Shift: East of the City | Part 5

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Well, church, it's great to be with you today.

Happy Palm Sunday.

Today we're concluding our series Shift to Change Directions, and I want to begin with this incredible reality.

You were made for more.

But I don't even know if we've really paused to just stop and take that in.

Like right now, you are made for more than upward mobility, making money, grinding out the nine to five, or in Silicon Valley, the six to six.

You're made for more than keeping up with the Joneses.

Made for more than weakened worrying.

I didn't say that properly.

This hedonistic lifestyle of eat, drink, and be merry because there's nothing more to life, so why not just live it out?

You're made for more.

And seeking and trying to win others' approval.

I mean, how wonderful is the reality that you were designed, created with intention and purpose and significance.

You were made for more.

How do you shift?

How do we shift to the more we're made for?

You know, we've been wrestling with that question and talking about it and looking at this ancient book, the book of Jonah, he's a prophet, where we get this snapshot of really an anti-hero, a prodigal prophet.

And we discover and are learning how do we lean in and live the more we're made for.

And here's what I love this whole journey, especially with Jonah, is I love that it's not just, you know, the picture of the perfect person who did everything right, and so you just somehow try to be them.

Because none of us feel like we could ever be them, including me.

What I love, what I love is we see a prophet of God who so often does everything wrong, and his God's grace and compassion and gentleness and mercy and redirection and kindness to him, to woo him back, to help him live the more he was made for.

You know, the book began this way.

It began with God calling Jonah to preach to the great city of Nineveh, the archenemies of Israel.

I mean, if you go back and study or listen to week one, you'll find that Assyria, which Nineveh is the capital city of, they were perhaps the most violent and brutal culture in all of human history.

And God says, I want you to go to them and preach so that they might have an opportunity to repent.

And Jonah says, Nuh-uh, I ain't going that direction.

And he runs the opposite direction.

Instead of going northeast, he goes southwest down to Joppa, port city, to jump on a ship to Tarshis.

Here's what we said week one.

When we run from God, when we run from God, we shift away from the more we're made for.

And we know that, we get that, that makes sense.

If you've been designed and created by God, then he understands your design and creation.

And anytime we run from him, even when we don't understand his will all the time, when we run from it, we shift away from the more we're made for.

Well, Jonah, in his running away, boards a ship for Tarshius, and God, in his grace and mercy, sends a storm to redirect him.

And yet he has no desire to go anywhere close or respond.

In fact, the sagours are freaking out.

I mean, this is a massive storm, and they're professional and they're afraid they're gonna die.

And Jonah's in the belly of the ship, and he's asleep, fast asleep, and they go, Don't you care?

And he's like, Not really, thank you very much.

They cast lots and he's they're like, Jonah, we kind of think this is your fault.

What should we do?

He's like, I don't care.

Why don't you just throw me overboard?

And they try everything else.

Eventually, they do that.

And here's what we see is that God uses storms in our life to shift us back to the more we're made for.

God doesn't necessarily allow the storms, but he's gonna use storms in your life and my life to shift us back.

He's gonna take that painful circumstance, that moment that he longs to use and develop and create and cultivate in you to ship, shift you back to the more you're made for.

And Jonah on the ship, he never cried out to God.

The sailors, they repented, they actually turned and revival broke out on the ship, but Jonah never cried out to God when he could have saved not only himself and everyone else aboard.

The time, you know when he cried out to God?

Was when he was in the water by himself and he knew this was the end.

And he finally cries out to God, and God provided in the most unlikely way, and honestly, you can't help but laugh.

God has a sense of humor, people.

You gotta read the Bible and understand that he's funny too.

Like, if we have sense of humor, God has a better sense of humor.

Like, how funny is it that God's like, I'm gonna appoint a fish, a great fish, and swallow you because you won't go that direction.

You won't have the ship turn around, but I'm gonna, in fact, take this animal and cause him to take you in the right direction there.

And here's what we discovered is God delivers us from storms to reveal his mercy, his undeserved favor in our lives, and to position us to fulfill the more we're made for.

And so Jonah once again finds himself on the shore, headed towards Nineveh, and God calls him yet again.

He says, Go and preach to the great city of Nineveh.

And he's like, Well, I guess I have no choice because even if I'm gonna run from him, a fish is gonna take me back.

Hello, I'm gonna do it.

Now, he really gave a half-hearted effort.

