I can take a step forward and embrace the grace he offers.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the frustrating story of Jonah.

Thank you for the fact that it just mirrors to me who I really am.

And that I can get more wrapped up in my comfort and my ideas and my thoughts and feeling good and special.

But the truth is, I'm just lying to myself because I need the same amount of grace as everybody else.

And so, God, help me to own the level of my brokenness, but help me to celebrate the level of your grace so that I can meet people in their brokenness and celebrate your grace with them.

God, help us to be the most attractive place because we are people that realize we're only here by the grace of your son.

And when the church truly grasps that perspective, there's no stop.

How attractive this place is to our community.

So in your son's name we pray.

Amen.