The city of Nineveh, it was a three-day journey to traverse it, and the text tells us he only went a day in.

And then also, if you study, you know, chapter three there, you'll notice his sermon was a five-word sermon in Hebrew.

He went one day in, gave them five words, dropped the mic, I'm done.

And something amazing happened.

Even with a half-hearted effort, the entire city repented and turned from their wicked ways, their brutal ways, and repented.

Even the king.

Now, here's what I love about the response of the king.

He's he's overseeing this and he's like it reached to him and he says, Who knows?

Maybe God will relent and let's repent and turn from our ways.

And what he does is he has everybody in the city.

I mean, this is a massive, one of the greatest cities in the ancient world.

He has everybody repent, but in his idea, he doesn't know how far to go.

And so he has all the animals repent too.

Like, how do animals repent?

I don't know, but he put on sackcloth on the animals too.

So you're thinking about this: all the cows and their pastures and their herds, he's putting sackcloth on them.

He's like, I don't know what to do, but I'm gonna do everything I know and everything I maybe this, I don't want to stop too short.

I just think Jonah thought, like, I think he was probably laughing at him.

But here's what's amazing.

Unfortunate for Jonah.

When our external acts of obedience, Jonah did the right thing, do not reflect our internal attitude, his heart, we miss out on the more we're made for.

And Jonah was in the city of Nineveh with revival breaking out among the most unlikely people on the planet to turn from God.

He's in the middle of it, and he missed out on all of it.

And that's where we pick up our story today.

As we close out the book of Jonah, we actually come to the climax of the book.

Now we would think that the climax is the city, great city of Nineveh repenting, but it's actually Jonah chapter four, where we discovered the fundamental shift to the more we're made for.

And it's actually the entire point of the book.

Of Jonah.

If you got your Bibles, would you open up to Jonah chapter four with me?

If you got your phones, go ahead and turn there.

The title of the sermon today is East of the City.

Why don't you go ahead and say that to your neighbor?

East of the city.

I want to pick up the story in Jonah chapter 3, verse 10, if you're following along, to give you a little bit of the backdrop.

Jonah 3:10

The king, the whole city repents.

When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

They repent, God relents, and then we go back to our anti-hero Jonah.

But Jonah.

Oh Jonah.

But Jonah, to Jonah, this seemed very wrong.

In fact, above that, just say, it seemed evil, a great evil.

That's what it is in the Hebrew here.

It's three different ways to say it's exceedingly evil and bad.

And he became angry, literally white hot angry.

And what's to come is a prayer from Jonah, and the way it's constructed, we miss it uh in our English, but it's this exasperated, loud, just rant of Jonah.

He's gonna pray, he's gonna pray, but he's not like this internal seething.

You know, some of us are seethers, right?

Like you're mad and you're just gonna, I'm gonna seethe.

You're not gonna know it, but internally I am angry.

Um, no, Jonah wasn't internal on this.

This was external, this was like loud, and he's seething and ranting publicly.

He prayed to the Lord, and now we get an insight to why Jonah fled in the first place that we didn't see in chapter one.

He prayed to the Lord, isn't this what I said?

Well, what did you say?

Lord, when I was still at home, that this is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshis.

I didn't want these people to receive mercy.

That's my heart.

That was my aim.

That's why I ran in the opposite direction.

And notice this I knew that you are gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

He's quoting Exodus 34, 6, is where Moses asked to see God's glory, show me the real you, and God says, I'll pass by you, I'll hide you in the cleft of the rock, and he proclaims, I'm the Lord the Lord, abounding in grace and compassion, slow to anger and loving kindness.

See, this is Jonah's understanding of who God is, and it confronts our kind of popular concept of the God of the Old Testament, isn't it?

That He's actually gracious and compassionate, slow to anger.

That word gracious is God's attitude towards those who have no claim on him because they're outside of any covenant relationship.

That is his heart, is what he's eager to do.

That you're not inside this relationship with me, you're outside and you're far away from me, but my heart is to extend grace to everyone.

And Jonah hates it.

Compassion is that picture.

In fact, the root word here comes from the idea of a mother carrying a baby, and that compassion that a mother has for their child, that tenderness, that care.

My mom.

My mom's amazing, by the way.

She's not here.

Hi, mom, you're watching online.

And and my mom, I can do no wrong.

She thinks the most amazing.

If if I did something and it was bad, she it to someone else, she thinks they deserved it, you know.

Uh you had to be right.

I love it.

That's just the mother's heart, my mother's heart.

God's going, I have this, I have this motherly, compassionate heart.

And Jonah says, I knew that's who you are.

Now, now take away my life, for it's better for me to die than to live.

Doesn't he sound like a teenager?

Right?

He's just ranting, teenager.

Now take me, Lord.

And here's what Jonah is saying.

If you're that kind of God showing that kind of grace to these kind of people, I don't want to live in that kind of world.

That's what he's saying here.

I want nothing to do with that.

And then notice God's reply, and I love this.

It's not my reply.

I love how God responds because it's not to shame, it's not to put into place, it's not even to just have this demonstrative, like, who do you think you are?

That's what I would have replied.

Like, who are you?

Come on.

He says, Is it right for you to be angry?

Like you have this indignation.

Is it is it right for you to be angry?

And then notice it goes on to say, but Jonah had gone out and sat down at the place where east of the city.

Where?

Try that again.

East of the city.

So, one, let's just say this the rant was happening in the city.

Think about how awkward that is.

He just preached repentance, and then he's ranting at God for saving these people.

He should be the prophet serving these people, and he's ranting about it.

He goes east of the city, and you're like, well, why does that matter, Ryan?

Well, east of the city, one, if he was gonna head home, he would have headed southwest.

And so he's actually headed further away from Jerusalem, not closer.

And in the Old Testament, this whole idea of moving east had uh often this connotation of moving from the presence and purpose of God.

And we see that it started all the way in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

In Genesis chapter 3, when Adam and Eve sin and fall and rebel from God, and they are then uh taken out of the garden.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

They are banished where?

East of the Garden of Eden.

They're banished from his presence.

When Cain murdered Abel and he runs from the presence of God, do you know what direction Cain uh ran?

He ran east of the garden.

Chapter 10 of Genesis, again in the Tower of Babel and the city of people who are trying to build up their own idea of their own God and who they are, they went and moved eastward.

It's this idea I'm moving from the presence and the purpose of God.

And Jonah, instead of moving towards Jerusalem, he heads east.

It's interesting that you can preach and serve God and still be moving in the wrong direction.

It's a call for those of us who are in ministry.

Then he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade, and waited to see what would happen to the city.

You know, the king responded, he's like, maybe, maybe God might relent and let's do whatever we can.

Jonah sees God relent.

He goes up on this, looking over the city, he's like, maybe God might get him after all.

I'm gonna watch and wait and hope and pray.

Now notice this.

Then the Lord, and circle this word, 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.

Again, this isn't just happy, it's three different words in the Hebrew.

It's a happiness, exceedingly greatly happy.

He's so overjoyed about a stupid plant.

But at dawn, the next day, God circled this word, provided a worm, which chewed the plant, so it withered.

When the sun rose, God, again, circle it, provided a scorching east wind that brought such devastation.

If you look, east wind throughout the Hebrew scriptures, it constantly brings uh such devastation across the land.

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.

He is still in teenage land.

But God said to Jonah, Is it right for you to be angry about a plant?

A plant?

Like it's a plant.

I know some of you love your plants, so I'll tread lightly here.

Jonah's response.

It is.

And that is totally teenager, isn't it?

Those of you who have teenagers, if you just remember being a teenager and you felt so justified, so right, so this, and I don't care, I don't want, I hate everything about you.

And is it right?

Yes.

That's Jonah.

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

Oh, how often we get consumed with little things and make them everything, and then complain to God about it when they let us down.

But the Lord said, notice his response again.

You've been concerned about this plant.

You did not tend it or make it grow.

It sprang up overnight and it died overnight.

You did nothing for this.

You didn't even plant it, Jonah.

You you didn't water it.

You did nothing.

It sprang up and it died, and yet you were exceedingly abundantly happy, overjoyed about this, and now you're wanting to die.

Should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh?

You're concerned about a plant.

Should I not be concerned about people?

And then he qualifies it, helping Jonah, trying to move Jonah's heart, trying to move his perspective, trying to change his understanding, trying to break through the hard-hearted.

It is I'm right and I am depressed because of your goodness perspective of Jonah.

In which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell they're right from the left.

That right from the left is an idiom of they don't know what's morally right or wrong.

Scholars are divided, they don't really know what the 120 refers to.

Some think it's there's 120,000 children in the city.

Is it not right for me to have concern about those who have yet to even learn right from wrong?

They're at that age.

Others think it's just people who who've never been taught, who didn't know, who grew up in an environment, grew up in a culture, who had no idea that this was so wrong and vile.

Shouldn't I have concern about them?

And then I also think this is the part, like some of you parents know this, like you're in the middle of a heated conversation with your kids, right?

And and they're down a line of reasoning and argument.

And so then you add just the briefest bit of humor to kind of break the moment, but also to kind of make your point, right?

Um, some of you do this.

Um, I do this at times when I'm kind of aware of it.

And I think this is what God did here.

Uh should I not be concerned about 120,000 people who don't know they're right from the wrong?

And then he goes, and the animals?

And I think Jonah's looking out over the city and he sees this whole city that's repented, and he's seeing animals with a bunch of sackcloth on them.

He's like, that does no good.

And God's going, should I not be concerned about the animals too?

And he also knows that Jonah cares more about the animals than the people in Nineveh.

Should I not at least be concerned for the cattle that are there?

And then here's what's crazy that's the end of the book.

Done.

It ends.

It's a cliffhanger.

If it was a movie, you would go, wait, wait, we don't know what happens.

You can't end that way.

And yet it does.

And it does so for a reason.

We do not know Jonah's response.

We never know if he moved east of the city back into the city.

And here's the reason why.

Because the issue is not so much about Jonah and the story, but the issue is for you and me.

The issue is for us to say, where are we?

And so often I find myself, maybe you find yourself in the east of the city, griping and grumbling to God about things of lesser matter when God says, You're concerned about plants, you're concerned about things, you're concerned about creature comfort.

Should I not be concerned about people made in the image that I've of me that have infinite worth and value?

He's making that argument from lesser to greater plants, animals, people.

And then this causes us.

Causes us to ask the question, where are we and how do we respond?

And it's here that we see the fundamental shift required to live the more we're made for.

When our hearts break for that which breaks God's heart, it fundamentally shifts us to the more we're made for.

When our hearts break, when we can have our hearts understand that every single person on the planet, regardless of whether you agree with them politically, wherever they live, globally, is an image-bearer of the God most high.

And God loves them with an everlasting, all-consuming love.

And his heart breaks for them.

And he longs for every single person to experience his grace and his goodness.

When our hearts begin to break, everything else outside of that is just behavior modification and adjustment externally.

God wants to do a heart issue, a heart transplant, a heart change in us.

And it returns us back to the purpose of the book of Jonah.

We said this in week one.

The purpose of the book of Jonah, first and foremost, is to reveal God's expansive love and mercy for every single person on the planet.

Even Ninevites.

Even the most vile, evil, wicked, brutal culture, perhaps our planet has ever seen.

Even them.

Jonah challenged us, this book challenges us to broaden our understanding of God's mercy, his undeserved favor.

You're like, they don't deserve it.

That's what mercy is.

And yet we cross our arms.

As if we ever deserved it ourselves.

You've never come across an ordinary human.

You've always come across divine image bearers with infinite worth and value that Jesus loves profoundly.

You know, the first followers were wrestling with God's justice when they were struggling under persecution and wondering, God, where are you and when are you going to fix things and why are you delaying?

And I think those are questions we wrestle today with, don't we?

Like, where are you?

We see the brokenness of a world.

When are you going to come and fix things and make things right?

And I'm just so tired of all the suffering.

And the Apostle Peter returns and gives us a new perspective of God's heart that zooms out and understands why it seems like he's not as active as we would want him to be.

In fact, he writes this He says, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some understand slowness.

Instead, he's patient with you.

He's long-suffering.

Why?

Not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

He is slow in bringing justice because his heart is for you to repent.

His heart is for every single person to experience his love and his grace and his mercy.

And he's slow, not because he's trying to be slow about it, but because his heart breaks for you.

He breaks for our world.

He longs for everyone to turn from their evil ways, their wickedness, their brokenness, their self-centeredness, their pride.

And to experience his love and goodness.

His heart breaks that there are people who will never respond to him and will spend eternity apart from him and his goodness and his love.

See, the purpose of the book of Jonah is to reveal the expansiveness of his love and mercy, and then what it does and what it calls us to, and the cliffhanger ending, is it's to act as a mirror.

You look in the mirror and see what you really look like, to examine the state of our hearts, calling us to shift our lives onto the very purpose of God for this planet.

It acts as a mirror, like I gotta look in the mirror and I gotta not judge Jonah.

Isn't that so easy?

It's so easy to look at other people or other Christians or other, whatever.

You know, like they should, and I can't believe they posted that, and da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

No, no, look in the mirror.

That's what we need to do as a church, is just think and look in the mirror instead of kind of looking through a window, casting blame and stones at everybody else.

Look in the mirror.

Where's the Jonah in me that I don't want to see?

Does my heart really break for God's heart?

And for those of us who are followers of Jesus, there's this warning.

Especially, I think, many of us who have been maybe believers for a long time.

The warning in Jonah is so critical because we see the warning again in Jesus' day.

And it's this you can know God's word and completely miss God's heart.

You can know God's word and completely miss his heart.

Jonah knew God's word.

In fact, in his griping about God, he's griping with God's word.

I knew you were this.

I knew you were that.

By the way, in the Hebrew of that prayer, there's 11 times the word I.

I, I, I, I, I.

Because we can know God's word, but when our focus is on us, we miss God's heart.

That's why we see such brokenness in the church.

That's why we see such brokenness in our lives.

Because our hearts don't break for what breaks God's heart.

In fact, there's a question that I've asked, I ask it a lot in our church, and I ask it um every time we do an intro, which is our new to awakening.

Like if you're brand new, we want to help you get to know us and uh who we are and what we're about and where we're headed, and all those sort of things.

And I always ask this question.

Because I think it's the question we have to ask as followers of Jesus, especially as we are growing in the way of Jesus.

Does what we know?

Cause our love to grow.

Does what we know?

Like when we get into God's word, and I so want us to get into God's word and know God's word.

So don't hear me wrongly saying, well, it doesn't matter.

Ryan said, don't know God's word.

No! We need to get into God's word, but we need to allow it to change our heart, convict our heart.

The word of God acts like a mirror so that we look in it and we actually adjust and change our lives.

James would tell us, when we fail to apply God's word, we end up deceiving ourselves.

In fact, you can listen to a sermon and go, that was a great sermon, and walk away and not apply it and end up more deceived, but feeling better about yourself.

Does what you know, does what I know cause my love to grow?

Does it cause my heart to break for the things that are on God's heart?

Does it cause my heart to beat for the things that are beating with God's heart?

Does what I know cause my love to grow so that I begin to do and move in the ways that God is moving?

Or am I just stuck east of the city?

Griping, looking at what's wrong and where I wish God would work and what he's not doing.

Tragically, Jonah was depressed about God's goodness.

Warning, we can know God's word and completely miss God's heart.

The question, does what we know cause our love to grow?

The principle God is working in big and small ways in your life to realign your heart to his.

God's working in big and small ways.

And we're kind of fascinated with the big, aren't we?

We want the big.

We want God to like have that, like, Ryan, you know, moments, or show me a sign, you know, or um, it's just, and he's working in the big and the small.

Jonah chapter one, we God provided, same word, we circled all that.

A great fish, a huge fish.

But in chapter four, he provides a plant.

And then he provides a worm.

Think about that.

Big fish, little worm.

Still God providing, God working, God showing.

And then he provides a scorching east wind.

And all of it was, Jonah, you're missing it.

You're east of the city, you're moving from my presence and my purpose.

You're moving farther away from me, you're missing it.

And I want to work in big ways, yes, but also in small ways.

He's actively working, actively wooing.

And this is one of those moments where he's actively working and wooing and drawing you towards himself.

I think the question then is how do we know the condition of our heart?

I mean, like, how do you really know?

And we're we're not like a very good, touchy-filly culture, anyways, you know, like my heart, Ryan?

That feels like what evil, I don't know.

And also, don't we have a profound capacity at self-deception?

Can't we see the problems in others?

See the problem in Jonah?

But how often do we then justify our actions?

Why?

Because we have a good reason for it, right?

It's not my fault, it's not my problem, it's not my issue.

I'm busy.

Life's full.

You don't know the valley.

Gosh, you don't know my workplace.

You don't know my marriage.

You don't know my singleness.

We have a profound capacity to deceive ourselves.

Let me give you three questions from the text of identifying our heart condition.

First question.

What gets you worked up?

What gets you worked up?

I almost put angry there, but I knew there would be too many of us in uh here that would go, Ryan, I don't get angry.

And then we justify ourselves.

Well, that's not me, I don't get angry.

I get even.

No, I'm just but right.

I'm not, I don't know.

But what gets you worked up?

God's mercy got Jonah worked up.

It was evil to Jonah, a great evil.

He was angry, hot angry.

What gets you worked up?

I could never forgive them.

No, no, I hold grudges.

They don't deserve my forgiveness, my mercy, my availability, my time.

What gets you worked up?

Jonah got worked up, he's east of the city, and he's griping over a city that responded in revival and repentance.

You compare that with Jesus.

Today's Jesus' triumphant entrance that we celebrate.

And you know what he prayed over Jerusalem?

He actually weeps over the city.

He says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets.

Oh, how I wish to gather you as a hen gathers his chicks.

Jonah's seeing widespread revival, and Jesus knows that he's heading into Jerusalem, and they're gonna kill him too, and his heart weaves.

He's like, I wish that I could gather you and draw you in.

What gets you worked up?

Second question.

What do you live for?

What do you live for?

Instead of the plant, Jonah was happy over the plant, a great exceeding happiness.

Jonah was more concerned about his personal comfort than people in crisis.

He's used to the city because of his comfort.

He's used to the city because of his prejudice.

He's used to the city, and he's more concerned about a plant than people, more concerned about a plant than even livestock.

And so often, isn't it true, that we spend our days we're we're focused and we're living for little things, small things, temporal things, things that are here today and gone tomorrow, that vanish.

Plants.

God says, Would you live for something bigger?

Live for something greater, live for something eternal.

You know what's amazing about Jesus in Hebrews chapter 12, and it's just coming after the hall of faith, and we're explaining God's, you know, these incredible faithful people, and it talks about, therefore, for us, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, calling us to run the race that God marked out for us with perseverance, you know, getting rid of anything that trips us off or the sin that so easily entangles us.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

And then it says, let us fix our eyes on Jesus.

Church, you can do nothing wrong when you fix your eyes on Jesus.

You're living in your full purpose when you're fixing your eyes on Jesus.

Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith.

And then it says this this is amazing.

What did Jesus live for?

The very same thing that he died for.

Who for the joy set before him scorned the cross?

Who for the joy set before him, he took on the cross, scorning its shame.

Well, what was the joy set before him?

It was you.

It was you.

It was you.

God from eternity past said, the joy set before me, I will endure the cross and death itself to welcome you in, to bring you in, to become part of my family, to be a part in relationship with me.

That's what he lived for.

That's what he died for.

You are his joy.

What do you live for?

What gets you worked up?

Finally.

What are you concerned about?

You want to know the condition of your heart?

What are you concerned about?

God's question to Jonah.

Should I not be concerned about this great city?

Should I not be concerned about people?

Jonah, east of the city.

He's concerned about himself.

Discomfort.

Just whatever he wants.

And then you see Jesus.

And isn't it amazing?

Think about this.

Think about that the Pharisees who knew the Word of God.

Remember, you can know the Word of God and completely miss God's heart.

The Pharisees who knew the Word of God completely missed the Son of God, who was the Word of God incarnate.

And so when the Son of God showed up on the planet and is doing the things that God does, and doing the things and getting after the people that break God's heart and working in ways, the Pharisees, who are the most religious, missed it.

Didn't get it.

In fact, on one occasion, which happened many times, they're saying to him, Why in the world do you eat with tax collectors and sinners?

What's wrong with you?

And then Jesus tells a parable to explain the heart of God.

What breaks God's heart?

What he's concerned about.

In fact, he gives three stories, you know it.

The parable of the lost sheep.

That what breaks God's heart and what God lives for, what God's concerned about, what God goes after is when if he has a hundred sheep and 99 are in the pen, if there's one lost, he's going after the one because the one matters to God.

And then he tells the parable of the lost coin.

That a woman had lost 10 coins, or had 10 coins and lost one.

And she did everything to find and search that one lost valuable coin.

And in both of those stories, he says, there's more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents, one person who recognizes their need and turns.

Then 99 righteous.

Like heaven rejoices.

And then he builds it to the climax.

It's the story of the lost son, or we know it as the prodigal son.

And the prodigal son says to his father, hey, I want my share of the inheritance.

Now there's two brothers, there's an older brother and a younger brother.

This is the younger brother.

And everybody goes, Of course it is the younger brother.

That's a younger brother move.

The younger brother says this, and the father, again, God's heart in response, instead of shaming, instead of even giving him a lecture, he gives him the inheritance.

The father son goes and squanders all that he had on wild living, eventually destitute.

He's working with pigs and he's starving.

And I love how the text says it.

He says, then he came to his senses and realized even servants live better than he was living in his father's household, and so he made his way home and he rehearsed his speech and he's working on his way home.

And I love it.

It says that the father saw him a long way off and he ran to him.

What no proper man would do, patriarch in the ancient day, would ever run because you'd have to lift your garb and run and expose your legs, and it was completely humbling.

He would never do that.

He does that and he runs to his son and he gives him an embrace.

He doesn't even allow the son to finish his speech.

He puts on the ring of sonship, the sandals, and a new garment on him and welcomes him home.

And again, there's no lecture.

It's just the father with open arms saying, Welcome home.

And then he throws a party.

I love it.

He kills the fatted calf.

And then we get to the point of the story.

We get the heart of God for all of humanity, wherever we're at, that it breaks his heart.

And that is the reason Jesus came.

I came for every single person to experience my grace and love, that none should perish, but all come to know me.

And the point of the parable, like the point of Jonah, is to draw our attention to the older brother.

Because he's remember, he's talking to the Pharisees who knew God's word but didn't know God's son.

See, the older brother sees the party, and instead of celebration, he's outside the celebration griping.

Just like Jonah is outside the city griping.

The Father goes to him.

He says, Son, come in and celebrate.

Your brother who is dead is alive, who is lost, is found.

We have to celebrate.

And he's got on his mind fairness.

He doesn't deserve it.

And he says, Son, we had to celebrate.

All that I have is yours.

Come into the celebration and celebrate.

Your brother is lost and is found.

And like Jonah, Jesus ends the story right there.

And we don't know.

We don't know how the elder brother responded.

We don't know if he went into the celebration or if he stood outside judging, critiquing, condemning, feeling self-righteous.

And just like Jonah, the call is for us.

Not to judge the elder brother.

No, it's to see the elder brother in us.

To see the elder brother in me.

To see the elder brother when I look down and I judge someone, look down when I don't reach out, look down on people, and I'm just simply treating people, or I just want to live for my own comfort, my own ways, and gripe about when it doesn't go my way.

It's the call for us to look in the mirror.

And simply go this.

And this is the prayer I want to leave you with.

Would you make it this prayer for you this week?

Heavenly Father, would you break my heart for what breaks your heart?

Would you do a heart work in me?

I don't want to be east of the city.

I don't want to be outside the city, outside the celebration.

But I recognize that's where I'm at.

I recognize there's parts of me that have that.

Would you break my heart?

Would you do a fresh work?

Would you do a heart work in me for the very things that break your heart?

And I want to invite, for those of us who call awakening home, like a very specific application to this.

If you're new or just getting to know us, this isn't for you.

We want to invite you to Easter, but our vision for Easter was that every person at awakening would bring one person to Easter at Awakening.

We've been praying on with three, five, five cards, right?

And where we'd go, you know what, we care more about them than their opinion of us.

And we long for them to experience his grace and mercy.

And I want us to invite just a time of reflection.

And on these cards that are on your seat, or maybe you didn't have cards, and our team will drop off some cards if you need cards, and you can just raise your hand during worship for that.

Would you just write on the card who you're gonna pray for or who you've been praying for and who you're gonna invite this week?

And just write their name on it.

And I want you to take time as we respond in worship to remember God's grace in your life, to remember his saving work in your life, to remember the moment when you first said yes to him.

And then respond and go, God, may I be your hands and feet, to bring grace and hope to those around me.

We're gonna sing a song called Oh, come to the altar.

And I want us to just simply sit in this because it speaks of his grace, the Father's open arms for us.

And then the closing line says, Bear your cross as you wait for the crown.

Tell the world of the treasure you found.

Like this is so good, this is so amazing, your grace in my life, what you've done.

How can I keep this to myself?

Heavenly Father, would you break our hearts?

For what breaks yours?

Would you make us a people that would never be satisfied sitting in our comfort, sitting east of the city, but draw us to your heart, draw us to your grace, draw us to the people around us that you love.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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